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19th Mar 2005, 4:14 AM
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Have all system requirements; still running crappy #1 |
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icu2richelo
Original Poster
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Help me, please! I pre-ordered the sims 2, so I got it like three days after its debut. I installed it on my computer which, at the time only had like 256 memory, and it ran pretty crappy. A while later, I installed more memory on the computer so its up to 512 or something memory. It's better, and it ran smoothly, but ONLY on the lowest performance options. Lately, I bought the University Expansion Pack and its pretty smooth on the LOWEST settings again. I would like to play the sims 2 with top-quality game play but, saying as I know nothing about computers, I have no idea what to do. I've tried installing the latest video card from NVIDIA, but it turns out its the same video card that came with my PC so I already had the most up-to-date video card in the first place without knowing it. My main question I'm asking here is: What must I do to be able to play The Sims 2: University with top-notch high quality graphics and have it run smoothly and still have enough space for future expansion packs? If this question is easy to answer, PLEASE answer it for me. lol |
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19th Mar 2005, 4:38 PM
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#2 |
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icu2richelo
Original Poster
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Please help me, I'm desperate here! |
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19th Mar 2005, 4:43 PM
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#3 |
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Delphy
Delphinius The Great
 
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We need to get exact system specs first. Also, replying 24 minutes after your original post isn't allowed  Patience!Please post exactly what you have: - CPU - Memory - Graphics card - Hard drives Thanks |
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19th Mar 2005, 4:45 PM
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#4 |
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Mr. Biggles
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You have to remember- the requirements are what you need for the game to run. On the lowest settings. Having the exact requirements means the game will run like crap, and it takes ALOT more for it to do good. |
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19th Mar 2005, 4:55 PM
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#5 | |
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Brasstex
Lab Assistant
Join Date: Jan 2005 |
Quote:
Okay, you are talking about the latest DRIVERS, correct? Because you can't download a video card, that's something you have to purchase at the store and install, it's hardware, not software, and the latest video card from NVIDIA costs about 500 dollars US. Now, here's what you do, get a paypal account or a credit card, and head over to newegg.com and purchase yourself a RADEON 9600XT 250MB video card, get the one with the fastest GPU. It will cost a little over 100 dollars US, but it's worth it, then you can play the game to your satisfaction. NVIDIA is overrated, and it's shameless the way EA/MAXIS promotes them. Brasstex PS, get yourself a gig of RAM (crucial is good brand) |
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19th Mar 2005, 5:00 PM
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#6 |
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icu2richelo
Original Poster
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Well, I actually posted like last night @ 11:00 so the clock on this site must not be working lol. Allright, my CPU is a Gateway something. It used to have Windows 98 but we updated it to Windows XP Professional in 2002. The memory on my computer right now is 512 MB and the Processor is an AMD Athlon Processor. The Graphics card is an INVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra with like 64MB of memory... as for the hard drive... how do I find that out? |
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19th Mar 2005, 5:02 PM
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#7 |
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icu2richelo
Original Poster
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Thanks Brasstex, I'll look into that. |
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19th Mar 2005, 5:13 PM
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#8 |
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icu2richelo
Original Poster
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Wait, did you say a RADEON 9600 XT 128MB AGP? because on the ATI website, it only has that one with 9600 XT (I know nothing about computers) should I get the RADEON X700 PRO 256MB PCI EXPRESS, or is that not what you meant... cus the 9600 XT seems to only come with 128MB... I'm confused |
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19th Mar 2005, 8:06 PM
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#9 |
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daysies
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This is what I have and I'm playing the game on the highest settings: ATI Radeon 9600 SE w/ 128 MB DDR (AGP 8x) I also have 1 GB RAM, and a 3.2 GHz processor |
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19th Mar 2005, 8:10 PM
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#10 |
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Delphy
Delphinius The Great
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If you have a GF2 Ultra, thats why the game plays like a dog. Thats a very old video card, so updating the drivers isn't going to help - the hardware is only up to playing the game on very minimum settings. I would suggest upgrading your graphics card itself. |
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19th Mar 2005, 8:37 PM
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#11 |
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Guest
Posts: n/a |
I get decent results with: Nvidia Geforce 4 MX440 64MB AMD athlon XP 2800+ at 2.08 Ghz 40GB HDD I don't know what my mother board is though |
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19th Mar 2005, 8:40 PM
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#12 | |
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Brasstex
Lab Assistant
Join Date: Jan 2005 |
Quote:
Well, first, don't buy the ATI version, buy a knockoff, they cost alot less. Second, it DOES come in several varieties, there is a 256MB version, because I have it. You could just google it, and I bet you'd get more results than you'd care to look at. Third, I don't know anything about the X700 PRO. You could get the version that Daysies has, she posted above here, but she has a very fast processor, and by the sound of things, you don't. Here's what I have: 9600XT PLATINUM a RADEON by GEXCUBE. 256MB DDR, 8x AGP. I use an Athlon 1600, which is really too slow, and have a Gig or ram. I play the game on any settings I want to. I use any custom content, and alot of it, with no slow down. My video card and ram are carrying the load here, if you have a fast up to date processor, you would have even better results than I. Brasstex |
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20th Mar 2005, 1:39 AM
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#13 |
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trancejeremy
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If your computer has a GeForce 2 in it, it probably has an AGP slot, not PCI Express, so you'll need an AGP video card. You should check the manual that came with your computer. Also, if you are running XP, you probably will want a gig of memory, not just 512, for ideal performance. |
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20th Mar 2005, 2:09 AM
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#14 |
