So we tested the Sims 3, and ....
Sims 3 Testing period - September 19 - October 05, 2009:
The Sims 3
System Requirements
The "MINIMUM" specification preferred to run this product for this test, (but if you don't meet these minimum game required (by EA) stats with your pc, you are still welcome to reply and state your results):
Minimum CPU
Minimum: (XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent; (Vista) 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent or higher.
CPU Speed
Minimum: (XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent; (Vista) 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent or above.
RAM
Minimum: (XP) 1 GB RAM; (Vista) 1.5 GB RAM or higher.
OS
Minimum: Windows XP (Service Pack 3) or Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) 32 or g4 bit - both are allowed.
Video Card
Minimum: 256 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 (NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 or above / ATI Radeon 9500 or above / Intel GMA 3-series or above) or better.
Features: Minimum attributes of your Video Card Required
Video RAM 256 MB
3D
Pixel Shader version 2.0
Free Disk Space
Minimum: 25GB of hard drive space.
Last - to own your own copy of the "DISK only" version of the Sims 3 base game and to be able to play the game approxiamately 5 or more hours a day during this 2 week period.
Remember - this is the BARE MINIMUMS YOU NEED to run just this base game. You don't have this - then don't be surprised if it doesn't run, or at least run correctly on your pc. Also keep in mind that this guideline is determined on the game only with out the use of any non-EA made Content.
-------------------------------
The above results were derived by the testing of over 100 different computer configurations,including some laptops that ran the game - all patched up to the 1.4 patch - for 2 consecutive weeks at least 8 hours each day without incident, but only on computers that met ALL of the above minimum requirements or higher. These users had a variety of EA made content added to their game, all had the free items from the store including the new neighborhood, but absolutely no mods, hacks, or other user made items were allowed in the particpates games during testing.
The games were launched using the TS3.exe in order to bypass the game launcher, and the EADM was uninstalled from the game after the various store freebies were added to the game, as both the launcher and the EADM seemed to cause a variety of problems when starting the games. Background tasks shut down or disabled before each play session in all systems - were any emulation or copy programs (like Roxio drag to disk, Alcohol, Nero, and others of this genre), the internet, and any other unnecessary programs. It was also found that users running Norton Antivirus - including Symantec have problems with their game of various nature regardless of whether or not the antivirus was disabled. The problems in 100 percent of the cases associated with the Nortons Antivirus mysteriously vanished when this antivirus was removed from their systems and replaced with a different antivirus program. I thought this should be mentioned in the hopes that people considering Nortons products will find another product to use instead if they are mainly interested in playing the Sims 3 games.
Also keep in mind the testers only used pcs using a Windows operating system and all ran InternetExplorer 8 for a browser, not that it seemed to matter with the game, but it did seem more effective with downloading and installing the Sim 3 stores free items and the town. All also had the .net framework 3.5 sp1 installed on their pc which this game requires for both uploading and downloading to and from the Sims 3 site.
At the conclusion of the test many testers added various custom content to their games and it was found that many of the considered modded style CAS items for Sims themselves did seem to create crashing to desktop problems for testers who had not experienced any of these problems without this modded CC. There seemed to be no increase in problems if the users used CC that was created so it could be installed Via the Sims 3 launcher though. No tester gave any info on true game programming core mods and hacks though, so I have no info on how these game file changing hacks affected the game at all. We only tested things we were sure just about every Simmer tries at least a few times in their games, which seem to be hairs, clothing, accesories and skins/eyes for their Sims. The slider hacks were tried, just the face and body slider, even though the hack itself states that it cannot be used on games patched past 1.2.7 and true to form did indeed cause a variety of game problems from crashing to slow frame rates and lag. Many of the adverse problems created by these user made modded items (any user created item required to work from placing in a mods folder directly into the main game data files on the users main drive and NOT under my documents is considered modded CC) was not always fixed by just removing this CC from the game. It also caused problems with using saved files once these item were removed even if the user uninstalled/reinstalled the game and deleted all their folders the uninstall does not remove - which ended up causing users to have to start all new games to stop the errors and deleting all saved games.
Again this problem was not duplicated with CC installed via the Sims 3 launcher if it is also uninstalled with the Sims 3 launcher. Saved games were unaffected and the game would automatically apply EA content to the users Sims in place of the missing CC without incident.
Last - testing proves using the game as intended and installed completely on the main drive of the users pcs (which is considered the default install) created the best overall playability of the game. SOME users who attempted to use the game via external drives experienced a variety of problems from missing game content, to unusual lags and freezes, to odd glitches not apparent on users pcs that used and installed the game as instructed. As this was not intensively tested or purposely tested there is no concrete evidence whether or not the use of an external drive is completely troublesome to the game or caused game to become unplayable, there was indeed a hint though that unless your external drive and your main drive ran the same exact speed there were some obvious problems and all
the more reason the game really should be installed completely on your main drive for the best overall experience. So make sure you buy a big enough harddrive to accomplish this preferred use of the game.
Hopefully this info will help you if you are buying a new pc to play the Sims on or if you have a pc and are having trouble with the game.
