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Kaitlen18's avatar
Kaitlen18
New Rookie
3 years ago
Solved

sims going slow

Sims 4 running really slow whilst in game, what can be done?

  • @Kaitlen18  I want to say first that your laptop may be limited in how well it can run Sims 4 going forward.  4 GB RAM hasn't really been enough for the game in years, but the problem became significantly worse after the patch that accompanied Growing Together.  So I can't promise that this issue is entirely fixable, especially when it's happening in new saves.

    Having said that, try a(nother) new save in a clean user folder, just to make sure this isn't an issue with some of your existing content.  Move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, and when you launch the game, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  (Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you moved but temporarily not read by the game.)  Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just start a new save and let me know how it runs.

    If the new save is still running slowly, please try playing in a clean boot.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

    The one service to leave enabled is the EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run.  Disable the rest as described.

    When you reboot your computer, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down any service that doesn't absolutely need to be running, for example anything from MSI Afterburner to RGB software might still be enabled.  If you accidentally kill a critical process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer again.

    Don't open anything other than Sims 4 and the EA App while testing, not even a browser window.  Put the EA App in offline mode before launching the game as well.  The idea here is to see how the game runs with the most resources available to it that your laptop can provide.

4 Replies

  • @Kaitlen18  When you say the game runs slow, what exactly do you mean?  Please also let me know if this happens in a new save as well as your existing ones.  I'm not saying that you need to get rid of your saves, only that this is a useful test.

    While testing, please restart your computer immediately before you want to play, and open only the EA App and Sims 4, nothing else.  Additionally, put the EA App in offline mode before launching the game.  The option is in the dropdown menu in the upper-left corner of the App window.

    Please also let me know whether the game runs better in windowed mode than fullscreen.

  • Kaitlen18's avatar
    Kaitlen18
    New Rookie
    3 years ago
    @puzzlezaddict So it will lag and take a while for things to load, This happens in new saves and existing. I will thankyou
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 years ago

    @Kaitlen18  I want to say first that your laptop may be limited in how well it can run Sims 4 going forward.  4 GB RAM hasn't really been enough for the game in years, but the problem became significantly worse after the patch that accompanied Growing Together.  So I can't promise that this issue is entirely fixable, especially when it's happening in new saves.

    Having said that, try a(nother) new save in a clean user folder, just to make sure this isn't an issue with some of your existing content.  Move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, and when you launch the game, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  (Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you moved but temporarily not read by the game.)  Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just start a new save and let me know how it runs.

    If the new save is still running slowly, please try playing in a clean boot.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

    The one service to leave enabled is the EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run.  Disable the rest as described.

    When you reboot your computer, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down any service that doesn't absolutely need to be running, for example anything from MSI Afterburner to RGB software might still be enabled.  If you accidentally kill a critical process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer again.

    Don't open anything other than Sims 4 and the EA App while testing, not even a browser window.  Put the EA App in offline mode before launching the game as well.  The idea here is to see how the game runs with the most resources available to it that your laptop can provide.