Sims 3 System Requirements HELP?

I have a newbie question about my computer. I recently bought the Sims 3, and although I can somewhat run it, it's very slow and the graphics are pretty bad. What is the problem? I'm trying to figure out what requirements my computer is missing.



I own a Windows Vista so for RAM I need 1.5 GB. I figured out I only have 1.0 GB. Is this the issue?



Then I moved on to hard drive space. It says I need 6.1 GB of space and at least 1 GB of additional space for saved games and custom content. So I checked that, and for the C drive I have 170 GB free out of 223 GB. But on my D drive it says 1.10 GB free out of 9.69 GB. This is another thing that's confusing me! What drive am I supposed to be looking at? Is this what's making the game run so slow?



So then I read about the video requirements. It says I need DirectX 9.0c compatible, a 128 MB video card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0. I have no idea how to find out what video card I currently have.



I'm hoping I won't have to spend much money to upgrade my computer so I can run the Sims 3. I was so excited to play it and now I'm just lost...help?Sims 3 System Requirements HELP?
well first off the game need 1.5 GB of ram needed, if you have 1.0 thats a problem there...because once you start up the game with 1gb...you are taking up a whole lot of resources or memory on your computer making the game slow because your pc can't handle the game..when you said the game looks bad lol the video card also falls into place when you want it to look good, just bump up your gigs to 2 and your pc will run smoother than usual, and maybe a good video card if you can..it'll make your game look the way its supposed to, and you're set..but I know some people don't have that kind of money...considering 1 gig might go for 20-80 bucks lol depending on your pc and video cards go alot 100+(also depending) I have this game my video card is like 110 dollars and I have 2 gigs, looks good, not laggy at all. Hope it helped..I tryed :PSims 3 System Requirements HELP?
Minimum System Requirements for Windows OS



Hard Drive Space : 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games



Operating System : Windows XP, Vista SP1



Processor : 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent



RAM : XP 1 GB RAM,Vista 1.5 GB RAM



Video Card : 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0



Minimum System Requirements for MAC OS



Hard Drive Space : 6.1 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games



Operating System : Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher



Processor : Intel Core Duo Processor



RAM : 2 GB RAM



Video Card : ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100