The Sims 3 Graphics Issues
@tropicalicz Did you ever edit either graphicscards.sgr or graphicsrules.sgr? Your card isn't recognized, but interestingly, its VRAM (texture memory) is, which is unusual for newer Nvidia cards. Either way, if you have an Origin install, please repair the game in Origin: open your game library, right-click on the Sims 3 icon, and select Repair. If you have a different kind of install, please let me know what kind, since repairing the game files needs to be done differently as well. The Origin repair will revert the .sgr files to their original state, just so you're aware.
Within the Nvidia Control Panel, please restore the settings for Sims 3 to default, if you've done anything at all to change them. If you're using GeForce Experience to optimize your settings, please undo that as well. The point is to remove the effects of any adjustments either tool is imposing on the game. Please test in a(nother) clean Sims 3 folder, so there are zero effects of the previous times you loaded the game.
It would be interesting to see how the game looked with the water graphics setting turned down to the minimum as well. As always, be sure to change the setting at the Main Menu and quit to desktop before reloading.
If none of this helps, please try playing in a clean boot, again with a clean Sims 3 folder.
