[ItsCleo]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could help me, or point out something I might be missing...

I recently got the Sims 3 (and installed it on my XP computer)and the game works fine in 'Create a Sim' section and 'build mode' section, however when you actually play the game it is incredibly slow.
The requirements for the game are:

* Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 1 GB RAM
* At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
* 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

My computer has:

* Windows XP, Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.53GHz, ~2.5GHz
* 512MB RAM
* DirectX 10.1
* Graphics card - ATI Radeion HD 3600 Series (512MB & Shader Model 4.1 support)
* Hardrive with 29.3GB free space (45GB used)

I don't get why the game is so very slow? The only other things installed on the XP are Photoshop CS2 and the Sims 2 with all the expansion packs.
If anyone has any advice or can help me at all I would be very grateful as it's putting me off playing the game at all.
Also, the games settings are left on standard and haven't been altered to 'highest'.
Thanks for reading.
Cleo

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The processor is good enough, but your RAM is cut in half compared to what you say the game requires.

You said you have 512 MB. You said the game requires 1 GB. < This makes a big difference.


I recommend to get more RAM. Post back here if you need help finding RAM. RAM is fairly inexpensive.

Edited by DragonMaster Jay, 06 June 2009 - 09:18 AM.

[DragonMaster Jay]

The processor is good enough, but your RAM is cut in half compared to what you say the game requires.

You said you have 512 MB. You said the game requires 1 GB. < This makes a big difference.


I recommend to get more RAM. Post back here if you need help finding RAM. RAM is fairly inexpensive.

Edited by DragonMaster Jay, 06 June 2009 - 09:18 AM.

[ItsCleo]

Ah, I don't know how I missed that lol. Thanks DragonMaster Jay, where would you recommend getting more from?
Also, since today I have been unable to load the game at all, I get this error:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library

'Runtime Error!

Program: C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EADM\Core.exe

R6002
-floating point support not loaded'

...Then the game launcher screen loads, but if you click play nothing happens and youre just left with the error box. Is this probably due to the RAM? or another issue?

Thanks again,
Cleo

[DragonMaster Jay]

After you get RAM, you may want to reinstall Sims 3, unfortunately. It may have encountered a DLL error or similar, and I have heard to just reinstall the problem program.

To get RAM depends on what you have. Use the Crucial Memory Advisory Tool, http://www.crucial.com/ , and please tell me what type of RAM you have running, what slots are available, etc.

[ItsCleo]

I bought a new 1GB RAM today and the game works perfectly now, thank you for pointing it out.

The only thing is, I still get the C++ error when I put the CD in, however if I ignore it after a while the game loads and it's fine. Is there something I can do just to get rid of the error? Ive googled the error but can't find anything useful to resolving it.
Thanks again for your help.

[DragonMaster Jay]

As I said above, you may want to just reinstall the game. That will get you to a working game faster.

[Writin_Reg]

Just wondering if you are shutting off background tasks - pay special attention to the user fires you are shutting off as for some odd reason the game places the "Core" file under user files there. I accidently discovered this myself while shutting down background tasks and found myself getting a similar issue. I know for a fact my pc runs circles around the requirement - like my video card is a PNY Geforce 9400 with 1 gig ram on it alone. I also run 2 gigs of Corsair Extreme Performance high speed gaming ram.

One other question - if you are running XP why are you running direct X 10? Both the game requirement and xp say to run direct X 9c. Usually 10 is for Vista OS systems. I have a pretty high performance desktop (just 2 weeks old) and only run 9c on my perferred choice to run XP Pro on my new rig. So perhaps you are getting the error because of the version of direct x you are running.

[popurati]

I bought a new 1GB RAM today and the game works perfectly now, thank you for pointing it out.

The only thing is, I still get the C++ error when I put the CD in, however if I ignore it after a while the game loads and it's fine. Is there something I can do just to get rid of the error? Ive googled the error but can't find anything useful to resolving it.
Thanks again for your help.

Where did you buy your RAM? I have a windows xp and I am experiencing similar probblems with the sims 3. I keep getting this error: "There was an error during startup. See the Log for more details." and when it opens up the loading screens take ages to load

[Cheryl Lacey]

Hi I am having the same problem with a slow running game, can you advise me as to what I would need to upgrade in order to run it properly.

System specs

Owner: user
User: Owner
Computer Name: USER-EB3DEC816C
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.01.2600 Service Pack 3
Report Date: Tuesday 10 January 2012at 09:41

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


<<< System Summary >>>
> Mainboard : ASRock N68C-S
> Chipset : (Family 10h) Athlon/Opteron/Sempron/Turion HyperTransport Configuration
> Processor : AMD Athlon 50 @ 2200MHz
> Physical Memory : 1024MB (1 x 1024 DDR2-SDRAM )
> Video Card : RADEON X600/X550 Series
> Hard Disk : SAMSUNG SP2504C SCSI Disk Device (250GB)
> DVD-Rom Drive : PIONEER DVD RW DVR-108
> Network Card : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller #2
> Network Card : Hamachi Network Interface
> Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.01.2600 Service Pack 3 (32-bit)
> DirectX : Version 9.0c (May 2010)

I don't know which bits are relevant so just pasted it all. Many thanks.

[katherines6]

hi i have the same problem. can i get the game speeding up without buying ram?

[Macboatmaster]

Cheryl Lacey

Firstly Apologies for the late response but to have posted on an existing topic started by ItsCleo, so your request was not noticed. For your future informations always start your OWN topic.

System requirements for Sims3
The Sims™ 3 Minimum Hardware RequirementsFOR WINDOWS XP

• 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
• 1 GB RAM
• 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
• 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
• [font="""]Supported Video Cards: Nvidia GeForce series: FX5900 or greater, G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150, GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 275, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295; ATI Radeon™ series: ATI Radeon 9500 series of greater, X300, X600, X700, X800, X850, X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950, 2400, 2600, 2900, 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870, 4850, 4870, 4890 series or greater; Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA): GMA 3-Series, GMA 4-Series.[/font]
  
  [font="trebuchet ms,geneva"][font="""]Please note that the GeForce 6100 and 7100 cards are not supported.[/font]
  
  My recommendation would be to increase the RAM. [/font]
• That said it WILL NEVER be fast the minimum processor speed is 2Ghz yours is 2.2 but in reality it probably runs at the minimum.

[cbk1boral]

Thanks Cheryl for your kind help.......

Edited by Macboatmaster, 10 February 2012 - 07:56 AM.
Links removed irrelevant to topic and one was an unsafe link