Game started lagging out of NOWHERE? No change at all, at my wits end...

[Lcgreen97]

Firstly, I have never posted before so thank you to anyone who could help. I have played The Sims since 2004, and have always done a pretty good job at researching and fixing problems myself, I have never encountered something like this, I'm completely bewildered. If it helps, I am currently playing on a Macbook Pro 2020, however I've posted in Windows as I play on a windows bootcamp partition with 300gb of dedicated space, so any troubleshooting tends to be more aligned with a windows approach. Please let me know if you need any more information. I know 300gb isn't a ton of space, but I only use my Windows partition for Sims 4.

I have all packs except the Star Wars one, and I play with no CC or Mods after years of playing that way left me bored. The heavy CC i used always caused issues, so I started playing a CC free game and i've stuck with it since because it has always ran flawlessly, even on ultra settings / Laptop mode turned off. I play on long lifespan settings, and the sim I'd played since a toddler is now an elder, so I have been on this one save for a long time and I've never had any issues, I didn't even get simulation lag since getting rid of the mods. Then the other day, nothing happened between me exiting the game one night, and reloading it the following morning, however now I have serious lag issues. My fps stays between 10-13 when I visit more demanding neighbourhoods. Occasionally it says the fps is much much higher, but it still visibly lags when I move the camera. The lag I am seeing in the sims is like nothing i've seen before, there's no "jittering", but it almost moves them in slow motion for a second. 

This just happened totally randomly, I had no windows updates or game updates in the time the issue came up, so these are the things i've tried so far:

- updating the game to the new update

- updating graphics drivers 

- repairing game through Origin

- disabling origin and making sure my laptop is offline, as well as the online settings deactivated in game 

- complete re-install of game and trying with a freshly generated folder with no saves (still lagged)

- as a final resort, re-installed the game again after re-partitioning bootcamp (so basically deleted my entire windows partition on my laptop, and reinstalled it. This left 300gb of space on a fresh windows install, with nothing but TS4 downloaded and it still lagged)

Because the game still lagged after all of this, I understand now that this is likely a hardware problem, which was proven more when i realised the game does run better in Laptop mode, however it still lags a bit even on laptop mode + low settings whereas before it was perfectly running on Ultra.  Does anyone know why this might have happened? I've spent all week trying to find out! I only bought this laptop a few months ago as well, so I don't imagine the hardware is damaged in any way? I also play with a pretty good cooling fan underneath, so although it gets warm, I've never felt it get hot. 

Thank you if anyone replies, I really appreciate it 

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@Lcgreen97  Please try playing with Windows set to run Sims 4 in high performance mode.  Hit cmd-i (the cmd key stands in for the Windows key), select System > Display > Graphics settings, click the Browse button, and add TS4_x64.exe.  Then click Options, choose the high-performance one, and save the change.

If that doesn't help, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post, of course from within the Windows partition.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@Lcgreen97  Please try playing with Windows set to run Sims 4 in high performance mode.  Hit cmd-i (the cmd key stands in for the Windows key), select System > Display > Graphics settings, click the Browse button, and add TS4_x64.exe.  Then click Options, choose the high-performance one, and save the change.

If that doesn't help, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post, of course from within the Windows partition.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

[Lcgreen97]

Wow... I feel like I seriously need to name my firstborn after you! Throughout absolutely everything I've done, and it took me two seconds and my game is running good again! Thank you so so much!!!

[Lcgreen97]

I marked this post as solved, as for a couple of hours it was, but unfortunately the lag has started again. I have attached my DxDiag as a final resort, as I'm at a complete loss of what to do- again if anyone sees and helps I am so so grateful! When I switched over to high performance, booting the game it seemed to be perfect again and I thought it was finally solved, but now the following day I am playing and it's back to laggy  

[IrisuChan]

Hi, I have the same issue. Could you test something?

• when you start the game fresh (after rebooting your machine) does it lag right from the start or not? When does it start?
• when you experience the lag, if you click the options menu and close the menu again, does the lag stop?

I'm curious if this is similar to the problem I have...

[Lcgreen97]

Hi! 

So I did this, and when I first open the game on high settings, it is completely fine for a few minutes, but once I can hear the fans on my laptop start and the game gets "going", it starts to lag. The lag can range from really, really annoying to just an occasionally glitch. It's totally inconsistent, but the one fact is that the longer I play, the worst it gets. 

I find opening the options makes the game worst, rather than better. I can almost tell straight away that the game is going to be glitchy because the menus aren't as 'snappy'. 

Do you find that your game runs better in laptop mode? I find that mine does, however I'm really stubborn to play it this way as it takes such a hit to the lighting etc, and because it was running perfect before, I'm stubbornly trying to fix it still. 

Did yours run fine before and then just stop? 

[IrisuChan]

@Lcgreen97  hello I have a PC though, not a laptop. I've been playing 1 save game (I don't have a save per family) since 2019 and all was fine until just a few days ago I started experiencing a lag that starts randomly. Testing it a few days, I noticed it starts about an hour into gameplay (real time) and can be noticed when switching from living to build mode or back. It stops for me, however, if I open any popup window such as the options menu, the notifications wall, or such a thing. It starts again when changing neighborhoods, or switching live/build mode. I installed Backyard Stuff newly a few days ago, after that I noticed it. I'm not sure if it's this pack, the recent update there was for the game, or something else entirely. It's so annoying really.

[Lcgreen97]

Okay, so although our issue is different, because of the 'randomness' of it, and the inconsistency of it, I have a feeling that once my game starts becoming demanding, windows is doing something in the background to limit the programme. I have played around with the DPI settings, by looking under the compatibility tab on the properties for the game, and I have made a small improvement. However, I don't really know what I'm doing and just changed something around- if anyone has any more specific advice on this, it would be super helpful. I'm going to keep trying to find a solution, and if I ever find one, I will let you know! 

[IrisuChan]

@Lcgreen97 thanks, please let me know if you do! I hope we both get our *smooth* gameplay back. But what if it was related to latest game update? There were two events for me that happened, after which I noticed the lag the first time. A game update, and my install of Backyard Stuff.

[Lcgreen97]

Have you tried reverting an earlier version, temporarily disabling backyard stuff, and seeing if that's definitely the problem? In that case, you could maybe be eligible for a refund but I'm not totally sure. This isn't the case for mine, as I had no change between my game running flawlessly to laggy, which is why I'm so confused- no new packs or patch updates!