Game runs so slow it's unplayable - please help! Hi all, First off, here's my computer spec. Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 @ 2.40Ghz (2 CPUs) Memory: 3GB DDR2 RAM Windows Vista Home Premium Free Hard Disk Space: 204GB Total Hard Disk Space: 300GB DirectX Version: 10 Display Adapter: nVidia GeForce 7300GS Display Driver: nvd3dum.dll, nvwgf2um.dll, version 7.15.0011.5824 (English), 26/04/2007 Approximate Total Video Memory: 745MB Game Detail: The Sims 2 University CD-ROM version Nature of problem: Okay, here goes. The game was originally taking an age to load and then when done was so slow and sluggish that play was completely impossible. Having run Performance Monitor I noticed that starting the game up meant that 100% of my RAM (then 1GB) was used instantly. I considered that this was the problem. I have upgraded the RAM to 3GB, and the game now starts up in seconds. The opening sequence video runs smoothly and flawlessly and everything seems fine. However, once past the main menu the neighbourhood 'fly-over' is incredibly slow and sluggish, and the problems continue from there. Build mode is completely impossible; trying to put up a wall takes at least ten seconds and the whole lot turns blue whilst it works. The music is crackly and broken and the game is basically unusable. Performance Monitor now shows about 50% RAM being used even when the game is in play. I was considering upgrading my graphics card but I have used The Sims 2 on my old computer, which was much lower spec. (and had XP) without amy issues at all. Please help!
Which EPs do you have? I find my game runs really slowly with Seasons: anyone else have this problem? My computer's up to the task, not quite as nice as yours, but I'm starting to think it's the game, not my machine, if you're having these problems too. Here's what I do to get rid of slowness: Turn shadows down to low. Turn reflections off. Those are the two biggest hogs. I also turn details down to medium. It's not as nice, and yes, it's irritating, but now my sims can walk normally and that's more important to me. I haven't been able to fix the neighborhood creepies so I press Esc to skip the movie (and thus the aggravation). (Enter will skip the movie at the beginning if you don't want to see it, BTW.) Hope this helps.
I only have the University expansion pack. Like you, I think my computer should easily be able to run the game, and it's just irritating that I can't even use it.
Just so you know, Windows Vista will usually use up 100% of your RAM thanks to Superfetch. Superfetch tracks what programs you use the most and automatically puts them into RAM so they can be started quickly. Have you tried going into Task Manager Processes tab and setting the thesims2.exe (not sure on the correct process name but you should be able to tell) process to CPU1?
