Hi, i've got a Dell Dimension 2400 (a really bad computer... only cost £400 inc. p&p) and the sims 2 takes over 20 mins. to get from desktop to live-mode... and thats with a 2x2 lot... ! Anyway, i am thinking about updating the computer with a new graphics card, but which one? i think my card is ok at the moment, its an Intel extream graphics 82845g/gl/ge/pe/gv and i have no idear what that is, someone please tell me!!! But i am going to buy a new RAM for my computer. i have got 256 meg but i am going to update to 564 meg (or whatever) but will it make my gaming experiance any quicker? My CPU is 2.40 GHz and Intel Celeron... (is that halfway between Pentium 3&4?) :blah: :blah: :blah: Please Help!!!

The Intel Extreme is onboard and utterly useless for 3d Gaming. As for which card to choose, that would depend on your budget. Don't go loewr than ATI 9600 pro or nVidia 5500. More memory is alway good (it's 512 meg). Celeron 2.4 is Pentium 4 minus some level 2 cache and scaled down a bit.

is celeron good enough? the game looks OK, and i am updating to 512meg, and how much is ATI 9600 pro and nVidia 5500?

Celeor should be just fine. I'm in South Africa so I don't know what they would cost in the UK but over here we pay the equivalent of about £100.

OK! Thats about the same price as 512 RAM. Does a better graphics card make it quiker to load, or make it take longer as the graphics is better?

Yes, it makes it faster. Also, there is a tut somewhere... I think at Mike Inside's place. It will show you how to run your game faster by creating a second user account on your computer and playing your game from there.

A very good utility for optimizing your computer (not free, but very affordable is TuneUp 2004. It does miracles for your computer.

I have exactly the same pc as you and my sims runs really slow too! but u cant just buy a new graphics card because the motherbourd doesnt have an apg slot where the graphics card goes so u will need to buy a Pci graphics card or a new motherbourd.

Ok. i wont get a new card but i will update to 512 meg RAM. I am going to delete everything from my computer and re-instal windows and start from scratch, and then buy nightlife!

i found putting another 512 RAM on top of the 256 my laptop came with made a hell of a dfference. i didn't try wth just an extra 256.
im going to get another 512 when i can afford it to take it to the max my laptop will allow

i'm sure bairy does the same tut that grapholina mentioned. i followed it and though i've not noticed an appreciable difference, i quite like having the game on a seperate user account of its own, away from the other crap i have

Ouch. How can they still sell pc's like that. It's herecy! :0

I no i thought i was getting a good deal untill i tried to update my pc and found out i had to go about it the hard way!

If you want to uptade you're pc, in my opinion you should uprage to 1gb ram and a good processor (also a good graphic card), if the cost will be too high just buy a new one (not easy I now but the pc will remain "new" for a couple of years). I'm searching a way to upgrade too, I have a amd1800+ XP, geforce3, 500+Ram and sims 2 take it's time... a long long time

p.s.
Sorry for my english :P

Is Ram Still Updatable????

My computer was only £400 inc P&P and a "free" flat LCD 17'' monitor worth about £399...

Yeh as long as you have enough slots to fit the ram in to, i think it already has 2 slots for ram

why you havent'bought a cheaper monitor? I have a 17' LG FLATRON and I've payed it 200€. However RAM isnt' directly upgradable, just you can change it with a more powerful one (two, for two slots)

OK. 2.40 GHz CPU , is that ok?

And the moniter was FREE with the computer!

Try Slimming your down loads. My processor speed is at about 1807 mhz and it does't take that long for me. I added a bunch a new objects takes even longer like over 5 mins to load start up. When I frst got the game, it took like a minute to load to get in a neighborhood. I miss those days.

i have deleted all my downloads!!! And anyway, i am re-installing my entire machine...

:confused: Am I the only American here? So the world really does expand beyond our nations borders. :laugh:

My specs are

Emachine T3828
Windows Xp
335 Celeron D Processor
2.80 GHZ
256K L2 Catche
533 MHz FSB
2442 M virtual memory
.99 GB RAM (purchased and installed by me)
80 GB 7200 RPM Hardrive
Intel Extreme Graphics
Sound Blaster Live 24-Bit Soundcard (purchased and installed by me)
Downloads folder= 2.45 GB for 9,396 files
DVD-R/CD-RW Drive
DVD-RW/CD-RW Drive (purchased and installed by me)

I don't know what most of this stuff means, but I will tell you what I do know.

My game takes about 5 good minutes to load and get to the cities menu, but other than that the game play has been pretty smooth since I started a new account for the game itself. My only problem has been that sometimes It takes up so much of my CPU that the game jerks horribly. Even on a one player 2x2 lot. I'm wondering if I upgrade the graphics card will that smooth things out or should I upgrade my processor instead? Which would be easier and more cost effecient?

i dont think your processor is the problem... Ur graphics card is the same as mine and mine needs updating...

As far as giving good advice on what to buy to make the game better, I've kinda studied some of the graphic rules... Basically this game is designed to run best on a nDivia video card, the more the memory the better. It looks at your CPU for speed, but mostly it looks at your video and it's memory. My suggestion is to get a newer video card then the geForce 5200, and no less then 256 megs on it. If the game is taking 20 minutes to load to a house (or what ever), you might want to check out the speed of your hard drive, the minimum speed you want for a hard drive is a 7200rpm, 10,000 would be better for a game computer. Only upgrade your main computer memory past 256megs if you have Windows XP (maybe 2000 as well), being windows 98/ME doesn't do anything with memory past 256 megs.

The CPU isn't going to make all the difference as far as loading, what will is how many downloads do you have in the folder, the more files you have the longer the game will take. Make sure you do a disk cleanup once in a while, but if it's a new computer, better check the speed of the hard drive first, big difference between 5700rpm and 7200rpm...

Just so you know, I'm running a AMD with a clock speed of 1.6 GHz, 512 megs of ram, and a ATI all-in-wonder AGP. And my hard drives all are 7200 RPM, I have a ton of stuff in my download folder, and it only takes maybe 3 or 4 minutes to get all the way into the house, mostly cause I don't always know which house I'm going to play...

I got'n an idea! Mayby you have t many programs running?
I had end it work'd so slow. Try press ctrl + alt + del then shut down all programs but not systray end explorer.

ps I have 64 mb graphic 256 mb ram 1 GHZ Win 98 se.
end it runs perfectly. the pc is 5 years old

You should look at upgrading to Windows XP, being windows 98 only uses 256 megs of ram, plus if you upgrade your video to at least 256 the game will go into a higher graphic mode (medium).

I got a new GeForce 5200 and have only got it to work a couple times (doesn't like my motherboard or something), and I can get bumpmapping to work with it...