What are your PC specs?

[MokeyHokey]

I've an Alienware as well.  It's 2 1/2 years old now, and upgraded almost everything since we bought it.

3.0Ghz proc
2 GB Corsair XMS
nVidia GeForce Ultra 6800 256MB
Audigy 2 (bleh, next thing to go)
XP Home, SP2
500w power supply
Sony DVDRW, Plextor CDRW

I run Sims2 with maximum specs, including smooth edges all the way up.  The only time I lag is on large community lots at night, and when I first load a lot I have to pan completely around the house before it runs normally.

[Motoki]

Hegelian: 'sokay, I'm just teasin' ya.  I can get off on a long tangent when talking about geeky technology stuff myself sometimes. 

Dewshine: Hmm, okay. Well maybe they just hired Dell's web designer lol. I swear their new site makeover just looks terribly Dell-ish.

[Ness]

Hegelian:

We've been trying desperately to upgrade my computer from 98 to XP pro for the last 4 or 5 months...  everything goes smoothly until we install the graphics drivers and then we just lose the display all together - pretty blue/green cross-hatching pattern.

So far...  we've tried the graphics driver through windows update, we've tried the graphics drivers from ATI (both the 5.9 that was current when we started and the 5.10 that is now the most recent), we've tried the drivers that came with all the original disks for the computer...

ATI's tech support suggested we needed to upgrade the AGP drivers - we got the absolute most recent ones...  someone else suggested that we don't install the AGP drivers at all (motherboard originally had onboard graphics, but the capability to add the graphics card later, which we did)...

All this, the same result - if you've got any idea how we can get the graphics card to work under XP, we'd love to hear it, because then I get my other hard drive back!  At this stage, the drive that is usually C drive has XP on it and is disabled under BIOS so I can work on what was the D drive with a fully functioning 98SE install.

Ness

[IgnorantBliss]

My computer is not a name brand, but something put together by a local shop according to what we asked for (but several parts have been updated since I bought it)

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+ 1.8 GHz
1 Gb of RAM
NVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra 256mb
480W power supply
Windows XP Home

This combination runs the game quite well, although always upon loading a lot, there is a bit of lag at first. With my previous video card, ATI Radeon 9600 XT (128mb) the graphics would often blur when the lots got busier, but after upgrading the video card (which may be a bit of overkill), that never happens anymore, and the graphics details are preserved at all times. The only thing I'd complain about is the loss of object specularity which seems to have something to do with the video card and its compatibility with the game. And the latest NVidia video drivers don't work very well with TS2, so I'm using version 77.77.

[veilchen]

2. System memory. Increasing system RAM from 768 MB to 1024 MB might give you a noticeable increase in performance by allowing more game data to reside in RAM instead of needing to be fetched from the hard drive. In combination with this, changing your virtual memory from Windows controlled to something like Initial:  100, Maximum 800 could improve performance by reducing the amount of data Windows sends out to the paging file. (See my looong posts in the Graphics Card thread for screen shots of how to do this).

Thank you Hegelian, I was actually able to follow you for the most part. I updated the driver(s), because that's something you mention in the graphics card thread, but I wasn't able to find anything that says 'virtual memory'. Does it go by another name as well? I found all the anti-aliasing hints, and the page things (how professional of me), but nothing that says 'virtual memory' outright. I remember seeing something like that somewhere while checking around. I wish I remembered where I saw that.

I do play with 'reflection' turned to 'on', should I change that? Dang it, I like the feature. I have the neighborhood view on off, as well as the decoration view, but I guess that doesn't help much.

Anyway, thanks for the information, that was very helpful.

[Motoki]

veilchen: In XP if you right click on My Computer, go properties, Advanced, Performance > Settings, Advanced, Virtual Memory and change you can set the size of the swap file/virtual memory.

I found that even having a gig of ram, when I turned it off sometimes TS2 would crash with out of memory errors. Usually this only happened when things got really crazy like when I threw a party with 30 plus sims on a large lot  but I set my virtual memory to about 4GB min and max, which admittedly is probably overkill, and had no problems after that. This game is somewhat of a memory hog.

