How's the Sims 3 going on your Mac so far?

ImyBlinky · June 2009

Mine is sloow, but still playable

Could be a lot better though.

Hyssy · June 2009

Which Mac are you running it on?

I'm just grabbing the patch having installed on OS 10.5.7, then will jump in and see how it goes. I've got a Windows 7 Boot camp partition which runs.. decidedly OK (08 MBP with 2.4C2D, 2 Gigs Ram and 8600GT). Bit disappointed with Windows performance considering the Rec specs etc.

Is the Mac version a Cider port or similar? Wondering if it'll just have worse performance.

ImyBlinky · June 2009

Hyssy wrote:

Which Mac are you running it on?

I'm just grabbing the patch having installed on OS 10.5.7, then will jump in and see how it goes. I've got a Windows 7 Boot camp partition which runs.. decidedly OK (08 MBP with 2.4C2D, 2 Gigs Ram and 8600GT). Bit disappointed with Windows performance considering the Rec specs etc.

Is the Mac version a Cider port or similar? Wondering if it'll just have worse performance.

The white MacBook one, not the new MacBook. I'm currently updating my software to see if it'll affect game performance.

As for the Cider port, I have no idea what that is x3

ahnnajade · June 2009

mac is a cider port. at the moment the mac emulation has no shadows or smoothing options graphically, either.

I just got finished installing TS3 on my xp partition (edit: from having it on OSx) ... runs faster, graphics are better, third-time-speed thing is zippier for me. sigh :P

ImyBlinky · June 2009

ahnnajade wrote:

mac is a cider port. at the moment the mac emulation has no shadows or smoothing options graphically, either.

I just got finished installing TS3 on my xp partition (edit: from having it on OSx) ... runs faster, graphics are better, third-time-speed thing is zippier for me. sigh :P

Yeah, I'm quite disappointed I can't adjust my graphics to the highest option ;( I might load it onto my old PC if I get sick of it x3

Hyssy · June 2009

Looking at the other Mac performance thread I don't think I'm about to be blown away by the insanely powerful year 1/2 old Mac I have...

Oh well, might as well try it anyway.

@ ImyBlinky, if you have the older whitebook with integrated Intel GMA graphics I wouldn't expect a whole lot from it. Click the Apple button (top left corner) and hit About this mac, then click More Info. That will tell you which specs you have.

ImyBlinky · June 2009

Hyssy wrote:

@ ImyBlinky, if you have the older whitebook with integrated Intel GMA graphics I wouldn't expect a whole lot from it. Click the Apple button (top left corner) and hit About this mac, then click More Info. That will tell you which specs you have.

Ah okay. Thanks

ahnnajade · June 2009

Aw, well, don't get me wrong. Aside from the jaggedness and the lack of the shadows the game ran fairly well. The third speed wasn't a dead haul, nor the quickest thing and the game didn't have any lag that really bothered me. (Some people are super super crazy about the slightest little hiccups though so I wouldn't say 'no lagging' :P)

I was more annoyed by the graphics :P Which were not bad. I just get OCD about these things when I know they can be one way.

edit; all in my opinion/experience of course, and I have a rather brand new system (mac book pro, so, -20 points)

kevinsummerell · June 2009

I'm using a 24" iMac - it has a 2.4GHz processor as well as 1GB of memory - and it's amazing; happily said. Ensuring all applications (with the exception of the Sims 3) are closed and I don't allow my computer's hard-drive to enter sleep mode, the game runs extremely well. It's amazing and I love it.

Oh, and I mean, I've adjusted the graphics to what I would consider the "decent level" - I think I have most everything set to high. It's really good. Seriously.

scyiuleung · June 2009

I have a year and a half old MacBook Pro and it run well, a but lag when time machine back-up, and a bit when I zoom out to the max, but it doesn't really effect game play

Grobanite113 · June 2009

It's going quite well, actually. I'm on a new MacBook Pro with a 2.93 Ghz processor and 4 GB of RAM, so my game runs well and looks nice (though I turned down the graphics to run the game faster).

The only drawback I have is that my MacBook gets HOT when I play for more than a couple of hours at a time, so I have to take frequent breaks. I lost a laptop (Sony VAIO) due to an overheated hard drive, so I'm paranoid. :P

scyiuleung · June 2009

Grobanite113 wrote:

It's going quite well, actually. I'm on a new MacBook Pro with a 2.93 Ghz processor and 4 GB of RAM, so my game runs well and looks nice (though I turned down the graphics to run the game faster).

The only drawback I have is that my MacBook gets HOT when I play for more than a couple of hours at a time, so I have to take frequent breaks. I lost a laptop (Sony VAIO) due to an overheated hard drive, so I'm paranoid. :P

lol, i have been playing for 8 hour straight and my macbook pro is still fine, hot, yes, but since i put it on a metal stand sort of thing it really help to cool it down since there is air under it to help

Seshan · June 2009

So none of you guys have lag when rotating the camera, So it's smooth? it zooms out smooth? Your houses load up right away when zooming into them? All the detail on the house loads right away? Your fast speed is actually fast? about 10 Sim minutes per second? I can answer No to all this when I play in OS X, When I play in Windows I can answer yes to all this. If you think it runs fine, Load it up in bootcamp. I have a unibody MBP it is more then powerful enough to run this game.

lalalajordan · June 2009

Mine's going well actually. I thought maybe it wouldn't be very fast, but it works fine. Although my MacBook also gets very hot during gameplay.

