Re: Seeking advice: Should I install Sims 3 on Mac or Windows?

@puzzlezaddict 

Thank you for helping me decide - I should go with the Windows version. My MBP struggles with many apps as is (Adobe Suite, Tabletop Simulator, Discord) and will need replacing within the next year or two. 

Funny enough I somehow spend weeks if not months worth of play time in unedited IP on that Alienware back in the day (until it eventually died on me, of course). I have not played any other worlds (other than Sunset Valley & Riverview when the game just came out), maybe I should skip out on IP this time around hahah

If you don't mind me asking, what are your favorite worlds and why?

I am a scuba diver irl and enjoyed it in the Sims (before I got my license), what's the next best beach world?

It is an Alienware X51 R2 with the following:

Windows 10 (I did upgrade it from Windows 7 a few years back)

RAM: 8GB. Don't need to multi-task.

CPU: Intel® Core™ i3-4130 CPU @ 3.40GHz 

Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 645 (OEM). I don't mind paying a premium if it helps improve how the game runs.

The motherboard I think is this: CN-0PGRP5: Dell Alienware X51 R2 Andromeda Series Intel Socket LGA1150

Oh and I bought an IPS monitor - to be able to design (UX) from home during the pandemic and beyond. It is Philips 276E8VJSB 27" Monitor, 4K UHD IPS, with 60Hz refresh rate. Not sure if this would impact the performance as well.

The link is exactly what I was looking for and I'll make sure to follow every step in there! I am plagued by IT issues everyday at work, I want to make my gaming is as seamless as it can be.

@NiiChavo  As far as upgrades go, you could get a 4th- or 5th-generation processor, but no higher.  Intel basically killed off the 5th-gen CPUs early, so they're really hard to find.  An i5-4570 or i5-4690 would do fine, and they're both under $200 from third-party sellers on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TO9ZD8M

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CO8TA4I

They're probably cheaper used, if you want to take your chances on Ebay.

The graphics card could be better, but now is not a great time, price-wise, to buy a GPU: a lot of options are sold out, and the remaining options are generally much more expensive than they should be.  On the other hand, you could probably find a used Nvidia 1650 or 1060 on Ebay for under $100.

Another consideration is your computer's power supply.  A 1050 or 1650 only needs a 300W PSU, and all but a few 1650 models don't require a supplementary power connector.  The GTX 645 specs say the card generally requires a 450W PSU but that some models might run at a slightly lower wattage, so you probably have at least a 400W model, meaning a 1060, 1650, or 1660 would likely be fine.  I don't know whether your card has a supplementary connector though, and if not, whether you could find one for your PSU—some OEM models don't come with extra cables.  You'd need to open the case and have a look.

If you want to play at a 4k resolution, you'll need a significantly faster graphics card, and also probably a new PSU.  There's no reason you can't use a lower resolution; the game looks quite good in QHD, and still very nice at lower resolutions.  But Sims 3 doesn't scale up well—it seems like the correlation between the number of pixels and the framerates is somewhat linear, so going from FHD to 4k might drop fps by 75%.  It's just something to keep in mind.

Finally, please measure the space inside your computer case before buying anything.  Your card is listed as single-slot, and newer cards can be significantly thicker.

All this seems to me like a lot of effort, not to mention money, to reanimate an old desktop.  I understand why you might want to, but when you're looking at your options, consider that you could get a new PC that's significantly overpowered for Sims 3 for $800:

https://www.amazon.com/CyberpowerPC-Xtreme-i5-10400F-GeForce-GXiVR8060A10/dp/B08FBK2DK5

(That's not necessarily the cheapest option, just the cheapest good one I found in five minutes of searching.)

As for Isla Paradiso, maybe you were lucky, maybe you have a higher tolerance for lag and freezing than other players, maybe your mods helped mitigate the issues, or maybe some combination.  There's no reason not to play in the world as long as you're willing to edit it or download a fixed version.  No other EA world has dive lots or other features of the Island Paradise EP built in, but you can add them to any world where the water is deep enough.  Sunlit Tides is sunny and tropical, so it's a good fit for the content.  There are also plenty of custom worlds out there that have custom-built dive lots.  Rflong7/Rflong13 is a popular creator and hosts her (cc-free) worlds on the Exchange if you want to take a look.

I'm not sure what my favorite world is, to be honest.  It totally depends on my mood and the type of game I want to play.  I've most recently been enjoying Dragon Valley; I've played the most in Riverview.  But most of them seem nice, and playing in a new world is fun all by itself.

@puzzlezaddict I have money to spend thanks to being quarantined. I was only thinking that 

One, if I can quickly & cheaply revive my old PC why not - if it'll give me a better Sims 3 experience (but it sounds like my PC is so old that parts are hard to find)

Two, I am also afraid if I buy a new PC, it won't work with Sims 3 being an older game.

So I have no problem with getting a new one if upgrading my old one just doesn't make sense financially.

Sorry for asking so many questions. Is my fear valid that a machine could too new / overpowered for Sims 3? Could it fail with a newer graphics card?

Is there a recommendation that I can go when it comes to a PC? My main priority is that Sims 3 runs well on it.

@NiiChavo  You don't have to be sorry for asking questions; that's what this site is for.  I wouldn't be posting if I didn't enjoy answering.

You could certainly try playing on your current PC and see how it goes.  If Sims 3 isn't running as well as you'd like, you could do a bit of hardware monitoring to see where the problem is and go from there.  Maybe you just need one new component, and that would be a cheap and easy fix.  But maybe you want to play on ultra settings, and then you're looking at multiple upgrades, and the price tag starts to rise.

As an example, an Nvidia 2060 should start at about $300, with somewhat higher prices if you get a Super or an overclocked model.  The just-announced and much faster 3060 is officially starting at $329, according to Nvidia, again with a bit of a premium for the partner cards with the usual bells and whistles.  However, the cheapest (new) 2060 I can find is $600.  The gap between expected and actual price isn't so dramatic for the 1650 and 1660 variants, but they're still more expensive than they should be.  This should clear up in a few months when the newer cards are no longer completely sold out, but "a few months" could be two or it could be eight.

Sims 3 runs just fine on newer PCs.  People buy them all the time and generally have a good experience.  The biggest issue that can't easily be fixed is some stutter when moving the camera, but that's an issue of the graphics card, not necessarily the system overall, so you might see it just installing a new card into your current computer.

As for recommendations on what to buy, I do that too when people ask.  If and when you're ready to buy a new computer, I mean you'd be ready to place an order in the next couple days, let me know, and I'll do a thorough search.  I just need a budget and country, as well as an idea of priorities: do you want to play in 4k, do you want to play other games, etc.  There's not much point in looking before you're ready to buy though, since prices change and inventory turns over.