Sims 2

[WildW]

This question is going to sound odd, being about such an old game. My girlfriend has always had trouble running Sims 2 - particularly that no PC she's had seems to be fast enough to cope with it, and it's making no sense for such an old game. The box declares you need an 800MHz Pentium 3, and a 32MB Hardware T&L card - positively antique.

Her current machine is an Athlon X2 5000 (2.6GHz), and Nvidia 8600GTS graphics card, , 3GB DDR2 800, Windows Vista Home Premium. Unless you turn down all the graphics to ugly low detail and no lighting settings it starts to chug badly once you have more than a few sims and a fairly small house. Some of the default content runs pretty bad. I know it's not the most modern system, but compared to the game recommended specs it ought to fly.

Thing is, it's always struggled to run, on systems including single core Athlon, Athlon X2 @2.2GHz, Pentium D @3.4GHz, with various graphics cards up to Radeon X1950Pro. Is it just us? What does this now-ancient game actually need to run WELL?!? Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[MrWizzard]

MMMMM yea it is. I used to run it on my machines for my sisters with all the expansions.....

The thing that is killing you the most is probably your graphics card right now. Ignore the specs on the box. I ran it on 3 different computers all with different results from a 4800X2 to a core 2 6600.

Resolution kills that game too what res you running at?

I would load it up to help you out but, I have sold all of them and don't have it installed anymore.

 

[nakedfrog]

Made sure it's patched to the most recent version?

 

[WildW]

Yes, it's patched up. Running at 1024x768. . . which is low enough surely? Guess it's new graphics card time. . . it just doesn't make sense for such an old game.

 

[MrWizzard]

Yea I always was suprised how much of the system the sims 2 taxed.

 

[CVSiN]

I dont even want to know how taxing Sims3 is going to be... youre going to need Octo-SLI and an 8 core proc just to run 800x600 on current gen..
yeh Sims2 is still one of the most demanding hardware games out there.

 

[WildW]

So. . . the advice would be to get her a Radeon 4850 for Christmas huh? To run Sims 2. . . . when did the universe stop making sense?

 

[Scooby Doo]

It doesn't seem as GPU intensive as CPU intensive, unless you go hog wild with the lots.

 

[msi1337]

my wife has all expansions, all updates, and over 8gb worth of downloads..the computer takes 45 minutes to load the game and puts 2.2gb of data into memory to run it.

this is a X2 5000+ o/c'ed with 4gb mem and X850XT video card

runs fine at 1440x900, just takes forever to load

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: msi1337
my wife has all expansions, all updates, and over 8gb worth of downloads..the computer takes 45 minutes to load the game and puts 2.2gb of data into memory to run it.

this is a X2 5000+ o/c'ed with 4gb mem and X850XT video card

runs fine at 1440x900, just takes forever to load

haha so true they always download so much for it!

 

[Bateluer]

The Sims 2 is poorly optimized. It is not that graphically demanding to take that much horse power to run effectively. I have it installed, but its more of a checkbox install. I don't actually play it, just installed, patched and moved on to the next title in my binder.

 

[Pelu]

The Sims 2 is more Memory demanding and processor... not really graphics at all... the more expansions you install the more tough they become for the computer....

Also the bigger the lot you playing at the slower... the more objects like furniture and such,... the slower.... the more stories you house have... the slower... and the more sims in a family... the slower....

The sims 2 is a hell of a heavy game.... and they read a lot in the of the harddisk... but there is an option in the game that hide objects outiside the story you are watching... is like... you are looking at second floor the ones at first floor are hidden...

 

[Scooby Doo]

Also try turning off neighborhood decorations and other lots.