I'm having the same/similar issue, currently working to find a solution but no luck yet.
Basically everything is smooth as butter but after a little while of playing i'll switch to build/buy and it will drop to what feels like single digit FPS, the funny thing is that opening any of the menu UI elements fixes the FPS - for example clicking the Notifications or camera icon top right or opening the ESC menu. If i go back to live mode it will slow down again until a UI element opens (even a notification appearing seems to fix it).
What i've tried so far:
- Deleting the entire Sims documents folder and the game bin folders - followed by repairing. Still happens on a clean game.
- Playing on another PC - the problem only occurs on my main PC and i couldn't reproduce the problem elsewhere. Elsewhere I do get a bit of lag when switching between modes but it's only for 1-2 seconds which is pretty normal. On my main rig the lag feels the same but doesn't stop.
- Updating NVidia drivers with a clean install
- Messing around with in-game graphics settings
I'm not home right now so i can't post my dxdiag just yet, but my specs are:
- Windows 10 64bit
- i7 2600k @ 3.4ghz (OC)
- GTX 980TI
- 16GB RAM
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi external sound card
- Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250gb
Software i have running in the BG:
- Logitech Gaming Software
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Audio software
- Spotify
- MSI Afterburner
- Spyder 3 Utility
I've also monitored my system performance before and after the bug kicks in, basically as soon as the FPS drops my GPU and CPU usage halves, so it's not struggling with anything.
I'll continue to test things when i get back home. Something that has been giving me differing results is deleting my household inventory and switching back but it needs more testing before i can say anything conclusive.
Edit: Updated some info
@Gummingtons Afterburner is known to cause issues (sometimes) with Sims 4. Try disabling it before doing anything else.
It would also be helpful to see a dxdiag on your computer. Even if you're rigorous in maintaining it, you might have a driver or some other detail in common with the original poster that could possibly be involved.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
If you want to keep experimenting, try playing in a clean boot. You'll have to disable Afterburner manually though, since last I heard, it still runs in a clean boot.
Thanks for the suggestion~
After some problem solving tonight i may have made some progress.
Disabling all the mentioned software didn't change anything, however i tried disabling High Definition Audio Device and NVIDIA High Definition Audio in the Device manager (under sound) and was able to play for a few hours with no issues, worth noting for anyone reading that i only use my Sound Blaster sound driver so i personally don't need the other two.
Whether i've solved it or it's just a coincidence i'll have to wait and see when i get more time to play tomorrow.
Update: Didn't work in the long run
Attached is my DxDiag
There's a couple of ts4 and reshade errors in there but it happens regardless of reshade.
Cheers.
It's worth noting that I have the same thing. When I click the three dots, or any UI thing, the FPS goes back to normal (which is smooth as butter).
EDIT: I've also checked how much difference there is in FPS, when my game goes as 'normal' it's between 58.85 and 60 fps (it's locked at 60) When it lags it's between 10-12fps
@Gummingtons That's really helpful information, thanks. I looked around and saw some complaints about the Nvidia sound driver causing a bit of latency in other programs, although I haven't heard about it in Sims 4. But now I'll know to look for it.
@JeanVW Would you try disabling the Nvidia sound driver as @Gummingtons did? You have what is almost certainly the same version, since the two of you have the same graphics driver, and the audio driver installs as part of that package.
@MadPeachyTV If you have an Nvidia graphics card, it's worth disabling the audio driver as well, at least long enough to test. Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to a post. Whether this works for you or not, it would be good to compare information.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
Got a few more hours without the bug but unfortunately it came back eventually so i'm scratching the sound driver off my list.
It seems the more i play on Fast Forward the faster the bug occurs.
I just find it very odd that the bug will stop when opening different UI elements, like how does opening the camera control tab affect this? When i want to push through and continue playing i just end up switching between the Notifications tab and Camera control tabs each time i go from build to live mode. To me it sounds like some sort of UI bug but if that were the case surely more people would be experiencing this. Maybe it's a cache thing, though deleting the various cache files doesn't do anything. Back to the drawing board.
And thanks for the help puzzlez, appreciate it.
@Gummingtons i found the more i fast forwarded, the quicker the bug surfaced as well!
I do agree that its strange the UI seems to reset it, but if it was a UI bug, more ppl would be experiencing it.
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