Civilization 6 Graphics and Performance Issues [Quick Fixes]

Resolve any performance issues on Civilization VI with our exhaustive guide⚡

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Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is a complex and detailed game that can be challenging to run on certain hardware or software configurations. However, it’s not considered a problematic game.

Like any other game, it can have some bugs and glitches, problems that players may experience with the game’s graphics or visual elements, such as low frame rate, stuttering, or graphics not displaying correctly.

Thus, the issues may be due to graphics settings that are not properly set in the game when you encounter the Civ 6 failed to determine graphics device capabilities error message.

Players of Civilization 6 occurred graphics and performance issues and, apparently, the most encountered errors that are making it unplayable are:

➡️ Civilization 6 Crashing:

  • Civ 6 crashes when loading the game
  • Crashes on startup
  • Crashing on next turn
  • Keeps crashing on Xbox, Xbox Series X, PC (Windows 11, 10), Nintendo Switch, Mac, Ipad
  • Keeps crashing in multiplayer
  • Not launching

➡️ Civilization 6 no compatible graphics device found

➡️ Civilization 6 not launching, starting (Windows 11, 10, mac)

➡️ Civ 6 graphics glitch (mac),  graphics flickering, screen tearing, menu glitching

⭐First, you need to check and make sure that you meet the minimum system requirements of the game. If your PC doesn’t meet the Civilization 6 graphics card requirements, you need to upgrade it because this is why you are encountering errors.

Civilization 6 System Requirements

💻For Windows PC

➖ Minimum:

OS: Windows 7 64bit / 8.1 64bit / 10 64bit
PROCESSOR: Intel Core i3 2.5 GHz or AMD Phenom II 2.6 GHz or greater
MEMORY: 4 GB RAM
HARD DRIVE: 12 GB or more
DVD-ROM: Required for disc-based installation
VIDEO CARD: 1 GB DirectX 11 Video Card (AMD 5570 or Nvidia 450)

✔️ Recommended:

OS: Windows 7 64bit / 8.1 64bit / 10 64bit
PROCESSOR: Fourth generation Intel Core i5 2.5 GHz or AMD FX8350 4.0 GHz or greater
MEMORY: 8 GB RAM
HARD DRIVE: 12 GB or more
DVD-ROM: Required for disc-based installation
VIDEO CARD: 2 GB DirectX 11 Video Card (AMD 7970 or Nvidia 770 or greater)

💻For Mac

MINIMUM:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

  • OS: 10.14.6 (Mojave)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 2.7Ghz
  • Memory: 6 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 1 GB GPU Minimum – GeForce 775M | Radeon HD 6970 | Intel Iris Pro
  • Storage: 15 GB available space

However, please note that these are the minimum Civ 6 system requirements and the game may not run optimally with these specifications. For best performance and visual quality, the game developer recommends the following system specifications or better:

  • OS: MacOS 10.15 (Catalina)
  • Processor: 3.0 GHz Intel Core i5 (4 cores)
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Hard Disk Space: 22 GB
  • VIDEO CARD: 4 GB NVIDIA 970, 4GB AMD R9 390, 2GB Intel UHD 630 or better

It’s also important to note that these requirements are for the base game, and the performance of the game can be affected by additional content or expansion packs.

As the matter of fact, you can face a Civ 6 graphics glitch on Mac that may appear on Mac devices with a flickering screen and graphics.

  • Initial installation requires a one-time Internet connection for Steam authentication; software installations required (included with the game) include Steam Client, Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 and 2015 Runtime Libraries, and Microsoft DirectX.
  • If you have Windows 8.1 x64, you need to check and see if you have the latest Windows XB updates. For a guide on how to do that, check the steps below. After you check the Windows update, you can go ahead and fix your errors. Below you will find a list of all the game bugs, and for each issue, you will find a corresponding solution or workaround. Check the list below for more details!

Below is a list of the most common issues that players are currently complaining about. For each issue, you will find a corresponding solution or workaround to fix it. Let’s start now and fix your errors!

Civ 6 Crashing Troubleshoot

1. Update your Graphic Drivers

Outdated or incompatible drivers can cause a variety of issues, including crashes, low performance, and graphical glitches.

