Gaming issues on Vista 64

Hi all,
I have recently acquired a PC running Vista Home Premium 64 bit and I am having trouble with some games. The situation is as follows:

Desktop PC with Vista Home Premium 64 Sp1, Intel Core2 Quad Q8800 @ 2.33Ghz, FSB 1333 Mhz, 6Gb DDR2 ram, Nvidia 9300 GS 256Mb, 750Gb disk.

This machine will only run FarCry in the lowest settings where the water is just a white block, anything higher like medium settings and the whole thing whites out, you can play, but playing in peasoup fog is not very interesting. This machine also plays Civilisation IV like a dog, even from the very start the map scrolls across the screen in monthly installments and the movement of units is not much better. Only had the machine 4 days, have upgraded the Nvidia drivers to 7.15.11.8120, but no improvement on either game. Plays Rome Total War just fine.

Laptop with Vista Home Premium 32, Sp1, Intel Core2 Duo T5750 @ 2.0Ghz, FSB 667 Mhz, 3Gb DDR2 ram, Nvidia 8400M GT 128Mb, 250Gb disk.

Runs FarCry and Rome Total War fine and runs Civ Iv an absolute dream throughout the game even on the largest worlds.

Desktop PC with XP Home 32 Sp3, Intel P4 Prescot 651 @ 3.4Ghz, FSB 800 Mhz, 2Gb DDR2 ram, ATI X600 256Mb, 360Gb disk.

Runs FarCry and Rome Total War fine and runs Civ Iv an absolute dream throughout the game even on the largest worlds.


Any suggestions on what the issues might be with the new machine would be much appreciated, given its windows experience rating far out strips the laptop

Meanwhile I will get some fishing done!

Thanks and Happy New Year to all.

Have you patched the game? if so, was it with the autopatcher or stand alone installation?

Thanks Astalavista,
I patched Civ IV Beyond the Sword to 3.17 directly from the Fireaxis web site. The symptoms are interesting in that: Altering the graphics settings on Civ IV to minimal has no impact and neither does the world size chosen, the performance issue starts from 4000 BC before you even found the first city. The build of graphics on the screen when new terratory is uncovered is instant, no incremental issues their. It almost feels to me as if the issue is getting the data from memory to the graphics processor. Unfortunately my hands on techy days ended with COBOL and the MVS OS

I have observed similar map moving performance symptoms but on my old Sony VAIO desk top of late 2003 vintage (1 gb ram, and a very early 3ghz processor, and 128mb graphic card not sure what type but it had its own on board fan) we had to disable movies, but then the problem only occured at end of game on large or huge world and the graphics all turned sort of negative like.

I have not patched FarCry thus far as I only loaded it when Civ IV had its issues to see if it was a CIV IV specific issue, I leave all the shooting stuff to my eldest two on the xboxes. The only game my wife and I play on PC is (Grrrrr) Civilisation IV and we are very keen players. Due to logistics and 4 kids we need it working on this new machine as well as the other 2 PCs so everyone can do what they want to do when they want, without queues forming, and CIV IV sessions tend to be long ones.

Thanks again for your response.