My dearly Beloved laptop is at the shop and it isn't looking good... But I literally can NOT talk about that right now, it's too awful.

As a result, I VERY VERY reluctantly got a new laptop (I hate new things) and it's the worst. It has Windows 11. It won't run Sims 3 at all without the Alder Lake Patch (how is this even a thing??), and now that I finally got my game running, it's full of something that looks like static when in full screen mode.

Guys. I'm so tired. It's been hours of trying to get all this set up and I still have no idea where to start. I did the basics in Nvidia Control Panel, setting the frame rate, vertical sync, making sure the game was using the Nvidia card, everything is on high performance, idk. I can't remember what settings made my game so beautiful on my old laptop and now I want to cry and throw up and probably cry some more. It's late and I'm really really tired.

I'm hoping somebody here might be willing to help me troubleshoot my graphics settings. I'll get some screenshots tomorrow when I muster up the brain power to give it another go. But for now, suffice it to say it's like a digital tapestry of horizontal lines of varying lengths and colors, all over the screen but especially around objects. It starts as soon as I open the game, right from the opening EA/Sul Sul splash screens and continues through the loading screen and even on the main menu. Windowed mode is fine.

My new laptop is this. I just picked whatever I could get that was at least as good as my old one and could get here fast, but maybe I should have researched more. Like if I had researched it I would NOT have gotten it due to the 12th generation Alder Lake issue. But I'm trying to be positive here and think there's a solution to the graphic weirdness and I'll figure it out and be happy again. Woo! xD

So please, if someone can, please help. I'll try anything, just give me an idea of where to start. And if anyone needs more info I'll provide it asap. I'm basically very highly motivated/desperate.

The specs for the laptop are at the link; I don't remember what all is relevant but I'll copy some of it here.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
16 gb DDR5 RAM
12th gen i7
2560 x 1440 (QHD)
240 Hz

Thanks, all!

Oh that is so sad that you have troubles.
Maybe RadicalChick (is playing on windows 11) and puzzlezaddict can assist more or some others jump in who have a similiar system.

I am also interested how this can be solved

C-Dark wrote: ↑

June 30th, 2023, 3:49 am

Oh that is so sad that you have troubles.
Maybe RadicalChick (is playing on windows 11) and puzzlezaddict can assist more or some others jump in who have a similiar system.

I am also interested how this can be solved

Thank you for the support, I hope it can be done!

Right now, I feel ready to throw in the towel and return it, maybe buy a used version of my previous laptop or something. But I can't help but feel like it's as simple as a specific graphics setting, especially since it looks smashing in windowed mode.

I know the obvious suggestion is "just run it in windowed mode, then". But I don't really consider running it in windowed mode a solution, because I can do that with my oldest laptop with integrated graphics. I expect a brand new machine with higher specs to run my game as well as my previous, 4-year-old machine, you know?

Though I guess it doesn't always work that way with old games. :-[

Trying to remember how to share photos. If this doesn't work I'll try something else. These pics don't show the worst of it but I was trying to get a shot of it with my phone, so.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xFF_JZ ... drive_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1COa33O ... drive_link

I cannot open them, you may need to set the read permission to everyone

Thanks for that. Should be fixed now!

There are elements of Win 10 and 11 that get in the way of the more modern graphics cards working properly on this game in full screen mode. My hardware is nothing like yours and is a bit older, but I've had to play in Windowed mode for ages now due to inconsistencies with my Radeon graphics card. It's a very common thing with TS3.

The graphics artifacts I get in full screen are nowhere near as dire as yours and I actually read somewhere that AMD was working on a solution as it affects much more than just TS3. But in the meantime....

Windowed Borderless makes the transition to Windowed more painless for those of us who are/were used to full screen immersion and now I actually prefer always having access to the Windows toolbar throughout play. Maybe give it a try as a potential interim solution?

Thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded the Windowed Borderless thing; I might try to see if it makes me happy enough. I don't absolutely hate playing in windowed mode on older machines (and I play Sims 4 windowed on my preferred laptop, but that's so it doesn't run so hot). But I really really don't want to *have* to, not on my main laptop, not with Sims 3, not all the time. (Or, if I *have* to run it windowed, I want to pay way less to do so.)

I have 15 days to return this machine and I'm considering a little bit of a downgrade to get something that still has Windows 10, and a previous generation of the processor, and maybe an earlier graphics card. I wonder what the minimum (processor, graphics card, ram) for running Sims 3 well is. That, I think I will look into.

I guess I just got really lucky with my previous laptop because there were reviews specifically stating that it was fantastic for Sims 3, so I knew it was The One.

Also, with that laptop, when I started seeing some issues with my graphics, I went back to a "good" version of the Nvidia driver and didn't update it. Maybe not the best solution, but man, it was awesome while it lasted.

Have you tried running another fullscreen game on the new laptop? Just to make sure that the artifacts only occur in TS3.

You can also try to run TS3 on an Intel integrated graphics card to test or reduce the display frequency in the Windows settings.

That sucks. I'm sorry to hear this. I fear we may all have to give up our old games someday. It is the good and sad state of computer technology. Were it only more like a board game, which will always work unless you lose the pieces and they stop making them. Even then you can make do with homemade things for some games. But older digital games seem to be on the verge of oblivion. I still play Bejeweled3 from the 2010s. This is the biggest drawback about digital games and everything else digital. I hope you come to a satisfying conclusion with all this!

As for Windows 11? I'm steering clear of it until I have no choice. I still hate 10, but got used to it, my issues with 11 go beyond surface stuff, as they do with 10

Hope all else is well with you. Sorry I have no helpful advice. ​​​​​​​