Stretching, yawning, RPS emerges from its brief hibernation, scrabbling through inboxes and RSS feeds in search of nutritious PC gaming info-nuggets. But is there much, if anything, for this small beast to feed upon in these desolate Winter weeks? It sniffs the ground disconsolately. There, a futile-looking Wii-style controller for PC. Here, a flight sim sequel. Satisfying to some, perhaps, but nothing of substance.
Aha! The shivering creature’s tired eyes finally catch a glimpse of something more fatted, juicier. It’s definitely a decent info-nugget – not the tastiest kind, but it will do. RPS takes a bite and finds…
Mmm. Official specs for the Sims 3.Yeah yeah, system spec stories are usually as invigorating as visiting Cumberland Pencil Musuem, but it’s different in The Sims’ case.
No matter what you may feel about the game, what EA have deemed its specs to be are likely a minutely-researched reflection of the average modern PC really is. EA want to offer a game that’s playable by almost everyone who’s even thinking of buying it – and, as we well know, that’s a very broad Anyone. In other words, forget about the Sims, and think about what these numbers tell us:
128 MB GeForce FX 5900 or Radeon 9500 graphics card
Pentium IV 2.0 GHz or Athlon XP 2000+ CPU (2.4Ghz/2400+ for Vista)
1 GB of RAM (1.5Gb for Vista)
EXCITING DELICIOUS NUMBERS.
In the simplest terms, that’s the equivalent of a pretty decent gaming PC circa 2004. Except it’s just not as simple as that, because there probably aren’t many average Sims players with GeForce FXs and Radeon 9500s, as those were reasonably high-end components at the time. (As was 1Gb RAM – I remember most of us RPSers being flabbergasted to discover we needed that much memory for Planetside. A whole gigabyte? Impossible!) More likely, potential Sims 3 purchasers own a more recent PC with some sort of integrated graphics, and as such these specs are thoroughly unhelpful to them – and to us, as armchair analysts. I would guess that the more recent Intel integrated chips, the GMA X3100 and beyond, can just about muster Radeon 9500-level performance so long as the shader demands aren’t too intensive. I would definitely say something like the integrated GeForce 8400 that’s cropping up in a fair few affordable laptops can handle it. Older integrated stuff? Probably not, but we’ll see. At a guess, most PCs that are two years old or less will be fine with the Sims 3, but anything that wasn’t ever a pretty decent gaming machine from before then will be left in the cold. Which seems reasonable, but given this game’s audience, there’s bound to be quite a few folk left behind.
Even so, I’ll bet it’s been a hell of a struggle to get the game running on that sort of system and still able to look suitably lovely on better rigs. That this is a pure-PC game, and one with doubtless a collosal budget, is noteworthy – it’ll have benefited from levels of careful optimisation the average also-on-console FPS could only dream of, so is possibly a better reflection of what a low-end PC can really do in optimal conditions than any other game. The dual core era isn’t truly here yet, because the Sims says it isn’t. Out of interest – who here doesn’t have a PC that meets those requirements?
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It’s amazing that this should be amazing. The Sims people (I guess it’s an internal EA team these days rather than Maxis?) realise that with trim and lean system specs they can sell their game to more people! GOSH!
@Vandely, It seems that there isn’t any real alternatives that are as cheap, Bit-Tech are still recommending it for mid-range rigs (their definition of mid-range I hasten to point out).
Personally I went for a faster, newer, duel core (E8500 I think) for about the same money.
Alaric: The Q6600 benefits from being incredibly easy to overclock. Even it’s stock cooler will allow you to push it to 3Ghz, and there are reports of people pushing it to 4Ghz with the right cooling.
I just spent a couple of hundred on a 4870 and 4GB RAM which has brought my machine up to a 5.6 (it’s the RAM that’s letting it down apparently).
My system gets a 5.9 overall in Vista too (snore) but what’s interesting is that the limit has been raised to 7.9 in Windows 7 – the beta of which I tried out on my gaming desktop.
Here’s a screenshot if you want to see:
http://e.imagehost.org/0510/Windows7WEI.jpg
Spot-on Alec. My high-end rig from 4-5 years ago has almost these exact specs barring a slightly beefier CPU.
On the other hand, my mother and sister? Big Sims players (Ikea expansion etc.). And their PC has been upgraded in the last year or so (Trying to think what might have prompted this, Oblivion, WOW perhaps?) and I believe will run this game. Which is good for them.
Thankfully, I’ve steered ‘em away from Vista so they’re gonna benefit from lower minimum specs. Might have been a close one had they got a Vista machine, and trust me when I say that EA would be penniless fools if they pitched the specs too high and rule people like my mother and sister out of the market (Yes, and they bought the Sims H&M pack too).
I have a 3.0 on my laptop, because I have some rather shite Ati integrated video card.
On the subject of Q6600, I think it is one of the most common processor amongst gamers, I know about 3 people besides me who have one.
Even the old family comp which we finally replaced last year with an awesome Notepad-capable rig could handle this. Barely though, it had a Radeon 9500.
WAIT WHAT EDIT IS BACK :OOOOO
My PC doesn’t quite meet those requirements, unsurprisingly. But they’ve done a pretty good job to get it that low, especially considering how bloaty and slapdash a lot of the Sims 2 was.
I wouldn’t be surprised if modders quickly tweak it enough to play on an even weaker system, either. It’ll be interesting to see how easily the game will be to mod and tweak in general, come to think of it.
Also, why is everyone saying “rig”? It sounds silly and nerdy. Stop it.
“Not exactly mainstream, but plenty of people still buy hardware and build their own rigs, gamer or not.”
And how. At my work, 5 of 7 of us just bought new computers. All 5 custom built them (well, the most tech-savvy of us actually built them, but we all helped) because it saved us almost a GRAND each.
I can get a 1400 (canadian) desktop custom built, or get a slightly worse pre-made one for over 2000. Yeah, tough choice…
@ sinister agent:
Rig is a great word, it makes me think of manly things like oil rigs, rigging, and errr…Runrig.
Even ‘I’, w/the once TOP of the line, now laughably obsolete, PC beat the specs. I have:
AMD Athlon XP 2600+
ati Radeon 9800 Pro
1 GB pc2700 RAM
Windows XP sp3
so…thank goodness. I thought I was thoroughly through being able to purchase big, new PC titles off the shelf at the time of release.
Little worried about my laptop, with the 2Ghz Vista setup. A lowly 3.6 on the score, let down entirely by graphics. On the other hand, it had no trouble running Spore, and surely Sims 3 will chug along without crashing out entirely… right? Right?
I guess my 2,4 Ghz Core 2 Duo and 8600M GT wont do the trick, since it’s running MacOS X… sighs.
“Out of interest – who here doesn’t have a PC that meets those requirements?”
*raises hand shamefully*
I only have 512 MB of RAM. Can’t even play SimCity Societies.
Even if it doesn’t work, I’m still buying the game. I can snuggle up with it on my lonely college nights, so it’s all good.
I do not meet the specifications, neither do most people I know. My issue is the CPU and the Video card. not fun.