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serenity_lopez's avatar
serenity_lopez
5 years ago
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Best laptop for Sims 4 with all expansions for up to £1200

Hi, I’ve been playing Sims since the very beginning and have always had lagging and crashing issues. I haven’t played Sims 4 in a while due to my current laptop being painfully slow. Can anybody plea...
pc
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    5 years ago

    @serenity_lopez  For £1,100 or under, the fastest graphics card you can get, at least from Amazon, is an Nvidia 1660 ti.  That's not much of a loss though: the 2060 is only a few percentage points faster, and laptops with the new 3060 are either sold out or yet to be released.

    Take a look at these four laptops, all with a 1660 ti, and see what you think:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-i5-10300H-GeForce-Graphics-Keyboard/dp/B08DXVPMNB

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-Legion-Gaming-GeForce-Windows/dp/B08BLK6TQM

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Pavilion-15-ec1006na-Gaming-Laptop/dp/B0877MJY1Q

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-G3-Backlit-Display-i7-10750H/dp/B08LL3NLMK

    I listed them in order of weakest to strongest processor, although the CPUs are all more than fine for Sims 4, and that should always be the case.  These all have only 8 GB RAM, but since you wouldn't be spending your full budget, you'd still have more than the £40 or so it should cost to get another 8 GB if you want it.  (You'll probably want it sooner or later.)  I didn't see any laptops with 16 GB RAM and a 1660 ti for under £1,150, but that's not surprising: many laptops in this category are built with 8 GB under the assumption that some users will want to upgrade to 32 GB and others 16.

    All of these are quality laptops.  The Lenovo gets the best reviews on the reilable sites, but the gap is not large.  The Asus does run hot, but that shouldn't be an issue for Sims 4 at least.

    As for Sims 5, we don't know when (or really if) it's coming, or even if it's going to be a real computer game as opposed to some mobile hangout with your friends type of thing.  So I can't really tell you what you'd need to run it.  But I would guess that it wouldn't be more demanding than the current version of Sims 4 until at least a couple years and a handful of expansion packs in, if that's any reassurance.  So if it's two years to release, and another two before the game has a chance to catch up with Sims 4, that's a good amount of time to have a powerful gaming laptop.

    By the way, you could play Sims 4 on ultra settings with an Nvidia 1650, but since laptops with a 1660 ti aren't that much more expensive, and you'd like to futureproof, I left those options out.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
5 years ago

@serenity_lopez  I looked at a dozen different UK sites, and to be honest, this isn't a great time to buy a chap gaming laptop.  The only one I found available below £650 with an Nvidia 1650, capable of running all Sims 4 packs together on ultra settings, is this Asus:

https://www.box.co.uk/FX505GT-BQ008T-ASUS-TUF-Gaming-FX505GT-BQ008T_2940903.html

It's a very good laptop; I'm just saying that there aren't a lot of options right now.  I saw a number of laptops with essentially the same specs for the same price that are currently sold out, but that doesn't help now.

The only other real gaming laptops I saw were these two, with an Nvidia 1050.  It's still capable of ultra or high-ultra settings, but the graphics card is about 30% slower for gaming, on average, than a 1650, which is a significant downgrade.

https://www.box.co.uk/81LK0039UK-Lenovo-IdeaPad-Gaming-L340-15_2934443.html

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8440710

There's also a category of laptops below this, ones that are mostly more lightweight and portable and that have Nvidia MX cards.  The MX350 should be able to handle high settings, although not ultra; the MX250 and 330 are somewhat slower.  Most of these laptops are sold out too, or at least the cheaper ones are.  But since the MX450 is now available, I'd expect the laptops with an MX350 to start dropping in price a little.  As an example, this one has an MX250 but is very similar to the newer models; it's £580:

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/acer-aspire-5-a515-54g-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i5-256-gb-ssd-silver-10198847-pdt.html

It's not that the MX250 is a bad card, but it's definitely slower than the other options mentioned.  Still, the above laptop would be a decent choice for someone who doesn't care about playing on ultra settings.

If your sister doesn't like the laptops I've linked, she may be better off waiting a few weeks for stock to replenish.  While the price for a laptop with a 1650 is almost never below £650, the options available at that price do change somewhat.

Anyway, if you or she has more questions about this, please feel free to ask.  And if your sister wants to wait to see what options become available, I'll be around whenever she's ready to buy.

serenity_lopez's avatar
serenity_lopez
5 years ago

Thanks so much. Your expertise is greatly appreciated!!

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