After Recent Update, FPS Drop & Screen Flicker

@KaiserRath  I don't know why but unless there is a good reason to partition the hard drive the way it is now, that does not leave enough free space on the system primary (boot device). Unless you are an advanced Windows user I do not advise using the computer in this configuration. Windows is borrowing some system memory and using it for video memory. Windows is also using system memory for other applications that are running in the background. Some of this memory has to be contiguous therefore if memory has to be moved around to accommodate the contiguous block the operating system is looking for. Windows memory management is complicated. I am going to say a Windows casual user can not run the operating system in 260Gb of memory. The windows operating system bloats - that is what it does. You will continue to have issues and system slow downs unless you free up some system memory - 43.5Gb is not enough. There are some programs available that can re partition the drive. If you don't correct this issue now Windows will continue to have issues. For instance - if you are downloading a 25Gb file and you have 43.5 free (yes it will download to the system device (normally C🙂. The download will create a temp file until the download is complete. If the destination location is on the system device the file will be copied (not moved) to the destination requiring 50Gb of free space. To make matters worse the temp file may not be deleted for a while if at all (remember the bloat I mentioned). and this is just one instance. Most operating systems basically work the same way - as it was in the beginning so it shall be.

I noticed that the Nvidia driver is not WHQL. While this is normally should not be an issue when I have video issues I usually roll the driver back until I get a WHQL driver. WHQL means Microsoft has given it's blessing (tested the driver) and should work (notice I say should).

As the GeForce 840M is a mid gaming chip you could lower the resolution and see how the game runs.

I have 2 drives, an SSD and an HDD.
My C is my SSD & I ONLY keep games on it other than the OS. My D is my HDD, everything else is installed here.

The reason why it has that much space is bc I have exactly Overwatch, Blade & Soul, Watch Dogs 1 & 2 and Sims 4 installed on it.

But if you think that is an issue, I can uninstall Overwatch & both Watch Dogs. (I already uninstalled Overwatch now since I don't rly play it anyway).

Also I'm not a casual user. This is just a laptop I'm using temporarily for giggles.

That doesn't explain why the game was just fine before this update and now it isn't. I didn't change anything on my laptop at all.

I noticed I am not the only one with this issue as well, so idk if this is just a "me" problem.

I have a desktop at home that's over 1TB & 2 drives but I'm not at home rn to test is the FPS drop is present there and prob won't be until after New Years.

Also the 2 pics show that the nvidia driver I installed was stated to be WHQL, so idk why it would not be?
New dxdiag attached too.

Edit: If anything, I can also move Sims 4 to the other drive if that really is a problem.

@KaiserRath

Looking at your DxDiag I can see that it only reports one HD (WDC WD7500BPVX-22JC3T0) that is partitioned in a C: and D: drive. Since you say there should be two drives it appears that there is a problem with the SSD drive since it is not detected. Or you are mistaken and there only is one drive installed.

While there isn't too much space left on C: there is enough. Next time you install a new program you may want to install to D: to avoid running out of space on C:

Back to your problem. It appears that you are running the 32bit version of The Sims please change to 64 bit.

In Origin rightclick the game, select Game properties and on the Advanced Launch Options tab change to 64 bit.

Also make sure that the game runs on the Geforce card as the built-in Intel Graphics are not powerful enough.