This is how:
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=112711


Yes it does matter- many people have found that their (nonsupported) graphics chips do not work with the game. Most memorably, the old S3 chips which were supported for the basegame unfortunately with later EPs gave bright red flashing walls. The people who had these cards had bought an unplayable game! It is important to make sure you only buy and install software that is suitable for your hardware- otherwise you could be wasting your money.

I bought a new pc for my birthday and just got the parts and made it my self (it a F*****G Rocket )and the garafics on it not only on the sims 2 but fear on full settings WOW it has 4Gb DDR2 ram 512Mb card form nVida and TWO 2.4Ghs processers and two 250 Gb hdd its da best but it cost a load (it WAS worth it)

Nice, make sure you don't fill it up with Malware!

I have all the EP's and SP's installed with plenty of room to spare. Season's will definetly fit on my computer. I can't wait to get my new graphics card now.
I have a GeForce6600 and I'm upgrading to the GeForce7800.

I'm going to disagree with you on that-- my old desktop could only run the base game due to the graphics card. I would highly recommend to anybody that if their graphics card doesn't meet the requirements, hold off on buying any EPs-- it's just wasting the money. Believe me, I figured that out.

-I can defagment
-I'll try to get rid of some CC (I've been able to keep it low, but I have almost 700MB now. I can't live without my bodyshop content, but there's some stuff I don't use, so I can sacrifice some of it)
-I didn't mean I was going to play it on the old one, I meant would my new(er) computer work better than my old one (That was a stupid question, of course my new comp would run smoother than the old one, even though it is going to have 3 EPs installed and custom content).
-I have no Stuff Packs, and I don't want to get rid of my regular EPs, so I'll take my chances on that one. *crosses fingers*

Thank you for replying!

I hope I'll be okay. I'm planning on cleaning up as much CC as I possibly can, seeing as I have over 4 GB of CC. It already lags terribly. Takes like, 20 minutes to load the neighborhoods screen.

Any way to make it better? I have a Dell Dimension E510.

Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 GHz
2.99GHz Processor
504 MB of RAM

I'm pretty sure my video card is fine, since I've never had a problem with it before... but I'm worried about my space. @_@

A word to the wise for laptop users!! This time around there is a disclaimer on the package itself that while you may have a laptop chipset version of the compatible graphic cards , they may work but...ARE NOT SUPPORTED!!! I have a pretty good laptop and excellent stats, but even my laptop started to heat up while playing! So be aware! Check your stats before you buy it!! some folks may have to switch over to the life stories version as it seems MAXIS/EA is definately starting to distance themselves from laptop users in the traditional sims2 genre.

I will buy life stories just to have it because I am a Sims nutcase!!!! LOL!

Happy Simming All!
Renee

I hope my laptop will be able to run Seasons fine, but I'm a bit worried about my graphics card. How's this?

(The information below is taken from running dxdiag.)

Processor: Genuine Intel(R) CPU - T2300 @ 1.66 GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1.5 GB
Video card: Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Chipset Family, 128MB of memory
Video card chip: Intel(R) GMA 950
Hard drive space: 5GB for my C:\ drive (where the game is installed); 15 GB for my D:\ drive (where My Documents is, and consequently my downloads and required files for the game)

I haven't had a problem thus far with the game on my laptop; my graphics are pretty good, and my gameplay's quite smooth unless it's on super-huge lots. But I just want to be sure. This will probably be my last expansion pack anyway, given the fact that I am most probably unable to upgrade my graphics card and hard drive. :/

Your graphics chip isn't supported so you're taking a risk buying seasons:
http://thesims2.ea.com/help/detail.php?help_id=280
You have a good amount of RAM though.

That's what I was afraid of ... but my graphics chip has never been listed since the base game, and my game's graphics are quite good. :3 I don't suppose it's upgradeable, right?

I'd recommend getting a new graphics card,theyre cheap-ish and can always be upgraded.
In theory if you buy a graphics card it should set to use the card as opposed to the chip,but im sure theres a setting in the bios to tell your pc to use the card instead of the chip.
As for upgrading a chip,way out of my pc experience im afraid.Sorry i couldnt be of more help.

It is not always possible to upgrade a laptop- some of the top end machines may have room for expansion, but generally no. It always costs a lot of money to get laptop parts, too.

simsample I have a question for you..... I play on a laptop and have an ATI Radeon 9600/9700 AGP (0x4E50) graphic card, 120gb HD, 1.70 processor and 2 gb RAM. I have been playing Seasons today , but have had to stop playing and rest my machine for awhile as it became extremely hot!! Could you please tell me if you could what the problem might be? I have all the fun packs (except the 2nd xmas stuff pack, have it , but have not installed it) and EP's installed.

