Category: The Sims 4 on a Mac

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.

I’m sorry, I can’t even pretend to be excited about this because I absolutely don’t give a flying f**k. I’ve played the game and got bored. I tried again a few months later and gave up after half an hour. Yes there are a few cool things but overall I find it dull and uninspiring. If they bring back CASt I will absolutely give it another go because that’s what I miss the most.

But that’s just my opinion. It obviously doesn’t suit my playing style. Thousands of others have enjoyed it though so some of you may be pleasantly surprised. I’ll be downloading it and hammer the crap out of it to see how well it works in OS X so stay tuned for help threads etc.

Edit – A very important point to note is that if you’re already playing The Sims 4 on your Boot Camped Mac, you will not have to buy the Mac version. EA have confirmed that whether you buy the PC or Mac version, the alternative version will be available at no extra cost, like Simcity.