Overheating

[TGBlank]

One of the things that can cause a crash on the sims 3 is video card overheating, worse, this overheating could damage your videocard or even computer. The curious thing about this problem on the sims 3 is that it can happen even if your videocard exceeds the system requirements by far, in fact, it's more likely to happen if that's the case.

Why does the sims 3 overheats your very expensive new videocard?

On most games, if your videocard is far more powerful than what the game requires, it doesn't have to work as hard to display the game and thus it runs cool. The closer the card is to the minimal system requirements, the more effort it needs to run it and thus it runs hotter.

This is not the case for the sims 3: while the sims 3's engine is internally locked to run at 30 frames per second (fps from now on), the game haves absolutely no limit on it, so the game cranks out your very expensive new videocard for all it gives, producing ridiculous amounts of identical frames each second (it was running at 3000 fps in my case) and thus overheating your card.
This problem is of particular concern to laptop users (at least for new laptops) or those who's computer lack proper ventilation.

So if your computer is slow/old, you're probably not having this problem, but if it's fairly new and you're noticing that your computer is running far hotter than what it should while playing, you may want to use an external application to force the sims 3 to run at 30 fps (and thus protecting your new expensive video card from turning into a new expensive and charred paperweight).

UPDATE: If you are unable or unwilling to find a third party program to limit the game's fps, another method of enforcing an fps cap is to force vsync on your videocard control panel, this will force the game into running at 60 fps (or whatever the refresh rate of your monitor). You'd still be wastefully rendering twice as much frames as needed, but your game won't hit silly high fps numbers either, so it's healthier for your computer.

Expect to have your computer running cooler and more silent while playing if you do either, particularly during load screens.

[jmz95]

Ooooh, very good information to know  . I'm not planning on getting a new computer soon, but if I ever get another, this is very good information. Do you know where one might find an external app to keep the fps down?

[TGBlank]

If you are under windows you'll probably want FPS Limiter, tho i am using the version from here that was stripped down and simplified for sims 3 usage.
EA is aware of the bug but they haven't patched it yet.

Edit by Carl: We'd prefer not to link to mod sites for some of the content that breaks the game's teen rating. If you're interested in this a sims 3 frame limiter is easily found through google search.

[jmz95]

If you are under windows you'll probably want FPS Limiter, tho i am using the version from here that was stripped down and simplified for sims 3 usage.
EA is aware of the bug but they haven't patched it yet.

Well, if they're aware of it, hopefully they are working on fixing it. Hopefully.

[TGBlank]

Well, if they're aware of it, hopefully they are working on fixing it. Hopefully.

Hopefully, yeah.
In the mean time, i'd rather avoid a fried videocard.

[Metropolis Man]

Good info, TG. On a related note, I don't know how many of you ever clean out your computer of dust but this is something I do once a year. I don't trust myself to do it properly. I take my iMac into the shop, have it opened up and the entire cavity and CD/DVD drive is all vacuumed out. It can really help in keeping the temps down.

[jmz95]

Good info, TG. On a related note, I don't know how many of you ever clean out your computer of dust but this is something I do once a year. I don't trust myself to do it properly. I take my iMac into the shop, have it opened up and the entire cavity and CD/DVD drive is all vacuumed out. It can really help in keeping the temps down.

Ooooo, good tip, except not all of us have fancy lightweight Mac laptops, some of us have big bulky computer hardware, Metro!!!

P.S. (JK Metro    )

[Phyrie]

How do I check the framerate of the game?  I'm not totally ignorant about computers, but this kind of thing is out of my range of experience.

Thanks, Phyrie

[TGBlank]

How do I check the framerate of the game?  I'm not totally ignorant about computers, but this kind of thing is out of my range of experience.

I don't think the sims 3 haves any ingame method of showing, but some external apps such as fraps are able to tell you.


Edit: use the cheat code "fps on" to show your fps on the top right corner, use "fps off" to turn off, it might require you to use testingcheatsenabled true first.

[Metropolis Man]

Ooooo, good tip, except not all of us have fancy lightweight Mac laptops, some of us have big bulky computer hardware, Metro!!!

P.S. (JK Metro    )

I know you're kidding. But, iMacs are desktop computers, not laptops.

[jmz95]

Ooooo, good tip, except not all of us have fancy lightweight Mac laptops, some of us have big bulky computer hardware, Metro!!!

P.S. (JK Metro    )

I know you're kidding. But, iMacs are desktop computers, not laptops.

Whoops, I got the computer names mixed up. Sorry, I thought you typed something different. I'll have to double-check it next time  .

EDIT: Wait, I see you only put iMac in your post. Sorry for jumping to conclusions about the specifics.

[TGBlank]

It seems even with fps limiter my game was still running at ridiculous fps, so i just forced vsync through the nvidia control panel and that seemed to do the trick.
Additionally, this removed the noise my pc was making during the load screens, where the game was hitting 8000 fps and the videocard fan was going all out to keep temps reasonable. I assume the control panel for ati cards should have a similar option.

[Pam]

TGBlank,

It looks to me like the link you provided goes to a mod for this overheating issue.  Are you not aware that we don't allow links to mods on this forum?  We stand firmly against using mods in Sims 3 and the one you have just linked to appears to be quite a complex one.  What do we know about the person who wrote/designed this mod?  What do we know about what harm it can cause someone's computer if it's installed?  I'm not at all comfortable with what's going on here.

Edit:  Discussing this with Carl at the moment.

[TGBlank]

While the forums in question do have mods, the link in question isn't a mod nor is fpslimiter one. It's just a program that stands in the way between the game and directX to enforce lower fps, the kind of program you use when running old games to prevent them from running at turbo speed.

Here is the thread at the sims forums btw: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/140115.page

OFC, if your videocard supports it, you could enforce vsync, but you'd still be rendering twice as many frames as necessary (not as bad as 2000 more frames than necessary tho). If it doesn't, however, you're stuck with using the limiter or other similar programs.

[Carl]

I apologize for stepping in and removing the link, but I'm careful about what we link to from this forum because many of those mod sites offer downloads that break the Sims 3's Teen rating. It's a simple all or nothing approach because we can't judge every site. I appreciate this and am going to look into it myself for my own purposes but based on your experience I think I'm going to start with the vsync because running it at 60fps wouldn't be nearly as stressful on my card, in fact quite fine.

Thanks for the heads up!