Sims 3 Absolute Minimum Requirements

EA Games has released the minimum requirements for The Sims 3. The next leap forward in Maxis’ The Sims series is due in 64 days and counting. EA has been very thorough providing requirements for both Windows XP and Vista as well as desktop and laptop builds.

Update: I was contacted today regarding an updated set of requirements for The Sims 3. It seems there are a few changes from what I originally posted below:

THE SIMS 3 MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS (as of December 18, 2008 04:02 AM)

FOR WINDOWS XP

• Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
• 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
• 1 GB RAM
• At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
• 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

FOR WINDOWS VISTA

• Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
• 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
• 1.5 GB RAM
• At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
• 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least:

• Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 or above.
• 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
• 0.5 GB additional RAM

SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS
NVIDIA GeForce series

FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280

ATI Radeon™ series

9500, 9600, 9800
X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
2400, 2600, 2900
3450, 3650, 3850, 3870,
4850, 4870

Intel® Extreme Graphics

GMA X3x00 series

Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slower. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Intel integrated chipsets featuring underclocked parts will not perform adequately.
Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but should run satisfactorily.

Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn’t listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all.

Here’s where EA’s minimum requirements break down. In a word the problem is memory. The Sims 2 has lengthy load times and stutters with a couple expansions in place and only 1GB running on XP. Pumping a system up to 2GB is better, but you can still look forward to waiting a lot whenever you start up the game, create a Sim or switch between Build, Buy and Play modes.

I find it hard to believe that The Sims 3 will run anything but excruciatingly slow with these RAM specs. If you want to run The Sims, more memory really is better. You can read other Sims fans responses to the minimum specs for The Sims 3 on Infinite Sims.