The Sims 3 Minimum Requirements/Is this computer good enough to run The Sims 3?

[krp6006]

would it still work on low settings?

[Anna1994]

Thanks Rohan! But what about these?

Intel Quad Core (4x2.5GHz)
4GB RAM
250GB HDD
nVidia GeForce 9800GT
PSU - 600W

Would it have trouble with any of the things i listed before?

[PKate555]

I dont really get all this type of stuff lol but im using a laptop and heres all the things i can find that it has:
Athlon 64x2 Dual Processor QL-60 ( 1.9Ghz, 1mb, L2 Cache )
3Gb DDR2, 250 Gb HDD
Video Ati Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
Memory Size 3072
Video Memory 256Mb
Available Graphics Memory 1407

So can anyone tell me if i can run it on my laptop?.

[Sim-Attack]

How do i see my laptop specs?

[Rohannnn]

Originally Posted by krp6006

would it still work on low settings?

Based on the information released so far, I don't think so, sorry.

Originally Posted by Anna1994

Thanks Rohan! But what about these?

Intel Quad Core (4x2.5GHz)
4GB RAM
250GB HDD
nVidia GeForce 9800GT
PSU - 600W

Would it have trouble with any of the things i listed before?

I doubt it, it's still a very good spec.
Worst case (this is still unlikely, I think) is you might have to drop the settings in TS3 a little bit, but I'd be surprised if there was any more issues than that. It will certainly run TS2 and the other older games and things you mentioned on highest without a problem.

Originally Posted by PKate555

I dont really get all this type of stuff lol but im using a laptop and heres all the things i can find that it has:
Athlon 64x2 Dual Processor QL-60 ( 1.9Ghz, 1mb, L2 Cache )
3Gb DDR2, 250 Gb HDD
Video Ati Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
Memory Size 3072
Video Memory 256Mb
Available Graphics Memory 1407

So can anyone tell me if i can run it on my laptop?.

Yeah it should run, I'm not sure if the HD3200 is listed specifically as supported but it looks fast enough and the rest of your specs are fine

Originally Posted by Sim-Attack

How do i see my laptop specs?

One way is to go to the system requirements checker:
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

Otherwise you can go start -> type dxdiag in search box (that's on Vista, use the run option on Windows XP). In the program that loads, your processor and memory are listed on the first page, then you can find out your graphics card details by clicking "display" at the top.

[PKate555]

Originally Posted by Rohannnn

Yeah it should run, I'm not sure if the HD3200 is listed specifically as supported but it looks fast enough and the rest of your specs are fine

Thanks

[Kirsty_e113n]

I am about to sell all of my TS2 games so i can get TS3 BUT I have a AMD Athlon(tm) 64 processor 2800+ 1.81 GHz processor...
I've been told it will run but it might be slow, does anyone think differntly?
I just don't want to get rid of TS2 and buy TS3 if I can't play it.
I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS SOOOO MUCH!

[Rohannnn]

Originally Posted by Kirsty_e113n

I am about to sell all of my TS2 games so i can get TS3 BUT I have a AMD Athlon(tm) 64 processor 2800+ 1.81 GHz processor...
I've been told it will run but it might be slow, does anyone think differntly?
I just don't want to get rid of TS2 and buy TS3 if I can't play it.
I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS SOOOO MUCH!

You processor is fine, the 2800+ bit means "2.8GHz Pentium 4 equivalent", basically. The requirement is 2.4GHz Pentium 4 equivalent.

That's not the fastest by today's standards, but it definitely meets the requirements, as long as the rest of your PC (your graphics card and RAM) does too

[lilacminx]

I'm back!I'm debating buying the 8800GT or the GTX260 along with 4GB Ram and a new PSU and I'm undecided between the 8800gt or gtx260.I've fount the 8800gt for £80 and the gtx260 for £150 and I would ideally like the sims 3 to run easily and without having to set everything to min but I don't play alot of other games on my PC so am wondering if its worth paying the extra and getting the gtx260 or whether it would run on high specifications with the 8800gt?My current card is the 7300LE so an old card though it did run the sims 2 but there was lag's on it(which I hated!)Thanks for any answers.

[Rohannnn]

Originally Posted by lilacminx

I'm back!I'm debating buying the 8800GT or the GTX260 along with 4GB Ram and a new PSU and I'm undecided between the 8800gt or gtx260.I've fount the 8800gt for £80 and the gtx260 for £150 and I would ideally like the sims 3 to run easily and without having to set everything to min but I don't play alot of other games on my PC so am wondering if its worth paying the extra and getting the gtx260 or whether it would run on high specifications with the 8800gt?My current card is the 7300LE so an old card though it did run the sims 2 but there was lag's on it(which I hated!)Thanks for any answers.

It's difficult to answer that until the game release. I'd be surprised if the 8800GT struggled with fairly high settings, but that's a just a guess really. You certainly wouldn't have to set everything to minimum though. Not sure how much faster a GTX260 is, at some point you're going to reach a limit, where the CPU is holding things up though rather than graphics card, particularly as TS3 is likely to be a little more CPU intensive than some games.

