Sims 2 is not compatible with my computer. Why?

Factual Questions
1

After reading the thread about Sims 2 in Cafe Society, I thought I wanna get that. So I followed the link to MS’s Game Advisor and found that I was close but no cigar to everything I needed to play. All of the boxes were green checked, but I was two bars to the left of perfection.

Your PC has:

  • Processor: Intel Pentium 4 1495MHz
  • Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200
  • Memory: 1024MB
  • Free Disk Space: 18.58GB
  • Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP

Here are the needed specs per Sims 2:

So how can I find out what I’m missing? (I’m not sure how to see what, if any, sound card or video card I have)

Thanks!

2

You have a GeForce 2 MX. That’s the problem.

3

Really? Even though the Game Advisor gave me the green check for it? What a worthless program for that then.

4

You said the indicator was two bars to the left of perfection, that is one bar below Recommended PC. Actually I believe that this too high a rating, taking into account that you have the cheap version (MX) of a 4 year old graphics card, and a rather slow processor.

Still, the indicator is above the Minimum PC, so this doesn’t mean that the game is incompatible with your PC. It will play, but not on the highest graphics settings.

5

For comparison, my specs:

Your PC has:
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2599MHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra
Memory: 1022MB
Free Disk Space: 38.15GB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP

The indicator was one bar below perfect.

6

You can’t always go by what the box/website says. I found that out with Morrowind.

7

I’ve got a computer that was barely on the required list - 800 mhz PIII, Radeon 7200, 256 MB RAM. The Sims2 won’t run on it. I just get “The application has crashed” during the startup movie.

I loaded it on my main machine (PIV 3 gHz, Radeon 9600XT, 512MB RAM), and it works fine.