The Sims 4

The Sims 4’s Major Lag Issue seems to be Fixed!

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However, you need to repair your game first!

The Sims 4 had an obnoxious problem ever since Seasons came out. The game would have random bouts of lag spikes whenever you would Enter Build Mode and exit it, leaving a much lower framerate to the player.

Players already found a method of temporarily solving the issue by going into the Game Options through the Escape key button, which would often resolve the lag issue.

This issue would also sometimes pop out of the blue when doing certain placements on lots. Let’s just say that the lag issue had a mind of its own most of the time. After almost 4 years of this major issue I can’t believe I’m saying this but the lag has been resolved! From what I can tell so far from playing the game! Please don’t take my word for it 100%!

I know, most of you are going to say “well my game has gotten worse”. Which, in reality is true! The latest update for The Sims 4 did resolve the lag. However, it seems that there are some interferences with the lag improvements that came with the latest update causing the game to lag even more. Thankfully, all of this can be resolved.

If you’re playing The Sims 4 on PC/Mac through Origin all you have to do is right-click on The Sims 4 cover and select “Repair”. This time around the process of repairing the game lasts a little bit longer, especially if you have multiple DLC packs installed.

The Repair option will re-update some of the core essential files for The Sims 4 and its DLC. It might take a few minutes until your game is ready to play.

The Sims 4’s Major Lag Issue seems to be Fixed!

Krista, one of our team members, told me that The Sims 4 was lagging heavily for her yesterday when she was doing the Tartosa World Overview. A similar thing happened to me as well after updating The Sims 4, causing the game to have an extremely low Frames-Per-Second in almost any scenario. The “Esc” method that I’ve been using for so long didn’t work this time.

After disabling CC/Mods entirely and still seeing no improvements whatsoever, the only solution that came to my mind is Repair. Needless to say that this solution worked like a charm.

One of the most difficult lots that always caused a major lag per load was the Watson’s Household Lot in Henford-on-Bagley. I’m assuming it was extra difficult for the game to render the 64×64 lot along with 5 different Household members.

The Sims 4’s Major Lag Issue seems to be Fixed!

Going back and forth between Build Mode any lag issues and framerate drops that I’d have before didn’t stick in the end! The game would continue to run smoothly.

The Sims 4’s Major Lag Issue seems to be Fixed!

Of course experiences with framerate drops and lag also vary depending on which computer/laptop you’re playing on. The framerate screens that you see above have been taken on an M1 Mac with 16GB of RAM. All game settings are set on High (1440p) with all of the Packs installed, including My Wedding Stories.

The performace of The Sims 4 on my Windows PC has also improved after applying this solution with the game running incredibly smoothly now.

Oh, and also Krista’s game got a positive framerate improvement too.

The Patch Notes mention that the update should “improve performance when switching from Live to Build Mode in certain cases” There have also been numerous other Bug Fixes that could’ve impacted the improvements in the game’s FPS stability.


Now that we have the Framerate Lag resolved, can we get improvements on the Simulation Lag next?

Let us know how your game runs after using the “Repair” method in the comments down below!

About the author

Jovan

Reticulating splines as a webmaster for Sims Community over the last 11 years. You can find me here writing articles and doing reports on your favorite life sim games, among other things!

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Nate
Nate
3 years ago

I got excited reading the title thinking this would be about simulation lag.

Luisa F
Luisa F
3 years ago

simulation lag……….

Jeffrey Knight
Jeffrey Knight
3 years ago

The only ‘lag’ I ve ever experienced (and still do) is when going out to eat in a restaurant. It takes 5-6 sim hours to get the food, eat, and pay the bill!

Bibi Andersson
Bibi Andersson
3 years ago
Reply to  Jeffrey Knight

That’s what the dev’s call a feature. LOL I love taking my sims out for dinner, but only do so when I have a whole day set aside for it.

Amber Salmo
Amber Salmo
3 years ago

I look at simulation lag as my sims exercising their free will to procrastinate. Sometimes I am desperately hungry but I don’t move for an hour and then suddenly remember. I figure it probably happens to sims too lol

Laura
Laura
3 years ago

Call me when it’s simulation lag.

Sprinkles_91
Sprinkles_91
3 years ago

my biggest issue is sadly also sim lag, and the pizza girl. lol! in the middle of cooking always it takes almost 6+ sim hours to continue what she was doing, my sim will just stand there. biggest lag was going from build to live but only this month after the feb 15 update and now it doesnt do this for me after repairing my game. my lag after i tell her to do something after getting up out of bed, or when shes exausted and needs to go to the toilet before bed or etc is sometimes really severe…depends on the day! lol i feel like that sometimes too, but it would be nice if it got fixed bc im a micro-manager and it effects my patience irl sometimes…

i cant even tip my pizza lady rn! she just stands there until i reset her. what i want, no, need. lol is the option to call and complain that they just never turned up. i want a message like door dash. sorry! i got hungry half way there and ate your pizza! or another funny “this is the horrible incident/what happened” message. would be so great for gameplay for me..i cant tip the delivery people either, it doesnt even light them up or give me any options after i take the bag, just shift click>reset is the only way to make them leave after they get tired enough. at least their giving me my food this time…

Woahchinchillaa
Woahchinchillaa
3 years ago

i’m glad i’m not the only one experiencing some serious simulation lag. The sims take forever to do any command, they just freeze and stand there with the command not going through the queue. They seem unresponsive at times making it difficult and a little bit aggravating to play with the sims 🙁 .

SimDesigns
SimDesigns
3 years ago

With SimLag if pausing/unpausing doesn’t fix it I open the calendar and that appears to spring the sims back into action. For some reason around 3am in the Sim game I always have some sort of SimLag and need to open the calendar if sims are up and about and I have actions for them. It’s almost like an automatic reflex now

Why my sim stuck
Oh its 3am in game
Better check the olde calendar
Okay they are moving again

No idea if a coincidence or I am just full of fake hope but I’ve been doing this for like a year now and it helps with almost all SimLag! Putting it out there incase it helps anyone..

Bibi Andersson
Bibi Andersson
3 years ago

I’ve really had no huge issues with lag, except for on the large lot in Henford and in one of the huge penthouses in Myshuno. I’m still trying this method right now. Thanks.

Lucas Hearsay
Lucas Hearsay
3 years ago

I don’t have any lag (except when I’m going in to and out of BB!)

Paul Calancea
Paul Calancea
2 years ago

is it still fixed for you?? because for many others it’s still a mess!!! especially nowdays, we cannot go to build buy without having the lag!!

Paul Calancea
Paul Calancea
2 years ago

the lag even happens randomly in live mode, when there is a phone call, or notification popping in, and cannot be fixed sometimes, until we restart the game. it’s getting worst and worst. can u do a video about this? please…. we need as many videos possible to push the sims team to fix this…