Sims3 is slow and unplayable

Hello,

I have Sims 3 and all of it's expansions installed; the base game is store bought. The loading times are excessively long, and when it finally loads, it's just too slow and choppy to be playable. My system should be more than able to handle this game. Does anyone have suggestions? Thanks.

Can you tell us what your system specs are? CPU? GPU? RAM? HDD size? OS?

Do you have a lot of CC installed? Do you use a lot of Mods and/or CC .package content?

The more information you give us the better we can help get you running smoothly.

No, no custom content, no mods. Just the base game, which played fine before installing the expansions, and then I installed the expansions, and it started having this problem.

Intel i3
Geforce GSX 550
1TB HDD
8 GB RAM
Windows 7

Hello,

Try the link Lady ElDi linked to, it has a lot of useful tips to make the game run smooth, especially the GameBooster.
Also, are you on a 32-bit or 64-bit system?

Well I went in and turned down all of the graphics to their lowest settings, and I've been waiting for the past ten minutes for sunset valley to load. The load bar is only 1/3 full.

//EDIT

64 bit

//EDIT

Also, looking at the link about game lag, my problem doesn't match the
description. Everything takes very long to load, and once it is loaded,
it's not frozen, just choppy. My sims movement is choppy, and moving the
camera is choppy.

Admin edit: Please do not double-post, but use the "Edit" button on your message instead. Thank you.

- ADMIN

Hello,

But still the same tips apply to you.

They don't. I already turned down all the graphics settings. I have no custom content or mods. It's a newly created neighborhood, so there aren't too many sims or abandoned cars. My system is more than capable of handling this game.

Hello,

Besides that, I was helping someone with TeamViewer today. His PC was more than capable of running the game on the highest settings, but he had some problems with Pets letting the game crash. So I lowered all the settings, turned off all extra features, like "Mirror reflection", turned on "Windowed mode" and guess what; the problem was solved.
You never know with The Sims 3, so be careful.

Well I've been fiddling around with it and it's gotten a little better, I think...it's still unpleasant though. Anything else I can try?

Loading the neighborhood is still taking as long as ever :/

//EDIT

Is there maybe one expansion that's known to cause problems?

Pets can cause a lot of extra lag. As can Bridgeport, which is the town that came with Late Night. If you have World Adventures and make your sims travel a lot, that can muck up the save file, and make it too large for your computer to easily load.

Probably about 15 minutes to load.

Yes, I did try that.

Hello,

When lowering the graphics in-game, are you sure you lowered everything?
If yes, could you please post a screenshot of your in-game "graphics" tab?

[img][/img]

I would suggest you OC your GPU. I was having similar issues with my game. Same deal: PC should be able to handle this game no problem, but it still ran laggy and loaded slowly with no CC. Your best bet is your GPU I think for some reason, Sims 3 difficult for most GPUs, even though it seems like it shouldn't tax it too much.

I would like to turn off my GPU and try running Sims 3 on my integrated graphics. Can anyone help me with this? So far all I've done is turn off my display driver, but my integrated graphics aren't kicking in. I'm not sure I have the driver for my integrated graphics.

What integrated graphics processor does your mobo have?

Hello,

Before turning off the GPU, download and install this driver: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7-winvista-64bit-301.42-whql-driver-uk.html
Be sure to choose "Custom" and "Clean installation" during the installation wizard. Restart your PC after installation!

Also, if it's an integrated Intel GPU, it's automatically used when needed. As far as I know you can't turn the integrated CPU graphics on or off.