I was contemplating buying a small cooler ventilator for under my laptop. Do you think this could help ?

Thanks,

Renee

Has the laptop got hotter than it normally would when you have been playing for that amount of time? If so, then this could indicate a hardware problem of some kind- there are a lot of faults that could potentially cause overheating. If this has just occurred since Seasons then I would guess that this is caused by the extra demands the new EP is putting on your computer.Here are some tips to cool the computer:
1) Check that there is no dust, fluff, chewing gum, earwax etc blocking the vents on the side/ bottom of the laptop! Blow out the vents with canned air, or clean with a vacuum cleaner.
2) When you play, place the laptop on a hard surface like a table. Your lap is not a good place to have a laptop when gaming! When I play games on my laptop, I place a large book on my lap and the laptop on top of that- this allows the air to circulate under the laptop. Make sure all of the little rubber feet are still on the laptop, if not then buy some sticky feet/ pads from a store so that there is still a gap between laptop and surface for the air to circulate. Don't block any vents with your hand, arm, clothes etc.
3) The cooling pads basically just raise the laptop and blow air at it with little fans- if you can't afford one of those then put your laptop on a table and play with a desktop fan directed at it! If you can raise it up on a couple of books (leave a gap in the middle for the draught to get in) then all the better.
4) Don't leave your game idling on the neighbourhood screen for a long time (like, when you have dinner)- close the lid to put the laptop in sleep mode when not playing.
5) If heat is a real problem then try to play smaller lots, with less content on the lot- for example, just have a couple of hedges instead of hedges right around the lot. This keeps the complexity of the lot (and the work the computer has to do) lower, so reducing temperature.
6) If the computer gets too hot, shut it off and leave to cool on a table. Don't play when it is too hot- especially if the fans are struggling- or you could potentially cause some damage.
7) You could try turning some of the graphics effects off and lowering the settings- for example, turning off shadows reduces the demands on the computer, but may not be that noticable in game when you are playing. You could just put the settings back on high when you take pictures, for a contest perhaps. Play with the settings and see what looks acceptable. Turning off UI transparency is good, also turning off special events camera and the Picture-In-Picture camera. All of these things, whilst not necessary to game play, will increase demand on the laptop when active. Also try turning off neighbourhood view.
I hope that helps a bit!

Err, my graphics card isn't listed. But it's in between the high and low numbers. o.O; So I'm a bit confused. >< I have only Uni and Nightlife and so far it works perfectly! I haven't had a single lag! I have...

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+, MNX, 3DNow, ~2.4GHz
958MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE
256.0 MB

Im really worried about my Vcard and the chipset, since I was one of those people who had problems with the nVidia chipset and Pets EP.
I think my computer will be ok, but I dont know about the Vcard and the chipset.

Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz Processor
1.25GB RAM
25GB of free space
GeForce FX 5600 256MB
ForceWare: 84.21

But I still get some errors. I think my Vcard is ok, I dont think I need to buy a new one (I bought this one 8 months ago)
Or maybe is there anything else that could help me?

I know I'm going to sound like a complete dunce for asking this question, but ... I'm going to ask it anyway. How do you know if you have a "laptop chipset" version of a compatible graphics card?

:confused: <-- shows her computer naivete

Here if you want to see how it willl run the game use this link to gamespot and click beside where it says The sims 2.It runs a full system scan and tess you all info about what the min and recamoned levels are.(my pc got full ) heres the link: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy...=the%20sims%202

Thanks for the link, Shakerfire. My laptop got past the recommended requirements. Yay. :D

Oh! Thank you very much! My laptop has also passed the test. :D

Please bear in mind that though your systems may be powerful enough to pass these tests, if your graphics card is not on the list you run a risk of experiencing glitches with Seasons. This is because the supported cards are graphics chips which the TS2 team have tested the game with, and written graphics settings for. If your card is not on the list then the game has no 'instructions' of how to handle the card, and therefore the game may not work so well. Please bear this in mind when you make the decision to buy- at present, for Seasons, none of the mobile chips are supported. In the majority of cases the game will be fine, but occasionally on the Help forum we see people with unsupported cards (sometimes, quite good cards, too) who are having unbearable graphical errors with the game.

oh no!! ive got a radeon 9250 inbetween a 9200 and 9300 will it run cause it runs pets fine?

here on my old pc had an unsuppored card do not f*** arund to get it to work.
it was good for it but it WAS unsppored use it at your own risk.

Luckily for me, my video card is on the list.