Issue Regarding GPU Rendering with RTX 3050

[Simcityppl 2]

I finally have a pc that isn't a paperweight with intel 620hd graphics.  I moved my SimCity 4 game over with all my mods and I had to reinstall NAM and CAM.  It seems to work except for the graphical issue.  It likely has something to do with the GPU rendering because it doesn't seem to show up on software mode. I do have the HD euro car automata and some hd props. I am also using LRM and DN.  I have configured my game to run with the 3050 in the Nvidia control panel.   I haven't tried a DirectX wrapper yet.

[rsc204 21,867]

10 hours ago, Simcityppl said:

I have configured my game to run with the 3050 in the Nvidia control panel.

It's very unlikely despite what you are telling the software, that it will actually use the NVidia card, especially if you are using a Laptop or portable system. The NVidia software ignores such settings when using legacy DirectX games, such as SC4, because the internal GPU should be powerful enough to run them, so it's more efficient to do so. But this ignores any driver-compatibility issues, such as the one you are showing which is typical of the Intel drivers.

Open the folder where SC4 is installed, then the Apps folder, inside of which is a file MYCOMPUTERNAME-config-log.txt. The contents of which will show which Video card is currently being used by SC4. Note too, as the game is an older one, it has no option to select the Videocard to use, it will use whichever the system presents it with.

10 hours ago, Simcityppl said:

I haven't tried a DirectX wrapper yet.

That would be my first suggestion, instructions for that here, if you need them.

[Simcityppl 2]

9 hours ago, rsc204 said:

It's very unlikely despite what you are telling the software, that it will actually use the NVidia card, especially if you are using a Laptop or portable system. The NVidia software ignores such settings when using legacy DirectX games, such as SC4, because the internal GPU should be powerful enough to run them, so it's more efficient to do so. But this ignores any driver-compatibility issues, such as the one you are showing which is typical of the Intel drivers.

Open the folder where SC4 is installed, then the Apps folder, inside of which is a file MYCOMPUTERNAME-config-log.txt. The contents of which will show which Video card is currently being used by SC4. Note too, as the game is an older one, it has no option to select the Videocard to use, it will use whichever the system presents it with.

That would be my first suggestion, instructions for that here, if you need them.

Thank you very much for your help, I am grateful that I was able to get a reply so fast.  The game was in fact using intel UHD graphics, so I downloaded and placed dgvoodoo into my SimCity 4 deluxe/ apps folder.  I think that the game is now using my nvidia card because I can see the usage on the nvidia overlay tab.  I was still having an issue with the game flickering in night mode and I found out through this thread on github: https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2/issues/3#issuecomment-708323911 that the game doesn't run 32 bit textures with the wrapper (something like that).  I applied the 4gb patch to the 32 bit modified .exe from that thread and it stopped the flickering in night mode.  So the rendering is proper at the moment but the game is having trouble rendering all the objects whenever I zoom/rotate the view (The rendering sort of re-starts from the middle outwards each time the perspective changes).  I'm sorry I'm asking for help trying to run SC4 on a new pc, and I know it's a bit of a nightmare.

[rivit 3,404]

That sequence of rendering does sound correct - renders happen in viewing depth from back to front so that objects in front are not obscured. It seems this process is now relatively slow (with the wrapper?) and you get to see it in action. If the game runs smoothly and does not exhibit graphics glitches then I'd be looking at CPU and GPU utilisation.

Also in the config-log it will say what graphics options it has applied based on the GPU card it's seeing.  If shadows are on 3 then try turning those to lowest in Game preferences to see if that makes a difference.  Shadows are notoriously expensive as it appears the calculations (2003 program singlethreaded) are done on the CPU whereas today's programs do them on the GPU.