Hi,
I am looking for a gaming PC that can handle all the packs as well. I would also want to have this in the long term for a future sims 5. I have found 2 that are in my price range (under $1500). Can anyone make suggestions. I know nothing about building a PC and this will my first gaming PC. I'm currently playing the sims 4 on a hp Slimline 😬. Below are the two I found and compared. I believe the iBuyPower is better of the two.
@eluna5389 The second system has a significantly faster graphics card than the first one, and that's the single most important factor in determining how well a computer will run most games, including Sims 4. But the GPU in the first system would have no trouble running all current packs together on ultra settings; that would likely be true for the entire run of the game. (That is, if you plan on playing on a standard monitor. If you're looking to play at a higher resolution and/or refresh rate, the conversation changes somewhat.) And the first system has a better processor by a decent margin.
If your goal is to futureproof for Sims 5, there's not much point in buying an extra powerful graphics card now. Sims 5 is at least two years away, maybe more, and we have no idea what it will look like. But if earlier sims games are any indication, the Sims 5 base game will be less demanding than the full run of Sims 4, or maybe the two will have equal requirements. It's usually not until a few expansions are released that the new game needs more resources to run well than the previous one.
So at the earliest, you probably wouldn't need that more powerful card until three years from now, and it might be even longer. By that time, the available GPUs may well be far ahead of the current offerings. So if you tried to futureproof now, you'd be paying more than necessary for a benefit that you wouldn't see for several years.
On the other hand, you could pay less now but get a system that would support a GPU upgrade whenever you decided you needed it. That would give you the flexibility to choose the right card for the performance you wanted, instead of having to guess and/or overpay now. Of course, that would require either being comfortable installing a new card yourself (or maybe with the help of a friend), or taking the computer to a shop and paying someone to do it for you.
The bottom line is, for $1,500 U.S., you have a lot of options. What's best for you will depend on your preferences and how long you want this system to last. If you like, I can have a look around for other good choices. Just let me know what you'd prefer to get.
@eluna5389 I'm sorry for the delay; I got halfway through a search and then needed to do other things.
With your budget, you have a lot of options. But there are two main decisions to make. The first is whether you want a prebuilt system, from a store like Best Buy or Amazon, that is close enough to what you want; or whether you'd prefer to pay more to get exactly what you want right away. The advantage of the first is money, clearly. The advantage of the second, aside from getting to pick the hardware, is that you'd likely wind up with higher quality components like the motherboard, power supply, and CPU cooler.
If you want to get a custom build, I can help you pick the components. I looked at Cyberpower's site, and this is the best system to start with. Its base price is high, but that will come down as soon as you swap out the wildly overpowered 5700XT graphics card for something more reasonable. The processor is also massive overkill—a Ryzen 5 2600 would be a great choice—but there's nothing wrong with getting more CPU power than you need, if it's within your budget. (As for price, it changes daily depending on the free giveaway, so you might save $40-50 or so by ordering on the right day.)
https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Work-From-Home-Special-II
The other question, again, is the graphics card. You may be happy with your current monitor, but you could do a lot better, and it would be a shame to pair such a powerful computer with a 1600x900 monitor. Still, if you're happy now, it sounds like you're not hoping to play on a 4k monitor or at 144 fps. (Your current monitor's refresh rate is 60 Hz.) Even an Nvidia 1660 should have no trouble maintaining 60 fps at a resolution of 2560x1440, and more like 110 at 1920x1080. Framerates can fluctuate a lot depending on what's going on in-game, and which world your sims are in, but overall, you wouldn't get a benefit from a faster card unless you wanted to play at either 4k resolution, or at higher framerates.
Still, if you want a faster card, it's well within your budget. So you can compare, here are the best available builds that include a 1660, a 2060, or a 2070 on the Best Buy site and also have the overpowered processor you want:
(this is the one you saw)
Once you decide what you're looking for, I'd be happy to look at other sites as well.
As for the processors, Intel is still ahead of AMD for gaming, but the gap is small. These days, it can depend on the particular game whether there's any meaningful difference, and also on who runs the benchmark tests, and when (for example, before or after certain BIOS updates were released). Sims 4 is not going to be limited by the processor no matter which one of the high-end models you choose. For other tasks, AMD CPUs can be a lot faster, but you didn't mention wanting to do anything besides play.
Anyway, I know this is a lot of information, but you have a lot of options. The question is what you want, and as soon as you know that, the decision becomes a lot easier. Please feel free to ask more questions as well.
