Sims 3 looks grainy and pixelated- please help!

@cocoawhirl  Have you confirmed that the game is in fact using your Nvidia GPU?  It would be listed in DeviceConfig.log (in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3), about 30 lines down.  And does it help to play in fullscreen mode?

Please also enable antialiasing settings in the Nvidia Control Panel.  Try everything you see there, with the CP set to override application settings where appropriate.  Sometimes it takes a bit of experimenting to get a good result.  Apply the settings to TS3.exe if you've installed through the EA App, or TS3W.exe, with the W, if you have a Steam or all-disc install.  Please do test in both fullscreen and windowed modes.

Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to a post, for reference.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

Having said that, some pixellation and color banding is unavoidable with Sims 3.  The problem (or at least part of it) is that newer drivers don't support dithering, a technique that disguised color banding and other results of low-res textures that old games often use.  Reshade can help, as you've probably seen, but is not a fix.

Thanks for the quick reply @puzzlezaddict ! I checked my DeviceConfig and it says Found 0, Matched 1. I'm surprised because I downloaded the updated graphics files from this guide and it said it should say Found 1, Matched 1. I must've done something wrong and now I need to figure that out *sigh* lol.

And yeah I've always seen some color banding in TS3 and it's never been perfect, but it's never been this bad to where I can't play the game because it looks so terrible. 

I've attached the DxDiag and the DeviceConfig here. Let me know if there are any issues I can possibly fix.

I'll try the tests you mentioned- I play in Windowed mode and have anti-aliasing off because that makes Reshade not work for some reason, but if it helps fix the issue I'll gladly try it haha.

@cocoawhirl  Did you manually add your GPU to the database, or did you simply download the .sgr files provided?  The GraphicsCards.sgr file doesn't have your GPU's device ID in it, which is why it's not Found.  The device ID is 249d if you'd like to add it yourself.  Search the file for 3070 and change the 0x2488 to 0x249d, and you should be fine.

As a test, try installing the older Nvidia graphics driver Asus offers for your laptop.  It may be too old in general, but it would be useful to know whether this helps, i.e. whether it's really the driver or something else that updated around the same time.  You can find the driver here:

https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/rog%20strix%20g15%20g513/helpdesk_download/

Choose G513QR if asked.  Since this driver is older than the one you currently have, you'll need to clean-uninstall the current one, as described here:

https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/02/clean-re-install-of-graphics-drivers-with-display-driver-uninstaller-ddu.html

Hi @puzzlezaddict, thanks so much for the help. I'm still noticing the issue, but I do think it's to a lesser extent. I wish I knew how other simmers with new GPUs got their games looking so nice and smooth ☹️ I follow lots of TS3 tumblr accounts and most have NVIDIA cards and their games look stunning. I heard it could be caused by a Windows update and in that case I'm probably screwed lol

Here's a picture of my sim now after using DDU and turning on anti-aliasing. I also attached my driver details and deviceconfig (this time with the graphics card recognized) If there are any issues there or settings I should change, please let me know! 

(I have pics of my graphicsrules.sgr sim quality settings and my nvidia control panel settings but I can only put 3 files here, so if you want to see those just let me know and I'll attach them.)

@cocoawhirl  I'm pretty sure most people who have impeccable Sims 3 graphics are using various interventions, probably more than one.  Reshade can help some, as can the Lazy Duchess Shadow Extender (sometimes), and HQ mods or .sgr edits, custom HQ skins; and there are other options around too.  A related possible improvement is the DXVK utility for Sims 3.  It doesn't help directly but allows the game to use a lot more VRAM, which can in turn allow you to use the shadow edits or HQ mods without getting crashes or bad performance.

This is unfortunately something of a project given how uncooperative the game is by default.  To be honest, I haven't done much beyond applying some .sgr edits because I don't care enough.  But I understand that a lot of players DO care, and if you're willing to put in the time, some combination of the above may get you to where you want to be.  Just add or change one thing at a time so you can evaluate the results of that particular feature.  The DXVK change in particular may be significant.

There are two other suggestions I have that you can try, then revert if you're not happy.  One is to set system and/or user DPI scaling back to 96 (100%):

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/change-display-dpi-scaling-level-in-windows-11.934/

The other is to set the Nvidia Control Panel to run Sims 3 at a dynamic super resolution (DSR) of 1.778 or whatever is closest to that.  This would force your GPU to render the game at a higher resolution, then scale it back down.  I would NOT recommend this as a long-term solution without the DXVK utility, just because of the extra VRAM the game would use, but it's fine for testing.