Please suggest a good Sims 2 Video Card

[shadow]

I just bought an Nvidia GForce FX 5200 with 256Mb Ram and it works great.  I bought it on eBay for $49 plus shipping.  My system is not top of the line by any means.  2.6 ghz processor, 512 ram and 80 gig HD.  The video card was easy to install.  I haven't had any parties so I don't know how many people I can have.  This is the first time I've been able to enable the special events camera, though.

[themaltesebippy]

$70 to install a card, what a bunch of BS.  I'll install it for a couple of Wendy's triple cheeses.

[Danni]

Just to point out, having a 128mb NVidia FX 5200 doesn't automatically mean you're only allowed to invite 2 people to parties - it also depends on the rest of your computer. I'm allowed to invite 4 without a cheat (got an AMD Athlon 64 3400+ with a gig of RAM). It also defaulted the graphics to medium with Nightlife, rather than low (but I turned them up to high and nothing lags).

I do want to get a better card though... anyone suggest any low priced ones that show bumpmaps?

[DrBeast]

Adding more memory to a low-end graphics card is like installing racing tires on a Zastava. You won't see much of a difference. Better to scrap it altogether and aim for a better model.

[LynnMar]

I am going to get the new card, have it installed and pray for the best.    I have the AMD Athlon too with 120 gig ultra hard drive.

hey, Maltesebippy too bad you don't live in Ohio,  I would buy you the wendy's triple cheeses for a week,   

 but since you don't I will be paying the tech man another 70 bucks.   

[kryptmoon]

I hope some of this information can help so that someone can get down to the bottom of this.

I have a Radeon 9600XT 256mb
AMD Athlon 2600XP CPU
2 Gigs DDR Ram
80 Gig HD w/40 free space
Win XP Pro Svc.Pack 2
300 Watt Power Supply
Most Updated Drivers for ATI Catalyst

Before Nightlife everything ran on high and absolutely no probs. except that I was going to update CPU anyway for smoothness in gameplay.
After the installation of NL, my settings changed (which I read that this was supposed to happen because Maxis enhanced the Video Graphics etc. etc.)
So I changed all my settings back to normal (high) and did not have a problem with gameplay except that I noticed my custom skins were not defined and a little cartoonish. So I raised the resolution in game after that every thing was crystal clear and beautiful....until...my pc crashed and rebooted in the neighborhood screen. My first thought was, I thought there was a spike in my house...until it happened again. My second thought was okay Maxis changed the graphic specs requirement so I lowered the setting to medium trying to accomodate..it crashed again and this time it also crashed on a Lot with the neighborhood view on.The neighborhood also looked funky(flashing houses and Terrain turning white.
Immediately I thought it was my drivers. (I had just updated my video drivers. I've always used Omega beta drivers for performance)I figured it could have been a glitch w/the beta drivers so I uninstalled and replaced w/ATI Radeon Catalyst most recent.
Well, it stopped crashing in the neighborhood screen so I thought that was it. But just the other day it rebooted in one of the lots when I was trying to show my daughter the new neighborhood view.
I am NOT an expert but I see alot of people going out and updating their video cards(which is all good) but I wonder if the problem lies in the CPU. It seems that Nightlife is making the CPU work harder and it only happens when I have the neighborhood view on. Also since I changed the drivers to it's original maker it stopped rebooting in Neeighborhood screen. Which tells me The drivers that I had before(were set for high performance) was too much for my CPU.
I have ordered a new power supply 550wt and new CPU 3200XP which I did not install yet. So for now I play w/mostly med. settings and no neighborhood view(which really sucks...the whole point of NL, to me anyway.)

Someone on this thread said that the games auto detections for your comp. specs is not being read right. This makes alot of sense since I never had a prob. before NL, my system is not shit and supposedly it meets and surpasses requirements. Hmmmm Don't think it's supposed to be rebooting w/neighborhood view on, which is a huge feature in this expansion.

Hope a Maxoid is reading this thread and can give conclusive answers to this prob that many of us are having.    

[Baa]

I've got an ATI Radeon 9600XT 128MB video memory.

Game runs fine.

Looks excellent with graphic effects all the way up. I just need more ram because it gets slow at times.

And there's a problem with the cinematics. Sometimes the sound is slower than their actions, or sometimes the whole cinematic is choppy and will jump ahead a few hundred frames and the sound will still lag behind.

[Scotty]

I have a Radion 9600 PRO. 256 MBs The game runs awsome with everything set to high. Im pretty happy with it.

[MokeyHokey]

but the other man said that no matter what card you have,  NL will not let you have more than two people for a party.

Well, I just tested it with Brandi and Darren's wedding party, and was able to invite 8 guests.    So I guess it's not a universal bug, and still does depend to some extent on the computer.

[Braveheart]

My tech checked everything out with my card and discovered my fan wasn't working properly so I had him fix that. Brought the comp home today and still have choppy graphics. I am even running it with the case open thinking it might be airflow problems, but that is not it. Wondering if what Kryptmoon said has some merit to it. Before Nightlife, I have never had a problem with my graphics card (Geforce FX5200 128mb) Since Nightlife, I get spontaneous reboots, neighborhood view "earthquakes" (the graphics shake back and foth really fast), the edge and arrow key scrolling is choppy. I really cannot afford a new card but I also am NOT able to play the game as it is! What has chaged with Nightlife? My specs are more than adequate(2.2 ghz P4, 1024mb RAM, 80gb hardrive only 50% full and of course the video card mentioned above. Someone? A Maxoid? Please help...I can't even play the game anymore and I am obviously not the only one with these kind of problems.

