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candiecoatediv's avatar
candiecoatediv
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
Solved

Help Deciding What to Do.

Currently I have the below laptop in which I have all packs installed. My game runs fine with some lag here and there.  My my boyfriend just purchased an Acer gaming laptop which I helped set up and...
mac
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    6 years ago

    @candiecoatediv  You might need to wipe the drive completely and start over.  If the other 200 GB or so is formatted for macOS, Windows will probably not know what to do with it, or maybe not even "see" it.  Try this approach:

    https://www.windowscentral.com/how-format-new-hard-drive-windows-10

    If you can't format the drive, or if it doesn't help, pick "erase volume" first, then format.  You'll want to use the NTFS format, which is the default for Windows 10.

    I don't think it's necessary to disable OneDrive permanently, and uninstalling it is a bit of extra work.  If it's not opening on startup, you can open it manually if and when you want, and ignore it the rest of the time.  Just make sure to check that it's still disabled on startup if and when you update Windows 10.  A regular patch shouldn't change anything, but a feature update (the ones that get released every six months or so) might restore default settings.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
6 years ago

@candiecoatediv  How long you have before the game becomes unplayable on your current laptop will depend on your tolerance for lag and low graphics settings; everyone is different.  You also might find that if you play a bit on your boyfriend's laptop, it will be harder to go back to yours.  I happily played Sims 3 for years on an older MacBook Pro than yours (although it had a dedicated graphics card), but I couldn't deal with that now that I've seen what it's like to have smooth play on ultra settings.

The site I linked is a good place to buy, as long as your computer comes from Newegg itself and not one of the third parties that also sell through the company.  (I excluded those options.)  Depending on what you're looking for, you might save a lot of money there, although Amazon is usually not too much more expensive.

As to the laptop you linked, it's better in every way than the first one I linked, except for the graphics card.  But the card is the single biggest determining factor in how Sims 4 will run on your computer.  A 1660 ti is a bit of overkill for TS4, but a 1650 may not be quite enough if your goal is to run all future packs on ultra settings.  It will handle ultra settings just fine now; this is more about futureproofing and giving yourself a bit of margin to work with.

If the other specs are what caught your attention, you may be better off getting this $1,200 laptop from CyberpowerPC with the same processor and RAM and a 1660 ti, and paying an extra $50 to upgrade the SSD to the 1 TB version.

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Tracer-III-15V-VR-300

Or, for example, you could get this Acer Predator Helios ($1000) with an Nvidia 1060 6 GB, 16 GB RAM, and last year's version of the same processor.  It only has a small 256 GB SSD, but its second hard drive slot is user-accessible, and a 1 TB SSD might cost you $90.

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Predator-Overclockable-Aeroblade-PH315-51-78NP/dp/B07CTHLX8C

Anyway, there are a lot of good options in your price range, and the best one will depend on what features are most important to you.  If and when you're ready to buy, I'd be happy to find you a few models that have what you want.

candiecoatediv's avatar
candiecoatediv
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago

@puzzlezaddict 

Thank you for all your help and patience in answering my questions. I think I agree in that it’s hard for me to play now that I’ve seen what his can do. I went and looked at this laptop 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-gu502gv-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-2060-1tb-ssd-optane-brushed-metallic-black/6338248.p?skuId=6338248

Because i was dead set on making sure it had enough RAM and a good graphics card. Best Buy was limited with what they have in stock so I asked them to hold it until tomorrow. What do you think? 

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    6 years ago

    @candiecoatediv  Honestly, I think that's very much overpriced.  It's also overkill for Sims 4; there's no way the game would ever need an Nvidia 2060.  If you did want that strong a card, you could save yourself a lot of money elsewhere.  As an example, I saw this one when I was browsing Amazon earlier:

    https://www.amazon.com/AORUS-15-W9-RT4BD-i7-8750H-GeForce-2666MHz/dp/B07MW6DT1F

    Its processor is the previous generation's equivalent, but the benchmarks are pretty close—getting the newer 9750H is certainly not worth hundreds of dollars more.  And a 500 GB SSD will hold everything that you'd want to run off a solid state drive; the 2 TB HDD will hold everything you could possibly want on your computer and then some.

    If you let me know what you want, and how much you want to spend, I can find other options as well.  I don't think Best Buy is necessarily the best option though.  Its current selection is limited and mostly overpriced, and though it will match the price of competitors, I'm not seeing that exact model available on the usual other sites, at least if I exclude third-party sellers.

    • candiecoatediv's avatar
      candiecoatediv
      Seasoned Ace
      6 years ago

      @puzzlezaddictThats interesting. When I looked on amazon yesterday only two gaming laptops came up. 

      Is the laptop too much? I want to make sure I can run both TS4 and TS3. 

      I picked up up the laptop but now I’m thinking I shouldn’t have. I get really nervous about purchasing anything without being able to see it in person. 

      Luckily i I can still return this and get something else if it’s not that good. 

      • puzzlezaddict's avatar
        puzzlezaddict
        Hero+
        6 years ago

        @candiecoatediv  Definitely return it, get something else, and save $600 or more.  It's not that this laptop is bad, exactly, it's that it's far overpriced for what it does.  You shouldn't have to pay almost $2,000 just to play Sims games.

        Amazon's search function for computer is... well, it's bad.  I don't like using it, and I have to wade through piles of unhelpful links just to find what I'm looking for.  But the good options are there, if you know how to find them.  Again, I'm happy to do that for you, to list a few links so you can choose what you want.  The Aorus I linked a few minutes ago just happened to be discounted to the point where it landed in the price range I picked, making it the best option for around $1,200, but there were a handful of others as well.

        And yes, every laptop I've mentioned, and all the specs listed, would run Sims 3 on ultra settings as well.  Even the Nvidia 1650 would be more than good enough.

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