June 27th, 2019 at 3:44 AM
I've been playing Skylines quite a bit these past couple of weeks. And honestly, it's by far the best city builder I've ever played. And it absolutely blows SC4 out of the water.
My computer, however, is a toaster. It's a 2012 MacBook Pro with Intel HD 4000 graphics. This is basically one of the lower end Intel graphics chipsets, and newer CPUs have better integrated graphics than mine does. However, being that Cities Skylines specifically states that Intel graphics are not supported, I was worried the game would be rendered unplayable on my computer. This isn't so much the case. I can report it does in fact run, and it's definitely playable. And enjoyable. Even on larger cities, it renders about 15 FPS, which isn't unplayable for the type of game that it is.
I cranked all the graphics settings down to their lowest settings, disabled anti-aliasing, and set the resolution to 1024x640. I use a dynamic resolution mod that scales the UI resolution to its native resolution for the display, and only renders the game itself at a lower resolution, so I don't necessarily notice the dropped resolution as much. If you're playing on an older computer, this is an absolute must, and makes the game much more enjoyable.
Also, despite having to crank all the graphics settings down to their lowest values, the texture quality itself doesn't seem to affect the frame rate significantly. I cranked the textures up to Medium with no noticeable effect on the framerate. Doing this helps the graphics quality a bit.
Doing this, I consistently get 15-20 FPS in smaller cities, and about 10-15 FPS in larger cities. I'm currently building a 5 tile city with 70K residents (relatively large city for Skylines), and my computer is still keeping up. I would say the frame rates are better when you zoom out a bit. Once you zoom in at street level on a larger city, your frame rates drop to about 10-12. It is laggy, yes. But not unplayable.
That being said, these aren't amazing stats by comparison. Someone who has played with a better card would find it unbearably low. For me personally, I find that despite it feeling a bit choppy at times, it truly is not too bad. Again, for the type of game that this is, lower framerates aren't a drag, and it's still very enjoyable to play. And it can handle large cities without too much trouble. The gameplay itself is so awesome that it more than makes up for subpar frame rates.
So, if you've got an old computer with intel HD graphics or something similar, don't let that scare you away from playing the game. If you take a little bit of care with the graphics settings and you keep your expectations realistic, the game will still not fail to impress you, even on an older computer. Any Intel processor 3rd generation or newer should be able to handle it.
Also, if you have anything newer than a 3rd generation CPU (e.g. 4th or 5th generation or newer) - the graphics chipsets are vastly improved in these. It can handle higher resolutions on my backup computer with a 4th gen i5 and HD 4600 graphics. My 2018 MacBook Air (with HD 617 graphics) could handle the game very well and consistently maintained 30+ frames per second on medium graphics settings. This post describes performance on the older generations of integrated graphics. The newer ones are definitely decent performers on the game and will sustain 20-30+ frames per second on moderate graphics settings.
My computer, however, is a toaster. It's a 2012 MacBook Pro with Intel HD 4000 graphics. This is basically one of the lower end Intel graphics chipsets, and newer CPUs have better integrated graphics than mine does. However, being that Cities Skylines specifically states that Intel graphics are not supported, I was worried the game would be rendered unplayable on my computer. This isn't so much the case. I can report it does in fact run, and it's definitely playable. And enjoyable. Even on larger cities, it renders about 15 FPS, which isn't unplayable for the type of game that it is.
I cranked all the graphics settings down to their lowest settings, disabled anti-aliasing, and set the resolution to 1024x640. I use a dynamic resolution mod that scales the UI resolution to its native resolution for the display, and only renders the game itself at a lower resolution, so I don't necessarily notice the dropped resolution as much. If you're playing on an older computer, this is an absolute must, and makes the game much more enjoyable.
Also, despite having to crank all the graphics settings down to their lowest values, the texture quality itself doesn't seem to affect the frame rate significantly. I cranked the textures up to Medium with no noticeable effect on the framerate. Doing this helps the graphics quality a bit.
Doing this, I consistently get 15-20 FPS in smaller cities, and about 10-15 FPS in larger cities. I'm currently building a 5 tile city with 70K residents (relatively large city for Skylines), and my computer is still keeping up. I would say the frame rates are better when you zoom out a bit. Once you zoom in at street level on a larger city, your frame rates drop to about 10-12. It is laggy, yes. But not unplayable.
That being said, these aren't amazing stats by comparison. Someone who has played with a better card would find it unbearably low. For me personally, I find that despite it feeling a bit choppy at times, it truly is not too bad. Again, for the type of game that this is, lower framerates aren't a drag, and it's still very enjoyable to play. And it can handle large cities without too much trouble. The gameplay itself is so awesome that it more than makes up for subpar frame rates.
So, if you've got an old computer with intel HD graphics or something similar, don't let that scare you away from playing the game. If you take a little bit of care with the graphics settings and you keep your expectations realistic, the game will still not fail to impress you, even on an older computer. Any Intel processor 3rd generation or newer should be able to handle it.
Also, if you have anything newer than a 3rd generation CPU (e.g. 4th or 5th generation or newer) - the graphics chipsets are vastly improved in these. It can handle higher resolutions on my backup computer with a 4th gen i5 and HD 4600 graphics. My 2018 MacBook Air (with HD 617 graphics) could handle the game very well and consistently maintained 30+ frames per second on medium graphics settings. This post describes performance on the older generations of integrated graphics. The newer ones are definitely decent performers on the game and will sustain 20-30+ frames per second on moderate graphics settings.
![[Image: 5.jpg]](http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/5.jpg)
