Hi everyone. I received The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection through Origin a few years ago. I haven't been able to play much of it because I worry my graphics card will not be able to handle the game. Not being able to afford a new computer right now, I don't want to risk wearing out the graphics card. I've been feeling very nostalgic about plays Sims 2 and figured I'd come here and ask. Apologies for my ignorance on this, I do know my graphics card isn't suitable to run games on but I figured since Sims 2 is an older game maybe on the right settings I can play it. I did have the game installed last year, I even downloaded graphics rule maker plus the 4gb as well and the game from what I could tell the few days I played it worked fine. I only experienced lag while my sim was on vacation in Twikkii Island in one of the hotels that was next to the ocean. I don't have the game installed right now so I can't check what I had the settings at, so I don't know if that's important.

So basically what I want to know is...can I run this game without ruining my computer? I feel like the answer is going to be an obvious no but even if it is, then I can put this game to rest and play it once I'm able to afford a gaming PC. I just really miss this game and would love to be able to play it again. I'm going to add my DxDiag to this post so hopefully it works. It has been ages since I've posted on a forum so I'm stressing I'm not doing this right lol. Oh...and by the chance I am able to play this, is it okay if I ask for help regarding graphics rule maker? I want to be sure I add the correct settings that my computer can handle. I'll stop rambling now..

Thanks in advance everyone.

It isn't good, but if you have low settings and don't use any CC and play for short times it might be okay. Most times it will play fine to start with but give your laptop a lot of 'wear and tear' so that after some months it's taking it more effort to save or it starts lagging or pink flashing or crashing as it gets hot.
I would look into a second-hand old desktop.
8 RAM is the lowest I would try the 4 GB patch on because win 10 takes close to 4 itself.
I may be wrong but since it sees your chip you might not need the graphic rules maker. What size is your games screen resolution showing?

Sorry, should have clarified that I'm on a desktop not a laptop. Does that mean running it on a desktop *might* be better than running it on a laptop? I don't usually play with a lot of CC anyways, the only CC I may download is skin tones and might use a couple mods but I won't get too wild with it. But then again I can live without it if I need to.

I don't have the ultimate collection installed now but from what I remember installing it last year without graphics rules maker the game was stuck on a 800x600 resolution and in neighborhood view the water looked jagged. So I ended up (if I recall correctly) editing the config files to be able to turn on smooth edges which fixed the jagged water problem, and then used graphics rules maker to be able to change the resolution. I changed it from 800x600 to 1920x1080. Actually from what I remember graphics rules maker automatically set my resolution to 1920x1080 so I just went with it.

You may want to make sure reflections, shadows and shaders are turned off, or use them very sparingly, because those tend to use a lot of resources and can wear down the chip fast. Smooth edges on high (in the ingame graphic settings) is also very taxing, so unless you're doing pictures, you may want to turn it to a low setting or off. Neighbors and neighborhood deco off, and lot view to shortest distance helps a bit too - basically turn everything you can deal with being on low down to low, and the settings you want to keep higher you can (for the most part) keep a bit higher.

If you just play and never take pictures or do videos, you can probably deal with lower graphics if it means not frying computer parts. If you vary between playing and taking pics, you can turn down graphics when you play, and turn them back on when you take pictures.

If the game runs fine and you don't experience any lagging, it's probably fine, but still be careful. If you start getting a lot of lag while playing, with a stuttering camera or everything taking a lot of time, that's often a sign of the computer struggling.