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icu2richelo
Original Poster
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Okay, guys this is what I have done. I went and bought an ATI RADEON 9600 XT ALL-IN-WONDER with 128 MB of DDR (what is DDR?) and it's experiencing some problems. First off, it works, but the monitor randomnly shuts off and it comes back on and says VPU Error or something and asks me whether I should tell ATI. Then the computer freezes and I must restart it. This has happened several times. I think I need an AGP driver, cus that's what the manual said. But, like TranceJeremy said, I had a GeForce 2, so I must have an AGP driver... Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to install it, right? |
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20th Mar 2005, 2:55 AM
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#15 |
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icu2richelo
Original Poster
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Well, darn. It turns out, after I checked it. I have an All-In-Wonder 9600... is this the reason that its not working? cus on the website the all in wonders are listed as multimedia cards. Does it have the graphics card built in? I wonder if it is, because I payed like 200 bucks for it. |
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20th Mar 2005, 3:32 AM
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#16 |
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idtaminger
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All-in-wonders are generally for playing video and the like, I believe. If you're spending 200 bucks, I'd say the Radeon 9800 is a really good card. |
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20th Mar 2005, 3:48 AM
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#17 |
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icu2richelo
Original Poster
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Well, then what's the highest quality video card under 200 bucks, then? lol I'm going to take the All In Wonder 9600 back anyway, so I might as well buy the best I can get for less than 200. |
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20th Mar 2005, 2:15 PM
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#18 | |
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Brasstex
Lab Assistant
Join Date: Jan 2005 |
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Hi, icu2richelo, I wonder this: Did you update the drivers for your new card at the ATI website? The install drivers that come with video cards are usually never up to date. They install fine, but then they have problems, the good news is, you can update them easily. I think the card you have is okay, but what processor speed is yours? That does matter, that's why I suggested getting a card like mine, it works better for slower processors, it was $149.00 and it will smoke alot of more expensive cards. Brasstex |
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20th Mar 2005, 2:26 PM
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#19 |
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ScottyToledo
Lab Assistant
Join Date: Nov 2004 |
I have a Radion 9600 PRO with 256MBs. It cost around $100 at newegg.com. The game runs fantastic with that card. Plus I just threw in an extra 512MBs RAM, bringing me up to a gig of RAM. The game is just perfect now.
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Please join us at the Gay Sims Club 2 forums. Where you will find discussions and links to great Content for the Sims 2! The Gay Sims Club 2 |
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20th Mar 2005, 2:31 PM
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#20 | |
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Brasstex
Lab Assistant
Join Date: Jan 2005 |
Quote:
Yeah, Scotty, that's a good one too, and for the price, you can't beat it! So that's a good suggestion too. Brasstex EDIT: icu2richelo, open your catalyst control panel and let us know what Driver version you're using. From here it is also possible to disable the VPU recover, which is the thing you're having a problem with. BUT, there could be several reasons for your current problem, so, returning the card and exchanging it might not fix it. On the other hand, you could have got a better deal, and a better card, so you may want to switch while you still can get a refund. But regardless, you have an old PC, and you may still have problems even with a card like Scotty's or mine or Daysies. If you do, you should make sure you're using the right drivers, make sure you don't still have NVIDIA drivers installed somewhere, and you can always disable the VPU recover. Let us know about the drivers (version) Brasstex |
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Last edited by Brasstex : 20th Mar 2005 at 3:01 PM.
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20th Mar 2005, 2:59 PM
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#21 |
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supernova
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i have a saphirre radoen 9550 lite editon for £60 works great with sims2 full settings |
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20th Mar 2005, 3:22 PM
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#22 |
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alpharaptor1
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i run a budget system 2.8 CELERON, geforce fx 5200 256mb agp ASYLUM, and 1GB generic 3200 ddr... in a 30 dollar case! i can still run ts2 with the highest settings, but i have to turn anti-aliasing "edge smoothing" all the way down |
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20th Mar 2005, 7:07 PM
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#23 |
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icu2richelo
Original Poster
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Okay... first of all, I have removed the RADEON from my computer and put the old NVIDIA back in. I'm going to return the RADEON All in wonder 9600 (cause its not an XT) and get a less expensive RADEON 9600 XT with 256MB of DDR from some website (I froogled it). However, I think the problem may be that I don't have an AGP Driver. I need to know what an AGP driver is before I even install another one, cause it seems I need one. By the way, what is a Saphire? Is it another brand? And, I don't know how to determine my driver or whatever... Is it 4X 8X? |
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Last edited by icu2richelo : 20th Mar 2005 at 7:10 PM.
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22nd Mar 2005, 9:39 PM
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#24 |
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icu2richelo
Original Poster
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What is an AGP driver? |
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22nd Mar 2005, 10:00 PM
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#25 | |
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nova-storm
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EWWW look at you with your fancy processor! :P That might be my problem then. I have the same vid card the same ram but I am still running with the AMD athlon 1800. (I NEEDS TO UPGRADE!!) I just put a bid in on 2 gigs of ram. So that imght help some. I can run the game at tos proformance but it is still chopy. I had th Gforce 5200 64mb. and it worked fine on mid settings AFTER I got the right drivers. I had to call tech support in the end to get it all to work right. But Then I got this card and thought that I should beable to run at top settings but no still chopy. I thing I will go look and see what I can find on e-bay. If you can not get any thing to work then you might want to call tech support. they helpd me alot #650-628-4329 PST. USA | |
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Now I'm not looking for absolution. Forgiveness for the things I do. But before you come to any conclusions. Try walking in my shoes. You'll stumble in my footsteps. |
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