End of Testing and results report - October 10, 2009
___________________________________
The Sims 3
System Requirements
The "MINIMUM" specification preferred to run this product for this test, (but if you don't meet these minimum game required (by EA) stats with your pc, you are still welcome to reply and state your results):
Minimum CPU
Minimum: (XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent; (Vista) 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent or higher.
CPU Speed
Minimum: (XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent; (Vista) 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent or above.
RAM
Minimum: (XP) 1 GB RAM; (Vista) 1.5 GB RAM or higher.
OS
Minimum: Windows XP (Service Pack 3) or Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) 32 or g4 bit - both are allowed.
Video Card
Minimum: 256 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 (NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 or above / ATI Radeon 9500 or above / Intel GMA 3-series or above) or better.
Features: Minimum attributes of your Video Card Required
Video RAM 256 MB
3D
Pixel Shader version 2.0
Free Disk Space
Minimum: 25GB of hard drive space.
Last - to own your own copy of the "DISK only" version of the Sims 3 base game and to be able to play the game approxiamately 5 or more hours a day during this 2 week period.
Remember - this is the BARE MINIMUMS YOU NEED to run just this base game. You don't have this - then don't be surprised if it doesn't run, or at least run correctly on your pc. Also keep in mind that this guideline is determined on the game only with out the use of any non-EA made Content.
-------------------------------
The above results were derived by the testing of over 100 different computer configurations,including some laptops that ran the game - all patched up to the 1.4 patch - for 2 consecutive weeks at least 8 hours each day without incident, but only on computers that met ALL of the above minimum requirements or higher. These users had a variety of EA made content added to their game, all had the free items from the store including the new neighborhood, but absolutely no mods, hacks, or other user made items were allowed in the particpates games during testing.
The games were launched using the TS3.exe in order to bypass the game launcher, and the EADM was uninstalled from the game after the various store freebies were added to the game, as both the launcher and the EADM seemed to cause a variety of problems when starting the games. Background tasks shut down or disabled before each play session in all systems - were any emulation or copy programs (like Roxio drag to disk, Alcohol, Nero, and others of this genre), the internet, and any other unnecessary programs. It was also found that users running Norton Antivirus - including Symantec have problems with their game of various nature regardless of whether or not the antivirus was disabled. The problems in 100 percent of the cases associated with the Nortons Antivirus mysteriously vanished when this antivirus was removed from their systems and replaced with a different antivirus program. I thought this should be mentioned in the hopes that people considering Nortons products will find another product to use instead if they are mainly interested in playing the Sims 3 games.
Also keep in mind the testers only used pcs using a Windows operating system and all ran InternetExplorer 8 for a browser, not that it seemed to matter with the game, but it did seem more effective with downloading and installing the Sim 3 stores free items and the town. All also had the .net framework 3.5 sp1 installed on their pc which this game requires for both uploading and downloading to and from the Sims 3 site.
At the conclusion of the test many testers added various custom content to their games and it was found that many of the considered modded style CAS items for Sims themselves did seem to create crashing to desktop problems for testers who had not experienced any of these problems without this modded CC. There seemed to be no increase in problems if the users used CC that was created so it could be installed Via the Sims 3 launcher though. No tester gave any info on true game programming core mods and hacks though, so I have no info on how these game file changing hacks affected the game at all. We only tested things we were sure just about every Simmer tries at least a few times in their games, which seem to be hairs, clothing, accesories and skins/eyes for their Sims. The slider hacks were tried, just the face and body slider, even though the hack itself states that it cannot be used on games patched past 1.2.7 and true to form did indeed cause a variety of game problems from crashing to slow frame rates and lag. Many of the adverse problems created by these user made modded items (any user created item required to work from placing in a mods folder directly into the main game data files on the users main drive and NOT under my documents is considered modded CC) was not always fixed by just removing this CC from the game. It also caused problems with using saved files once these item were removed even if the user uninstalled/reinstalled the game and deleted all their folders the uninstall does not remove - which ended up causing users to have to start all new games to stop the errors and deleting all saved games.
Again this problem was not duplicated with CC installed via the Sims 3 launcher if it is also uninstalled with the Sims 3 launcher. Saved games were unaffected and the game would automatically apply EA content to the users Sims in place of the missing CC without incident.
Last - testing proves using the game as intended and installed completely on the main drive of the users pcs (which is considered the default install) created the best overall playability of the game. SOME users who attempted to use the game via external drives experienced a variety of problems from missing game content, to unusual lags and freezes, to odd glitches not apparent on users pcs that used and installed the game as instructed. As this was not intensively tested or purposely tested there is no concrete evidence whether or not the use of an external drive is completely troublesome to the game or caused game to become unplayable, there was indeed a hint though that unless your external drive and your main drive ran the same exact speed there were some obvious problems and all
the more reason the game really should be installed completely on your main drive for the best overall experience. So make sure you buy a big enough harddrive to accomplish this preferred use of the game.
Hopefully this info will help you if you are buying a new pc to play the Sims on or if you have a pc and are having trouble with the game.
End of Testing and results report - October 10, 2009
___________________________________
