Sims 3 on newer Macs

EA is probably never going to optimize TS3 for macs (unless you count a possible rerelease for anniversary promotion in 11 years or whenever), but you can still figure out a way to work with what you have. The most recent macs can play the game reasonably well, as long as you're willing to do a little bit of work. Check out BluebellFlora's thread on these forums, as well as her own website for tips on troubleshooting. The latter includes fixes for the Unknown Error messages, a description of how to purge RAM, and even a way to address graphics card incompatibility, among other things. People here can help if you're having a specific issue that you haven't been able to work around; just describe it (and your computer specs) and someone whose name is probably igazor will be along to assist you.

If you can Bootcamp your mac, that might be the best bet, but even if you can't or don't want to, you can still play, with some limitations (the biggest being that the game will only be able to use 2 GB RAM at a time). I play on a new macbook pro, and I have only a few more complaints than the typical PC user on these boards.

"puzzlezaddict;c-16318256" wrote:
and someone whose name is probably igazor will be along to assist you.

LOL! :p

The newest of the Mac lineup with Intel Iris (Pro) and Intel HD integrated graphics provide the biggest challenge. Some players can get TS3 for Mac to launch on those (how well it then runs might be a different story) by using the workarounds. Some of the processors those Macs have also put up barriers. No one can do disc installs if running El Capitan, Sierra, or High Sierra, it all has to be Origin. Some players can never get the game installed or launched on these combos, the component compatibility just isn't reachable, but at least Bluebellflora's blog site as linked to provides a fighting chance.

Those with newer Macs that include a dedicated AMD Radeon graphics card do fare much better, and those are also the ones that tend to be more suitable for Bootcamping should the player wish or be willing to play the Windows version on them and should they have or can create enough free hard drive space to devote to the Windows partition. Some of the iMacs that qualify are still what I would call mid-range on prices, the others tend to be much more expensive and not always within reach of the "average" consumer (whatever average means).

But as for EA providing a patch or a fix, while that would be a delightful surprise all indications are that the team even capable of doing so "left the building" well over four years ago. :/

"puzzlezaddict;c-16318256" wrote:
EA is probably never going to optimize TS3 for macs (unless you count a possible rerelease for anniversary promotion in 11 years or whenever), but you can still figure out a way to work with what you have. The most recent macs can play the game reasonably well, as long as you're willing to do a little bit of work. Check out BluebellFlora's thread on these forums, as well as her own website for tips on troubleshooting. The latter includes fixes for the Unknown Error messages, a description of how to purge RAM, and even a way to address graphics card incompatibility, among other things. People here can help if you're having a specific issue that you haven't been able to work around; just describe it (and your computer specs) and someone whose name is probably igazor will be along to assist you.

If you can Bootcamp your mac, that might be the best bet, but even if you can't or don't want to, you can still play, with some limitations (the biggest being that the game will only be able to use 2 GB RAM at a time). I play on a new macbook pro, and I have only a few more complaints than the typical PC user on these boards.

Thanks I will give it a try!