Intel Iris Pro graphics cards - please post here if you have a Macbook with Intel Iris Pro card

Hello Mac simmers

After all the trouble with NVIDIA graphics cards before patch 1.63 thankfully fixed that issue, it would appear that some players with Macbooks may now encounter problems with Intel Iris Pro graphics cards.

A few people with Macbooks containing those cards have already found that they can only play the game with their graphics on the lowest settings, which means their game looks rubbish. (Some are also experiencing gameplay problems, but these may not necessarily be connected to the graphics cards.)

If you have a Macbook with Intel Iris Pro, please post your specs here and tell us if you are having any problems with graphics in your game.

Unfortunately the Intel Iris Pro card is not on the list of those supported by EA for The Sims 3, so help is unlikely to be forthcoming in that regard. However let's see if we can gather some information amongst ourselves.

13-inch Macbook Pro
BluebellFlora has advised that those with 13" Macbook Pro may have graphics issues if they have the Iris card. Please post here if that includes you so that we can confirm this. If you are being affected, try turning down all the graphics settings in-game to the lowest. Your game will look horrible but you should be able to play. Now you can try to edge some of the graphics settings up a bit to make it look nicer - you may need to make decisions on which things matter most to you. For example I would sacrifice mirror reflections to get the grass looking nicer, but that's just me. It would be great if you post your findings here for the benefit of other simmers trying to do the same. Share the knowledge!

15-inch Macbook Pro
If you have 15" Macbook Pro, you may not encounter this issue if you have bought the Macbook with the option of a dedicated graphics card. However it would be great if you could post too, for confirmation that this is the case and that you can use higher settings in your game.

Unfortunately, if you have the 15" entry-level Macbook, you may be in the same position as those with the 13" and may only have the option of the Iris card.

Thanks all!

Caspin

rubylarsen
11 years ago
Hi!

I have a macbook pro 15'' (2014) with Intel Iris Pro (but not NVIDIA GeForce GT), and unfortunately Sims 3 doesn't recognize my graphic card.

I tried following this guide http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Getting_new_graphics_cards_recognized_by_the_game , however it doesn't work with mac, as I can't find a file called GraphicsCards.sgr .

I can run Sims 3, but only on lowest graphics settings (it doesn't look good!), and if I try changing any settings, I get a black screen..

If anyone knows how to get Sims to recognize a graphic card on mac, I hope you will share :-)

Ruby
tmethei
11 years ago
> That would be a great addition to this thread and help a lot of people. Are you running Yosemite? Have the updated graphics drivers in Yosemite maybe solved the issue? :)
No, the problem hasn't been resolved due to the Yosemite update, what I've done is all about changing the game files manually. I'm glad that has raised some attention, so I'll try to find some time in the nearest day or so and will definitely post the detailed instructions of what to do to get the game running on medium->high setting. I'll head here as soon I have free time, hope that won't take me long!!
tmethei
11 years ago
Well, first of all, I've managed to get the game running rather smoothly thanks to the post the link to which you can see above. Unfortunately, as it's my second comment here, I'm not allowed to post any links

What I want to do is to give you the idea of how to do that on a retina MacBook sporting the Iris Pro graphics card and running OS X (Yosemite, in my case)

1. Go to /Applications/The Sims 3/The Sims 3
2. Right click on folder name and select Show Package Contents
3. There, go to Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Game/Bin
4. Look for the following two files: GraphicsCards.sgr
GraphicsRules.sgr
5. Back them up in case you do smth wrong, so it's better to copy them and paste in some other directory. I just made copies if them in the same folder, renamed them as it was advised in the link above. We'll edit them later.
6. Click the apple logo in top left corner of your status bar. Open the About this Mac dialog. Click on Graphics/Displays under Hardware. You'll find the Vendor and Device ID information clearly labelled. For me, the figures are: Vendor: Intel (0x8086); Device ID: 0x0d26
7. Open GraphicsCards.sgr with TextEdit
8. Search for the following lines:
card 0x0152 "Desktop IvyBridge GT1"
card 0x0156 "Mobile IvyBridge GT1"
card 0x015A "Server IvyBridge GT1"
card 0x015E "Reserved - IvyBridge GT1"
card 0x0162 "Desktop IvyBridge GT2"
card 0x0166 "Mobile IvyBridge GT2"
card 0x016A "Server IvyBridge GT2"
9. Replace them with these lines:
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
card 0x0d26 "IntelIrisPro"
10. Save the file and if prompted to overwrite, answer Yes.
11. Open GraphicsRules.sgr with TextEdit
12. Search for the following line:
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*IvyBridge*"))
13. Replace it with this line:
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*IntelIrisPro*"))
14. Save the file and if prompted to overwrite, answer Yes.
15. That's almost it! Now load up the game and set the resolution to one of the native ones (the best in terms of support is 1440 by 900 px)
16. If you can't (you may be hearing the sound but not seeing the picture, not 100% sure), go to /Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/
16. Find Options.ini, open with TextEdit
17. Look for the line:
resolution = ***
In my case, that's:
resolution = 1440 900 0
I recommend you to set the same resolution as mine, and you'll be able to play with the display settings later yourself. Personally, I've set everything to medium, and the Sims details and Texture details are on high, and I really like what I see: smooth, fast performance and crisp graphics.
If you ever have the problem of hearing the sound but not seeing the picture, that must be the problem with the unsupported resolution. So, go to step 16 and follow the next few steps.

Guys, I would like to get some feedback here, so, please, if the manual is of any help, write your impression here!
Bluebellflora
Hero+
10 years ago
And you're 100% sure you got rid of all residual files?

http://bluebellflora.com/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac/
Bluebellflora
Hero+
10 years ago
OK. So it seems the work around doesn't work for you. There's no way for you to improve the graphics unless EA release a patch, which they won't now. Sorry, it's your graphics card that's the problem :(
trebulo
10 years ago
I just received my MacBook Pro (early 2015) today and I was looking forward to playing TS3 on a faster computer. Installation went well and I was excited, only for my hopes to be crushed by the error message that lead to my discovery of this thread.
I really hope EA hasn't given up on TS3 and I hope they will patch this issue as it seems to affect a large amount of their Mac users. Thankfully, I have an older desktop where I can still run my game, but others might not be so lucky.
the17thmoon
10 years ago
We should protest against EA about this matter.
the17thmoon
10 years ago
"tamalinn;13779476" wrote:
"webbi7;13777576" wrote:
This is ridiculous they should just release a patch already :(

They're not going to. TS3 is done.

It is not finished in the reality of things. They should respect the sim community more than this. We invested so much money. I'm disgusted by EA right now.
tamalinn
10 years ago
Have you really read everything? Seriously? Because basically no one with the Intel Iris graphics card can play the game. They all have exactly the problem that you're describing. If you read either of the TWO threads about the Intel Iris graphics cards or pretty much every single post in the Mac threads of this forum where people complain that their game isn't working, the issue is the Intel Iris graphics cards.
igazor
10 years ago
The only way I can think of to test this is to install TS3 for Mac on my new mid-2015 MBP and see what happens. Though it's getting tempting, I really don't want to do that. The payoff, that is, you still get to play the crippled Mac version of the game instead of the better functioning Windows version, is kind of weak.