Hi,

I am currently only playing The Sims 2 on my computer and use it for internet browsing, watching videos and office stuff. My last prebuild computer died at the end of last year, but had lived seven years.

I needed a new one fast and didn´t really check, if it would run The Sims 2 well, as I mostly needed it for other stuff. I only ran everything up to Freetime and with only the holiday stuff pack on my old machine, but I thought the new one would run everything and have since added Apartment Life and all the stuff packs.

It does run everything and I don´t have any problems now, but I checked if the new machine would be able to run The Sims 3 and now I am worried, that playing The Sims 2 a lot will eventually kill the computer, which I really need.

I read all the stickies and came to the conclusion, that I would mostly need to update the Graphics Card, which probably would also mean that a new Power Supply would be needed.

Specs:
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 945 Processor, MMX, 3DNow (4 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
Motherboard: Asus M5A 78 L-M L-X V2
RAM: 4 GB Corsair CL9 (Single Stick)
Power Supply: be quiet! 300W
Drive: Seagate 2000 GB Seagate
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 1024.0 MB

I do have Windows 7, but am currently still running XP professional.

I am thinking about getting this Graphic Card: MSI R6670-MD2GD3 V2

And I wondered if it would be adequate to play The Sims 2 with all expensions and stuff packs without damaging my computer and possibly might be able to run the Sims 3 in the future. I checked the requirements and wasn´t quite sure why there is an OEM behind that card. I googled that term and if I understood the results right OEM cards aren´t actually better than retail ones, so it should work or did I get that wrong? The User Guide for my motherboard specifies, that I have one PCIe 2.0 x16 slot. The card supports PCIe 2.1 actually, but I found that it should be backwards compatible with 2.0, is that correct?

And I guess I would need at least a 400 W Power Supply or is there an adequate Graphics Card that would work with my Power Supply? I couldn´t really find one. I don´t actually plan on running The Sims 3 any time soon, so if only The Sims 2 would work well, that would be perfectly fine. I just couldn´t find any of the older Graphic Cards listed for the Sims 2 at a reasonable price.

My main concern is not damaging my computer. Any help is appreciated. I hope I provided enough specs, I do have a txt file in the suggested format that dxdiag and can add that if necessary. I just thought this was already quite long.

Yes, if you want that HD 6670 GPU, you definitely need a new PSU.
Any card that works on 300W PSU would be the same - a low-end GPU that won't be able to run Sims 3 so well. If your aim is to get a better-performing card than the GT 610, retaining the PSU won't do it. As that would limit your choice of GPU to the same GT-610-calibre.
The motherboard is fine, it would be able to support that GPU. And yes, PCIe specs are backward compatible.

For whether it would damage the card on Sims 2, it depends on how hard it has to work. What is the monitor size and resolution you play on?

If you're worried about damage when playing games on weak GPUs, you may want to start monitoring temperatures. There's a few that saves to a file as it record the temp data in the background. It's not limited to these, of course. These are ones I usually use.
- http://www.hwinfo.com
- http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

But if it is not crashing right off the bat, the effects (any graphical glitches) won't be noticeable now but maybe months later. And by then, the damage is done. Once the glitches started manifesting in ways where you can see it, recovering from such issues is difficult and sometimes moot.

My monitor is 19'' and the resolution I use is 1280x1024. That is the highest one my monitor supports, which is probably not good. I did wonder if there could be any problem with my monitor and a new card. This (HannsG HQ191D 19" 4:3 LCD TFT Monitor, Black, 1280x1024, 5ms, DVI, VGA, Speakers, 1000:1) is the one I have.

My brother has an older computer, he built himself and his GeForce 8800 GTX card is failing. He bought a playstation 3 for his gaming and would use my 610 GT for his machine do do some casual gaming and internet browsing. Could we maybe just switch power supplies? I´d have to find out what is actually in there first of course. Or would that just be a bad idea with that PSU being about 4 years old?

Otherwise I found the Corsair 500CX for a good price. Would that work with the card?

There are many affordable versions of the Radeon HD 6670, that I found, but sometimes they need two slots. Does that mean they wouldn´t fit on my motherboard as it has just one PCIe x16 slot. There are other PCIe slots that aren´t x16 on it, that I don´t use, though. Do the bigger cards actually need two slots or just the space of two slots?

I´ll definitely start monitoring the temperatures. Is the danger mainly the graphic card getting very hot and possibly burning and frying other stuff in the process? Or are the other components also in danger of overheating themselves, because they take over some of the work that the GPU can´t do?

Thank you very much for your insights, much appreciated.

Monitor resolution: that's the standard for a monitor of that size and aspect ratio.

Brother's PSU: depends on the power supply. What brand & model?

