Quote:
Originally Posted by Nouh
Do I need an expensive gaming PC to run The Sims 3 smoothly? I'm planning on getting a desktop soon, and I'm really not sure what kind of budget I should be setting for myself.
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A top of the line gaming computer just for TS3 would be pointless in my opinion so the answer is no in my opinion. If you only care about playing TS3 to its fullest potential without the computer being an issue, then I would suggest searching for older hardware released in 2012. However, that's not something you may find pre-built unless someone reputable was selling their old gaming computer if you are not into building your own.
My first gaming desktop I built played TS3 well. Unfortunately, the motherboard died after about 6 years and because it's old I would have to go online to find a possible new replacement or an used one. Anyway, the computer specifications are:
Win 7 64-Bit (You may want to go with 64-Bit just in case later down the line TS3 for PC does get a 64-Bit version.)
8 GB RAM (For now, TS3 doesn't need any more than this and has room for some multi-tasking, however, the developers say for the best performance you should close any other programs before running TS3. Depending on the computer, it may vary whether there will be any issues or not. If a 64-Bit version ever does come out then you can always upgrade later as long as the motherboard supports larger RAM capacity. I think some support up to 32 GB or more of RAM.)
Intel Core i7 3770K @ 3.5 GHz (The minimal requirements state at least 2.4 GHz but if you want faster processing, routing, liveliness of simulation then the higher the GHz, the better. Or so that has been my experience coming from different computers and each one better than the last. If I had to guess recommended requirements then it would be 3.2 GHz or higher. Getting a CPU that's already overclocked may be a better option.)
Geforce GTX 660 2 GB VRAM (This seemed more than efficient and I was quite happy with my build. Though because it's old ShadowPlay, a free recorder which comes with an updated driver, doesn't perform so well with TS3 and stutters and lags a bit. The more VRAM, the better to help with graphic intensive games. Now TS3 is not GPU intensive but mostly CPU intensive, however, some custom content just goes overboard with 4K, high poly counts, etc so be careful with that. While the GPU might handle it, TS3 game engine has a limit to what it can handle. Be responsible about what you put in your game if you choose to use mods/cc.)
Edit: 1 TB HDD (The size of the HDD and/or SSD will depend on your storage needs. Before this system I came from 500 GB HDD gaming laptop and was near its limit with space to spare for other computer operations. So I decided to double that to have more storage because I store a lot of TS3 and it takes up a lot of space like screenshots, videos before I move it to the external HDD plus multiple TS3 game folders since I like to switch.)
Edit: Full HD 1920 x 1080 @ 60 FPS monitor (Higher resolutions than this will make the U.I. smaller but the image clearer. If you get a monitor or already have one with higher resolutions then you can always try it out in TS3 options menu to see if you can accept that. Or change it back to whatever you are comfortable with. Also note: Higher resolutions may cause poor game performance depending on the computer configuration. So you may want to test it out to find the right settings for you. Currently, on the computer below the resolution I'm playing at is 2560 x 1440 @ 144 FPS. The higher the frames per second on a monitor, the more smoother a game's movement will look. 60 FPS is really good though and in case you may want to get or already have a monitor with a higher FPS, TS3 seems to pick up on that when you want to change it in the options menu. It will be greyed out in windowed mode though and the fps cannot be set unless through external programs.)
Edit: Personally, I always find it extremely easy to test out a new computer with TS3 as is. No game altering mods at all is ideal because you can purely test your computer's capability with TS3 so you know the as is performance compared to when you start adding mods/cc. Then you can always better manage your game performance because you know how it's supposed to play and means some mods/cc is dragging your performance down. Of course, it is up to you whether you value quality performance vs poor performance.
Edit: There are also YouTube videos/knowledgeable persons that are helpful when it comes to finding the right balance in performance. (Ambient Occlusion is not supported in TS3 and I would not recommend trying to force something a game does not support through external programs.)
