The Sims 3 with newer graphics card
Hi! I recently got a new pc with an Nvidia 3070 and my sims 3 game keeps freezing and lagging that it is unplayable. I've tried all of the performance and bug fixes from https://steamcommunity.com/sh...
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@mbleier1000 Although the Steam guide is very useful, it does have certain things that could be done better. Which version of the game do you have? Origin, Steam or disk?
Can you attach your DeviceConfig.log from Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\, as well as your dxdiag? https://help.ea.com/en/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
I'm using origin.
@mbleier1000 I would suggest starting over with the fixes, so we can add them gradually and see if anything improves.
Remove any fixes and mods you might have added while fixing the game, then repair the game through Origin to restore it to the vanilla state. Also make sure that Windows and your NVIDIA drivers are up to date (check for Windows updates in your system settings, and use GeForce Experience app from NVIDIA to update to the latest drivers).
Go to Documents\Electronic Arts\ and either delete The Sims 3 folder, or move it somewhere safe, depending on if you wish to keep anything from it (like save files, if you have any).
First, you'll need to update the game's graphics files to recognize your RTX 3070. You can find the necessary files (GraphicsRules.sgr and GraphicsCards.sgr) in The Sims 3 installation folder, which is, by default, located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\. You should back up those files in case they need to be restored, then move them to your desktop for easier editing.
The instructions under the spoiler tag apply only to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with device ID 2484.
SpoilerGraphicsCards.sgr
1. Once you move it to your desktop, open GraphicsCards.sgr with Notepad.
2. Scroll until you find the line that says card 0x0fd1 "GeForce GT 650M". You can also use CTRL+F and paste the line to let Notepad search for it.
3. Above it, add a line where you'll insert information about your card: card 0x2484 "GeForce RTX 3070".
4. Once you're done, you should see something like this:vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de card 0x2484 "GeForce RTX 3070" card 0x0fd1 "GeForce GT 650M"
5. Save the changes and move GraphicsCards.sgr back to its original location, the Bin folder.
card 0x0fd2 "GeForce GT 640M"
GraphicsRules.sgr
1. Once you move it to your desktop, open GraphicsRules.sgr with Notepad.
2. Near the top, there should be a line that says seti textureMemory 32. Replace 32 with 2048. Under that line, there should be a line that says setb textureMemorySizeOK false. Add a # before it, so it says # setb textureMemorySizeOK false.
3. Press CTRL+F and search for GTX 6??. It should lead you to a line that ends with: or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 6??*")). Replace GTX 6?? with RTX, so the line ends up like:
or match("${cardName}", "*RTX*")). Make sure you do not touch quotation marks and asterisks, or you risk breaking the file.
4. Save the changes and move GraphicsRules.sgr back to its original location, the Bin folder.
The next step is to limit your game's frame rate. The Steam guide did mention this, but it missed a step, so you should repeat it correctly.- Open Nvidia Control Panel.
- Go to Manage 3D Settings -> Program Settings.
- In the dropdown menu (Select a program to customize), look for Sims 3 (TS3.exe); make sure it is not TS3W.exe.
- Under Specify the settings for this program, look for the following settings:
- Max Frame Rate (turn it on and set it to 60)
- Vertical Sync (turn it on).
- Apply these changes and close Nvidia Control Panel.
Now it would be a good time to test if these steps worked. Start the game, which should be reset to the factory state if you took out The Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts\ and try playing for a bit. Once you load into a world, use the cheat fps on to monitor the frame rate and make sure it does not go above 60. Once the game is open and the new DeviceConfig.log is generated, you can open it and check under Graphics device info that the changes made to the graphics files are working (it should say Found: 1, Matched: 1 for your card).
One tip I can offer from personal experience is to keep High Detail Lots on 1 or 2 if you move around the town a lot. Other settings you can max out if you want, but that one has caused lag for me when it was on high. You can, of course, experiment and see what works best for you.
hey! so I made these changes and my game is still freezing every few seconds or so. I checked the fps and im getting right around 58-60 fps consistently.
@mbleier1000 The most pressing issue in your dxdiag is that your C drive is almost totally out of space. 6 GB is barely enough for Windows alone to maneuver. When you add in Sims 3, you could easily see crashes even if everything else is working properly. So please start by clearing up at least 15 GB additional space, for a total of >20.
One of the recommendations in the Steam article is also not helpful and possibly harmful: step 4, about making the game use more RAM. Sims 3 can already use a little less than 4 GB, and since it's a 32-bit app, there's no way to make it use more. If you look at the value in the .ini file described, it's actually 20 GB (count the zeroes), and it refers to the limit of the game's script heap, which should not be changed.
Repairing the game in Origin should revert any changes you've made to that file, but please check afterwards to make sure. Getting your graphics card recognized might be nice, but it's totally unnecessary and won't have any effect on the game crashing, so please DO NOT edit graphicscards.sgr or graphicsrules.sgr yet. Instead, it's better to get the game running stably and come back to that issue later.
Your dxdiag also lists an Origin error and a number of Windows update errors. These could simply be due to the low drive space, but it's worth at least running a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files once you clear more space.
- Hit Windows key-X
- Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
- Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes into the window, and enter
- The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
- After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
- Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator)”
- Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes into the window, and enter
- Post the message you receive here
Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates. If any install, restart again when you're done.
If the game still crashes, please move your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop. When you open the launcher, a clean folder will spawn with no content. Don't add anything to it yet; just see whether you can play without crashing.
Please also let me know what kind of in-game framerates you get.
@puzzlezaddict I got the message "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.
PS C:\Windows\system32>"@mbleier1000 Please move your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, again if you did it before. Launch the game to create a new folder, start a new save in Sunset Valley, and see how it runs. Don't add any content to this folder, and don't change any of the graphics settings except for the in-game resolution: make sure it's set to 1920x1080. You can also reduce the number of high-detail lots if you want, but a setting of 4 or so shouldn't have much of an effect if you're just letting the game run while focused on one or two lots.
If the game still freezes, I'd like to see a new dxdiag.
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