Alittle help

Have you checked what keeps your pc busy, is it the processor working at 100%, is all of your 512 MB RAM being used, is the hard drive spinning like crazy? This may be a first indication of what goes wrong.

Also have a look at the different threads on the forum related to this kind of issues, sometimes just unchecking 1 particular setting in the graphics options solves this kind of things.

The more memory the better also. My system has 3GB memory, but on immense maps during late game, the game also tends to slow down a bit, just from so much going on. Even another 512 would probably help immensely.

Try turning off Enhanced Ship Rendering and disabling Allow Mixed Vertex Processing Mode.

You may also want to disable the Animated Components in TA.

Also, just for the record, if AA is on, turn it OFF.

But yes, if you're trying to play anything over a medium galaxy on 512MB RAM, things will start to slow down.  You shouldn't notice this too much at the start of the game, though.

I'm not sure about the Allow Mixed Vertex Processing Mode setting...it seemed to slow my system down.

I would recommend turning the stars and nebula density to zero. That seems to make my machine run smoother. Also, shutting off my AV software and using SmartClose to close all unnecessary background processes seems to help as well.

Unfortunately, with your specs (which are similar to mine), I think you are bound to get some lag. I would recommend upgrading your RAM to at least 1 GB, if possible.

Which is why I said disable it...

Are we not on the same page here?

Turning down star and nebula density is a good suggestion as well, and I'm amazed I forgot it, given that I do so, but in all honesty ensuring AA is off would make the absolute largest difference on that system, so it was my primary concern.

Well I appreciate the help, but that still doesn't explain the part where I said I put all settings to POOR, and played on a TINY map....and still had lag, or where I said I played dread lords on full blast with gigantic maps without any problems.

But thanks for the help, and I'm getting more ram, have already ordered two gig, but something still isn't right with the picture, when the game will play the original not the new.....

Enhanced Ship Rendering, Animated Components (TA) and Allow Mixed Vertex Processing Mode do not toggle based on the video presets (i.e. poor, good, shitty, epic, etc).  I do not recall if lowering the preset lowers AA as well but I would be very much unsurprised if it did not.

Since you state that you did not have these issues with DL, the two most logical culprits are Enhanced Ship Rendering and Mixed Vertex Processing Mode, which were options introduced in DA.

As you don't state that you've tried that, I'm going to continue recommending that you do until you, well, do.

Yeah, you're right. I guess I didn't read it correctly.

Enhanced Ship Rendering, Animated Components (TA) and Allow Mixed Vertex Processing Mode do not toggle based on the video presets (i.e. poor, good, shitty, epic, etc).

Well then where do you find the options to toggle that off? When I put it on poor, it toggles off basically everything, so if its on that long list its toggled off...oh wait I do believe I see it on that long list....hmm its off....but thanks for the help.

Either way if its on poor basically anything that is eating up my resource won't be....also the main difference between the cd version of DL and the two expansion packs is I downloaded them and I have DL on cd....which I guess the whole problem is it's not running off of the cd its off the Hardrive and there fore I probably don't have enough Ram....

Even with DL you are running totally off the hard drive. There is no CD needed after the install.

Your problem is with a very slow DX8.1 video card (DX9 is required), a slow CPU and not enough RAM.

Face it. Your system is simply not up to handling the expansion packs - at least not with close zoom levels.

Even my system, which is fairly powerful, came with an integrated graphics card, and on graphics heavy programs/games, there is a huge slowdown in performance... but I just don't feel like buying a video card currently.. maybe in 6 months or so.

Because those options are for debugging purposes, not detail; they don't depend directly on how powerful your video is. On newer cards, they increase performance, but older ones (even ones that were high end at one point) may not support them properly and they'll actually decrease performance.

Do note that the Radeon 9250 is a DirectX 8 card in any case, and is below the game's requirements (which call for a DX9 card). If the above options are already disabled and performance does not improve (even on the smallest of maps, where memory should not be an issue), then the card is likely at fault.

I have 9.0c but thanks for playing....

Also I know your trying to help, and maybe I'm mistaken, but DL calls for 9.0c it plays fine....so does TW:Medieval II, Sins of a solar Empire, Civilizations 4 etc, all of which play fine on my pc....my direct x version is 9.0c....perhaps my video card isn't designed for it like you say, but its backwards compatible and lots of other games that ask for more than GC play fine....so that isn't it either.

By the way I must say you guys are more helpful then the so called support...who in the past 4 days has sent me one email.

You have 9.0c software installed, but you don't have a DX9 compatible video card.

DL played better with older cards than does DA or Twilight.

Thanks for playing.

What's up with all the 'thanks for playing' comments. haha, it sounds like a 'thanks for asking' or 'thanks for the info' type of thing, but doesn't... I guess a "Your Welcome" would be an appropriate reponse.

I tossed it back as a sarcastic response, because that is how I perceived SamCheeks' response to my answer.

He has a card that does not support DX9 functions, period. With DL you could get away with that much better than with DA or Twilight. He came back with the DX software that he has installed, and with a 'thanks for playing' rebuff to my response.

Fact is, it does not matter which DX software version you have installed if your video card does not support the higher DX functions. SamCheeks simply has some dated hardware that can not keep up with the demands of the newer versions of GalCiv2. So, it lags.

Add to that a pretty slow CPU, when DA and Twilight are more demanding, and you get even more lag.

There are very cheap directx 9 video cards you can purchase for next to nothing that are still quite powerful. It is often more useful to go that route, unless you have the latest alienware system and buy a new card every 6 months. You can get various 256MB directx 9.0c cards for as little as $25, or cards with 512MB for around $70.

I was just checking on Bizrate, and there may be better deals than that out there... here's the link if you wish to have a look.
http://www.bizrate.com/graphicscards/products__keyword--video+card+directx+9__sort--5.html

And, thanks for playing.

Well,"moosetek" thank you for pointing out that I, in my hurriedness to register had messed up on my username, also my cpu is alot more then what is the minimum so when I say I'm using a tiny map that should not be a factor. Also I find it verry odd that out of all the games requiring 9.0c these expansions are the only ones that I have a problem with...

 I also appologize for my sarcasm when you guys are only trying to help...at the time I had just finished reading the second email from Stardock, which was a very pathetic attempt on help....although surprisingly they didn't mention anything about my video card being only 8x compatible, on the other hand seeing as how it came from them the fact that they didn't mention it might mean something....(as in you mayperhaps be correct)

And Doom you got me on the whole playin thing...I do need to upgrade my video card, and plan to in acouple of weeks, but I still think that there is a factor somewhere is missing. I've been updating slowly I now have 2 gigs ddr ram in, that I had already bought but was waiting for shipping, before I got the expansions, unfortunately it didn't change the proble, but I didnt expect it to since the recomended for the game is 512.

A tiny map will use less RAM and CPU, but will still require the same resources with the video card - especially zoomed in.

And a recommended 512MB of ram is really not enough. You will be into virtual memory before the game even loads (even with the smallest map).

Perhaps you should devote your resources to upgrading your video card and memory, and then let us know how the game plays.

From TA manual

System Requirements

that you have:

You seem to ignore the DX 9.0c requirement for the video. Why is that?

Your video card simply does not comply.

As for the memory, more is better. In your case, you have the minimum recommended - which is enough to play the game, but far less than playing the game at a fast speed.

With your system, you get the performance that it affords - as do any of us. Want better performance? Upgrade the system!

Agreed. IMO 1 GB should be the minimum requirement. That's what I have and it still uses quite a bit of virtual memory. I can't imagine trying to play with 512 MB.