The Sims 2 Video Card?

jazellesmom

OSNN Newbie
Joined
4 May 2005
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2
Im looking for the best video card to play the Sims 2. I play the game and its very choppy and slow. I dont want anything over 100 dollars. Any suggestions?:)
 
You need at least a 32 mb card capable of t&l to play The Sims 2. So anything over a Radeon 7200 or A NVidia Geforce 2 with at least 32mb can play it. Also you need at least 512mb of ram to play it decently (the more the merrier) and a 800MHZ processor if you have a T&L capable Graphics card. If not then you need at least a 2.0 GHZ Processor (This game is far more intensive than the original).
 
you wont play it enjoyably on anything less than a 2.6ghz machine (intel 2.6 or amd 2600+) with a radeon 9800 pro... its seriously demanding on hardware.
 
actually 2.4GHz Pentium 4 works pretty well though I sure the faster the better. Actually the one thing that is not really mentioned in the specs but if you surf around and dig enough you will find out that you also need a video card that supports all of the features of Directx9. So you should look at some of the GeForce FX series or ATi card of the same era or newer
 
LordOfLA said:
you wont play it enjoyably on anything less than a 2.6ghz machine (intel 2.6 or amd 2600+) with a radeon 9800 pro... its seriously demanding on hardware.


I've played The Sims 2 on my old laptop (2.0G celeron, 512 MB Ram, non t&l 32 MB Mobile Radeon Card) and other than the loss of the reflections off the water in the opening pan of Veronaville, the game taking slightly longer to load different areas (lots, neighborhoods, make a family screen, etc), some of the graphics not rendering as sharp, the opening pan to a neighborhood moving slowly and the lack of the shading effect when you have a t&l graphics card, gameplay inside of the lots is pretty smooth. Though a stronger system will do a much better job with the graphics and cut down on loadtimes.
 
Ferral_Imp said:
...and other than the loss of the reflections off the water in the opening pan of Veronaville, the game taking slightly longer to load different areas (lots, neighborhoods, make a family screen, etc), some of the graphics not rendering as sharp, the opening pan to a neighborhood moving slowly and the lack of the shading effect when you have a t&l graphics card, gameplay inside of the lots is pretty smooth.
lol, i thought you were joking. :laugh:
 
Taurus said:
lol, i thought you were joking. :laugh:



Nope. The info I posted in my first post came from both the back of my the sims 2 cd case, personal experience with the original, and the sims 2, and from EA's tech support site.


And yes I actually did slap the sims 2 on my old laptop. And the game loaded and was quite playable (other than slow loading times and not all the graphic effects displaying like they would with a t&l card)
 
ok i used to play this on a 5600 128mb, and it played ok-ish, but it was a little slow, this is what you need

A card that is at the bare min 128bit (better 256bit), at least 128mb (better 256mb), support for directx 9b and above.

The cards i would recommend, would be

X700 (pci-e) and above
ATI 9800 Pro (AGP)
6600/6800 either agp or pci-e

All the above would handle the card will, the 9800 may not be the best option as its a fairly old card by now, if i was going to buy a new card today it would be the x800 xl about $240 (if you have pci-e motherboard), otherwise i'd either go with a 6800 about $300 or 6800gt about $400.

Personally the x800 xl is the best card you can buy for the money right now, its as good and a little better than the 6800 and almost as good as the gt. for the price thats awesome, but you need a pci-e board to use it.

I played the game so i really do know.

oh and anything about 2ghz and 512mb of ram is needed, 1ghz really helps out tremendously.
 
I could really use some help here. I played Sims 2 with great graphics for a year and a half with a Radeon 9800 pro. Then I got a new harddrive and the game started freezing within a few minutes of loading-it varied how far I could get.
Since then ATI has sent me three different replacement video cards and I have replaced every thing else, including cables, except the moniter, keyboard and cd/dvr drive.
I can play the game ok - with terrible graphics - with an old weak nVidia card.
ATI now says it can't be the video card but they don't know why it isn't working. So all I can think of now is to buy a new one.
Here's what I have:
Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: ECS
System Model: P4M800PRO-M
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 329MB used, 2132MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

Display Devices
---------------
Card name: RADEON 9800 PRO
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: RADEON 9800 PRO AGP (0x4E48)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E48&SUBSYS_00021002&REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6599 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 1/24/2006 20:52:48, 255488 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 1/24/2006 20:52:31, 1478656 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-0D08-11CF-756A-0820A1C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x4E48
SubSys ID: 0x00021002
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV8_B ModeWMV8_A ModeWMV9_B ModeWMV9_A
Deinterlace Caps: {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{3C5323C1-6FB7-44F5-9081-056BF2EE449D}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{552C0DAD-CCBC-420B-83C8-74943CF9F1A6}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run

Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Realtek AC97 Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3059&SUBSYS_18771019&REV_60
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: ALCXWDM.SYS
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.5890 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 7/26/2005 02:03:22, 3644032 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
HW Accel Level: Full
Cap Flags: 0xF5F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 192000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 26, 25
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 26, 25
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: Yes, Yes
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: Yes, Yes
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
Registry: OK
Sorry to take up so much space. I'd really be greatful for any advice on what to do next and on what video card would work best for me for Sims 2. I'm just clueless.
Thanks
 

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