How can I improve my performance?

I get the same issue (pie menu lag on the fridge, computer) and I have a pretty good PC. I think the sims development team is going to have to do something on their end to improve the performance of pie menus under the hood, since it seems like the more options and interactions they add, the worse it gets.

The modder Lumpinou has a good post about it here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/misc-about-pie-2-121299166

For frame stuttering, I don't know, since I don't experience that unless there's some aurora happening in the sky or the eco footprint thing. Are you playing on Laptop mode with lower settings and v-sync enabled?

I figured it was an issue on EA's end. I've been hearing an increased amounts of complaints about this, I hope they address it soon. I do not have laptop mode or v-sync enabled, should I enable them? Thanks for your help!

stickysara  This has been a problem for a long time:

[ARCHIVED] Lag for menu to show up when clicking on objects | EA Forums - 11532984

Having lots of items in your sims' inventories can make it worse, but emptying everything out doesn't fix the underlying issue.  If you'd like to comment yourself, please do so here, as the thread above is archived:

Lag for menu to show up when clicking on objects | EA Forums - 5034399

For the stutter, does it get worse on large lots or those with many objects?  It could be related to the game frequently switching between LODs for those objects.  The switching takes its toll on performance, and even an entry-level gaming system can typically handle rendering more objects at their highest LOD for longer periods.  So that's something you could experiment with if you want.

Simp4Sims modified the game's GraphicsRules.sgr file to address this, and much more.  Here's a list of the changes they made:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/51380490

Please do NOT use their actual file, even the newest one, which is outdated.  But you can compare it to your own file, located in [install location]\The Sims 4\Game\Bin, and edit the LOD values accordingly.  The part of their post about storing the edited file in ConfigOverride is still valid.

You don't need to use laptop mode, which is for low-end systems at or below the game's minimum requirements.  It's basically used to disable Advanced Rendering.  Vertical sync is fine: it locks the in-game framerates to the refresh rate of your monitor, lowering the amount of work your hardware has in running the game.  Since your monitor or laptop screen can't display more frames than this anyway, it shouldn't affect what you see on-screen.