[Hannahdisiac]

I bought a new computer tower because I had a slimline one and finding GOOD upgrades for it was difficult so I thought I'd post my specs up here. I hope it will run it on high setting.

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+ 2.91GHz
- 4GB RAM
- Nvidia 9500GT 1GB

But I have another intergrated graphics card already which means it's reading as 2.2GB somehow, but ah well how well do you think it'll run?

[RoseDawson]

Would someone be able to tell me if this laptop (click link below) will be ok for Sims 3 to run on fairly high settings? I'm pretty sure it is but just wanted to double check. They don't say what speed the processor is which is what's making me a little unsure plus I don't know much about laptops. I prefer desktops myself - this is for my daughter so I'd be grateful for any advice. Many thanks in advance.

Buy HP DV7-1210 | 17" widescreen laptop - Specification | Comet

[Mongoose09]

How do you find out the information on your laptop? Sorry if this sounds dumb but I can't find it...

[simsuk]

Originally Posted by RoseDawson

Would someone be able to tell me if this laptop (click link below) will be ok for Sims 3 to run on fairly high settings? I'm pretty sure it is but just wanted to double check. They don't say what speed the processor is which is what's making me a little unsure plus I don't know much about laptops. I prefer desktops myself - this is for my daughter so I'd be grateful for any advice. Many thanks in advance.

Buy HP DV7-1210 | 17" widescreen laptop - Specification | Comet

I just looked at the specs for you it looks fine to me. Wait till a few more reply to you just incase I am wrong.

[simsuk]

Originally Posted by Mongoose09

How do you find out the information on your laptop? Sorry if this sounds dumb but I can't find it...

her laptop is a AMD Turion x2 Dual Core and ATI Radeon HD3450 512 MB

[The_Hess]

gtx260 is way better than 8800gt. gtx260 is from nvidia's newer platform of cards, has more cores and is generally a lot better. in order to get the most out of the gpu turn the settings right up as the %bottleneck is reduced. however it takes a LOT to see any effect of a bottleneck, and i don't think TS3 will be as proccessor intense as GTA4 and other games with detailed physics, and a GTX260 will take care of that anyway.

RoseDawson, your laptop looks fine for sims3, a laptop with 512Mb of graphics memory isn't common at that price so a good find.

[Rohannnn]

Originally Posted by RoseDawson

Would someone be able to tell me if this laptop (click link below) will be ok for Sims 3 to run on fairly high settings? I'm pretty sure it is but just wanted to double check. They don't say what speed the processor is which is what's making me a little unsure plus I don't know much about laptops. I prefer desktops myself - this is for my daughter so I'd be grateful for any advice. Many thanks in advance.

Buy HP DV7-1210 | 17" widescreen laptop - Specification | Comet

It's fine, not sure if the graphics card is good enough for the higher end settings though, you may have to use somewhere between low and medium.

Originally Posted by The_Hess

gtx260 is way better than 8800gt. gtx260 is from nvidia's newer platform of cards, has more cores and is generally a lot better. in order to get the most out of the gpu turn the settings right up as the %bottleneck is reduced. however it takes a LOT to see any effect of a bottleneck, and i don't think TS3 will be as proccessor intense as GTA4 and other games with detailed physics, and a GTX260 will take care of that anyway.

I don't think CPU bottleneck was the best way to describe it, sorry to be misleading. With TS2 the effect was that no matter how good your card was, you would never exceed 60-70FPS. I think that even stands with top end cards for sale today. Of course 60FPS is fine, but if GTX260 and 8800GT both produce around the same, then there's no point paying twice as much if you're not going to play any other games.

In other words, Sims 3 might be sufficiently "basic" that there's no noticable difference between 8800GT and GTX260 so GTX260 isn't worth the extra. Of course, whether or not that's actually true I have no idea.

If you want to ensure you have the best graphics, and you have to buy one now, out of those two cards then GTX260 is probably the one to go for rather than take a gamble and hope for the above situation. What I was trying to get across before was, you could potentially save money if you wait and the above turns out to be true.

[smileclub]

How about this one?
- AMD Phenom 9650 Quadcore 2.30GHz
- 4GM Ram
- Winfast PX9500 GT(NVidia) 512MB
- Windows XP Service pack 3

Thanks in advance

[PKate555]

Originally Posted by Rohannnn

Yeah it should run, I'm not sure if the HD3200 is listed specifically as supported but it looks fast enough and the rest of your specs are fine
all the things i can find that it has:
Athlon 64x2 Dual Processor QL-60 ( 1.9Ghz, 1mb, L2 Cache )
3Gb DDR2, 250 Gb HDD
Video Ati Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
Memory Size 3072
Video Memory 256Mb
Available Graphics Memory 1407

Thanks Btw would the graphics be fine with the high end settings ect. & Do you know if it should run quickly and smoothly?

[Mongoose09]

Sorry, there's so many of these type of posts, but I'm anxious... Would it work on mine?

Windows Vista
AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core Processor TK57(1.9GHz, 1600MHz, 512KB Cache)
2 GB memory
160GB hard drive
ATI Radeon X1200 shared graphics

Thanks.

