You will need to upgrade the power supply to run any of the current cards, or even the newer discontinued cards like the x850 require more than the 6 year old psu in your current computer. You need to read through the 'Read here before posting about getting a new card!' sticky. It explains all about psus and everything else you need to know before choosing a card.

I don't really understand, but I'm sure my parents can figure it out :/ As I said we've done it before.

EDIT: We called DELL and we've come to a conclusion.
I will live with TS2 and the blue screen, since DELL said the video card I wanted isn't compatible with my computer, and either when Spore comes out or when TS3 comes out with it's requirements I will get a new computer. I can stand the blue screen until then, I suppose.

Just curious, how will my new Onboard graphics work with TS3?

the AMD 780G Chipset which is the HD 3200.

As on a youtube video comparision with TS2 with the Intel G35 Chipset, the HD 3200 showed all settings high and anti-alising [smooth edges] high. It seemed to me it ran smoothly.

Anyways, by the time TS3 comes out, i'll probably be sporting a new Video card [Probably an ATi Video card due to Hybrid Crossfire Capabilities]

Tim:
There's nothing anyone can say that isn't already in the first page of this thread. Your guess is as good as the next person's guess.

By the way, here's the official system requirements for Spore: http://www.spore.com/what/specs_spore

I'd say that's actually a bit low (not surprising considering EA's track record with system requirements for TS2 - what they say it'll run on vs. what it runs WELL on are two different things) but I'd say it's maybe a decent basic guideline for TS3 - of course that's -complete- speculation, but it's sort of an educated guess.

Someone tell me this, I try playing sims2 on my computer that I own right now and it lags horribly when I turn! I don't understand this at all when my specs are:

3.2 gig processor single
512 MB Video card from Ati
Soundblater HD card new this year.
And 2 gigs of RAM!

I also don't have anything else running at the time, and my dvd reading speed is x48! Someo please tell me why this may be.

awesomepuppy - Your dvdrom speed has nothing what so ever to do with your game performance. Do you have any custom content installed? If so, move the entire downloads folder to your desktop before running the game and then tell me if your game still lags. Also what exactly is the exact model of ATI card you have?

Ok, I'll try that out..... I actually have over 200 mods in my mod folder, not including sets, so that is probubly the sorce of the lag for load times, but why would it be the source of the lag when the game starts? I believe my video card is a ATI Sapphire HD 3600 or something like that, but the minimum requirements for that game is like a 65 MB card, and I have a 512 MB card with the latest drivers and all which WAY surpases Geforce 3.

awesomepuppy: Did you read the first post in this thread? It explains that the EA requirements are not realistic for good game play. There are many cards way better than their minimums which would have terrible performance. If you want to find out for sure what card you have then right click on 'my computer' and click 'properties'. In XP go to the 'hardware' tab and then click 'device manager', or in Vista just look the list at the left and click 'device manager. The name of your graphics card is listed under "display adapters". Once you know for sure what you have, I recommend going to ATI.com and redownloading the latest drivers. Go to add/remove programs and get rid of anything to do with ATI. Restart your computer. If you did it correctly you'll know because when your computer starts up it will tell you that it detects new hardware and wants to install the software/drivers for it. Ignore the prompt back, and go to where you downloaded the newest drivers and install from there. Would also recommend downloading the latest version of directx9 from Microsoft's homepage.

Custom content can significantly slow down game play, not just increase start-up times.

I know, and I have a ATI Sapphire HD 2600. What I don't understand here is that my old computer that had a 1.5 gig processor, and a GEforce 2! ran the game fine on the lowest settings but this computer that has a processor 2.2 times better, and a card 4 times better can't do that! I will do a clean reinstall on it to see if that works with none of the mods in. (I know I can take the folders mods out, but it was starting to get messy everywhere.) So I will get back to you, thanks for helping.

Awesomepuppy,

You're serious? My old setup, had a Intel P4 3.06 Ghz Processor, 1 GB DDR2-400 Ram, and a ATi Radeon 9250 PCI Video card ran on HIGH without smooth edging fine except with some slow down like fast forwarding or many sims.

Then i upgraded the whole system with a new motherboard, processor, ram, etc...

It runs TS2 like a dream on HIGH settings without Smooth Edging even though the game can run it smoothly with it. Fast Forward can now be considered fast forward now as it fast forwards better.

