I just purchased the sims 3 and its asking for a 128mb video card with support for a pixel shader 2.0 and have no clue what that is.|||hi selena
this is the most asked question on answers for a long time,personally i have answered over 50 posts regarding the sims 3 however here we go
to begin with there are not many video/graphic cards that come with only 128mb these days so 256mb would be the best option,and pixel and shader model 2.0 compliant cards are not that much cop aswell so we shall go with cards using the latest pixel and shader model 4.1
the first card i shall recommend is the excellent EVGA GeForce GTS250 SC 1GB ( http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.d… ) and allthough this is quite expensive this will run the sims at maximum detail and the resolution as high as you can set it
i have this card and trust me its the bee,s knee,s..any game i run on my rig i can happily max out all the detail without worrying about frame rates or stuttering (lagging)...even the demanding "crysis" runs sweet wih this card
specifications wise it has a 738mhz core clock and 1024mb of gddr3 memory running at 1100mhz(2200mhz ddr effective) and with a sizable 256bit memory interface and a 70.1gb/sec memory bandwidth this all equates to a awesome gaming card..period!
for a more modest budget theres the Visiontek "Black Box" ATI HD2600Pro 256MB( http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.d… ) ,and allthough this isnt as fast as the evga gts250 its still fast enough to run the sims 3
however bare in mind this uses the agpx8 interface and i have included this incase you have this rather than pci-express
a modest priced pci-express card on the other hand is the VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 3650 1GB Graphics Card( http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.d… again this is more than powerful enough for the sims 3 and has some capable specifications aswell
these include a 600mhz core clock and 1gb of gddr3 memory clocked at 500mhz(1000mhz ddr effective) and this also has a 128bit memory interface
so theres the cards,however to finish with i will explain what pixel and shader model is and why its used
pixel and shader model relates to a cards DirectX compliance. DirectX can be divided into two specifications, the Pixel Shader Model, and the Vertex Shader Model. Each model has different hardware requirements, and when you take both into account you can determine the overall DirectX version.
Think of this number as a more specific description of the DirectX version. Specifically, what pixel manipulation capabilities it has.
and there are four versions that have been released since it was released during direct x 8.1
these include :
PS2.0 - Came with the original DirectX 9.0 specification. First implemented in the Radeon 9700 Pro.
PS2.0a - Usually refers to the extended PS2.0 version supported by nVidia's GeForce FX line. Essentially a quarter of the way to full blown PS3.0. It supported far more instructions and features than the PS2.0 specification required.
PS2.0b - Refers to the shader model supported by the Radeon X700/X8*0 series. Could handle more instructions than PS2.0, but was still behind PS2.0a in instruction limits and features.
PS3.0 - Most notably added dynamic flow control making the gpu much more like a general processor (cpu). Also removed the ceiling on most instruction limits entirely and raised other limits significantly. This model is supported by all GeForce 6 Series and higher and all Radeon X1000 series and higher.
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so there you have it selena,basically any game you buy these days uses and requires a specific pixel and shader model and your graphic card needs to support that shader model or better
and thats why i would recommend you buy a card that supports the most recent shader model and this would avoide having to buy another card when another game is released that you want to buy
allthough the "sims 3" requires pixel and shader model 2.0 there are very few others that require model 2.0 so by buying a card that supports pixel and shader model 4.1 this covers all areas and makes you pc graphics fully future proof
i hope this helps,however any problems let me know
good luck selena !|||This is a great cheap graphics card that will work great with the sims 3.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=110411981686|||http://www.ebuyer.com/search?q=128mb+graphics+card&x=0&y=0
all the graphics cards on that list will support sims 3 however they may lag a little. cheapest place you'll get what you want.|||Probably... that is a relatively low end video card.
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