How long does your game take to save?

[caninegoddess]

Mine takes up to 6 minutes which is frustrating. I have to stop playing early if I know I need to go somewhere because it takes so dang long. It doesn't take long to load, it just takes a long time to save, :(

[CinderEmma]

It's like 10 to me, I usually just play some facebook games or go on here while I wait :P
I save every 30 minutes/a hour because of the amount of crashes and stuff I've had, so it's worth it to me.

[Purplepaws]

Depends on the lot/family size and save frequency. Typically, my games take anywhere from 1-5 minutes.

[shaaaii]

Mine usually only takes about 1-2 minutes!

[BenC0722]

I find it depends on the size of the family, and the complexity of the lot.

If it's a single sim, with a very basic boxy house (like the kind anyone can through together in a few minutes), saving takes very little time (within a couple minutes).

But I've also had saves that took 5-6 minutes. Even so, I still like to save every couple sim days or so.

[Klldarkness]

If i just started the sim, then less than a minute. With up to 3 sims on the lot, about 2 to 4 minutes. 8? And we're talking 7 to 10 minutes. The house size affects it as well. But, if i go into the basement first, then it saves alot faster. Less to save, i suppose.

[heartbreak]

It takes a few good minutes for the save to complete, but I dont mind because I usually pee or make tea.

[Honeywell]

This forum needs an OMG button because that's all I have to say. OMG!

[babele44]

The further I advance in a game the longer it takes to save, independent of lot size or number of household members. But I do switch households a lot and so I'm currently in the 5-10 minutes range.

[Stina1701-D]

I never save and quit. I save first then just hit quit. My game goes into "non responce mode" with windows when I save and quit. My times vary too. Can take 2-5 mins so far.

[shaaaii]

This forum needs an OMG button because that's all I have to say. OMG!
Why OMG?

[Beccapixie10]

Depends on the lot, family and neighbourhood. When I'm just building in one of the extremely small neighbourhoods that are designed just for building, it takes less than 5 seconds, whereas with my legacy family in Sunset Valley, it can take up to 15 minutes.

[simsamu]

1 or 2 minutes max thats with a family of five in an un-modded game in sunset valley with all comm lots available, used to be quicker before I built all the LN lots I dont think I would play if my game was going to take 15 minutes just to save.

[clsin]

It's around 1 minute.
it takes longer time to place a lot I'll say.

[Honeywell]

Why OMG?I'm sorry, I thought my comment obvious. I was shocked at how long the save times are for some people.

[AlissaTheVampire]

I don't really know, but I think no long time. ;)

[qpldmff]

For me, it seems completely erratic and arbitrary. It varies anywhere between 1 and 10 minutes, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the size and detail of the lot and family I'm playing. It seems more to depend on whether the game is in a relaxed or a pissed off mood that day.

[tomomi1922]

5-15 minutes. I am playing Bridgeport, I have only added 3 lots, the rest are EA default lots (lightly edited). 6 new households ontop of what they have already in the map (I evicted 2 EA households as well).

[jenieusa]

5-6 minutes....i find the longer i play a hood....i have aging on....the more sims in the hood....and so on...that the time it takes to save goes up...

[Johnny_Bravo]

Depends on what I've done, Have I made a mansion with a family in it it takes about 3 minutes. with smaller lots and families about 1 or 2 minutes. (which is too slow to me :p)

[DigiBlue]

I can't believe it takes so long!! Surely it has less to do with the family you are playing and more to do with the speed of your computer. I am almost the reverse of y'all. It takes a good 3 or 4 minutes to load my game, even using the custom launcher with all of my .package CC in one huge file. (I have under 1gig too!) But it only takes me, MAYBE, 30 seconds to save. That guess may even be on the high side. I am Currently playing a family with four sims, two of which were born in game. They live in a pretty big house that is fully decorated, not just with furniture, but with plants and clutter, also.


I mean, I have a really fast computer, but still...

[lipe2k]

It used to take 10~20 minutes when I had a Pentium 4. I've changed it to a Core2Quad, and now it takes 1~5 minutes.

[JackJess]

My processor is AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-57 (2 CPUs), ~1.9GHz (I know, shocking right?) and my game takes up to 4 minutes maximum. My opinion is, that I am so lucky, that I even get the game to work. :rolleyes:

[calicoskies]

About five minutes when I save and quit. I'm about 16 sim weeks into a game.

[kennyinbmore]

I'm sorry, I thought my comment obvious. I was shocked at how long the save times are for some people.

Same here. 5 and 6 minutes? I don't even think mine takes a full minute. Maybe I'll time it tonight and come back to this thread

[lisfyre]

Depends on the lot. I have a saved game with 10 families and growing (my CAS simmies) in it and that takes almost 10 minutes to save... less than half to load. My other saved games - I have 5 (all single families) take about 3 - 4 min because I've filled the lot with tons of stuff over time. I love loads of clutter which can bog down the saving times.. and loading I'm sure.

[Stina1701-D]

I find it easier if I save often. It cuts short on saving time. I am well trained in "save often" doctrine, when my old computer would crash every so often. Usually on the most worst moments. But I really don't mind the wait. A good excuse to stand up and move. Cuts down the danger on blood clots that way ;)

[DaBoogadie]

Two physical processors (Amd Athlon 64 FX74 Dual Core) @ 5.12 GHz ~ latest save, 34 sec.

