These are advanced performance tips, recommended for users who are comfortable editing Sims 3 configuration files or doing other complex tweaks to their Operating System

Tip 1: Tell the game it can use more CPU power for other tasks

The default settings for TS3 can be a little limiting, and make certain features in the game slower than you'd like.  By editing one of the configuration files for the game, you can tell it to use a little more horsepower and complete it's work sooner.

To find your GraphicsRules.sgr file for editing, you need to browse to your TS3 installation folder, typically found in one of these two locations:

   - (Disc Version)  C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
   - (Origin Version)  C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

If you have a shortcut to either TS3.exe or the TS3 Launcher already on your Desktop, you can open the folder easily by right-clicking the shortcut, and choosing "Open file location".

Open the file with a text editor (like Notepad or NotePad++), and find the following lines:

  • seti cpuLevelUber       4
  • seti cpuLevelHigh       3
  • seti cpuLevelMedium     2
  • seti cpuLevelLow        1

Edit these lines so they look like the following:

  • seti cpuLevelUber       4
  • seti cpuLevelHigh       3
  • seti cpuLevelMedium     3
  • seti cpuLevelLow        3

Save and close the file, then re-run either the launcher or the game to have it detect the new settings.

 

Tip 2: Tweak your cache file sizes

TS3 has fairly small size limits for the multiple cache files it creates and uses as you play the game.  Raising the limits on these files ensures that more content will make it's way into them, and stay in them longer.  That can help with overall game performance and lessening the amount of stutter when the game needs to load objects or textures.

Not raising the limits enough means the tweak has very little effect.  Raising it too far can lead to crashing or out of memory issues.  Through experimentation and extended gameplay I've found a fairly reliable setting that should work on most computers that aren't memory starved.  If your system has 4GB or less memory, please do not try the following settings as they will likely lead to further complications for you.

To find your default.ini file, you need to browse to your TS3 installation folder, typically found in one of these two locations:

   - (Disc Version)  C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
   - (Origin Version)  C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

If you have a shortcut to either TS3.exe or the TS3 Launcher already on your Desktop, you can open the folder easily by right-clicking the shortcut, and choosing "Open file location".

Once you've found the default.ini file, double-click it to edit it, and find the following section:  [CAS]  It is usually the 5th section in the file.  Then look for these two (2) lines under it:

  • CompositorCacheSize = 524288000
  • SimCompositorCacheSize = 1048576000

You need to change the values on the end of each line so they match the following:

  • CompositorCacheSize = 1310720000
  • SimCompositorCacheSize = 1310720000

After making the edits, save and close the text file.  These changes will allow the two major cache files that hold the most to increase in max size, which will allow them to hold more content & avoid the need to search through game resource files when the smaller cache fills up.

Note:  I make these changes to the other default.ini files in the \Game\Bin\ folders for each Expansion pack as well (particularly Into the Future, since it is the last EP installed).  This is done to ensure the game never reads one of those default.ini files (which would normally have smaller values) and somehow get confused.  If all of the default.ini files have identical cache settings, there's no possibility for a mix-up.

You can experiment with larger sizes if you like, but I find these to be optimal even when using all Expansion Packs, all Store content, and a large number of mods.

 

Tip 3: Increase the memory recognized by the game

It has long been debated whether or not the game will use as much memory as it can, even on a 64-bit OS with a lot of RAM.  We've tested the following setting, and at least one of us has had good success with the game reporting higher memory use in the Task Manager, so we are posting it here in case others would like to give it a go and see if it helps them as well.

To find your Sims3.ini file for editing, you need to browse to your TS3 installation folder, typically found in one of these two locations:

   - (Disc Version)  C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
   - (Origin Version)  C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

If you have a shortcut to either TS3.exe or the TS3 Launcher already on your Desktop, you can open the folder easily by right-clicking the shortcut, and choosing "Open file location".

Edit the Sims3.ini file with a text editor like Notepad or NotePad++, and find the following line:

  • MemoryUsageLimit = 20000000

Change the value on the end of that line to something like the following:

  • MemoryUsageLimit = 40000000

You can experiment with different values (multiples of the first) and see if raising it any further helps the game consume more memory while it is running.  Be careful about raising it too far, or you may encounter issues like the out-of-memory error that prevents saving the game later on.  At some point raising it further won't affect the game's use of RAM at all.

 

Tip 4: Fix the Launcher not auto-closing after running the game

We mentioned in another Performance Tips article that you should close the Launcher after running the game (if it isn't already closed) to save on CPU use.  There is a method to fix this that should work on most machines, but requires editing security settings on two files.

We'll be editing security on two files for this tweak:

  • Documents\Electronics Arts\The Sims 3\Sims3Logs.xml
  • Documents\Electronics Arts\The Sims 3\Sims3LauncherLogFile.log

For each file, perform the following steps:

  • Right-click the file and choose "Properties"
  • Click on the Security Tab, then click the Edit... button
  • Left-click each user or group in the top list, then click the "Deny" checkbox to the right of "Full control". Repeat for each user/group in the top list.
  • Click the Apply button, then close the window

This will ensure that no matter how you are logged in, or how the game is launched, it will not have access to either the game log file, or the launcher log file.  This appears to tell the launcher it cannot do any tasks after the game is started, and it will auto-close as it should.

 

Tip 5: Get the game to fully recognize your Graphics Card (GPU)

TS3 was last updated many, many years ago.  Since then, a huge number of new Graphics Cards with new memory sizes and capabilities have made their way into people's computers.  The game simply doesn't know about most of them, and won't fully recognize their abilities and total memory.  To get around this problem, Flynn Arrowstarr wrote a guide on how you can make the game recognize your card & it's memory.  While it is a long read, it is invaluable towards a better-performing game which runs more smoothly and has less stutter when loading game resources into video memory.


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