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Sims 4 on Mac?

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I own all of my TS4 content through Origin, but I've installed it only on Windows computers.

I am looking at buying anew computer and seriously considering going with an iMac. Will my games install and run on it since it's all through Origin?

Comments

  • CandydCandyd Posts: 1,261 Member
    It does on my most recent iMac. I haven't tried it on my older Macs, but I heard that it apparently runs OK on older Macs as well.
    But it's been laggy and crashing very often on my computer. There is a driver issue. So it's not great on all Macs.
  • OblongamanOblongaman Posts: 214 Member
    edited December 2016
    Yep, Your Sims game will run on both platforms from Origin. It should run fine on a new iMac. I run it on an older MacBook Pro (2011), it works fine..

    Edit - just to clarify - once you own the Sims on Origin you can run it on either platform.
  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    Candyd wrote: »
    It does on my most recent iMac. I haven't tried it on my older Macs, but I heard that it apparently runs OK on older Macs as well.
    But it's been laggy and crashing very often on my computer. There is a driver issue. So it's not great on all Macs.

    There's only a driver issue on older Macs with NVIDIA GPUs. AMDs are fine.

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  • Nearia35Nearia35 Posts: 522 Member
    Just be wary of which iMac model you purchase. The current lowest-end 21" model only has an Intel 6000 integrated chip - it'll play the game, but there is no telling how long it'll last until EA's patches and updates catch up to it and you'll need to upgrade again. (Typically, you'll start to notice performance loss within a couple of years - maybe sooner depending on what kind of updates EA has planned.) Also, Intel does not release graphic driver updates unless something is critically broken. nVidia and AMD frequently update their drivers for performance and bug fixes - although as mentioned, there are some bad ones out there that don't play with Mac.

    If you're new to Macs, be aware that they are designed to be disposable. Should the graphics performance prove to be unsuitable at some point in the future, you buy an entire new computer. Newer models cannot be upgraded at all, and older models can only be upgraded by taking the internals out of a higher-end same-generation model. If you're coming from PC, you don't have the same freedom of upgrading as needed, you have to buy a good, high performance model upfront. :)
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  • Tremayne4260Tremayne4260 Posts: 3,126 Member
    Macs last a long time if you treat them well. I bought the High end 27" in 2013 and I'm able to run Sims 3 & 4 just fine. I had my G5 for 8 years before that until the mother board died.

    I highly recommend buying additional RAM. I think you can add the additional memory yourself and you can get it cheaper from OTW or another online computer store if you get the 27" iMac.
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  • klovesjenklovesjen Posts: 361 Member
    I have a big iMac with a dedicated graphics card and it runs Sims 4 great. It does not run Sims 3 well. But, if you get a big hard drive you can install bootcamp and use Windows on it to run Sims 3. I personally have not been able to get Sims 3 to run well with all expansions/store content/mods etc.

    I turned off retina display or whatever the setting is called on my iMac because the game's frame rate was slow, now it runs great.
  • klovesjenklovesjen Posts: 361 Member
    Macs last a long time if you treat them well. I bought the High end 27" in 2013 and I'm able to run Sims 3 & 4 just fine. I had my G5 for 8 years before that until the mother board died.

    I highly recommend buying additional RAM. I think you can add the additional memory yourself and you can get it cheaper from OTW or another online computer store if you get the 27" iMac.


    How do you run the Sims 3? I cannot get it to work on my mac unless I use bootcamp. Do you play without mods/store content?
  • Tremayne4260Tremayne4260 Posts: 3,126 Member
    I play with NRAAS's Master Controller, Error Trap and Overwatch. These help keep the game running smoothly. I also have a lot of the Store Content and all the Worlds. I've gotten EllaCharmed's World fixes for those she has completed but most specifically I recommend her Isla Paradiso to keep that world from being too laggy.

    Not sure what year iMac you have, but mine has a quad core. Since this is the Sims 4, we do have a Mac help section for Sims 3 that is still active if you wish to talk there. :)
    Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning.
  • CandydCandyd Posts: 1,261 Member
    edited December 2016
    Same mods as above. I play the Sims 3 on my BootCamp partition, on ultra, windowed mode, tons of CC, there is almost no lag. I even have to use Nvidia Inspector to slow down the fps.
  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    klovesjen wrote: »
    Macs last a long time if you treat them well. I bought the High end 27" in 2013 and I'm able to run Sims 3 & 4 just fine. I had my G5 for 8 years before that until the mother board died.