[JackJess]

Two physical processors (Amd Athlon 64 FX74 Dual Core) @ 5.12 GHz ~ latest save, 34 sec. WTF?! :wtf:

[haricots]

WTF?! :wtf:

YES!

WTF???!!

[Nightlight]

less than 30 seconds, I have a minimal amount of cc. :P

[Kestie Freehawk]

My processor is AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-57 (2 CPUs), ~1.9GHz (I know, shocking right?) and my game takes up to 4 minutes maximum. My opinion is, that I am so lucky, that I even get the game to work. :rolleyes:

I am using the same type system and the game is rated for the cpu. The pentium 4 that shouldnt work is a single core at 32 bits and you have a dual at 64 bit. My game can take 1 minute or 15 minutes. My Pheonom takes the same timeline with double the cores of the Anthlon. My video card has the same gray hang or worse hang than the GeForce in this system.

Tomorrow they will be announcing that no AMD's are game compatible and AMD makes virtually ALL the video cards.

[lovevslust]

I have oodles of cc, but mine only takes about 2 mins max. Even with a huge lot and a family of 8 sims living there... And it's a custom world. I don't get it. Why is everybody having such bad save times? My computer sucks a$$ too, I have little space left because of my schooling, and not to mention the cpu for the game is very high on my computer... Well I know one thing, I probably just jinxed myself...
I feel sorry for everybody that is having trouble with the saves... :(

[BenC0722]

Tomorrow they will be announcing that no AMD's are game compatible and AMD makes virtually ALL the video cards.

Do you have a source?

Sorry, but I have a very hard time believing this. Anyway, what ultimately matters is whether the CPU is "strong enough," so to speak, and whether the video card is strong enough.

[Kestie Freehawk]

The point is that the processor is strong enough for the game as designed. The processor is twice as effecient as the one that does not work. The point is that the *need* to add more processors is slightly weird, given that the game was not designed for 12+ processors but for two to four processors. I never have a source because AMD would not make a system that isnt compatible for gaming. What they do is make gaming systems. This one is rated for the game from base to Late Night. I see the same slow save flaw on a Quad Core that I am seeing on my Optimized dual core. There are two physical cores. THe Phenom has four physical cores, optimized that would be like a i7 from intel and I get the same hang. For people that are still confused the cores can do two work units per clock tick. That makes four virtual CPU's. I have a virtual quad in my Anthlon and a virtual 8 core in my Phenom. The chip that isnt working is a single core that can do 1 work unit per clock tick and only handles 32 bits of material instead of 64,

[Bchbch Walk]

Like 30 seconds on armiel's diy world and like 3+ mintues on anything else.

[Misanthrope]

20-30 seconds when I had no CC
30ssec-1 minute with moderate CC

Earlier this month I went on a rampant CC download, and now my game takes 1-2 minutes

[TinTin]

I find it easier if I save often. It cuts short on saving time. I am well trained in "save often" doctrine, when my old computer would crash every so often. Usually on the most worst moments. But I really don't mind the wait. A good excuse to stand up and move. Cuts down the danger on blood clots that way ;)

You might want to try out this mod (http://www.the-isz.com/nraas/index.php?topic=53.0), it can automate the whole process for you.

[ani_]

10 minutes doesn't sound very fun. Mine takes about 30seconds, probably less. The hood is still quite new, only 6 households. Before this hood, in my corrupted hood, the time was much longer, several minutes. Now I make a new save game every time I switch households, I play in one week rotations so I get a new save very often.

[tomomi1922]

10 minutes doesn't sound very fun. Mine takes about 30seconds, probably less. The hood is still quite new, only 6 households. Before this hood, in my corrupted hood, the time was much longer, several minutes. Now I make a new save game every time I switch households, I play in one week rotations so I get a new save very often.
Yep no fun at all. But it is not something we chose to have. I have rather minimal amount of CC. It first took 3-5 minutes to save Bridgeport, but after a while it goes "forever". And I just let it go on to see if it ever stops. After taking a shower, the game did finish saving and sims start doing their things again. So whenever I save now, I turn on Netflix to watch a random movie, or go do some household chores.

I don't know how someone can keep following me around the forum and "disagree" with anything I write, including how long it takes me to save. I didn't make this up, and certainly not too proud of having the "longest save in the world". If I have a choice, I would definitely prefer 3 minutes save any day. 30 second save may be too far of a dream for me to reach. :bunny:

I am just happy that I can continue playing the game without horrendous corruptions or constant crashes (I think the thank goes to Overwatch). Having 10 minute save is somewhat a good thing (read: thinking on the brighter side) because it reminds me to get up and get out of the chair to stretch my body. :)

[CinderEmma]

3/4 minutes to load the game!?! 0_o I hate my computer, it ALWAYS takes at least 20 minutes, sometimes 30 if my computer is already cranky. I just have to play something else until it loads.

[LyndisLyn]

For smaller families maybe 30 seconds to a minute. If it's a larger home with more people, then I'm looking at anywhere from 2 or 3 minutes...

