Hi, all.

I have Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600 and my Sims 3 game is updated to 1.69. I am looking to limit my FPS to 30 or so to help my game run faster. It has a habit of crashing on occasion and my computer gets quite loud when I've been playing for too long. I checked the game's current FPS and it runs between 80-100 most of the time.

I have attempted to use FPSLimiter, but I found out that it doesn't work after 1.69 so I tried using Rivatuner Statistics Server, which doesn't work on my computer, and later MSI Afterburner, which also doesn't work on my computer.

I would like to know if anyone has a solution.

Thank you.

Thank you for your response!

The high FPS I saw was in-game when I was playing in Live Mode, so I think (I don't know for sure) my card is actually going at that speed.

As for your suggestion of turning the settings to high, will that make my game lag? I was hoping to decrease lag, so I hope not. I'll try it out.

I also have one further question: since my graphics card isn't very powerful, am I at risk of damaging it? Is that only an issue for high-end graphics cards, or do low-end ones suffer, too? I only learned about all this stuff a couple days ago.

Sorry! I forgot to add that. I don't know how to do that. I tried Googling it, but I couldn't find any concrete answer.

Should I choose "Application Settings" or "Driver Settings?" What about "Anisotropic Filtering?"

Also, here are my current graphics settings (before I turn them up):
- Reflection Quality: Off
- Edge Smoothing: Off
- Visual Effects: Low
- Lighting and Shadows: Low
- Tree Detail: Low
- Draw Distance: Medium
- High Detail Lots: 3
- Texture Detail: Medium
- Sim Detail: Very High

I have "Enable Object Hiding," "Enable Animation Smoothing," and "Enable Advanced Rendering" enabled.

I find this whole thing kind of hilarious. Splurging on pretty graphics can actually help my graphics card in some way.

Anyhow, what FPS should I actually aim for?

By the way, thank you for all your help!

Sorry for the late reply. Everything was working passably for awhile, but now my game flickers when I try to play it.

It doesn't flicker in windowed mode, but in fullscreen mode the top 1/4 of the screen flickers any time the game isn't loading.

Additionally, I have no option of "On" for vertical sync, only "Application Settings" and "Driver Settings." Do you have any suggestions?

Based on my old GTX280 that was damaged for playing TS3 without FPS Limiter, I just want to offer a 2nd opinion, I agreed that the Intel HD 4600 Haswell CPU/GPU is in safe guard with its proper cooling, and so did with my old GTX280's gpu, but the VRAM chips were damaged (fried), when it was still in my possession, the card still work and my computer were able to boot up normally, so my old GTX280 wasn't really dead, but it's lagging badly even just to browse the internet because some its VRAMs were damaged, so in the OP's case, I wouldn't worry about the Haswell CPU/GPU, but the OP may need to check the RAMs cooling as integrated graphics utilizes them as its VRAM.

The only problem is, TS3 1.69's launcher cannot be bypassed, therefore FPS limiter cannot be launched when the TS3 1.69 is launched.

1. Not to my knowledge. I haven't gone out of my way to update it. If it can update on its own, it may have.

2. I cannot find any option to turn it on.

Also, is is possible to downgrade from 1.69 and bypass the launcher that way?

Intel's basic interface ( assuming you get there by RClick on the Desktop and selecting Display Properties or something similar) may be a bit confusing sometimes.

In the 3D settings you have VSync option on/off, do not ask me why not in the "General", please. It's "on" by default and refresh rate is set as quivalent to your display's device defaults.

With Intel HD you do not need FPS limiter technically, though it may be beneficial visually anyway (stable fps are usually better for eyes than spiking). Embedded GPU won't overheat like some real ones. It's temperature is managed the same way as the CPU's is.

Do you have any suggestions for what I can do to fix the flickering issue?

It may be a drivers' issue, as Nitromon suggested. Does other DirectX 9c depended software has the same issues ? If so - DX9 is corrupted, it happens ocassionally).

I don't know what that is, but I fixed the issue by increasing the graphics settings.

While I don't have any software to record the issue, I can explain it a little better.

Basically, the top quarter of the screen has flickering where, in cases where there is one screen over another (eg. the Options screen over the save menu), part of the save menu will appear and part of the Options menu will appear, quickly switching to make a flicker.

I fixed it by simply increasing the graphics settings. I'm guessing that this slowed down the refresh rate and stopped this issue. A similar issue was occurring in "The Sims 4" and I fixed it by turning on VSync.