Forum Discussion

ephemeral-empty's avatar
ephemeral-empty
11 months ago
Solved

Nvidia video card is not supported

The first thing that awaited me when I launched the game was an error about an unsupported video card. Then I went to this thread

=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU
Name (database): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU [Found: 1, Supported: 1]
Vendor: NVIDIA
Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: 28e0, Board: 271d1043, Chipset: 00a1
Driver: , Version: 32.0.15.6109, GUID: 72BCF424-5619-11EF-9E17-AC5BD75CD260
Driver version: 6109
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 7957MB

and made changes to the file "GraphicsCards.sgr". After that the error disappeared. BUT! My game runs on the integrated intel graphics card instead of using the discrete nvidia. 

I realized this because it runs on dx9 instead of the supported dx11. I know this because I have a new gaming laptop and it supports dx9-12. Also, in the game settings, in the graphics section, there is no checkbox "use dx9".

I checked this on the game without mods, cleanly installed from ea app today. All drivers are updated, the system is updated, other graphics-hard games work great (tested on cyberpunk and saints row 2024).

The problem is that even after setting the property for the game in ea app -dx11, the game still does NOT work smoothly. I see a drop in fps, there is no checkbox to switch in the settings, but on the main screen next to the game version there is an inscription dx11. And micro freezes. This is not playable. I want to add that in the nvidia and system settings, I set the values ​​​​to launch from this video card (not intel). And I don't know what else to do to make this game work properly 😭

My configuration:
Intel Core i7-12700H, 6 + 8 х 2.3 GHz + 1.7 GHz, RAM 16 GB, SSD 512 GB, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU 8 GB, Windows 11 Home

pc
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    10 months ago

    @ephemeral-empty  Interesting, I had another user report that setting the high-performance card in program settings did nothing, which is why I suggested using global settings.

    For the utilization, CPU use seems pretty normal given how relatively undemanding Sims 4 is.  GPU use is fine too if you're getting 150+ fps, and this game has never properly used all of the power of a high-end graphics card, even one from five years ago (I tested a lot).  So I'm not surprised that it would also not fully utilize a more recent mid-range GPU like your 4060.

    In particular, I noticed fps dropping below 100 in inclement weather despite the GPU not working much harder than it would in other circumstances.  So it seems like the problem is the game engine in some way.

    I would say that this is helpful feedback for EA.  The dedicated DirectX 11 feedback thread is here:

    https://answers.ea.com/t5/PC/DirectX-11-Technical-Issues-and-Feedback-Thread/td-p/14022619

    If you're willing, please post your findings as well as a dxdiag.  The wording of the original post makes it sound like the thread is for reporting bugs, but it's more general than that: any information about how the game runs in the newly-improved DX11 mode is useful.

    The fact that you needed force the game to use the Nvidia GPU in the Control Panel isn't necessary because there are a bunch of reports of that already.

4 Replies

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    11 months ago

    @ephemeral-empty  Please use this workaround to get the game to use your Nvidia card and default to DX11 mode:

    https://answers.ea.com/t5/PC/DirectX-11-Technical-Issues-and-Feedback-Thread/m-p/14070719#M285154

    Double-check Config to make sure the Nvidia card is listed, and let me know how performance is after the change.

    The DirectX 9 option in the graphics settings only shows up if the game is automatically using DX11, not if you've forced the game to use DX11 or 9 in properties.

  • ephemeral-empty's avatar
    ephemeral-empty
    11 months ago
    @puzzlezaddict Thanks, it seems to have helped, but I did it a little differently. Instead of global settings, I set individual ones for "TS4_Launcher_x64.exe" and "TS4_x64.exe" in the root of the game folder. After that, it launched as expected, using dx11, and a check mark appeared in the graphics settings.
    Testing the cas and the game mod, I noticed an improvement in fps, but there are still jumps and problems with video card consumption.
    In cas, the cpu was loaded at 20% max, the gpu also at 20%. Fps jumps ranged from the lowest 130 to the highest 180. At this time, I did not do anything unusual, just creating a sim, choosing clothes or hair. The most stable fps was around 150.
    The test in game mode showed 130 fps BEFORE switching to build mode. Everything was smooth until I switched to this mode to buy some simple thing and immediately go to live mode. After that, the fps dropped to 50-100 frames, stably holding around 50 and jumping like it was in the cas. When I went into the build mode for the second time and came back, just to check (I didn't buy anything), the fps was around 30 for some time, I didn't even look through the item catalog. All this time, nvidia was not used even at half its capacity, the maximum percentage of use was 30%, like the cpu. But as for intel, it was loaded as well, as if they were sharing it between themselves. Integrated video card Intel was also loaded at about 40%. It's still a sad picture, but thanks for the help.
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    10 months ago

    @ephemeral-empty  Interesting, I had another user report that setting the high-performance card in program settings did nothing, which is why I suggested using global settings.

    For the utilization, CPU use seems pretty normal given how relatively undemanding Sims 4 is.  GPU use is fine too if you're getting 150+ fps, and this game has never properly used all of the power of a high-end graphics card, even one from five years ago (I tested a lot).  So I'm not surprised that it would also not fully utilize a more recent mid-range GPU like your 4060.

    In particular, I noticed fps dropping below 100 in inclement weather despite the GPU not working much harder than it would in other circumstances.  So it seems like the problem is the game engine in some way.

    I would say that this is helpful feedback for EA.  The dedicated DirectX 11 feedback thread is here:

    https://answers.ea.com/t5/PC/DirectX-11-Technical-Issues-and-Feedback-Thread/td-p/14022619

    If you're willing, please post your findings as well as a dxdiag.  The wording of the original post makes it sound like the thread is for reporting bugs, but it's more general than that: any information about how the game runs in the newly-improved DX11 mode is useful.

    The fact that you needed force the game to use the Nvidia GPU in the Control Panel isn't necessary because there are a bunch of reports of that already.

About The Sims 4 Technical Issues - PC

PC players get help with their technical issues in The Sims 4 here.52,521 PostsLatest Activity: 25 minutes ago