    I highly recommend buying additional RAM. I think you can add the additional memory yourself and you can get it cheaper from OTW or another online computer store if you get the 27" iMac.


    How do you run the Sims 3? I cannot get it to work on my mac unless I use bootcamp. Do you play without mods/store content?

    What is your Mac model @klovesjen ? Specifically the OS you're running and your GPU?

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  • klovesjenklovesjen Posts: 361 Member
    @BluebellFlora sorry for the delayed response :) I have a 27" iMac Retina 5k, OS Sierra version 10.12.1, 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5 with 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 and AMD Radeon R9 M380 2048 MB
  • klovesjenklovesjen Posts: 361 Member
    edited December 2016
    @Tremayne4260 do you play Sims 3 in bootcamp? or right in Mac OS? I downloaded those mods, except the Ellacharmed worlds (can't figure it out so far). I hope the others help crossing my fingers haha. I'm going to try them in my game I have installed using windows through bootcamp.
  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    klovesjen wrote: »
    @BluebellFlora sorry for the delayed response :) I have a 27" iMac Retina 5k, OS Sierra version 10.12.1, 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5 with 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 and AMD Radeon R9 M380 2048 MB

    Your Macs AMD GPU is not supported in Sims 3 which is why it won't work. Tremayne's NVIDIA GPU is. You can try editing the .sgr files but you're better off running the game in Boot Camp anyway, the Mac version is an absolute mess.

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  • Tremayne4260Tremayne4260 Posts: 3,126 Member
    klovesjen wrote: »
    @Tremayne4260 do you play Sims 3 in bootcamp? or right in Mac OS? I downloaded those mods, except the Ellacharmed worlds (can't figure it out so far). I hope the others help crossing my fingers haha. I'm going to try them in my game I have installed using windows through bootcamp.

    Nope, no Bootcamp. I run my Sims 3 in the regular Mac OS. I do use Parallels for Windows programs (like Skyrim), but prefer to run Sims 3 regularly. In regards to EllaCharmed, find her blog and she has the worlds all in one file.
    Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning.
  • phoebebebe13phoebebebe13 Posts: 19,400 Member
    klovesjen wrote: »
    @Tremayne4260 do you play Sims 3 in bootcamp? or right in Mac OS? I downloaded those mods, except the Ellacharmed worlds (can't figure it out so far). I hope the others help crossing my fingers haha. I'm going to try them in my game I have installed using windows through bootcamp.

    @igazor plays TS3 through bootcamp and has AMD
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited December 2016
    klovesjen wrote: »
    @Tremayne4260 do you play Sims 3 in bootcamp? or right in Mac OS? I downloaded those mods, except the Ellacharmed worlds (can't figure it out so far). I hope the others help crossing my fingers haha. I'm going to try them in my game I have installed using windows through bootcamp.

    @igazor plays TS3 through bootcamp and has AMD
    Aye he does, but it's an older model iMac with a Radeon 6770M. TS3 for Mac was okay to start out with, but the definition of "okay" changed a lot when I acquired over half the EPs and my ongoing game outgrew my ability to keep things under the Mac version's 2 GB RAM usage limit. On bootcamp, now with all EPs, it's totally fine for a five year old machine. And I'm still playing the same five year old ongoing game on the Windows side. Just sang happy birthday to it not long ago (luckily no one was around to hear that mess).

    iMacs are essentially all-in-ones, which are not upgradable though fortunately I was able to bump the RAM up to 8 GB. I wouldn't really refer to them as "disposable" as an earlier poster did although I did know what they meant.
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  • phoebebebe13phoebebebe13 Posts: 19,400 Member
    igazor wrote: »
    klovesjen wrote: »
    @Tremayne4260 do you play Sims 3 in bootcamp? or right in Mac OS? I downloaded those mods, except the Ellacharmed worlds (can't figure it out so far). I hope the others help crossing my fingers haha. I'm going to try them in my game I have installed using windows through bootcamp.

