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Pandora0694's avatar
Pandora0694
2 years ago

New laptop and Sims 3?

Hi!
Since there are a bunch of people who actually understand computers here, I figured I'd ask before I do anything. I have a new laptop (ACER Nitro 5 with i5-11400H processor and GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card). Before I even started to download the Sims 3 from Steam to it, I wanted to ask: will the game play nice (as in no stealing, punching, biting etc. :D ) with these graphics and processor or will it just flat out refuse to run?

I've been setting up my laptop and for some reason on a TS4 binge the first few weeks with this new one. Now I would like to get back to the Sims 3 but is it possible to got it work on this laptop and does it require many acrobatics? I am pretty computer-blind so the acrobatics honestly just might not happen, as much as I adore TS3. But I figured: asking for advice before trying never hurts. Is even trying just a waste of time and disk space?

Thanks for any tips you can give me, since the TS3 is older - and honestly a bit of a diva at times!

  • thesims1depot's avatar
    thesims1depot
    New Novice
    2 years ago
    "bklienhart;c-18263941" wrote:
    You don't actually need to have a recognized graphics card. Just put the settings where you want.


    People need to have their cards recognized, because the default graphics rules that come with the game will underpower/limit the card.

    I think it needs to be explained what is meant by getting a card recognized. People are thinking that it means that the game needs to recognize the card in order to work. That's not what is meant. When the game recognizes a card, it writes a bunch of jibber-jabber to a file called Graphics Rules, which then tells the game how high or low to set certain things, like VRAM, texture memory, etc.

    The problem with the Graphics Rules is that it was last updated eons ago, so the jibber-jabber is completely outdated, to where you can have the best graphics card your money can buy, but the game will look like crap even on the highest settings and in my case, even lack shadows and reflections.

    When people get their card "recognized," what is really meant is that a modder did the legwork of creating an updated Graphics Rules and Graphics Cards file, with settings that will make the most of whatever newer cards are out there. Some people think that you don't need to do all this because today's GPUs come with these third party clients (Nvidia Experience, AMD Adrenalin Edition). However, these only do so much.
  • KevinL5275's avatar
    KevinL5275
    Seasoned Rookie
    2 years ago
    This forum has the updated Graphics Rules files you need:

    https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26753.0

  • Cororon's avatar
    Cororon
    Seasoned Rookie
    2 years ago
    Sims 3 should work on max settings on that laptop, but when you start the game it might use lower settings if it doesn't recognize the graphics card, but you can fix that. Maybe the list of supported graphics cards has been updated since you download the game from Steam. If not, it's easy to do yourself.
  • brionl's avatar
    brionl
    2 years ago
    You don't actually need to have a recognized graphics card. Just put the settings where you want.

    The Sims 3 is almost 15 years old. It should run fine on any PC that isn't one of those $200 Wal-Mart specials.

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