Sims 3...

[jacqg]

Hello, I built my computer last year during black friday and got the following specs:

AMD Phenom II X4 925 2.8x4
Radeon 5770
4GB DDR3 HDD
in a
ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard (3 pci + 2 pcie slots)

Unfortunately the Sims 3 isn't compatible with the 5770(and it lags like crazy even in ultra low graphics) so I'm thinking of either getting a new graphics card or crossfiring with an old compatible card for the game. I have a 550w psu, I'm not sure if it can support 2 graphics cards.

Here's the list of compatible video cards for the game:

Graphics cards
NVIDIA GeForce series FX 5900, FX 5950, 6200, 6500, 6600, 6800, 7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950, 8400, 8500, 8600, 8800, 9300, 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800, G100, GT 120, GT 130 GTS 150, GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295
ATI Radeon 9500 series, 9600, 9800, X300, X600, X700, X800, X850, X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950, 2400, 2600, 2900, 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870, 4850, 4870, Intel ® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) GMA Series 3 Series 4 GMA

Now, I have three questions.
1) What's the cheapest card I can get from that list?
2) Will my power supply be able to handle two graphics cards?
3) Am I better off just buying a new graphics card and selling my old one? If so, which one?

Please please please, I'm not really a big tech buff and my system can run Skyrim in ultra settings pretty smoothly but I REALLY want to play Sims 3. I mean, you don't understand how much I want this.

Thanks a lot for the help!

 

[silent hero]

It's likely that list was made before your card even existed. If you notice, it's missing all cards after the 200 series of nvidia cards and all past the 4000 series of AMD cards. Your card should be more than capable of maxing out Sims 3 imo. I would recommend updating your video card drivers if you havent already as well as updating the game to the latest patch. How does your card run other 3D games performance wise? If you can run similarly taxing games as good or better than it's probably an issue with the game and not your hardware.

 

[Revdarian]

Hmm, check that the vidcard is actually running on 3d mode. I have a suspicion that it is running at 2d and hence the deplorable performance.


If it is running on 2d speeds, you can then make a profile to force 3d clocks and activate it when running the sims.

 

[mannyman]

I played hundreds of hours on the sims 3 maxed out with a 5770 and a Athlon II x3. Something else is going on here. Also worth mentioning a 5770 can only crossfire witha 5770 or 6770 only similar cards can crossfire.

 

[aqw955]

Hmm, check that the vidcard is actually running on 3d mode. I have a suspicion that it is running at 2d and hence the deplorable performance.


If it is running on 2d speeds, you can then make a profile to force 3d clocks and activate it when running the sims.

yes.. it more like a software issue, updating/ optimizing the driver will be the first thing to do.

 

[TheGamerZ]

Did you even install the latest drivers from the AMD website or did you just let windows install its own default display drivers?

If that's the case, that's your problem. The 5770 is MORE than enough for such a simple title.

And of course the Sims 3 is compatible with the 5770. The Sims 3 came out June 2, 2009. The Radeon 5700's didn't come out till fall 2009, so they won't be on that list.

 

[jacqg]

Oh alright I'll try that when I'm on my computer. Thanks a lot for the replies and I'm glad that someone actually played the game with the same card.

 

[JHB]

As already stated above, that card can run the Sims 3. My wife runs it on her GTX 460 and I run it on my GTX 580. Both cards are not listed as "compatible".