More Awesome Than You!

I'm buying me a laptop(nowadays they are stron enough to play sims 2) and I was wondering which is the bes one to have the be gamming experience... I know the pc spec, but like which videocad is the best?

And also I don't have any experience with laptops so I was wonderng whih brand would be the best? I was thnking abut gettng me an HP cause my desktop is that brand and I really like it. But maybe other brands have better laptops?

Sony is top of the line but you'll pay for that. Toshiba is good. Acer has been around a long time & has built a good rep. Don't buy a Packard Hell Bell. HP will probably be OK. Steer clear of the lower end Dells. I would buy a Toshiba if I could afford a laptop.

You are right about the video card issue - that and RAM are probably the main points to consider if you want to play sims easily. Many laptops don't have a separate video card. 256MB RAM is really minimal for WinXP, 512MB is OK, go for 1 GB RAM if possible.

I would check out a few online magazines and reviews of gaming laptops, comparisons and Editor's choices. Particularly search on benchmarking tests of various games.

HP is okay for laptops, but if you want to play games on it, you'll want to go with Toshiba. The machines are more solidly built and generally more powerful. Please keep in mind, however, if you want a machine that can play Sims 2 well it will cost quite a lot - you're probably looking at something over $2000 USD.

Laptops aren't the best choice for gaming machines, really. The ones that are powerful enough are expensive and very large, and they aren't anywhere near as upgradable as a tower.

True and if you get a mobile chip, ie one with an 'M' after it, then the chip architecture won't be optimised for gaming but for power saving.

I have 256Mb on my graphics card alone, I would like even more, I'd like 512Mb video RAM with my 1 GB RAM. Not only because I'm greedy but even with what I have I cannot run anti-aliasing on full in sims2.

Renatus makes good points about upgradeability in laptops too, because of the way they're made, the form factor, parts aren't as interchangeable as in a tower, they also tend to be more expensive.

PS Check out AMD chips rather than Intel, they're cheaper and benchmarking better and running cooler. ;)

"Minimum System Requirements for The Sims 2

(copied from the Exchange)
 
If you have a T&L capable video card with at least 32 MB of video RAM then you need at least:
800 MHz processor or better
256 MB RAM if Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 98 or Windows 2000
At least 3.5 GB of hard drive space
If you have a non-T&L capable video card (an Intel Extreme Graphics or a Radeon 7000/VE Series) then you need at least:
2.0 GHz processor or better
256 MB RAM if Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 98, or Windows 2000
At least 3.5 GB of hard drive space
Get the most current driver for your video card. The manufacturers usually have the video drivers on their sites for you to download. Visit the nVidia site, the ATI site or the support site for your computer's manufacturer for the latest drivers for those video cards.

Supported video cards (and the more video memory the better):

ATI RadeonTM series (7000 or better)
Radeon 7000/VE series (non-T&L; requires 2.0 GHz processor)
7200, 7500
8500, All-In-Wonder 8500
9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
X300, X600, X800


Nvidia® QuadroTM series
Quadro, Quadro2, Quadro4


Nvidia® Geforce series (GeForce2 and better)
GeForce2
GeForce3, 3 Ti
GeForce4, 4Ti, MX 420, 440
GeForce FX 5200, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950
GeForce 6600, 6800


Intel® Extreme Graphics (non-T&L; requires 2.0 GHz processor)
82845, 82865, 82915"

My game runs smoothly with these options:
- Intel 4, Windows XP Professional
- 2 GB RAM
- 800 MHz processor
- 47 GB free disk space
- Radeon X800
 
 

Thanx very much for these wonderful advice...the problem is, I don't want to get a tower or desktop yet, cause mine is not really that old and I wanted to wait and see how advanced the desktops will get in another few years... I didn't feel like having to upgrade or buy another one like every year... So I wanted to buy a lap now and a pc in fall of 2006 or maybe even early 2007.

The laps thath are strong enough to support TS2 are indeed a bit pricey..I can afford it right now tho...it's just, i'm feeling as if i'm wasting my money... Computer technology advances so fast I bet in six months what I would have spent $2000 for will cost $1000 or probably even less...

So maybe I should get the lap this fall or winter? Or buy meself that tower early after all.... ;D

Thanx Gali! ;D I actually printed that out and went with it to a store, still the one of the salesperson tried to sell me a packard bell with an ATI x600 when I asked for the x800 series... :D That's why I'm asking here... 8) I know nobody is getting a commission so I get honest advice.. ;D

WOW!!!!

oh my god, you gotta be the only simmer with a pc with 2GB RAM.

