Re: Sims 3 having worse graphics after recognising card
@es_lorax Please go into Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3, open deviceconfig.log, copy the first 40 lines or so (stop when you get to Options), and paste them here. This section shows how Sims 3 is reading and ranking your hardware. You can delete your user and computer names, 20 lines down, if you want; the file doesn't contain any other personal information.
If you use GeForce Experience, please disable the option to optimize your graphics settings, at least for Sims 3. GFE could be the reason your Edge Smoothing setting keeps reseting.
Please also remove all your mods, including the UI mod you're using and any lighting mod you've installed, at least long enough to test. While these shouldn't affect graphics to the degree that you're seeing, it's important to know how the game looks in its vanilla state.