Will the next update improve the performance of this game?

Did you try the beta test version? runs a lot smoother than 1.1 I can tell you and as far as I know they're improving the game constantly with each patch update they do, the goal of patching isn't just to squash bugs but also improve the game and streamline it so it doesn't use so much memory, the more memory being used the more the game will slow down, since for the moment E:WOM is only on the 32-bit systems which means it can only utilize 2 gigs of memory before CTD or you just plain getting the out of memory error. One can only hope they switch over the game to a 64-bit version which will allow for the use of more ram and thus negate that problem, that or you could wait for FE... which ever comes first I guess.

Try the latest beta patch or wait until 1.2 which should be here in week (original release was scheduled for 3-22). See how it is then and then make your decision. Some of us have been posting like crazy to work out these bugs and memory issues so we can move on to 1.3 which is when the new content will arrive.

There is an unofficial memory patch that allows a system to use unlimited RAM for this game. Of course that means that eventually the game still crashes, but you can play many hours before then if you have more than 2GB of RAM.

No idea where you can download it from but if you look for it you should at least be able to play.

A big part of the reason the betas run so slow is because there's heaps of debugging code that's there to help diagnose and remove memory bugs.  If you're basing the speed of the game as how it has been in recent betas, you would get a somewhat less than accurate view of its speed capabilities that it has when the debugging stuff is removed.

Best regards,
Steven.

I would not wish this on either my worst or best enemy.

I have a suggestion that might help given your specs.  Turn OFF the outlining in the graphics options.  Some people with that card have reported massive performance hit due to that cosmetic option.

I always did this anyway.. but ya i noticed a performance difference on my machine as well... strange that outlines would cause a performance hit though. I have an older ATI card.. maybe its an ATI thing?

I'll give that a try thanks!

I am patched to the latest version via Impulse so I hope 1.2 Will be the answer to my problems.

Something's wrong here for sure.  My PC pales in comparison to yours and runs EWoM flawlessly.

I love these posts. I can run Civ 5 on maximum, Age of Conan on full settings and many other games and get great performance. But on this one game it runs poorly. So yeah, obviously its my system. Genius. 

Yeah, this game does have some teething problems.  Maybe give it a break for a while, and come back to it when you want to.   But hopefully by the end of the 1.19 beta patches it should be significantly better, fingers crossed.

Best regards,
Steven.

I didn't bad-mouth your system...in fact I specifically said mine was much worse.  When I said something's wrong, I meant with the game.

Ah my apologies charon2112. It was unclear what you meant.

I did turn off the outlines and it did help, so thanks for that. I still get the occasional CTDs but nowhere as bad as at launch. But it's still not the performance I would expect from my system, especially when compared to Civ5. Sorry to keep mentioning that game but it is a direct competitor (even if it's a turd compared to Civ4). EWOM is the one I want to come back to though and I hope you guys keep working hard to make it better and better. Don't want to have to dust of my old MoM CD and my retroPC!

There's a CD ?

My copy is on floppies.  Fortunately there is no copy protection, so when I get a new PC I can just copy it over from HD to HD without hunting for my old usb floppy drive. 

The difference is how the games use the video card.  For example, the outlining effect has no hit at all on some systems (like nVidia) but can cause up to a 50% slow down on others.  

It's also important to remember that Civilization V uses a fixed camera (you can't rotate it) which allows it to do lots of tricks to speed things up.  Pretty ground textures are not a big performance hit. In Elemental, each unit is actually wearing shoes, shirt, hat, sleeves, gloves, etc.  In Civ V, it's just one model.  Or put another way, Elemental is a lot more demanding on a video card to provide the customizeabliltiy. We tried to provide an art style that mitigates a lot of that complexity but it won't solve 100% of setups.  At least, not until we find out what particular rendering item is causing the issue for a given person.

I used to work at Microprose (which is neither here or there really) and yes there was a CD-ROM version of MoM produced at least in the UK. I believe it had the 1.31 patch on it.

Thanks again Frogboy for your answers and help.