New Adventurer

Re: [CURRENT ISSUE] Incredibly Low FPS when connected to Internet

@Half-rose The only way I can think off is cracking it :S

@JeanVW Can confirm that. I just switched to a WD SN750 (black) m.2. (not because of the game but helped to test this out), reinstalled windows (may 2020 build) and the game.

Even on vainilla games I have this issue EVERY SINGLE time I get into build mode + many times hitting the Esc key to show the menu does not solve it. Some times is even 15-20ish fps on live mode upon loading the lot.

Specs:

i7 8770
16GB RAM DDR4 3000Mhz
GTX 1080
M.2 SSD WD SN750 Black
ASUS PRIME Z370-P motherboard
Windows 10 Pro May 2020 update (freshly installed 1 day ago)

The game is not causing high load on any of the resources.

I initially though this was caused by mods so renamed my "The Sims 4" folder, created a brand new save and headed to one of the households created by EA. With no mods I had the same issue so it is something in the gaame and/or origin.

Honestly, I'm starting to get tired of this things. The game is in a un-usable state for most of the times and could barely play the EP I payed full price for.

FIX ATTEMPT 1:

What did I try: Disconnect Origin from internet (just by using the Disconnect option in Origin menu)
Result: no changes. game getting stuck at 20ish fps even opening the menu. Unplayable.

FIX ATTEMPT 2:

What did I try: Disconnect the pc from internet (I use an ethernet connection, i.e. cabled)
Result: the game still started going at low fps but opening the in-game menu (with Esc key) seemed to solve the issue. The extreme fps drop was still triggered EVERY SINGLE time I switched between Live and BB modes but the "open in-game menu" trick seemed to "solve" the issue. Game is playable but gallery is gone (since there is no internet connection).

FIX ATTEMPT 3:

What did I try: Disable the ethernet adapter and connect to interenet using a WiFi USB stick (TP-LINK TL-WN821N) I had at home.
Result:
- Similar result than obtained when using FIX ATTEMPT 2, but some times the game still got stuck at 20-25fps and required a combination of waiting, using the "open in-game menu trick" (several times) and switching between modes (live -> bb and vice versa) to go back to full speed
This confirmed the previous observations made in the thread partially. The issue is related to internet connection and the game attempting to do something (internet related apparently) when switching between modes. But, using a wireless connection did not solve it completely either

FIX ATTEMPT 4:

What did I try: update Realtek PCIe drivers (ethernet drivers). I checked and saw that Windows was using a really old ethernet driver (one from 2015). For this I searched, on the official of my motherboard manofacturer, the LAN drivers and found a 2019 installer. I installed those drivers and noticed that now I was using 2018 drivers (as opposed to the 2015 ones Windows installed automatically).
BEFORE

AFTER
Result: similar results to FIX ATTEMPT 2. I'm able to get rid of the low FPS issue by using the "open in-game menu" trick (at least most times, sometimes I need to switch between Live mode and BB and viceversa for the issue to vanish). It is not perfect but at least the game is playable and I can stay online.

FIX ATTEMPT 5: THE ONE THAT WORKED IN ALL SCENARIOS!

Following the idea of FIX ATTEMPT 4 I started to search even newer drivers (provided by the manofacturer of the LAN chip instead of those provided by the motherboard manofacturer). I found that Realtek had 2020 drivers so I used their installer to uninstall the old ones and then installed the newest drivers.
What did I try: updating the LAN drivers but using the ones provided by Realtek instead of the ones provided by the motherboard manofacturer (in my case, ASUS). Why? because the drivers provided by realtek on their official website are way newer (2020 drivers vs 2018 drivers) => the likelyhood of the drivers being compatible with the latest Windows updates is much higher
- If you have a Realtek LAN chip go here and download the drivers you need for your OS version (win10 in my case): https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/category/network-interface-controllers-10-100-1000m-gigabit-ethernet-pci-express-software
- If you have any other LAN chip => you need to figure out which it is and go to the official site of the manofacturer of the chip. Download those drivers (the most updated you can find there)
Result: problem solved. I now get a fps drop to single digits for a second or so when I switch modes, but that is expected since the UI is updating and loading tons of content (specially due to the amount of CC I have :P, lots of thumbnails to load). After a second or so the fps go up again, without need ot using the "open in-game" menu trick. I tried switching modes and loading different households with and without CC, same result everytime.

Conclusions so far:

The issue seems to be caused by a combination of: an outdated ethernet driver downloaded by Windows itself + the game (or origin) attempting to do something internet-related EACH time we go into either Live mode or BB mode.
The issue seems more likely to happen when going into BB mode for some reason.
Updating your LAN/ethernet drivers will make a day/night difference => try that if you are being affected by this issue (for more info see FIX ATTEMPT 5)

Recommendations:

For those affected by the issue try what I did on FIX ATTEMPT 5.
Do not use Realtek drivers if you don't have a realtek LAN/ethernet chip in your motherboard. That won't work, you will possibly end up with no network connection and you will need to revert that driver installation manually using the Devices Administrator -> network adapters -> uninstall controller and then let windows install the "default" driver again.
You can use Windows Devices Administrator (right click on windows button -> Devices Administrator -> Network adapters) to know which is the manofacturer of your LAN adapter. You can also search the specs of your motherboard model (and/or search for the latest drivers provided by your motherboard manofacturer, check which LAN drivers they provide and then search for more updated versions of those drivers).

Sorry for the long post, hope this helps someone! @crinrict maybe this is helpful for the QA guys. @SimQARobo

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Update

I started having the problem again randomly but with low frequency (so far). The "open in-menu" trick is still effective to solve it so it is not as bad as before but it is not as perfect as it should be.