Graphics issues

[DeLouche]

I was creating a new family in a new, underpopulated world, and.. this happens. I did a clean-up and de-frag earlier this week, I have no cc installed (some store stuff, but not in this build), Errorwatch and MasterController installed, and the world is a testing version of the world I'm building... I'm slightly worried that the effort of the past month is frying my graphics card :/ Does anyone recognise this problem, and is there a fix?




I finished the family, played with them a short while, usual beginning-game stuff - building, buying, getting jobs, going to classes, the game play was absolutely fine apart from a mixing bowl getting stuck to a Sims hand, but graphics looked a bit funny, and then again there was this...



If it's that I need to get a new graphics card, or clean the inside of my computer, I'd rather know sooner so I don't do some serious damage to my poor computer...

[blackbird_4]

Well, cleaning the inside of your comp is always a good place to start, regardless.

[Execution]

Oh gosh. This happened to my previous computer. It didn't have anything to do with the graphics card -- everything still runs fine in that aspect. We found out last year that the Motherboard is fried when my computer started doing all sorts of crazy things like denying privileges to my Admin account, having the firewall block all internet connection, and denying the cable that connects the speakers to my computer. Sims 3 still runs on it. Painfully slow. I'm not sure if this was connected to the graphical issues, but still.

How old is your computer? Mine was 8 years old when this started to happen. If yours is fairly new, I'm probably wrong.

[DeLouche]

Well, I *sincerely* hope it's not the motherboard - none of the other stuff has happened, so fingers crossed... Like I say, gameplay was fine - actually much quicker than any of my other worlds, it just... looked odd.

Thanks both for suggestions - will definitely get some compressed air and clean it out ASAP!

[Seabody]

Try updating your graphics card?

[DeLouche]

Well, it's an Nvidia GeForce 7900, so it's a really decent card - but it is about 6 years old :/

I'll do some research on replacing it, and hope the current card doesn't give up until Green Dolphin Island is finished...

[DeLouche]

  According to this page, I've been pretty lucky to get such a good performance out of my card so far:
 http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements#Desktop_Graphics_Card_Compatibility_and_Recommendations

Definitely going to look into replacing it ASAP, I'm a sucker for expansion packs, and with Supernatural and Seasons coming up, I'd rather be ready for them...

And of course, cleaning my PC is on tonight's to-do list