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Seasoned Novice

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

I re-downloaded The Sims 4, all my content packs, installed the gfxCardStatus app, and set my Mac to "discrete only" as well and I must say that at first boot it appears to actually work for me as well! (Not that I ever doubted you, I'm just very happy to confirm it for others!)

My Mac:

2019 MacBook Pro

2.4 GHz 8-core i9

64 GB of RAM

1 TB SSD

AMD 5600M with 8 GB of graphics

macOS 10.15.6 Catalina

I only fired up the game to test this fix out, but I was able to run it full screen at 2688 x 1680 at Ultra settings with Edge Smoothing on Low, which is more than I have been able to do for WEEKS! This is great! I avoided buying the Star Wars pack because I haven't been able to play the game, but this may change my mind. As I have not spent much time playing, I will need more time to actually test this out but yes, initial impressions are that forcing discrete graphics is the answer to this problem.

THANK YOU!

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Bluebellflora
Hero+
5 years ago
@jedimacfan

Did you check to see whether disabling automatic graphics switching in System Preferences stuck before downloading gfxCardStatus? Or did it automatically switch to the Intel chip again despite have disabled it?
jedimacfan
Seasoned Novice
5 years ago
I did not. I simply downloaded gfxCardStatus and forced the override and it seemed to just work. I’m familiar with this third-party app, and the original poster is right in that it has been out for years and is safe to use. I never bothered to uncheck the auto graphics switching.

All that being said, I didn’t get a chance to really play the game apart from launch it and look around for a few minutes. But I didn’t experience any issues in the tropical beach neighborhood (I forget the name now).
militarymama27
5 years ago
@jedimacfan Hi! Were you experiencing issues with floors missing and crazy black lines when you tried to place floors or anything?
kbee907
5 years ago
@militarymama27
I did download Big Sur. It was working better, but would still crash. So I did more troubleshooting, and deleted origin. I went back to download origin and it told me that my OS (Big Sur) did not support origin. So I couldn’t download it. I had to recover my laptop to switch back to Catalina. So mine actually works perfectly now with Catalina and doing what @joho1144 suggested.

also, @Bluebellflora i will see if I can check that for you sometime soon. And I just want to thank you for putting this thread together and all the work you do for people on here!
Bluebellflora
Hero+
5 years ago
@kbee907

Thanks! It would be really great to know if this fix can be applied System Preferences > Energy Saver without having to download a 3rd party app.