Re: [FIXED] Problems playing Sims 4 on the 16" MacBook Pro

@joho1144 

Wow, if that's the issue it really needs fixing. Something has gone awry with the OS and game recognising it requires more oomph. Can you check in Activity Monitor to see if it's switching whilst the game is loaded? https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202053

Also great that gfxCardStatus is still working, I don't think it has been updated in years.

I've merged your post into the ongoing 16" MacBook Pro thread so the others active in this thread can try the workaround. The iMacs and iMac Pros with current Vega issues don't have integrated and dedicated GPUs.

Thanks for posting! Hopefully others will see and report back too 🙂

Edit - just wanted to add, have you contacted Apple about the dedicated card toggle not sticking?

@joho1144 

You are a genius!!! After patrolling this page for days on end, your solution for me worked! I had tried everything everyone suggested 30+ plus times. You get a BIG thank you from me!! I also never post anywhere either but this is necessary as I have spent countless hours trying to fix my game.

What I did and I HOPE this works for other people- I went to system preferences/battery/battery and power adapter and unchecked the automatic graphics switching box. Mine does work for some reason and doesn't revert back. But if your does revert, I would download the program they are talking about. I loaded up the game and switched all my settings for the highest and best possible graphics capable to test it, because this brand new laptop ~should~ be able to handle it!! I went into a household and spun the camera around for 5 minutes straight in all different directions. It did NOT produce the spinning wheel, glitch, freeze, crash, or anything. Which it would have before in the first 10 seconds of loading in. It's running as smooth as ever now. I will continue to play, and if something goes wrong again I will report back. But, no news is good news. I really do hope this works for everyone else because I just about pulled my hair out. 

Thank you again @joho1144

I re-downloaded The Sims 4, all my content packs, installed the gfxCardStatus app, and set my Mac to "discrete only" as well and I must say that at first boot it appears to actually work for me as well! (Not that I ever doubted you, I'm just very happy to confirm it for others!)

My Mac:

2019 MacBook Pro

2.4 GHz 8-core i9

64 GB of RAM

1 TB SSD

AMD 5600M with 8 GB of graphics

macOS 10.15.6 Catalina

I only fired up the game to test this fix out, but I was able to run it full screen at 2688 x 1680 at Ultra settings with Edge Smoothing on Low, which is more than I have been able to do for WEEKS! This is great! I avoided buying the Star Wars pack because I haven't been able to play the game, but this may change my mind. As I have not spent much time playing, I will need more time to actually test this out but yes, initial impressions are that forcing discrete graphics is the answer to this problem.

THANK YOU!

I did not. I simply downloaded gfxCardStatus and forced the override and it seemed to just work. I’m familiar with this third-party app, and the original poster is right in that it has been out for years and is safe to use. I never bothered to uncheck the auto graphics switching.

All that being said, I didn’t get a chance to really play the game apart from launch it and look around for a few minutes. But I didn’t experience any issues in the tropical beach neighborhood (I forget the name now).

FWIW I am still running Catalina and used the gfxCardStatus app to manually override the graphics card settings, and the game appears to be fixed for me in my very limited testing. Personally, I did not and will not install Big Sur as a beta just to “fix” The Sims. 

@militarymama27 

I did download Big Sur. It was working better, but would still crash. So I did more troubleshooting, and deleted origin. I went back to download origin and it told me that my OS (Big Sur) did not support origin. So I couldn’t download it. I had to recover my laptop to switch back to Catalina. So mine actually works perfectly now with Catalina and doing what @joho1144 suggested.

also, @Bluebellflora i will see if I can check that for you sometime soon. And I just want to thank you for putting this thread together and all the work you do for people on here!

Glad my input has helped some of you, for the time being.

I haven't contacted Apple yet. I work in IT and honestly hate every time they give me the run around. I want to gather enough info before I contact them that they (or they'd just suggest to go back to manufacturer's settings or blame it on the game). Unfortunately, I'm an Apple freak so I keep going back to them.

UPDATE: Regarding the automatic graphics switching, I did see it again. I upgraded Big Sur to the latest version yesterday and went ahead and tried playing without gfxcardstatus. Made sure automatic graphics switching was still off and once again the graphics switched back to the integrated GPU again. I saw the same issues again in the game (visual tearing, items missing or pixelated, significant lag, etc.). Exited the game and used gfxcardstatus, discrete gpu and it was once again working well. I will definitely contact Apple soon and will update you. I was really hopeful that they would have released an amd driver update. I know they have one for Boot Camp Windows, but nothing for ios.

