How can I upgrade my computer for better performance & graphics in Sims 4?

@simsical-musical  Desktop hardware is stronger than laptop hardware, including graphics cards with the same name.  Having said that, you should still get good performance overall with your current hardware.  If you'd like to troubleshoot the laptop, please let me know what issues you're seeing.  Run a dxdiag and attach it to a post as well.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

Your laptop can't be upgraded beyond the RAM and hard drive.  Adding more memory may help if you're maxing out RAM as it is, but that's worth checking before you spend any money: open the Task Manager while you play and see how much memory the game and system are using.  The monitor you use won't help unless the issue is the laptop's screen.

Desktops are better for gaming because, aside from their stronger hardware, they (should) have much better cooling.  Plus, you can maintain and upgrade them more easily.  In U.S. dollars, suitable gaming desktops can be as low as $700, a good monitor might be $120, and a quality keyboard and mouse might be another $120 total, less if you just want something that works.

An Nvidia 1650 Super should always run Sims 4 on ultra graphics settings, with a 1660 of some kind being a bit of overkill but perhaps still beneficial.  Anything faster would be wasted on Sims 4 unless you wanted to play with high framerates (>100 fps) or at a higher resolution than 1920x1080.

The processors that come in prebuilt gaming systems should all be fine, although I'd avoid certain lower end CPUs for futureproofing reasons.  Any i5, or any Ryzen 5 third-generation or newer, should always be more than fine.  If you're getting a prebuilt system, you don't have a lot of choice in motherboard; if you're doing a custom build, that's a much longer conversation.

Feel free to keep asking questions.

@simsical-musical  Now I remember the thread.  Sorry, I'm not great with names, including usernames, but details of a problem I haven't been able to fix always stick with me.

Anyway, if you're leaning towards a new computer, there isn't a lot of stock right now.  (You may or may not have heard about the  completely insane graphics card market right now.)  Building your own PC is pretty much off the table unless you can find a graphics card at or near MSRP somehow, or maybe buy a used one from a friend and wait out the storm.

 If you're patient though, you may find a quality prebuilt option from CyberpowerPC available from either the company itself or from Best Buy or Amazon.  The reason I like these systems is because the hardware tends to be higher quality.  Cyberpower is a custom build company and stocks the same components you might order when building yourself, but it needs to get rid of surplus somehow.

So while the parts Cyberpower hasn't been able to sell aren't likely to be the most high-end options, there's still a pretty high floor on what the company is even willing to stock.  The components are therefore going to be significantly higher quality than what you'd see from an OEM.  This matters not only for performance and longevity but for upgrade options: you're likely to have a stronger power supply and a motherboard that supports higher-end components than are currently installed.

I'm not saying that computers from Dell or HP or whoever are bad exactly, just that they're limited in what they can be expected to do.  You have the budget to do better, and I think paying an extra ~$150 to get the best version of whatever you'd like to have is a worthwhile investment.

@puzzlezaddictI hadn't heard of that company so thats good information, thank you! I found a couple of options on their website (one is out of stock right now but I want to bookmark it for when it comes back if it's a good option)...

For $945 there's one with these specs:

• Windows 10 Home
• Intel® Core™ Processor i5-11600KF
• GeForce® GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5
• 8GB DDR4-3000 Memory
• B560M-A AC M-ATX Motherboard
• 500GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD

And there's one thats sold out right now for $1129 with these specs:

• Windows 10 Home
• AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Processor
• GeForce RTX™ 3060 12GB GDDR6
• 16GB 3000MHz RAM
• B550 M-ATX RGB Motherboard
• 500GB WD Blue SN500 PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• 1TB HDD

Also, I had previously found this, but I know you said HP can be more limited:
https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-pavilion-gaming-tg01-1185t

Let me know what you think, and also whether if I bought one of these now if I'd be paying significantly more than I would be at another time. I'm somewhat in a rush to find a good option now because I haven't been able to play the game in a while and I'm trying to get back to my Tumblr followers before I'm considered inactive and people start to unfollow 😆

@simsical-musical  Both Cyberpower options are good, not perfect but good starts with room for improvement if and when it becomes necessary.  For the first one, I'd add another 8 GB RAM right away if you're doing any streaming or heavy multitasking, e.g. editing photos while you play.  The 1650 is more than good enough for now, and the power supply and motherboard will support a upgrade if you want one in a couple of years.  The processor is overkill, but that's not a bad thing.

