Melted Graphics Cards?

If the game is forced to run on insufficient hardware or if the hardware is fine but features a strong graphics card whose fps is not limited, then yes serious system damage can occur. Unlike more modern games, TS3 has no functional built-in fps limiter.

Before we can advise which way to go, we need to know more about the system on which you are now playing -- processor, graphics card, RAM, hard drive, and how many (and which) EPs you have in play. If you prefer, or if it's easier, please run a dxdiag report so we can get the full picture.

How to run one: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information
What to do with the results: Send it up to Pastebin.com (the free version is fine) and provide a link broken up by using "h.t.t.p.s." or something like that so we can read it.

The above assumes we are talking about the Windows version of the game. If you are on a Mac, that would require a different conversation.

You've kind of got a mixed bag there. That computer may be new(er) to you, but it and its graphics card are from over five years ago and its processor is strong but is from around eight years ago. It still should be capable of running TS3 with all EPs on at least medium graphics game options settings and without all the crashing, but I see some things a bit off-kilter.

Your graphics card drivers are over two years old but your Win 10 version is newer than that. They are supposed to keep up with each other. Its manufacturer is being listed as "Performance Design," was this a refurbished or used machine when you got it? Typically we would advise that one go to the manufacturer to look for driver updates, second choice would be Nvidia itself to the extent that they are still updating drivers for an Nvidia 750 Ti. I also see Windows Update failures, sometimes older computers do not take well to an upgrade to Win 10. There isn't much you can do about that now unless you have someone who can help you do a total reinstall of the operating system from scratch (let's leave that as a very last resort and if the new hard drive is the primary C drive then it sounds like you just went through something like this). Is whoever did the hard drive replacement, if it was someone else, available to help sort this out?

On the fps question, once you get the driver issue hopefully squared away, you will want to use the Nvidia Control Panel to arrange vertical sync for TS3 and, if that doesn't lock things in or if you require windowed mode, then Nvidia Inspector to explicitly cap the frame rate to the refresh rate of your monitor. Like most that's 60 Hz, so the goal is to keep the fps under 60 fps. To see the fps rates you are actually getting in-game, use ctrl+shift+C to bring up the cheats console then type fps on (enter). As you play and move the game camera around, the displayed rate should never exceed 60. To make the display go away, cheats console again and fps off (enter).

Here are some great visuals for working with the Nvidia Control Panel and Inspector, under the spoilers.
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/16540301/#Comment_16540301

While the fps capping is practically required in order to play TS3 properly, there might also be a point of diminishing returns here. As computers age, their performance does not stay constant. If you are having other difficulties with this computer, I'm afraid that you may find it takes much more effort to make the game playable on that one than might be worth it but it all seems doable if things can manage to hold up mechanically. I played on an almost eight year old system myself, on Win 7 though, until just a short while ago when I was able to upgrade to a new one.

Thank you very much. My computer was a refurbished device from a local computer store which is also where I got the hard-drive replaced. I will look into updating the drivers and sorting out the issues. I've been thinking about looking for a new PC for a while now so I might try and do that over the summer. Once again, thank you very much.

"Celticgamer0;c-17097936" wrote:
Not sure how to send an http link of my own DxDiag from Pastebin as I have never used it before. I do not receive a link when I drag the file over... I just recently redownloaded the Sims 3 again and I have an 8th Gen ASUS gaming laptop.

Open your saved full dxdiag report in a text editor like Notepad. Select All and Copy. Click into the large paste box on Pastebin.com and select Paste. Then click the button at the bottom that says "Create New Paste." The address of the page you are then looking at will be the one to give to others who need to read it.

The point is that we are actually pasting, not dropping files onto, the posting interface. :)

Other third party file hosts like GoogleDocs and DropBox work fine too, but many find Pastebin much easier for such single use sessions and as Guests of the system we don't have to mess around with who has the rights to see the page or not.

"Celticgamer0;c-17098880" wrote:
I hope I did it right lol
https://pastebin.com/EkPYDgpQ

You did, but we never established which problem we need to solve or what the question was.

Your computer is a laptop with dual graphics. The Nvidia Control Panel should be used, as per the above, but also to set the correct TS3 executable to use the high performance card (the Nvidia) as opposed to the Intel graphics chip. And then the fps checked on in-game to verify that it is staying at or below 60 fps as your laptop screen is also 60 Hz and Nvidia Inspector can be added if needed again as per the above.

Also very important though and should be taken care of first, your C drive is an SSD that does not have enough free space for both Windows and the game to maneuver. We always recommend at least 15% or 40 GB free, yours is at 24 GB I assume when the game is not running and that's way too tight. It is possible although difficult to game on a 256 GB SSD such as yours, but you have to constantly watch over the free space and keep shifting things away from the C drive to make more room. Your included D drive is a much larger 1 TB HDD but it seems to be unused. Another common strategy with such a setup is to install the game on D and use Windows to redirect the entire user Documents folder there, thus freeing up all kinds of space usually, but then you would lose the benefit that the SSD can give to TS3 in particular.

I'm also seeing Windows Update failures but that might be (it's difficult to tell) because there just isn't enough free space on C for it to update properly.

"Celticgamer0;c-17099368" wrote:
Thanks ^.^ I just want to make sure the game doesn't kill my graphics card. I am planning on getting an external drive to make more room on my laptop. Just got back into the sims 3 and didn't mean to highjack the thread lol

External drives are great for that. But again, you have a very roomy 1 TB second internal D drive that is not being used according to your dxdiag report. :)

"graventhe;c-17101100" wrote:
@igazor you think my GTX 1050 Ti and i7 7700 with 16 GB ram enough to play all sims 3 EPs on highest settings? (with 1 GB store content) and few mods

Yes, absolutely. You have a very strong system there, much of it actually provides more computing power than TS3 can ever possibly use. With better drive space management and after getting the fps capped on your card, which would be essential as has been discussed, the game should run great on that one with all of the EPs and store content that you want. Or that is, at least as great as it ever will on modern hardware while also keeping its RAM usage under the 32-bit imposed ~3.7 GB session limit that the game can work with.


Edit: @graventhe - Oh, I'm sorry! I got you confused with another forum poster. Not sure I have seen your computer's dxdiag or specs formally, hence my comment about hard drive space management that may not be relevant in your case. But fortunately the specs you just described still fit the same description, they would be fine for all EPs and store content within the limits that the game will run well on any system. :)

@igazor might be able to assist. I have heard stories of melted graphics cards and yes frame rate limiters are needed for Sims 3. But I am not up to date on all of this so it's best left to someone who is. There is a Sims 3 tech forum too where you might get help. If this gets moved then that's probably where it'll be.

Thank you guys for the replies! EP's I have installed are Generations, University Life, Pets & Late Night (I also have High-End Loft Stuff if that's relevant and no CC at the moment but may install some later). Here is the dxdiag:
h.t.t.p.s.://pastebin.com/KeAedp1D
https://pastebin.com/KeAedp1D (not sure how you want it)

Not sure how to send an http link of my own DxDiag from Pastebin as I have never used it before. I do not receive a link when I drag the file over... I just recently redownloaded the Sims 3 again and I have an 8th Gen ASUS gaming laptop.