P.S. @Bluebellflora  you are amazing, I love all your tutorials and troubleshooting!

FYI, this solution did NOT fix my issue with the game never staying in fullscreen mode according to the game settings -- even if visually it IS in fullscreen mode. 

I did NOT try the Big Sur beta, as I'm not willing to risk that with all the other work I do on my computer, just to play a game.

I DID try turning off the automatic graphics switching toggle and experimented with the game multiple times. The issue simply will NOT resolve itself.

Even if the game looks like it is in fullscreen mode, the in-game setting SAYS windowed mode, and thus the EDGE SCROLLING WILL NOT WORK.

No matter how many times I try to get it to switch to fullscreen mode, it instantly switches back to windowed setting -- even after I have clicked  "accept new settings" with the setting saying that "full screen" is selected. The minute I hit "accept changes" it switches back to windowed setting. But the appearance doesn't change. Just the setting does.

Sometimes, and this seems to happen randomly, the setting in the background will say "fullscreen" but the cursor cannot click on the "accept settings" option OR even the "cancel" option! I click and nothing happens until the timer expires and then the settings revert back to windowed. 

This is SO FRUSTRATING! 

Before this latest game update, I was able to play on this computer without issue WITH EDGE SCROLLING!!! 

Do I need to make this a separate question so that it can be addressed properly? Because this workaround did nothing to fix it!

And I was not having any of the other graphical issues. No flashing floors or black lines, etc. 

My setup, FYI:

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)

2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9

32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

ETA: Yes, I tried playing around with the green fullscreen button on the windowed game several times, and it still says it's in windowed mode -- even after I've expanded it. And I've tried loading the game in windowed mode, and then using the control/command/F trick to expand it to fullscreen. It does VISUALLY, but the game settings still say "windowed" mode, so the game THINKS it's in windowed mode, so the edge scrolling will not work! 

@joho1144 

Thanks but thank YOU for the solution for everyone 🙂

This automatic graphics switching issue in System Preferences is intriguing. Have you tried resetting the PRAM/NVRAM reset? Do you think you may have another app installed or process running that is overriding the OS setting? Typically this would be screenshot software, photo or video editing software but could be anything.

I found this on similar freezing issues when it does switch - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250964318

You could also enter a command into Terminal to override it - https://nathansnelgrove.com/how-to-force-your-macbook-pro-to-use-its-discrete-graphics-card-when-its-plugged-in/

True, it does pale in comparison. I’m simply pointing out that it seems to be a separate issue. I do not want it overlooked simply because my problem got lumped in with this larger crashing issue that is seemingly unrelated, and have it remained unsolved. I can’t be the only one experiencing it. 

The fact that the game thinks it’s in windowed mode when it is visually in full screen mode indicates an instability issue doesn’t it?

Ahh, I didn’t realize it was an old problem, This is the first time I’ve experienced it on my old Mac or this new one. I saw some older posts that were similar, but they seems to resolve with some of the solutions I’ve tried, but didn’t work. Yes, I edited the options.ini file. I’ll keep trying and hopefully something will work eventually.

For those that are still having issues with the game's "Display Mode" being stuck in "Windowed" mode despite being in "Fullscreen" and this resulting in Edge Scrolling no longer working it is worth noting whether or not the Mac has more than one user and account on it.  I found that a simple restart of the computer seems to be a temporary workaround at least until the other user logs in and at that point I need to restart again.

I have already tried downloading gfxCardStatus (from gfx.io), set the graphics card to "Discrete Only" and not only confirmed that the game was staying in Discrete mode while the game is launched but also tried Disabling the Energy Saver > "Automatic graphics switching" as well to no avail.  The only thing I didn't try is upgrading to Big Sur but only because it seems ridiculous when I have a workaround that just requires me to restart the machine.

There are some very interesting hypotheses and suggestions in this thread but its just disappointing that EA has not come up with a fix for the game since there are only a fixed number of Mac computers and setups and getting Apple to fi anything is like getting Microsoft to fix something (very unlikely).

Thanks and good luck to those who are stuck with this problem!

*Edit: Disabling Retina Mode and re-enabling seemed to help as well.  I did not have any luck with CTRL + CMD + F hot key combinations either as it usually just caused scaling problems with my screen and game.