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rosbe17's avatar
7 months ago

Sims 3 macbook gameplay - in game lagging every 10 minute

Hi,

Sims 3 runs smoothly otherwise on my Macbook Air (2020). 1,1 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, 8 GB 3733 MHz LPDDR4X.

However, the game lags every 10 Sims minutes :D Music keeps playing, but the screen freezes (sims, and clock). I cannot press anything every 10 sims minutes. Makes the gameplay quite frustrating. Any tips to help with this problem?

Thanks!

6 Replies

  • @rosbe17  What world(s) are you playing in, and which expansions do you have installed?  Are you using mods or custom content?  It's fine if you are; I just need to know either way.

  • rosbe17's avatar
    rosbe17
    7 months ago

    Hey! 

    I have everything else excluding pets, and into the future 🙂 
    No mods, or custom content installed. I realised it works better in the base game neighbourhood, and the Island Paraside neighbourhood is where it lags the most. Decided not to play there.

    Now I faced a new problem aside from this: the game crashes 5 min into gameplay. "The Sims 3 quit unexpectedly" right when I start the game. The game continues to run in the back despite this notice. But crashes after 5 min. According to the previous threads, I have modified the graphic settings to best function on a Macbook.

  • Moving objects seems to be one possible reason for crashing. However, I am not building or editing houses. It is just randomly I crashes, on the loading screen, when my sim is moving to another lot when they're doing a quest. I've started wondering whether it is the computer that has the issues. Please let me know if you need more info 🙂 

  • @rosbe17  Please try playing with your computer offline, and with nothing else running.  Restart first (a real restart, not sleep/wake), open the EA App, put it in offline mode, and disable wifi before launching Sims 3.  Let me know whether this helps at all.

    I don't think the computer necessarily has issues, but it is borderline for 64-bit Sims 3.  That doesn't mean you can't play at all, only that you may need to take extra steps to help the game run well enough to enjoy it.

  • rosbe17's avatar
    rosbe17
    7 months ago

    It still crashes randomly, I have also tried new save so instead of saving by pressing save I have made new saves by pressing "save as". 

    Weird, it worked so well before but now I cannot play even 5 mins. Is there any checklist for crash reports with The Sims 3 on MacBook, that I could take a look at? I don't really no what is wrong anymore...

  • @rosbe17  The crash reports Sims 3 generates aren't particularly helpful.  The ones macOS generates aren't either—they say the game crashed with an access violation, which is true, but that's too generic of an error to be of any use.

    Please try playing with all the graphics settings down to the minimum, and Advanced Rendering disabled, and Object Hiding enabled.  You may not need to play like this going forward, but it's a useful test.  When you change the graphics settings, do so at the Main Menu, then quit to desktop before loading a save.

    Also make sure your Mac can properly cool itself, which means playing on a hard flat surface (like a desk) or using a laptop tray or cooling pad.  Don't let it rest on a blanket or your clothing.

    If none of this helps, please create a new admin account on your Mac and try all the above there as well.  You won't have access to your saves or other user data, but the game itself should still be playable.

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