Tim Let's stick to the subject at hand please.. this thread isn't for bragging rights.. If we all came in and bragged about how well our systems are running then it would get large quickly and people who want to use it for its intended purpose will have a harder time finding the information they need..

awesomepuppy: There's a lot more suggestions I made than just getting rid of custom content. Post back when you've gotten through all of them, and let me know if any of them worked. In fact, there are some other things you can do as well. You can try opening up your case and reseating the card (pulling out, blowing some compressed air into the empty slot, and making sure the card is securely placed back in). While you have the case open, use the compressed air to clean the rest of the case for dust, especially around any fans. Did this card ever work well for the game or has it always had problems? Did it come with the computer you have now, or did you install it later on? It could also be the power supply you have is inadequate to run it. Check out out forum sticky about buying a new graphics card to find out how to check to make sure your power supply is adequate. Also your card may have an extra power connector spot at the back or some edge of the card. It would require you to not only plug it in the graphics slot but also to run the pci-e power plug from your psu into it. Check to make sure you see this cord running into it. If it doesn't have a cord connected to the psu check to see it doesn't have something similar to this on the side or back. It doesn't have to look exactly like that or in that exact place but if it has a little extra black box with prongs sticking out it needs the cord. Finally, fully patch your game and all expansions.

awesomepuppy
I went from a 7600GS and upgraded to a X1950pro and it did pause more but I noticed textures which were clearer and even some textures which i had never seen before. (this is with settings all on maximum with both cards).
So I upgraded to a 8800GT and found it performed better but the game image quality went back down and the sublte textures seen with the ATi card wer'e missing again.

So in my opinion, it's the video card drivers.

ATi-more pausing but the textures of the little things are not blurry (possibly what you should be seeing).
nVidia-runs smoother but subltle textures appear to be missing or made blurry possiblt to make the game perform better.

Blurry textures on an 8800GT?? *blinks* That seems -incredibly- weird to me as that's a very nice card. I have a 9600GT which is pretty well comparable and I have no blurring whatsoever. Textures in TS2 are relatively low-detail and sometimes with a nicer card you notice cruddy textures more - this is not due to the card rendering them wrong, but the fact that the textures just aren't gorgeous when seen close-up. It's sort of like if you get a new pair of glasses - stuff that looked nice before might not look so good because you're actually seeing it as it is.

I'd love to see some comparison pics of the same items taken from the same angle to see that... but we should probably continue this in a separate thread.

exportdry – I’m sorry, but there's a lot about your theory that is just plain wrong. It's not as simple as Nvidia = Smoother, lower image quality, ATI = better image quality but lagging. I’m afraid your limited experience between these three cards has left you with an inaccurate bias. First of all your 8800GT is significantly notably faster card than the X1950 you upgraded from, so it’s not surprising you obtained better performance. The performance of an ATI card vs. a Nvidia card depends on many factors and some ATI cards will perform better than Nvidia and visa versa. Same goes for image quality. I went from an ATI card to a Nvidia card and immediately noticed WAY more detail. In fact I was blown away by the difference in image quality. The only thing I will give you is that it is not an uncommon discussion where people think ATI cards produce sharper images than Nvidia.. not way huge like you think but it’s pretty commonly thought.

As for your better performance on a 7600GS to the should be faster X1950.. You wouldn’t be the first person to report problems with poor gameplay (lagging) on the X1950 with TS2. I’ve seen numerous people with X1950 claiming lagging where they really shouldn’t be having it. I’ve actually seen slower ATI cards with less issue but I can’t really comment why with the limited experience I’ve had. I’ve never had an opportunity to personally work on a person’s computer with the card that’s having problems in order to rule out user error or some other fixable cause. But I can guarantee you from personal experience that not all ATI cards will have inferior performance to Nvidia cards.

Anyway, as HP said, not the place for a debate, but I really felt the need to clear that up for the sake of forum members possibly being misguided.

exportdry I would never claim to know everything there is to do with computers. I'm quite sure there are people who know more than me. That's not really the point here. The point, your coming to the conclusion that ATI cards in general don't produce as smooth of gameplay as Nvidia cards based on your experience with ONE ATI card, which btw last time you posted about it said you determined the card was defective and needed to be RMAed, is quite obviously showing your limited experience in this particular area. Now, I never said that you weren’t knowledgeable in the area of computers. Even though you seem to be quite confident in determining how skillful I am, I wouldn't make such a gross general statement about someone after talking to them all of a few minutes. However, regardless of how much pc knowledge you may or may not have, you are just plain wrong in this instance. There are many people who have excellent smooth gameplay with ATI cards, and there are many people who report lagging problems with even "faster" Nvidia cards. You may claim otherwise all you want, but it won’t make it any more true, and I do not want to leave members with the impression that they have to go buy a Nvidia card if they want smooth game play.

