# Sims 2 Lag Problem



## SAMainolfi (Jan 18, 2008)

Hi! I've got a problem running the Sims 2. From what I've seen on forums, and stuff, I would say that a lot of people do. Anyway, I'm reasonably certain that I've blown the system requirements out of the water, I've included by DxDiag attachment, but I've still got lag. There's a little when I'm on reguar lots, a lot when the house is big and there's a lot of sims, but there is an insane amount of lagging when I go to community lots. I've tried everything from bringing down the game's options, to defragmenting. You name it, chances are I've done it. Based on my system, and the requirements for the game, I should have no problem running this game. Is there something I'm missing? Do I need to download something? Anyway, thanks in advance to all that reply!

Thanks!


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## tecknomage (Jan 24, 2008)

Suggest you consult the the *Tweak Guides* site:

System Optimization Tweak Guides
TweakGuides Tweaking Companion
Game Tweak Guides

Also suggest you add their Home Page to your *Favorites*.

These guide MAY not help. The more SIMS are on-screen the more system resources are needed. Essentially each SIM may require a CPU/GPU Thread; so the more you have, the more resources are eaten up. And this only address SIMS, not all the other moving objects on-screen.

The guides that MAY help in your case are the *System* & *Companion* :4-dontkno


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## SAMainolfi (Jan 18, 2008)

Thanks for those links. Although I do appreciate them, as I have learned alot from them, they still haven't fixed my problems. It doesn't make any sense why this is happening. I wonder if their is something on my computer that is taking away an awful lot of the resources that I have. I know that the Sims 2 requires a whole lot of resources that my computer has, but I should be able to provide them just fine. And even though I turn off processes that may or may not be keeping the game from using them, I still have problems. As I and many others have said, we should be blowing this game away, but we're having the worst experiences. There has to be something conflicting with the game, I just can't put my finger on it. I've went as far as to turn all of the settings, both on the game and my graphics card, to give the best performance, and made the game really ugly, and it still runs like crap. There has to be something..............

Thanks again!


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## heatherfish24 (Jul 3, 2008)

I was wondering...do you have alot of sims 2 downloads? I'm having the same problem as well, however mine seems to only occur when I give my houses reflective "shiny" flooring, or when I have all of the lights turned on. Have you downloaded all of the patches? What expansion packs do you have? I know that on BV there was a bug that recreated npcs every time you entered a community lot rather then reusing the ones that were origionally created. The result is that your npc file gets bigger and bigger and bigger, causing major lag. I'm not sure, but I think that there was a similar problem with pets. You can download the patches to fix the problem. Unfortunatly, you can't do anything about the already ballooned npc file. If the extra npcs are manually deleted, it can cause your game to be really gittery or it will crash. Nothing left to do but unistall and re-install. But if you already know this info, maybe it could be a large number of downloads. I have been meaning to ask this question. Maybe It will help you. Like I said, my game lags big time when I turn on all of the lights or add reflective flooring, so naturally, I thought it was my graphics card. I then built a new computer. (needed to anyway). My new computer has an asus p5n-d mother board, an nvidia 9800 gtx 512 mb ddr3, 2 gb ram, 500 watt psup, and it runs on windows xp media center sp2. This still doesn't help. Is it possible that the harddrive I have doesn't filter through downloads fast enough to keep up with the game? I have tryed removing mods, objects, and a host of other combinations to try to fix this and this is the very last thing that I can think of. Any suggestions?


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## BingoMorris (Feb 19, 2008)

I had and still have the exact same problem. Use Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and on the Processes tab you can see how much memory is required by each active and silent program running. If you have more than the required specifications it seems it could be one of three things.

1) Sims2 is a huge and complex game which uses as much of your PC's memory as it possibly can, use the above method and try run the game by itself (no spyware, abti-virus, firewalls or any other programs which may interfiere with the game.

2) Lack of power. As the Sims2 uses a whole lotta resources, it may be pushing your graphics card to draw more power from your power supply than normal (but without having your system specifications I could't be certain about this). Lack of power can cause all sorts of problems, especially game lag.

3)Lack of physical memory. When your hardrive is over 85% full or hadnt been defragged in a while, games or large media files may have troubl playing. Try free up some disk space, uninstall any prgrams you no longer use and defrag your selected hard drive.


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## heatherfish24 (Jul 3, 2008)

hmmm... so its possible that a 500 watt psp isn't enough? I have already upgraded from a 350 watt.


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## BingoMorris (Feb 19, 2008)

500 is the same as me which is ok but it depends entirley on what you are running out of your 500W power supply. What...

CPU
Graphics Card
RAM
Fans
CD Rom Drive's
Extra's (lights)

Are you using? to check if it is the power supply you can always disconnect extra drives, memory stick slots, lights ect and see if that helps the problem. Really all you can do is try one thing at a time to diagnose the fault.


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## heatherfish24 (Jul 3, 2008)

I will try doing this...thankyou


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## heatherfish24 (Jul 3, 2008)

I just built a new computer that runs this game perfectly....I think you are right in that it takes a huge amount of your computer's resources to run it...

here are the specs:

windows7 64 bit
1tb HD
8gig memory
geforce 9800 GTX graphics card
intel quad core processor
750 wt power supply 
had to add a Zalman cpu cooling fan w/copper cooling tubes
ASUS DX2 Xonar Audio Card

I also think that I pays to get a Hard Drive with a faster speed.....It helps if you want to play this game with downloads...


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