[lilyandsnuggles2]

About 1-2 minutes so far. I think it fells like a long time because you really, really want it too hurry up :)

[tomomi1922]

For smaller families maybe 30 seconds to a minute. If it's a larger home with more people, then I'm looking at anywhere from 2 or 3 minutes...
You are aware of the fact that it is not how big your household is but the game saves the entire neighborhood? That is unless your neighborhood consists of maybe 2 small households.

[lisfyre]

less than 30 seconds, I have a minimal amount of cc. :P

I just watched my husband's game and he saved. He has no hacks/mods/CC just plain old vanilla game - Base + all EP's. 30 secs or less to save and same for the load. Of course his puter is also newer and faster .... but still. He just loves to rub it in my nose.

[itsamariokart]

Back when I had my crappy Windows Vista laptop it would take up to 10 minutes -_____- drove me insane. Now I have an iMac OS X it takes about 1-2 minutes :)

[LyndisLyn]

You are aware of the fact that it is not how big your household is but the game saves the entire neighborhood? That is unless your neighborhood consists of maybe 2 small households.

Yeah, I'm aware and no, it's pretty large and full. Most of my hoods are, so I just went with what times I got for one. :)

[tomomi1922]

Yeah, I'm aware and no, it's pretty large and full. Most of my hoods are, so I just went with what times I got for one. :)
Lucky you. Even removing all CC entirely (bad move btw), it still takes about the same time (aka forever) to save. But without Overwatch, my newly saved game crashed after loading.

Are you also implying that "smaller families" will save faster meaning having more small households (versus less but larger households) will save faster? Most of my households are very small except one large 10 sim household and two 5 sim households. The rest are default EA households. I don't think it really matters personally, but it is just pretty much as good as a guess.

[smoothy]

Hehe, for those who complain for 10-20 minutes, what would you say for waiting OVER 90 mins and still not saved? :) Yup, I'm serious. Yesterday evening I clicked 'save' in about 21:20, I checked out about 22:40... still nothing, the saving circle was still moving :( It'so annoying, it happens since I installed the game 2 days ago. In the beginning it was working with saving the game after 2-3 min playing, but now I can't even put furnishing in a house. It's so nervous that I click alt+ctrl+del and end the game. Some advices? I have only World Adventures installed.

OS Windows XP
I want to plaaay :cry:

[Weezy67]

It might be Windows XP that is makeing is slow...no offense but its kind of outdated...it takes me 34 secounds to save and I have a windows 7 with 154/160 gb used on my laptop

[smoothy]

No offence at all :) But anyway, I don't have possibility to reinstall my OS, so any advices for the problem :| I clicked the save now before about 20 minutes, I'm going out now, so I hope to be ready when I get back.. :/

[FuryFanFiction]

It takes me about... 2-3 minutes... not too long at all. :D

[applefeather2]

You are aware of the fact that it is not how big your household is but the game saves the entire neighborhood? That is unless your neighborhood consists of maybe 2 small households.
Thank you for this. It's one of those 'light bulb' moments I really appreciate. :beer:
Hm. How come someone disagrees with that, I wonder.

[Purity4]

Tomomi, I was reading your posts to see why someone keeps disagreeing with you. The only thing I can come up with is since your posts tend to make more than one statement, it's possible they disagree with just one sentence. For example, post 40 on this thread, you make several points, and perhaps someone disagrees only with your statement that you 'have minimal cc', but doesn't disagree with everything you say, and still clicks disagree just for that one statement. Possibly.

[Purity4]

For those of you who do have long saves, why do you need to wait for the save to finish saving in order to carry on with your life? I'm picturing you sitting at your desk staring at the circle, waiting, waiting, waiting, and I find that kind of funny. When I save/quit, I just leave the computer. When I do a mid-game save, I also leave my computer to do something else. Although, my saves are not as long as some of you, but still, it's kind of funny to imagine you sitting there staring and waiting.

[tomomi1922]

Tomomi, I was reading your posts to see why someone keeps disagreeing with you. The only thing I can come up with is since your posts tend to make more than one statement, it's possible they disagree with just one sentence. For example, post 40 on this thread, you make several points, and perhaps someone disagrees only with your statement that you 'have minimal cc', but doesn't disagree with everything you say, and still clicks disagree just for that one statement. Possibly.
No need to guess, I apparently stepped on some snotty people's toes (without intention). And they followed me around forum "Disagree" everything I said, even things that has no reason to disagree on, like posting my system spec, or how long it takes me to save.

Honestly, if by disagreeing with me more will improve my game performance, then I please click "Disagree" right now, pretty please ....!! :lovestruc

[caninegoddess]

I'd have to go digging around for my processor speed and what not, but I'm sure that it's that coupled with my graphics card that's making it slow. And Purity, the reason it bothers me is that I like to turn my laptop off before I leave to go somewhere. I can't play for quick 10 minute bursts because it takes so long to save. So once it gets late I just stop playing because when I need to go to bed the excuse of "It's still saving!" does not work well with my parents...long story on the bedtime thing, trust me. But I think I really need to get into the habit of mid-game saving.

