[FIXED] Problems playing Sims 4 on the 16" MacBook Pro

Hi,

You seem like someone who knows what she's talking about.

I bought the 16-inch MacBook pro with the following graphics card specs:

AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4 GB

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

For the past two weeks I've been struggling with it, the game says that my graphics card is not recognised.

I am able to start a game and make a family but the moment the family moves into their house it crashes during loading.

I've searched the entire internet but can't find a solution. 

I've tried repairing, renaming and I asked on the Dutch ea answers but they just refer me to the legacy edition, which is definitely not going to help...

So I was wondering if you might know a solution to this?

@Miloev  I've split your post into its own thread, since you have a different issue.  (And yes, you're absolutely right that the Legacy Edition is not part of the solution.)

It's easy enough to get your graphics card recognized—you just need to add the card to the game's graphicscards.sgr file.  If you'd like help with this, go into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4, open the file called config.log, and copy the information under "Graphics device info," about 25-35 lines down.  Paste it here, and I'll write out the line you need to add to graphicscards.sgr.

The fact that you keep getting messages about an unrecognized card suggests that your options.ini file is corrupt or keeps getting replaced.  Do you have iCloud set to automatically sync your Documents folder?  If so, please disable it, at least temporarily.  Here's how:

https://bluebellflora.com/2017/02/06/sims-3-and-sims-4-not-loading-save-games/

Having iCloud sync automatically might also explain the crashing.  If disabling syncing doesn't help though, or if it's not the issue, please remove your entire Sims 4 game folder from Documents\Electronic Arts (you can put it on your desktop) and try to start a new save.  Let me know how it goes.

@puzzlezaddict Thank you so much for the help!

I disabled my iCloud sync and the game now works, which is already a major improvement.

My gameplay works and I can now safe as well. 

The only issue I'm still having is my graphics card not being recognised.

Here is the 'graphics device info'

=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): AMD Radeon Pro 5300M
Name (database): [Found: 0, Supported: 1]
Vendor: ATI
Chipset: Vendor: 1002, Device: 7340, Board: 00000210, Chipset: 0043
Driver: macOS Metal driver, Version: 0.0.0.0
Driver version: 0
Monitor: 00000000
Texture memory: 4080MB
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 0
Opt. features: +d24s8

So far I can't find my graphicscards.sgr file in my sims folder, where should I be able to find it?

---

@Miloev wrote:

@puzzlezaddictThank you so much for the help!

I disabled my iCloud sync and the game now works, which is already a major improvement.

My gameplay works and I can now safe as well. 

The only issue I'm still having is my graphics card not being recognised.

Here is the 'graphics device info'

=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): AMD Radeon Pro 5300M
Name (database): [Found: 0, Supported: 1]
Vendor: ATI
Chipset: Vendor: 1002, Device: 7340, Board: 00000210, Chipset: 0043
Driver: macOS Metal driver, Version: 0.0.0.0
Driver version: 0
Monitor: 00000000
Texture memory: 4080MB
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 0
Opt. features: +d24s8

So far I can't find my graphicscards.sgr file in my sims folder, where should I be able to find it?

---

Sorry to jump in here - I made the original thread on if Sims 4 plays well on the 16 inch MBP. Does the game play well for you on the higher graphics options? 😊

@Miloev  That's great news, and also very helpful to have confirmation that iCloud was (once again) messing with someone's ability to play.

For the graphics card, you're looking for a file called graphicscards.sgr, inside the game's program files.  Those files will be in one of two places, either Applications or Macintosh HD\Users\[your username]\Applications.  In either case, right-click (or hold down crtl and click) the Sims 4 icon, and select Show Package Contents.  Open Contents, then graphicscards.sgr.  If you're asked which app to use to open it, TextEdit works fine.

Right at the top of the file, you'll see this:

vendor "ATI" 0x1002
card 0x731F "AMD Radeon RX 5700 / 5700 XT" $cardLevelUber $resolutionHigh
card 0x15DD "AMD Vega 11" $cardLevelUber $resolutionHigh
card 0x6863 "AMD Vega FE" $cardLevelUber $resolutionHigh

Copy the text in this box:

    card 0x7340 "AMD Radeon Pro 5300M" $cardLevelUber $resolutionHigh

and paste it directly under the first line above, so you'll now have this:

vendor "ATI" 0x1002

card 0x7340 "AMD Radeon Pro 5300M" $cardLevelUber $resolutionHigh
card 0x731F "AMD Radeon RX 5700 / 5700 XT" $cardLevelUber $resolutionHigh
card 0x15DD "AMD Vega 11" $cardLevelUber $resolutionHigh
card 0x6863 "AMD Vega FE" $cardLevelUber $resolutionHigh

(with the spaces in front of each line that this site is not saving when I paste)

You can see whether it worked by checking the same info you pasted here.  You should now see a [Found: 1, Supported: 1] value.

Keep in mind that you'll need to repeat this process any time you repair or update the game, at least until your card is added to the file by EA.  If it's easier, you can just copy the entire graphicscards.sgr somewhere else (right-click and select Copy, then right-click where you want it to go and select Paste) and replace the new version you get after an update.

Hello everyone,

I'm a bit at loss...

I bought a brand new MacBook Pro 16 inches 4 days ago and the game crashes every single time on Live mode

Here are my specs: again, the laptop is brand new, I only downloaded Adobe and Origin, I don't use mods

500 Go

Memory 32 Go

6-Core Intel Core i7

AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4 GB

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

Catalina 10.15.1

So I went through a lot of topic and tried many fixes, but none of them worked. Here is the list of the fixes I tried:

-repaired the game

-unistalled and reinstalled (with and without the extensions)

-deactivated Origin in the game

-deleted The Sims 4 folder

-deleted UserData.lock (it keeps recreating itself)

-iCloud Document folder synchronization deactivated

-updated to todays last patch

Also a message says my graphic card is not recognized so I followed @puzzlezaddict tip and added infos on a file called graphicscards.sgr

I don't know if it is linked but now my game won't even start. "The Sims 4" appears on my left top corner for half a second then seems to shut down and then gets replaced by "Origin"

I really don't know what to do, did I miss a tip ?

@cerolf50  If there was a typo in the graphicscards.sgr file, that could explain the fact that the game won't even open anymore.  Try repairing it again, which will restore the original version of the file.  While it's nice to have your graphics card recognized, it shouldn't be necessary for Sims 4 to run at all.

Try updating your OS: Catalina has a slightly newer build out now.  Then repeat the steps to disable iCloud syncing, since it's often reenabled after an update.  And remove your Sims 4 game folder from Documents\Electronic Arts again as well, just to be thorough.

Please also reset Origin, then disable Origin in-game both globally and for Sims 4.  For the global setting, hover over your username and select Application Settings, then the Origin in-game header.  For the TS4 setting, open your game library, right-click on the TS4 icon, select Game Properties, and uncheck the box for Origin in-game.  Please also disable the Origin web helper service: in Application Settings, it's listed under Application (the first header), under Start-up options.

@puzzlezaddict Thank you so so much for all the help!!

My graphics card is indeed recognised now.

At the beginning of last week I totally lost hope, but thanks to you everything is working now!