[MissDoh]

I personally have this kind of computer:

P4 2.0 ghz
Windows professional XP with service pack 2
1 gig of ddr ram memory
ATI 9800 pro 128mb videocard (I had to change my power supply to a 350watts)
Onboard soundcard

The game runs fine.  It is slow on huge lot other than that I have no problem.  And since I don't really like huge lots I don't really mind.  Though the game limit me when I start it to no more than 2 guests, I use the cheatcode and have no problem with 8 guests on my lots or community lots.

[Hegelian]

I do play with 'reflection' turned to 'on', should I change that? Dang it, I like the feature. I have the neighborhood view on off, as well as the decoration view, but I guess that doesn't help much.
 

Actually, I was thinking perhaps you were not able to have reflections on, because it could cause a significant slow-down in the game. In truth, I was hinting that you could see more of the good game graphics with an updated PC.   

I wasn't able to find anything that says 'virtual memory'. Does it go by another name as well?

I posted two or three messages with screen shots, so you may have missed the one showing the Virtual Memory settings (also known as the Paging File). So here it is:



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Hegelian]

veilchen: In XP if you right click on My Computer, go properties, Advanced, Performance > Settings, Advanced, Virtual Memory and change you can set the size of the swap file/virtual memory.

I found that even having a gig of ram, when I turned it off sometimes TS2 would crash with out of memory errors.

Yes—all versions of Windows since Win95 require some virtual memory to be allocated or else they freak out. The trick is to find the balance where the PC runs smoothly with the least amount of "disk thrashing" (paging data out to VM). As a general principle, the more RAM you have, the less virtual memory you need. The exact best settings can vary from user to user.

I have a second machine that dual-boots to Win98SE and DOS 6.22, and a very interesting thing occurs. This machine has 512 MB RAM, and with the virtual memory set to a fixed 128 MB, it uses the swap file (virtual memory/paging file) until it is full, and then stops using it at all. I think this is an effect of having a registry hack (thanks to Cacheman) that tells Win98 to minimize data swapping, so once the swap file is full, Windows empties it and won't use it until I restart Windows. This is actually pretty cool, since there is no disk thrashing at all—everything is held in RAM—and I don't use any software on that machine that would require more than 512 MB of RAM. So for what it is (Tualatin Celeron, 1.3 GHz), the machine is pretty responsive. 

[Motoki]

Yes—all versions of Windows since Win95 require some virtual memory to be allocated or else they freak out.

I can honestly say, with 1 gig of ram and no page file the only program I ever had freak out is TS2. Of course, I don't run CAD and hadn't tried running Photoshop or any other memory hog programs either. *shrug* But anyway, I just keep one now just in case.

[cwykes]

Here's mine from dxdiag.  I have an aging Dell which has never had any problems, unlike both of my son's custom built gaming machines.  I game up on the integrated graphics and bought a (PCI) graphics card after about a month of having the sims grind to a halt at dawn and dusk.  I got into building small lots early on!!!  It runs the base game very nicely, but I don't fancy adding Uni or NL to this set up.  couldn't stand to go back to low quality graphics and lots of slowdowns

   Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2
System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
       System Model: Dimension 2400               
          Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
             Memory: 510MB RAM

       Card name: RADEON 9250
     Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
        Chip type: RADEON 9200 Series (0x5960)       

thanks for all the info - do tell me if I'm wrong about adding Uni & NL.

[veilchen]

Thanks bunches for the great advice, both of you. I went and upped the VM (I hope I was supposed to do that), and I'll try and see if that helps the game's choppiness. I get the 'Virtual Memory too low' when I have not even entered a lot yet, so maybe that was the problem. I shut down McAffee (again, I hope that wasn't a braindeadness move), and I made sure the game does pay primary attention to 'programs'. The VM is now set to 'initial: 1000, maximum 3000 MB. I know you wrote 100 and 800 in your other post Hegelian, but that didn't help any at all, I got 'VM is too low' almost immediately upon initially loading the game. I hope I didn't do anything really foolish.

