sims3-logoJust like any big game release, The Sims 3 can also cause some headache to some gamers: we’ve talked about fixing the Disc Authentication Error, now we’re going to focus on fixing graphical errors and problems, as well as freezes in The Sims 3 during gameplay. Are you experiencing such problems? There might be a solution for you, so read on:

First of all, follow this link to The Sims 3 website and find out if your system meets the game’s system requirements by clicking on the appropriate button. If your score is not one of the highest, it must be your system’s configuration that causes the graphical errors and Ultra Speed problems in The Sims 3. According to official word from Electronic Arts, you have a few options on what to do:

1. Lower the graphic options

In order to do so, start your game and click on the ‘…’ blue Options button in the bottom left of the Sims 3 screen. Then, click on “Options” and set your graphics options to the Low setting (you can find that under the Graphic Details section). Click on the blue check mark in the bottom right and relaunch the game. It won’t look as pretty, but it should run way better, without graphical issues, errors and freezes.

2. Lower the game’s resolution

If the game still doesn’t satisfy your needs (or you want to try something else), go to the graphical options as instructed above and select the lowest possible resolution at the top of the Graphics tab.

3. Run the game in a window

Go again to the Options screen and, under the Graphics tab, check the box near the “Run in Windowed Mode” text. Confirm the changes by clicking on the check mark in the bottom right and relaunch The Sims 3.

4. Lower the resolution of your monitor

If none of these tricks solved your graphical errors and problems in The Sims 3, you could try and lower the resolution of your monitor. In order to do so, right click on your desktop and select “Properties”. Click on the Settings tab and drag the slider below “Screen resolution” to some lower values, and try launching the game.

I truly hope that these tricks will help your Sims 3 game move more smoothly and get you rid of the nasty graphical problems. Please feel free to share your experience with the other players, especially if you have found some tricks to get rid of sluggish visuals in the game.

42 COMMENTS

  1. Please help with SIMS 3 authentication error. I have tried everything . You SHOULD take care of this and offer a solution 0 by having a phone number for help.
    Thanks,

  2. My problem is different from what I am seeing. One of my sims had a baby and the baby did not appear, instead an out stretched arm of the mother appeared as the baby. I forced the baby to have a birthday and she was still malfunctioned, her body is stretched out and all bent up. I am not sure what went wrong or how to fix it being that aging did not do it.

    • Go into wardrobe and change her clothes, i had this sam problem because of a item of clothing that can appear on babies and toddlers, it mad them look like monsters. Just chance the clothing and it could take care of the problem

  3. yeah I’m really angry about that I’ve tried over and over again to not have “demon babies” so I’m trying everything I can possibly do… I’ll post again if I find a solution to the problem I guess.

  4. I am going nuts with this new Sims 3: I didnt have any serious problems with Sims 3 on its own, but as soon as I added the expansion pack and upgraded to windows 7, my game is so buggy I can’t play it!! The screen freezes and I am having major problems with the hand in the inventory. It won’t release when something is picked up. It eventually holds 20 things at once it seems!! Then the other problem is that whatever i can take out of inventory, also appears in the inventory still so everything is confused.
    PLEASE HELP SOMEONE!!

    • I used to play it on windows XP and now its on windows 7 and the screen has been freezing and the graphics dont look too great. I don’t know how to fix it. I tried adjusting the screen size an the graphics settings. But hasn’t seem to be working.!!
      SOMEONE NEEDS TO HELP US!!! hehe :)

  5. my sims 3 is having the same problem as Maisha’s..But when you age ur sim go to plan outfit and then the long arms will go away! and ur toddler will be ‘normal’. im having graphical issues please HELP

  6. I have Windows Vista with AMD Phenom(tm) 9650 Quad-Core Processor 2.30 GHz; 64-bit operating system, and 8.00 RAM. I’v already updated my video drivers and updated my EA download manager and game. I thought buying the World Adventures would straighten out my game issues…I was wrong. I have looked all over the site for issues and solutions and none of them work.