For the second one, the graphics card is far and away more power than Sims 4 will ever need, again not a bad thing.  The only component I don't like all that much is the processor, but it'll do for now, and if you want something stronger in the future, the board will support a Ryzen 5000-series CPU.  As an example, the 5600X is more than powerful enough for any game currently in existence, and I've seen it for as low as $200 on sale, that is when you can find one.  But you shouldn't need the upgrade now.

Normally, I'd buy the fastest CPU that came with a decent graphics card and go from there, but given the easy upgrade path, I'd call this a tossup.  For reference, if you wanted to buy a new GPU and the market was normal, you could get a 3060 ti for $400 or a bit more, and a 3060 for maybe $350, so between that and the RAM, the total cost over time would be quite similar if you did in fact upgrade.  But like I said, you don't strictly need to add anything to either build.

The HP is fine for what it is, and a similar, slightly cheaper model (configurable from a lower baseline) would be a good budget option.  But HP puts the weakest power supply it can get away with in its Pavilion desktops, and the PSU and motherboard at least used to use proprietary connectors, making upgrading much more complicated than it should be.  It's the kind of headache that's worth saving money for someone with a budget around $800, but probably not for you.

@puzzlezaddictSo which do you think would get me the best possible graphics without getting laggy/slow? Would both support reshade if I was to add that as well?

Also, how does the $900 version compare to my current specs and the computer with the MSI Z270 Gaming Plus motherboard, Intel Core i7 7700k processor and NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1050 Ti I mentioned earlier?

Sorry for asking a lot of detailed questions but I really don’t know much about all of this...

@simsical-musical  The 1650 is somewhere around 30% faster in gaming than the 1050 ti, although that depends a lot on the game involved.  The 7700K is a few percentage points faster than the 3600, and the 11600KF is significantly faster, but that's not nearly as relevant: for comparison's sake, a 7700K can drive a 2080 ti without issues.

Both graphics cards support Reshade, but if you're planning to overload your game with Reshade filters and custom content, you may want the faster graphics right away.  While the 1650 is more than fast enough to maintain 60 fps (and then some) on ultra settings under normal circumstances, its margin isn't so high that it can also absorb a heavy load on top of the game.

If you want to get an idea of what you're looking at, try playing without Reshade and with zero cc, then add both back, and compare framerates.  I can't give you an accurate picture because a lot of this depends on what kind of cc you have, and Reshade's impact can vary depending on which features you use.  But if the fps hit from adding Reshade and cc is around 10%, the 1650 should still be fine.  If it's around 30%... well, the 1650 would still be fine overall, but you'll probably notice some fps drops too.

I also want to be clear that Sims 4 will slow down from time to time on even the most powerful hardware.  This can't be helped: it seems to be something about the game engine and what it needs to process.  I've seen slowdowns where my CPU and GPU were nowhere near maxed out on any statistic, and I've heard the same from enough other people, and seen the benchmark tests in some cases, to know it's not about my machine.

Having said that, the faster the card, the more of a buffer you have for the fps drops, up to a point.  The speed of the processor can also help resolve some types of slowdowns, but it won't eliminate them completely either.  So there's an argument to be made for both builds.

In the end, this may all be moot, of course, if the second Cyberpower option doesn't come back into stock.  (On that note, you could contact the company and ask; maybe they'll let you know whether they plan to bring it back any time soon.)  If the first one is the only option, I think you'd be happy with its performance overall, even if it's not perfect 100% of the time.  It should certainly outperform the 7700K/1050 ti by an obvious margin, so if that's your standard, you should be fine.

@puzzlezaddictOkay, thank you so so much for your help, I think I’ll probably go with the $900 option! One last ask though... any recommendations for a monitor off Amazon? One of the complaints I have about my current laptop is that the screen quality is such a drop from Apple screens and it made anything look a bit fuzzy, not just the game. So I'm just looking for a decent sized monitor that probably has 144 fps and good brightness (that's a problem too on my current one) and easy for a beginner to set up and use...

@simsical-musical  How large a monitor do you want, and what resolution?  I personally would get a QHD (2560x1440) panel in the 25-32" range, rather than 1920x1080, but a lot of people are fine with the lower resolution.  Below 25", virtually all monitors are 1080p, and the resolution looks fine at that size.

Monitors are extremely easy to set up initially: you really just need to know how to use a screwdriver to mount a stand.  Calibration is another matter, but you can leave that until later if you want, or just play with it and see what happens.