Sims2 iMac -- again

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Level 2

230 points

Sims2 iMac -- again

I've seen related posts but I can't get a clear answer. My daughter's current flat-panel iMac runs Sims very slowly. For that, and other reasons it's time for a new iMac for her. The 20 inch, 2GH seems to meet the requirement from Aspyr, but some posts seem to indicate the ATI Radeon 9600 is a problem. My question, will Sims2 run as well as it does on my G5? and should I consider the 1GB DDR400 SDRAM - 1 DIMM option? So far Sims 2 is the only problem, but since she's 11 now, I assume the newer programs she will soon be using will have higher requirements as well. Suggestions?

Posted on Sep 25, 2005 11:10 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 25, 2005 5:31 PM in response to Mary Glynn

Michael Sudarski, "g5 rev b game help", 02:24am Sep 25, 2005 CDT

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Answer 2

Mary Glynn Author

Level 2

230 points

Sep 25, 2005 8:10 PM in response to Michael Sudarski

Hi Michael, I had seen your post earlier which only added to my confusion. Your G5 had 1g ram. Now I've been using macs since 1993 and I currently have four of them which I keep running quite smoothly (as well as my friends) but I never have to deal with GHZ, L2 cache, frontside bus, or video cards except when I go purchase a new one. The software companies don't call things the same as the hardware companies (nor does apple name things the same way sites like apple-history.com does) so it's hard to compare. I know it must be hard for people who deal with this stuff all the time to deal with us "newbies" who don't upgrade every month, but I buy more than I need, and when I outgrow it I buy a new one but I still don't have a handle on it.

You said in the previous thread "my rev b g5 1g ram isn't playing some games the way it's meant to"

Aspyr says "CPU Speed: 1.2GHz or faster"

the iMac I'm looking at says "2GHz PowerPC G5"

Are they all talking about the same thing?

Lo Nicholas answered you "it is impossible to update the graphic card on iMac. Becoz the graphic chipset (ati 9600) is onboard."

but Aspyre says "Video Card (ATI): Radeon 9000 or better".

I don't know if I'm comparing apples to apples or apples or oranges when I'm trying to figure out if my daughter's (future) brand new imac to be configured:

20-inch widescreen LCD
2GHz PowerPC G5
667MHz frontside bus
512K L2 cache
(upgrade) 1GB DDR400 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
250GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load 8x SuperDrive (double-layer)
ATI Radeon 9600
128MB DDR video memory
56k internal modem

will run a game that requires:
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3.8 or later
CPU Processor: PowerPC G4/G5
CPU Speed: 1.2GHz or faster
Memory: 256 MB or higher
Hard Disk Space: 3GB free disk space
Video Card (ATI): Radeon 9000 or better
Video Card (NVidia): GeForce FX5200 or better
Video Memory (VRam): 32 MB or higher
Media Required: DVD Drive

I'm just looking for a practical answer. All I know is it runs great on my G5:
Machine Name: Power Mac G5
Machine Model: PowerMac7,3
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 2 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.1.8f7
Serial Number: G85022VRQPR

As well as my G4 powebooks, but slow on her G4 Flat Panel iMac configured:
CPU: PowerPC 7450
CPU Speed: 700/800 MHz
FPU: integrated
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Data Path: 64 bit
ROM: 1 MB ROM + 3 MB toolbox ROM loaded into RAM
RAM Type: PC133 SDRAM
Minimum RAM Speed: 133 MHz
Onboard RAM: 0 MB
RAM slots: 2
Maximum RAM: 1 GB
Level 1 Cache: 32 kB data, 32 kB instruction
Level 2 Cache: 256 kB on-chip, 1:1

All I want to do is run Sims2 since I figure it is a good test of things to come for her. I'm looking for someone with this configuration (or someone who knows) to tell me if she can play Sims2 on the iMac I'm looking at.

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Answer 3

Rod Hagen

Level 7

32,000 points

Sep 25, 2005 8:36 PM in response to Mary Glynn

Mary, I can't answer your question exactly, but I can tell you that Sims2 runs fine on our iMacG5 2 GHz 20", with 2 gig of RAM, so clearly the Graphics Card isn't an issue with these computers.

