"Warning; Unrecognized Video Card. Your video card not found in our database.
My computer recently updated its AMD Radeon R7 200 Series graphics and when I try playing my game I get this message: "Warning; Unrecognized Video Card. Your video card was not found in our database....
@esperelda If you installed via disc but then Origin patched the game to 1.69, you'd need to use TS3.exe, and if you're still on patch 1.67, you'd need to use TS3W.exe. You can see the patch level in the launcher, or you can see which .exe the game uses through the Task Manager. Or you can add both TS3.exe and TS3W.exe and set the limit to 60 for each one. It doesn't really matter; you'll get to the same place regardless. And yes, the files that end in .exe are executables.
If you double-click on an .exe, it should be added to RTSS, and then you can set the fps limit for that .exe.
@esperelda The unrecognized card error means exactly what it says: Sims 3 has a database of graphics cards, and your card's ID is not listed. This by itself isn't a problem: the database determines what settings profile to apply, and you can change most of those settings yourself. It has nothing to do with framerates.
If you'd like to get the card recognized though, please go into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3, open deviceconfig.log, copy the lines between "Graphics device info" (about 25 lines down) and "Options" (about 40 lines down), and paste it here. That will give me the card's device ID so I know what you'd need to add to the game's database.
Framerates, or fps (frames per second), is a measurement of how many frames (still images) your graphics card is rendering every second. Without a manual cap, a graphics card can overwork itself running at close to 100% load, but this isn't really a problem unless your card is overheating. High-end cards can also generate far too many frames in general, which isn't good for them either, but an R7 200 series won't have that issue. Regardless, the solution is to manually cap fps, which can be accomplished with a few different tools.
If you'd like to see your in-game framerates, open the cheats console (crtl-shift-C) and enter "fps on" without quotes. A number will appear in the upper right corner. Please let me know how that number behaves, both its average and how much it fluctuates.
@esperelda The deviceconfig lists only the Microsoft Basic Display driver, the default when no other driver is found. So either your computer doesn't currently have a graphics driver installed, or the driver that is present is crashing before Sims 3 can pick it up. Either way, that needs to be addressed before you do anything else.
Please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post, so I can see whether your computer currently has a graphics driver and which one you'd need to install.
@esperelda Your computer does in fact have a driver installed, but the driver support software is crashing, which is probably why Sims 3 isn't using the driver. Please start with a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files:
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
If sfc reports it found corrupt files and was unable to repair some of them, please stop here and let me know. Otherwise, restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates. If anything installs, restart again when it's done.
The next step is a clean uninstall of the graphics driver, but here I think it's best to let Windows install one for you rather than installing one manually. Download Display Driver Uninstaller from here:
Next, take your computer completely offline—disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cord—and double-click the DDU.exe. Take note of where the file will land, and click Extract. If it's easier, you can copy the path and then paste it into the address bar in a File Explorer window. Open the folder and then launch Display Driver Uninstaller.exe, and you'll get a message that you're not in Safe Mode. Click OK, then go to Options and enable Safe Mode dialog. Here's a screenshot of what your options should look like; make sure the box in red is checked:
Close options, and the DDU, and then open the DDU.exe again. For launch options, choose "Safe Mode (Recommended)," and then click Reboot to Safe Mode (you'll need your password, so find it before rebooting). Once you login, you'll see this:
In the blue box, choose GPU, then AMD if it's not already showing. Then click Clean and Restart (red box).
Once your computer has rebooted, now back in normal mode, go back online, and Windows should find a driver for you. If that doesn't happen, go here:
Download the auto-detect tool, and let AMD select a driver. Either way, restart your computer when the driver is installed.
After you launch Sims 3, please provide the same section of deviceconfig: the file refreshes each time you load the game, so it will show whether your GPU and driver are being used properly.
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