Advise on new video card please
Anach:
Quote from: Narmy on 2010 December 01, 23:29:31
Quote from: Anach on 2010 December 01, 15:10:49
If you have a dual core system, then I wouldn't bother spending big on a video card unless you are intending to upgrade the CPU later. Anymore than a 3xxx series ATI and you are wasting money.
I dunno about the 3xxx series, they're not that great. They do make low-med end 4xxx and 5xxx cards, which probably perform better, cost less, and are easier to find.
Quote from: Anach on 2010 December 01, 15:10:49
Also get your RAM upgraded if you haven't already. If your OS is 64bit, then get yourself a min of around 6-8gig, which will really help the Sims. If you are on 32bit, then max it out to 4gig RAM.
The Sims 3 is a 32-bit program, so even with 8GB of RAM it can only address I think 2GB maximum, even if you have a 64-bit OS.
3xxx series might not be available now, but what I meant by that is that you don't need an excessively powerful card for sims. Its more RAM and CPU. Prior to my 5870, I was runing a 3870x2, while obviously only a single gpu was being used for Sims, I didn't notice a lot of increase in performance by upgrading my vid card. More noticeable difference was obtained by applying the 4gig patch to the .exe (now included in official patches) and then upgrading my CPU to an i7 from quad core.
While playing the sims, I will often utilize around 80% of my 12gig of RAM. So it will definitely use it when needed. Just sitting here with the browser open I'm using 40%, so windows certainly needs breathing room which 4gig no longer provides. I would say 4gig is absolute minimum required for a smooth running system these days. Lucky RAM is cheap. The more vid RAM you have, the more System RAM you need (1:1 used by vid card.) So if you have 4gig of RAM and a 1gb vid card, you really only have 3gig left to run windows, background tasks and games. With sims using 2-4gig on average, that doesn't leave much, which leads to slowdowns and more HDD thrashing.
PolecatEZ:
Quote from: jeebuschrist on 2010 December 01, 23:51:51
Quote from: Narmy on 2010 December 01, 23:29:31
Quote from: Anach on 2010 December 01, 15:10:49
Also get your RAM upgraded if you haven't already. If your OS is 64bit, then get yourself a min of around 6-8gig, which will really help the Sims. If you are on 32bit, then max it out to 4gig RAM.
The Sims 3 is a 32-bit program, so even with 8GB of RAM it can only address I think 2GB maximum, even if you have a 64-bit OS.
With the LN patch, EA made the Sims 3 large address aware, so it can now access a full 4GB. Still 32-bit, obviously.
Where was this in the patch notes?
Jeebus:
Quote from: PolecatEZ on 2010 December 02, 15:19:23
Quote from: jeebuschrist on 2010 December 01, 23:51:51
Quote from: Narmy on 2010 December 01, 23:29:31
Quote from: Anach on 2010 December 01, 15:10:49
Also get your RAM upgraded if you haven't already. If your OS is 64bit, then get yourself a min of around 6-8gig, which will really help the Sims. If you are on 32bit, then max it out to 4gig RAM.
The Sims 3 is a 32-bit program, so even with 8GB of RAM it can only address I think 2GB maximum, even if you have a 64-bit OS.
With the LN patch, EA made the Sims 3 large address aware, so it can now access a full 4GB. Still 32-bit, obviously.
Where was this in the patch notes?
It wasn't. However, the patch did indeed make the game LAA. FordGT90Concept's Patch Downloader, which used to have the feature to force LAA, no longer does, as noted by the creator:
Quote
Fifthly, all large address aware features have been removed from the application because the 1.17 series of patches, by default, have large address aware enabled. The large address aware features, therefore, are now redundant.
I could probably dredge more up to support this, but yes, the game is large address aware.
Anach:
Quote from: jeebuschrist on 2010 December 02, 22:10:31
Quote from: PolecatEZ on 2010 December 02, 15:19:23
Quote from: jeebuschrist on 2010 December 01, 23:51:51
Quote from: Narmy on 2010 December 01, 23:29:31
Quote from: Anach on 2010 December 01, 15:10:49
Also get your RAM upgraded if you haven't already. If your OS is 64bit, then get yourself a min of around 6-8gig, which will really help the Sims. If you are on 32bit, then max it out to 4gig RAM.
The Sims 3 is a 32-bit program, so even with 8GB of RAM it can only address I think 2GB maximum, even if you have a 64-bit OS.
With the LN patch, EA made the Sims 3 large address aware, so it can now access a full 4GB. Still 32-bit, obviously.
Where was this in the patch notes?
It wasn't. However, the patch did indeed make the game LAA. FordGT90Concept's Patch Downloader, which used to have the feature to force LAA, no longer does, as noted by the creator:
Quote
Fifthly, all large address aware features have been removed from the application because the 1.17 series of patches, by default, have large address aware enabled. The large address aware features, therefore, are now redundant.
I could probably dredge more up to support this, but yes, the game is large address aware.
However, the sims3.ini still needs to be changed to allow for a higher mem usage limit. It is still default at 2gig.
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