ARubberDucky15 · June 2009

I'm running mine on a macbook (white - the ones before the newest, metal casing ones) and the game runs a little bit slow - sims tend to freeze a little when they walk through doorways, but it's definitely playable

LawMyLove · June 2009

The game runs very well on my Mac, graphics could be a bit better though but other than that I have no problems.

svaughn · June 2009

I just installed and took it for a test drive last night. I am running a year old white Macbook, I do have the right video card so no complaints there. I only have 1G of RAM and I am bringing it in today to get at least one more installed. But other than it taking about 3-5 minutes to load the game, I didn't notice too much lagging (with only 1/2 the RAM required I was expecting it to not run at all LOL), maybe just a small bit but I'm thinking/hoping that once I have enough RAM that won't be an issue....? All in all, I was expecting to be disappointed when I installed last night because I know my computer has to be upgraded, but then the game ran smoothly for me so I was surprised and I must say pretty happy so far.

ScraverX · June 2009

I'm happy. I had an issue with Time Machine & Time Capsule booting me out of the game when it finishes, but for now that's easily solved by switching it off when I play.

I've never had the best spec computer it's possible to have so I'm used to making compromises, I'm an old Gamer. By that I mean the first computer I played games on was a TRS80. Back then games didn't have graphics (unless you count Atari or C64) and when games with graphics came out (windows 3.1, windows 9X) the games all ran in DOS and a good system had 16 or 32 MB of ram and a CPU speed that paled in comparison to some early graphic cards. Not to mention there weren't CD's so even when the high capacity 3.5inch floppys came in the big games were a half dozen or so discs and it took over an hour just to install, what with having to swap discs and all.

So yeah, no super amazing perfectly smooth edges like I'm looking at a photo I took with my 10 mega-pixel DSLR... I know that you need the absolute best graphics, processor and ram to get that level of quality in 'real-time' 3D which I don't have, so I ignore a little jaggedyness in my edges and imperfect shadows.

scyiuleung · June 2009

ARubberDucky15 wrote:

I'm running mine on a macbook (white - the ones before the newest, metal casing ones) and the game runs a little bit slow - sims tend to freeze a little when they walk through doorways, but it's definitely playable

yea, my too, sometime, kind of weird, but it is fine.

jessimae · June 2009

i'm running it on a white macbook, 2.4ghz, 4gigs ram, & that blasted intel gma x3100. i was having the time capsule crash issue but since disabling time machine i seem to be crash free. the game lags so much even on the lowest setting for me though that i'm barely playing it. if i can find my xp disk i'll set it up on bootcamp in the hopes it will be playable for me on that end.

i'm trying to decide if i can justify upgrading to the 2.9ghz imac in fall.. i had planned on it eventually but i was planning on holding off about a year. lesson learned though, next time around i'll be making sure i have a decent graphics card.

ScraverX · June 2009

I'm thinking about building a better PC (although the old dinosaur isn't dead yet) simply because I like the building/modding side.

On the other hand, I love my MacBook so much I'm very tempted to splurge on a Mac Pro. Got a fair amount of Apple stuff now. MB, Time Capsule, iTouch and I simply love how it all just works.

ETWilkins · June 2009

I'm running it on my brand new 4-week old Macbook. It works great except for the time is really slow, even on the fastest setting. I timed it and it is about 20 real seconds for every Sim hour (on the fastest setting). Is that normal?

ScraverX · June 2009

Not sure, I haven't timed it myself... no real inclination to either. I'm still getting used to the new features plus I pause a lot. I'm somewhat of a casual gamer I do it to relax and at times I've found my self thinking 'gee, I'd really rather if I could slow this game down a few tics, what was that message again?' ... not so much with sims (2 or 3) it's why I like the game.

UnaChance · June 2009

So far my only real dislike is how slow the fast forward buttons are, but I'm not sure if that's exclusively a Mac thing.

I'm not much of a gamer, especially a Mac gamer so I didn't know what to expect. It's not incredibly fast, but not slow, it just plays so I'm happy with that. I'm not too demanding in the graphics department. One little glitch I think I've noticed is when I move from the house to looking at a community lot or whatever, the colours on the objects take awhile to appear. At first they all look white, and slowly room by room the colouring loads. It's only happened twice, I'm being nitpicky really. I'm pretty happy so far anyways. Just fix the insanely slow fast forward buttons.

I've got the new metal casing Macbook, 2.0Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM with a NVIDA 9400M card.

shoebabe · June 2009

I have a 2-year-old iMac, and I'm happy with the results. It's certainly playable and the graphics are nice. For now, this is fine.

I'll probably do a Bootcamp Windows partition on my Mac next month, when the new Nancy Drew game comes out. I am thinking I will experiment with installing my Sims 3 game on Windows at that time, just to satisfy my curiosity. Then I'll have a basis for comparison on how the game plays between the 2 systems.

Vinny433 · June 2009

Mine is perfect

, graphics is amazing, no lag or crashes, everything works fine

.... also tried on my laptop which is only 1.6ghz!!! which still works fine, with perfect graphics too... don't know why there is so many problems with other people's pc/mac

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How's the Sims 3 going on your Mac so far?

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