About the video card, i am absolutely positive that from x600 to x800 will make no difference (and i hope so), since my friend has a 9600 and his game runs very smooothly. I looked up the price of x600 and x800 and it happens that x800 is more than twice as expensive as the x600

the game better run as smooth as it can be in my new computer that i haven't bought yet:

Asus Motherboard
3000+ Athlon 64
1GB RAM
Radeon x600 256 PCI-E

Well, no.  I have 2 GB RAM.  And the nVidia 6800 Ultra. :D Can't complain.

BTW, if you want the top of the line, forget Sony and go with Alienware. ;)  I will never buy anything else.

one thing I noticed, 800mhz processer?  please tell me thats a typo.  Everything else looks great.

thats right. the game doesn't demand a lot od the processor if you have a good amount of avaible RAM and a good Video Card.

Hmm that's entirely different to the details found here (http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-x-2558-x-x-x) :-\

The link was taken from filippinokidd's thread here (http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?&openItemID=item.2,item.43,item.61,item.41,item.23&threadID=c3bac1f3968c64bf7b2af5fe3e79ed93&directoryID=2&startRow=1#fe6ab5dd087e9c2b37c15714bad4ebd9)

... My first instincts on reading that article is that this person is full of crap. I run Sims 2 on a laptop with a much more powerful processor (2.8gHz compared to 1.5gHz) than my husband's desktop, just as much RAM (512), and a slightly worse videocard (since my is a mobility card; his is a Radeon 9-something or other with 64MB RAM onboard), and his computer runs the game far better than mine. His computer can render bumpmaps and he can have many more sims on a lot, and the censor blur doesn't slow his computer down. His computer can also render water correctly in neighborhood view; mine renders it as flat blue.

I get this feeling that the person doing those tests was missing something important, but buggered if I can figure out what.

Thats not true at all! Go to The Sims 2 and look at the game requirements...
Also, That statement is mostly nonsense: Both video cards they mentioned there (GeForce 7800 GTX and GeForce 6600 GT) are powerfull video cards, so, of course there won't be any difference in gameplay if you use one or the other.
But get a GeForce4 440 MX, wich is a medium powerfull card, and try to play with a 2GHz PC (my case). You have to play with graphics on low if you want to play with a larger lot and more than 5 sims in it.

However it is true that the more RAM, the better.

-----------------UPDATE-------------

Oh, threres one thing: the game has a lot of loading, loading the nieghborhood, loading the residential lot, loading the community lot when you go out, loading another community lot, loading again the resdential lot when you leave the community lot. So that part is basically dependant on CPU power, however, a lot of RAM helps here.

---------------UPDATE 2------------
Ok, i changed my mind a bit. The game is not entirely dependant only on video card. of course not. You can't get a GeForce 7800 or Radeon x800 and expect it to run smoothly. you gotta have a good processor. However you don't need the most expensive video card, neither the most fast processor. i found out that a Radeon 9600 XT together with a 2.4GHz processor and a 1GB RAM, can run the game better than you expect

Your bottleneck is indeed your video card however I believe the article is trying to imply that once you get past a certain point, the bottleneck shifts to the processor hence the two high spec graphics cards showing little difference :)  As you rightly mention, replacing the video card for a high end card in a system with a 1 GHz processor would be a waste however I have seen people do just this on the BBS.  Of course they then wonder why their game experience has not dramatically improved.

yes, i'm concluding that neither the official requirements, neither the gamespot review are tottaly right or tottaly wrong.

for the game to run smoothly you gotta have a good processor (not the best) and a good video card (again not the best)

My geek just added another 512 of RAM to my computer to put me at 1 GB of RAM.   So far I'm quite happy with how fast my game and the lots load now.  At this point I can use the highest graphic settings without lagging.  Since I'm waiting to get Nightlife, this upgrade should be adequate for now.
Edit:  2 GHZ processor; Radeon 9550 graphics card.  I've been begging for a better graphics card, but my geek said he wouldn't put it in if I bought one. Since it would very dangerous for my game for me to attempt to install anything, I'll be happy for what I have.