[dizzy]

So I raised the resolution in game after that every thing was crystal clear and beautiful....until...my pc crashed and rebooted in the neighborhood screen...

... so I lowered the setting to medium trying to accomodate..it crashed again and this time it also crashed on a Lot with the neighborhood view on.The neighborhood also looked funky(flashing houses and Terrain turning white.
Immediately I thought it was my drivers. (I had just updated my video drivers. I've always used Omega beta drivers for performance)I figured it could have been a glitch w/the beta drivers so I uninstalled and replaced w/ATI Radeon Catalyst most recent.

Well, it stopped crashing in the neighborhood screen so I thought that was it. But just the other day it rebooted in one of the lots when I was trying to show my daughter the new neighborhood view.

Whenever your PC "crashes" this could be due to any number of hardware conflicts: video, CPU, RAM, audio, hard drive etc. Suffice it to say that the only reliable fix for this is to scan everything at the lowest level possible. In particular, you need to test your RAM and low-level scan your hard drives. It's not always a software fault (i.e. updating drivers).

[LynnMar]

I got into my performance and settings options in my nvidia control center and changed some of the settings,  I had no clue as to what I was doing but anyway my graphics look better and I can play again in 800x600 resolutions again which is great on the old eyes.     

maybe I won't have to buy a new card just yet.   

[kryptmoon]

My tech checked everything out with my card and discovered my fan wasn't working properly so I had him fix that. Brought the comp home today and still have choppy graphics. I am even running it with the case open thinking it might be airflow problems, but that is not it. Wondering if what Kryptmoon said has some merit to it. Before Nightlife, I have never had a problem with my graphics card (Geforce FX5200 128mb) Since Nightlife, I get spontaneous reboots, neighborhood view "earthquakes" (the graphics shake back and foth really fast), the edge and arrow key scrolling is choppy. I really cannot afford a new card but I also am NOT able to play the game as it is! What has chaged with Nightlife? My specs are more than adequate(2.2 ghz P4, 1024mb RAM, 80gb hardrive only 50% full and of course the video card mentioned above. Someone? A Maxoid? Please help...I can't even play the game anymore and I am obviously not the only one with these kind of problems.

I ran a diagnostic stress test on my pc.Tested all the hardware.No probs according to the results.(It took 11 hours ) Like I said I had no probs playing the game before so I'm waiting for my upgraded CPU to come in.(Process of elimination)to see if that changes anything.
There are plenty of other threads about this situation that I have found on other sites. Could'nt be everybody's computer suddenly gone fu.. up.

I'll keep reading..somebody's bound to have an answer.

[Hook]

Prior to Nightlife, 1800 would have given you a high CPU level.  With Nightlife, it wants 2800 for high.  Your 2600 is now considered medium CPU level.  (Low/Medium/High is now 1000/2200/2800).

Hook

[kryptmoon]

That's what I said in my original post, that it could be the CPU. Thanks for pointing that information out. I have to wait for Monday for my new CPU, install it and see.

I have no idea what Bravehearts Pentium 4 is equivelant to but I Hook's  info helps. Also upgrading the video ram to 256 or higher does'nt hurt either. I will let you know if the rebooting stops as well as overall gameplay.

[Braveheart]

Okay, I keep on trying....I deserve an 'A' for effort and patience if nothing else. Thinking that possibly something had hooped with my video card in the last while, I unistalled Nightlife and am back to running only Sims 2 and University. Guess what? All is fine! Graphics are great and running on maximum settings. No glitches, no reboots and no choppiness. It believe the issue is with the Nightlife expansion. What does Maxis expect us to do? Buy a new and improved system each time they release another expansion? I bought this video card specifically for the Sims2 and now its not going to work for it? Please, Maxis? Address this issue if at all possible. I am not the only one having these problems.

[SimMoon]

My system is 4 years old and I had it built custom by Dell. Its almost time to upgrade, expand drive space, get better sound card, video card... in other words, buy a new tower.. but right now, I have this:

2.2 processor
512 memory
1000 mgs virtual memory
40 Giga HD
GeoForce 4 - 64 mg video card
Soundblaster 32 sound card

My computer runs High/Med for Uni. Graphics are good and I don't plan to upgrade anytime this year. Waiting for the sales in 2006 . But I do like the Geoforce series and they wont cost you an arm and a leg.


.

[Motoki]

I honestly wouldn't worry too much about what the game thinks your settings should be. Most of the settings and resolutions you can turn up yourself and you can add a startup cheat file to always let you invite 8 sims. As long as you can run on high settings without much problems and the game lets you see cinemas and get reflections and bump maps and all that you should be good to go. NL seems to think my Athlon 64 3400 1 gig RAM and ATI X200 Express integrated video card with 128 MB RAM is a low to mid level setup but I've upped all the settings and added the cheat for 8 sims and have no problems.

NL's hardware identifying system is by no means perfect so I'd take it with a grain of salt personally.

[DrBeast]

My tech checked everything out with my card and discovered my fan wasn't working properly so I had him fix that. Brought the comp home today and still have choppy graphics. I am even running it with the case open thinking it might be airflow problems, but that is not it.

Opening the case will not improve airflow, it'll only make it worse. Unless you pop a big fan blowing air onto your mainboard next to the open case, like I did with my old Celeron 1.8!