Re: would you recommend this gaming pc for playing the sims 3?
@redtailboa1982 In terms of specs, this computer is massive overkill for Sims 3, not that that's a bad thing. You'd be able to play at a 4k resolution with 144 fps any time the game itself didn't produce a framerate drop; 144 fps at 2560x1440 would be a cakewalk.
However, I would be cautious about buying a Medion product. It doesn't provide good support overall, or hasn't in the past, and its build quality has been questionable. If you're buying from a physical store, that might not be so much of an issue—you could presumably take the computer into Currys for support. But it's something to be aware of.
It should also be noted that this processor would require one of the Alder Lake workarounds described here:
It's not a problem once you get things set up, but I'm mentioning it so you don't spend a lot of extra time troubleshooting Sims 3 your new PC, whether it's this one or another model.
Are you planning to play other games that would need the faster graphics card and processor? If not, paying less for a slower but still very fast 3060 or 1660 ti wouldn't make any practical difference. And what monitor are you using, or are you planning to buy a new one? A 1920x1080 monitor wouldn't be able to take advantage of a fast GPU, at least not while you were playing Sims 3. There's not much point in being able to generate more frames and more pixels if you can't see them.
thank you for the reply! I’m not 100% set on that particular pc but i tested a bunch on a website that told me the possibility of how well it would run and that was the pc that appeared to have the best chance but i really have no idea.
i’m mainly looking for a pc to run the sims 3 and that’s all, as well as be able to install custom content and mods (and still run smoothly). i haven’t decided on a monitor yet. i figured i’d choose the gaming tower first and go from there. i’m clueless about it all.
@redtailboa1982 There are plenty of quality monitors out there, and to some degree, you can just pick a good one and plug it in. But the reason it's helpful to consider the monitor first, or at least in tandem with the PC, is that the more frames per second you want to see, and the more pixels per frame, the faster the graphics card you'd need. Sims 3 isn't particularly demanding by the standards of modern games, but it is finicky, and it doesn't scale well: twice the pixels basically means twice the workload for the GPU. This isn't a problem, it just needs to be taken into account.
What I would suggest is going to a physical store that has monitors on display and taking a look for yourself. Ask to see a monitor that runs at 120, 144, or 165 Hz, make sure it's actually running at that refresh rate, and drag a File Explorer window around on the screen. Then do the same on a 60 or 75 Hz monitor. If you can't tell the difference, then you don't need to spend extra on the higher refresh rate. If the >100 Hz monitor feels smoother, less stuttery, or just better overall, it's worth the higher price.
Do the same with 1920x1080 (FHD) and 2560x1440 (QHD) resolutions. I wouldn't suggest looking at 3820x2160 (4k) monitors unless you're sure you don't want to play at over 60 Hz or you're fine with spending a lot of extra money. 4k 60 Hz panels are somewhat more expensive than lower resolutions, but the difference is much larter with 4k >100 Hz monitors.
Alternately, if you have a friend or family member with a gaming setup, go visit them. You can set a higher-refresh-rate monitor to run at a lower rate temporarily, and the same with higher resolutions.
Once you know what monitor specs you'd like, you'll know how fast you'd want your graphics card to be, and we can go from there. I don't want to tell you to spend an extra £300 on an RTX 3060 and a faster processor if you're never going to see the benefit on your screen, and I also don't want to tell you to save money on a lower-end gaming machine if it would result in visible fps drops and other performance issues. To be clear, there will always be fps drops and stutter in Sims 3; the question is how often and how severe.
thanks so much for sharing your knowledge, it’s honestly such a help! i’ve actually found a monitor but like i said, i don’t have much knowledge myself about this so i’d love your opinion on it. i’m not able to go into a store unfortunately so it’s just a lucky pick at this point.
this is the monitor i found, i have no idea whether it’s a good match or not.
i also have my mind set between two different towers. one is intel core i5 and the other is i7, i honestly don’t know the difference. i’ll link them below and hopefully you’ll be able to help me out with deciding which is the better option?
@redtailboa1982 The monitor is fine but a little dim. If you're going to be playing in a somewhat-dark room, that's fine, but it wouldn't necessarily feel bright enough with the lights fully on. If that matters to you, look at a model with 300-350 nits (cd/m^2) brightness, as opposed to this one's 250. You'll also want an IPS panel, which this one has.
If you'd like a higher resolution, which an RTX 3060 can easily handle, consider one of these:
AOC makes panels for other companies you've heard of, in case you're wondering, and a few of its own monitors. These are somewhat more expensive than the one you found, but the higher resolution makes everything look more crisp, and both have a 350 nit typical brightness. There's no practical difference between 144 and 165 Hz when it comes to Sims games either—your reaction time doesn't matter, just how the game looks.
I'd search on Amazon too, but the site makes that difficult for someone who's not in the U.K. (It only shows me what will ship to the U.S.) You could check the prices of these models though, or if you find something else you like, I'll be able to view the link.
For the computer itself, the graphics card is the right choice for the monitors above; you'd be fine with a 3050 on the monitor you chose. The important question about the processor is not i5 vs. i7 but the boost clock speed. Sims 3 can only use two CPU cores, so anything above 4 doesn't matter unless you're doing other processor-intensive tasks at the same time, or you're using the computer for something else that needs more power. So an i5-12600K, for example, is as good for Sims 3 as an i7-12700F because they both boost up to 4.9 GHz and have more than 4 cores. The i5-12400F but still more than good enough for Sims 3; at most, you'd see a very slightly longer pause when the game enging had a lot to calculate in short sequence, which doesn't happen very often.
I do want to point out that you could do better on price and components with a custom build from PCSpecialist. I started with this configuration:
and added what I thought were the best reasonably-priced options (the case is £57 if that makes it easier to find):
The build comes out to £1,143, including VAT, and has a better power supply, and likely a better motherboard, CPU cooler, and SSD, than what you see on Currys. That doesn't make either Currys option bad, but when the price is this much better and you know you're getting quality components, I personally think it's an easy decision.
As a side note, I definitely went overboard on the power supply, but that is the single most important component, and Corsair is the gold standard in PSUs. Plus, upgrading to 750W isn't that expensive to build in the ability to add a more powerful graphics card later should you decide you want one for whatever reason. Sims 3 won't ever need it, but maybe you'll play something else some day.
I do want to mention that the 12600K requires the Alder Lake workaround, just as the 12700 would, but if you run the patch mentioned in the thread I linked earlier, that's a one-time intervention.
If you have more questions, please feel free to keep asking.
Edit: I forgot to say, you could of course choose a different case, but the key here is getting one that has three front fans plus a back fan, at the very least. The cheapest options don't have good-enough airflow for the components in this build. Other than that, pick whatever style you like.
thank you so much!! you’ve honestly been such a help 🙂 i really, really appreciate it so much. i think you’ve pretty much sorted it all out for me haha
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