By updating your drivers, you can ensure that your computer is using the most recent version of the software that controls your graphics card.

You can do this by visiting the website of your graphics card manufacturer (NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel) to see if there are any newer drivers available for your graphics card. Also, make sure that you are running on the latest version of DirectX.

From your Windows PC, you can also update your graphic drivers via Device Manager by:

  1. Press the Windows key + X and select Device Manager from the menu.
  2. Locate the category for Display adapters and expand it.Update driver
  3. Right-click on your graphics card and select Update driver.
  4. Select Search automatically for updated driver software.
    device manager will help you updating your gpu drivers to fix crashes in one piece odyssey
  5. Windows will search for available updates and prompt you to install them. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the update process.
  6. After the update is complete, restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
Alternatively, for an easier and safer process, we recommend using a specialized driver update tool, such as Outbyte Driver Updater that will automatically do this for you. Outbyte Driver Updater is a third-party software that works by scanning your system for outdated or missing drivers, then downloading and installing the latest versions from the manufacturer’s website.

No compatible graphics device found

This issue is generated by your GPU because it’s outdated. By default, Civilization 6 uses DirectX 12 and your graphic card can’t support this version so it tries to run the game on Dx 11 and you get this error about “No compatible graphics device found”.

To make sure that everything goes smoothly and avoid any kind of GPU driver errors, be sure to use a complete driver update assistant that will solve your problems with just a couple of clicks. We strongly recommend Outbyte Driver Updater which will allow you to fix various games and PC problems.

Workarounds:

There are 2 ways to play the game with your GPU and using DirectX11 but both of them result in horrible performance issues and low fps. Don’t worry about that because we will fix the framerate issue later. First, we need to make sure that we can run the game on DirectX11, and do to that you need to apply the steps below to your game.

  • First Method:
  1. Press Windows + R again and run dxcpl (If this can’t be found, install the Windows SDK which can be found for Windows 7 and for Windows 8. Windows 10 should not require anything and you should find the application.)
  2. Click on Edit List and add “SteamApps\common\Sid Meier’s Civilization VI\Base\Binaries\Win64Steam\CivilizationVI.exe” to the list.
  3. Next, check the checkbox at the bottom that says Force WARP and click apply to close this window.
  4. Finally, open “Documents\My Games\Sid Meier’s Civilization VI\AppOptions.txt” and change AllowSWRenderer to 1 and FullScreen to 2.

This should result in the game at least running, but as we said, performance will be horrible and you need a pretty strong CPU to make this even playable, which is unlikely if you already had a bad GPU in the first place.

Plus, read more below to fix the framerates after you applied this workaround.

  • Second Method:

→ Navigate to “Sid Meier’s Civilization VI\Base\Binaries\Win64Steam”. There will be two executables, one titled “Civilization VI”, and one titled “CivilizationVI_DX12”.

→ Use “Civilization VI” to launch the game, which will utilize Directx 11, and your problems should be solved. By default, Civilization VI appears to use the DirectX 12 executable.

After applying the workarounds from above, you should have fixed your Civilization VI no compatible graphics device error, and your game should run fine but with some framerate issues.

Read here to fix the FPS!  After you applied these workarounds and managed to run the game on DirectX 11 you might experience horrible performance issues and very low framerate like below 10.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Performance Issues

sid-meiers-civilization-vi-low-fps

You might be unable to play the game because of performance issues like Low FPS, FPS Drops, or Stuttering. These issues are because of the poor optimization of the game or it might be your PC. To fix them you need to optimize your Windows by applying the workarounds below.

Workarounds:

  1. For AMD users, disable Raptr from the Task Manager. Disable any other intensive applications that may be running in the background. Also, try setting ‘Tessellation mode’ to 8x/16x and ‘Texture Filtering Quality’ to Performance from your latest Crimson edition Radeon software to fix frame rate drops.
  2. For Nvidia users, go into your Control Panel 3D Settings. Make sure that the ‘Power Management Mode’ option should be set to ‘Prefer Maximum Performance’.
  3. If you are experiencing screen flickering or frame-pacing issues, disable Crossfire/SLI and run the game using a single GPU. Also, disable Steam Overlay by right-clicking the game in Steam Library and then go to Game Properties.

