Melted Graphics Cards?
I recently downloaded the Sims 3 on my computer again and it crashed (to no surprise). On my old computer it would crash all the time but my new computer is a bit better though so I did a quick Google...
Forum Discussion
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.
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.
