Alright, so I have windows 10 and an Alienware laptop. It can play GTA 5, sims 4, fallout 4. And then there's TS3... My game drops to the 10's frequently and it doesn't seem... right. Looking at the config it gives my card a 5 and the memory a 1. It says I have 32mb of video card memory? my dxdiag says 6057mb. It might be worth mentioning that I have dual cards, an intel and the nvidia. I'm not using a HQ mod. I can turn up the settings and everything, so that's not an issue. But maybe the memory is screwing with the performance?

=== Application info ===
Name: Sims3
Version:
Build: Release
=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 1 CPU: 3 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 2898 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3464 RAM: 8077 Adjusted RAM: 7565 Cores: 2
=== Machine info ===
OS version: Windows 8 6.2.9200
OS prod type: 0
OS major ver: 6
OS minor ver: 2
OS SP major ver: 0
OS SP minor ver: 0
OS is 64Bit: 1
CPU: GenuineIntel
Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210H CPU @ 2.90GHz
Family: 6
Model: 12
Cores: 2
HT: 1
x64: 0
Memory: 8077MB
Free memory: 5281MB
User:
Computer:
=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
Name (database): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M [Found: 0, Matched: 0]
Vendor: NVIDIA
Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: 13d9, Board: 06851028, Chipset: 00a1
Driver: nvd3dum.dll, Version: 21.21.13.7254, GUID: D7B71E3E-5099-11CF-CE6F-88261BC2D835
Driver version: 7254
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY5
Texture memory: 32MB <<OVERRIDE>>
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1

Ah alienware, how I love and hate that laptop. Follow the suggestions nitromon linked to. Then an extra step for alienware laptops: they are very finicky about whether or not they will use the graphics card instead of the onboard graphics. If you boot up when it is not plugged in, and a whole bunch of other silly circumstances, it will cause the chipset to be used instead of the Nvidia, even if you adjust the settings in nvidia control panel. So every time I launch TS3, I first go to the nvidia control panel and choose, for preferred graphics processor, "high performance nvidia processor". I know you can set it by program, or to auto select, but it won't necessarily stick. I had 6 weeks of crash to desktop before I found the answer, which is to manually select the nvidia card EVERY time I launch the sims. Good luck!

Thank you very much, I apologize! I googled and got very little and tried a few things. I had added the graphic card to the graphicrules incorrectly at one point, but that error is fixed now. I'm still getting lag, without mods as well.
If the world has any sims other than my household, or isn't a very small world it either spikes and drops drastically in fps or it crashes. I crash every time I try to load a lot in Strawberry Acres. Sunset Valley is also very laggy. Is it possible that my CPU isn't good enough? I thought it'd be fine but it's scoring it at a 3. I can turn the graphics up to max and use HQ mods and it doesn't really make it any worse or better. So I'm thinking it's not the card after all :/

It doesn't, no. I'd be very happy if it performed like that. Comparably, my old HP ran this game better than my laptop is right now, it was an old laptop from early windows 7. It was low quality for the time, as well. 4 gigs and had an integrated ATI card that couldn't even handle advanced rendering.On this laptop it'll be fine (20-30 frames, i have it capped at 30) if I'm in a small neighborhood, like linmeadow. Although it did give me an endless loop while I was trying to save earlier. It was a practically empty house after like 15 minutes of gameplay, and there's no other sims in that neighborhood.
Going into any other world if I move the camera or scroll anywhere I instantly drop down to about 13 or so frames and it gets really choppy and slowly crawls back up. This is in normal weather as well. In sunset Valley I went to the library, for example, I was at a constant 11 or so frames. That was with and without an HQ mod installed. I had an HQ mod and also had my shadows set to 4k and it didn't seem to make it worse, so I'm not sure what's going on. I did also do the DEP thing, and changed the memory in the config ini file to 4 gbs (it seemed to have made my load times longer, actually). I could try and record a video if you'd like? Is it possible that it's windows 10? I have issues with TS2, as well. TS2 only works on my integrated card, due to some kind of issue with my graphic card series.

Also, I am running overwatch mods and such. This problem is in brand new saves that have no other sims in them other than my household. It's pretty playable in games that have no other lots, but that's kind of ridiculous haha. I also worry for what will happen because I'm a generational player. If it runs this bad on a new save, I can't imagine what a legacy would run like haha!

Something that I used to do that I havent yet, is merging all of my CC. I have about 10 gbs worth right now. I think it's nearing 2,000 files. Could that be the issue? Loading sunset valley just now took nearly 20 minutes, and after removing it I barely noticed any lag at all. Any lag without CC wasn't a problem with me, It was very slight drops that I'd chalk up as the game simply loading things that were off-screen. I'm feeling silly for not thinking of this previously, I kind of assumed that what I was doing before wasn't all that necessary/wouldn't make such a big deal.

Edit: that being said I did take out the mods previously and it still lagged, but it isn't now. So hopefully something along the way fixed it haha!

editedit: Got all of my mods down to 45 (mostly) combined files. Game runs SO much smoother and loads normally. I feel silly now