So I had posted another thread in the help section because Sims 3 was freezing & crashing on me. It might be because cc but I haven't gotten a chance to remove everything and try it one by one or folder by folder. The person brought up a point about onboard graphics which I have, and I DO have a desktop to so not sure if that matters?

I'm at a loss of what to do. I don't want to destroy my graphics card or video card just because of my wants of playing Sims 3 and then be stuck on my cruddy laptop again despite that I can play Sims 2 & 4 on it. I was wondering and wanting your guys's opinions. Should I keep playing Sims 3 or uninstall it? I mean like if I kept playing it would it destroy my graphics card and or video card?

The reason why I'm asking is because I don't want to ruin it, even so more faster then it may be.

I am afraid, this is a question only you can answer..it is your machine. You've been told that an onboard/integrated graphic chip/card was not meant for playing these games, and that it would most probably end up killing the whole thing. I've been told the exact same, as I too, play Sims 2, Sims 3 on my onboard graphic computer. I decided to keep playing, even though my card is slowly showing signs of..dyingz. Only when I play Sims 2 though, for some reasons. At first, all was perfect. Now, and since a while, I have blocky water in Neighborhood view. I will also have all my roads becoming all black, or even the whole 'Hood. Only way to have it change back to normal is to pretend placing a new Lot...In game, I'll have sims becoming black also, usually, just pressing TAB give them back their original look. See...I've learned to live with it.
Sims 3 have yet to show any signs of graphic abnomaly, but it might be coming. I am not too excited about the fact that my whole computer could die at any time, but...I know I'll build a new one soon. I am just SO procrastinating, because building a gaming machine scares me. I only have my new graphic card bought..imagine.

So yeah..it is really as you wish, and what chances are you willing to take.
I wish you luck in whatever it is you decide!

I'm not sure a game can actually destroy a modern graphics card, much less onboard graphics. Which in the meantime means on CPU. They'll all throttle the speed hard, if it's anywhere near overheating.

Basically, yes, it was possible to thermally destroy a graphics card or a CPU, like 10 years ago, but not really any more. You can probably imagine that it meant returns for the manufacturers and retailers, so they put in temperature sensors in the meantime, precisely so they don't end up replacing a bunch of dead CPUs or graphics cards.

What CAN still thermally fail in a laptop is actually stuff like the hard drive, if it's not an SSD, and if the fans are clogged. Basically the CPU and/or GPU can still overheat other stuff.

Not sure if it's possible to do that in a desktop though -- or, again, not any more -- if you have adequate ventilation. REALLY old cases, like if you have it in a case from the year 2000 or so, could severely lack ventilation. But in the meantime you pretty much can't even buy a case without holes and fans everywhere even if you wanted to.

You could try checking out the CPU and GPU temperatures while playing, if you suspect overheating. But basically that's about it. There's no real other way to destroy anything with a game.

EDIT: mind you, overheating CAN still cause your GPU to glitch or hang up. Especially AMD ones, from my experience. NVidia is more proactive with the throttling. But I'd be really surprised if anything got actually destroyed.

EDIT: you could try underclocking your GPU if it overheats or you just suspect overheating. Reducing the frequency can drastically reduce the temperature. And you might want to clean the fans first in any case, since USUALLY they come with enough fan power to not overheat. It's when the crap clogs the fan that, well, the crap hits the fan

Well, then let's hope that the original poster has a modern one..I do not! My computer is at least 5 years old I cannot remember exactly...
What I am aware is that my gaming ended up killing spots on my integrated graphic chip..and that if all of it dies? It will kill my motherboard.
Dunno about you, but a dead motherboard means a dead computer as well.
And your last edit made me laugh. ahah!

hm Rosebine in such case you already have got a machine which is in its "afterlife", or near it. Modern stuff' lifetime is rather short (2-4 yrs mostly). 5year old computer is like stone axe or cheap, crappy version of outdated watch [says someone who has laptop even elder] And of course we can always discuss EA participation in global tech conspiracy inducing design of prematurely dead hardware. Because 'ya know EA, conspiracy - it's obvious - and that decision of not controlling framerate is somewhat pure evidence, right? It's not a bad design or incompetency, it is EAvilness !