Hegelian, I wish I could afford to update my computer, but I am so broke it's almost funny. I can put some things on my christmas list though; I have to check and see your posts again to find out what should be top priority. I have no clue what 'disc thrashing' means, but boy, its scary :D

[Hegelian]

I wish I could afford to update my computer, but I am so broke it's almost funny. I can put some things on my christmas list though; I have to check and see your posts again to find out what should be top priority. I have no clue what 'disc thrashing' means, but boy, its scary

Hey, I've been there a lot recently. It is difficult to evaluate any PC without being able to actually open it up, but from the speciifications that are available on the HP/Compaq Web site, it seems that your current computer probably cannot be upgraded much further—and the increase in performance you could get would probably be too little to justifiy the cost. I suspect that you might be better off just waiting until you can afford to replace it. I do not know what prices are like in Germany, but in the U.S. you can get a new PC that will run TS2 quite well for much less than 1000 USD, if you keep your current mouse, keyboard, and monitor instead if buying new ones along with the PC.

"Disk thrashing" is just a term to describe all the hard drive activity (and the sound that goes with it) when Windows accesses the swap file a lot. Usually making the virtual memory smaller will reduce how much Windows moves data back and forth to and from the swap file, and increasing the minimum size of the swap file will increase the amount of data swapping.

To be honest, I have never seen a "Virtual Memory too low" message from any application. I don't really know what that could mean. You have more than enough system memory for TS2 to run without needing a big swap file. The only thing I can think of is that maybe you are running out of space on the hard drive? But this is just a guess.

Setting a swap file (paging file/virtual memory) "too big" will not hurt anything, but it could have a negative affect on your PC's performance, because Windows could end up swapping a lot more data from RAM to the swap file than it needs to. If your game performance does not improve with the new settings, I would suggest that you change the Virtual Memory setting back to System Managed Size, since reducing the size of the swap file from what Windows recommends seems to cause problems for you.

[AllenABQ]

3.2Ghz Pentium 4 processor
2 GB DDR 3200 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 5600 FX w/ 256MB
on board sound (really need to upgrade this)

All in all I get darn good framerates.  I just need to pare down all my downloads so the game loads faster!

[veilchen]

Hegelian, have you checked out this site yet? What do you think abou the product, can something like that really help those with non-updatable computers?

http://www.sci.fi/~borg/rambooster/index.html

It looks pretty good to me, but what do I know. Maybe some people can benefit from it if it does what it promises. I found the link to it on a german site:

http://www.zdnet.de/downloads/prg/b/w/de0BBW-wc.html

but I have no idea if it might, possibly, hopefully, maybe help

[Venusy]

AMD Duron processor, ~1.1GHz
512MB RAM
GeForce MX 440 (64MB memory)

If OFB increases the graphics card requirements again, then either the game will run on such low graphics settings to be unplayable, or just not work.

[Hegelian]

Hegelian, have you checked out this site yet? What do you think abou the product, can something like that really help those with non-updatable computers?

http://www.sci.fi/~borg/rambooster/index.html

Hi veilchen,

It doesn't look to me that this does much that is useful. The Web site claims that "Windows fills up your computer's memory (RAM) little by little and finally RAM is filled with unnecessary data," but this isn't really true. The problem is that Windows doesn't fill up your RAM, but constantly swaps data from the RAM to the paging file on the hard drive even when it is not necessary. In fact, at the default settings, Windows is excessively paranoid about "filling up" your RAM—until I used a custom configuration of Virtual Memory, WinXP wasn't using even half my RAM.

The one thing this program does that might occasionally be useful is recover RAM that is not "freed" when an application closes. What this means is that some poorly-designed programs do not clear themselves and the RAM they use when you close them, so that Windows (and other programs) thinks that the memory is still in use. Fortunately this is not as big a problem as was in the past. The Cacheman program, which I use, allows for memory recovery, but I don't find any use for it.

If you want a program that manages your memory and swap file more efficiently than Windows does on its own, CachemanXP seems to be a better choice than this Rambooster. However, the current version requires you to buy a license before you can do much with it, while the older, free version I have (Cacheman 5.1 or something like that) did allow you to make basic changes to things like the size of the disk cache and some other things. To be honest, I found it more useful for Win98—WinXP's memory management is much better than that in Win98, so there is less to do. But I still use Cacheman because it lets me easily monitor my swap file use (currently at 8 MB, with 563 MB of free RAM).

