ATI Radeon HD 6450 and Sims 2?

[haedcase]

I recently had to purchase a new computer, and this is the graphics card it came with. Unfortunately the purchase came after my laptop suddenly died, and I was in need of a new computer right away, so I really didn't have much time to do any research. I've looked over all the guides for graphics cards, but none of them mention this card even to say it's incompatible. (The closest I can find is the 5450, which has at least Maybe listed for all the expansion packs.)

I have not had any problems running the game, and in fact it runs MUCH better than it did on my laptop. However, I suspect running the game may have lead to the death of my laptop. I had begun playing it again after a long hiatus, and then the laptop screen occasionally crashed to black and I had to manually restart the computer. After a couple of weeks of this the entire system finally died. Although I have not experienced any problems on my new computer, some of the information in the guides has me a bit worried in case the card is a bit underpowered.

I have all of the expansion packs except for BV, and all but 4 of the stuff packs. Here are the official specs of the rest of my system:

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601)
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2320 CPU @ 3.00GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
RAM: 6144MB RAM
Card name: AMD Radeon HD 6450
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

So should I look at upgrading my card, or will my current one suffice without potentially damaging my new computer?

[ajaxsirius]

If your computer breaks, it will not be because you were playing the sims. If it breaks it will be because of manufacturer defect, faulty or old parts or because of over heating in the case due to bad air flow.

Since your computer is relatively new, I wouldn't worry about your parts being old. You can't do anything about manufacturer defects until it happens. And you can't detect it early either. So really the only thing you need to worry about is temperatures.

I'm on my phone right now so I can't give you step by step instructions, but open your catalyst control center and check the temperature there and post back. If the temperatures are okay, you should be able to play happily!

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Right clicking on the desktop should bring a menu, at the top of which should be written "Catalyst Control Center". Click that.

Then on the left hand side of the window that opens there should be a menu. Look for the "Performance" tab near the bottom. Click that.

Click "AMD Overdrive".

On the right hand side should now have three red dials, and the top one should be "Temperature".

Play the sims for about an hour or so, then alt-tab and check the temperature and write it down quickly and post back here.

[ellacharmed]

Unfortunately, the series models are pretty close from one generation to the next. So, if 5450 has Maybes, then the 6450 would most likely be the same.

What GPU did you have on the laptop that has since died?
Is Sims 2 the only game you ever play? No Sims 3 or anything newer since?

Anything that has no perfect Green "Yes"es across the board usually do not give a good performance over its lifetime, especially not if you game 4hours, everyday, 365 days a year. You can expect its performance to degrade over time, simply because the component is not built to accept that kind of abuse.

[haedcase]

@ajax: I did as you said and ran the game for an hour. My computer's temperature never got higher than 47 C. I guess the main reason I was worried about the game damaging my computer is because I'm 99% sure it was the graphics card that killed my laptop. On its last day it crashed, and when I tried to reboot the screen was all pink with weird random colored lines or else just very pixelated, and then finally it just wouldn't boot up anymore. When I took it in to retrieve what data I could, the store said the hard drive was just fine.

@ella: I don't remember the specifics of my laptop's system. It was a Dell Inspiron running Vista, and I know the graphics card was also an ATI Radeon, but I can't remember what model. It was just whatever card came with the computer and was nothing special. The computer was around 4-5 years old when it died IIRC.

Yes, Sims 2 is the only Sims game I play. I don't own Sims 3 and don't plan on getting it. Other than Sims, I do sometimes play an online game called Need for Speed World. Anything else I play are casual games which would run fine even on integrated graphics.

[ajaxsirius]

47C is fine. I don't think you have anything to worry about for the moment. But like Ella said, its a budget card.