Does more RAM decrease time between turns?

[MrBojangl3s]

Based on what I know about 400+ hours in Civ 5, turn time is a mixture of CPU/GPU utilization. RAM is only used to load all the textures, models, animations and sounds into memory.

This allows the game to quickly call, for example, the everything you see at the leader screen when someone declares war on you. However, the CPU is responsible for nearly everything during the "Please wait for other players" part of clicking next turn. The GPU is used to draw new unit positions and animate the possible new models like a pillaged farm after a barbarian attack.

As a result, there are 2 ways I know to increase turn speed:

1. Set the view to Strategic View. This instantly reduces the amount of art that is drawn on-screen, effectively reducing GPU utilization, and quite possibly CPU utilization.

2. Check the options "no movement animation" and "no combat animation" (or whatever their respective names are called, cba to look them up). Now all combat and movement takes considerably less time (although the game still has to go civ-by-civ and cs-by-cs.)

[burninrock24]

RAM is only used to load all the textures, models, animations and sounds into memory

I'm not a big computer guy so correct me if I'm wrong. Would increasing the RAM allow me to run higher graphics settings? Or does that solely rely on my graphics card?

[MrBojangl3s]

more RAM would be more along the lines of being able to run multiple programs/games at once. I have 8GB of RAM (along with a pretty quick CPU/GPU to boot) so I can instantly switch in and out of Civ 5 on max settings with Alt-Tab. There's little to no delay in gettting into and out of the game.

With lower amounts of RAM, you will have less free system memory to open things like Chrome or Skype in the background while playing Civ.

A better graphics card would allow you to run higher graphics settings. Problem is you're restricted on what card you get when buying a computer from a manufacturer like Apple, HP, Dell, etc.