What's up with the SIMS 2???

[Ellie]

It works fine on my PC, but my sister's trying to play it on hers and well... it's extremely slow, even on all of the graphics qualities are set low, and her PC is way above the mimimum specs they recommend.

(University is installed too)

Her specs compared to what is needed:

Windows XP : Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 98 or Windows 2000
2.4ghz processor : 800mhz processor
512mb RAM : 256mb RAM
> 10GB (dunno) : 3.5GB

Before you mention upgrading, it's a dell... -_-

 

[Rare]

Is she running a P2P software in the background? Is she running a virus scanner?

Compare the differences between your two computers.

 

[Venetia]

Do you have any expansions other than University? I know of a few cyclical redundancy errors with them that have been fixed with various patches.

How many custom downloads do you have installed?

Like Elias said, have you tried shutting down all other programs before running the game?

Have you tried making small lots instead of big lots? Big lots mean bigger lags.

The Sims 2 runs mainly off your RAM: that's the most important. It only uses version 1 shaders and only requires a lot of processor speed when dealing with a high number of high-polygon content on the screen (such as 8+ sims or lots of custom content with high poly counts). 512MB isn't really enough to make it run very smoothly, but it should run decently atleast with many of the settings on low.

How many FPS are you getting on average? I'd say the game runs at about 20-50 with a few spikes here or there. The coding is atrocious for it.

 

[Ellie]

Hmm, I guess 512mb is pretty low, but that's still twice the requirement to run it. (It's all secrets and lies... secrets and lies!) My PC has 2048mb, which is probably why it runs so smoothly.

It's just Sims 2 and University installed, but I think my sister's got tons of custom items and skins. (She has a bit of a Final Fantasy theme going.)

 

[Skyla Doragono]

Yeah, it runs slow because of the amount of RAM. I had it on a Dell with that much, and it ran really slow too. That, at least, you can upgrade easily enough, even if it is a Dell.

 

[Venetia]

Custom content causes Sims 2 game lag.

The reason it requires so much RAM is that the game constantly checks the Downloads folder and repeatedly accesses multiple files. When you have a lot in the Download folder, it repeatedly reads every piece of custom content currently displayed as a separate file. If the computer's memory is clocked slow, checking these files over and over will become taxing. I don't think Maxis ever really anticipated anyone to have as much custom content as they do (I have well over 1.5GB of it), so they set the system requirements at the assumption that you'll be playing with only the default objects/skins/hair, etc.

 

[Danton Lavergne]

If the game is just slow, try using SpeederXP. Used it on my old computer to play games.