I have read a few threads here related to this issue. I guess I'm sort of 'jumping the gun' here since I haven't tried the DXGL fix yet. Though I'm on Windows 7 x64 and I'm not getting the Windows 8 error that's reported, which the DXGL program is intended to fix.

My problem is that I'm getting intermittent lag while playing the game in hardware rendering mode via in-game settings.

The game runs fine and at a decent framerate in software mode, but hardware mode, even setting textures to low and disabling filtering (what I assume to be an early version of ansiotropic filtering?) the game still lags to a point where it is unplayable. Especially when moving the camera via right-mouse button around the map.

I would love to fix this issue simply for the fact of the fully animated shadows and that little extra awesomeness that hardware rendering provides.

I'm not sure why this is other than simply coding?

My specs are as follows:

AMD Sempron 2.4ghz (single core)
Nvidia Geforce 6150SE nForce 430 (128mb, shader is poop)
4gb DDR2 SDRAM

Things I have tried:

Updated GeForce to latest version
Compatibility Mode set to Windows XP (SP3) and Windows 98 / Me
Switching in-game resolution (all 3)

Things I have not tried:

Messing with Nvidia Control Panel
-I have a feeling Triple Buffering may help?

Any have advice that might be useful via Nvida Panel?

Set power management mode to "Prefer maximum performance"
Set vsync to "disabled"

See if it helps. If it does, make sure you create a new profile for Settlers 4 so that these setting are only changed when running this game, since these should not be changed for other games.

Also, try running it through DxWnd.

Thanks for the reply!

I thought I had it fixed, fiddling around in Nvidia CP, but it still lags. I'll try what you recommended and see if that helps.

I assume "Texture filtering - Quality" is the Maximum Performance you're referring to? That seems to be the only option within the control panel with Performance options.

I forgot all about DxWnd. Great program there.

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Misc reporting:

I figured it might be something to do with Triple Buffering, as that usually helps older games in my experience. Might have reduced lag by a smidgeon, but not much.

I also set Multi-Display Optimization to "Single" since I have only one display. And Threaded optimization to "Off" since I'm running a single core processor.

Ahh, mine doesn't have a Power Management Mode option.

Shoddy Geforce 6150SE nForce 430. I'll be sure not to buy a computer with this chip again :P

Gosh, that PC is so old and bad, it's kind of amazing. Are you a time traveller from 10 years ago? :D

Don't bother fiddling around with settings, you won't fix it that way. DXGL is exactly what you're looking for. It will improve performance a lot in this game.