A graphics card is what gives your computer and games the picture. Graphics cards are different in the sense of allotted memory they have for your computer and games. You can find out what type you have by finding your device manager. On mine, which is windows 7, you can go to "control panel" and look for "device manager" and look for "display adapters". That should tell you what kind your computer has. In other words, if your graphics card doesn't have enough memory, it will make certain sims and pets glitch out, as I call it. They have a lot of good graphics cards at reasonable prices now, more so than they use to. If you find out what you have, you can post it in the technical section and there are a few members that are really good at tech related problems. Someone is bound to let you know if that could be your pet problem. Is it just with pets or are you have issues with other sims? If you have non related items installed in your computer such as CC or mods, that also might cause a problem. Let us know and I am sure someone can help. Good luck.