CM4: Question on how many divisions...

[Godzilla Blitz]

Ok, my brand new copy of CM4 is installed and ready to go, but...

My PIII 800mhz, 512mb RAM doesn't get much respect from CM4, which is recommending I only run 6 divisions. Bah, humbug. 6 measly divisions? I want to run about 35, like I did with CM01/02.

I'm wondering, what are people running for actual leagues in CM4, and how many do you get for recommended? Anyone running way over the limit, like I'm thinking of doing? Does the game get progressively slower as the years move on? Is there that much of a difference in processing demands between CM01/02 and CM4?

The game is also suggesting I use the "small" database, but I don't want to do that either. I would really like to run the medium.

Lastly, will tacking on all the extra leagues make the game more likely to crash, or is it just a matter of me waiting longer for stuff to happen? I was fine with the waiting aspect of 01/02, as I would just do little things around the office while the game crunched its numbers. I'd hate to get two years into a dynasty, though, and have the game grind to a halt.

Thanks in advance!

[McSweeny]

well the one sure way to figure it out it run however many leagues you want to and see if the game progresses at a resonalbe pace. If not, drop a few leagues and try again until you get the results that you want. You'll probably have to make a sacrifice of either speed or number of leagues somewhere along the line

a few options for speeding the game up. Close all programs that you don't need open. I find closing Winamp and my virus software help speed up the game a bunch.

also, make sure you don't select "Full Detail" for any leagues as that adds tons of processing time to the game and doesn't change anything except giving you the option to view 2D highlights from all the other matches.

there's a huge thread over on the Sigames boards about speeding up the game. here's the link:

http://community.sigames.com/1/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=21019056&f=39919517&m=6581949036

good luck

[McSweeny]

dola

i have a 1.2ghz athalon with 512mb of RAM and i run about 17 or 18 leagues in 5 nations (England, Ireland, Scotland, USA, Wales, N. Ireand, and Holland) and the game runs great for me. I may try adding a few more nations when i start up my next game sometime in the next week and i'll let you know how it goes

[bbor]

GB...welcome to CM world...see you in 6 months...pack supplies :)

[Godzilla Blitz]

McSweeny: Thanks for all the info, especially the tip about not selecting "full detail".

Originally posted by bbor
GB...welcome to CM world...see you in 6 months...pack supplies :)

Thank you. I've actually been here before, and understand the need for supplies. Actually, if I am 100% honest with myself, CM 00/01 was probably the main reason I bought a new pc three years ago, meaning that I effectively spent $1,800 to play the game.

Last night I was cruising the Dell website again.

[JPhillips]

I'm surprised that you are only reccomended 6 divisions. I have a P3 933 with 512 memory and I get sixteen divisions reccomended. I'd say you do have some background programs eating a lot of memory.

[The Afoci]

I have 12 or 13 divisions recommended, but it runs really slow. When I run just England conference and up and USA MLS, it goes quick, but add anymore and it slows way down. Does anyone who runs the max recommend have like 2 to 3 minute process time everytime it goes to simulate games?

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally posted by JPhillips
I'm surprised that you are only reccomended 6 divisions. I have a P3 933 with 512 memory and I get sixteen divisions reccomended. I'd say you do have some background programs eating a lot of memory.

Yeah, I was surprised at this too, and even more so now that you say you get 16 divisions recommended. I just reformatted the drive though, and there's no virus protection or anything special that I can think of running in the background.

By chance, could it have to do with Windows ME that's on the computer? Did I read something somewhere that says the most memory ME allocates to one program is 256mb? Could that be the problem?

[Marc Vaughan]

Please bear in mind that it analyses the computer at the time the program is running when deciding on the number of leagues to suggest - if you have a lot of stuff loaded in the background (Explorer to browsing this forum for instance ;) ) then it'll be more cautious in its estimates.

PS. If you have Windows ME then I would heartily suggest you upgrade it to either 2k or XP if possible, both have vastly superior memory management (and general stability) to ME.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Marc: As always, thank you!

I tried again this evening, and now my machine gives me a recommended 21 divisions! Much much better.

I must have had something open in the background.

Thank you to everyone for the help!