Pay close attention Sims fans, and learn how much you'll need to upgrade your computer in order to play The Sims 3 as EA delivers the official minimum system requirements for laptops and PCs.
Things aren't looking too-too bad considering today's gaming standards, with Pentium IV and Athalon XP+ processors the order of the day. Memory-wise we're looking at 1GB for PCs running XP Service Pack 2, 1.5GB for PCs running Vista or laptops with XP, or 2GB for laptops running Vista. All of this and a 128MB video card is your key to entering the world of The Sims 3.
As I said, relatively tame by today's standards, with nary a multi-core processor in sight. Still, these are minimums, so expect silky smoothness to require something a bit more powerful. The full system specifications follow.
The Sims 3 System Requirements:
THE SIMS 3 MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
FOR WINDOWS XP
* Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 1 GB RAM
* At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
* 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
FOR WINDOWS VISTA
* Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
* 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 1.5 GB RAM
* At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
* 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least:
* Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 or above.
* 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
* 0.5 GB additional RAM
SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS
NVIDIA GeForce series
FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280
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® Extreme Graphics
GMA X3x00 series
Sims 3 Requirements Announced [Infinite Sims]