Buying a New Laptop

@takennpretty You're gonna be wanting more storage. 256GB just isn't enough these days. 512GB would be much nicer.

My $600 HP with a Ryzen 5 4500U and Radeon graphics can do The Sims 4 on High settings by default. Might help that I upgraded the stock 8GB RAM to 16. Not a "gaming" laptop, but it does okay.

A quick comparison shows the two CPUs are decently matched against each other.

So other than the iffy storage, I think you'll do okay.

@takennpretty  This laptop should run Sims 4 on ultra graphics settings.  While its solid state drive is small, 256 GB is more than enough for all your Sims 4 content, so if you don't have anything else significant to store on the computer, you'd be okay with the limited space.  As far as quality goes, it's fine, not terrible but not top-tier either.  This laptop runs hot and noisy, the trade-off for it being lighter and thinner.  You might get a lot more time out of it, but frankly, gaming laptops in this category are only built to last around 3 years: many people would be looking to upgrade after that anyway.

If you're looking for better-built options for around $700, this is a good one:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/627433588

Its graphics card is a little faster, it has an extra 1 TB HDD for bulk storage, and it runs cooler and quieter.  It's also significantly heavier, if that matters to you, although 5.5 lbs is still not terrible.  The Legion line generally has very good build quality in this price range, probably better on average than the other options, although there's still plenty of variation.  Essentially I'm saying that pretty much any gaming laptop might last you 6 years, but the chance of getting there is higher with some product lines than others.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask.