# Sims 3 unable to start game



## nikkibop (Apr 3, 2005)

Hello, we just got The Sims 3 and we installed it but when we try to turn it on, it says "unable to start game. Device 0 cannot run this title. Your video card does not appear to support at least shader model 2. Please upgrade your card" 

The card we have is a ATI Mobility/Radeon 9200 128mb. The back of the game says it needs a 128 mb card with support for pixel shader 2.0. So is there a way to make our card work or do we need a new card? 

Thanks!


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## Lord Sirian (Jan 14, 2007)

Hi.

I'm sorry to tell you this, but there's no way for you to get the game to work on your current video card. If it doesn't support Pixel Shader 2.0, there's nothing to do except either take the game back, or wait until you can afford a better card.


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## nikkibop (Apr 3, 2005)

Thanks for the info. Is it true that the Sims 3 will only work on a PCI express or AGP card?


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## nikkibop (Apr 3, 2005)

Hi, we are trying to run the Sims 3 on one of our other computers but it won't start on that one either. Can you tell me if this is a video card issue again or something else? THe video card is an AGP card and it's a Nvidia Geforce Ti 4200, 128mb. The comp is a 3.0ghz with 1 gig ram, windows xp. 

We installed Sims and when we try to turn it on, the error says:

"Sims3 launcher has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience. If you were in the middle of something the information you were working on might be lost"

Is there a way to get Sims to work on this computer? 

Thanks!


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

That's a pretty old card also so it will not have the DX9 support needed what is the brand and model of the PC?
The laptop is another issue as you will not be able to simply upgrade the video in it.

There is a site http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest that you can go to and allow it to run a applet, select the game you want and it wil tell you if your system will run the game.


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## nikkibop (Apr 3, 2005)

OK, we are going to try it on another computer that we have that has an AGP slot. So we are going to get an AGP card. We are looking at one online that says: 
XFX - NVIDIA GeForce 6200 LE 512MB DDR2 AGP 8X Graphics Card". Will this one run Sims 3? Also, we went to the website to test and see if our computer is going to work and it says the cpu failed because we need at least a 2.0 ghz processor but this computer is a 2.4 ghz. Why would it say it failed when ours is higher than recommended? Thanks!


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

2.0 Dual core and yours is a single core?
If that's the case save your money on the video card.


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## nikkibop (Apr 3, 2005)

The sims 3 says the requirements are 2.0 P4 I think. That doesn't mean dual core does it?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

> CPU
> Minimum: (XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent; (Vista/7) 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent [If built-in graphics chipsets then 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent.


It is probably seeing a integrated Video card and jumping the rating to the 2.6 Pentium because of it.

Most games play very poorly when run on or at the Minimum specs. I always recommend you go by the recommended specs for better playability.


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