New PC time, but which one?
I am going cross eyed here looking for a new PC. I only play Sims 3 on it as well as general computing requirements, like Office 2010. I'm a cheapskate so looking to do this as cheaply as I can whil...
Forum Discussion
@SusieCue I don't exactly play TS4, but I have installs in both macOS and Windows for the sake of testing. (Not the point, but it's quite useful to be able to test on the exact same laptop in both OSs, since it removes any question of hardware issues.) I haven't really done any rigorous monitoring on my MacBook Pro's Windows install, and I haven't even tested on that side of the partition since... I want to say a month ago... but temperatures have certainly never been anywhere near 94º C, nor did I see evidence of thermal throttling at any point. I can grab some numbers later, if you're curious.
With your reported temperatures, I'd say that either there was something wrong with the laptop's cooling system, or maybe, depending on your OS build, the issue is the fullscreen optimization settings or some other feature of Windows that doesn't work as well as it should. TS4 is certainly more demanding on a CPU than TS3, but if it were consistently driving temps into the 90s, we'd see a lot more reports of game and system crashes. There are some, to be sure, but not enough to suggest the game itself can't be run on a proper gaming laptop.
The other possibility, if you happen to have an AMD processor, is that the monitoring app isn't reporting the CPU temp correctly. Most of the tools in common use were designed with Intel hardware in mind, and I've seen AMD CPUs reported to be running as high as 125º C, which is definitely inaccurate.
At any rate, if you want to look into this further, feel free to ask. We're not really supposed to troubleshoot TS4 here, but you can always post at AHQ. (As a minor bonus, you can upload files directly instead of having to send them to a third party site.) On the other hand, it sounds like you'd prefer to play on a desktop anyway, so it might not be worth the trouble for you.
With your reported temperatures, I'd say that either there was something wrong with the laptop's cooling system, or maybe, depending on your OS build, the issue is the fullscreen optimization settings or some other feature of Windows that doesn't work as well as it should. TS4 is certainly more demanding on a CPU than TS3, but if it were consistently driving temps into the 90s, we'd see a lot more reports of game and system crashes. There are some, to be sure, but not enough to suggest the game itself can't be run on a proper gaming laptop.
The other possibility, if you happen to have an AMD processor, is that the monitoring app isn't reporting the CPU temp correctly. Most of the tools in common use were designed with Intel hardware in mind, and I've seen AMD CPUs reported to be running as high as 125º C, which is definitely inaccurate.
At any rate, if you want to look into this further, feel free to ask. We're not really supposed to troubleshoot TS4 here, but you can always post at AHQ. (As a minor bonus, you can upload files directly instead of having to send them to a third party site.) On the other hand, it sounds like you'd prefer to play on a desktop anyway, so it might not be worth the trouble for you.