Now, to be fair, Rambooster appears to the work of a single individual, and is "cardware":  instead of money, you send the developer a postcard from where you live; you can also make a donation if you like. So he's not trying to take your money by selling you a worthless program. In fact, a quite excellent "cardware" application is the audio extractor, Exact Audio Copy (MD5summer is another). At the same time, I would be careful about any software program that requires a big notice on its Web page stating that the previous version causes "a CPU Index out of bounds" error. At least Cacheman is a professional product that has been in development for several years and won't mess up your PC.

The bottom line is that there are no software fixes for the shortcomings of your (or my) hardware.

[veilchen]

Thank you Hegelian, I had a feeling you would say that :D. As my grandmother used to say: if it sounds to good to be true....
Oh well *sigh*

I have already put extra RAM on my christmas list, that's about the only thing I can do for my old and un-trusty computer. I had a friend look at its insides and he tells me that I can use a 1-dimm GB memory addition if I throw out the 2-dimm 500 MB. I plastered a very knowing and wise look on my face and nodded in agreement. I figure 'dimm' is a computer-people name for 'stick' (looking at the slots that were pointed out to me), and I will definitely ask for that. I'm not going to look at the price, I'll just ask for it, maybe I get lucky.

At least browsing around for free stuff can get you some good things every once in a while, like the audacity program I found. My, that's fun to play around with:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity

Thanks again Hegelian, I really appreciate that for once a computer specialist can manage to explain things to me in a way that makes sense to me instead of the usual:
Well, you need to install the ;akdfjaj and then la;jdfkjal;fj;asjf while lajdfljfldajfdj;a is included in rgfhoriprihvbh[swjf. Incorporating this with woa;lsdjfapj, it will increase your power by ierioqw[94tnpaosfi, and we can install it for a mere $500. :D

[Emma]

Here's mine

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 1.80GHz
1.80 GHz, 512 MB of RAM
Windows XP,SP2
DirectX 9.0c
NvidiaGeForce3 Ti200, 64.0 MB (updated drivers several times though)

My pc is nearly 5 years old.

[ElviraGoth]

Well, I hate brand names but decided to get a Dell XPS Gen 5 last summer.  Have an old Dell at work that's probably 8 or 9 years old, still running Windows 95 and has been trouble-free, so I decided to take a chance and get one, mainly because it had the biggest and best CPU I saw when I was computer shopping.  Don't plan on buying another one for quite some time.

DIMENSION XPS GEN 5 Pentium® 4 Processor 670 with HT Technology (3.80GHz, 800 FSB)
Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs
Video Cards 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800
Hard Drive 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition
CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
Sound Cards Sound Blaster Audigy™ 2 ZS (D) Card w/Dolby 5.1, IEEE 1394 capability

This is right from the email I got when I ordered the system.  Also has a 450 watt power supply and the fan is super quiet.

Compared to a 2.2 GHz system, 512MB RAM, 64MB video card, 40 GB IDE HD, this thing runs anything and everything.  The things I looked at most were CPU speed, RAM size and speed and read up on the PCI-E before I decided it had to be the way to go. 

I have a slight lag (and I mean SLIGHT lag) when a visitor or carpool comes onto a lot, but community lots are now actually DOABLE, whereas before they were not.  I actually have a small store I put in my 'hood that has everything - food, clothes, electronics, etc. - that was kind of slow running on my old system, but is no problem on my new one.  Have sent sims downtown only a few times, and the lots are no different in speed than a regular lot, even with a lot of sims running around.

Granted, you don't need a mega machine to run TS2, but if you're going to have to buy a new computer, get the best you can afford.  I never used to say this, but technology is getting so much better so fast, I have decided that I'd rather spend more on a system that might last 5 years than to spend a little on what turns out to be old technology and have to constantly put money into it to make it run the software I want to run.  My last 'puter cost $500 US and only lasted 3 years, and I was constantly upgrading - more RAM, better video card, bigger power supply to run the better video card, better CD/DVD reader/writer, you name it, I was adding it.  Would have spent less in the long run if I had bought a better 'puter to begin with, and probably wouldn't have needed to upgrade now.

So just learn as much as you can about the components that are important for what you need now, and expand on what you need now for what you'll need a year or two from now, then get a system that will handle that and is capable of handling more.  Hegelian has some great advice.

