Why is The Sims 4 so laggy after update?

Q: Why is my Sims 4 game laggy all of a sudden?

Re: Sims 4 suddenly lagging when it wasnt before You have to wait until Origin will fix all packs, not only the base game. Turn on the game to create a new, empty mods folder. Check if a game is working now without mods. Disconnect your internet completely and try without this.

Q: Why does my Sims 4 keep freezing after update?

Clear your cache! Its important to clear your save game cache every now and then. Go to Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 and delete content from folders that we indicated, including the localthumbcache.

On May 24th The Sims 4 did a surprise release of the Customizable Pronouns Update. The Update integrates a feature within Create A Sim where you can now edit Pronouns for each Sim you make, allowing customization of pronouns. From he, she, they to your own.

Table of Contents Show

Why is my Sims 4 game laggy all of a sudden?
How do I make Sims 4 run smoother?
Why does my Sims 4 keep freezing after update?
How do I fix slow fps in Sims 4?

This update has rolled out for everyone, although the Pronouns Feature is currently only available for English speaking users.

Nonetheless, the Pronouns Feature itself isn’t the problem. It’s the latest version of The Sims 4, which seems to have had a significant impact on the game’s performance.

Considering that Maxis had to rewrite a lot of code, something’s went unnoticed behind the game’s code. Players have started reporting massive Lag Spikes for The Sims 4 all across our platforms. There’s also a hot discussion happening at EA AHQ, with 41 people who already reported the problem in just over a day.

What’s happening after the latest Update? Players have described the following:

My game never froze like this before but after this pronouns update my game freezes every couple seconds and stays frozen for almost 30 seconds at a time, and if I try to click anything on my screen a message pops up saying that sims 4 isn’t responding. I don’t have any mods or cc, I have tried repairing game and clearing cache, none worked. – nasgodlyy
After latest update the game started to have long loading time in every few seconds. (My friend has the same issue after update.) I’ve tried to update my computer, check viruses etc. and restart the game and the computer, but it did not help. – asrhana
My game loaded just fine, but as soon as I entered game play, every time I click on my screen, it says Not Responding and I get the circle of death for about 30 seconds. Yesterday, before the update… I had zero problems. – abeeric
CPU Usage keeps fluctuating but highest it goes is 76.2%
Did you have lags before this update ? If so, where ? Hardly any lagging before, now it lags when I try to click things on the main page for resuming/starting new game, in the game mode, etc. Will freeze for 10 seconds or so, play for 10-30 seconds, then freeze again, etc.
Where does the game lag now ? Everywhere or specific areas ? Everywhere
Do you play a fresh or an existing save game Existing game
Are you using mods/cc and if so, have you tested without them ? No, never used
For Sims 4, CPU ranges from 50-60%, GPU mostly stays at 0, but I noticed it spiked every once in a while for 2 seconds to some random number (7, 15, etc.) and then immediately returns back to 0

The update has just recently been rolled out, so it will be hard to pin point right away what could be the root cause of this. However, folks at EA HQ including EA Experts and Players are working together to find a solution and probable cause of this.

Considering that the issue is still fresh we might not get a reply right away from The Sims Team about the issue and its potential workaround. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we know more!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Why is my Sims 4 game laggy all of a sudden?

Re: Sims 4 suddenly lagging when it wasn't before You have to wait until Origin will fix all packs, not only the base game. Turn on the game to create a new, empty mods folder. Check if a game is working now without mods. Disconnect your internet completely and try without this.

How do I make Sims 4 run smoother?

The best way to reduce lag in Sims 4 is to clean out your computer by deleting old or unused files. You can also merge custom content files to speed up Sims 4, or change your game settings to reduce the strain on your computer.

Why does my Sims 4 keep freezing after update?

Clear your cache! It's important to clear your save game cache every now and then. Go to Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 and delete content from folders that we indicated, including the localthumbcache.

How do I fix slow fps in Sims 4?

First of all, tell Windows to run Sims 4 in performance mode. Hit Windows key-i, select System > Display > Graphics Settings, click Browse, and add TS4_x64.exe. Then click Options and select "High performance." Please try playing on ultra graphics settings at your monitor's native resolution and see how it goes.