Sims 2 Question

[sportswizdan]

Hi ...

I hope someone will be able to help me here. My daughter loves the Sims 2 and the expansions packs for it. I want to get her a computer for Christmas. The ones that I am looking at either have the ATI Radeon Express 200 integrated video card or the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 integrated video card. Do any of you have the Sims 2 stuff on your computer with EITHER of these integrated video cards? I know that I probably would have to turn most of the game settings to medium for detail and what not, but I am wondering how the game would perform as far as any stuttering or skipping at all and the smoothness of the game play. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dan 

[AtomSmasher]

I have no idea how it will run on your machine, but if it runs like crap, you can always get an old video card for around $20 and put in in there.  A quick check on newegg and it looks like the GeForce MX4000 and the Radeon 7000 are around that price, both of which should be more then powerful enough to run sims 2.

[shardian]

Shoot, I have an old amd 1.3ghz, 600mb pc133 sdram, and a geforce mx440 64mb video card and I can run sims 2 perfectly. ANYTHING new you buy today can run it full blast.

[Tiger-Heli]

You might specify that it's a laptop not a desktop computer.  That limits your upgrade potential a lot.

If your choices are basically the same, the ATI RE 200 is a lot better than the Intel 950.

Your biggest problem will not be slowdowns, but heat.  We have a Gateway 15" and an HP 17", both with the ATI RE 200.  The Gateway is fine, but the HP will sometimes freeze after a few hours of play.  (The older HP 14" that the 17" replaced did this also with Sims 1).

See http://www.notebookreview.com/ and their forums for good research and reviews.

[G@M3FR3@K]

Im currently using the ATI Radeon Express 200 integrated video card (for the time being) on my current desktop ( AMD Athlon 64 3500+/ 1GB PC4200/Windows XP Pro SP2).  I would say the ATI RE 200 is on par with my Geforce FX 5200 128MB in my other PC.  Games run about the same fps with same settings.  I am able to run Sims 2 and Sims 2 Pets without a hitch on my setup.  I can also run more demanding games such as Half-Life 2/F.E.A.R./ Far Cry/Battlefield 2/etc... @ 1024x768 res, with medium settings.

I have to agree with Tiger-Heli since, I do have issues with some demanding games getting the chipset to hot after a few hours which results in the Motherboard shutting down the system for safety reasons.  If you are able to replace the heatsink on the ATI (Northbridge ?) chipset with a more efficient one, you may be good to go.  The ATI RE 200 integrated graphics are much better than the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 integrated graphics IMHO.

I have no idea how it will run on your machine, but if it runs like crap, you can always get an old video card for around $20 and put in in there.  A quick check on newegg and it looks like the GeForce MX4000 and the Radeon 7000 are around that price, both of which should be more then powerful enough to run sims 2.

I know from experience that the ATI RE 200 graphics will outperform any ~$20 graphic card such as the GeForce MX4000 and the Radeon 7000.  The only issues it has is it prone to overheat if to much load is put on it.

[Tiger-Heli]

I didn't know they were making desktop boards with the RE 200.

From my reasearch, I think the RE 200 is supposed to be slightly below the ATI X300 line of desktop cards, so yes, much better than a Radeon 7000 or even the 9200 in my current desktop rig.