Cannot multitask?

[robowolf]

On my old computer, I was unable to play either TS2 or TS3 and multitask with the internet, writing documents, etc. Which was understandable! However, my new computer - a MacBook Pro, which I saved up for and splurged on 8gb ram so I could multitask with no problem - playing TS3 is okay, but when I try and use Firefox or any other program, the other program just turns sluggish and lags, even if it's only TS3 and that other program open. This makes no sense to me, all I can think is that the memory is split into two parts, each of them 4gb. Is that the issue? Is there something else here - would partitioning help? Or will I just never be able to multitask?

Thank you!

[Pam]

Welcome to the Forum, robowolf!

I'm not the technical expert here, but I had a similar problem when I first got Sims 3 last year.  It turned out to be my graphics card that was the problem.  My computer was new and awesome, but the graphics card it came with wasn't enough to run the game properly and other programs shared the graphics memory and it was all bad.  I upgraded my card and everything works great now.

Other members will be along soon who are more technical and hopefully you'll find the help you need. 

[robowolf]

Dang, really? I've got a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, which I thought was pretty new...do you know if I need to physically update it, or if that's something that can be done in a software update? Thank you for the info.

[Pam]

According to the specs of the game, I think your graphics card is probably ok.  I'll ask Carl to come visit this thread and see if he has any suggestions for you. 

[robowolf]

Maybe I should try turning down the game specs in the Options...again, thank you.

[robowolf]

Well, I finally got around to playing yesterday and tried turning down many of the specs from high or medium-high to low or medium-low; no dice, using programs outside of the game are still slow and choppy.

[Leto85]

Reading this is weird. At the moment I am typing this, my sims are living on the background in a halfscreen and I have now slowingdone problems here. But the fact is, is that my laptop was already a year old ones I've installed the Sims 3. According to the lowest requirements that EA adviced to be actually capable of installing the game is way above all the hardware I have here. And still the game works (although with some glitches and weird clone effects now and then) but it works.

Someday, when things are getting real slow and the game looks like I am watching a dia show in stead of playing a videogame I just defragmentate the whole harddrive. By saying this: maybe it is in your software, not your hardware.

Well, I finally got around to playing yesterday and tried turning down many of the specs from high or medium-high to low or medium-low; no dice, using programs outside of the game are still slow and choppy.

[robowolf]

I didn't think of that. I'll ask my sister to try and multitask on her computer, see if she has the same problems I'm having. Thanks for that!

[bcollins87]

8GB of RAM? Unneccesary sir. Computer's ability to perform well is based on much more than your RAM. CPU, GPU, how fast the RAM is and if its DDR2 or DDR3, PSU, motherboard, and harddrive space and speed at which it spins.

[robowolf]

This woman is aware of that, but has often seen people suffering from gameplay slowness problems due to insufficient RAM.

[Carl]

One thing I would suggest is running whatever version of a task manager the macs have. Surely it must have something that can tell you how the various components (at least RAM and CPU) are running. My first thought would be CPU, but this could be something as simple as a graphics card driver. I would diagnose my own problem by seeing just what is capping out on the charts available to me in windows. 

[robowolf]

Nothing else is capping out CPU, I've checked - I guess it must be a software issue. Thank you for all your help, though, everyone!

[bcollins87]

This woman is aware of that, but has often seen people suffering from gameplay slowness problems due to insufficient RAM.

I would never see a need for anyone to ever own 8 GB of RAM in one machine. I build computers.

[robowolf]

My bad, then - I overestimated how much I needed.

[Carl]

This woman is aware of that, but has often seen people suffering from gameplay slowness problems due to insufficient RAM.

I would never see a need for anyone to ever own 8 GB of RAM in one machine. I build computers.

Right. I build computers too, and while the need for 8gb is rare, remember that in this case the machine is already purchased and your comments bear little use. In fact, they're rather unhelpful and tedious.

Robowolf I doubt we can help you as this seems to be a hardware limitation issue, which is likely related to graphics considering you have that much memory at your disposal. No, it wouldn't be split ... it would all be available for your CPU equally. This would likely run into a graphics problem rather than cpu/hard drive/memory considering the stats of your machine. Unfortunately I don't know a lot about macs or I would try to help further.