Hello, I wasn't sure where to put this but I think it fits in General and not Help because I'm just looking to hear about people's experiences with lagging and not help with the problem itself.

I'm actually looking to hear from people who don't experience any lagging, and if so, what your specs are (CPU, RAM, Graphics card) and if you are playing on a desktop or laptop. I'm guessing those playing on desktops experience less/no lag than those playing on laptops in general. Also, if you experience lag and you are playing on what would be considered a "high end" machine, I'd love to hear about that too.

At the moment, I'm considering buying a new laptop, because my current one is not exactly designed to game on. I have horrible lag every time I play The Sims 4, including the usual head bobbing, clock jumping back, etc. I know there is a mod fix for simulation lag, but really it's annoying to really on a mod for something so basic that makes the game unplayable. Before I go ahead and buy one though, I'd like to know is there any particular setups that won't have this lag, or if it's really just random, regardless of your specs (as there are reports from various people in the EA help forums).

Thanks in advance for any replies!

I have my own build, built by myself. I have GTX970, i7, 32 gb ram, and 3 tb storage. I only have lag when I add lots of CC, the more CC, the more lag. Otherwise it's all usually nice. The only lag I experience is from time to time, and not as a rule.

I heard some people (especially on the official forum tbh) being so sure that the simulation lag (time jumps, Sims not reacting) is because our computers aren't good enough. Someone enlighten me if I'm wrong because I'm definitely no expert on game design, but I always thought that can't be the case, especially if you can fix it with a mod. And there are thousands of people with the new high-end machines who complain about the same simulation lag. Of course an older computer can affect loading times and stutters, but I would consider the simulation lag a gameplay issue, not a hardware issue.

To answer the question - My computer is probably old by now, but I'm perfectly capable of playing all the Sims games and other games I'm interested in. My specs are AMD Radeon HD 7800, 16 GB RAM, Intel Core i5 3450, Windows 7.

Thanks for the replies guys. I think lagging due to CC wouldn't bother me as much, it'd be annoying but at leas that would be a solid reason.

@hiabara Yeah, I'm not sure it's entirely hardware based, though I do think it's probably worse on a low end computer, which is what is concerning me about buying a new laptop. I don't want to spend a load of money only to have zero/little improvement.

Some issues are gonna be because of the game rather than system specs. A lot of older Bethesda titles for example crash to desktop frequently, and that's actually because the games are designed to crash if X amount of RAM is being used. Was basically a safety net for way back when and it's not needed anymore, so you have to change it to make them not crash.

In a similar fashion, 144 Hz monitors glitch out the game because their games tie the physics engine in with the FPS (terrible idea btw), so since 144 Hz monitors get better FPS, the physics tend to go bonkers and you get weird results like NPC character's heads spinning or the cart at the intro of Skyrim spinning like crazy. In that case your specs would be ABOVE average for owning such a monitor, but the results are worse.

The glitches in Sims 4 are so universal that it's ridiculous for anyone to claim they're based on specs, especially since the graphics quality and the things being processed/simulated are all downgraded from Sims 3. Simulation lag has affected basically everyone for years now, and it's clear speed 3 just doesn't work. I have an Nvidia GTX 1070 graphics card, 16 GB of RAM, 1 TB storage and i7-7700k @4.20 GHz. I can run games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Witcher 3 and FO4 all on max settings with smooth performance, but the issues with Sims 4 are clearly issues with the coding rather than PC specs. If there IS a mod that fixes Sims 4 performance, that is basically conclusive evidence it isn't the PC's problem.

Anyone who tries to tell themselves otherwise is kidding themselves and just trying to be an apologist and claim the game is in a better state than it actually is. It's buggy as hell.

Thanks for the post, I definitely agree with you. It's very disheartening to not be able to play/enjoy the game! And it's incredibly annoying that some people apparently (? based on other forums anyway) can play with no issues, that's why I created this thread, I'd love to see if there's anything they have in common or what.

I've used it on my desktop with a liquid cooled overckocked i7, 16 GB RAM, gtx 970, and a 500 GB SSD for my c drive. I now run it on my middle of the road laptop with a 4 core i5, 16 GB RAM, Intel integrated graphics, and a 250 GB M.2 c drive. Both at 1080p run just fine with all the EPs and about 8 GB of mods/cc content.

Both have the same simulation lag. I think it's a bit less on the desktop but that could be a placebo and expectant bias effect. The problem is in the code. The game is not terribly demanding on hardware. It needs proper software optimization, but as this is EA, if they haven't done it yet it's not going to happen. They really dropped the hardware requirements with TS4 over TS3 that did somewhat benefit from throwing hardware at it to improve performance, but now everyone suffers the same glitches and lags regardless of hardware.

The only thing I will say is I've yet to have it freeze on me or crash to the desktop, so that beats TS3. However, I will have an intermittent problem exiting the game if I'm playing full screen (I don't like windowed gameplay) and have to alt+ctrl+del out and sign out to close it on Win 10. Can't even bring up task manager to kill it. And it always says Origin Iis preventing the OS from closing, then kills it off for me.

PS: Don't go to The Sims subreddit. Everyone claims TS3 runs horribly even on high end PCs and Sims 4 is buttery smooth on their old 2012 laptops. It's bizarro world there.

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1220
GPU: ATI Radeon RX 460
RAM: 16.0GB Dual-Channel (non-ECC) (DDR4)
Dual SSDs

I'm very happy with this setup as game takes only 1min or slightly over to load from a cold boot, then exiting game without restarting the PC, it only takes seconds each time.

(mine you TS2 runs like crap though..)

