SIMS 3 Requirements

[SimGirl20]

Wise words there roerzman but I can't give you the exact screen of my system requirements for the game but the bar that goes to minimum I was three notches ahead on most of the main requirements such as cpu speed and free disk space, I have hope for EA that maybe they will make this game PC friendly instead of selling something most of us couldn't play on our own 'normal' computers given the economic downfall and condition we are in over money issues I think EA would be doing us a favor by releasing a game that everyone with a half-decent computer could run..more money in there pockets right?

[roerzman]

I would really hate to hear of you destroying your pc. Simgirl so please be careful.
Just a couple of questions, Do you have some of the later expansion packs? BV. is the one that will test your system.
Does your frame rate per second drop when you go on vacation or when the three sims visit when you move into a new home?
Does windows allocate more and more memory to the game as you progress? (abnormal hard drive activity)

If the game begins to get sluggish go into your taskbar and click on your graphics card icon and in the performance and colour setting select 'high performance' and exit, just remember that you must do this every time you start your pc. because the card will reset back to its default settings.
Oh, and don't forget to set your anti aliasing to zero. Don't rely on auto detect.
These actions will give some improvement to the games frame rate and reduce the hard drive activity.

[SimGirl20]

Yes I have all EP's installed except for Pets, Uni and OFB atm but as far as going on vacation I haven't done this as of yet because I just got BV about 2 weeks ago but how and where do I go to click on my taskbar to select my graphics cards color? you lost me there and also here ---> please explain


If the game begins to get sluggish go into your taskbar and click on your graphics card icon and in the performance and colour setting select 'high performance' and exit, just remember that you must do this every time you start your pc. because the card will reset back to its default settings.
Oh, and don't forget to set your anti aliasing to zero. Don't rely on auto detect.
These actions will give some improvement to the games frame rate and reduce the hard drive activity.
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[roerzman]

Yes I have all EP's installed except for Pets, Uni and OFB atm but as far as going on vacation I haven't done this as of yet because I just got BV about 2 weeks ago but how and where do I go to click on my taskbar to select my graphics cards color? you lost me there and also here ---> please explain


If the game begins to get sluggish go into your taskbar and click on your graphics card icon and in the performance and colour setting select 'high performance' and exit, just remember that you must do this every time you start your pc. because the card will reset back to its default settings.
Oh, and don't forget to set your anti aliasing to zero. Don't rely on auto detect.
These actions will give some improvement to the games frame rate and reduce the hard drive activity.

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If you have XP it will down the bottom right corner of the desktop screen, if it isn't visible just click on the arrow and it will open further and reveal the icon. 

[SimGirl20]

Roerzman,

I have XP but I do not see anything like that on my taskbar what is it supposed to look like and where else could I go to access my graphics card setting as they are not on my toolbar?

[roerzman]

If it isn't amongst your taskbar icons it will definitely be in your control panel.

[SimGirl20]

Okay I'm in my control panel what catagorey should I try looking under?

[roerzman]

Okay I'm in my control panel what catagorey should I try looking under?

Move your cursor to the left hand side on classic view and click on it. that will open it and makes much easier. It opens the control panel up as per win 97. All is revealed, XP hides these in order for the foolish not to mess up their systems.
Then just locate your graphics card icon/controls and go through it until you find the settings, uncheck the auto and set to high performance. There will be a marginal loss in graphics quality, but none that you will readily notice and the game will run much more smoothly putting less strain on the whole system.

[SimGirl20]

lmfao! I switched by start bar to classic mode and I STILL cannot find my damn graphics card icon I'm really not this much of an idiot I just simply am unable to locate it I guess

[roerzman]

I realise that this is probably a dumb question but here goes. Do you have a graphics card or on board graphics? Did you install all the software not just the driver? For  onboard graphics you should be able to access the settings in 'display' just go into advanced and it should be there.

[SimGirl20]

That I am un-sure of the graphics card whether it be on board graphics card or just a regular run of the mill graphics card is oblivious to me because whatever graphics card I have came with my computer when I bought it 3 years ago so thats just something I can't answer that but when I go into Control Panel: Apperance and Themes: Display: Settings: Advanced and I click on the tab GeForce 6150 LE (Would that be my graphics card?) but let me send you a screenshot of all the options that come up when I click on it.. maybe you'll know where to tell me to go to next by looking at the screen that is IF I'm even on the right thing..which is unlikely lmfao

[roerzman]

I think I can work this.
In the middle box, the white one that has GeForce 6150LE highlighted. place your mouse on performance and quality settings and double left click. That should bring up the menu. if so select high performance and then OK or apply changes or in whatever order it comes.
Your screen resolution is fine, (19" monitor)the graphics card is marginal but if set to high performance it will get you there, however, I strongly recommend you update your ram to 2gb.Believe me it makes a world of difference. ram is very cheap and very easy to install.
I hope this helps. If you have any issues please let me know.

