Graphics card question.

[tigeranne]

Guys, do you know anything about a graphics card called GeForce GTX 850M? I'm looking to buy a new computer, and I've found one I can pick up tomorrow. But no matter how much I search, I can't find any conclusive answer to how well this card would be able to run TS3, if at all. It's not on the list of graphics card on MTS Wiki, and I'm scared of the mods so I don't want to ask in the Help section before I've tried some friendlier places.

Comments

[alittlestrange.livejournal.com]

Try Googling "GeForce GTX 850M Sims 3" or similar terms and see what people say. That's the best I can say. I don't blame you for not wanting to ask around forums. There's something about forums that turn people into little asses.

P.S. Is it a dedicated card? Those are best for gaming as far as I understand.

[tigerannesims2.livejournal.com]

I tried googling that, but all I found out was that it can run TS4 base game pretty well. It's like everyone's abandoned TS3 already. But it has horses. :'(

Not sure the card is dedicated, but here's what I've found said about it.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M is an upper mid-range, DirectX 11-compatible graphics card for laptops unveiled in March 2014. It is one of the first cards based on Nvidia's new Maxwell architecture (GM107 chip), but is still manufactured in 28 nm. The GTX 850M offers 640 shader units clocked at 876 MHz (+ Boost) as well as 2 GB of GDDR5 memory (128 bit, 5000 MHz effective). In addition, there is a slightly higher clocked version (936 MHz + Boost) using slower DDR3 memory (2000 MHz effective).

"Upper mid range" sounds good?

Although the GTX 850M has less shaders, it often outperforms the old Kepler-based GeForce GTX 765M while drawing less power. Despite the lower core clock, the GDDR5 version usually takes the lead over the DDR3 model and sometimes even beats the Kepler variant of the GeForce GTX 860M. Many games of 2013/2014 (Tomb Raider or BioShock Infinite, etc.) can be played fluently in FullHD resolution and high detail settings. However, very demanding games such as Crysis 3 or Battlefield 4 will require lower resolutions and/or details.

I don't think TS3 is anywhere near Crysis level of demanding. Plus, I don't have all the EPs installed. They didn't test it with TS3, but TS4 can be played on "ultra" with decent results. Then again, it's just a base game.

I also found a post where someone was asking for recommodations for a laptop to run TS3/4. The one he was recommended (out of the three he suggested) is almost the exact same laptop I'm thinking of getting, only "mine" is 15 inches and his was 17.

[alittlestrange.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me, but I only know a teeny bit about the basics, and only in regard to TS2. XD Have you seen this thread? Maybe it will help. They seem pretty nice about answering if you wanted to ask about the one you're thinking of buying.