EA App's offline mode causes FPS to drop upon opening the game

Hello

My sims 4 game has low fps and very laggy in offline mode. When i go online everything is ok, but when i dont have access to online it starts lagging. How do i fix this?

@MySimsGame1  That's odd; usually the problem occurs in reverse.  When you're offline, do you mean that your entire computer is offline, and is this true before launching the game, or do you lose internet access while you're playing?

Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

@Plantyl  Thanks for all the info.  Your dxdiag shows that a component of Microsoft's wireless LAN service is crashing repeatedly, and while I don't know whether this is related to the Sims 4 issue, it's worth installing the newest driver Asus offers for your laptop, which looks to be newer than what you have installed.  (The version numbers are a bit weird, but the dates are far enough apart.)  You can find it here, specifically the "Intel Wireless LAN" driver under Networking:

https://rog.asus.com/ph/laptops/rog-strix/rog-strix-g15-series/helpdesk_download/

If you're asked, choose G512LU as the BIOS version.  Restart your laptop after installing the driver.

If that doesn't help, does taking your computer offline make a difference?  I realize you might not want to play like that in general, but I'm curious.  Have you also disabled the EA App in-game overlay and notifications?  These should all be inactive while you're in offline mode anyway, but it's worth testing.

Please also let me know if the any of the values in the Task Manager's Performance tab are different when the EA App is offline vs. online.  I'm curious as to whether it's using extra CPU in trying to reconnect or anything along those lines.  I do know the App often keeps trying to connect even when explicitly placed in offline mode, which is a longstanding problem that's probably been on the back burner as the team puts out more urgent fires.

Finally, if you own any other EA games, please let me know whether you see the effect on those.  I'm not suggesting you buy anything to test, but Apex Legends is free, and you have the free space on your SSD to accommodate it temporarily.  If you don't have time to test, that's totally fine; just let me know about everything else.

@puzzlezaddict Thank you for the response.

I've updated the driver as you asked me to do but it didn't fix the issue.

Here's another screen-record. I hope it has everything you want to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsY-7Y1O7lI

@Plantyl  For Sims 3, is the behavior different with the EA App in online vs. offline mode?  I see you're using the Lazy Duchess launcher, which is fine, but it raises the question of whether you've manually capped your in-game fps (you absolutely should if you haven't already), and whether you get different results with fps uncapped.  It's not dangerous to test this for a minute or two; just remember to impose the fps cap again when you're done.

Going forward, please simply list the answers to my questions.  It's much easier to reference a list than to go scrubbing through a video every time I wonder about one detail or another.  You can of course include a video if you want, and it was helpful to see the Task Manager values, but it does make things more difficult when the info isn't in the post itself.

@puzzlezaddict My apologies.

Yes, I do use Lazy Duchess' launcher and smooth patch, and I set the FPS limit to 65. I was playing the game in offline mode this afternoon and it was running completely fine, no drastic FPS drop.

@Plantyl  Just to be clear, in Sims 3, if you remove the fps cap entirely, do you get the same framerates with the EA App in online and offline mode?  The App may also be imposing an fps drop in Sims 3, except that you can't see it because the floor for fps is higher than the limit you've set.  The reason I ask is because it helps narrow down the source of the problem as well as informing where to report it if it is in fact an EA-side issue.

@puzzlezaddict OK, the FPS limit has now been disabled in both the smooth patch file and NVIDIA Control Panel. It caps around 285 in offline mode, and around 220 in online mode. (I did the testing in the smallest world I have by the way so that I could get the accurate amounts of maximum framerates.)

@Plantyl  Okay, so the problem is limited to Sims 4, or at least it's not present with Sims 3.  I do wonder if the game is trying and failing to connect, constantly, and dragging down performance along the way.

Please load the game to the Main Menu, click Options > Game Options > Sims Delivery, and set it to check Never and uncheck the box for automatic downloads.  (You'll note you can always check manually.)  Under Other, uncheck Online Social Features, Online Access, Enable In-game Surveys, Auto-reconnect, and Share Usage Data.  Quit and reload, then see whether these changes have helped.  If they have, you can selectively reenable the same settings until you find the problem; please keep in mind that you may need to quit and restart to see the effects.

If this doesn't help either, and you tested before the new pach dropped, which is just over 8 hours from now, please patch the game, repair it afterwards for good measure (probably not necessary, but still), and repeat the above, just to be thorough.