High End GPU, but incredibly laggy game GTX 970. Texture Memory - 32MB Override

Hello All! 

I've been lurking and reading through most of the threads out there about laggy games and crashing. Before I go further, yes I installed it properly, yes I tried the ultimate fix, yes I tried everything Lady ElDi suggested. These fixes are not working for me and I'd like to take this time to start a post that will address the issues (hopefully) for all who have Nvidia 9xx and above for once and for all. 

My problem is that the game stutters uncontrollably often (NOT a simple microstutter) when panning the camera or zooming in and out AND the game crashes when I am in a lot that has too many furnishings - likely a problem with the game limiting GPU memory usage to 32mb. I have the settings in game set to medium on everything. I am aware that TS3 is buggy, but this goes beyond buggy and I currently have no idea how to show you what I see. My computer specs are below, and I am fairly certain they're not at fault because I can play ENB'd Skyrim at a constant 60 FPS with 2k textures on EVERYTHING (it's glorious btw, you should give it a try!). If someone will kindly explain to me how to put all this into a spoiler text, I'd love to do so in order to shorten this post visually.

CPU: i7 4790k OC'd at 4.5           Cooled with an EVO 212 (disabled onboard graphics)                            
GPU: MSI Gaming GTX 970 OC'd at 1250             (drivers up to date)
MB: MSI Gaming 7  (firmware up to date)
RAM: 16GB (2x8 Corsair Vengeance 2133)
PSU: EVGA G2 1000W
HD: Crucial MX100 512GB SSD

The following is the Device Config file. I have edited the graphics file to recognize my card, yet GPU Memory remains at 32MB. I had attempted to edit Graphics Rules to force the game to use 2048MB, but performance remained unchanged - so I reverted the changes. However, I am convinced that the game is forcing the card to use ONLY 32MB (whether I wrote 2048MB in the files or not) because my laptop with the much older GT 650M (same mods/CC) runs the game ALMOST perfectly - besides the buggy MICRO stutter.

=== Application info ===
Name:            Sims3
Version:         
Build:           Release
=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 1 CPU: 4 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 4000 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 4934 RAM: 16332 Adjusted RAM: 15820 Cores: 4
=== Machine info ===
OS version:      Windows 7  6.1.7601 Service Pack 1
OS prod type:    0
OS major ver:    6
OS minor ver:    1
OS SP major ver: 1
OS SP minor ver: 0
OS is 64Bit: 1
CPU:             GenuineIntel
    Brand:       Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
    Family:      6
    Model:       12
    Cores:       4
    HT:          1
    x64:         0
Memory:          16332MB
Free memory:     10212MB
User:            Dani
Computer:        RED
=== Graphics device info ===
Number:          0
Name (driver):   NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Name (database): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 [Found: 1, Matched: 1]
Vendor:          NVIDIA
Chipset:         Vendor: 10de, Device: 13c2, Board: 31601462, Chipset: 00a1
Driver:          nvd3dum.dll, Version: 10.18.13.5330, GUID: D7B71E3E-5082-11CF-0063-6D111CC2C735
Driver version:  5330
Monitor:         \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory:   32MB OVERRIDE
Vertex program:  3.0
Pixel program:   3.0
Hardware TnL:    1

My theory of what's happening is that because the game is not TRULY recognizing the card beyond a workaround with the graphicscards file, the game is using ONLY 32MB, which explains why if I don't move the camera at all, the game runs fine and lots with many textures crash/ are laggier. It also explains why the GT 650M (a recognized card with proper memory allocation that is almost 4 years old AND a low tier card to begin with) can run the game well on higher settings across the board.

How I think this may be fixed (as fiddling with the numbers in the GraphicsRule files doesn't seem to work) is somehow forcing the game to use more texture memory. One way I thought to do this was to make game think I'm on the GT 650M again, which I have NO clue how to do. Perhaps then, the game will properly utilize a larger amount of texture memory on the GPU? 

I look forward to hearing from your expertise! Please let me know if I need to add any information.

Hey. So i have same problem like you. Graphics card is not recognized and only uses 32MB of VRAM. I have 840M 2 GB VRAM too.. User of MTS made for my GraphicsCards.sgr and GraphicsRules.sgr files. Same thing graphics card gets recognized but VRAM still at 32MB.I give up trying to make game use more vram. I have some things that can get your game running a little bit better. (that works for me)

1.Nrass Traffic
In City Hall make that ice cream truck and food truck never spawns in your world. Set number how many can spawn to 0.
2.Aluna Island
This custom world have everything that EA worlds have.  World only 21MB. Loads fast and doesn't have any routing issues. World by default comes only with default buildings (without houses) so if you need houses that was build for this world you can found them and world on TheSimSupply website too. (Cant post links)
3.Run game at same resolution as your monitor. Sims 3 have this interesting bug that if game needs to upscale or downscale something after sometime it runs out of virtual memory and crashes.
4.Uninstall Pets
5.Disable celebrities and make so your household would be opt out of celebrities too. (You can do this in settings)

I hope that helps a bit.

I can't help, but thought I'd give some more info. My card is not recognized either, in texture memory I've got 3768MB and I've only got 1GB of VRAM. No issues with graphics though, I haven't had to force it to recognize my card and on top of that I did some tweaks to fix horrible shadows that come with AMD cards on Sims 3. They're still horrible, but not as horrible.

=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): AMD Radeon R7 200 Series
Name (database): AMD Radeon R7 200 Series [Found: 0, Matched: 0]
Vendor: ATI
Chipset: Vendor: 1002, Device: 6610, Board: e266174b, Chipset: 0000
Driver: aticfx32.dll, Version: 8.17.10.1333, GUID: D7B71EE2-2550-11CF-CE71-6CC2BEC2C535
Driver version: 1333
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 3768MB
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1

What about this line in GraphicsRules.sgr?

Code:

if ($textureMemory == 0)
  seti textureMemory      32
  setb textureMemorySizeOK false

Have any of you tried doing seti textureMemory 2048?
EDIT: Now that I think about it, perhaps it's not the greatest idea, maybe don't do that. Maybe just go slightly higher, like 64. I guess it will give you 64MB override in that case.


EDIT2: Sorry for ramble, but

Code:

setb textureMemorySizeOK true
if ($textureMemory == 0)
  seti textureMemory      2048
endif

Let's say for instance you did this. Your logs should say "Texture memory: 2048MB" without an override, because textureMemorySizeOK false is what appends Overide there. And since you set it manually to 2048, GPU memory will also get rated as 4 (highest rating you can get, everything above 368 gets that rating according to GraphicsRules.sgr)
I don't know if forcing game to rate everything higher will fix anything, but you can give it a go if you're brave enough.