How to make Sims 3 recognise graphics card?

[thekaratekitten]

I know this is a common topic and there's already tons of guides about it but I've tried a few times and can't get it to work. I was advised to come here and that puzzleaddict or someone else here would probably be able to help me so here I am.

I have an Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 integrated card and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. I tried using the RTX_Series.zip file here https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26753.msg446248#msg446248 and following the instructions there in overwriting my GraphicsCards.sgr and GraphicsRules.sgr files as I was told this had my Nvidia card added but my deviceconfig file still says Found: 0, Matched: 0. 

I think that part of the problem is that I do have the two cards and depending on which of two slots on the tower have the monitor cable plugged into I get different menus on the desktop and the Nvidia control panel.

If I right click on desktop with the cable plugged into the upper slot in the tower, I get (file on left) and if I then click into the Nvidia Control panel I get (file on right, sorry, don't know why its so fuzzy).

If I right click on desktop with the cable plugged into the lower slot in the tower, I get (file on right) and if I then click on the Nvidia Control panel I get (file on left).

And this is the deviceconfig as it stands.

This is why I think its part of the problem. Don't know if I'm right, I'm really out of my depth with this technical stuff. 

Can you guys help?

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@thekaratekitten  First of all, you should always have your monitor plugged directly into the graphics card unless you're trying to troubleshoot something that requires using the motherboard slot.  This is the graphics card (I'm borrowing the diagram from someone else):

For the graphics card recognition, the issue is probably that the file you've downloaded doesn't contain your card's device ID.  But you can add your card to the .sgr files manually instead.

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 0x1c03 "GeForce GTX 1060"

So you should now see this:

vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de

card 0x1c03 "GeForce GTX 1060"
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 1060.  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 three 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 edit doesn't work, please paste that same section of deviceconfig here, although you can copy and paste the text instead of taking a screenshot.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@thekaratekitten  First of all, you should always have your monitor plugged directly into the graphics card unless you're trying to troubleshoot something that requires using the motherboard slot.  This is the graphics card (I'm borrowing the diagram from someone else):

For the graphics card recognition, the issue is probably that the file you've downloaded doesn't contain your card's device ID.  But you can add your card to the .sgr files manually instead.

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 0x1c03 "GeForce GTX 1060"

So you should now see this:

vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de

card 0x1c03 "GeForce GTX 1060"
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 1060.  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 three 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 edit doesn't work, please paste that same section of deviceconfig here, although you can copy and paste the text instead of taking a screenshot.

[thekaratekitten]

It worked! Had to go into the game first but it registered then. Thank you so much! 

Im a little confused about the ports still though. This is where they are on my computer (see attached file).

And the top one is the that lets me access the Nvidia panel so that’s the right one surely? Sorry, I'm dumb. 

Btw, I’ve heard you can cap the frame rate on Nvidia cards? Can I do it with this card?

Also, my friend hasn’t gotten this to work on her laptop yet and I was thinking the same thing might work for her. Her cards are Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 and Nvidia GeForce 940MX.

[puzzlezaddict]

@thekaratekitten  I can't see the photo you've attached because this site's virus scanner isn't working and is instead blocking everything.  If you'd like me to see it, you can embed it within the post—there's a button for that to the right of the emoji and link buttons—or upload it somewhere else and link it.

The diagram I posted earlier covers how almost all computers are set up, but if you're not sure, you can open the case and look at where the graphics card is.  You want to plug the monitor into the card, not into the port on the motherboard.

You can definitely cap framerates on an Nvidia card.  There are a few different ways to do it, but the easiest involve the built-in Nvidia Control Panel.  Right-click on your desktop and select it, then click Manage 3D Settings, then Program Settings.  But instead of selecting Sims3Launcher.exe, select TS3.exe for an Origin install. or TS3W.exe (with the W) for a disc or Steam install.  Then enable vertical sync.  The option should look like this:

Click Apply to save the change.

Vertical sync only works in fullscreen mode, and it doesn't always work even then.  If you want to play in windowed mode at least some of the time, or the setting isn't capping your fps, you can set a max framerate in the Control Panel's global settings rather than the program settings.  It looks like this:

Choose the refresh rate of your monitor, or if it runs at 120 or 144 Hz, you can set it to half the refresh rate instead if you'd like.

