I've noticed that using Microsoft Sysinternals RAMMap (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysint ... ads/rammap) to 'Empty Working Sets' and 'Empty Standby List' can significantly improve performance in The Sims 3 in a few situations. I'll use EWS and ESL respectively from here on out.

1. After the initial loading screen to get to the main menu and logging in if desired, EWS. Then, you can load your save file and the initial 50% of the loading bar should be noticeably faster on a capable system.
2. If you've gotten stuck on that last little sliver of the loading bar to enter your save file and the RAM usage is still climbing, an EWS can kick the engine into letting you in sooner.
3. If you notice you're getting close to the 3.7 GB mark in RAM usage, EWS, and ESL. There can be some minor hitching/stuttering for a few minutes after you do so, but it'll let you keep playing without having to restart the game.
4. If you want to switch save files, you can exit back to the main menu, run EWS and ESL, and select another save/start a new save. This avoids the restart that would normally be required to flush the RAM of previous save data.

For context, here's a brief explanation of these options. Empty Working Sets tells all running processes to discard any RAM they've reserved for themselves that they don't need to keep running. (A 3 GB process might cut itself down to 70 MB, for example.)

Empty Standby List is a bit more complicated. In Windows, standby memory is RAM that contains data for running processes but is marked as optional. This allows other processes to clear that memory and use it for their working sets if needed. Games will typically load textures, scripts, and sounds into standby memory; anything that's useful, but not important enough that it needs to be reserved and ready at all times. Older versions of Windows rarely used standby memory, but Windows 10 actively encourages processes to use it. Standby memory is cleared rarely, if at all unless manually triggered. Note that The Sims 3 does not appear to use standby memory. Further experimentation would be required to determine that.

This sounds a lot like the Purge RAM technique that we advise users of the Mac version of the game to deploy frequently throughout play, except on the macOS the command can be run natively from its Terminal interface. It doesn't really help that much in that environment because of the Mac version of the game still being limited to 2 GB unlike its Windows counterpart that got relief from that ages ago with Patch 1.17, but it can help a little if one can find a way to get and stay under that level of usage for an ongoing game.

But this sounds interesting, for those who are having RAM usage issues that are not clearly tied to "bad" CC, lots with content overload, or mods from other sources trying to run away with all of the resources that the game can reach and actually make use of.

i will benefit from this . thanks.

This actually sounds promising. I didn't know there was a way to get the game to let go of junk without restarting it. Given how old the code base is I'm surprised it doesn't go belly up when you pull things out from under it like this. Thanks for sharing.

This is really interesting and I've been trying it for a few days. I'm playing a multi-generational save across multiple worlds and having visited all vacation worlds. My save folder is just over 600 MB and when I load my game, it usually would start at just over 1900 MB RAM usage.

Recently, it's been loading up around 2400 MB RAM usage, and I'll only get a save or two before I reach 3100 MB RAM and do a restart for safety or the game will hang and crash to desktop. I used to play about a week in-game (7 or so saves) before having to restart. My crash logs did have a bunch of Passion entries that were unfamiliar to anything I've noted before. The only thing I can recall doing was importing some edited Passion animations into a merged package. I tried to take them out but it's continued. Maybe I didn't undo my changes thoroughly...

Anyway, using Empty Working Sets, my usage will drop down to just over 400 MB, and climbs up slowly to very modest numbers. It did help me salvage my save! But, once I sat down for longer play sessions, I began running into Error 12 messages once I got to the 4th save. Despite using Empty Working Sets or Empty Standby List, it wouldn't alleviate the problem, even though the RAM is being reduced to <500 MB.

I just wondered if anyone is more knowledgeable about what may be going on, either with another cause to consider for the Error 12 messages, or how RAM usage being lowered doesn't fix the situation. It does seem to make my game smoothen a bit after I relieve the usage, but ironically not enabling the game to save. I wonder what is involved in actually saving a game if not availability of RAM.