Oh, and of course, make sure you have the best drivers for your video card.  From what I've read, that may not necessarily be the most recent one.

[Baa]

Since we're on the topic of PC specs, I found this site very useful when it comes to seeing what TS2 uses and needs to use when you're playing the game, and how your specs really effect the game.
Basically the theory says that it mainly depends on your proccessor or something like that, I haven't really read it in a while.

Although, I'm not saying that article is speaking the complete and honest truth as I'm no computer whiz, but it does come from a reliable source.

[Bangelnuts]

Since we're on the topic of PC specs, I found this site very useful when it comes to seeing what TS2 uses and needs to use when you're playing the game, and how your specs really effect the game.
Basically the theory says that it mainly depends on your proccessor or something like that, I haven't really read it in a while.

Although, I'm not saying that article is speaking the complete and honest truth as I'm no computer whiz, but it does come from a reliable source.

i know sims2 requires an 800 mhz processor and nightlife requires a 1000 MHZ processor. mine is well above  the minimum at 2400.2 mhz  or 2.42 ghz . I also have a pentium 4  with onborard intel extreme graphics for the moment and a 40 gb hard drive.my new hard drive  just game in so I will be jumping to a 160gb HD and my processor speed  will be changed  to a 3.0 at same time as well as the new  video card that will be  installed the new video card is a Nvidia GE force  with 256mb ram. . I also Have 1024 mb of  RAM on my Desktop.

[Sleepycat]

my Alienware computer is about 6 months old

Aurora 5500
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
Chassis: Alienware Full-Tower Case - Space Black
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling 510 Deluxe Upgrade
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Processor with HyperTransport Technology
Motherboard: ABIT AV8 - VIA K8T800 Pro Motherboard
Memory: 2GB Alienware Dual Channel Low-Latency DDR PC-3200 at 333MHz - 4 x 512MB
Graphics Processor: ATI RADEON X800 PRO 256MB DDR3 w/Digital and TV Out
Chassis Upgrades: AlienIce 2.0 Video Cooling System with Acoustic Dampening - Terra Green
System Drive: High Performance - Serial ATA - 160GB Serial ATA 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Optical Drive One: NEC ND-3520 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
Optical Drive Two: NEC ND-3520 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
Floppy Drive: 3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive - Black
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS High Definition 7.1 Surround Firewire (IEEE 1394)

runs TS2/UNI/NL great   This is MY baby, noone else is allowed to use it! 

I have another thats about a year old that my daughter is allowed to use, it runs TS2/UNI/NL really well and she has rarely managed to crash the game (shes 12 and does all sorts of stuff to her sims)  and shouldn't have any problems with future TS2 EPs but I don't have the specs on hand so I can't list them, spent app. $2,000 on it and my alienware baby was app. $4,000.

I'm not rich *is actually very poor* but I "came into some money" when I got my SSI back and knew I needed to replace my ancient computer (which TS2 never would have worked on and I doubt TS1 would have worked on it either) so I choose to spend the money and get the best I could since it will be a long time before I can afford to buy another new one.

[Zilla]

Mine isn't anything exciting, but here ya go.

Vista- Home Premium

AMD Athlon 64X2 Duel Core Processor 5000+2.60 GHz
1918 MB Ram
32-bit operatiing system
455 GB hard drive
DirectX version 10
NVIDIA Geforce 6150 SE nForce 430


The only thing I've done with it is added a 500 GB external hard drive.

[jolrei]

I do play with 'reflection' turned to 'on', should I change that? Dang it, I like the feature. I have the neighborhood view on off, as well as the decoration view, but I guess that doesn't help much.

I generally play with reflections on, but reduce shadows to medium.  I found that significantly increased performance in my game.  Don't know if that's helpful in your case.  Looking over your specs, it all looked fine to me (maybe a boost on display memory would help.

My own specs:

Intel P4 3Gig dual core with HT
1 gig RAM
ATI Radeon eXpress200 Northbridge (based on X300 chipset) (onboard)

Plays a Base/Uni/BV game with no problem, no lag, as long as shadows are reduced to medium.  Load time is approximately 30 seconds from initial double-click to Neighbourhood view.