Re: How many CPU cores can the Sims 4 fully utilize?

@jliu670  The conventional wisdom is that Sims 4 can use only four cores or threads.  I don't know if that's changed for the DirectX 11 version, and I'd suggest testing it to see whether it helps.  But no modern game can really take advantage of a 12- or 16-core processor, at least not by itself.  Beyond eight cores or so, depending on the game, what matters is the sustained clock speed, not the base clock but wherever the turbo stabilizes over time.  It of course also matters how many instructions per clock cycle the CPU can handle, with the number increasing in each successive generation.

I will say from my own benchmarking with an i7-9700K that I highly doubt Sims 4 is maxing out even four cores of your CPU.  The problem is the game engine and how it trips over itself constantly.  That's not to say you wouldn't see any improvement from a faster processor, only that it would be a matter of degree rather than a proper fix.  Your save might well run poorly on any system out there.

So I'd suggest also testing a new save, with no mods or custom content, and reasonably-sized houses, in both DirectX 9 and 11 modes.  Then you can compare that to your current save, and a large house placed in a new save, to see how the game behaves.  I'd also suggest trying Simp4Sims's GraphicsRules Overhaul, if it's been updated properly (if the game doesn't work, delete the file).  This edited .sgr file cuts down on the switching between high- and low-LOD images, among other things, and this switching can cause a significant amount of lag by itself, especially on larger lots with a large number of objects.