Let’s hope that by now you managed to fix all your Sid Meier’s Civilization VI errors and issues and that you are enjoying the game.

If you still encounter some issues and don’t know the answers, please reach out in the comments below for any issues related to Civilization VI gameplay.

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75 Comments
  1. Adam says

    I had the launch issue, my game wasn’t starting at all but after I applied your patch it started and now it works perfectly. Thank you guys! Also, make sure that after you apply the patch you will restart your PC! I did that and it worked for me.

  2. Graham says

    I can only say that your team is amazing for creating this. Thank you for the guide, my game finally works now!

  3. Tom says

    I bought Civ VI today and it won’t start, it says “No compatible graphics device found. Please ensure your syste has a correctly configured, compatible graphics device”. My card is Intel HD Graphics 3000 with about 1.6 RAM, Directx 12 on Windows 10. Computer is only 3 or 4 years old, has 6 MB total RAM. Is this really not good enough to play the game? Had no problems with Civ 5 or Beyond Earth.

    1. Denis says

      Are you sure that you don’t have a dedicated gpu? 6 MB of ram? Do you mean GB?

      1. Diego says

        I am having the same issue as Tom (and i found some others on a forum with the same issue)

        Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 512 MB
        which is more than required.
        I am running ddirectx 11 on parallels Windows 8.1

        1. Denis says

          Ok guys, I found a solution that apparently fixes this issue. You need to uninstall the latest Microsoft Visual C++ (2015) from program and features, then reinstall manually from Microsoft.

          1. Robert says

            Pixel and vertex shaders do not meet the minimum requirements for the 4800 series. I was waiting for this day, just didn’t expect it to happen with civ6

        2. Tay says

          Did you find a fix that worked? I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the latest Microsoft Visual C++ but it didn’t work.

  4. Tito says

    I find no executable file… When I go to Steam/Steamapps/common/CivilizationVI, no executable file is there.
    I already updated my windows to Windows 10 because of CIV VI crashes… Still crashes… God…

    1. Denis says

      Try this folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier’s Civilization VI\Base\Binaries\Win64Steam

  5. Tom says

    Yes, I’m sure. And yes I meant 6 GB.

  6. Egbert Dittmer says

    Hi Dennis, I installed the game but got this error “no compatible graphics device found”. I have NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT, Windows 10, can you please help me resolve this issue

    1. Denis says

      You are probably playing on a laptop and not using your dedicated graphic card. Try to change to your dedicated gpu and this issue should be fixed. For a guide on how to do that check this article here.

      1. Egbert Dittmer says

        MY PC is not a laptop it is actually a Desktop

        1. Denis says

          Try to uninstall the latest Microsoft Visual C++ (2015) from program and features, then reinstall manually from Microsoft.

    2. wolfe1924 says

      9800gt is not good enough to run this game

  7. JWALK says

    So if I have Vista it wont work??? The last generation games work on Steam…??? LMK

    1. Denis says

      I think it should work on Vista too. But why do you have Vista dude? It’s the worst version of Windows out there… I would recommend you to upgrade to 8 or 10.

      1. JWALK says

        Dude…I Know… Old Dog…I need new tricks.
        What if I bought a laptop like this so I can use it for work also?
        LMK
        Lenovo – 300-17ISK 17.3″ Laptop – Intel Core i5 – 8GB Memory – 1TB Hard Drive

        1. Denis says

          The specifications of this laptop are really good. What about the graphic card?

          1. JWALK says

            This is all it has listed.

            Intel® HD Graphics 520

            On-processor graphics with shared video memory provide everyday image quality for Internet use, basic photo editing and casual gaming.

          2. Denis says

            Well, if you want it for gaming too you will need one with a dedicated graphic card.

          3. JWALK says

            OK. So what you are saying if I bought this right out of the Box it will not work or run Civ 6 the new game?

            What about this one?
            Intel® HD Graphics 5500

            On-processor graphics with shared video memory provide everyday image quality for Internet use, basic photo editing and casual gaming.

          4. Denis says

            For a better experience you will need a NVIDIA or AMD graphic card.

