Mac System Requirements for The Sims 4

Updated – Please read this page for recommended system requirements. The recommended requirements are more relevant as you add Expansion, Stuff and Game Packs to your game.

EA have posted the system requirements for the OS X version of The Sims 4 over on the forums:

  • Minimum OS – Mac OS X Lion (10.7.5)
  • CPU – Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz or better
  • RAM – At least 4Gb RAM
  • Hard Drive – At least 10Gb of free space with at least 1Gb additional space for custom content
  • Video – NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro or better. Video RAM (VRAM) of 256 MB or better
  • Input – Keyboard and Mouse
  • Online Requirements: Internet Connection required for product activation

So if you have a Mac that’s up to about 7 years old (which Apple class as vintage), you should still be able to play. My mid 2007 iMac should be able to play The Sims 4, in theory. It has the exact minimum requirements EA have stated (2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4Gb RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2600 256 MB) – this should be interesting! I’ll be running a comparison between the iMac and my trusty 2012 MacBook Pro once it’s released. Don’t forgot you’ll need to have Origin installed in order to download and play the game. Also, if you’ve already bought the Windows version, your Mac version will be available at no extra cost. Edit – Ok, I have to edit this post to add more information about Macs because some of the questions I’m seeing on other websites and social media about the system requirements are just ridiculous.

  1. If you have a Mac that has an i3, i5 or i7 processor, you should be fine. These are more recent and powerful than the Intel Core 2 Duo stated in the CPU requirements.
  2. If you have a Mac which has the Intel 3000 or Intel 4000 or Intel 5000 graphics cards, you should be fine. The same goes for the Intel Iris and Iris Pro cards. Bear in mind though that these are integrated graphics cards, not dedicated. Your graphical settings in game may need to be low and your game may struggle as more EPs are added in the future.
  3. If you have a 13″ MacBook Pro (non-retina) with one of the integrated Intel cards, and it has 384Mb VRAM, you can increase this to 512Mb VRAM by upgrading the system RAM to 8Gb. This will boost your game performance.
  4. Remember that The Sims 3 runs so appallingly on Macs because EA used Cider to make the game OS X compatible. Your game thinks it’s running in Windows, not OS X. All signs indicate that The Sims 4 will be native to Mac, as The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 were.
  5. If you’ve Boot Camped your Mac and you can play The Sims 4 well, this is absolutely NO indication of how well the game will play in OS X. Remember, different operating system/different drivers, even though the hardware is the same.
  6. And lastly, why ask the question “will my Mac be able to run The Sims 4?” when no-one knows what else you have installed or how good you are at maintaining basic housekeeping on your Mac? If your Mac meets or exceeds the minimum requirements EA have stated then yes, there’s a pretty good chance that your Mac will be able to play The Sims 4 – use some common sense!
  7. If you have a retina MacBook Pro you cannot upgrade RAM or memory to free up more space. They are sealed units (why do you think I won’t trade in my non-retina MacBook Pro? 😉 ). Well, you can but you need to be technically proficient and it will invalidate any warranty or Applecare you have on the machine. Same goes for some of the more recent iMacs. And has always applied to the MacBook Airs (apart from the first gen. which had a SSD instead of flash memory).

Please share this page on Twitter/Facebook/forums/anywhere you feel it may be informative to others. Those 7 points really do cover the majority of the questions being asked.

7 thoughts on “Mac System Requirements for The Sims 4

  1. I don’t understand english very good. Can you control please, if this requirements are ok for instal the game: iMac 15,1 / OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.4 / 3,5 GHz Intel Core i5 / 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 / AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2048 MB Thank you very much for your help.

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  2. Hoe about Macbook pro (Retina 13 inch Early 2015). Processor: 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5. Memory: 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3. Startup Disk: Macintosh HD. Graphics: Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB. The sims 3 did not work for me, will sims 4 work?

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  3. I was surprised for Sims 4 to run on my Macbook Air very well. It heats up very fast though so I limit my playtime to 1-3 hours lmao.
    Here are my specs if anyone is wondering:
    MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014)
    Processor: 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5
    Memory: 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3
    Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536MB

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