Sims Medieval - Video Card Requirements

[Deckayder]

So that's it. I'm officially giving up on this, as much as it pains me because I've never had this much fun playing ANY Sims game. I'm going to wait until they patch it. There are people who bought extra RAM, increased video card memory, etc and they still get the crash after the patch was installed. Serves me right for getting this right away instead of waiting three months or so until all the bugs are discovered and fixed.

Love the game though. So I will be back once they fix it. Enjoy for me.

Hi Dollkey - It is really too bad that you can't play! I hope that you will be able to later on, however, even waiting for more fixes to come out may not be enough to run the game unless you're computer has enough RAM to meet the minimum requirements. EA creates the requirements to guide users and make sure they can play the game properly, so not meeting them is basically a sure bet for problems with the game. I think in your case mtglady is probably right, that since you don't have enough RAM your laptop is overloading/overheating from the game. But I could be wrong 

[dollkey]

Just waiting for some disposable income to come through so I can get maybe just 1G RAM then give it another try. 

[TheChronicR]

Just waiting for some disposable income to come through so I can get maybe just 1G RAM then give it another try. 

Don't get 1 GB. That's for sure. Mine is 1 GB and I can't play any game for more than 4 hours without it crushing. After 3 hours has passed, I save the game and let my laptop to cool down. Otherwise, a crush is unavoidable. I repeat, 1 GB is way too little. Unless you're on a Mac. I'm talking about Windows XP.

[dollkey]

I already have 2G RAM right now. So I figure another one would be good enough. Right?

[TheChronicR]

I already have 2G RAM right now. So I figure another one would be good enough. Right?

I guess so. It's still better than nothing as you say.

[Gheez]

I already have 2G RAM right now. So I figure another one would be good enough. Right?

I have 3Gb of Ram. I've been able to play.  I play on a laptop with an integrated graphics chipset, running Windows Vista. I play in full-screen but with all my graphics set to low.

The most recent patch cured my problems with crashing by placing the security buildings. However, I do still suffer from random crashes.  (Crash as in my screen goes black and the laptop turns off.)  I've learnt to save regularly, having two save files for the same Ambition/game that I alternate between, and not play for more than two hours at a time.

Even, if it doesn't solve your problems, I'm sure that your computer will appreciate the extra ram.  Good luck.

[dollkey]

This is what I mean. I don't wanna risk spending money on an extra RAM when it doesn't completely solve the problem. I don't get why my laptop ran the game for 8 hours that first day with no problems at full screen, high graphics and now I have to worry about it over heating at 2 hours. Oh well. The extra RAM would at least make my laptop run faster. Or something.

[Deckayder]

Hey Dolkey -- I know it seems pointless spending extra money on RAM when that alone may not stop all the crashes. But I can say that without the 3GB RAM on the game requirements you will always have performance issues no matter what future fixes come out. So unfortunately there isn't one "fix-all" solution here. The best bet for you is to bring your computer up to the minimum requirement specifications and then continue to update your game with future patches.

[sdhoey]

Mine says Dedicated Video Memory 1024MB

[Danimal]

Hi everyone I'm new to this hole Sims experience but vary excited to get started. I bought the Medieval limited edition, brought it home only to find out that my old Compaq Presario isn't up to the task of running this game. So I started looking for a new PC that will. I have to admit I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to computers. I'm hoping to get some good advice hear about the system I'm thinking of buying. I found this one on ebay that from what I can tell looks like it should have no trouble running the Sims Medieval. But I want to be sure first. If someone could please take a look at this gaming pc and let me know if it's good enough to run the game smoothly I would really appreciate the help.
      http://cgi.ebay.com/GHOST-AM3-AMD-2-9GHZ-GAMING-COMPUTER-SPECIAL-1-WEEK-/250809827888?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item3a656e4230

 Please keep in mind that I'm only looking to get involved in the Sims with it. The $35 game will find its way into the trash can before I will spend more than $400 just to play. Thanks for any help.

[Pam]

Welcome to our Forum, Danimal.

I suggest you start a new topic on the Technical Help board for your problem.  This thread is specifically for video requirements for Sims Medieval.  I'm sure you'll get plenty of suggestions if you start a new topic.

[Danimal]

Thanks Pam I'll try that. I'm still trying to learn the lay out hear. Sorry for posting in the wrong place. 

[AriaGirl77]

I've had some major crashing issues lately... getting frustrated!

I have an ATI Raedon 4800 series card, but apparently even though it meets the specs it just isn't cutting it.  Hubs has ordered me a new video card for Mother's Day, so we'll see. 

The worst part about this whole crashing thing is that not only can I not play the game, but I can't do anything else either without fear of a crash!  My husband who is the computer guru of the fam says that the game installs some windows files and that one of those files must be causing my computer to crash even when I'm just surfing the internet.

Once my new card gets here it will be the real test of whether or not I'm going to be able to play this game or not.  If the crashes keep happening with the new card then it's pretty much a no go because at that point it has to do with the game itself, not my card.  So we'll see!

[Frey]

Hi all, I need some help figuring out if my video card is decent enough to run Medieval... I really doubt it will, but I want to be sure.

My video card is a Mobile Intel GMA 4500 (Yes, I am one of those poor souls). It's one of the few integrated cards supported by The Sims 3 and it runs decently with it, but obviously Medieval is not the same.

I followed the instructions on the first post of this thread and it says something like this (I'm translating this from spanish so sorry if it sounds weird)
- Available graphics memory: 796 MB
- Video dedicated memory: 64 MB
- System's video memory: 64 MB
- System's shared memory: 668 MB.

So... which of these 4 numbers should I be looking at? Video cards are a mystery to me! 

Thanks!

[Pam]

@Frey:

I'm looking at the Medieval box right now.  It says that GMA 4-Series is compatible.  However, the video requires a 256 MB video card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0.  I hope I'm wrong, but I think the associated number in your list is "Video dedicated memory: 64 MB."  That falls considerable short of 256 MB. 

If any other technical members come by, can you confirm?