Unrecognize Video Card

gemseashore​  Sims 4 is using the GPU it lists in Config.log, at least at the point when the Config file is updated (when you launch the game).  The fact that it's unrecognized has nothing to do with which GPU it uses, nor does it cause any power throttling issues.  Those are entirely system-related.

Is your laptop plugged in when you play?  If not, please do that.  Please also let me know where you're seeing "Throttle Reason Power," preferably with a screenshot or two.  It's fine if they're not in English.

You can also try telling Windows to run Sims 4 in high-performance mode.  The option is under Windows Settings > System > Display > Graphics settings.  You'd click Browse and find TS4_x64 on the list, then choose the high-performance option.  Add it for TS4_DX9_x64 as well if you ever use DirectX 9 mode.

Hi. Thanks for the clarification, really appreciate it.

Well, The Sims don't have my GPU in their database (system said that at the first launch).

And yes, my laptop is always pugged in an I run the game with the dGPU only (I use Lenovo Vantage to switch it). I also checked Task Manager before playing the game to make sure and monitoring anything via HWiNFO.

But the thing is, I keep seeing Throttle Reason - Power on my Radeon GPU after playing The Sims 4 for about 1.5-2 hours (even with dGPU-only mode on). It usually starts off fine, but over time power throttling goes up, like recently it hit 49% (that's the third time. 1st 9%, 2nd 38%). I attached a proof.

Also, even though everything runs smoothly, I do notice some visual glitches when switching from Live Mode to Build Mode, like the UI stutters a bit. Could be this related to the game not recognizing my GPU?

What do you think I should do to fix this? Is there any wat to make sure the game fully detects the GPU (not iGPU)? Or maybe something I can tweak to reduce the power throttling effect?

Oh, and then which one I choose between those three options for The Sims 4? Let Windows decide (High performance) is the default for now.

Sorry if there are too many questions. Hope you understand.

Let me know if I should post anything or screenshots. Happy to provide anything helpful!

gemseashore​  I'll start with the easy ones.  You can "let Windows decide" about the GPU, or you can choose it yourself; it doesn't matter as long as the answer is the RTX 4050.

You can add your 4050 to the game's database if you like.  A couple lines down from the part of Config.log you posted, you'll see a vendor ID: 10de, which refers to Nvidia.  After that is a device ID, for your specific model GPU.  That's the ID you need to add to GraphicsCards.sgr, in [install location]\The Sims 4\Game\Bin.  There's no RTX 4050 at all in the database, so you'll need to create or edit your own line.  For example, you could take this line, the second in the Nvidia section:

    card    0x249C  "NVIDIA  GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU"   $cardLevelUber  $resolutionHigh

change 0x249C to your device ID (it has to have the 0x in front), change 3080 to 4050 , and leave everything else intact, and your GPU should be recognized and rated as uber.

The GraphicsCards.sgr file will get replaced with an unedited copy each time you update or repair.  So if you don't want to keep doing this over and over, drop a copy in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > ConfigOverride.  This file will supercede the copy in the Bin folder and won't get updated.

For the throttling, this is for the integrated graphics chip only?  If so, I'm not sure how much it actually matters.  Laptops with dual GPUs sometimes have what's called a MUX switch, which switches the input to the screen between the iGPU and dGPU depending on which one is running the task at hand.  When the laptop doesn't have a MUX switch, the dGPU's data gets funneled through the iGPU on its way to the screen.  So the iGPU is doing some processing, but I don't know how much or whether it hitting its power limit has any effect on what you actually see on-screen.

Most laptops wouldn't allow you to change the iGPU's power budget by default.  You could in theory see whether a third-party app could reach this setting, but in practice, I would suggest it's very much not a good idea.  The theoretical max for the Radeon 760M is 54 watts, and it can be lower depending on the CPU and the laptop manufacturer's settings.  You're already getting 50W, which looks to be the max on your laptop, and increasing power delivery doesn't increase performance proportionally, so bumping that up a bit might not help in any meaningful way.  But it could push your laptop past some limit that's in place for a reason.  And again, that's if you could even reach that setting.

If you're interested in experimenting, some laptops have an HDMI port that's directly wired to the dGPU, so you could compare performance on an external screen with what you're seeing now.  You should be able to tell whether the iGPU is part of the process by viewing these same hwinfo stats—if they increase from idle by more than a bit, the iGPU is doing some processing, and if not, it's not part of the graphics pipeline in that moment.

THEN you need to see whether this particular change, if in fact you can take the iGPU out of the pipeline, has any noticeable effect on your game.  There's currently some bugginess with the UI changing between build/buy and live modes, and while I'm not saying your game is bugged, it's possible that the process is not working well overall and only spilling into game-breaking territory some of the time.  So I wouldn't be able to tell you that this glitchiness has anything to do with your setup unless changing your setup helps.

I can suggest more experiments too, but really only if you're curious and interested in doing the work.  If you are, try these edits to GraphicsRules.sgr, on a spare copy in ConfigOverride so you can delete it if the experiment doesn't work the way you want.

Camera movements very choppy since BH patch | EA Forums - 12185589

The thread is kind of long, but you can focus only on the edits.  The idea is that switching between different levels of detail means a performance hit even on high-end hardware, and that performance hit isn't necessary for most gaming machines given that they can render much more of the game in high detail than the default settings would suggest.  Note that what makes a difference is the distance at which the game switches LODs, not what the values are for the various LODs.

