So what are actual sys. req. for sims 3 and 4?

[Minty]

I'm cynical that we will ever hear from this person again once they've got what they want (first post - intro, second post - tech query, happened too often), but since it's the holiday season:

What leapt out was your video card. 256 meg? Da funk??? That will struggle with games from the DX9 days (2002-2008). Even 512 meg is a joke these days. Get at least a 1 Gig card - you'll still have change from $40 for what's available. Good call on the SSD drive though, this gives your system an excellent boost & means no more worry about hard drive failures.

Processing is about more than RAM (although vital), you have to give your computer a chance to process the data swiftly in all parts of the system. Think of your PC's circuitry network like the traffic in a city, all it takes is one congestion point to slow your programs down, no matter how up to date it is.

How much package cc do you have? This is often a major villain of the piece in slow systems.