Best PC for TS4?

"Felicity;c-17882362" wrote:
I'm going to give a piece of advice that most people will disagree with -- if you have the budget for it, get a gaming laptop.

Here's my reasoning:

Video cards are ridiculous right now thanks to crypto currency. They have been for years, mind you, but right now it's impossible to get a decent video card at a reasonable price. Even prebuilt desktops are reflecting this. And it's not getting any better any time soon. Due to the prior year's events, material shortages may make things worse.

This assumes you're getting a system with a discrete (non-integrated) graphics card. Another option would be to buy a desktop with the most powerful CPU you can afford and use the integrated graphics and worry about getting a graphics card later.

I think most importantly, laptop or desktop, you want at bare minimum an SSD (solid state disk) as opposed to an HDD. Even better if you can get an m2 NVMe. Many prebuilt systems for whatever reason toss a HDD in, even if it's just a second drive. They are slow and clunky and more prone to hardware failure.

I suppose this is a non-answer. Easy answer is look at the recommended specs for the Sims 4, and get better than that -- as much as your budget will allow.

Edit: Laptops usually use a smaller, less powerful, made-for-laptops graphics card. These are not being used by cryptocurrency miners so you have a better chance of getting more bang for your buck. A quick google search showed me you can get a laptop with a 2060rtx, which is the last generation midrange card and an i7 CPU for $1100, or the desktop 2060 rtx only (nothing else, just the card) for $800-900. Unfortunately, even the lower range cards desktop version are going up in price. I looked up a 1650 gtx, which is a budget gaming card, and the desktop version is going for between $400 - $500 while you can get a laptop with that card for just a couple hundred more.

Crypto currency is hitting the gaming laptops too. How they can have many computers run at once is using laptops to run them too which actually is easier given how mobile they are. Especially with a lot of the gaming laptops using the same video cards or older than the new prebuilt PCs.

There are even pictures showing multiple laptops in use:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/rtx-3060-laptop-mining-farms

"logion;c-17882214" wrote:

"SimmerGeorge;c-17882197" wrote:

"logion;c-17881957" wrote:
Unless you really want a laptop, go for a gaming desktop PC, they are cheaper than gaming laptops and they generally last longer.

Other than that, it's up to how much you want to spend. You can probably get pretty decent performance in the game with a Desktop PC for $1200. The sims4 have gotten pretty CPU demanding over the years so I recommend getting something with a good CPU, that will cost more though ($1500+).

You can buy something cheaper than that, but I would recommend spending at least this if you play the sims4 a lot, might as well spend a little bit more money on things that you enjoy doing.

@logion I really wanna disagree with this. I'm playing on ultra settings in HD on a 750$ pre-built PC. The Sims 4 isn't demanding at all, you don't need to pay that much.

@SimmerGeorge you managed to get a good gaming PC for that little money? What GPU and CPU does it use?

The impression that I have gotten of the sims4 is that it's actually pretty demanding if you want to have lots with a lot of build items and render it at a good framerate.

@logion I bought mine almost 2 years ago and it has a gtx 1060 6gb and a Ryzen 5 2600 with 16GB of RAM. I'm pretty sure that in 2021 the OP can find even better specs for that price.

Yes, you are right it also depends on how many items you have etc. But the thing is The sims 4 is also somewhat limited in its utilization. The software is programmed to utilize a limited amount of power (cause it is pretty old) so buying very expensive hardware for the SIms 4 can be overkill sometimes if the software doesn't know how to utilize it.

"SimmerGeorge;c-17882923" wrote:

"logion;c-17882214" wrote:

"SimmerGeorge;c-17882197" wrote:

"logion;c-17881957" wrote:
Unless you really want a laptop, go for a gaming desktop PC, they are cheaper than gaming laptops and they generally last longer.

Other than that, it's up to how much you want to spend. You can probably get pretty decent performance in the game with a Desktop PC for $1200. The sims4 have gotten pretty CPU demanding over the years so I recommend getting something with a good CPU, that will cost more though ($1500+).

You can buy something cheaper than that, but I would recommend spending at least this if you play the sims4 a lot, might as well spend a little bit more money on things that you enjoy doing.

@logion I really wanna disagree with this. I'm playing on ultra settings in HD on a 750$ pre-built PC. The Sims 4 isn't demanding at all, you don't need to pay that much.

@SimmerGeorge you managed to get a good gaming PC for that little money? What GPU and CPU does it use?

The impression that I have gotten of the sims4 is that it's actually pretty demanding if you want to have lots with a lot of build items and render it at a good framerate.

@logion I bought mine almost 2 years ago and it has a gtx 1060 6gb and a Ryzen 5 2600 with 16GB of RAM. I'm pretty sure that in 2021 the OP can find even better specs for that price.

Yes, you are right it also depends on how many items you have etc. But the thing is The sims 4 is also somewhat limited in its utilization. The software is programmed to utilize a limited amount of power (cause it is pretty old) so buying very expensive hardware for the SIms 4 can be overkill sometimes if the software doesn't know how to utilize it.

The sims4 performance seems to be all over the place sometimes, so I kinda agree, You are not getting a huge increase in performance like with other games but in this case the OP settled on a slightly better computer for $300 more, which I think is not a bad investment if you play the sims4 every day. The better cpu will help with simulation lag, and the gpu can offer better framerate when the game is struggling to render lots.

I'm also a bit worried if the game will continue on for many more years, then I'm not sure how well it will perform, so it will probably help to spend a little bit more on hardware.

So I got the computer, but the RAM I was told was COMPATIBLE with my DESK TOP PC was for a LAPTOP! Oh Best Buy...
But, the 8 GB RAM is still going lightning quick. I will eventually upgrade, but the game comes on in 60 seconds now, where as my old PC it was like 10 minutes.