Buying a new graphics card - Need help understanding it all

[Citti Cringle]

Ok, so at the moment i've got the shitty G33/31 on board graphics, and obviously can't play pets. Soooo, i've been looking around at new ones, money is really an issue for me, the cheaper the better basically. I don't want to spend loads of money on my pc, i play my 'hardcore' games on my xbox, the only thing i play on the pc is sims and second life (occasionally). Now it's already ok for second life really, so the only issue is sims.

Obviously, i've been playing on a crappy card so far, and to be honest, the graphics really were fine for me, i don't play on it that long to want more from it. I'm only upgrading because the pets are messed up and so it's unplayable really. I don't need to be playing on full settings, affordability really is key for me.

Soooo, i've been looking around at what others are playing with (graphics card wise), and whether they're having issues and wotnot. The cheapest thing i can find that seems to be working ok with pets is ATI Radeon 5450. I can get one of those for about 30 quid.

Now, i do know that it's not on the supported cards list, so my first question is why?

I know very little about graphics cards, so this is probably a really stupid assumption, but how can older cards be supported and newer ones aren't?

I've seen lots of people having problems with the R600 (3xxx) series, and yet they're all supported.

I'm sorry if i'm being really thick here ha, but i just don't want to spend any money on graphics card that is still going to have problems running pets. And clearly we can't go off what EA say's is and isn't supported. After all, the G33 is on their supported list

Anyhoooo, any help understanding that would be greatly appreciated :)

[KhaineGB]

You know, I have no idea. In fact, the entire 5xxx and 6xxx series is missing from their list..

It looks like their list hasn't been updated since the actual release of The Sims 3. What I can tell you is that I have a Radeon 5870 card (also not on their supported list) and that's running the game absolutely fine. :) You could always order the 5450 and send it back if it doesn't play the game? I think most places have a cooling off period.

Interestingly... the nVidia 3xx, 4xx and 5xx series is also entirely missing from the list.

[Shhh]

Yeah, I'd like to know where to get a good graphics card too.

[KhaineGB]

Most of the Radeon 5xxx series and 6xxx series should be able to run The Sims 3 with no problem... in theory.

A lot of people have been praising the nVidia 550GT Ti, as it's a cheap card with good performance, so that may be an option too (and I say that as a Radeon owner!).

[ellacharmed]

http://thumbs2.modthesims.info/img/1/5/1/5/0/0/2/MTS_ellacharm3d-1242380-gpuspecs.jpg
Numbers don't lie - look at columns I and J and compare the different models. Those with column J's values below 128MB won't run either. Those with column I's values below 100 may load but not run, don't even mention run well. Notice the distinction? :) Yes, they may run for base game only but not when you have all the EPs + SPs combined...
Those with values in the thousands are the high-end ones and cost more, so you balance what you could. Price against capability.

Happy middle is the best - affordable and not too overkill. But be careful with AMD's new naming convention of their series. The 55xx/65xx is not the middle now but "entry-level", with 57xx/67xx the new "mainstream".

[KhaineGB]

That column J is the memory bus width, not the card's memory.

Example: The Radeon 5470 is listed there as 64, but the actual card has 1GB of RAM (It's also a laptop card).

Memory bus width will have a performance hit, but The Sims 3 would still run on a Radeon 5470... it just probably wouldn't run well.

[ellacharmed]

I missed out this info earlier, in my rush: Column I is what AMD refers to as "Stream Processing Units" and Nvidia calls "CUDA Cores" from their respective Specs Sheets.

The card's memory is column K. It is more of a marketing gimmick than anything else.
In the Sim franchise the difference of a 512MB, 768MB, 1GB and 2GB in a card, hardly makes a difference (other than the price). It does show why discrete is better than onboard as those share the System's Memory, though. ;)

I'll be updating new cards and the last 3 add-ons and probably publish the spreadsheet on GoogleDocs or something, so anyone can view them and make editions if they are so inclined (too much vandalism and I'll pull them back), plus validating that I transferred the information correctly to the SysReq wiki when I label them Red, Yellow or Green. :)

For anyone interested (or questioning my process), I look at columns I, J, L & P (for very old models) to determine if a card merits a
in xls, in wiki
☒, Red "No"
☐, Yellow "Maybe"
☑, Green "Yes"

based on specs, various forums' feedback for Sims-gameplay in particular, reviews from trusted hardware sites for general performance, hierarchy charts, review videos for smoothness of performance, and such. It is not done based on my whims and moods on that day. :)

[Citti Cringle]

Thanks a lot for all the info, helps a lot. Gonna have to have a good look into Stream Processing now, try to understand it hehe

Thankyou!

[Amairani]

Most of the Radeon 5xxx series and 6xxx series should be able to run The Sims 3 with no problem... in theory.

A lot of people have been praising the nVidia 550GT Ti, as it's a cheap card with good performance, so that may be an option too (and I say that as a Radeon owner!).

I'm thinking of buying 550GT TI, but found it it will run on low/medium settings only. How bad is that?

I have Sims 2 running on High, so don't know how bad is playing Sims 3 on low/medium.

[KhaineGB]

Some of the screenshots I've seen of The Sims 3 running on Low aren't that bad. Reminded me a lot of The Sims 2.

However, it all depends on what resolution you're running. I'll bet you could run The Sims 3 with an acceptable frame rate on high if you're only running a low-ish resolution. Too many factors to consider before working out what a card will run the game on and what it will look like. :)