New Laptop Recommendations/ Help choosing
Hello, I am looking for some help narrowing down/making a final decision on a new laptop as my current one is slowly giving up after 5 years. Uses: - Will mainly be used for sims 3 - with ad...
Forum Discussion
@louise199360 You absolutely do not need an RTX 4060 for Sims 3 or Sims 4, no matter what you throw at either game. At a 1920x1080 resolution, an RTX 3050 would be just fine, maybe a 3060 or 4050 if the screen has a high refresh rate (e.g. 120 or 144 Hz) and you want to have some buffer against fps drops. Both games will produce fps drops on any hardware, that's just how they're programmed, but an upgrade to a 3060 helps somewhat in those moments. Anything faster won't make a difference though.
Planet Zoo is a bit more demanding than Sims 3 or 4, but it should still run well on ultra settings with a laptop 3060 or 4050. It doesn't require a lot of storage either.
For Sims 3, there's also a known issue with the higher-end 12th- and 13th-gen Intel processors. It does have workarounds:
And this doesn't affect performance once the game starts. But I'm mentioning it so you're not unpleasantly surprised if and when Sims 3 won't start on your new laptop.
Acer Nitro laptops are generally fine: not cheap trash, not especially high-quality, just a no-frills decent gaming laptop for a few years until you're ready to upgrade. There's nothing wrong with getting one, but there are better options out there, laptops that run cooler and quieter or are built to last longer. The MSI Stealth is also fine if somewhat noisy. That's not to say these are bad options; it's just something to consider if you're planning to use the laptop for a number of years.
As far as other options go, this one is good quality and cheaper than the other options you found with a 4060. In fact, from Currys at least, it's the same price as the model with a 4050:
These are also high-quality options: good build quality, should last a long time. They do only have a 4050 and 3060, respectively, but as mentioned, either one is still more than fast enough for all three games:
https://www.box.co.uk/82RD00C0UK-Lenovo-Legion-5-AMD-Ryzen-7-16GB-RAM-512_4418198.html
If you're looking for a nicer screen, something with a higher resolution and better colors than what you'd find in your standard gaming laptop, this is a good option. Its RTX 4060 can easily handle the higher resolution (and is still overkill, but then the better screens don't come in budget-tier laptops), and it also has 1 GB storage.
Sims 3 and 4 fit on a 512 GB SSD without any trouble, but if you do want the extra storage, there aren't as many options, at least in this price range. However, almost all gaming laptops have an extra slot for a second drive, and they're built to make upgrading simple. A quality SSD can cost around £100, significantly cheaper than the price difference between the cheapest good 500 GB and 1 TB laptops available right now. So if you find a laptop that you really like except for the storage, consider buying a secondary drive separately and either installing it yourself or paying someone else to do so.
I did find this one though:
https://www.box.co.uk/876Z7EAABU-HP-Victus-Gaming-16-AMD-Ryzen-5-16GB-RAM_4756571.html
If you'd like to see more specific options, let me know what details matter to you. And if you have more questions in general, please feel free to ask.
Thank you very much for your response.
I am vaguely aware that with Sims 3 and did see about the workaround just haven't had chance to look any further into it so thank you very much for linking that post. I assume the fix works for the 13th gen too ?
Thank you for the suggestions I've had a quick look through but will go over properly tomorrow. I was ideally looking at 1tb just because thats what I have on my current laptop and I think I have 400gb space left though I do have photos and other various documents on it too. Though will defiantly look into some of the other suggestions and then adding more storage!
I did also come across this if its the same laptop you have listed at the end just with 1tb and there is a discount of £200 Buy HP Victus 16R0001na 16.1in i7 16GB 1TB RTX4060 Gaming Laptop | Gaming laptops | Argos however as you said 4060 isn't really needed to run The Sims I'm wondering weather just to stick with Buy ACER Nitro 5 AN515-58-53WE 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel® Core™ i5, RTX 3050, 1 TB SSD | Currys and save a bit of money for now. My current laptop has lasted 5 years so would expect the new one to last similar amount (if not longer if spending more on the HP)
Thank you very much!@louise199360 For the price of this HP, you could buy the secondary SSD of your choice, pay someone to install it, get more than 1 TB storage overall, and still have some money left over. It might not be the most convenient approach, but given the price difference, it's worth considering. It should also be noted that while you can almost always add RAM and storage, you're stuck with the laptop's original processor and graphics card. So all else being equal, it's better to get the CPU and GPU you want and figure out the rest later.
I do think that if you're willing to spend a little extra money, you might be happier with a 3060 or 4050, not a 3050, but it's not strictly necessary. This is more about how slow the occasional slowdown gets rather than how the games run the other 98% of the time. But I don't think this upgrade would be worth more than about £250 at most, definitely not the difference between the Acer and the HP you linked.
If you're not finding exactly what you want right now, or rather you're not seeing what you want at a decent price, it's worth waiting a few weeks for the Black Friday sales to start. I have no idea which laptops will be massively discounted, but some of them will, and perhaps one will be that RTX 3060 or 4050 plus 16 GB RAM plus 1 TB storage configuration you're looking for.
And yes, the Alder Lake issue and patch both apply to Raptor Lake (13th-gen) CPUs as well. We have plenty of confirmation at this point.