    @igazor plays TS3 through bootcamp and has AMD
    Aye he does, but it's an older model iMac with a Radeon 6770M. TS3 for Mac was okay to start out with, but the definition of "okay" changed a lot when I acquired over half the EPs and my ongoing game outgrew my ability to keep things under the Mac version's 2 GB RAM usage limit. On bootcamp, now with all EPs, it's totally fine for a five year old machine. And I'm still playing the same five year old ongoing game on the Windows side. Just sang happy birthday to it not long ago (luckily no one was around to hear that mess).

    iMacs are essentially all-in-ones, which are not upgradable though fortunately I was able to bump the RAM up to 8 GB. I wouldn't really refer to them as "disposable" as an earlier poster did although I did know what they meant.

    That much I knew that iMac is like an all in one :p . I do remember a while back someone playing on same iMac with the new AMD card was having heating issues on TS4. Don't know if they would get heating issues on TS3. TS4 is processor heavy on PC and does cause heating issues for some. Don't know if they have the same problem on the Mac version.

    I was just letting user klovesjen know that if they needed any further help to ask you about TS3 since you use AMD and bootcamp
  • simalicious357simalicious357 Posts: 12 New Member
    Does anyone know why my graphics aren't right? For example in City Living I don't have the amazing city views beyond lots it's just all blue. It's hard to see some lots when I'm building and zoom out a bit. I see videos of City Living on YouTube and the views from penthouse lots looking nothing like mine. The Sims runs on my Mac so I don't know why this is happening in my game.
  • Nearia35Nearia35 Posts: 522 Member
    Does anyone know why my graphics aren't right? For example in City Living I don't have the amazing city views beyond lots it's just all blue. It's hard to see some lots when I'm building and zoom out a bit. I see videos of City Living on YouTube and the views from penthouse lots looking nothing like mine. The Sims runs on my Mac so I don't know why this is happening in my game.

    Check your graphic settings. If you are using Laptop Mode, or just have the settings turned down (required for many Macs to be playable) that restricted view can be a side effect. The less the game has to render = the faster the game will play.
    Playing on an HP Z800: 2x 6-core Intel Xeon X5660s, 48GB RAM, 4GB nVidia GTX 970
    Alienware R4 17: i7 6700HQ, 16GB RAM, 8GB NVidia GTX 1070
  • sutivirus12sutivirus12 Posts: 110 Member
    Does anyone know why my graphics aren't right? For example in City Living I don't have the amazing city views beyond lots it's just all blue. It's hard to see some lots when I'm building and zoom out a bit. I see videos of City Living on YouTube and the views from penthouse lots looking nothing like mine. The Sims runs on my Mac so I don't know why this is happening in my game.

    I agree with @Nearia35. But to get rid of the blue "fog" you need to go to Options » Graphics Options » View Distance - set it to high. This should not have an impact on your game.

    What Mac do you have? This would help us determine what settings you should play with! :)
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  • simalicious357simalicious357 Posts: 12 New Member
    Thank you all for helping me I feel so dumb LOL. I change the graphics settings from low to high and now it looks fine and the gameplay hasn't slowed down so I guess the high setting is OK for my computer.
  • melissalungumelissalungu Posts: 655 Member
    I feel old and dumb....what's bootcamp?!
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  • sutivirus12sutivirus12 Posts: 110 Member
    edited January 2017
    I feel old and dumb....what's bootcamp?!

    BootCamp is an application that is installed on all Macs by default, and allows the user to install Windows (with a legal copy) on their Mac. It is made by Apple!

    No need to feel old and dumb... Just ask, someone will answer your questions! :)
    thesims4galleryhousessignature_zps7u25o7vp.png
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    For an unasked for history lesson, Bootcamp was able to come about when Apple began equipping all of their computers with Intel processors beginning with models introduced in 2006. Before that we had PowerPC processors (G4s and G5s were the last of that lot) that were not capable of booting into Windows natively. Instead, we had to rely on emulation programs like Parallels and VMware that ran an operating system on top of an operating system. Those still had their (more limited) uses back then, but not for graphics intensive games which would have run like garbage on such a setup.

    Under Bootcamp, we hold down the option key upon startup and then tell the computer which system we want it booted up into, OS X or Windows. Or we use a system preference to keep a choice persistent.
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  • AllieSootieAllieSootie Posts: 450 Member
    Mine is a bit older (2011). Seems to work fine on my computer. I bought it over the Sims 3 specifically because I read that the Sims 3 is touch and go on a Mac, but Sims 4 seems to be fine.
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