EDIT: I'm guessing for my practical concerns, I should obviously resolve what may be happening with Passion once and for all that could be exponentially eating up RAM - maybe even in a particular way where whatever it's trying to do isn't being resolved and gradually consuming memory

@GlacierIsland - Thank you for sharing this information! Can come in really handy. I just tested it out now right after I loaded up my current custom World, which completes loading at about 1,900 - 2,000 MB of memory usage, according to the Resource Monitor. As you said, it managed to clear up the Working Set to about 800 MB, but it's the 'Commit' memory that hasn't really changed...

Thanks for the tip! It must be my number one frustration with the game! Apart from the crashes because it runs out of memory I don’t really have any issues with the game.

I will try it out! Thank you!

Seeing as this topic is a top result on Google when searching Sims 3 and RAMMap, I think I'll bring it up again, just because I think I have something new on the matter.

BBLB above mentioned that their RAM decreased but the game would still struggle to save sometimes.
I just had a look into the other tabs on RAMMap because I noticed the same thing on my game: the RAM would seem to be emptied but then the game would crash on like 1.1GB of RAM usage anyway. I also never saw 3.6-3.7GB of RAM usage if I didn't purge the RAM; it would usually already give up at 2.5-3 GB depending on the world I was playing.

Bottom line of my thoughts I will elaborate below is: I think doing just EWS and ESL is not enough.

RAMMap can do much more than just empty the RAM for you. It even is able to tell you which files on the computer are currently loaded into RAM (tab "File Summary"). For Sims 3, this will allow you to see how much RAM your CurrentGame.sims3, your save file, mods, and Store stuff take up (usually you will only see what is currently loaded in the game, so visible on the map, for example).
This tab is where I noticed that Sims 3 does use the Standby List quite extensively, because up to this point, I did not really bother with it as I thought it wasn't used by Sims 3, the only game I use RAMMap for.

I changed to another tab, "Processes". It is essentially an extended Task Manager with a focus on memory usage. It shows you five different values:

• Private RAM (this is equal to the value you see in the Windows Task Manager);
• Standby RAM;
• Modified RAM;
• Page Table;
• Total RAM (sum of the other four).

Now, when the game accumulates RAM over time, it stores it primarily in the Private RAM, but my game also has a couple hundred MB in the Standby RAM at all times.

Now this happened. My Sims 3 game was at 2.2GB. Curiously, I did EWS (Empty Working Sets)...
That did decrease the Private RAM usage, but all of it got offloaded into Modified RAM.
According to a search, Modified RAM isMeaning it's still technically assigned to TS3W.exe, so not really freed up, so while it looked like I now had 600MB instead of 2.2GB, I really still had 2.2GB, but it was hidden from my sight in the Task Manager.

So I went on to "Empty Modified Page List" in RAMMap. This caused most of the pile to be processed, but about 400MB were moved to the Standby List for some reason.
Another ESL truly freed up the RAM for good and finally left me with a Sims 3 game at 600MB actual RAM usage.

The caveat to this is: Your game will now lag massively with anything you try to do for a while, because this time it really was stripped from everything it didn't need to keep running. And when you move around on the map, you'll see RAM usage ramping up very quickly again - I switched the camera to another Sim in the same household but at the other end of the map, and my Private RAM went from 600MB straight to 1.3GB again, and another 300MB got loaded into the Standby List.

The good thing is: The game will still save just fine if both the Standby List and Modified List are empty.

Tl;dr: After doing an EWS and ESL, do one EMPL (Empty Modified Page List) and another ESL to really purge the memory usage of Sims 3.

Wait,, Does this mean we are finally free from save error 12 with this method?!??

Just to add some to it, this method didn’t really work for my save. The rate of error 12 didn’t really change with this method. I think it is the Commit memory that really matters but this method doesn’t really reduce that.

Well..here goes another one of my hopes down the drain…