Motherboard: This is your board, correct? http://www.asus.com/Motherboard/M5A78LM_LX_V2/#overview You do have 2 PCIe 2.0 slots. Just that, because it is using the slower x1 lane, both lanes will be throttled back to that speed.

If you want the low-profile version of the 6670, then you need to check how much stuff (the chipsets and power and heat stuff) is disabled to be able to be classified as such. Remember that once some of the chips are disabled, even though it is still technically a 6670, it won't perform the same as those 6670 that you see on YouTube videos. I don't think most gamers stated if their GPUs are single or double-slot versions when they post specs to brag about with their vids.
Usually, cards with 2 slots have a bigger fan or heatsink on them, and thus you have better temp controls. That's why the single-slot versions are termed "low-profile"; to be able to get that "low-profile" moniker, the GPU must meet certain temp requirements and show not to exceed some temp value. Like the saving $$$ with cheaper PSU, same thing applies here. "Low-profile" is not the way to go if playing Sims. Especially, if good performance is a requirement in your gameplay.

Can I make a suggestion?
If this is an interim PC, then don't aim to upgrade it. Instead save the money towards your next built and in the meantime, you can do the research and start short-listing components you might want. It does mean to forgo playing as frequently as you had before, or even forgoing Sims 3 or SimCity totally. Just so this machine can last longer.
Because, if you want Sims 3, and you want to have it run well, you'd need to upgrade the motherboard, not just the PSU and GPU. And use a 64bit OS. And if upgrading motherboard to get dual PCIe 3.0 slots, then might as well upgrade CPU and RAM (you have 1 stick of 4GB when new mobos work in a pair more efficiently or so they claim, in Dual-Channels), right? And that makes a totally new machine.

Because, I imagine that monitor and aspect ratio can even play Sims 2 "well enough" with a low-profile 64xx or 65xx, but you just might not want to bring this part over to a new PC when next you upgrade, you know? Because that same part won't run as well for Sims 3 and newer games. And that means spending twice on the same component part in a year/2 years in case you want a better GPU to support newer games. Or, if the next upgrade also includes a new 1080p monitor, than that low-profile GPU might have to work harder and you're then back to square one.

Thanks for your suggestion. I don´t really plan on playing Sims 3, as I don´t even own the game. I just thought, if I upgrade I should maybe look at those requirements as well, because I might want to get it someday. Not really interested in SimCity.

I actually only thought about upgrading, because I did add Apartment Life and all the stuff packs, because I got them cheap and I was worried about frying this computer. I don´t need the best performance as long as I won´t damage my hardware.

And my brother needs some kind of PCIe GPU for his computer and offered to take mine and pay me for it. He doesn´t really want to seriously upgrade his machine, because it´s so old that buying something as good as his old GPU wouldn´t make sense. That means a 6670 would just set me back about 30 bucks. If that keeps my computer relatively safe while playing Sims 2, that would definitely be enough.

I will retire the idea to play Sims 3 or anything similar on this machine. It makes much more sense to build an entire new computer, if I ever want to do that.

I´ll ask my brother to check his PSU to see if it would support something like a 6670. Would that still make sense to put that card in just for playing Sims 2? Or would the risk of damaging the hardware be about the same as it is with my current setup, if I play a lot?

I hope it is okay to resurrect this thread, as it already contains my specs.

My computer started to just shut down and restart when I playing Sims (still only Sims 2 with all expansions and stuff packs). It didn´t do that with anything else. And I didn´t want to just not play anymore until I could get a new computer. So I upgraded the GPU and the PSU.

I got a 450 Watt PSU, that is 80 plus bronze certified and a two slot Radeon HD 6670 with GDDR 5 RAM, which did fit fine on my motherboard because the second slot only needs the space for the fan and only one PCIe x16 slot is needed to install it. I checked the temperatures and the card runs about 30 degrees without playing and gets to about 50 degrees when playing longer. The rest of the computer also runs at about 28 degrees without playing and ends up in the 50 degree range during play. From everything I could find those temperatures seem okay.

It wasn´t that easy to get rid of all the Nvidia drivers as I thought, but I think I got all of it and I did download the newest AMD drivers for the Radeon card.

Everything worked fine at first and the smooth edges slider was cranked all the way up without me doing that when I first started the game. I could also rotate the camera pretty fast. During my latest play session however my game crashed to desktop after a sim showing up on the lot with only her head looking normal while her body was flashing red and not moving.

I do have an integrated graphics chip on the motherboard, but it is disabled in the bios and I can´t find any sign that it is actually being used. So the game should use the graphics card and from everything I found it should be perfectly able to handle the Sims 2.

So I wondered if I should still be worried about my hardware? Or if this could be a drivers problem? Does anyone have any experience with switching from Nvidia to AMD graphics?