    My houses are blocky and criss-cross when you zoom in, especially if you go somewhere downtown. When I travel, it’s the same. I can’t get anywhere in the game due to all the graphics crossing each other. I have to find an angle where I can see but it’s almost impossible. NOW, I can’t even get my CD to read. Even the technical support that I called about all this, they’re as confused as I am!

    What’s going on?

    • Amanda: I have the SAME problem! and it SUX!! SUX SUX SUX!! I REALLY want to play the game OBBER bad but i cant because its preaticuly inpossibal when you cant see your sim because the houses and things are stretched out and crossing! I HATE IT! PLeASE PLEASE PLEASE I NEED HELP NOW! ANYONE!!!

      Heres a pic that someone posted who had the same problem (if it helps..)

      http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3951/sims3f.jpg

  7. My sims are really wried when i make them fat thier upper body comes off their lower body so its just floating there. Its making me made! I try fixing it but it wont work!

  8. Im having the same problem with the babies. The arm is really long and stretches all the way in the sky. It really creeps me out….SOMEONE PLEASE HELP…

  9. omg i am having the same problem ;like i had twins and when they were born they had black and brown arms me and my husband are both white it really weird plzz help

  10. Hey, I had this problem too but i got your answer!
    If you downloaded some clothes from some of those sites like simsresourses.com, then that could be the problem. Its not bad that ou downloaded them thats fine, But somtimes The teenager or Adult clothes will get put on your baby/toddler/kid. Which then adds the glitch of them looking like monsters, so just go to the nearest wardrobe and clik plan clothes. If you havnt downloaded clothes, Then I will just say to try to change it to somthin different and see what happens!

    Best Luck!

  11. Has anyone figured out how to solve the problem that Amanda and Lexis asked? Mine looks exactly the same as the picture attached to Lexis’ reply. PLEASE HELP.

  12. Okay, well the first time I played my game a message popped up and said something like: Unable to meet requirement, please install a new photo drive, without it the graphics may be bad. WTF does that mean?! I’m usually a big computer nerd and can help my parents but the sims always makes me a n00b >.< And all my houses and loading screens, fine. No problems, there great! But it is JUST the sims (the people) soo? What do I do? I might as well try these but one thing, I have an old computer I've had it for… About 6 years. And it's just a piece of crap :l lol… Thanks for the help up there ^ but does anyone else have this problem? If so if you solved it how'd ya do it? Or did you not?! Well anyway… Thanks :]

  13. I’m not sure if I have the right to complain here because for once(!) I haven’t had any glitches from a patch.

    What I am experiencing is a problem with my screen size. I’ve just upgraded to Windows 7 and I upgraded my Nvidia card to a GeForce 9800 GT. The only resolution that remotely works is 1280 x 800 (16:10) I have no clue what those numbers mean but I now have a bit of a fuzzy screen, all the on screen information and my Sim show much smaller when I click on her and everything is “skinny”.

    Any help will be greatly appreciated.

  14. i have upgraded my sims 3 game and now i have really bad graphic problems, like smooched shadows and weird lines all over the game screen. how can i fix it?

  15. I’ve tried reinstalling the game, all of the points given above and deleting all custom content and my game still crashes, the weird thing is that it crashes at the exact same point each time, which is the loading screen while loading onto a neighbourhood, it even loads to the same point on the bar before crashing to the desktop.

    Before it crashes the game runs smoothly and quite fast and if I don’t try to load the neighbourhood then it won’t crash, I don’t think its the system requirements because I used the link given above and all my requirements match, PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP?!