Time of this report: 12/17/2018, 18:36:17
Machine name: DESKTOP-B8EP23J
Machine Id: {78F89E81-8159-483E-8F95-3AE57D2B2F3A}
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 17134) (17134.rs4_release.180410-1804)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
System Model: M51AC
BIOS: 1002 (type: UEFI)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 16292MB RAM
Page File: 7577MB used, 15448MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
Miracast: Available, no HDCP
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
DxDiag Version: 10.00.17134.0001 64bit Unicode
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GT 640
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device (POST)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0FC0&SUBSYS_85971043&REV_A1
Device Status: 0180200A [DN_DRIVER_LOADED|DN_STARTED|DN_DISABLEABLE|DN_NT_ENUMERATOR|DN_NT_DRIVER]
Device Problem Code: No Problem
Driver Problem Code: Unknown
Display Memory: 12198 MB
Dedicated Memory: 4052 MB
Shared Memory: 8145 MB is what I have need a better gpu though

I'm not sure on the specs of my pc, it runs the Sims 2 great with a ton of cc, I didn't think it could play the Sims 4 at all but it works pretty well.
I have it set on the low/medium graphics setting and only have a couple of cc.
The only time I get any annoying lag is when my game goes into the 4x speed.

I'll give you my specs. But everything lags now and it used to never. Games that were butter smooth 1 year ago on the same setup lag and stutter like a mofo now, including TS4 that used to play with no lag. New OS or driver install doesn't fix. GPU is probably failing.

24Gb DDR3 1600Mhz
nVidia GTX GeForce 1050Ti 4GB
AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0ghz
2TB 7200RPM HDD
Win 8.1



In Skyrim for some reason everytime I go to the ending part of Bleak Falls Barrow, after the wall and tablet boss part, there is a skeleton that seems to jump around everywhere but my monitor is only 60hz. Same happens with no mods. Yesterday I was just there again. Started singing "Everybody dance now". It was entertaining.

Not Surprising your setup is quite ancient, get your game onto SSDs, upgrade to windows 10, Go for DDR4 RAM (Much much faster), along with a a Intel MB and CPU, but you can keep your graphics card...

Don't really have the money for any of that. Couldn't even afford a pack of cigarettes today. To upgrade this thing I'd have to redo the entire tower. This Mobo doesn't support DDR4. It can only support up to 32GB 1600mhz DDR3. Sadly, I ain't a leprechaun. I can't fart gold out on a pretty rainbow. Though I've tried. The rainbow part was fun. Gold part was a failure though.

I won't go to Windows 10 until it gets to that point where no new games that I want to play support Directx 11.

Since the simulation lag seems to be a game-itself thing... but better specs/hardware/computer would improve on loading screens, right? Like when going to a different lot.

Your cheapest alternative right now is get the game, especially your Mods folder (If you have a lot of cc) onto Internal SSDs or even better still on a M.2 SSD, the loading times really make a difference and will also make your game more stable also, a mechanical read/write head can slip, with can crash or close your game to the desktop.



I have TS4 installed on a dozen of machines, and the simulation lag is only annoying on the older slower machines, I barely notice it on the modern fast machines.

Nothing will breathe new life into an older computer than an SSD. Probably the single best upgrade you can make. Any new machine should come with an SSD, otherwise all that new hardware will still feel sluggish compared to the speeds of an SSD. I'm at my Win 10 desktop in under 10 seconds and TS4 will load in about 45 seconds. After that, CPU and graphics card(s) will affect gameplay, but from what I can tell, not all that much with TS4. Other games of course have different hardware requirements.

I play on a 2017 MacBook Pro and it runs beautifully. No lag at all as far as I’m aware, I can’t tell if there is.

My PC is getting on a bit now... 5 years but even then the parts weren't the newest.

Radeon HD 7950
Intel i5-3570k
8GB RAM
I don't have my game on the SSD (so small ) so takes a min or two to launch the game but loading screens in-between are short. All settings are max + ssao disabled and ReShade. Minimal mods (MCC and some game fixing ones, no sim lag fix)

I only experience lag in San Myshuno. Simulation lag that is, otherwise it's smooth.

Funny thing is I bought the PC for Sims 3 to run better and I had zero problems with TS3 except for simulation lag sometimes. Funny that... TS4 is fine but TS3 suffers from it

'Cause TS3 is a laggy POS. Oooh bring on the hate.

Well it helps that Sims 3 actually has game content it has to process while Sims 4 doesn't.

Weird. I never had any lag with Sims 3, unless I really zoom out during snow with Seasons installed...

Here are my specs. I know they are kinda below the minimum for Sims 4.
Acer Aspire X1430
AMD E-350 APU processor with Radeon HD Graphics card, 1.6 GHz
16 GB RAM
Win 7/64-bit system

If I get an SSD and put Sims on it, would that actually make a (noticeable) difference in, say, loading screens being shorter as the game loads switching lots?

There are so many different types of lag, meanings of the word lag, and reasons behind it, that unless I know exactly what the initial question is referring to it's hard to reply. The only type of "lag" I get is when the sim has gotten my instruction on his queue and seems to stand there for ages deciding whether to actually do it, or when you cancel something from the queue and they go on doing it for ages before they notice. But I am not sure that is technically "lag" at all. That's nothing to do with our computers' resources. I'd call it lag if I chose an interaction or clicked on something and the game took ages to add it to the queue or notice that I had clicked. Or if the screen took ages to update

True lag is very low framerate, choppy gameplay, if you want a smooth experience constantly then you should buy the best PC your money can buy, as Inge states, standing around ages before following command happens on all PCs, but I find it much more annoying on slower machines, because you just can't tell the difference if it's game performance lag, or simulation lag.

It's curious tho how some people have the simulation problem and others don't, good specs, bad specs, it's like there is no pattern.