[SimGirl20]

Hey Roerzman,

Good morning and sorry for such a early response but I was babysitting last night and was un-able to reply to your post but now I am, okay I will try clicking on those settings some time today and  get back to you tonight to let you know if it works but I can see your very knowlegable about computers so heres a very **important** question I have for you..okay I checked my system info and of-course as you may already know I don't even have a GB of physical memory left in the CPU and I already planned on buying some additional RAM this month for my computer but I had no idea what the heck RAM was so I went looking at some pictures of it and I am kind of on the defense now about installing any, see the kind I seen you had to take the back of your tower off and install it with some kind of special glove to risk getting electrocuted now I don't know about you but that seems a little risky to me because I know NOTHING about doing anything like that, so I was wondering if there were some other alternate way installing RAM instead having to take your computer apart because I just don't know how I am going to manage that I would be too afraid I would mess something up in the tower so is there like some kind of 'memory stick' if you will, that maybe you could stick in your UBS port or anything, please do get back to me on this I just don't wont to mess this 800$ computer up

[Jade]

My computer just can´t handle sims 3 anymore. Luckily i have been planning on bying new machine for long time and saved money for that. Now i have a huge problem and difficulties in choosing wich would be good machine to buy. There are hundreds of them!? For a change i would like laptop but i am afraid how well laptops can actually run sims 3.. I am confused about this card: 9600M GT , it´s mentioned in the list of supportet mac cards, does that mean that is supported in other laptops too?

[roerzman]

Hey Roerzman,

Good morning and sorry for such a early response but I was babysitting last night and was un-able to reply to your post but now I am, okay I will try clicking on those settings some time today and  get back to you tonight to let you know if it works but I can see your very knowlegable about computers so heres a very **important** question I have for you..okay I checked my system info and of-course as you may already know I don't even have a GB of physical memory left in the CPU and I already planned on buying some additional RAM this month for my computer but I had no idea what the heck RAM was so I went looking at some pictures of it and I am kind of on the defense now about installing any, see the kind I seen you had to take the back of your tower off and install it with some kind of special glove to risk getting electrocuted now I don't know about you but that seems a little risky to me because I know NOTHING about doing anything like that, so I was wondering if there were some other alternate way installing RAM instead having to take your computer apart because I just don't know how I am going to manage that I would be too afraid I would mess something up in the tower so is there like some kind of 'memory stick' if you will, that maybe you could stick in your UBS port or anything, please do get back to me on this I just don't wont to mess this 800$ computer up

Simgirl it's best you find a friend that knows to do this. Or better take take it to pc dealer and get them to install it. They're very cheap aprox. 80$ AUS. for 1gb.
It is remarkably simple to mess up a pc that's why the side panels are screwed on, Ram and expansion cards are very easy to install, they just clip in,however if one has no knowledge about these things it's best to leave these things to someone who does.
Looking at the specs of your pc it says 446mb. ram, a strange number, I think you have 512mb. and the rest has been allocated for the onboard sound?
The question that begs is what kind of ram is installed in your pc. sdr. ddr. or ddr2, If it's sdr you may have difficulty getting it. Your pc will have 2 sticks of 256 mb. to upgrade to 1gb you will require 2 sticks of 512mb. and so on, they come in equal pairs.
By the way, 512mb. is the minimum that windows xp requires. I'm writing all this assuming you have a desktop and not a laptop, laptops are left to dealers and such to open, unless you are very technically minded and know exactly what you are doing. never attempt to open them.
The machine you have is somewhat old and has an old amd. cpu.Its the speed of the cpu that governs just how much you can upgrade and get any benefit from it. Every thing is run through the cpu, ram. graphics etc. more ram and more graphics all has to run through the cpu, If the cpu is to small it won't handle all that traffic.
Upgrading to 10024gb. ram is about the best you can do. your graphics card will do the job so don't waste money on another one. It's far better to save up for a new pc.
I know this is a bit long winded but I hope it helps. Oh, by the way your usb ports are for plug and play devices not upgrades.