# Sim City 4 on an old iMac



## mala (Dec 12, 2003)

Hi,


considering getting Sim City 4 to run on my iMac DV/450 with 320MB RAM and 16MB VRAM but the system req's for Sim City 4 is 

500 MHz G3/G4 processor 
Hardware 3D acceleration required: ATI Radeon or NVidia GeForce card (32 MB VRAM or better) . Will I be in trouble or will I do fine with my old iMac?

/Mala


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## telarium (Dec 12, 2003)

Simcity 4 is a graphically intense program that uses a considerable amount of resources. I've used it both on a G4 733, GeForce FX w/ 32 MB of ram (which ran very, very slowly) and on a 1 GHz Thunderbird w/ Radeon 9000 (which runs fair). I would thus advise against it.

-Brad


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## telarium (Dec 12, 2003)

I made a mistake, it was the GeForce MX, not the FX that I used.


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## mala (Dec 15, 2003)

Ok, so maybe I should go for Sim City 3 instead?






			
				telarium said:
			
		

> Simcity 4 is a graphically intense program that uses a considerable amount of resources. I've used it both on a G4 733, GeForce FX w/ 32 MB of ram (which ran very, very slowly) and on a 1 GHz Thunderbird w/ Radeon 9000 (which runs fair). I would thus advise against it.
> 
> -Brad


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## shagless (Jan 5, 2004)

My Powerbook G4 867 12" runs it fairly well.  I have 640MB RAM and the NVidia GForce4 MX with 32MB of ram.  I think the redraw still lags a bit at times though.  If you are patient and turn down graphic level of the game may run useable on your machine.  But your graphics card may hinder you still.


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## cockneygeezer (Jan 9, 2004)

mala said:
			
		

> Hi,
> 
> 
> considering getting Sim City 4 to run on my iMac DV/450 with 320MB RAM and 16MB VRAM but the system req's for Sim City 4 is
> ...



Dear Mala,

I think that the game will not run on your machine due to the fact that you have insufficient VRAM. The games states that you need 32MB minimum, but personally speaking, you need at least 64MB or greater. I myself have 64MB and the game it still slow in regards to redraws etc.

So the answer to your question, yes, you will be in trouble in running SimCity 4 on your old iMac. 

Sorry, but blame Aspyr. Also, there are quite a few bugs with SimCity 4, especially when playing it on Panther.

Try getting hold of Sim City 3000 instead.


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## superfula (Jan 12, 2004)

I ran Sim City 4 on a dual 1.25G4 with the ATI 9000.  It ran decent up until the point where you had 15000 or so sims in your city.  After that, the game was so slow it was pointless.

I heard Sim City 3000 was just as bad because it was a very poor port.


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## boi (Jan 17, 2004)

sim city 4 on a dual 867 with an ATI 9k is really poor as well. the beauty of sim city 4 is following around your sims and seeing the cars and stuff-- well, i had to turn all that off to get the game running. the game is still on my shelf. ah well.


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## Canada-Man (Jan 26, 2004)

On my iMac G4 700 MHz with 512 MB RAM, it runs a little slow when the map is big and I haven't started to build. I would not recommend it on my system so on a G3 iMac? don't even think about it!


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## nb3004 (Jan 27, 2004)

this is why ive waited for sim city i really wanted it for my powerbook but it would run fast enought for me.  Anyone try the new sim city on a decked out G5?


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