[metal_goat]

Sometimes less than a minute, sometimes two or maybe three. It feels like forever, though. :P Saving a lot does help.

[babele44]

No need to guess, I apparently stepped on some snotty people's toes (without intention). And they followed me around forum "Disagree" everything I said, even things that has no reason to disagree on, like posting my system spec, or how long it takes me to save.

Honestly, if by disagreeing with me more will improve my game performance, then I please click "Disagree" right now, pretty please ....!! :lovestrucI did press the disagree button right now, have you noticed any changes to your performance yet ;)?
As to your other disagrees that you gathered over the last few weeks, I've been noticing them, too. It seems you've got a fan :D You know, these sometimes do have strange ways to express their affection. An ex of mine used to disagree with me by principle, probably thought that this would spice up our life :rolleyes:

[firegurl8000]

Load time: 15 mins min.
Save time: An hour
My comp doesn't have even one GB of RAM.... I'm saving for more RAM but it's so expensive.

[FuzzehPeach]

Takes a couple of minutes.. it feels like foooreever though, haha but I press pause before I save, normally, so I can get a snack or just do something else for a little while then go back to my game

[Velve]

It takes me under a minute to save. I haven't actually timed it out but it can't be longer than 45 seconds.

I have no idea if this is true, but I remember reading somewhere that your save time increases the more households you play. I only play one household so that may be why my save time is low.

[Mishy]

game loading takes 3 minutes.
(just checked)
game save, 1 minute.

i feel for those of you who are cursed with a longer loading/saving time.
an hour to save? i'd do cukoo.

[ChloroformDreams]

My load time is usually 5 minutes or less depending on how much CC I have at the time (right now I'm at 4.5 GB). Save time is probably around a minute. I switch to another window while saving so I'm not 100% sure on that time.

@firegurl8000: You should be able to get 4GB of RAM for under $50.

[lewisb40]

My saves take about one to five minutes, based on how long I played the hood and how many are in the household. When the kids become YA, I usually move one out and make them the active family.

[CinderEmma]

Now it's taking more like 4-5 minutes because I've combined most of my package mods :) Thank you severedsolo for telling me about this!

[UltraRobbie]

It takes about a minute to save, 3 minutes or so to load the neighbourhood, and 3 minutes to save and quit the game, sometimes much longer. It's taken 15 minutes before.

[noxnoxnox]

I just try it with my stopwatch, 4:20 to load the game and 00:35 to save. But in the game I notice that it takes quite a while to load each category when I enter CAS. I have a Phenom X4 965, integrated graphic, barely over 2GB of memory 'cause I remember my 3.2 GB of RAM have to share with graphic. I often try to optimize my neighborhood by disable memories completely, no autonomous flower, 10x10 minimalist lots for not-so-glamorous families, keep the population about 100...To me, when the save is long and heavy, there definitely will be problems down the way, another deadly code 12 for example.

[aurica]

It used to take my game 30 mins to load & close to 10 - 20 mins to save. After I moved from dual core CPU to quad core CPU, changed M/B, changed RAM & HDD. Load times are now 5 - 10 mins & saving a game takes 2 - 10 mins after adding all the CC what not.

If I were to play an entirely new world which I have no save games with just one single sim family, then its approximately 1 - 2 minutes to load and save the game.

Like another simmer said, I think its how advance we are in the game that determines the save/load times.

[tizerist]

About 3 minutes, depending on which hood.
Before ambitions I would be lucky to get away with 10.
But many things have changed: The patches, the mods, the amount of Ram, etc.

[PuffyAmi]

And I thought my 1-2 minute was sooooo long saving time :lol: (and I have some amount of CC and huge neighborhood) 10 minutes sounds forever, at least for unpatient people like me. I feel somewhat happy now that my save time isn't that bad.

[laceyharkness]

At the most five minutes, unlesss I minimize the game for some reason, then it can take as long as twenty minutes. I have a lot of CC and two games both with vary largish neighborhoods, although my legacy game isn't so bad. I think it depends on how much stuff you have in the game.

[Mishy]

same here, minimizing the screen makes quitting time much longer then with the opened screen.
with the sims2 it wouldnt quit at all unless i kept it open.

[tizerist]

Funnily enough, quitting the game takes as long as saving :/

I'm only asking the game to close down dammit, just drop everything and close, for crying out loud. How can that take a few minutes? Sheesh....

[juansfalcin]

It takes something like 5-10 minutes to save but that's not really the problem.
The real problem is that the game boils up my PC so when I leave the game, my PC runs slow as hell and I have to turn it off for a half hour.

Anyways, I'm noticing you peeps minimize the game while it loads? The game stops loading when you minimize it, peeps. That's why it's taking 30 minutes for it to load for you. hahaha

[laceyharkness]

My game's never stopped loading or saving while minimized. Perhaps adjust your settings so the actions still happen even when you're minimized?

[McNum]

I just timed mine.

For a full first generation Riverview (with modifications) and about 120 Sims my game takes between 30 and 40 seconds to save, usually 34-35 seconds. It takes double that to load the same save game.

Which is good, since I have the game autosave every 15 minutes.

[clynnc19]

Like 20 seconds. Not that long.