  16. Hey all. I was having that same problem with the lines/webs/blocks all over the screen, obscuring buildings, people, furniture, and making the game unplayable (on my high-end Windows 7 gaming machine). Here’s how I fixed it. No guarantee it will work for you, but I was pulling my hair out until I gave this a shot. If you are running an ATI graphics card. Go into Catalyst Control Center and under preferences select “restore factory defaults.” After doing that I did a hard shut down and reboot and voila! everything works just fine now. I hope this helps. Cheers!

  17. Whenever my sim goes to interact with another sim my sim will “teleport (not with the teleportation pad or the martial arts trick)” about 5 feet away. My sim will walk to the person I want to talk to, but just before they engage in conversation my sim will move. How can I fix this?

  18. I am having a problem that I haven’t seen on here. The graphics are all messed up. There will be like long lines of what looks to be the wood of brick from a house going through the whole town in the game. If i try to go to a neighbors house, their house is all messed up. It’s like the colors of everything in the house all got mixed together. I don’t even know how to explain it. I tried everything! Help!

  19. I just noticed that the people a couple up from mine had the same problem. I tried everything and it won’t work. It use to work fine then ever since the game updated it’s been messed up.

  20. I have another graphical problem and I think its a bug. When my sims visit a neigbor, I cant see inside it, so I just cant control my sims there. It s very annoying so help me someone if u can.

  21. I have benn having the same problems lately and cant figure it out. About 3 months ago it started to do that. I sadly had to reinstal the game and it just went away. But just today the graphics have been crossing again. its really bad and now my screen just looks like a bunch of colors. if i zoom in it gets worse but it goes away if i zoom out far enough. but then i cant see my sims. did you find the problem to this. if so please help!

  22. Same here. Twins born one that looked like an oreo the other was just a pillar of skin. It was impossible to take care of it because I could not select it. :P

  23. The same thing happened to me today, Haley. It worked fine all day until my Sims had triplets. And then it was also fine until…I don’t know, it just suddenly started doing it! I’ve messed with the graphics options and such, but nothing helps. I also don’t have the ability to un- and re-install my game, sooo…yeah. I’m sad. :(

  24. I have downloaded this game on my netbook, the game runs perfectly except the screen resolution is too low and I am unable to change it in graphics in options and the accept button it not accessable. If anyone knows how to make the screen res bigger, I would very much apprecite it. THANKYOU.

  25. I am having a problem that nobody is seeming to have. I just bought a new MacBook and installed sims 3. It was fine the first time I played it, but then my people had weird triangles on them and they we’re all grey. I reinstalled the game and it is still having the same proble

  26. I was having the same problem with the weird graphics stretched across the screen. Thanks to Monica mentioning that the ATI Graphics card restoring to factory settings helped!! Thank you so much! it worked straight away and now is perfect so if you have this problem i dont think its a part of the game… well it wasnt for me, it was the graphics card in my computer. Hope this helps

  27. I have about 3 expansion packs and I used to have 2 mods. The houses in the town are now all strewn and cross crossy. I got rid of all my custom content and the mods. I even uninstalled the game and expansion packs and put them back on, still the houses are all messed up! Does anyone know how to fix this?

  28. Hi, I really need help, I have Sims 3 for about 2 years and I have 9 expansion packs, I know it is a lot. And along the I have been expercing problems, like the clothes turned into skin material and the game just crashes at some point, I really enjoy the game and I’d wish it would stop. The main problem is it can’t read my Graphics card, so it just popped up and message, “can’t identify graphics card, all graphics set on high.” So I’m really worried and too scared to change the settings incase I damage the game some more, Can Someone Please Help! Thanxs.

  29. Hi guys, I really need some help. Sims 3 was working fine for me until I got a new laptop. It has all the system requirements, even better and more, but the graphics are really weird. When I go into play mode, the sky is a whitish clear color and most of the objects look very cruddy and blocky. Also, I have a home on a hill where you can see all of Sunset Valley– but on my laptop, you just see white and a few shadows of buildings and it’s really annoying because it is like it if foggy, but there is no fog!! Pleasee help somebody!!!!!

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