Graphics card

[roxosmama]

I've had TS3 forever and kind of recently I bought an acer gaming laptop nvidia 1650. I've watched the videos and there's a lot that has talked about getting the graphics card recognized but it's not the one I have. If someone could help me thatd be great! I'm also scared that itll mess my game up. 

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@roxosmama  To get the GPU recognized, you'll need to edit a two files called graphicscards.sgr and graphicsrules.sgr, which are both located in the Sims 3 program files.  For an Origin install, the default file path is:

Program files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

Note:  These instructions only apply to and will only work for the original poster's graphics card.  If you'd like help getting your own card recognized, please post the same information from deviceconfig and ask for help.

Spoiler

Open graphicscards.sgr (Notepad works fine), and crtl-F to search for 10de.  That will take you to these lines:

vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de
card 0x0fd1 "GeForce GT 650M"
card 0x0fd2 "GeForce GT 640M"

Create a new line under the "Nvidia" line, copy this text, and paste it in the new line:

    card 0x1f91 "GeForce GTX 1650"

So you should now see this:

vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de

card 0x1f91 "GeForce GTX 1650"
card 0x0fd1 "GeForce GT 650M"
card 0x0fd2 "GeForce GT 640M"

(with indents from spaces that this site isn't displaying properly).  Save, quit, and open graphicsrules.sgr.  Crtl-F and search for 8800, which will take you here:

 elseif (match("${cardName}", "*8800*") or match("${cardName}", "*9500*") or match("${cardName}", "*9600 GSO*") or match("${cardName}", [etc.]

Change the bolded 8800 to GTX 1650.  Don't change anything else, not even the asterisks.  This will classify your card as uber.

Finally, scroll back to the top of graphicsrules, and look for this, 8-10 lines down:

if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 32
setb textureMemorySizeOK false

change the 32 to 1024, and add a # and a space in front of setb.  Your card has four times the video memory, but TS3 can only use 800 MB anyway.  The lines should look like this:

if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 1024
# setb textureMemorySizeOK false

You'll know it worked if you see a [Found: 1, Matched: 1] next to the card name in deviceconfig, and texture memory listed as 1024 instead of the current 32 MB override.  If either tweak doesn't work, please paste that same section of deviceconfig here, and we can tweak the edits.

[puzzlezaddict]

@roxosmama  Sure, I can help.  If you haven't launched the game yet, please do so now; you can quit at the Main Menu.  Then go into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3, open the file called deviceconfig.log, copy the lines between "Graphics device info" (about 25 lines down) and "Options" (about 40 lines down), and paste them here.

[roxosmama]

Sorry I took so long to respond! Stuff is home. Is there a private messaging thing on this website?

[puzzlezaddict]

@roxosmama  Don't worry about the delay, it's totally fine.  Private messages work, but it's better if people post relevant info in their threads.  That way, others can read it too, and if someone else has ideas for how to help, or the initial helper (me in this case) doesn't know the best way to proceed, it's easy to get a second opinion.  The deviceconfig file lists your machine and usernames, but you can delete those two lines and upload the rest.  Those aren't even in the part of the deviceconfig I'd like to see, and there's no personal info in the rest of the file.

[roxosmama]

Will fixing it mess my game up? 

[puzzlezaddict]

@roxosmama  Getting your graphics card recognized should absolutely not mess up your game, as long as it's done correctly.  Editing one of the two relevant files can mess things up if the edits aren't done properly, but that's why you always keep a backup copy of each file, so you can put them back if necessary.  There are also ways to revert the files to their original copies, depending on what kind of install this is.

[roxosmama]

Number: 0
Name (driver): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
Name (database): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 [Found: 0, Matched: 0]
Vendor: NVIDIA
Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: 1f91, Board: 109f1043, Chipset: 00a1
Driver: nvldumd.dll, Version: 26.21.14.3187, GUID: D7B71E3E-5CD1-11CF-807F-91301BC2D735
Driver version: 3187
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 32MB <<OVERRIDE>>
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@roxosmama  To get the GPU recognized, you'll need to edit a two files called graphicscards.sgr and graphicsrules.sgr, which are both located in the Sims 3 program files.  For an Origin install, the default file path is:

Program files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

Note:  These instructions only apply to and will only work for the original poster's graphics card.  If you'd like help getting your own card recognized, please post the same information from deviceconfig and ask for help.

Spoiler

Open graphicscards.sgr (Notepad works fine), and crtl-F to search for 10de.  That will take you to these lines:

vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de
card 0x0fd1 "GeForce GT 650M"
card 0x0fd2 "GeForce GT 640M"

Create a new line under the "Nvidia" line, copy this text, and paste it in the new line:

    card 0x1f91 "GeForce GTX 1650"

So you should now see this:

vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de

card 0x1f91 "GeForce GTX 1650"
card 0x0fd1 "GeForce GT 650M"
card 0x0fd2 "GeForce GT 640M"

(with indents from spaces that this site isn't displaying properly).  Save, quit, and open graphicsrules.sgr.  Crtl-F and search for 8800, which will take you here:

 elseif (match("${cardName}", "*8800*") or match("${cardName}", "*9500*") or match("${cardName}", "*9600 GSO*") or match("${cardName}", [etc.]

Change the bolded 8800 to GTX 1650.  Don't change anything else, not even the asterisks.  This will classify your card as uber.

Finally, scroll back to the top of graphicsrules, and look for this, 8-10 lines down:

if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 32
setb textureMemorySizeOK false

change the 32 to 1024, and add a # and a space in front of setb.  Your card has four times the video memory, but TS3 can only use 800 MB anyway.  The lines should look like this:

if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 1024
# setb textureMemorySizeOK false

You'll know it worked if you see a [Found: 1, Matched: 1] next to the card name in deviceconfig, and texture memory listed as 1024 instead of the current 32 MB override.  If either tweak doesn't work, please paste that same section of deviceconfig here, and we can tweak the edits.

[roxosmama]

So after I edit all of that and click save,  in the devicecog it should say found 1 matched 1, something like that? And will the game notify me about the changes?

[puzzlezaddict]

@roxosmama  Yes, you should see [Found: 1, Matched: 1] where the values are currently zero.  You should also see a texture memory of 1024 rather than the 32 MB override.  The game won't notify you though.