[sandyfluff]

2 minutes... it's ANNOYING!

[lisfyre]

Usually 1 - 5 minutes... depending on the family size and how much clutter I've loaded on that lot :D lol

[caninegoddess]

Sorry for taking so long to respond back to this thread all. I must say, I am quite jealous of those of you who save in 30-40 seconds. I'd LOVE to save that quickly, but my computer is old and apparently no longer made. Therefore, slow saves, :/

[Ryanhas2dogs]

Lucky for impatient me, TS3 only takes 10 - 15 seconds to save on my shiny new gaming PC. Now, for the very brief time I played the game on my Dad's deteriorating Vista PC, it would usually take 1 - 2 minutes, if I was lucky, and since this is Vista, I didn't get lucky too often. When I wasn't lucky, the game would either crash, or take 30 minutes to save, which for impatient me, is like the apocalypse. Back when I was able to play TS3 on my old Windows XP PC, before World Adventures effed it up, I could usually save within a minute. I don't know how you guys can stand waiting for more than a minute for your game to save, unless you accomplish other tasks during that time.

[QueenLioness84]

I'm shocked at some the save times you all are experiencing. Any longer than 5 minutes is just ridiculous. I wish I could offer advice shorten your save times. As for me, my save times take about 1 to 3 minutes. Honestly, I've never paid attention, really. Next time I run the game, I'll have to time it and see to be certain.

edit: Timed it! It take anywhere between 15 seconds to 1 minute max

[Ketsu_sama]

I am jealous of your save times. Mine can be as long as 10-20 minutes sometimes. *_* I'm combining my package files now, though, so maybe that will help.

[EjdSmith]

My saves aren't too awful. They take probably two minutes. The loadings are what kill me though. To load the game takes about another two minutes, and then to load a specific save it takes anywhere from 5-7 minutes. Whether it be loading or saving I always start it when I have other small tasks to complete, like brushing my teeth or getting a meal.

[xa-n-ax]

in game saves are about 15 seconds...but when i "save and quit" it's nearly a minute

[Tasselcat]

Save time is usually 10-20 minutes for me, but the loading times and gameplay speed are what limit my play time. 30 minutes to load a new world, 40-50 for a saved game. My processor is way underpowered, though; Intel 540, 1.86 GHz. I'm thinking of upgrading, since my laptop is only two years old and works fine for everything else.

[eldavis]

After finally getting around to installing and using Delphy's Dashboard, I've managed to get my save times down to about 2 minutes and my loading times down to 5 minutes. This is a massive improvement from the 20 to save and about 30 to load I was experiencing. I suggest giving that mod a try if any of you are having really long load/save times. c:

[mithrak_nl]

Under a minute to several minutes depending how long Im playing a neighbourhood. I remember Twallan mentioning on his website to use the 'purge the dead' option to cut saving time. Not sure what that is even, Im afraid to mess with the dead! :blink:

I usually save when Im having a pause or need to walk away from the pc for whatever reason. So Im not that bothered about the time it takes.
Loading the neighbourhood after starting the Sims takes too long for my taste though. But thats just me being impatient to mess with sims lives. They are probably struggling and trying to prevent me from entering their world :P

[IrishGrace]

Loading the game: maybe 90 seconds
Loading a specific save: about 2-3 mins.
Saving: 1-2 mins max.
I save often, at least once per Sim day, and always before a big event; and I never Save and Exit. I always save the game and then exit separately.

[Velve]

Under a minute to several minutes depending how long Im playing a neighbourhood. I remember Twallan mentioning on his website to use the 'purge the dead' option to cut saving time. Not sure what that is even, Im afraid to mess with the dead! :blink:

Purge the dead deletes all dead sims that died two or more generations ago, because they have no influence on future sim genetics after two generations.

[Pegasys2]

I'm on my 7th generation (a quasi-legacy) and both loads and saves take about 2.5 minutes. My .nhd file is about 90MB.

[Kathwynn]

Load up time is about 10 minutes.. So I read work on proposal for my business.. Or work on my wife computer.. Saves I generally try to do that when the sim is asleep.. Save time might take 1 to 3 minutes.. When I want to leave I find saving first and then just quitting is easier and quicker..

But then I am a CC junky.. So I have only myself to blame.. If I could delete about 80% of the Ea crap clothes I would be that much more ahead. Darn you Ea for making such shitty clothes that I am sure the sims themselves hate be caught dead in them. :>

[vhanster]

5-10 minutes. Quite a long time to save a game data, in my opinion, which is probably why I don't save my game as often as I save other games...

[jessica x gore]

My current save file which I've been playing for 27 Sim weeks takes almost 2 minutes to save. But it takes over 5 minutes to load it in the first place. I'm not sure why it's taking so long now. It use to pop up in under a minute. I think it started slowing down a bit when I added photos to that computer (for fear of my desktop crashing and losing everything.) I have 61 GB of just photos. It says I have over 40,000 files in my Pictures folder. (I regret nothing.) Plus a few hundred flip cam videos. I really need to buy an external hard drive and just put all my crap on there. I'm sure that would speed things along on my end.

