Civilization – Is a computer that runs Civ V reasonably well generally good enough to run Civ: Beyond Earth

civilization-5civilization-beyond-earthsystem requirements

I've always liked the Civilization series (although it seems to have gone off on a little bit of a tangent in the last couple of titles), and I was wondering if a computer that can run Civilization V reasonably well can generally be trusted run Civilization: Beyond Earth well enough to probably buy it. This question is not tied down to a specific computer with a specific set of hardware, but it's about a more general case.

By running Civ 5 reasonably well, I mean that it's not top-of-the-line, but it's far from bottom-of-the-line. Assume the same for Empire: Total War, Shogun: Total War 2, and Skyrim. They would all play well, but just nothing spectacular.

It looks like it would be able to run the game well enough for it to be good, but I just wanted confirm this. I know there should be a little bit less performance when running Civ: BE, but if the difference isn't too much, it should still be playable.

Amazon had this list of system requirements for Civ BE:

Minimum System Requirements:

    -Supported OS: Windows Vista SP2/7
    -Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
    -Memory: 2 GB RAM
    -Graphics: 256 MB ATI HD3650 or better, 256 MB nVidia 8800 GT or better, or Intel HD 3000 or better integrated graphics
    -DirectX: Version 11
    -Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
    -Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c‐compatible sound card
    -Additional Notes: Other Requirements: Initial installation requires one-time Internet connection for Steam authentication; software installations required (included with the game) include Steam Client, Microsoft Visual C++2012 Runtime Libraries and Microsoft DirectX.

Recommended System Settings:

    -OS: Windows Vista SP2 / 7
    -Processor: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU
    -Memory: 4 GB RAM
    -Graphics: AMD HD5000 series or better (or ATI R9 series for Mantle support), nVidia GT400 series or better, or Intel IvyBridge or better integrated graphics
    -DirectX: Version 11
    -Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
    -Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c‐compatible sound card

and 2K has this list for Civ V:

Official Civilization V Minimum Requirements

    CPU: Intel Core2 Duo @ 1.8GHz / AMD Athlon X2 64 @ 2.0GHz
    Memory: 2.0GB
    Video Card: nVidia GeForce 7900GS / ATi HD2600 XT / Intel Core i3 integrated graphics
    DirectX: DirectX 9.0c

Official Civilization V Recommended Specs

    CPU: Quad-core processor @ 1.8GHz
    Memory: 4.0GB
    Video Card: nVidia GeForce 9800 / ATi 4800 
    DirectX: DirectX 11

Additional Requirements

    Storage Space: 8GB
    Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
    Operating System: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP2 / Windows 7
    Optical Drive: DVD-ROM drive (for retail boxed versions only)

To me, they look fairly comparable, but I could use another set of eyes.

Best Answer

Since Civ BE uses the same engine as Civ V, it's reasonable to assume that if your machine ran Civ V well, it should be able to handle Civ BE. In my personal experience, the two computers I ran Civ V on ran Civ BE just fine.

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