Tested: Graphics settings and how they affect performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW2m14vzFM8
Here are a couple of websites I found useful when building my first desktop. Even if you are not building, this information is still useful to know once you get all the information about what's inside a pre-built computer.
https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?ti...em_Requirements
This is great for comparing CPU's, GPU's, etc to find out which is better in performance. Also, great for other kinds of information specific to what you may want to know.
https://www.passmark.com/
For example: Comparing two CPU's or two GPU's to find out which is better suited to what you want your gameplay experience to be but also according to your budget. But again, TS3 is a game released in 2009 and continued through 2013. I suggested hardware from 2012 because The Sims Studio seems to have updated the new GPU's to the list for the game to recognize but not for 2013 and onwards, naturally. Though personally, I highly doubt the game recognizing your GPU matters in that sense and seems to be just there to have preset in-game options already set for you, but what does matter is the game is using the GPU by default and not an onboard integrated card from the CPU. As long as the connection, VGA or DVI or HDMI cable is in the right place concerning a desktop, the GPU should automatically become the default graphics device when plugged into where it is supposed to be...in the back of the video card, not the motherboard. Of course, it says this on the instructions of how to set up your new gaming desktop or so it does when I got my pre-built gaming desktop. The one I built I didn't know that, lol, but a quick search on the internet easily rectified my error. Now I know. Also, TS3 still does not recognize the RTX 2070 and I have zero issues and I don't ever plan to force it to recognize it either as I personally find it pointless as I can play just fine like I did on the other older systems that did recognize the GPU. So yeah, that's my experience and conclusion to that.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...7-9700K/2vs3335
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/...2070/2152vs4001
Here in this topic I link below you will see screenshots and videos from this specific computer mentioned above. This is for you to get an idea as a starting point. Anything better than this, should play TS3 just fine with all EP's/SP's/Store Content/Some mods...be careful of mods because a lot of it, just puts too much on the game engine. And the game engine is only a 32-Bit program already running mostly CPU intensive simulation. Plus, there's also a reason why high poly counts just ruin the games performance when it's just overkill.
Some screenshots were from an older computer and because the resolution is less, you should be able to tell. Plus it took me how many years to finally use the better resolution options, lol.
https://forums.thesims.com/en_us/di...0/my-s3-game/p3
Edit: There's also these videos which better represents how TS3 plays as is on the computer specs above.
https://youtu.be/RecjZIs6N-E
https://youtu.be/eGZxSsm5sUc
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Here's the computer specifications that I play now and it's performance. Though Isla Paradiso is known to have issues so that's why there's freezing which I do fix in-game based on a Simmer's, BlueSpaarkle's guide, how to fix IP lag.
Win 10 64-Bit
16 GB RAM
Intel Core i7-9700K @ 3.6 GHz
NVidia Geforce RTX 2070 8GB VRAM
1 TB NVMe SSD
1 TB HDD
This build is overkill for TS3 and so I did not get it specifically for that game. It's for Cyberpunk 2077, Control and other real-time ray tracing games, etc. But I can confirm in my experience that TS3 plays just fine with this newer hardware thankfully. Not sure what's the big deal with some saying TS3 runs horrible on newer hardware...my guess its incompatible computer configurations.
https://youtu.be/HUKUSsNOQ3c
Edit: Here's another video, better recorded and in a different neighborhood.
https://youtu.be/BtfrhN8rGpA
One more thing. If you go for a pre-built gaming computer beware that not all of them are the same, as in, performance. It's always best to do a lot of research before purchasing. Look at a lot of reviews, know everything that is inside the computer and whether it's good for what you want or not. You cannot always trust the salesperson to tell you the truth so I suggest to do your homework. Okay actually one more thing, everything in the computer matters, not just the GPU and CPU if you really want the best performance out of a gaming computer. The motherboard matters, the RAM and speed matters, the fans/cooling/airflow system matters, the SSD/HDD and speed matters, etc.
Sometimes I wonder about those who claim to have gaming computers but says TS3 runs poorly. Possibly could be bottlenecking. There are non gaming computers that run TS3 just fine, provided it has its limits, of course. So yes, I have come to the conclusion that TS3 is not the problem and runs extremely well with no mods for a mostly CPU intensive 32-bit program. By the way, the Isla Paradiso video has no mods except NRass NoCD. Just pure official TS3. Now that is how you know you got a good purchase. TS3 does not need mods to run and if it does...I wonder about that too.
Because I'm Fragile...but I'm not "that" fragile.