[Ryanhas2dogs]

Got the trusty old stopwatch to see what my times were:

Loading a specific saved game : 1.20.23

Saving a game : 0.23.73

[PureFilth]

6 weeks for me.








Just kidding, 30 seconds to a minute is the average for me with a fair amount of CC. And on a laptop.

[carro123]

About 2 minutes for me ...

[Midnight_Mist]

1-3 minutes :) Proabably since my lot is kinda small.

[coffeebreak]

A few seconds. Running Windows 7 with 4 gig of ram. For the first time since Sims 3 came out, this game is an absolute joy to play. I play the biggest lots, packed with 8 sims customized to the max, and stuffed to the gills with cc. I'm thoroughly enjoying this now, because realistically this state of affairs won't last. The next expansion pack or two will blow it all to hell and then it'll need another computer to run well, which I won't be able to afford.

Also, loading time is around thirty seconds, maybe less. If I look away and then look back it's already loaded. wheeeee what fun!! :bunny:

[ani_]

coffeebreak, your game sounds like a dream :)

I decided to time it, 3 minutes 40 seconds to save. It was less before Generations, but I don't know how much because I didn't time it then. Loading, probably takes about the same time, as I've been catching up on the über rant while I'm waiting for my game to load.

[Perfectionist]

About 45 seconds up to 3 minutes, it depends on how big the lot is and especially what town. Bridgeport takes longest and sunset valley is the quickest, but then again I got rid of half the lots in sunset valley.

[Lycoris]

I only have Sims 3 Deluxe at the moment, with Late Night waiting to be installed and Generations on the way...

At the moment, it only takes about 30 seconds to 2 minutes to save, depending on how long I had been playing a particular family and events that may have happened during that playing session.

I only play with one family per town (Crumplebottom in Sunset Valley, Riddle in Twinbrook), so that probably helps. *makes a note to download Riverview*

[cameronrogers]

5 seconds. Just counted. Ive got 2GB Ram, AMD athlon64, 256MB Video card, Windows Vista Ultimate.

[purplen]

Ha mine takes about 8-10 min. I think I crammed too much cc into my game >w<(both on the sims as well as their home)

[CowPlantsForHire]

My game takes from 30 seconds to three minutes to save and I don't have much custom content.

[rockergrrl37203]

For the family I play now about 5 min or so to save - I use Twallan's Saver mod so my game automatically saves every 15 real time minutes (to protect my precious game from crashes and losing hours and hours of progress). I usually read a book or various things like switching laundry to the dryer or stepping outside for a second while I wait for it to its thing :D

[CherrySim]

Instantly, probably because I haven't downloaded anything to my game.

[Bandon]

Wow.. I had to google "modthsims" and "save times" after mine took 10 minutes to save just now, or 1/6th of an hour. Whichever makes you spit more coffee on your keyboard. I clicked save, waited a minute, went to the bathroom, came back, still saving, went to wash a load of clothes, came back. Still saving. Went to the kitchen to microwave a snack and get a drink. Came back. Still saving. Sat down and started reading chapter in a textbook. 10 minutes...

It's not the computer. 4 cores, good graphics card, plenty of ram, ssd drive. There are only 2 sims, 2 pets in a small 4 room starting house. Most expansions, lots of cc, a few of twallans mods, plus the route-fixed version of bridgeport. I'm seeing other people above with similar setups and 30 second save and load times. Ugh

[jesusismyairbag]

10-20 seconds

[nikel23]

10-20 seconds
Gosh, it's almost like saving 10 microsoft word documents at once in a multitasked computer, that's really quick! :blink:

It usually takes... I dunno, 5-10 minutes perhaps to me. And even so, there are 3 possibilities when I save game: the game is saved properly, error code 12, or a neverending saving because my game is hang and I had no hint about that until it reaches like 20 minutes for saving, and I simply have to end the program with task manager.

[Periandre]

Wow.. I had to google "modthsims" and "save times" after mine took 10 minutes to save just now, or 1/6th of an hour. Whichever makes you spit more coffee on your keyboard. I clicked save, waited a minute, went to the bathroom, came back, still saving, went to wash a load of clothes, came back. Still saving. Went to the kitchen to microwave a snack and get a drink. Came back. Still saving. Sat down and started reading chapter in a textbook. 10 minutes...

It's not the computer. 4 cores, good graphics card, plenty of ram, ssd drive. There are only 2 sims, 2 pets in a small 4 room starting house. Most expansions, lots of cc, a few of twallans mods, plus the route-fixed version of bridgeport. I'm seeing other people above with similar setups and 30 second save and load times. Ugh

Keep in mind though, that this thread you resurrected, preceded the release of such heavy EPs as Pets, Supernatural and Seasons.

[misslaheela]

Well, now that it is resurrected...

My game usually takes 30 seconds to 2 minutes to save. A bit longer to load, usually, but not to save, especially when I'm saving and quitting.

[AlphaDogMJP]

10-20 seconds

10-20 seconds!? :blink: I'm lucky to have it load in five minutes...

Is it because of my poor graphics card? Or is it just because my computer lacks a lot of space? Or both?

[eskie227]

10-20 seconds!? :blink: I'm lucky to have it load in five minutes...

Is it because of my poor graphics card? Or is it just because my computer lacks a lot of space? Or both?