Am I doing it right? Or should I create a new line above/under it? I put it in the ConfigOverride folder.

Oh, yes, I can see the throttling just in the integrated graphics chips only. I haven't tried again in other games, but I'm pretty sure there's no such thing (throttle power iGPU). And for the MUX switch, you're right, my laptop has the app for it.

And about power limit, I'm not brave enough to take a risk, and maybe I can't reach the setting very well, so if there's another safe method, I'd love to know. I mean, I'm open to any information.

Ah, this one. If I had an external monitor on my desk, I would like to try experimenting like that. But sadly, I don't have one to test the iGPU/dGPU isolation, but I'm running the laptop in dGPU (which is RTX) via Lenovo Vantage. Do you think the iGPU is still participating in the rendering pipeline?

Cause it's confusing (for me) when you play the game for under 2 hours, but throttle power increases every session you play. Could that be due to the power brick being only 170W? Or is it more likely an internal system balancing to keep thermals in check? And do you think this persistent power throttle on the iGPU is something I should worry about, even if temps and performance are solid?

Perhaps you could suggest something like locking the FPS, using a proper cooling pad, or something else to reduce or eliminate the ‘yes’ on throttle power. I'd love to optimize this setup further if there's anything else I can try.

gemseashore​  If your laptop does in fact have a MUX switch, the iGPU should be idle when you switch to the dedicated card.  However, "idle" might not mean "idle on all measurements."  I thought that because the power draw was so high, some of the other hwinfo readings were inaccurate, and that the iGPU was still doing some work.  But that could be reversed—the power draw is the outlier and the iGPU wasn't doing anything at the time of your screenshot.

It's possible that the power draw is just a side effect of how the processor is wired overall and has nothing to do with usage.  I don't know, and I don't have enough knowledge of CPU architecture to even speculate; I'm just saying it's possible.  But if it is a side effect, you can ignore the power limit info.

Hwinfo will always show some kind of limit to each GPU: power, voltage, usage, etc.  The point of this is to say what is limiting its performance.  When idle, that should be usage/utility, but maybe that isn't an option with your configuration for whatever reason.  When a GPU is maxed out, you'll typically see something about power or voltage, as in, the GPU can't do any more work because it can't draw any more juice.

Anyway, you can ignore all of this if your MUX switch is doing its job and therefore the graphics pipeline only includes the RTX 4050 and the screen.  I wouldn't worry about it without other signs of a problem.

That includes worrying about the "throttle power" part of this.  If you're only seeing it in relation to the iGPU, it's not a problem when you're not using the iGPU.  The laptop should reassign the available power (out of your 170W brick) as the various components call for more.  An RTX 4050 can be configured with a power budget between 35 and 115W, perhaps with a bit extra from a dynamic boost.  Other components use much less, e.g. RAM and SSD are probably a couple watts each.  I don't know what CPU you have, but it should max out at something in the range of 50W, maybe less, based on AMD models with a 760M.  In fact, it's possible that hwinfo is misattributing the CPU power draw to the iGPU and that you're simply seeing your CPU's overall power draw.  It wouldn't be the first time hwinfo's report was misleading.

In cases like this, performance is the overarching question.  If your performance is fine, aside from Sims 4 being its usual difficult self, and you don't see any signs of overheating, the rest can be treated as a curiosity, not a sign of an impending problem.

Sims 4 has a built-in fps limit of 200, which you can change in Options.ini.  It's listed as frameratelimit.  You can lower it if you like, to lower the power draw of the GPU and to a lesser extent the CPU, and it's fine to experiment with different settings.  But it's also find to let your hardware run at its maximum as long as internal temps are fine.

And remember that "throttle power" isn't necessarily a bad thing.  If your laptop is using all the power it can draw from the brick, and distributing it according to need (as it should), it's giving you what you probably want: maximum performance out of your hardware.  Lowering performance or fps to lower power draw isn't fixing anything except the notification in hwinfo.

For the GraphicsCards file, it looks right as long as you have the device ID right.

Hi again! OMG, thanks for helping me 'cause it really works! I almost asked you again why it didn't show up in config.log after I restarted. Thankfully it works well.

And I think I shouldn't really worry about throttle power like you said, as long as it doesn't act up and has no issue with performance and temps. You're right, sometimes hwinfo made mistakes or misleading, but the app itself is really good at monitoring; it's very useful. It's AMD Ryzen 5 8000 series for CPU if you wondering. So I think it's under 50W. And yeah, once again, thanks for giving me an insight and clarity about what happened; you saved me.

Speaking about FPS and such, I don't lower the FPS or any other thing, and I play like usual after the update. But the thing is, I have a problem with the graphic; all of the trees look like they are in autumn—no leaves, black, and burned-like. I don't know if it's because of conflict with MOD (even though I don't have much) or just because technically the newest update is ruining everything. Weird, really.

gemseashore​  I would definitely test without your mods, even if you don't save your progress.  You can try a new save as well, or a few new saves in different seasons, just to see what you get.  I've seen a few scattered reports of weird graphics after the update, but not enough to suggest that this is a widespread game bug.  And your GPU and its driver are common enough that there would definitely be other reports.

I use hwinfo too, and it's mostly great, but its creator can only go by what he observes on his own.  As far as I know, he's not working directly with any hardware manufacturer, let alone all of them.  So the app picks up sensor data and the creator refines things as best he can.