Anyone had problems running The Sims 3?

white apples

Wondering if anyone has had any problems / issues running The Sims 3 on any laptops?

Reason I ask is that I'm running it fine on a laptop which is below the minimum required according to the game sleeve at the moment.

I'm buying a new laptop but don't wanna splash out on the high specs they state if I don't need to so was wondering if there's any machines that it won't run on? Specifically the ATOM N270 processor, has anyone tried running it on a machine with this.

At the moment I have it working fine on an ASUS F5R (XP)
Processor: Intel Core Duo T2250 1.6GHz
RAM: 1 GB DDR
Graphics: ATI Radeon X300 128MB

Minimum specs stated are:
Processor: Pentium 4 2.4 GHz / Athlon XP2400+
RAM (XP) : 1.5 GB
128 MB Graphics RAM

I'm looking at getting something like this but not sure if it'll run.
http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfullat.asp?productcode=MME865P550#spec

Kinetic^

I'd get more RAM for it tbh, up it to 2gb. With XP you'll be flying along with that. The CPU should be ok as well. The only problem you'll have is how do you install the game with no DVD drive? Or can you buy the sims through an online client?

white apples

Kinetic^ wrote: »

I'd get more RAM for it tbh, up it to 2gb. With XP you'll be flying along with that. The CPU should be ok as well. The only problem you'll have is how do you install the game with no DVD drive? Or can you buy the sims through an online client?

Really? I just presumed all laptops had DVD drives! Whoops, bit out of touch I guess! lol

So maybe then something like this?

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfullft.asp?productcode=ECE1703457#?productcode=ECE1703457

TomCo

Its not a laptop its a netbook, any of which would be a step down in performance over your current laptop.
I highly doubt the sims 3 would run on one at all.

white apples

TomCo wrote: »

Its not a laptop its a netbook, any of which would be a step down in performance over your current laptop.
I highly doubt the sims 3 would run on one at all.

Sorry if I'm being really stupid.

The one its running at the moment has Intel Core Duo T2250 1.6GHz processor, the one I linked has Pentium T4200 2GHz Dual Core

Its running on 1.6GB RAM, this one has 2GB RAM, so would this one not be better than what its running on now? Its an ASUS F5R that I'm playing it on at the moment but its a friends computer.

tuxy

Your looking at this all wrong. If you will be playing games on a laptop you need good mobile graphics.
You need to also make sure you get a decent graphics processor. And by that I mean the actual GPU. I think the Radeon on your friends laptop would be much better then the Intel GMA 4500M.
Also a Core Duo T2250 is faster then a Pentium T4200 even though the T4200 has a greater clock speed.

Your best bet would be to let us know your budget and we can recommend some laptops

white apples

Ok well the maximum I can spend at the moment is €500.

So if that's seems ridiculous for what I want it for just let me know cos I really haven't a clue. If I can't get one for €500 or less that I could run Sims 3 on then I'll probably just get a basic netbook and then at a later date get a beast of a desktop when I've saved a bit of money.

Main thing I'm stuck for right now is just internet access, word processing bits and a bit of downloading and music etc. but if I can get something capable of Sims 3 as well then its a bonus.

What about any of these? 2 of them have NVidia GEForce 8200M and the other as ATI Radeon.

http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-30-Q60307&pages=1&prod=Q60307

http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-30-720386&pages=2&prod=720386

http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-30-258308&pages=4&prod=258308

white apples

Anyone have any opinions?

thebman

My advice is don't try to buy a gaming laptop for 500 quid TBH.

If your existing machine can run it with a ram increase do that. Will cost less than 50 quid to upgrade the ram and it is the easiest part to upgrade on any machine.

If you go here http://www.crucial.com/eu/ and fill in the fields for your model, it will tell you what memory to buy for your laptop.

Games require good graphics cards and budget laptops come with integrated crap that can't run photoshop properly. You need a dedicated card from ATI or nVidia with about 512MB of dedicated video memory at this stage on top of 2 gigs of ram.

white apples

Thanks for all your replies guys. After some serious research and consideration I think I'm gonna go for this

http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/2827_9846.htm

Just too good to turn down for the price and the amount of times I used my laptop outside of the home.

Can't wait til Thursday!

cherryghost

white apples wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies guys. After some serious research and consideration I think I'm gonna go for this

http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/2827_9846.htm

Just too good to turn down for the price and the amount of times I used my laptop outside of the home.

Can't wait til Thursday!

yeah thats a pretty good deal! good luck with it man!

thebman

white apples wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies guys. After some serious research and consideration I think I'm gonna go for this

http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/2827_9846.htm

Just too good to turn down for the price and the amount of times I used my laptop outside of the home.

Can't wait til Thursday!

Wow yeah great offer, I'd consider it myself if I had the cash :P

Nice upgrade to Windows 7 for future proofing too

You might want to install some temp checkers when you get it to monitor it for overheating. I know medion had some problems with laptops in the past but desktops are usually less likely to have those problems and the warranties have always covered any problems I've seen people have with the laptops.

Overheal

schwing. that could be a good PC.

Hold on tight to the receipt though. Even reputable PC makers make shyte sometimes, and more likely than not, youll be calling on that warranty. Just dont throw your paperwork away. But it looks like a good deal. have fun with it.

white apples

Thanks guys!

Cuddlesworth

Monitor is sold separate...

sh1tin-a-brick

Anyone think I'd even have a chance of running this game on an Intel Core Solo T1300 processer? It's clocked at 1.66 GHZ... Single processors are apparently crap!

Just out of interest, would it be worth upgrading the processor of my laptop? It's Medion, bought out of Aldi ironically enough! It's 3 yrs old this November. Would it be expensive to do?

Cuddlesworth

sh1tin-a-brick wrote: »

Anyone think I'd even have a chance of running this game on an Intel Core Solo T1300 processer? It's clocked at 1.66 GHZ... Single processors are apparently crap!

Just out of interest, would it be worth upgrading the processor of my laptop? It's Medion, bought out of Aldi ironically enough! It's 3 yrs old this November. Would it be expensive to do?

I would find it doubtful that any three year old laptop out of Aldi would be capable of playing it without serious stuttering.

Post the specs, namely cpu, ram and graphics chip.

thebman

Go here:
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

select The Sims 3 from the drop down.

Will tell you if you have minimum requirements and give indicator showing how close to the minimum requirements you are.

Note that for most games recommended is minimum if you want to play with stable framerate.

sh1tin-a-brick

Funnily enough, it works! Without stutters aswell. The load times are quicker than the Sims 2. The 'can you run it' thing says my computer fails but it really does work fine!