I have 1 GB of RAM, 1.46 GHz CPU, and GeForce2 MX/MX 400 card.  While I don't have the money to upgrade right now, I was planning to save for a better video card.  But from what you all are saying here, that's not really going to make much of a difference since I don't have a 2 GHz processor.  Is that true?  If so, would I be better off upgrading my processor first?  I would like to be able to see cutscenes and run at higher video settings.  I am also concerned about whether I would have to upgrade my power supply.  I am currently at 350W, I think.  I just got a new motherboard a while back because my other one crapped out on me.  I was getting blue screens all the time, my cd drives would quit working, and my mouse would lock up at random times.  Finally figured out it was the motherboard and haven't had any problems since.  I just hate to think about having to upgrade everything just to upgrade my video card though.

Yes and no. I think it will still help somewhat. And it should enable some features that may be currently greyed out and disabled like the cinemas.

To be honest, while your RAM seems fine to me, both your video card and cpu could really use updating imo. If I could only chose one I'd probably still go for a better video card. It'll let you run a higher resolutions and just generally make things look nicer and probably a bit faster, if not signifigantly so without a cpu upgrade.

Thanks, Motoki.  As much as I'd like to just upgrade the whole thing at once, I have to start somewhere. :)

yes i agree too. both your cpu and video card , if upgraded will benefit the gameplay.
But i still think the videocard is the way you should go right now, because GeForce2... no no no no... i have a GeForce4 and.. no no no...

Get something like a Radeon 9600XT at least. Higher end cards will not make much more difference, however if you want a very good card, and not spend too much, i'd say buy a Radeon x600XT, that's what i'm getting.

I haven't been here in a while.... So I could get that x600 after all huh? Cool! ;D Well, I'll think I'll go for that laptop anyway... I really can't wait to get it, I'll start looking out for the Toshiba then.

Another thing, I downloaded new drivers for my Ati Radeon 9000 Catalyst5.8 if I remeber correctly, but my mirrors won't reflect...:( The cinematics paly just the same tho... I wonder if I do a system recovery if it will give the old setup back?

I learned my lesson: If the old is working just fine, there's no need to egt a new one! :-\

just make sure that you get the XT version: x600 XT (not the pro or other versions...)

I currently have an HP.  3.0 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, with a GeForce FX 5200 w/ 128 MB.  I've been thinking about getting an updated video card.  The game runs pretty smoothly, just a few jerks now and then.  I sent a sim downtown when she got the 1st NL invite.  7 sims arrived at the lot.  There were 3 NPCs in the restaurant, 1 downtownie, 2 Sims from the neighborhood and the grand vampire.  I'm not sure if I should expect more with an updated video card or if this is as good as it gets.

Hi Lauraglenn, I think your video card is indeed letting you down compared to the rest of your system. I've got 256Mb video RAM but would like to double that to 512Mb. Suspect I won't be able to afford it though.

As to NL, no idea, haven't bought it yet, don't know that I'm going to. Finally got sims2 and Uni working OK with hacks, don't know if I could bear to start the whole buggy process over again with NL.

While there is a topic about this - I am getting a new Dell PC beast of a machine, and the grpahics card they offer is either the 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 or 256MB ATI Radeon® X600. Which would be better? I know it would be better to get one with more RAM but I can't really afford it. The processor speed is 3ghz, and the overall RAM will be 1GB anyway.

I thought so.  The game does run pretty well, especially in comparison to what I've heard from others.  I will probably upgrade the video card.  And the fans... the thing does run very hot now but only during the game.  Any info on cards would be appreciated.

It pains me to hear of such advanced gadgets while I have to suffer with a MX 440 64MB.  :P

I'm in the same boat with you. :(

Same here. I have a feeling the super cheap laptop I'm getting for Christmas is going to have better graphics than my desktop PC...

I'd go for the x600, but that's just me. I'd also consider the nVIDIA 6600 GT. I think it's cheaper than both, though it only carries 128MB (don't know if there are any 256MB versions out yet).
Something Rainbow brought up: the PSU (Power Supply Unit). 350W should be enough for an ATI, if your PSU is NOT a no-name cheapo thing. nVIDIA cards are a bit more power demanding, but I think if your PSU is good enough it can cope with it (not higher-end cards though. Rule out any 6800!).
Ah yes, I just upgraded my RAM from 512 to 1GB. Loading times are significally reduced, game performance is slightly better though nothing to stand up and cheer about. Other specs: P4 Northwood 2.4 GHz processor, overclocked at 2.7GHz (I just love those Northwoods! Prescotts are no better than miniature barbeques!), Radeon 9200 256MB graphics card.