1. I believe you are correct about version 1.8 introducing some lag. I thought that problem had been fixed.

2. RAM is assigned by the OS to all tasks running, including the OS itself. The Swap file is used for more than backing up the virtual storage of all of the tasks currently in operation. You shouldn't expect there to be a correlation between the amount of RAM in use and the amount of swap file allocated. The OS may be allocating more swap file space at OS startup based on what you have used in the past, to improve general performance when page swapping occurs.

I have been playing the Insane map size for some time and have found the OS typically allocates 6-7GB (for all operating tasks on the PC) while I am doing so. The OS (64 bit addressing) seems to need about 2-3GB RAM just for itself.

Thanks for the replies.

Might try some more RAM

Here is screen shot of resource monitor while running the game.

50 Civs on Insane map.

I was watching my RAM last night.

I have 8GB that is used for standby by windows etc..

Galciv 3 will use up all the free RAM and then start using swap.

It never makes a dent in the amount of RAM used for standby.

So it seems windows is not releasing the standby amount to galciv and that is causing my large swap usage.

If this is linked to the general lag is another question.

But it is possible.

Will post some images later today of my RAM usage and also contact stardock support to see if have some suggestions

Do remember that the size of the swap is determined by several factors, not all of which have to do with the amount of RAM allocated:

1. Amount of Kernel Memory in-use and reserved for the kernel.

2. Amount of memory reserved by processes, but not actually allocated for use yet

3. Amount of video RAM (including any main memory RAM allocated for graphics purposes)

4. All sorts of Deep Magic stuff related to the exact pattern of memory allocation, release, and lifetime.

Particularly in modern systems, #2 tends to be the big culprit, since many, many applications will decide they want to "reserve" vast quantities of memory, but seldom actually allocate it for use.  Reserved memory has to set aside in the Virtual Memory space, and swap is generally where modern kernels will put this memory reservation, since it's just a "marker" and not actually doing anything other than taking up address space.

Here's an example:

4GB RAM, 8GB Swap means you have 12GB of Virtual Memory Address Space available.

Now, along comes App X, and it tells the system it wants to reserve 6GB of Address Space. It then immediately allocates 1GB.  So, what does the kernel do?  It puts the 1GB of allocated space into RAM, and then marks 5GB of the 8GB swap as "reserved" for App X.  If App X wants more than 1GB in the future, the kernel will reduce the reservation amount in swap, and allocate from RAM.