new laptop
Im looking for a new PC laptop to play the sims 4 on the highest settings with all future dlc packs. I would like to spend less than $1,500. I live in the US and plan to use this laptop for sims 4 an...
Forum Discussion
@macietayl0r That's certainly a great laptop, but in your price range, you have plenty of choices. In fact, for Sims 4 itself, you could get a computer that's futureproofed by a comfortable margin for under $1,000. So the best option for you probably depends on what you mean by "other computer things," as in, what other plans you have for this laptop.
To lay out the choices, Sims 4 doesn't need a particularly strong processor, at least not an i7-9750H, nor does it need an Nvidia 2060. An i5-9300H (or even an AMD 3550H or 3750H) and a 1660 ti would both be more than the game would ever use. But you might like the extra power for other purposes, like if you do photo or video editing. 1 TB SSD is great but more storage than most people would use. On the other hand, if you want it, you can certainly get it. 16 GB of RAM is not strictly necessary, but it makes multitasking easier—you wouldn't need to worry about closing browsers or other background apps while playing.
Finally, since you pretty much have your pick, do you want a 15' or 17" screen, or does it not matter to you? Does the refresh rate matter? (Although it's not a huge consideration, since most laptops in this category have 120 or 144 Hz refresh rates.)
If you let me know exactly what you want, I can find a few options that fit. In the meantime, here are a few that I found in ten minutes of poking around, so you have an idea of what's out there.
This is the low end of Sims 4 overkill, in that it's more than enough for the game but doesn't go to the next level beyond that:
These two have a much stronger processor but are only on sale for a bit longer. These would still be a without the sale though, especially factoring in the rebates. They're the 8 GB and 16 GB RAM versions.
(Don't stress about sales; there will be something available for an excellent price every day this week.)
This one has the same specs as the Cyberpower laptop, except it has a 256 GB SSD/1 TB HDD combination. If you only need a lot of storage for storing things, as opposed to installing a number of demanding apps, that would work fine—the SSD is large enough for Sims 4, your user content, plus however many browsers and other small apps you'd like.
These two have the same specs as the Cyberpower laptop, except for a 512 GB SSD instead of the full 1 TB.
(This Amazon link is annoyingly long.)
If you do want to go with Cyberpower, there are other configurations that would be cheaper, depending on exactly what you want. So once you decide your preferences, if any, on the processor, graphics card, RAM, storage, and screen size, let me know. Or, if you have more questions about any of the hardware, feel free to ask.
Thank you! I would prefer a 15.6” screen. I don’t know that much on specs like refresh rate but want something that can handle multitasking, photo editing here and there, browsing, storage for photos and videos and sims 4 of course. Another thing I would prefer is a good battery life.
@macietayl0r Sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner. The issue here is battery life: While most gaming laptops are pretty bad in this category, some are worse than others. I did find some good benchmarks, but only for certain models, and other sites seem to be all over the map with their assessments. Complicating things, some brands have completely different batteries for very similar builds... it's kind of a mess. But I'm going to ask for advice on this one, and I'll get back to you when I have a better idea of the reasonable options.
And just to be clear, it's never a good idea to play games on battery. Performance will drop off considerably, and even the best batteries can't sustain the kind of power required for gaming for very long. But I'm sure you have other uses in mind as well, and it would be nice not to have to plug the laptop in after just a couple of hours of normal use.
No problem, take your time.
@macietayl0r Okay, so two days (and one extremely expert opinion) later, there's a pretty clear choice you need to make. Most gaming laptops have relatively poor battery life because the manufacturers don't expect people to care all that much—playing on battery is always a bad idea for performance reasons, and wall outlets are easy to find. So the choice is usually between mediocre to bad (4 hours or so of normal use) vs. awful (just over 2 hours).
You see better results with weaker hardware, of course, because the weaker hardware doesn't draw as much power. But from the description of what you want to use the laptop for (and your price range), you're in the category of a power-hungry processor and graphics card, and there's not much you can do about that. For photo editing, you'll benefit from an Intel i7-9750H (or 8750H from last year), which is much stronger than anything else available in comparable gaming laptops.
There's one obvious exception to the bad battery life: the Dell G5 series. Dell makes quality gaming laptops, and this one gets good reviews. The battery is significantly better than its competitors, other than laptops with much weaker graphics cards. The tradeoff is that the screen, although IPS (the highest quality) and 144 Hz, is dim compared to other options. This might not bother you—people have different preferences—but it's worth considering.
There are models with an Nvidia 1660 ti ($1,150), already overkill for Sims 4, and with a 2060 ($1,400), the next card up. You could upgrade the 1660 ti model to have 16 GB RAM for an additional $100 (kind of unreasonable), and the graphics card to a 2060 for another $100. All other specs are the same. So if you liked the 256 GB SSD/1 TB HDD combination better than the single 512 GB SSD, it would be cheaper to upgrade the first model.
Aside from the Dell, the other best choices with a strong processor all have an Nvidia 2060 rather than a 1660 ti. The prices are about equal, at least in 15" models, and the specs are better overall. For the budget option that has merely a mediocre battery, this MSI will do fine. It's $1,250 with an additional $100 rebate. It has an i7-9750H, an Nvidia 2060, 16 GB RAM, and a 512 GB solid state drive. One downside is that the screen is also somewhat dim, although not terrible. Still, MSI makes great gaming laptops.
This MSI Leopard ($1,400) has the same specs as above, except that it has an excellent screen. (Its battery life is also mediocre, but not terrible.)
It's hard to find good benchmarks for the batteries on Cyberpower laptops, but what I did see suggests that their batteries are not very good at all. If you do decide to go that route though, these two are $1,200 and $1,300 for an Nvidia 1660 ti or 2060, respectively, and otherwise the same specs as the other options. And of course you can customize the hard drive configuration however you want.
https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Tracer-III-15V-VR-300
https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Tracer-III-15V-VR-400
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask. And in case you're curious, here are some of the reviews I found:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-G5-15-5590-i7-8750H-RTX-2060-SSD-FHD-Laptop-Review.422281.0.html
(weaker processor and lower-power-consumption graphics card, for comparison)
