Civilization V always crashes on big games

Question

Since bigger is better, I usually want to play on Huge worlds with max number of Civs and City States. After I begin conquering the world and my empire spans about 50 cities, the game begins to crash. The crash usually occurs when I hit "Next turn", but it has also happened when giving unit orders etc.

The crash doesn't happen if I play on "strategic view" where the graphics are much simpler.

I have tried re-installing the game and updated graphics drivers. Otherwise, my computer is powerful enough to play Battlefield 3 and Skyrim on max settings.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Answer 1

If it isn't occurring in Strategic View then that would indicate it has to do with your GPU(more specifically, the amount of VRAM in your GPU) and RAM on your system.

Answer 2

i think there might be a problem with your version of the game, or your actual computer. my computer was not able to handle civilization V even though i updated my graphics card to latest of its time. It still didn't work even though i could play skyrim on max settings. I changed my actual computer, and it works perfectly.

Answer 3

It's possible that your computer is using the graphics card's processing power to help run calculations for the actual game -- unit movement AI, updating production in cities, etc. Graphics processors are downright better for processing some things than are computer processors, and for complex things like games it can be useful to use both the computer processor and the graphics processor to run the game.

Given that your crashes occur when data is being processed and only in the graphically intensive default mode, your graphics card may simply not be up to the task. If you don't want to play in strategic mode, you can try turning your graphics options all the way down.

Answer 4

The problem would most likely pertain to your CPU or RAM than your video card. You say you can run Battlefield 3 on max settings, a highly graphic intensive game compared to simple Civ 5, so the graphics card is ruled out for the moment.

Civ 5, unlike Battlefield 3, is very, very CPU and RAM intensive when incrementing the turns, because of the myriad of events being calculated all at once. I have rarely heard of players playing with as much as 50 cities, but I do not see it as something that should be impossible.

Go into the Event Viewer under "Administrative tools" in the Control Panel, expand the "Windows logs" folder and click "Application". Look for an error entry (red cross) pertaining Civilization V there, and see what the entry says caused the crash.

If you fear there might be a hardware problem with your computer, you can try using Memtest86+ to check your RAM, and Prime95 to test your CPU. Memtest86+ is best used from a bootable drive, whether it be a flash stick or a simple CD, while Prime95 is a simple application you can run while your system is active.

Memtest86+: If you have a flash stick/USB pen drive, you can use the auto-installer from their download page to install Memtest86+ on a pen drive. After having done that, restart your computer with the stick connected and go into the multi-boot menu. You do this by pressing a button during startup, but which button depends on your computer make. It's F12 for Lenovo and Fujitsu computers, and F9 for HP, just to give you some examples. Select your pen drive in the menu, and after a few second a blue screen with Memtest86+ should pop up and start testing your RAM immediately. You can see the progress in the top-right corner. If Memtest86+ finds errors on your RAM sticks, that stick is garbage material. If you've got warranty on the machine, you can apply to your retailer about the matter. If you don't have warranty, RAM is very cheap to buy yourself nowadays. Just find the right type and feasible sizes of the stuff, and order them online.

Prime95: Prime95 is so darn simple you can just run it and give it some time to crash your computer should there be a problem with your CPU. You can download Prime95 for 64-bit systems here. Prime95 does what you'd expect from its name: it calculates performs an enormous amount of calculations at a time, fully stressing your computer to the max. If something, whether it be your computer as a whole or just Prime95, crashes during Prime95's testing, you have a rather valid sign that there's something wrong with your CPU. If your computer abruptly shuts down while running Prime95, it just overheated. Prime95 is very intensive, and used to torture test overclocked computers for their stability. Your computer is not likely to take harm from Prime95 if it's from after about 2003.