It should be fine with 1 gig, as well, I would think. It runs quite well on my daughters iBook G4 1.33 GHz 12" with 768 Meg on board. I'd certainly recommend that you get at least 1 gig though. 512 is pretty basic these days, and getting 1 gig should improve her computer experience with quite a few programs, not just Sims2.

Cheers

Rod

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Answer 4

Sep 25, 2005 8:43 PM in response to Mary Glynn

mary glynn, all computer terms are the same.

rod, when you say the sims 2 runs fine, does it run excellent? how is the frame rate? because on my rev b g5 with 1gig ram it's not smooth, but yes it does run.

mary, when developers give required specs, it means that the game will run, however it may not be smooth. in my thread i learned that mac games will not run great if they have been ported poorly from windows.

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Answer 5

Mary Glynn Author

Level 2

230 points

Sep 25, 2005 9:45 PM in response to Michael Sudarski

Thanks Michael & Rod for your answers. I guess "runs fine" is a relative term. It clearly runs (but very slowly) on her current iMac, but runs properly on my G5 and I assume will run better on her new iMac than her old one. I ran photoshop on my LCIII more than 10 years ago and I could transform an object and go make a pot of coffee while it rendered the image. I guess the bottom line is if my 11 year old asks to use my computer to play her game, it's time to get her a new computer. I'd rather stick to the iMac for her and that's my dilemma. Will it be good enough for what she wants to do? IE Sims2.

Michael I'm sure all computer terms are the same but they are not referenced the same which makes it hard for the average person. If you look at the 2 examples I gave:
20-inch widescreen LCD
2GHz PowerPC G5
667MHz frontside bus
512K L2 cache
(upgrade) 1GB DDR400 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
250GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load 8x SuperDrive (double-layer)
ATI Radeon 9600
128MB DDR video memory
56k internal modem

and

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3.8 or later
CPU Processor: PowerPC G4/G5
CPU Speed: 1.2GHz or faster
Memory: 256 MB or higher
Hard Disk Space: 3GB free disk space
Video Card (ATI): Radeon 9000 or better
Video Card (NVidia): GeForce FX5200 or better
Video Memory (VRam): 32 MB or higher
Media Required: DVD Drive

I, a consumer with (probably) more knowledge than the average mac user (but clearly much less than some on this board) is trying to compare these two things and it's not so simple. Aspyr's requirement of CPU speed of 1.2 GHZ or faster ... is that Apples reference to 667MHZ frontside bus or the 2 GHZ Power PC G5. If it's the latter than why didn't your 17 inch 1.8 ghrz work? Does Aspyr's requirement of Memory: 256 MB or higher mean my 128MB DDR video memory is not enough? Because I don't see anything else measured in MB. It might be clear to you, but it's not clear to me, that's why I'm here asking. The only things I could find that were easy to compare was Aspyr's "Video Card (ATI) Radeon 9000 or better" to the new iMac's "ATI Radeon 9600" which means nothing with comments like the one Lo Nicholas made to you saying "Sorry to tell you that it is impossible to update the graphic card on iMac. Becoz the graphic chipset (ati 9600) is onboard." Which leads me to believe the one thing I do know is good enough ... is not.

I get that it did not run correctly on your 1.8 GHz machine, but I'm asking if it will run properly using the 2GHz iMac with the 1GB DDR400 SDRAM or even with the 2GB Ram upgrade. Rod indicates it will work well, but I'd hate to buy a brand new machine that won't play a current game (well) let alone games or programs that might come along soon.

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Answer 6

Rod Hagen

Level 7

32,000 points

Sep 25, 2005 10:43 PM in response to Mary Glynn

The Aspyr reference to CPU speed of 1.2 GHz is to the processor speed, Mary. The iMac G5 that you quote the specs for is 2 GHz. The other reference provided for the iMac is to the BUS speed of 667 Mhz. (this essentially relates to the internal rate at which stuff can get shuffled around). Aspyr don't provide any figures for this, but the iMac G5 bus will be more than adequate.