[vicky-jc]

Hey, these are the specs for my laptop, if you could let me know if they're ok to run the sims 3 that'd be great (or what I can do to upgrade any of them) ...

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5750 (2.0 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache)
• Up to 358MB Mobile Intel Graphic Media Accelerator X3100
• 2GB DDR2
• 250 GB HDD

Thanks!

[RoseDawson]

Originally Posted by RoseDawson

Would someone be able to tell me if this laptop (click link below) will be ok for Sims 3 to run on fairly high settings? I'm pretty sure it is but just wanted to double check. They don't say what speed the processor is which is what's making me a little unsure plus I don't know much about laptops. I prefer desktops myself - this is for my daughter so I'd be grateful for any advice. Many thanks in advance.

Buy HP DV7-1210 | 17" widescreen laptop - Specification | Comet

Originally Posted by Rohannnn

It's fine, not sure if the graphics card is good enough for the higher end settings though, you may have to use somewhere between low and medium.

Thanks but I'm a bit confused. The graphics card in this laptop is an ATI Radeon HD3450 (512 MB) which is listed on the supported video cards, 2nd line from the bottom. I thought this meant it was high end but it won't do high settings?

I'm getting a desktop with the ATI Radeon 4850, the last one on the supported list, which I also thought was a high end card. Is there a big difference between these two cards then?

[simsuk]

Originally Posted by RoseDawson

Thanks but I'm a bit confused. The graphics card in this laptop is an ATI Radeon HD3450 (512 MB) which is listed on the supported video cards, 2nd line from the bottom. I thought this meant it was high end but it won't do high settings?

I'm getting a desktop with the ATI Radeon 4850, the last one on the supported list, which I also thought was a high end card. Is there a big difference between these two cards then?

I think it's because it will be a laptop version of the graphics card, should still do well on medium settings though.

[Rohannnn]

Originally Posted by smileclub

How about this one?
- AMD Phenom 9650 Quadcore 2.30GHz
- 4GM Ram
- Winfast PX9500 GT(NVidia) 512MB
- Windows XP Service pack 3

Thanks in advance

That meets the requirements

Originally Posted by PKate555

Thanks Btw would the graphics be fine with the high end settings ect. & Do you know if it should run quickly and smoothly?

I think it should run smoothly but the Hd3200 is a low-end card, so you might have to use low settings to avoid it slowing down.

Originally Posted by Mongoose09

Sorry, there's so many of these type of posts, but I'm anxious... Would it work on mine?

Windows Vista
AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core Processor TK57(1.9GHz, 1600MHz, 512KB Cache)
2 GB memory
160GB hard drive
ATI Radeon X1200 shared graphics

Thanks.

Yeah I think it should.

Originally Posted by vicky-jc

Hey, these are the specs for my laptop, if you could let me know if they're ok to run the sims 3 that'd be great (or what I can do to upgrade any of them) ...

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5750 (2.0 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache)
• Up to 358MB Mobile Intel Graphic Media Accelerator X3100
• 2GB DDR2
• 250 GB HDD

Thanks!

It meets the requirements, should run OK

Originally Posted by RoseDawson

Thanks but I'm a bit confused. The graphics card in this laptop is an ATI Radeon HD3450 (512 MB) which is listed on the supported video cards, 2nd line from the bottom. I thought this meant it was high end but it won't do high settings?

I'm getting a desktop with the ATI Radeon 4850, the last one on the supported list, which I also thought was a high end card. Is there a big difference between these two cards then?

The supported cards list isn't in any kind of order as far as I can see. Well, actually, it appears to be in order of release date (roughly), but that has only a limited influence on card performance because older high-end cards will still outperform newer budget cards.

There is a massive difference between the 3450 and 4850; the 4850 is a high-end enthusiast card, while the 3450 was designed more as a budget option with good video acceleration rather than for gaming. It's still a decent card compared to most laptops' integrated Intel chipsets, which is why I said maybe medium rather than lower settings, but it's nowhere near the 4850. I'd be very surprised if the 4850 struggled at all -- even on high settings I'd personally be expecting it to be completely smooth and lag free.

[RoseDawson]

Originally Posted by Rohannnn

The supported cards list isn't in any kind of order as far as I can see. Well, actually, it appears to be in order of release date (roughly), but that has only a limited influence on card performance because older high-end cards will still outperform newer budget cards.

There is a massive difference between the 3450 and 4850; the 4850 is a high-end enthusiast card, while the 3450 was designed more as a budget option with good video acceleration rather than for gaming. It's still a decent card compared to most laptops' integrated Intel chipsets, which is why I said maybe medium rather than lower settings, but it's nowhere near the 4850. I'd be very surprised if the 4850 struggled at all -- even on high settings I'd personally be expecting it to be completely smooth and lag free.

Ok thanks for that. I understand so much more about graphics cards since coming on this forum and particularly reading this thread! You are so helpful Rohan (and all the others whos names I can't remember right now), I am really grateful. Thanks again for explaining it all to me.