That said, two forum staff members have asked you not to continue your debate in this thread, and yet you have anyway. You ignored both a moderator’s, and admin’s wishes to take the debate elsewhere. Please don’t post in this thread again. As was already stated, this thread is not for debating, and you are obviously too skilled and full of knowledge to require any advice from this lowly help staff.

Callista you said i will not need a quad core so i may go with a duel. Do you know if that will cope with both sims3 and spore by any chance?
Also you asked what power supply and case i was going for. May i ask what you would recommend with the above specs, or with a duel core?
Thanks

Dual core should work fine with TS3 and Spore. I don't know if they'll be optimized for dual core (hopefully they will be!) but they shouldn't have issues with dual core. The Spore specs mention Core 2 Duo, so that's what I'm basing this on.

starwyn Yep what HP said of course.. For recommendations maybe this dual core, or if you're on a tighter budget this one if my favorite. Not sure if it's important to you but it overclocks like a dream.. actually better than the E8400. This is one of the best low cost deals on a solid power supply, and this is what is going in my own personal new build. Far as cases go, Cooler Master in general makes really nice cases at some very reasonable prices. these (same case, different color options) and this are very nice. Antec also makes some nice cases like this (comes with a good psu so you wouldn’t need another one) and there. If you’re looking for something all aluminum this is a great budget case (or this, which is the same case in Silver). This is a new release from Lian-Li which is meant to replace the PC-7 I linked to, or this one if you want to spring a bit more. Here’s the same case in Silver. These are all mid towers. If you want something larger, let me know.

whew so many options!! Thanks so much for taking the time to assist....and to link all those recommendations. I'll check them all out and check prices etc, if i need a bigger tower i'll be sure to seek you out

edit: need to try and find similar products with a local company as the prices differ a lot from the USD. I'm in australia.

I don't know a good cheap and for sure trustworthy online suppliers in Australia.. maybe you can find some cases locally? Or maybe someone you know does.. Where are you getting those other parts? I could do a google search and find stores I'm sure but wouldn't be able to give you any experience with the company. Gigabyte (personally like Aurora, Poseidon, isolo series) and Thermaltake (Tsunami, Soprano DX..) make some good cases too and at least they're easy to find here, as do Zalman and Silverstone but they tend to be REALLY expensive. I'm afraid I don't know about there.

http://www.arc.com.au/

This is the store i will be buying all my 'bits' from as i like them and they have a store very close to where i live. Plus i have found their prices are usually very reasonable.
oh and i will be going with a large case not a midi. I'm actually going to get them to put it all together for me once i have my full list as they only charge something like $55 and do all the necessary tests to make sure it all runs properly. things always go wrong for me.
I still feel like i'm missing something though...
case, power suply, motherboard, hard drive, graphics card, ram, dvd drive....?

What if I want to have The Sims 2 and all of the expansion packs.. what is the requirements then?

Would this one be okay, do you think? Click here.

starwyn $55 above cost to have someone else build it is quite nice. So do you still need a different case recommendation then? The Antec Twelve Hundred, Cooler Master Cosmos, Cooler Master Stacker (both 810 and 832), Gigabyte 3D Aurora, Thermaltake Xaser, Thermaltake Armor+, Armor (not jr.), and Xclio A380 are the full tower cases listed on that site. Yeah, case, psu, mobo, cpu, gpu, ram, optical drive.. that’s a complete system. Some of those cases will allow extra fans for additional cooling if you want. You could add other things like a media card reader if you wanted.. lots of optional addons but that’s all up to your own personal needs/wishes.

Personally love the CM Stackers and Gigabyte Aurora – considered both for my own build. The weakest of the bunch I would say is the Xclio, but I don’t think any of those are bad cases.

savemykissesx – Your link doesn’t work, so I can’t comment on the computer you found. I’m wondering if you read the first post in this thread though. It answers your question…lists the recommended requirements for the later expansions and links to a site which lists, by expansion, EA’s requirements. I recommend you read over the first post carefully, and compare the recommended components listed to the computer you’re thinking of buying.

Cripes Callistra! lol when did cases get so expensive?? Last time i bought one (ok many years ago) it cost me 60 bucks!

please excuse my ignorance here but how can a case be 'weak'? it's just the shell that holds the contents isn't it?