The Aspyr reference to 256 MB is to its basic RAM configuration (in the case of the iMac this means 512 MB standard or, as suggested, the 1 gig or 2 gig expansion).

As far as Video RAM goes, the Radeon 9000 (suggested as the minimum requirement by Aspyr) only had 64 Meg of VideoRAm, compared to the 128 Meg on the 9600 in the current imac G5.

As I said, it runs fine on my 2 GHz iMac G5. ( I had difficulty getting the computer back from my daughter after she had played around with it on the iMac 😉 )

I'm not sure why Michael has had such troubles with Sims2 on his 1.8GHz , but I have seen significant problems with simulation games when HD directories are badly fragmented or corrupt, and when HD free space is badly fragmented. Most of these games rely on a myriad of small files running "behind the scenes". Any disk related issue can cause havoc, (and slow performance) in such circumstances. I don't know that this is the answer in Michael's case, but it is certainly a possibility.

Other possible problems include the presenece of a "CPU munching" application running in the background (Virex is one well known example), attempting to use it while spotlight indexing is running, a problem with an external device (the iSight, for example, can cause a variety of Mac performance issues), heavy network activity, etc etc. Persoanlly I think that something like this is more probably implicated in Michael's problem than anything related to the computer hardware itself.

Another slight possibility is a hardware issue with his HD. Some iMacs a while back seem to have shipped with a problematic Maxtor drive (not all Maxtor drives, just one particular batch) , which produced "stuttering" when using iMovie etc in some situations. See Gregory Gillis, "iMac 250GB Hard Disk Help Needed", 06:58pm Aug 23, 2005 CDT If his computer has this drive it is possible that this might cause a problem with Sims2 as well.

Cheers

Rod

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Answer 7

Mary Glynn Author

Level 2

230 points

Sep 26, 2005 6:20 AM in response to Rod Hagen

Thanks so much Rod, I think I get it now. Like I said I never deal with these numbers unless I'm buying a new machine. I muddle through them, pick one out and it's forgotten until the next time. My Macs just work for what I need, that's all I need to know. Thanks again for explaining it ... I'm going to go ahead and get the iMac with the 2 GHz upgrade.

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Answer 8

Sep 26, 2005 9:03 AM in response to Mary Glynn

Rod - I can't understand your comments - th Sims 2 runs liek a DOG on the 12" ibook 1.33 (1gb ram, Radeon 9550). It's totally unplayable with all graphics options turned down, and only barely playable on my 1.5Gb memory 20" rev B iMac. As soon as you have more than 2 sims on the screen sthe whole thing grinds to an undignified halt. Just load up the Goth's house in Pleasantville to see what I mean.

Now I guess 'playable' is a subjective term, but having come from the land of PC's and having the term playable meaning smooth frame rates with little to no lag at high resolutions, I find the Sims 2 on Mac to be a shocking experience.

I would highly recommend that anyone who wishes to purchase this game try it out before doing so - especially if you are considering a new iMac simply for the Sims 2 - whilst your initial small home may be reasonably smooth, as soon as you start adding stuff it slows to a crawl.

I returned the Mac version after about 3 hours of use - I spent months with it on my PC.

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Answer 9

Mary Glynn Author

Level 2

230 points

Oct 12, 2005 11:23 PM in response to david waddington

I'm just posting a follow-up in case anyone else is follwing this thread. I got the iMac upgraded to the 2GB DDR400 SDRAM - 2 DIMMs and Sims2 works great without fiddling with the graphics. My daughter makes big houses with lots of kids and it did slow down but nothing that I'd call a crawl. It was a huge improvement over her old iMac and it appears to run as well as it does on my big G5. Today they announced the new iMacs with different configurations so the point might be moot.

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Answer 10

Oct 19, 2005 1:42 PM in response to Rod Hagen

I have a question regarding Sims 2 on the iBook. I bought the game and installed it and it was working perfectly and then I went to play it again but it kept saying that I needed to free up local disk space. If anyone has any ideas about what to do they would be much appreciated.

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