Sims 3 no longer recognizing graphics card after EA and Windows 10 update

@Barnesd83  First, the easy parts.  When your graphics card isn't recognized, you get a warning the first time you launch the game, or if the game spawns a new options.ini file, as it would if you pulled your entire TS3 game folder out of Documents.  Other than that, you'll never see the warning again, even though your card continues to be unrecognized.  The fact that it isn't recognized is normal—the game's database of cards hasn't been updated since 2013.

If you previously added your card to the .sgr files, it should still be there, provided the edits were done correctly.  I think that an Origin repair of the game would reset those files though (I can't be sure because I have a Steam install).  At any rate, I can help you redo the edits, or check your work, if you want.  It's better not to provide the actual .sgr files, since technically they're program files, even though they don't have any useful game info in them.  But copying parts of the text from those files is fine.

I can think of a few reasons your graphics options might reset every time you open the game.  The first is a corrupt options.ini file, but TS3 would have created a new one in the clean game folder.  (Did you test multiple times with this new options file in place?  The settings would still have reverted the first time, of course, but then they should have stuck.)  The second is that you're using some kind of game optimization program that's changing your settings for you.  Some that shouldn't normally do this, like GeForce Experience, nonetheless cause massive headaches when run alongside TS3.

The other possibility, and this the moe complicated part, is that you have a corrupt graphics card driver.  When your driver is updated, TS3 options get reset.  But it's possible that a corrupt driver is causing the reset every time.  You also have errors in your dxdiag that point to an issue with your graphics.  It can be difficult to narrow down, since the error could be related to a driver, hardware, a third-party program, or even Windows itself.  But the best place to start is with a clean install of your driver.  Here's how:

First, download Display Driver Uninstaller from here:

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1750

You can download a fresh driver here:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Next, take your computer completely offline—disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cord—and double-click the DDU.exe. Take note of where the file will land, and click Extract. If it's easier, you can copy the path and then paste it into the address bar in a File Explorer window. Open the folder and then Display Driver Uninstaller.exe, and you'll get a message that you're not in Safe Mode. Click OK, then go to Options and enable Safe Mode dialog. Here's a screenshot of what your options should look like:

Close options, and the DDU, and then open the DDU.exe again. For launch options, choose "Safe Mode (Recommended)," and then click Reboot to Safe Mode (you'll need your password, so find it before rebooting). Once you login, you'll see this:

Choose GPU in the dropdown menu (step one), then Nvidia (step 2) if it's not already showing. Then click Clean and Restart (step 3).

Once your computer has rebooted, now back in normal mode, run the driver install .exe in custom mode. Select "perform a clean installation" and install ONLY the GPU driver and the PHYSX software. Reboot again and see how the game runs.

When testing, be sure not to run any other programs alongside TS3, except for Origin itself.  This clean uninstall will remove GeForce Experience; you can install it later if you really want it, but skip it for now.  And please let me know if there's another program that you normally use.

Thanks @holger1405 for the help, as always.

puzzlezaddict and  @Holger1405 thank you so much for helping me with this.  I successfully uninstalled using the DDU.exe using the steps below, but  I am having trouble locating a fresh driver to download on https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us.  Am I looking for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (192-bit) on it?

@Barnesd83  You have a desktop, and your card is a 760 but not the ti variant, so pick 700 series  (desktops) and then the 760.  Here's the direct link:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/147964/en-us

I installed the drivers minus GeForce Experience.  I tested out The Sims 3, and put the settings and quit.  I checked the DeviceConfig, unfortunately it still says [Found: 0, Matched: 0] ☹️ . 

@Barnesd83  The clean reinstall of the driver wasn't going to fix the issue of your card being unrecognized; this was for the issue of your graphics options constantly being reset, as well as some errors in your dxdiag.  Are your settings still reverting after every play session?  If so, please try a clean boot and see if you can make them stick.  Start the game, go to the Main Menu, change something obvious, quit, do not restart your computer, and launch the game again to see whether the change stays.

If the graphics settings are now working, I can help you get your card recognized.  Please copy the section of your deviceconfig between "Graphics Device Info" and "Options" into a post here.

If you're getting any crashes, please run another dxdiag for comparison.

Yay!  Thank you so much!  Rebooting The Sims game did the job of getting the options to stick and not revert.  Not only that but the general appearance of the computer hues, lightings, and contrasts, looks considerably better as before the graphic card installation.  🙂

The only thing is like you said with the card being unrecognized.  As soon did the reboot of The Sims 3 game it said...

"Warning:  Unrecognized Video Card.  Your video card was not found in our database.  Your graphics settings have been set as high as possible, but you may wish to reduce them if you are experiencing poor performance."   I'll also go ahead and attach another dxdiag.

Here is the Graphics Device Info:

=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (192-bit)
Name (database): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (192-bit) [Found: 0, Matched: 0]
Vendor: NVIDIA
Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: 118e, Board: 84771043, Chipset: 00a1
Driver: nvldumd.dll, Version: 26.21.14.3086, GUID: D7B71E3E-52CE-11CF-FD7F-79A41BC2D735
Driver version: 3086
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 32MB <<OVERRIDE>>
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1
=== Options ===

Here is the attached DxDiag.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!  I can not thank you enough, LOL!   I will look out for your personal message.