I'd rather suspect something missing (drivers?) or bad DirectX installation in case of strange S2 behaviour. If it would be a "dying gpu" (it sounds romantic, isn't? ) the effect on much more demanding S3 would be disasterous.

But seriously I do not remember when exactly overheat-shutdown* feature becomes trivial and standard but it seems to be rather antique in the current standards. It's not the reason for avoid using FPS-limiter or something similar. Constantly overtaxed machine will perform poor.

*In plain language: if the temperature exceed its tolerated maximum even if already "cool-down" procedure, like lower clock/voltage to prevent errors and damage is running (both hardware and software (since XPSP2 IIRC) implementation) , the mechanical termostat simple burn and shutdown the machine in the effect.

@Rosebine - Oh wow! Well I hope you get your new system made soon. And I know it's not recommended with playing with an onboard graphics on your laptop or desktop but some people make sacrifices I guess, haha. I plan to eventually get a gaming desktop or create a custom one. Probably will happen when I'm a grandma though. I also have an Intel (R) Graphics card.. not sure whats considered modern but thats what I know off hand without peeking at everything.

@Moraelin - Oh wow I didn't realize that could happen! And I don't want to have to deal with a broken ass computer on terms of CPU wise or anything else, so maybe I will uninstall to save myself AND my computer. If anything I will check the CPU & GPU temperature while playing if I decide to not uninstall like stated before, and hopefully the heating isn't bad while playing.

Even if it's two opinions so far, I think I'll save myself the trouble of overheating and or killing some part of my computer and stop playing Sims 3 as much as it makes me tear to do it. At least I have Sims 2 and 4 which doesn't put strain like Sims 3 unless you.. well have a shitty ass computer. Haha

Rose, personally I don't think your computer is dying as such. Hardware doesn't tend to die bit by bit like people. If something does burn out on the chip, it tends to cause a shortcircuit and die rather suddenly and spectacularly.

It would also not be limited to just one game.

And frankly, if any board will die on you nowadays, whether it's graphics card or mainboard, it will more likely be because of tin crystals causing a shortcircuit than because of a game.

If I were to take a wild guess, your case sounds more like one of the usual suspects: file corruption, changes in the drivers or loaded software, and/or a clogged fan. Especially driver artefacts building up over time, can simply mean that your fan is getting more and more clogged with dust, so things get hotter and glitchier.

None of that is really the same as "dying", though. Well, not as far as the hardware is concerned. The save game may corrupt itself -- e.g. if it glitches or crashes while saving -- or even the game or system files may become corrupt -- e.g., if it hangs up and you have to do a hard reboot, so changes to files aren't persisted to the actual hard drive -- but the hardware itself tends to survive just fine. A reformat and reinstall later, all would run like on day one.

Oh, hard shutdown when overheating is rather ancient. Well, over a decade, IIRC. What I was talking about as more modern (though still some years old) is thermal throttling. Intel had it first in the PC realm, if memory doesn't fail me, while graphics cards are more recent to get it down pat. Furmark for example could still overheat GPUs for a while, but I think they got it right by now.

You are right though, of course, about machines performing poorly if overtaxed. Throttling down the frequency can be as severe as it takes to keep the chip from burning itself, so, yeah, that'll limit performance.

Thank you guys for your inputs as well as helping others! I decided to uninstall Sims 3 like previously stated so I don't chance ruining anything on my computer, especially with my onboard graphics. I know its not limited to one game with the chance of that happening but people say Sims 3 is a bit powerful on non-gaming computers and or ones with onboard graphics.

For now I have TS2 & TS4 to keep me company <3


*tears at TS3 already being bye bye*