Loading for a few minutes is typical, regardless of your PC specs (well, maybe with an SSD for your hard drive it would be faster, but I haven't gotten one to play with yet). A save taking more than 1 or 2 minutes, though, unless it's some gigantic 400 MB town, is probably not a good sign of how robust your system is (memory, HD type and interface, OS). Your graphics card would have no effect on load/save times; they are CPU, memory, and HD dependent. Now, a lack of space...................

[AlphaDogMJP]

Loading for a few minutes is typical, regardless of your PC specs (well, maybe with an SSD for your hard drive it would be faster, but I haven't gotten one to play with yet). A save taking more than 1 or 2 minutes, though, unless it's some gigantic 400 MB town, is probably not a good sign of how robust your system is (memory, HD type and interface, OS). Your graphics card would have no effect on load/save times; they are CPU, memory, and HD dependent. Now, a lack of space...................

Well, I know my computer isn't bad in space. Maybe what I said was a bit of an overstatement. I just checked and I have 307 GB free out of 455 GB, so I suppose maybe it's just how many programs I have open? I do tend to do that, and notice the horrible lag. It's very power-consuming for my computer.

[eskie227]

Well, I know my computer isn't bad in space. Maybe what I said was a bit of an overstatement. I just checked and I have 307 GB free out of 455 GB, so I suppose maybe it's just how many programs I have open? I do tend to do that, and notice the horrible lag. It's very power-consuming for my computer.

You have a TON of free space, so that's not it. However, yes, having a bunch of other programs running will cause a performance hit, even during a save. When you save, the game engine has to compress all the data regarding the town state into the savefile/folder. That's CPU intensive. If you have other programs running, and actually doing something (not just a browser sitting displaying a static page), the OS has to divvy up CPU cycles between processes, some of which will have a higher priority than others. So the game engine doesn't get to use "all the cylinders" of your CPU for the job, which means the save takes longer to execute.

Generally, despite having a higher end CPU, a decent of memory, and a decent graphics card, I still limit, preferably to bare-bones stuff (antivirus, etc.) other programs when I'm gaming. I do like to multitask, but games in general, not just TS3, don't always appreciate having CS6 running scripts in the background.

[Vault boy]

Depends on how populated is the town, how much stuff is going on in there, and how large is the lot my sim is living in. I have had save processes that have lasted from under a minute to over eight minutes approximately. :turtle:

[Bandon]

Keep in mind though, that this thread you resurrected, preceded the release of such heavy EPs as Pets, Supernatural and Seasons.

Good point, that's adding to it some.

I did find something out though. The longer the game goes without saving, the longer it takes to save. So instead of saving every 2 sim-days, I'm doing every half sim-day. Save times went from 10 mins to 1-2 minutes. Maybe something for people with long save times to try.

[Pelouse]

Around 10-30 seconds

[eskie227]

Around 10-30 seconds

You must be playing one of those islands with one lot on it for some Robinson Crusoe challenge.

[Pelouse]

You must be playing one of those islands with one lot on it for some Robinson Crusoe challenge.

LOL! :D

I bought a gaming computer specifically to be able to play Sims 3 without any lags etc, so that's why.

[smukkemiss]

Mine takes about 50 sec. right now, I counted, but I am playing with a fairly small lot and family right now... But I will say it normally takes around 1 maybe 2 minutes if it is a big lot and family :)

[jesusismyairbag]

i play on an SSD with 16gb ram. maybe that helps.

[Vintage_Eve]

I timed mine it takes like 1-2mins to finish, I played for like 6hours. I dunno maybe it depends how much info in that specific area its trying to save.
Im using an SSD I think it does help with the saving and stuff coz I had the regular HDD before take me about 5-8mins to save when playing for about 6hours

[Aree]

For a long time my games were saving in the 10 minute range, with frequent CTD, but save as every time and saving every time the game seems to be lagging a little, to an obsessive degree, seems to have cut it down. I started the nothing is free and isle of the midnight sun challenges largely to try to cut back on my save times, which they do quite well until I have a certain amount of lots and sims in NIF and it starts taking a while again.

I also tend to play with the game a little more "gently" now. I wait for all the clothes to load in CAS before I even touch them, I pause to let the lag stop whenever it starts, and probably other stuff I'm not consciously doing. I didn't realize how much that cut down my CTDs and Error 12s until my cousin was over and wanted to play. She suffered 3 crashes and 2 error 12s, one of which occurred after only moving the family onto the lot in sunset valley without playing at all.

[Vaneskera]

My game tends to load within 5-10 minutes and save with 2-4. I have a computer with pretty low specs, so I don't run any custom content or mods. I turn off all other programs when I play. I used to crash to desktop a lot, but it's stopped lately.

[ViolettaVie]

My save take a little more than half a minute, which makes me wonder why so many are experiencing save that take so much longer. I have a lot of store content and CC and sometimes I play large families. I have both a good processor and graphics card, plus 8 GBs of RAM. I don't have other programs running while playing my game and I don't delete my cache files often, except scripts cache. Also memories are disabled and I don't play legacy.

