Used iMac or Macbook Pro to play Sims 3 and 4

Hades · 17 Jul 2019 at 10:59

I would like to get my daughter a used MBP or iMac. Does anyone know what year I would have to look at for it to be able to play The Sims 3 and 4?

Thanks.

ChrisD. · 17 Jul 2019 at 12:38

The Sims™ 3 Minimum Hardware Requirements

FOR MAC OS X

Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher
Intel Core Duo Processor
2 GB RAM
ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100.
At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games
This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems, or the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.

MAC

These are the requirements for The Sims 4 game itself, with no expansions.

Minimum

Mac OS version: Mac OS X 10.7.5 (Lion)
Memory (RAM): At least 4 GB RAM
Hard drive (free space): At least 14 GB of free space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games
Graphics card (video): NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro or better. Video RAM of 256MB or better
Input: Keyboard and mouse
Internet connection: Internet connection required for product activation

Recommended

Mac OS version: Mac OS 10 X 10.9 or later
Processor: Intel Core i5 or better
Memory (RAM): 8 GB
Hard drive (free space): 18 GB
Graphics card (video): NVIDIA GTX 650 or better
Input: Keyboad and mouse
Internet connection: Internet connection required for product activation

FreeStream · 17 Jul 2019 at 16:24

15” MacBook Pro or 27” iMac (Late 2013 or later)

Not 13” or 21.5” as they don’t, as far as I recall, have dGPUs only the Intel IGP.

Hades · 17 Jul 2019 at 21:30

FreeStream said:
15” MacBook Pro or 27” iMac (Late 2013 or later)

Not 13” or 21.5” as they don’t, as far as I recall, have dGPUs only the Intel IGP.

Perfect. Thanks.

b0rn2sk8 · 20 Jul 2019 at 08:57

I would have thought you’d get a better iMac for the money. I’d expect they will be more robust if it’s for kids to use too.

snow patrol · 21 Jul 2019 at 08:17

just to confirm - i have a 2011 core i7 / 2gb radeon graphics imac (upgraded with 16gb ram) and it plays sims 4 flawlessly.

Hades · 6 Aug 2019 at 14:41

snow patrol said:
just to confirm - i have a 2011 core i7 / 2gb radeon graphics imac (upgraded with 16gb ram) and it plays sims 4 flawlessly.

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. Thank you.

Am I right in thinking that 2011 doesn't support Mojave due to lack of Metal support?

Feek · 6 Aug 2019 at 15:50

Hades said:
Am I right in thinking that 2011 doesn't support Mojave due to lack of Metal support?

Yup, my 2011 iMac was the same.

Hades · 6 Aug 2019 at 17:03

Feek said:
Yup, my 2011 iMac was the same.

Thanks

Maccy · 8 Aug 2019 at 09:45

@Hades my mrs is still a Sims addict and it plays fine on her 2011 13" MBP with 8gb RAM. I upgraded the drive to an SSD and sure the graphics are a little slow here and there, but it works fine.