@Spacemoney8100 If you would prefer to stay in the Mac ecosystem, an M1 MacBook Air plus a cooling fan or pad would be a good solution. Someone else who helps here has one and plays Sims 4 on ultra graphics settings, and performance is good enough for her tastes. It looks like the entry-level MBAs are currently $1,000 U.S. at various stores, and they might get a little cheaper when the M2 model comes out.
As for specs, it would be nice to have more than 256 GB storage, but it's not strictly necessary. External hard drives are cheap and USB sticks even cheaper, and all of Sims 4 plus saves plus a decent amount of custom content might take up in the range of 100 GB, so you'd still have plenty of room for schoolwork and other small apps. The eight-graphics-cores option is also nice to have, but it's not strictly necessary and probably not worth the extra $200 if it's going to strain the budget.
On the other hand, an entry-level M2 should perform even better than the M1, so if you're willing to pay the premium, you may be happier with the results. I'd at least wait until the reviews come out though, just in case there's some issue with gaming on these chips that no one knows about yet.
If you'd like to see some options for Windows laptops, let me know what country you're in and any other details that matter to you. For example, you might care about size or weight or how the laptop looks. You could certainly get a good gaming laptop for $1,000 U.S. or even a bit less, but not a lightweight gaming laptop that looks like a non-gaming model.
Thank you so much for helping me! I am kind of split between Mac and Windows, so if you could give me some options for both, that would be awesome! I’m in the US, and I’m not too bothered by weight as long as it’s not like anything ridiculous. I wouldn’t mind if it didn’t look like a non-gaming laptop, but I’d be open to either! I really just want a computer that can handle everything I want (school/work, ultra settings, most packs, good amount of cc/mods).
I probably will wait to see reviews on the M2 Air, too, just to see all the options.
Thank you again!
@Spacemoney8100 There's not much point in trying to find the best options for Windows laptops right now if you're not yet ready to buy. Unlike Apple, the various manufacturers of Windows laptops and the stores that sell them change prices all the time, sometimes week to week, so what's on sale now may be more expensive or completely unavailable next month. Still, I can give you some idea of what you might be able to get.
These are the cheapest options I'm seeing at the moment with, respectively, an Nvidia RTX 3050 and 3060. Both are more than capable of running all Sims 4 content on ultra graphics settings, and in fact the 3060 is overkill for the game, but given the price and that you also get 16 GB RAM, it's definitely worth mentioning.
There are a lot of other slightly more expensive options with similar hardware, and if you were buying now I'd go through the pros and cons. But like I said, there's not much point given that prices and availability change so quickly.
Thank you so much for doing all of that research for me! You make a good point about waiting, so if it’s alright, I’ll come back next month once I’m ready to buy and we can see what my best options are then.
Again, thank you so much for your help!! 🙂
