Hello everyone, first of all I want to thank everyone in advance.
My system specs are:
AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB graphic card
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Processor 3.2ghz
8 GB of RAM
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
My problem is ever since i bought the game it has been laggy, not because of low fps. Whenever i move camera there is a stutter that cannot be unseen and it got even worse when i installed all the expansions.
These past few days I've been searching for a solution, and I've realized my game is only using between 1.4 and 1.6 gb of RAM. I've tried tweaking sims.ini file to change the ram cap, it was 2gb as default I set it to 4 and 6 and 8 but didn't make a difference for reasons I'm oblivious to. Like the is not recognizing the changes that I've made. I've tried the program that's in the sticky topic Performance issues, that haven't changed the ram cap either. I've been searching the google for couple of hours now haven't find anything, so if one of you good folks could help me out it'd be much appreciated.
I believe my system should've been able to run the game without a hiccup but...
Hi, Dacian.
Sims 3 is a 32-bit program. At best it can access 3.5 GB memory, but there are some limits to that. When you run a 32-bit program on 64-bit Windows, the system allocates up to 4 GB memory to an "emulator" called WoW64 (Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit). It's pretty complicated, but I found a blog post on Citrix's site that explains it in a somewhat technical fashion. The following quote puts the problem into perspective (emphasis added by me):
WOW64: Memory mapping of 32bit apps running on a 64bit WindowsFrom my experience the memory overhead increases with the complexity of an applications (more complex = more overhead). Typical multipliers for the memory consumption of single processes range from 1.2 – 2.5 based on the memory consumption seen on a 32bit Windows OS. But to determine the exact multiplier for your apps, you need to test.
So why would I move my 32bit applications to 64bit then, given this memory overhead? The answer is simple. It’s the 4GB boundary that normal 32bit applications cannot cross. This means that even there may be more than 4GB of memory available in your server the applications won’t make use of it, as they simply cannot access memory beyond the 32bit address space (there are exceptions, but I don’t go into that now).
Sims 3, of course, is a very complex program. Add to that memory needed to store the database of objects from the store, expansions, stuff packs, custom content, etc.) and the system runs into its limit.
I have tried using a program that patches Sims 3 to use more than 2 GB, but in practice I haven't noticed much improvement in the game. I did check memory and it allowed for more than 2 GB (I think the most was 2.8 GB) but it didn't result in the program running noticeably better. I've also found that (depending on the system and available memory), the graphics drivers can siphon up to 2 GB of system memory on it's own, even with 2 GB of dedicated memory. Add to that the memory needed for background tasks (many of which are 32-bit and also require more memory than "normal" - see the quote above) and your system doesn't necessarily have much memory left to give the game's WoW64 instance.
To get the game running better, you're going to need to kill as many of the background tasks as you can without crippling your system. While I dislike disabling anti-virus/anti-malware scanners on a system connected to the Internet, it is a good idea to do so when you're playing something like Sims 3 as it will free up some memory and processor cycles to dedicate to the game. Also, any media helpers (such as CyberLink and iTunes) can be safely turned off while playing. There are gaming apps available online that can help shut down background applications while gaming and I'd look at some of those as a starting point.
It won't magically make the game play silky smooth, but it should help some with the stuttering you describe. Also, getting out of the game and rebooting the system every couple of hours while playing will help free up memory trapped by the game.
Hope this helps, and happy Simming!
Flynn
