I have been encountering massive graphical distortion problems ever since I swapped out my NVIDIA GeForce 460 (or a model near that) for an older 285 model, in an attempt to improve my system’s overall stability. I have tried lowering the graphics settings, performing a factory reset, and even uninstalled everything only to have the same problem upon booting a non-patched base game. I have looked, and the GeForce 285 was on the supported GPU list, and the drivers for that are up to date. The only other hardware change that has occurred would be the reduction of my RAM to 4GB from 8GB, but the game ran perfectly fine using the lesser amount before.
The problems in detail would be:
1) What I can call “polygonal misshaping”, which is when I see random specs of geometry appear for a few frames at the most.
2) Color and texture mishandling, causing entire objects and Sims to end up discolored.
3) Occasionally, entire lots will disappear without reason, leaving a blue void in their place until something causes them to reload.
4) Instances in which it seemed that the game crashed to the desktop, but still pops up again a few seconds later. This did knock out my GPU drivers for a moment, but they restarted successfully on their own afterward.
These all occur throughout the game, whenever there is anything more complicated than a user interface to render. Not only are they quite distracting, but they can easily kill the game within half an hour of launch, to the point of me needing to soft-reset just to get out of it.
Further system details:
Windows 7 64-bit, Home Edition
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Processor
I do not desire to switch back to my old GPU because it was causing instability throughout the entire system, to the point of me logging SEVEN different types of Blue Screens of Death. I think my motherboard is also on the fritz, but until I can get that replaced what would be my best option for stabilizing my game?