  8. Felipe says

    Hello Dennis I completed the offer but the download did not started for some reason

    1. Denis says

      After you complete it you need to wait for a few minutes and the download of the patch archive will start.

  9. j says

    if i try “launch game” i get an error saying unhandled exception has occurred in your application.

  10. Matthew Young says

    I preordered Civ 6 and it runs great on my machine through Steam. However, I cannot save a game! I have tried Quick saving or manual saving and they don’t even show up as loadable games right after I click save. ANY ideas?

    1. peretz says

      I have the same problem too

    2. Silennce says

      i cannot save a game too. Helpl ;s

    3. Tylerlloll says

      Just to add to this save file issue. My anti-virus (Bit Defender) wouldn’t let Civ write to my documents because it was protected under Ransomware Protection. So I white listed it and had to add the folders manually and as of now it seems to have fixed it. Hope this helps.

  11. Samizdat says

    I’m planning to purchase Civilization VI on Steam very soon but problem is I’m running on Vista. Although my rig has an i7 Core processor, 8GB of RAM, and have a GTX 970. Will I be able to play this despite not meeting the minimum requirements for the OS? I do have XCOM 2 which listed Windows 7 as the minimum and was still able to play flawlessly.

    1. Denis says

      If you can play XCOM 2 flawlessly, this one should work too. But I recommend you to upgrade your Windows!

      1. Samizdat says

        Hey Denis! I purchased Civilization VI and unfortunately I’m unable to start it up. It’s a Windows Vista issue. I’m already in the process of getting a refund. Back to Civ V for me… 🙁

  12. Jordan says

    How do i find the C++ files to uninstall them?

    1. Jordan says

      Sorry dumb Question i got it

  13. James says

    Just downloaded civ6, game runs great but Im not able to save, please can someone help.

  14. Buzz says

    “no compatible graphics device found”.

    “Try to uninstall the latest Microsoft Visual C++ (2015) from program and features, then reinstall manually from Microsoft.”

    I just did that… To no avail. However, I must admit my ATI Radeon 4850 is below what they specify as the minimum requirements, so I guess there is no was to play it. 🙁

  15. meag says

    will it work on intel hd 3000 and i7 processor aand 4.1 gb ram? my graphic card also has 1gb vram

    1. Denis says

      I’m not sure if your processor will support the game. Try to use “can you run it” and see if your PC can handle the game. Here is the link http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/civilization-6/13429

  16. Kris says

    Is anyone having problems with saving and loading? I played about 8 hours yesterday and definitely saved it and I can’t find a load file for it, I’ve started a new game and haven’t taken any turns and tried to save and load that file but it doesn’t seem to be saving. Any ideas how I can fix this

    1. Stu says

      same problem here, game goes through the save process but no games appear when I go to the load game screen, can’t find any save files on my pc either

      1. Glenn says

        Same here – can’t save games – many people have the same issue – 2K are totally silent about it

    2. peretz says

      I have the same problem too, i think ill refund for now until a solution shows up.. Im really exited about this game 🙁

  17. Jeff says

    Having trouble getting Civ6 to start…. I get an error message from the desktop icon that says “No compatible Graphics Card found….” I tried and uninstall and re-install of the Visual Basic C++ 2015 as was suggested elsewhere on this thread but no luck same errors.

    I’m running a Win10 laptop with 8GB of RAM and a Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 1GB RAM. I’ve also verified that I am running DirectX 12 and my Displays are Direct 3D DDI: 11.1

    Any other suggestions?

  18. ff says

    Im having a problem when closing out of the game. When ever i hit close to desktop it crases the game and my computer. Any one have a solution for this

    1. Edge says

      I’m having this exact same issue – or did the one time I played. Now I’m getting the crash either on load or after I start a game. Frustrating!

  19. sebastian says

    my civ 6 keeps saying the m2k servers are overburdened and wont start 🙁 had a perfectly good game last night but i get past the intro video and then it forces civ to close :*(

  20. rngesus says

    Any suggestions how to fix this?

  21. Hoongie says

    Game worked perfectly yesterday. Today it loads up a saved game, but i can’t end the turn as it will not let me change city production. Anyone else having this problem???

  22. Michael Romero says

    I am getting invalid platform error, won’t install. Only thing i can see that wouldn’t be compatible is I’m running Windows 10 32bit, would this make a difference?

