C-Dark post_id=96563 time=1693676972 user_id=236 wrote: 2 GB Nvidia RAM is very little for Sims 3.

The game is only programmed to use up to 800 MB of VRAM. Anything over that can be used for other things so as a result gameplay may seem smoother, but I don't think a 2 GB card in the mid-range of the Nvidia 900 series (middle digit indicating the strength of the card) is really a culprit of tight resources here. If we were talking about a 940 or lower, then this would be very different. Has your experience really been otherwise, I mean with resource monitors or something else I might not be thinking of showing the differences to the actual game?

igazor wrote: ↑

September 2nd, 2023, 2:05 pm

Has your experience really been otherwise

I had the GTX 970 with 4 GB RAM and me, playing only max from small to medium worlds, with a lot of CC, Mods and Homeopener in play - FPS always cappt to 29, even with a 27 inch Screen.
I sometimes also had crashes of course, like many other players. I needed to track my CPU RAM usage too also.
Also to mention trees on low in-game settings and reflection only to mirror and such.

But now I have nvidia 1070 with 8 GB and only capp to 59 FPS. And I have less crashes. ok have a better cpu too with 32 GB RAM, so system and other stuff has plenty left and the game fully 3,6/7 GB.
I can raise everything to high in-game setting with no problem.

When playing large or even very large worlds and many sims, houses, everything graphically goes into the graphic RAM, so yes I still think that less then 4 GB is maybe not enough for a very smooth play.

But for the crash - we don't know what specs the OPs PC or Laptop has (only the graphic card).
And also how many EPs are installed which can also cause performance issues.

Also when playing a world for a long time the game often lags more and more and other things can happen. Thats why I also porter my town after a while to a fresh world instance, which, as an example, speeds up my save loading time very much too.

I think the windowed mode is a good option as igazor noted and CardinalSims also explained some graphic knowledge.

And also this info

puzzlezaddict wrote: ↑

June 2nd, 2022, 6:06 am

After all, a RAM spike like this is highly unusual, and it would also be unusual for memory use to rise this much in one play session even if it was gradual. So the question is why this is happening.

If you're using StoryProgression, turn it down to the slowest pace. Empty out the inventories of your and other sims. Do all the other steps that are usually recommended, even those you might not want to take

As it is still not clear why this happend.
- it can also be a corrupt outfit like use Debugenbaler - Fix invisible sims
- as you already did a town reset - sell all invontorywith MC - under households option (except your active)
- you can also try to porter your town, the families you wanna keep - to a fresh world instance

And of course do the 50/50 test with your mods. But if you didn't install something new recently, then you may can skip this.
Dashboard cannot find all problems.

And be aware that going into CAS or edtit town in-build mode of a lot and such, this always heaps up the RAM usage enormously and can lead to crashes. This happens to all of us, because of the 4 GB Ram limit of the game, we can do nothing about it, sadly.

I second the advice to play in windowed mode if you find it's running better that way, and using borderless functionality (either from SmoothPatch, or the Borderless Gaming app, etc) makes it visually identical. I believe that has greatly extended the lifespan of my own game.

Though I think we may go in circles a little bit if the tests being done aren't the type to produce useful information.
The reason I recommended testing with CC removed on the existing save is to have a concrete understanding of whether this is a CC/mods issue or a hardware one. As those are two very different problems.

If you test on a vanilla EA world with no mods and there's no crash, it wouldn't be very illuminating on whether that was because it was lighter on performance or because a definite culprit was removed.
Remove mods from save confirmed to be crashing > determine if crash is still happening > hardware most likely culprit if yes, mods if no.
Then you will be informed enough to decide if you need to 50/50 through your mods to find the issue, or just thin things out in general and find a lightweight world.

C-Dark wrote: ↑

September 2nd, 2023, 2:45 pm

When playing large or even very large worlds and many sims, houses, everything graphically goes into the graphic RAM, so yes I still think that less then 4 GB is maybe not enough for a very smooth play.
But for the crash - we don't know what specs the OPs PC or Laptop has (only the graphic card).
And also how many EPs are installed which can also cause performance issues.
Also when playing a world for a long time the game often lags more and more and other things can happen. Thats why I also porter my town after a while to a fresh world instance, which, as an example, speeds up my save loading time very much too.

I used to have an NVIDIA 670 with 2GB ram and didn't have this many issues. My CPU is a i7-3770 with 20GB ram, a 1TB SSD and a 1TB SATA drive. I have all the EP's and every SP except Katy Perry and Diesel. Using Steam 1.67 version. I was able to play this particular save for several sim days, getting up from Save File 1 to Save File 10 before this one started crashing to the desktop. I'm really leaning towards it being a bad piece of CC or too much CC, or just the custom worlds using too many resources themselves. I have another game using Isla Paradiso (ellacharmed fixed) and have not experienced this issue, for example. I *did* get an error 12 on it once, but was able to do a town reset and remove a couple lots, and its been fine since. And I have another OK game using vanilla Sunset Valley (also ellacharmed fixed), so again I am leaning towards the custom worlds just using too many resources.

Thank you all for the suggestions.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!! I think I fixed it. First I tried pulling out my Sims 3 documents folder and letting it generate a new one, but that caused more issues with missing store content. So I went back to the way it was. Then I decided to try letting Steam check its files and rebuild them. Apparently something was corrupted because now it freakin' works!! I have tried two different saves now that I was having trouble with, and both of them have saved easily now. Holy cow I can't believe it.
I did have to reinstall the updated GraphicsCards.sgr and GraphicsRules.sgr files so it would recognize my 960, but now I have Found 1, Matched 1 and so far so good!
Thank you all, again, for your help.

Is it not the case that by doing the Steam repair thing, you have thus undone any changes made to the game files by the Smoothness Patch, either version? And then, maybe that was the culprit here? Just guessing, with not much other game file info to go on.

igazor wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2023, 5:45 pm

Is it not the case that by doing the Steam repair thing, you have thus undone any changes made to the game files by the Smoothness Patch, either version? And then, maybe that was the culprit here? Just guessing, with not much other game file info to go on.

That could be. I have not verified yet whether Steam removed the Smooth Patch files that it changes. I was too excited that it works again to look at why it works again. What other game file info do you need?

I only meant other changes you might have made to the game files along the way, such as the installation of HQ mods or other things that are not package-based like "regular" mods would be

I couldn't tell you other mods I have installed over the last year that this has been happening, but Smooth Patch 2.0 might have been one of them. I DID go back to Smooth Patch 1 recently, with no change, until now.