I've been looking at some answers on here to figure out which desktop to buy but I'm not very literate with this stuff so I'm getting pretty confused!
I like to play the Sims 3 (I don't plan on upgrading to 4) and I'd love some suggestions for a decent desktop. I'm in the UK and I can only afford to spend around £300. I could probably stretch that a bit but not very much.
Thanks in advance for the suggestions 🙂
@sativsim Your graphics card is far too new to be in the game's database. That's not really an issue, but I can help you add your card if you'd like. Just post the part of deviceconfig.log under "graphics device info" and before "options." The file is in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3.
You'll only get the unrecognized card message the first time you launch the game or if options.ini, in the same folder, is removed or refreshed. The latter will happen with every graphics driver update.
@puzzlezaddict wrote:@sativsim Your graphics card is far too new to be in the game's database. That's not really an issue, but I can help you add your card if you'd like. Just post the part of deviceconfig.log under "graphics device info" and before "options." The file is in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3.
You'll only get the unrecognized card message the first time you launch the game or if options.ini, in the same folder, is removed or refreshed. The latter will happen with every graphics driver update.
Is it in one of these?
@sativsim Yes, it's deviceconfig, just above options (which you've highlighted). Your OS is apparently set to not display file extensions.
@puzzlezaddict wrote:@sativsim Yes, it's deviceconfig, just above options (which you've highlighted). Your OS is apparently set to not display file extensions.
I clicked on the deviceconfig thing, this is what I got:
@sativsim Your computer is using integrated graphics, not the Nvidia card. (You can see the GPU used in the second screenshot, where it says "Name (driver)," as in, the name of the graphics device as indicated by the graphics driver. So the first step is to force the use of the Nvidia card instead. Hit Windows key-i, select System > Displays > Graphics settings, click Browse, choose TS3.exe (Origin install) or TS3W.exe (disc or Steam install), click Options, choose the high-performance option, and save.
Make sure you're playing with the laptop plugged in as well; nothing forces a laptop to use the lower-powered integrated graphics option like running on battery.
Once you've done that, check deviceconfig to make sure the Nvidia card is listed, and if it is, post the same info as in the second screenshot here. You can just copy the text and paste it though.
@puzzlezaddict wrote:@sativsim Your computer is using integrated graphics, not the Nvidia card. (You can see the GPU used in the second screenshot, where it says "Name (driver)," as in, the name of the graphics device as indicated by the graphics driver. So the first step is to force the use of the Nvidia card instead. Hit Windows key-i, select System > Displays > Graphics settings, click Browse, choose TS3.exe (Origin install) or TS3W.exe (disc or Steam install), click Options, choose the high-performance option, and save.
Make sure you're playing with the laptop plugged in as well; nothing forces a laptop to use the lower-powered integrated graphics option like running on battery.
Once you've done that, check deviceconfig to make sure the Nvidia card is listed, and if it is, post the same info as in the second screenshot here. You can just copy the text and paste it though.
Will do. Will playing with the laptop plugged in damage it?
@sativsim Not at all. You always want to plug in a laptop of any kind while playing games. A few very lightweight games might not drain the battery that much, but Sims games certainly will, and the laptop will throttle performance to try to keep energy use down as much as possible. So you'll get much better performance with the laptop plugged in.
@puzzlezaddict wrote:@sativsim Not at all. You always want to plug in a laptop of any kind while playing games. A few very lightweight games might not drain the battery that much, but Sims games certainly will, and the laptop will throttle performance to try to keep energy use down as much as possible. So you'll get much better performance with the laptop plugged in.
I am in the process of changing the graphic settings and am having trouble finding TS3W.ese, where would I locate it?
@sativsim If you have an Origin install, you don't need to bother; the game uses TS3.exe without the W.
If you have a disc install, the default location is usually this:
Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
For Steam, the default location is this:
Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
You'll notice that in either case, the last part of the file path is the same.
@puzzlezaddict wrote:@sativsim If you have an Origin install, you don't need to bother; the game uses TS3.exe without the W.
If you have a disc install, the default location is usually this:
Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
For Steam, the default location is this:
Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
You'll notice that in either case, the last part of the file path is the same.
I hope I did it correctly
