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Lag While Panning, Tried Everything
ArilyBoo
Posts: 346 Member
So I got a new graphics card for my computer and since then I've been having lag issues in The Sims 3. In Live Mode while zoomed in close if I try to pan or move the camera it really lags out. Also in build mode and anytime I use the create-a-style tool it gets really laggy and I have to switch between game modes to temporarily fix it until I use create-a-style again.
When I first started The Sims 3 it said graphics card not recognized, however I went threw all the steps to add it to the list and it's fine now on that. I also always played in Windows Mode so that didn't change. I tried Vsync on/off and application controlled in the Nvidia Control Panel and that didn't make a difference.
My old video card never had a problem it was an Nvidia Geforce GTX 745, the new card is an Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 Ti.
Lag happens with a brand new sim in a brand new neighborhood so it's not a certain neighborhood, house or sim. The main mods I have is Nraas Master Controller, Overwatch, & Error Trap.
I've read newer graphics card have this issue, hard to believe a better card will make the game run worse, however hoping maybe there is a fix out there that I haven't come across yet. Thanks
When I first started The Sims 3 it said graphics card not recognized, however I went threw all the steps to add it to the list and it's fine now on that. I also always played in Windows Mode so that didn't change. I tried Vsync on/off and application controlled in the Nvidia Control Panel and that didn't make a difference.
My old video card never had a problem it was an Nvidia Geforce GTX 745, the new card is an Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 Ti.
Lag happens with a brand new sim in a brand new neighborhood so it's not a certain neighborhood, house or sim. The main mods I have is Nraas Master Controller, Overwatch, & Error Trap.
I've read newer graphics card have this issue, hard to believe a better card will make the game run worse, however hoping maybe there is a fix out there that I haven't come across yet. Thanks
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Comments
If your frame rates are consistently high or all over the place, it could cause the issues you've described. When Control Panel isn't effective, you can install Nvidia Inspector (free download) and explicitly cap fps. Here are the settings for Inspector, under the second spoiler:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/16540301/#Comment_16540301
It would be good to test in Sunset Valley, Twinbrook, or Riverview; not all TS3 worlds are as well-made as these.
Create-a-Style can cause some lag as it loads, although not usually as much as you've described. Do you have a lot of custom content? That combined with a slow hard drive might compound the situation. If capping the fps alone doesn't help, test in a completely clean game folder to see whether it makes a difference.
One other thing you can try is playing while completely offline. I've read some complaints about the connection to EA servers causing fps drops in TS4, although not in TS3 (at least not yet). If you need Origin to play, you can sign in and then put it into offline mode, then disconnect from wifi and/or pull the ethernet cable.
If none of this helps at all, please run a dxdiag, post it on some free filesharing site (like pastebin.com), and link it here.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
Also your suggestion for clean game folder and playing offline I've already tried both of those.
I'm going to try capping the FPS. You say cap at 60? Will is still drop below 60 or stay consistently 60? I think the issues is when it drops to 20-30 while zoomed in.
It would be interesting to see how your frame rates change while the game is lagging in Create-a-Style. I'm not sure that the lag and fps are related at all in this case. I play off a solid state drive now, and while CASt loads much more quickly than it used to on my previous computer, there's still a pause of several seconds before I can do anything. Once the thumbnails for the styles shown in the panel on the right side load, I don't see any more issues. It's not nearly as bad as it was on the HDD though, when I often thought my game had frozen.
This may not be directly related to the issue you're having, but it's worth turning down water and high-detail lots in graphics options. These two are particularly demanding and will stress the game engine unnecessarily even if your GPU itself can handle the workload.
The 1050 ti is a popular card, both in general and for TS3. I don't have any experience with it myself, but for plenty of people it seems to run the game just fine, or at least well enough that the issues are generally due to the game engine and not the hardware. But some fps drops are inevitable, just because this is TS3, and getting some stutter is common on newer cards. This is because of the way the game is programmed and how it hasn't been updated to account for advances in technology.
At any rate, if the delays in rendering are too intrusive to let you play comfortably, it would still be worth running a dxdiag so we can make sure there isn't something else going on with your computer. It doesn't contain any personal info with the possible exception of the machine name right at the top, which you could delete if you wanted.
Vertical sync won't give you steady 60 frames but it will help. FPS is known to fluctuate in-game when using speed 3 and adjusting the camera. That's just the way it is. Making sure vertical sync is working like puzzle has instructed will help. Cap frame rate @ 60 FPS if that's what your monitors refresh rate is. The average monitor/screen is usually 60Hz sometimes listed as 59Hz under Display Information... But you can double check.
- Windows search Display Settings
- Advanced Display Settings
You should see your monitors refresh rate (Hz) or continue on these extra steps until you find it.Agreed, both Create-a-Sim and Create-a-Style need to load completely so it's best to let the system do that before playing with it. It can take a minute or two depending on how much content you have. I personally keep High Detail Lots setting at 2 only raising it higher if I want the open world in the background to render for screenshots.
S3 simblr: http://simplysimming.tumblr.com/
S4 simblr: http://simlogic.tumblr.com/
As for the Create-a-Style yes I always wait until it's loaded before trying to play with it. It seems like it gets laggy after I've colored something hard to explain. I also have a lot of the graphics settings lowered but it didn't help either.