Game Help:TS3 System Requirements
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This article is written for The Sims 3. For the equivalent Sims 2 article, click here. |
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Desktop Graphics Card Compatibility and Recommendations
This chart is for desktop graphics ONLY and does not take into account the rest of your computer. If you have an awesome graphics card but crappy everything else, your performance will suck. If you have a newer computer with a strong CPU and lots of RAM, but install a crappy graphics card, you will still likely have performance problems.
TS3 relies very heavily on the CPU and having a multi-core processor makes a huge difference in performance, but that does not mean just any graphics card out there will work. What it DOES mean, is that if you have a really strong dual or quad core CPU, you may be able to get better performance out the the Maybe cards. If you have an older single core CPU, even the Yes cards may not give perfect performance.
Please note: It is not recommended that you attempt to play TS2 or TS3 on an integrated video chipset. If you have a computer with integrated video, it is recommended you view this guide.
KEY
Yes - Known to give good game play, little or no lagging is expected
Maybe - Performance is uncertain/unknown, or may still be mostly playable with expected lagging/reduced performance
No - Not recommended/known problems/poor performance
| Integrated/
Onboard Video |
Sims 3
Base Game |
Expansion Pack | Stuff Pack | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Adventures | Ambitions | SP1 | ||
| Intel Extreme/
GMA 8xx/9xx |
No | No | No | No |
| Intel GMA x3100 | No | No | No | No |
| Intel GMA x4500 | No | No | No | No |
| Nvidia 61xx/71xx | No | No | No | No |
| Nvidia 8200/8300 | No | No | No | No |
| Nvidia 9300/9400 | Maybe | No | No | No |
| Radeon Xpress | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon x1200, x1250, x1270 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon HD3200 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon HD4200 | Maybe | No | No | No |
| Radeon HD4250 | Maybe | No | No | No |
| ATI Dedicated Graphics Card | Sims 3
Base Game |
Expansion Pack | Stuff Pack | |
| World Adventures | Ambitions | SP1 | ||
| Radeon 7000/VE | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon 7200 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon 7500 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon 8500 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon 9000 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon 9200 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon 9500 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon 9600 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon 9700 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon 9800 | Maybe | |||
| Radeon x300 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon x600 | Maybe | |||
| Radeon x700 | Maybe | |||
| Radeon x800 | Maybe | |||
| Radeon x850 | Maybe | |||
| Radeon x1300 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon x1550 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon x1600 | Yes | |||
| Radeon x1650 | Yes | |||
| Radeon x1800 | Yes | |||
| Radeon x1900 | Yes | |||
| Radeon x1950 | Yes | |||
| Radeon HD 2400 | No | No | No | No |
| Radeon HD 2600 | Yes | |||
| Radeon HD 2900 | Yes | |||
| Radeon HD 3400 | Maybe | |||
| Radeon HD 3600 | Yes | |||
| Radeon HD 3800 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **Radeon HD 3870x2 | Maybe | Maybe | Maybe | Maybe |
| Radeon HD 4350 | Maybe | |||
| Radeon HD 4550 | Maybe | |||
| Radeon HD 4600 | Maybe | |||
| Radeon HD 4770 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Radeon HD 4800 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Radeon HD 4800x2 | Maybe | Maybe | Maybe | Maybe |
| Radeon HD 5450 | Maybe | |||
| Radeon HD 5550/5570 | Maybe | Maybe | Maybe | Maybe |
| Radeon HD 5670 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Radeon HD 5700 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Radeon HD 5800 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nvidia Dedicated Graphics Card | Sims 3
Base Game |
Expansion Pack | Stuff Pack | |
| World Adventures | Ambitions | SP1 | ||
| GeForce 2 | No | No | No | No |
| GeForce 3 | No | No | No | No |
| GeForce 4/4xx/4xxx | No | No | No | No |
| GeForce 5200/5300/5500 | No | No | No | No |
| GeForce 5600/5700 | No | No | No | No |
| GeForce 5800 | No | No | No | No |
| GeForce 5900 | Maybe | |||
| GeForce 6200 | No | No | No | No |
| GeForce 6600 | Maybe | |||
| GeForce 6800 | Maybe | |||
| GeForce 7300 | No | No | No | No |
| GeForce 7600 | Maybe | |||
| GeForce 7800 | Yes | |||
| GeForce 7900 | Yes | |||
| GeForce 7950 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| !GeForce 8400 | Maybe | |||
| **!GeForce 8500 | Maybe | |||
| !GeForce 8600 | Yes | |||
| GeForce 8800 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce 9400 | Maybe | |||
| GeForce 9500 | Yes | |||
| GeForce 9600 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce 9800 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce G100 | Maybe | |||
| GeForce GT 120 | Yes | |||
| GeForce GT 130 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GTS 150 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce G210 | Maybe | |||
| GeForce GT 220 | Yes | |||
| GeForce GTS 240 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GTS 250 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GTX 260 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GTX 275 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GTX 280 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GTX 285 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GTX 295 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce 310 | Maybe | |||
| GeForce 315 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GT 330 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GT 340 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GTX 465 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GTX 470 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GeForce GTX 480 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
**Regardless of the performance potential of these cards the Radeon 3850x2 is unsupported by TS3 and is known to have compatibility problems with TS2. Therefore the card is not recommended
! At least some if not all of Nvidia's cards with G86 and G84 cores are defective. They they do not handle heat like they should. This includes all GeForce 8400/8500/8600/8700 cards.
