I posted this over in the PC/Mac - Bugs & Gameplay issues and was told to also post here.
After the latest patch and installing Seasons, I am experiencing a ton of lag on community sites, like coffee shops, spas, restaurants, any of the festivals, etc. It doesn't seem to matter what "city" I'm in - San Myshuno, Windenburg, Newcrest, etc. I'm not sure if it's the number of Sims that are on the lot, perhaps? Maybe it's somehow increased after the patch or new expansion? I never had a problem previously, but my Sim is becoming a hermit because the game is unplayable on community lots.
For what it's worth, I'm playing on a Mac with OS High Sierra. No mods or CC. I started a brand new game after the patch and installation of Seasons with just one Sim in my household. I have gone through all of the standard Mac user things to try - repairing the game, dumping some of the cache files, adjusting graphics settings. Nothing has seemed to help.
For now, I'm blaming the new patch and/or Seasons, as I never experienced this before.
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Version 10.13.5
iMac (21.5 inch, Late 2012)
Processor 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Startup Disk Macintosh HD
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512 MB
And one of my RAM chips is brand-new.
But going to other places, like work (scientist career) is just fine.
It's starting to seem like it's hit or miss, but I'm trying to track it to see if I can notice any patterns.
Specs: 8GB Macbook Pro Retina 13IN(Early 2015), OS X El Captain, 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor, Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB
If you play a brand new save do you still get the lag? If not, how about if you move your whole Sims 4 folder to the desktop then launch a brand new, clean game?
You also said one of your RAM sticks is new. RAM should always be replaced in equal pairs so if you replace one chip you should also replace the other of the same size and speed. Are both chips the same speed? You can check by clicking on the Apple in the menu bar > About This Mac > System Report > Memory. I think your RAM chips should be 1600 MHz but it should work with faster ones installed, although the actual speed wouldn’t be faster.
Everyday she goes to the big combo gym - and works out before work for an hour - and I am definitely not seeing any lag or issues period.
I'm on a desktop 8 core high end gaming PC with 16 gigs of ram.
Wonder if it is just a Mac thing. Maybe some more Mac people can see how it goes for them and report here.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
As for replacing the RAM stick, that's what Apple did when I took it in. They never said anything about replacing both at the same time. My two memory chips are the same - 4 GB, 1600 MHz each. They probably could be upgraded, but since this model of Mac has to go in to the store (my husband can't upgrade it at home), it's too pricey at the moment to do that. And this computer is old now. I would probably consider getting a new one over upgrading the RAM in this machine.
Everything was fine though until I installed Seasons.
Crinrict has an excellent thread here on lag in the game - https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/COLLECTION-THREAD-Autonomy-and-Simulation-Lag-Seasons-Patch/m-p/6918287
It would be worth posting there if your game doesn't improve after testing a clean folder or checking your RAM chips. Just so you know, you should be able to play fine with 8Gb RAM providing you don't have a ton of other stuff open on your Mac at the same time. 16Gb would be ideal but your game really shouldn't go over 3Gb RAM usage at any point, leaving plenty for the operating system.
Discounting any bugs, lag can be caused by your graphics card struggling to keep up with the load of your game, particularly if you have your settings on high. You could update your NVIDIA graphics drivers manually although this is not normal practice on a Mac. I did it on my 2012 MBP with NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1Gb and the improvement in performance was unbelievable. If you're interested I wrote a guide here on how to do it but please take the time to read about it so you are aware of what you are doing. The reason it improves performance so much is because Apple do not often update their drivers, it's really rather infuriating!
Updating the driver, as per my previous post, should help with this but ultimately 512Mb VRAM is a little on the low side now, especially with Seasons installed.
Good luck with the drivers! Let us know how you get on