Re: Unrecognized Video Card-Sims 4, New Laptop

@puzzlezaddictThank you for the help! I am hoping to avoid buying a new laptop but I have until the 8th to return this if it comes to that. I tried to follow the directions you provided but when I got to the file path and searched for 5916, no results returned. 

@cocoelf12  That's strange.  I double-checked, and the entry should be there.  This is a fully patched game?  And you did open graphicscards, and not graphicsrules?  The first is a list of cards; the second is how to apply the settings.

Regardless, you should be able to add the proper line yourself.  Scroll down to almost the end of the file and look for this:

If the Intel 620 is listed, just change the device ID, to the left of the word Intel in the screenshot, to 3EA0 (again, that's a zero).  If it's not there, copy this line into this section of the file:

card 0x3EA0 "Intel (R) HD 620" $cardLevelMedium $resolutionMedium

so that it looks like the screenshot above, but with your own card's ID.

And whether you want a different laptop is entirely up to you, but again, this one is not really suitable for gaming.  Hopefully, you'll get what you want out of it, but that might not be possible, depending on the packs you install and your expectations for how well the game runs.

Edit:  When dealing with one issue, please don't double-post.  (It's not a big deal, but having two separate conversations going makes troubleshooting more complicated.)  I just saw your post in the master thread, where I'd have merged this one if you hadn't also been asking a second question about your computer.  The answer is the same though—you need to manually add your card to the database.

@puzzlezaddict Thank you, that was my issue I didn't open the graphicscards. Upon opening the game, it doesn't seem like it changed anything though. Maybe I do just need to return the laptop. What's strange is I was playing on an HP laptop previously with the same graphics card and it looked much better. I appreciate your help, sorry for double posting. 

@cocoelf12  No worries about the double post; it happens a lot.

You can try deleting options.ini from your game folder to reset the graphics settings.  Once the file has respawned, now with your card added to the database, things may look better.  And then you can fiddle with the settings further until you get what you want.

As for returning it, whether you can find something better will depend on your budget.  If you want me to look, I'd be happy to do so; just let me know what you'd be willing to spend.

@puzzlezaddictI will try as you suggested and see if it helps! I purchased this for $540 with tax. I wanted to only spend $500 as I only really use a laptop for Netflix, random browsing and occasional Sims. I would spend more for a quality laptop but I think I'd have to put a max at like $750..

@cocoelf12  If you do decide to get a different computer, you could do better for just a bit more money.  A quick browse turned up two decent gaming laptops at Best Buy, for $550 and $600, respectively.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-fx505dd-15-6-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-256gb-solid-state-drive-black/6338249.p?skuId=6338249

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-nitro-5-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-256gb-solid-state-drive-shale-black/6212602.p?skuId=6212602

The second has a slightly better processor and a somewhat better graphics card for the extra $50; I personally would think it was a good investment.  Asus has a better reputation than Acer for gaming laptops, but this generation's Acer Nitro received good reviews.  I would expect the Nvidia 1050 ti in the second one to be able to run Sims 4 on ultra graphics settings now, although maybe you'd need to turn that back to high by the time the game has finished its run.

Both computers have only a small hard drive, but if you're only installing TS4, Netflix, and a couple of browsers, it should be fine.  If you do need extra storage later, you can add a second hard drive yourself without any trouble.  Quality 1 TB HDDs cost around $45 these days; a 512 GB SSD might be $70.

I'm having the same unrecognized video card problem and I just got this laptop. I opened up the game after downloading it for the first time on this laptop and was prompted with that message. I've included my dxdiag.

@LooLoo_Bloobles  The device ID for your dedicated graphics card, an AMD RX 560X, is in fact in Sims 4's database.  But it's possible the game is trying to use the integrated card instead.  To find out, please go into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4, open the file labeled config.log, and copy the lines between "Graphics device info" and "Options."  (This info is about 25-40 lines down.)  Please paste it into a reply here.

Here are the copied lines.

Number: 0
Name (driver): AMD Radeon(TM) Vega 8 Graphics
Name (database): [Found: 0, Supported: 1]
Vendor: ATI
Chipset: Vendor: 1002, Device: 15d8, Board: 1eae1043, Chipset: 00c2
Driver: aticfx64.dll, Version: 25.20.14118.2002, GUID: D7B71EE2-5698-11CF-2174-880979C2D435
Driver version: 2002
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 1000MB
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1
Opt. features: +sab +a8l8 +rgba16f +r32f +bc4 +bc5 -rawz +intz

@LooLoo_Bloobles  Right, this shows that the game is using the integrated card rather than the much more powerful RX 560X.  You should be able to force the use of the 560X for TS4 in the AMD settings.  This guide has directions for accessing the settings:

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/dh-004

This one looks like it might be a bit outdated, but hopefully it will at least give you an idea of where to look for the switchable graphics options:

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/dh-017

Either way, you're looking for the option within the switchable graphics settings to specifically use the high performance card (the 560X) for Sims 4.  If you need to create a profile for the game's .exe, be sure to use TS4_x64.exe, which is the one used for the 64-bit version.  If you're not sure what you're looking at or what to change, feel free to upload a couple of screenshots for me to look at.  (I don't have the same software as you do in front of me right now, so I can't tell you what it looks like.)

In any event, you'll know that the settings worked when these lines in the config file:

Name (driver): AMD Radeon(TM) Vega 8 Graphics
Name (database): [Found: 0, Supported: 1]

mention the RX 560X instead of the Vega 8.

I've tried to access the switchable graphics option but everytime I click on the program, the catalyst control center pops up instead.

@LooLoo_Bloobles  I guess your GPU driver might be old enough that you still have the old interface.  Does the second article I linked help?  There should be an option in there somewhere.  I wish I could be more specific, but like I said, I don't have a system in front of me with those settings.

The other option is to download a program like RivaTuner Statistics Server and run it beside the game.  If you set up a profile for TS4_x64.exe, it should force the use of the high performance card.  Keep in mind that if and when you update Windows to the newest build, running RTSS alongside the game may crash TS4 at the Main Menu, so this is a temporary fix at best.

Nothing seems to be working. Everytime I click on the AMD Catalyst Control Center, the switchable graphics option just isn't there.

@LooLoo_Bloobles   Can you post a few screenshots of what you're seeing?

Okay sorry for the long wait but I finally was able to get it working I think. I downloaded the AMD Radeon Settings. It told me that the driver version didn't match. I looked up how to fix that and so I did, I restarted the computer and opened up the Radeon Settings once again. The switchable graphics option was there and I changed it. Booted up the game and took less than a second to load with like a buttload of CC and one mod along with Reshade. I saved it and exited the game and then opened up the Config-log again and I think this is what it's supposed to say.

Number: 0
Name (driver): Radeon RX 560X
Name (database): AMD Radeon R9 450 and 460 [Found: 1, Supported: 1]
Vendor: ATI
Chipset: Vendor: 1002, Device: 67ef, Board: 1eae1043, Chipset: 00e5
Driver: aticfx64.dll, Version: 26.20.15002.61, GUID: D7B71EE2-24AF-11CF-CE73-34045EC2D735
Driver version: 61
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 4077MB
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1
Opt. features: +sab +a8l8 +rgba16f +r32f +bc4 +bc5 -rawz +intz

@LooLoo_Bloobles  Yup, that's perfect.  The game somehow has the wrong device ID for your card (hence the 450 and 460), but that doesn't matter to performance.  I'm glad you managed to fix it, and sorry I couldn't give more specific instructions.