  23. Phil says

    I was playing Civ 6 all weekend now suddenly when I start or load a game I get the intro and sound then stops responding?

  24. Christian audet says

    I can’t seem to load my save.

  25. Josh says

    For some reason the game won’t allow me to save, is anyone else having this issue if so does anyone have any solutions? Thanks in advance.

  26. Shachar says

    ”the application was unable to start correctly 0xc0000142”
    what i need to do???

  27. Chris says

    Hi all,

    This is driving me mad. I have an issue with the graphics “flickering”. This is even on the menu screen and the icon in the bottom right hand corner will do the same. While in game this happens and it makes the game unplayable. I am running with Geforce 840m with the latest drivers and windows updates.

    If i switch my GPU selection to my Intel HD Graphics 5500 in the settings the flickering completely goes.

    Does anyone have any ideas on why i am getting this problem with the 840m GPU selection?

    Thanks

  28. drone says

    HI ~ I have a question about diplomatic
    the Reasons for current relationship seems only (EN) have
    other language have not

    http://imgur.com/f4HLZEC (EN)
    http://imgur.com/4oTcMEr (CH)

  29. Ady says

    Will this patch help me if my game crashes every time on the same turn? It simply takes out on the desktop, without and error notification.

    1. Denis says

      Yes, it will fix your crashes!

  30. Mikolaj says

    I have error (0xe06d7363) error, plz help :C

  31. Tuilk says

    I have an i7 5500 chipset, nvidia 920m 4GB graphics card, 8gb ram, n windows 10 pro….
    Loaded the game…started fine…intro posted well…Then wen game starts can see mouse cursor (disappears) …icons light up wen hover over them but can’t see mouse cursor….
    Pls help…

  32. Javier Murillo Sanchez says

    The game runs fine on my imac but for some reason the moving sprites (like carts, colonists, etc…) simply dont show up. It is only the icon on top of them moving, and the rest is invisible.

    Weird.

  33. Pidzej says

    Used to work fine on my laptop: Intel Core i3-2370M 2.4 GHz, Intel HD Graphics 3000, 8GB Kingston DDR3 1333 MHz and suddenly it stopped. WTF?!

  34. Silas says

    The game runs fine, my computer is new and easily passes all the requirements, but it preforms the “first time set-up” every time I try to launch the game. Is there any way to fix this? I use Steam.

  35. Piers says

    6700K, 32GB DDR4 2800, GTX 1080. The game constantly crashes to desktop mid-game or even trying to access the menu. I’ve tried removing all overclocks, reinstalling, updating drivers – none of those makes any difference. A complete waste of money and time.

  36. ڪريمۖ ﭐلصياد says

    After the last Update of Australian Summer the figures in my game went hazy and unclear (icons of resources, title of the game, leaders, etc,..). I appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.
    Graphics card, Intel (R) graphics 4000, windows 7 64bit, Core i3, Ram 12 GB.

    1. Eric says

      Exactly the same thing happens to me

  37. Tatianna Diaz says

    Everytime i start a new game the map loads, but nothing is on my map, and turns just keep going without me clicking anything

    1. damian says

      I have same problem, have you found out what to do to solve it?

      1. Tatianna Diaz says

        Yup! After the game update my mods in my mods folder became useless and were affecting the game, once I deleted the old mods out of the folder it worked.

  38. GabeN_The_K1NG says

    Download blocked by a survey…. ok thanks a lot

  39. ymhayuociotlc . says

    Civilzation 6 crashes instantly for me. I click on to start the game, the screen turns black and I get a firaxis crash reporter window. No it’s not windows defender causing it cause I use Another antivirus windows defender is already disabled. Disabling the other antivirus doesn’t help either.

    1. Evan Mabie says

      I am having the same issue. Have you found any resolution?

  40. Waqas says

    When i start a mission in civilization 6 every things loads fine. Menus show up but map area shows only hazy blue nothing else shown on it.any help will be appreciated.

  41. TG says

    hello for me there is an issue that you haven’t addressed, my copy doesn’t have the internet ( unified pc play) tab at all. Do you have any idea how to get that available?

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