The Sims 3 Lagging and Flickering

[canoernek]

Hi!

I've looked online and I haven't been able to find anything useful yet. I've been having this issue for a couple of days now and it makes the game completely unplayable. I'm not sure if "flickering" is the right term to explain it but it's much more than the usual lags that The Sims 3 is famous for. It happens when I move around. Everything is fine when I do absolutely nothing.

2 weeks ago, I downloaded TS3 via Origin with all the expansion packs. I've played it without having major problems for almost a week but for the last few days, I haven't been able to enjoy the game like I used to. I tried many things but nothing changed. Then, I decided to uninstall the Origin version and downloaded the game from Steam. I still continued to have the same problem. I thought that expansion packs might be the cause of this and uninstalled the game and all the expansion packs again. This time, I only downloaded the base game from Origin. Still the same. However, it doesn't happen when fullscreen mode is disabled, and the weird thing is that when I try to screen record the problem (using Win+G), it stops. 

I have no custom content or mods installed.

Also, the graphics are as low as possible.

I tried running the game in compatibility mode.

I made sure the game uses the right GPU.

I'll be putting my PC specs down below. I hope they help.

Thanks!

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 19041)

CPU: Intel Core i5-4200U (4x1.6GHz)

RAM: 16GB

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M (2GB)

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@canoernek  Do you still get flickering if you don't use compatibility mode for Sims 3?  Please test and let me know.  And if the game runs better for you in compatibility mode, which would be unusual but is certainly possible, I'm curious to know which mode you're using.

Forcing vertical sync, which only applies to fullscreen mode, often helps with flickering.  V-sync is supposed to sync the frames the graphics card produces with the refresh rate of your screen, in this case 60 Hz, so when it's working, you won't see fps above 60.  However, I don't know whether forcing v-sync through the Nvidia Control Panel will work with your particular setup—it often doesn't with dual-card laptops.  Still, it's easy to test, and you don't need to download anything.  Right-click on your desktop and select the Nvidia Control Panel, then Manage 3D settings > Program Settings, and you'll see this:

Choose TS3.exe (without the W) in the green box, then set Vertical sync to On (red box), and click Apply.  You can also try Adaptive and Adaptive (half refresh rate); the latter will cap fps at 30, which may not be what you want but is a good test of whether the setting is applying at all.

If the Control Panel settings don't have any effect, there's a tool called D3D Overrider that allows you to force v-sync in older games.  The tool was last updated in 2014 but still works with Sims 3, if you want to try it.

[puzzlezaddict]

@canoernek  It's not uncommon for players to see flickering and other graphics glitches when playing in fullscreen mode.  If you like fullscreen better than windowed, we can try to troubleshoot the issue directly, but you could also try Windowed Borderless Gaming (free download), which gives the fullscreen feel with the windowed mode features.

If you do want to pursue this, or you still have some issues in windowed mode (please let me know which ones), what kind of framerates do you get in-game?  Bring up the cheats console (crtl-shift-C) and enter "fps on" without quotes, and you'll see a number in the upper right corner of your screen.  Please let me know what it is, more or less, when you're not moving the camera.

Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

[canoernek]

The issue seems to be gone when I play the game in windowed mode. Borderless Gaming helped a lot.

Still, is there anything else that can be done to troubleshoot the issue directly? I'd love to try. 

When entered the cheat code "fps on", the number I saw changed frequently (from 50 to 80) even though I wasn't moving the camera. It was mostly around 60 though. I hope I got it right. I've also attached the DxDiag file to the post.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@canoernek  Do you still get flickering if you don't use compatibility mode for Sims 3?  Please test and let me know.  And if the game runs better for you in compatibility mode, which would be unusual but is certainly possible, I'm curious to know which mode you're using.

Forcing vertical sync, which only applies to fullscreen mode, often helps with flickering.  V-sync is supposed to sync the frames the graphics card produces with the refresh rate of your screen, in this case 60 Hz, so when it's working, you won't see fps above 60.  However, I don't know whether forcing v-sync through the Nvidia Control Panel will work with your particular setup—it often doesn't with dual-card laptops.  Still, it's easy to test, and you don't need to download anything.  Right-click on your desktop and select the Nvidia Control Panel, then Manage 3D settings > Program Settings, and you'll see this:

Choose TS3.exe (without the W) in the green box, then set Vertical sync to On (red box), and click Apply.  You can also try Adaptive and Adaptive (half refresh rate); the latter will cap fps at 30, which may not be what you want but is a good test of whether the setting is applying at all.

If the Control Panel settings don't have any effect, there's a tool called D3D Overrider that allows you to force v-sync in older games.  The tool was last updated in 2014 but still works with Sims 3, if you want to try it.

[canoernek]

Using compatibility mode doesn't make any difference.

Forcing vertical sync through NVIDIA Control Panel didn't work, but D3D Overrider worked. I'm now able to play The Sims 3 with no flickering.

Thank you so much for your time! You basically saved my life, also my sims' too.