I just bought and installed an ati X1950 pro 512 mb ddr3 card and am looking to set it up for playing the sims.

my setup:

P4 3.0 ghz dual core
2 GB ddr2 ram
x1950 pro 512 ddr3 (agp card)

this is the first ati card I've had with the catalyst control and the hyrdavision etc etc, so I'm not sure if there are any settings I need to change in order to use it to it's full potential - help appreciated.

Nope it's ready to run out of the box. The catalyst control program is mainly just to tweak your settings, i.e. resolution, dual monitor setup, etc.

yeah I'm just wondering if there is anything I have to tweak because with a card like that and more than enough ram / cpu power, you'd figure I'd be able to play on higher settings without any dramas but if I turn my edges up to smooth (even after assigning the game a CPU like the wiki says to) I find things are choppy and the gameplay a bit jerky...

Have you tried updating your drivers? The drivers that came with the card are likely outdated. Also, sounds like it's possible your card is being underpowered.. if it has a direct connect to the PSU make sure it's connected.. and make sure that PSU is good enough to power it. What psu is in there out of curiosity?


Are you telling the game to only play off one core? I wouldn’t recommend doing that.. I’ve heard a lot of people say that can cause extreme stability issues.. perhaps you should try putting the settings back to normal and seeing how it runs.

drivers are up to date, card is properly powered by the PSU (is a Corsair VX550W with the dedicated 12v line) and I set it to play off CPU 1 due to the Sims2Wiki article about dual cores.

Have you tried just playing TS2 without doing the 1 core modifications? I would try that.. Did you uninstall your previous card before pulling it out? That could possibly cause issues.. or if you had integrated before and it needs to be set properly in bios.. Sorry but I'm not sure what else to try aside from returning the card and seeing if a new one works any better. You are right, there is no reason that shouldn't play fine.

it was choppy before I started playing on 1-core, slightly more stable after I started playing on just the 1-core...I did uninstall my previous card before putting this one in.

DO NOT make the game run off just one core! I tried that and it crahsed and a loud beep was heard..i lost a house i made and i had to restart! I change priority to realtime and its speedyfast with a 512mb 7600GS card! (Nvidia)