Re: CPU max usage and system crashing on IMac Pro

by RJBlain
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[CURRENT ISSUE] Freezing, possible system lockup on Macs with AMD Vega GPUs

Since the September patch, 1.66.139.1220, Mac users with AMD Vega graphics cards have reported game crashing/freezing, eternal beach balling and complete system lockup when playing the Sims 4. This is very specific to these GPUs although there are currently widespread issues with other AMD GPUs as well. 

 

To find out which Mac you have click on the Apple in the menu bar then About This Mac. If you have a 15" MacBook Pro please click System Report > Graphics & Displays in the Info window to get further information on the discrete GPU your Mac has.

 

The models affected:

 

iMac Pro, all models (AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 or 64)

2018 15" MacBook Pro (AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 or 20, only models upgraded to Vega at point of sale)

2019 15" MacBook Pro (AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 or 20, only models upgraded to Vega at point of sale)

2019 21" iMac (AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20, only models upgraded to Vega at point of sale)

2020 21" iMac (AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20, only models upgraded to Vega at point of sale)

2019 27" iMac (AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, only models upgraded to Vega at point of sale)

 

This post from @twice_twotimes clearly explains what seems to be happening right before the game or system freezes. At the moment there is no definitely fix or workaround but users have reported the following can help mitigate the issue:

 

  • Disable Origin in-game
  • Lower graphics settings in-game
  • Close any other apps that use significant graphics power such as video/screen recording, streaming apps
  • Use the Sims 3 camera in-game

Please consider providing EA with your save files and the lastCrash files in your Sims 4 folder. Instructions on how to upload these can be found here or please PM @SimQARobo or myself with the files.

 

If you do not have a Vega GPU in your Mac but are having performance issues, please create a new thread with the full details of your Mac included in your opening post.


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Accepted Solution

Re: sims crashing on imac and creating a red static tv thing


This issue now seems to be fixed in the 1.68.154.1220 November 2020 patch.


Thanks all for confirming it now seems to be fixed. If you start experiencing issues again please post Standard smile


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CPU max usage and system crashing on IMac Pro

★★★★ Apprentice

After about five minutes in game, the game gets classic spinning wheel and crashes the entire system; bonus graphical glitches. 

origin has been reset, computer has been force rebooted numerous times. Game is unplayable post September 3 2020 patch. 

Message 1 of 229 (5,520 Views)

Re: CPU max usage and system crashing on IMac Pro

@RJBlain 

 

Please can you provide more information about your Mac. Instructions on how to do so and what to provide here - http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-4-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/4612...

 

Please move your Sims 4 folder to the desktop and load a new clean game to see if it still happens. 

 

And lastly, help with taking screenshots on Mac - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201361


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Re: CPU max usage and system crashing on IMac Pro

[ Edited ]
★★★★ Apprentice

It’s impossible to take screenshots when the problem happens. The entire system freezes and becomes non responsive. Which is why I used my phone to get the pictures I can. Can’t even swipe to a different desktop. It really maxlines the system and creates a kernel panic essentially. 

 

i have done a complete origin reset and a game reverification, and I had just reinstalled the game right after the previous patch because the game gave me the crashing error upon attempting to load the game. (I had only resumed playing after nifty knitting came out and that bug was fixed because I was tired of having game saves hosed.)

 

Honestly, I’m just tired of uselessly reinstalling stuff because a reinstall has never actually fixed anything when the game does this. 

I have a iMac Pro, 32 gigs of ram, 8 core system. I can pull down the system specifics later, but it’s the baseline iMac Pro. I’m going to try to update to the latest Catalina which came out a little while ago to see if that fixes the game first. 

Message 3 of 229 (5,464 Views)

Re: CPU max usage and system crashing on IMac Pro

@RJBlain 

 

If you could provide the full specs and answer the questions in that link it would be really helpful.

 

If you play in windowed mode does it still lock up the system? Sometimes I get the exact same thing shortly after loading the game on my 27" 2019 iMac.

 

Screenshot 2020-09-04 at 17.24.01.png

 

I have to switch off my Mac at the power button.


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Re: CPU max usage and system crashing on IMac Pro

★★★★ Apprentice

Updating Catalina seems to have made the game playable. I've been building for about 5-10 minutes without the CPU crashing out. I usually wait a week or two to update Catalina/MacOSX because of rare instances of bugs making my primary work software (which is small development teams rather than huge houses) crash, so I've just kinda gotten into the habit of waiting a while before diving into updates unless they're necessary.

I updated to latest version of Catalina (I was one behind) and then I did a repair game, and the symptoms have *mostly* disappeared. I am still getting some annoying game lag, but instead of taking the entire system out, it freezes for a second or two before recovering... which is MUCH better. I can play rather than reboot my system constantly.

 

But here are the system specs just for curiosity's sake:

 

iMac Pro 2017.

 

Processor:  3.2 GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon W

Ram: 32 GB 2666 MHz DDR4

Graphics: Radeon Pro Vega 56 8 GB

Catalina version, which seems to have fixed it enough to be playable: 10.15.6 (19G2021)

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Re: CPU max usage and system crashing on IMac Pro

★★★★ Apprentice

Also, I never play in Windowed mode, so anything dealing with windowed mode can be eliminated, and my game is mostly set up to default settings, and I have no mods installed at current. The only options I've changed is making sims live long lives.

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Re: CPU max usage and system crashing on IMac Pro

★★★★ Apprentice

Well, I got an hour of play testing in before it crashed again this time. So updating significantly helped but didn’t fully fix. Buuuttt, I can live with that. Here’s hoping EA fixes their game more than adds new bugs with the next patch. Oy. 

and no I couldn’t get any screenshots. System completely froze and became non-responsive. 

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Re: CPU max usage and system crashing on IMac Pro

@RJBlain

I'm asking about windowed mode because it may help.

There have been other reports in the past about the Vega GPUs and performance, I'll see if I can find them. Maybe there was a driver update in a later version of Catalina which has helped. You can check in System Report.

Could you attach the LastCrash report from the last time it froze?

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Re: CPU max usage and system crashing on IMac Pro

★★★★ Apprentice

There's no crash reports; the system is rebooted through the power button because it freezes up, and I'm futzing with this during breaks of my day job. (I don't have time to sit and wait for an hour to see if it crashes out to give an error report.)

But... thanks a lot for the help. I have a migraine, so... I can't test any more for now because I can't do moving graphics much. (Yay for staring at my tea cup while I'm typing rather than the screen.)

 

I did get an adorable screenshot of an instance; I did a repair afterwards, and the game resumed being playable.

Mostly... I posted because the EA customer service folks had nothing, and... I don't think the person even believed me that it was crashing like it is, and that I'm the only person to have experienced crashes like this. (Admittedly, that annoyed me... because one of my friends has been experiencing crashes, too. But hers was the previous patch, mine is the new patch. Almost same exact symptoms, too.)

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