[Citysim]

About Half a min-1min for me, with Win7 SP1 32Bit, 4Gig RAM and Inno3D Graphics card.

[eskie227]

My save take a little more than half a minute, which makes me wonder why so many are experiencing save that take so much longer. I have a lot of store content and CC and sometimes I play large families. I have both a good processor and graphics card, plus 8 GBs of RAM. I don't have other programs running while playing my game and I don't delete my cache files often, except scripts cache. Also memories are disabled and I don't play legacy.

I think for a fair comparison, the question would be what are the sizes of your saves. A 5 minute save time for a 50 MB would suggest a problem. A 2 to 3 minute save for a 200 to 300 MB save would be pretty good performance.

Violetta, your save times are good. You do run an up to date system, with plenty of resources, and without background clutter. Even with large families, if you don't run to legacies, your saves are probably consistently under 100 MB. I have seen legacies where, after many generations, saves of 300 or 400 MB become commonplace. They take a while to load, and a while to save.

Also, remember, unless there was some major improvement in how the file is saved that EA snuck in, that whether you do a save, or a save as, the game still compresses the entire world each time. It is not an incremental save, as many programs do, which are much faster (just saving the delta, the change from the prior saved version). So however you save, the entire world has to be compressed, indexed, and whatnot, every time. The bigger and more complex the world (especially population size, with multi-generational information) the longer it will take.

I can see where an SSD might be helpful in reducing load and save times. I haven't had a chance to throw one in yet, but it is next on my let's play to do list.

[shadedgrey63]

I get 30 seconds to perhaps two minutes when I save. I have an i7 processor, 8 gigs of RAM, and a GeForce GTX 460 graphics card, with lots of hard drive space left. I am hoping on upgrading my Graphics card, and putting in some more RAM.

[ViolettaVie]

I think for a fair comparison, the question would be what are the sizes of your saves. A 5 minute save time for a 50 MB would suggest a problem. A 2 to 3 minute save for a 200 to 300 MB save would be pretty good performance.

Violetta, your save times are good. You do run an up to date system, with plenty of resources, and without background clutter. Even with large families, if you don't run to legacies, your saves are probably consistently under 100 MB. I have seen legacies where, after many generations, saves of 300 or 400 MB become commonplace. They take a while to load, and a while to save.

Also, remember, unless there was some major improvement in how the file is saved that EA snuck in, that whether you do a save, or a save as, the game still compresses the entire world each time. It is not an incremental save, as many programs do, which are much faster (just saving the delta, the change from the prior saved version). So however you save, the entire world has to be compressed, indexed, and whatnot, every time. The bigger and more complex the world (especially population size, with multi-generational information) the longer it will take.


I tend to keep my population under control, so yeah, that definitely helps. My saved games are never larger that 200 MB, if at all close to it. If my game seems to take longer to save, I figure out why and fix it. On occasion I start fresh.

[Fentonparkninja]

Wow, you guys have such small filesizes. My old 4-month long game clocks in at about 800mb and takes a while to load (4 minutes) and kind of long to save (about 45 seconds), but the only time it ever crashed was when I tried to stick the whole town in a single NRaas Porter file. Other than that, it ran really well.

I notice that my savegames tend to jump in size whenever I travel anywhere - I've only travelled to France and Egypt in my current game and the filesize is already at 400mb. Still loads fairly well (just over 1 minute), only the save times seem to have gone up (45 seconds, like my old game).

[fullsheet]

At most 2-3 minutes and much shorter if I save more often. I also keep my town under control.
The only houses they get is what I throw down which keeps Billy Bubba from moving in with 6 kids and
my custom made townies moving away. I also give most of the townies small homes (20x20 or less).
I mean really they just go home and stand in front of the door every night anyway.

[DJ.]

For me it depends on how long I've been playing the save, how many Sims are living in the household, the size of the home lot, amount of Sims (Service NPCs, homeless(!), foreign...) living in the town and so on.

It also depends on your game version, EPs and SPs installed and, of course, your computer specs. A 6GB computer will definitely handle it with piece (or couple of pieces) of cake, while the bare-minimum 1GB will finish it when you come back from your vacation. And you haven't even started packing. ;)

Example, I start a save in Moonlight Falls, move my Sim into a basic square house with a toilet, fridge, bed and TV (and sofa, and blah blah). It takes around 10 seconds for my computer to save it (haha, I have the 6GB computer! *success*). Developing my Sims' lives, building bigger houses, making more households that are related with the current one, making another generation, and here we are! A minute and 12 seconds, says my stopwatch on my crappy Android.

Of course, it takes a lot more time if you don't have mods installed such as ErrorTrap, MasterController, Overwatch and so on. Because, Overwatch reports over 48 vehicles removed per night (and I've read somewhere that vehicles also cause lag). Also, after a week of playing the game I run all the homeless outta town. It's around 13 of them each week (although, I play around 2-3 hours per day). Overwatch also fixes the routing fail, which also causes games to lag. And so on.

Ten minutes for a save? I don't get it. It wouldn't take me that long even if I had a family that goes all the way to the fourth generation, lives in a huge (100x100, I guess) mansion and is related to every single household in the town, which is powered by EA's story progression. Not to mention vehicles and homeless people.