Looking for help to stop screen flickering in Sims3.

[paula7574]

I have been playing Sims3 for years and just in the past couple weeks have noticed the screen is flickering when I am playing.  (It doesn't start flickering on the loading screens until I reach the window for choosing which saved game I want to play.) I don't have a new computer or anything.  I uninstalled the game and all my  expansion packs, reinstalled just the main game and am still having issues.  Can anyone help give me direction, or point me towards someone who can?  Thanks in advance.

[puzzlezaddict]

@paula7574  When you're playing, what kind of frame rates do you see?  You can check by bringing up the cheat console (crtl-shift-c) and entering "fps on" without the quotes.  A number will appear in the upper right corner of your screen, and it should never go over the refresh rate of your monitor, likely 60 Hz.  ("fps off" will make the number go away.)

If your in-game frame rates are consistently high or fluctuate wildly, that could explain the flickering.  Since TS3 has no working fps limiter of its own, you'd need to use an outside tool to lock in fps.  But even if your fps is fine, one of these tools might help get rid of the flickering—at least, it works for some people.

Which tool you'd want to use would depend on the make of your card.  You can list it here, or run a dxdiag and attach it to a post (use the browse button).  The dxdiag would also cover a variety of other potential issues, if you'd like to be thorough.

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

[paula7574]

Thanks, puzzlesaddict

[puzzlezaddict]

@paula7574  Honestly, I'm not surprised that your graphics card is struggling with TS3 now.  Even for integrated cards, it's not particularly strong, and it's also a bit old.  You could try using a program like RivaTuner Statistics Server to lock in frame rates, and that might help.  Or you could try playing in windowed mode; if the resolution is too small, you Windowed Borderless Gaming might be better.

But really, and integrated card like yours wouldn't be expected to run TS3 even when new, and the flickering might just be a sign that it's no longer able to keep up even minimally with the demands you're putting on it.  If the above steps don't help, I doubt there's much else you can do, unfortunately.