System requirements

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The Sims Series have certain requirements in which players need to fulfill in order to play them.

	The Sims	The Sims 2	The Sims Stories	The Sims 3	The Sims Medieval	The Sims 4 (2014 / Legacy Edition)	The Sims 4 (2019 onwards)
Launch Year	2000	2004	2007	2009	2011	2014	2019
OS	Windows 95 or Higher, Linux, Mac OS 9 or Higher	Windows 98 or Higher, Mac OS X 10.3.8 or Higher	Windows XP or Higher	Windows XP (SP2) or Higher, Mac OS X 10.5.7	Windows XP (SP3) or Higher, Mac OS X 10.5.8	Windows XP (SP3) or Higher, OS X 10.7.5	Windows 7 (SP1) or Higher, OS X 10.11
CPU	233 MHz	800 MHz	800 MHz	2.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor or equivalent	2.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor or equivalent	1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent	1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent
RAM	32 MB	256 MB	256 MB	1 GB	1 GB	2 GB	4 GB
Disc Drive	4x CD-ROM drive	8x CD-ROM/DVD drive	8x CD-ROM/DVD drive	DVD Drive	DVD Drive	DVD Drive	DVD Drive
HDD	350 MB	3.5 GB	3.5 GB	6.1 GB + 1GB additional space for custom content and saved games	5.3 GB + 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games	9 GB + 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games	15 GB + 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games
Video	2 MB	32 MB and T&L compatible	32 MB and T&L compatible	128 MB with support for Pixel Shader 2.0	256 MB with support for Pixel Shader 2.0	128 MB with support for Pixel Shader 3.0	128 MB with support for Pixel Shader 3.0
DirectX	7.0	9.0	9.0c	9.0c	9.0c	9.0c	9.0c
Other	-	-	-	-	-	Internet connection required for product activation	Internet connection required for product activation

Video Cards for The Sims 3

For computers using built-in graphics chipsets under Windows, the game requires at least:

Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA 3-Series or above 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent 0.5 GB additional RAM

FOR MAC OS X

ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100.

Windows Supported Video Cards NVIDIA GeForce series

FX 5900, FX 5950

6200, 6500, 6600, 6800

7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950

8400, 8500, 8600, 8800

9300, 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800

G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150

GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295

ATI Radeon™ series

9500, 9600, 9800

X300, X600, X700, X800, X850

X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950

2400, 2600, 2900

3450, 3650, 3850, 3870

4850, 4870

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA)

GMA 3-Series, GMA 4-Series

Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slower. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants may default to settings that are higher than what would be optimal for them. Graphics settings can be lowered to improve performance. The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista. MAC OS X Supported Video Cards NVIDIA GeForce series

7300, 7600

8600, 8800

9400M, 9600M GT

GT 120, GT 130

ATI Radeon™ series

X1600, X1900

2400, 2600

3870

4850, 4870

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA)

GMA 3-Series

Video Cards for The Sims 4

For computers using built-in chipsets, the game requires 2.0Ghz Intel Core Duo, 2.0Ghz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-62 or equivalent.

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better, ATI Radeon X1300 or better, Intel GMA X4500 or better

Notes

• Despite using the same engine as The Sims 2, The Sims Stories will not work on Windows 98, Windows ME, or Windows 2000.
• The Sims Medieval will not run on PowerPC (G3, G4, G5) based Mac systems, or the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.
• The Sims 3 requires a service pack for Windows XP and Windows Vista. For Windows XP, The Sims 3 requires Service Pack 2 while The Sims 3 only requires Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista.
• Windows XP is the only OS to officially support all of The Sims games, even though support for Windows XP ended on April 8, 2014 and The Sims 4 was released on September 2, 2014.
  • It should be noted though that from The Sims 4: Cats and Dogs, Windows 7 and higher is required to install this pack as well as any pack after this, except for The Sims 4: Island Living, which supports Windows XP as well as Windows Vista.