The Sims 3 System Requirements
A note on these requirements: The requirements listed below are taken directly from the official TS3 site. These are the absolute bare minimums you need to get the game up and running. These are NOT the minimum requirements for a playable game experience! If you have just the bare minimum and a low-end graphics card, you will NOT be able to play the game! It will run... but it will not look good, run well, or run consistently without crashing.
In order to find the specs on your system, see: Game Help:System Specs. If you are looking to upgrade your system, please see Help: Computer & Software Help for lots of advice, recommendations, and a place you can ask questions on specific hardware.
Sims 3 Base Game PC Requirements
From: http://www.thesims3.com/game/systemreq (with some slight changes based on advanced graphics card knowledge)
Items marked in green are those which are also recommended by MTS for playing The Sims 3.
FOR WINDOWS XP
- 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent (2.0ghz Core 2 Duo or higher is recommended)
- 1 GB RAM (2GB of RAM is recommended)
- A 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 (256 MB dedicated video card - mid-range or higher - is recommended)
- The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
- Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
- At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games
FOR WINDOWS VISTA
- 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent (2.0ghz Core 2 Duo or higher is recommended)
- 1.5 GB RAM (at least 2.5GB of RAM is recommended)
- 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 (256 MB dedicated video card - mid-range or higher - is recommended)
- Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1
- At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games
For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least:
- Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA 3-Series or above
- 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
- 0.5 GB additional RAM
SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS: (MTS staff note: Model numbers listed in green are likely to run the game well, assuming the rest of the computer also meets the above recommendations)
NVIDIA GeForce series:
- FX 5900, FX 5950
- 6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,
- 7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
- 8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
- 9300, 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800
- G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150
- GT 220, GTS 240, GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 275, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295
Note: EA does not list the entire 200 series as being supported. However, we have expanded the list to include cards from the series which should work well.
ATI Radeon™ series:
- 9500, 9600, 9800
- X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
- X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
- 2400, 2600, 2900
- 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870,
- 4830, 4770, 4850, 4870, 4890
Note: The official list no longer includes the anything below the 4850 from the Radeon 4000 Series graphics cards. However, we have expanded the list to include some these cards which should work just fine.
Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA)
- GMA 3-Series, GMA 4-Series
Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slower. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly.
Intel integrated chipsets featuring underclocked parts will not perform adequately. Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants may default to settings that are higher than what would be optimal for them. Graphics settings can be lowered to improve performance.
Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn't listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all.
The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista.
Sims 3 Base Game MAC Requirements
FOR MAC OS X
- Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher
- Intel Core Duo Processor
- 2 GB RAM
- ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100.
- At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games
- This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems, or the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.
MAC OS X Supported Video Cards
NVIDIA GeForce series
- 7300, 7600
- 8600, 8800
- 9400M, 9600M GT
- GT 120, GT 130
ATI Radeon(TM) series
- X1600, X1900
- 2400, 2600
- 3870,
- 4850, 4870
Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA)
- GMA X3x00
Related Pages
- Game Help:System Specs
- Game Help:System Requirements/MTS2 Recommendations
- Your Computer is Like a Car
| Sims 3 Game Help Categories: | |
|---|---|
|
Custom Content | Installation | Gameplay Guides | Technical & Graphics Issues | Miscellaneous Issues | |
| MTS Help Q&A Forums | |