Either way, you can see your in-game framerates by bringing up the cheats console (crtl-shift-C) and entering "fps on" without quotes.  The number will appear in the upper right corner of the game window.

For your friend, the same approach to getting her graphics card recognized would work overall, but she (or I) would have to tweak the edits to match her specific card.  If she wants help, I need the device ID of her card, or the same section of the deviceconfig you posted earlier.

[thekaratekitten]

Got framerate capped, thank you!

Sorry, I was working off the phone at the time and it wouldn't let me embed it. Here it is.

And this is my friends deviceconfig. Sorry, I'm an idiot for forgetting it last time.

=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
Name (database): NVIDIA GeForce 940MX [Found: 0, Matched: 0]
Vendor: NVIDIA
Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: 134d, Board: 14901043, Chipset: 00a2
Driver: nvldumd.dll, Version: 23.21.13.8873, GUID: D7B71E3E-500D-11CF-5A51-9D3418C2DA35
Driver version: 8873
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 32MB <<OVERRIDE>>
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1

Thank you again!

[puzzlezaddict]

@thekaratekitten  That's a strange arrangement, but you do in fact have the monitor plugged into the graphics card.  The motherboard also has the additional ports for keyboard and mouse, speakers, ethernet, etc.

For your friend, I'll post the same instructions plus a bit of extra context.

Spoiler

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.

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 0x134d "GeForce 940MX"

So you should now see this:

vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de

card 0x134d "GeForce 940MX"
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 940MX.  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 more VRAM than that, but TS3 can only use 800 MB anyway.  The lines should look like this:

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

Launch the game once to refresh the deviceconfig.log.  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 the edits don't work, please repost that same section of the deviceconfig. 

[thekaratekitten]

Glad to know I'm not completely mad! lol

Sorry to get back to you so late, my friend didn't get back to me until now. She got the card recognized and was trying to make the fps instructions work for her too. But her settings look different, because she has a laptop I'm assuming. Is Maximum pre-rendered frames the laptop equivalent of Max Frame Rate? Got a screenshot from her of it. What should she choose?

[puzzlezaddict]

@thekaratekitten  Don't worry about the late reply.  The Max Frame Rate setting was only introduced this year, I think maybe in February, so if your friend's Nvidia driver is older than that, she won't see the option.  The setting you've posted is different and won't help here.

Your friend can try enabling vertical sync for Sims 3 in the Control Panel's program settings tab.  (As always, be sure to use TS3.exe for an Origin install and TS3W.exe for a disc or Steam install.)  But it doesn't usually work anymore for laptops with dual graphics cards.  So she'll probably need an outside tool.  Nvidia Inspector (free download) is a popular one; instructions for using it are here, under the second spoiler:

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/16540301/#Comment_16540301

Another option is RivaTuner Statistics Server (also free), which is much simpler.  You just choose the appropriate .exe (highlighted in blue on the left), set the framerate limit (red box), and choose whether to start RTSS with Windows (yellow box).

Unlike the other tools, RTSS does need to be running to work, it can't be closed out, but it's fine to minimize the window, and the app is very lightweight.  That's why a lot of people allow it to start with Windows—it's easier than trying to remember to open it before playing.

After installing and setting up RTSS, your friend would need to restart her computer once to get it to work.

[thekaratekitten]

Oh right, yes her laptop is a little bit older than that. I'll pass those on to her. One of them has to work. The last thing is just wondering what framerate she should cap it to. She says her refresh rate is 60 Hz.

[puzzlezaddict]

@thekaratekitten  Then a cap of 60 should work fine.  Anything above that, the screen won't display the extra frames.  She could cap it lower if she wanted, but most people would notice some choppiness with an fps of 30 or so.

And it's not a question of how old her laptop is but how old the driver for her graphics card is.  There's a current one for her GPU, but it's usually better to stick with the (often older) version provided by a laptop manufacturer until it stops working.  Those drivers are often tweaked to work on the specific laptops for which they're offered and to be compatible with the driver for the integrated graphics chip.