Installing EP causes lag?

[sawadaWiz]

Hello, when I was playing TS3 without any expansion, it went smoothly without lag, even I played with decent graphic settings. But after I installed some EP (LN, ST, UL, seasons) the game was very laggy and I had to play at lowest graphic settings. How can those EP cause that lag? I have a i3 PC with 4GB RAM and GeForce 210 that seems to make my game (before installing EP) works smoothly. Does I need to upgrade my PC to play more EP?

[Sonshine]

The answer is that the more ep's you put in, the more power it takes to run the game. You may have to upgrade your pc. There is some lag even for me and I have a gaming comp. I do have an older video card though which probably needs to be upgraded. I know I'll have to upgrade before I can install Future. If you click on Start, Run, then type in dxdiag, a window will come up showing you your system specs. The first page is your system specs, then there is a Display tab that will show you your graphics specs.

[sawadaWiz]

It says my graphic card has 2GB memory. It's enough for graphic requirement, right? Do you think I need to upgrade the RAM?

[Angélique]

Could you please include the top part of your Dxdiag report and DeviceConfig.log in your next post here. If we know those data, it'll be much easier to suggest things you can do to improve your computer performance.

The top part of your Dxdiag report ends just above Driver Strong Name, which is around 4 inches below the heading Display Devices.

The DeviceConfig.log is located in your The Sims 3 folder under My documents. It's the top part down to the heading Options that's interesting.

[sawadaWiz]

dxdiag report for display devices:
 Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 210
       Manufacturer: NVIDIA
          Chip type: GeForce 210
           DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
         Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A65&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A2
     Display Memory: 2253 MB
   Dedicated Memory: 978 MB
      Shared Memory: 1274 MB
       Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
       Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
      Monitor Model: 505G
         Monitor Id: GSM3B91
        Native Mode: 1024 x 768(p) (60.004Hz)
        Output Type: HD15
        Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll,nvwgf2um.dll
Driver File Version: 8.17.0013.0142 (English)
     Driver Version: 8.17.13.142
        DDI Version: 10.1
       Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
  Driver Attributes: Final Retail
   Driver Date/Size: 5/15/2012 17:26:00, 15322432 bytes
        WHQL Logo'd: Yes
    WHQL Date Stamp:
  Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4925-11CF-3E63-0D201CC2C535}
          Vendor ID: 0x10DE
          Device ID: 0x0A65
          SubSys ID: 0x00000000
        Revision ID: 0x00A2

DeviceConfig:
=== Application info ===
Name:            Sims3
Version:         
Build:           Release
=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 4 RAM: 3 CPU Speed: 3093 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3724 RAM: 3061 Adjusted RAM: 2549 Cores: 2
=== Machine info ===
OS version:      Windows 7  6.1.7601 Service Pack 1
OS prod type:    0
OS major ver:    6
OS minor ver:    1
OS SP major ver: 1
OS SP minor ver: 0
OS is 64Bit:    0
CPU:             GenuineIntel
    Brand:       Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz
    Family:      6
    Model:       10
    Cores:       2
    HT:          1
    x64:         0
Memory:          3061MB
Free memory:     2260MB
User:            Eddy Wiz
Computer:        EDDYWIZ-PC
=== Graphics device info ===
Number:          0
Name (driver):   NVIDIA GeForce 210
Name (database): GeForce 210 [Found: 1, Matched: 0]
Vendor:          NVIDIA
Chipset:         Vendor: 10de, Device: 0a65, Board: 00000000, Chipset: 00a2
Driver:          nvd3dum.dll, Version: 8.17.13.142, GUID: D7B71E3E-4925-11CF-3E63-0D201CC2C535
Driver version:  142
Monitor:         \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory:  2256MB
Vertex program:  3.0
Pixel program:   3.0
Hardware TnL:    1

[Angélique]

Unfortunately you didn't include the top part of your dxdiag report in your post, that is all the important system information. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but if it wasn't, could you please try once more?

[sawadaWiz]

I thought you were only inquiring my display devices information.
Here it is.
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 9/8/2013, 11:25:20
       Machine name: EDDYWIZ-PC
   Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: MSI
       System Model: MS-7680
               BIOS: BIOS Date: 11/30/11 09:25:31 Ver: 04.06.04
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
             Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3062MB RAM
          Page File: 1695MB used, 6364MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
 System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
     DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode

[Angélique]

Your system information is both interesting and very puzzling. It seems that your processor is 64-bit, but still you only have the 32-bit version of Windows 7 installed, do you happen to know why that is?

If you run Sims 3 on a 32-bit system, it can only access 2 GB RAM, and that really isn't enough for such a large and demanding game. So either you could check to see if it's possible to change your Windows installation to the 64-bit version, or you could maybe try and assign more memory to Sims 3. How you do that is described in great detail here.

Where did you get your computer by the way, is it home built or bought in a store?



 

 

[Sonshine]

I don't know if she changed it or not, but I read 32 bit processor. In any case, it can't access the RAM. Also, SawadaWiz, it looks like your video card is under powered. You could probably use a bigger video card and a 64 bit OS and possibly more RAM. Personally, I have a GeForce GTX 480 which has 4 gigs RAM just for it. My total RAM for the whole comp is 15 gigs. This comp was designed for gaming. Even w/those specs, I still have some problems w/freezing up from time to time. As has been mentioned, this game, if you want all ep's, is a total power hog.

[sawadaWiz]

So the problem is my OS is underpowered. I'll look for upgrading it to 64-bit then. I also assigned 6 GB as virtual memory, but it seems not helping a lot.
I bought the PC at a store when I was looking for one to run photoshop cs5. It's not designed to run spec-heavy PC games. It can run TS3 w/o EP smoothly, though.

[Angélique]

I don't know if she changed it or not, but I read 32 bit processor.

By "she", do you mean me? If so, "changed" what, and where? And where did you read that sawadaWiz' processor is 32 bit? Please enlighten us!

I do have an older video card though which probably needs to be upgraded. I know I'll have to upgrade before I can install Future.

Personally, I have a GeForce GTX 480 which has 4 gigs RAM just for it.

Is it the GTX 480 graphics card you're talking about as an "older" video card that needs to be upgraded? According to Passmark the GTX 480 is a really strong card, currently nr 16 from the top. However, I don't know for sure how accurate and reliable that website is.

[sawadaWiz]

I heard that Seasons EP puts a lot of to the processor and VGA card with its weather. If I allocate more to virtual memory, will it help to reduce lag? And what EP that's less laggy? So far, with only Ambitions and Showtime installed, there's no major performance problem.

[Angélique]

I heard that Seasons EP puts a lot of to the processor and VGA card with its weather. If I allocate more to virtual memory, will it help to reduce lag? And what EP that's less laggy? So far, with only Ambitions and Showtime installed, there's no major performance problem.

I don't think increasing your virtual memory will help, but you could always try it if you like. The virtual memory, aka page file, is located in your hard drive, and the hard drive is, as we all know, veeery slow compared to the RAM.

If you experience that Seasons is too heavy for your computer, you could just turn off both the weather and the seasons if you want. You don't have to uninstall it if you enjoy it otherwise.

I'm not sure if any of the expansions could be considered less laggy than the rest, but I definitely know which one is more prone to lagging/freezing than all the others put together, and that's Island Paradise, which is very unfortunate, because it's such a colorful and beautiful world.

[sawadaWiz]

So paging file is nothing compared to RAM? Oh well, I got it. That's very kind of you all. Thanks.

[Angélique]

Have you checked your computer yet to determine whether or not it can run Windows 7 64-bit? If you haven't already, look here for instructions on how to do it.