Can I play The Sims 4 on my laptop?

Butterflowery​  What the computer store and probably a number of online sources are trying to say is that modern games need a dedicated graphics processing unit in order to run well, or possibly run at all.  Your laptop's processor, like most CPUs, comes with a graphics chip integrated into it, but these iGPUs can't compare with even the lowest-end current-generation dedicated GPUs.  And they're not supposed to—their main purpose is to handle everyday tasks like browsing the web without using too much energy.

HOWEVER, Sims 4 on lower graphics settings is not nearly demanding enough to require a dedicated card.  As a comparison, it's actually significantly easier to run on lower-end graphics than Sims 3, although the requirements for playing the two on ultra settings are very close.

So I agree with your conclusion that you should be able to play on low-medium settings, or perhaps medium if you don't need the game to be perfectly smooth; and I would add that you can probably play with all current packs on low-medium settings, provided your laptop has the free storage to accommodate installing them.

If you only have 8 GB memory installed, I would avoid more than the lightest multitasking while playing, and I would suggest restarting your laptop before you want to play to clear anything else using RAM that doesn't need to be running.  But using all the installed memory isn't a major problem—the CPU will swap data to the page file where necessary.  The only issue with that is that it's slower than keeping everything in RAM, but there again, it's a question of performance, not whether you can play at all.

Finally, it's important to say that running Sims 4 on higher settings than your laptop can handle, or installing more content than it can handle, would not put it at any risk.  The possible souce of damage is excess heat, but that shouldn't be a problem as long as you're not smothering your laptop in blankets while you play.  The system would be designed to dissipate as much heat as the components can produce, which is not a lot with an i3-1215U.  So it's fine to experiment with the graphics settings until you get something you like.  At worst, performance will drop and you'll have to back off a bit.

It's also fine to install whatever packs you want to buy.  I would suggest only buying one expansion at a time, and testing it before you add another, just in case you notice performance dropping to the point where it starts to affect your enjoyment of the game.  But as long as you're happy with how Sims 4 runs, and your laptop isn't running out of storage (try to keep >30 GB free), add the content you want and don't worry about the rest.

Thanx for your answer.

I didn’t expect to hear that I could maybe even play The Sims 4 with all the expansion packs. (Even though I would only install a few). 

My laptop does only have 8 GB. What do you mean with multitasking? I never know what people mean with that when it comes to playing the Sims. Does it mean something like having a lot of people in a household and controlling them at the same time? 
The 8 GB just came with the laptop. Is it possible to add more GB on a laptop?

I thought that installing The Sims 4 and/or playing it on too high settings might have damaged my laptop, but if I understand you right, that isn’t possible?

Excessive heat on the other hand is a big problem, I think. 
With ‘the possible source of damage is excessive heat’ do you mean: excessive heat caused by anything could cause damage to the laptop (instead of running the Sims 4 on too high settings or installing too much content doing that damage) or do you mean: running The Sims 4 on my laptop could cause excessive heat (and that could cause damage?)

I already installed the game on the computer about a year ago. From the beginning that I played it, the laptop got overheated and made a lot of sound after about half an hour of playing. I made a rule for myself to never play the game longer than half an hour (really occasionally I play an hour) because of this, because I thought else my laptop was gonna get broken. This is very stressful and no fun playing.

At some point, I opened the ‘camera options’ menu in the game, and I wouldn’t be able to close it again. I’m still not, and every new game I start, when I put the sim in a house, right from the start it’s there and I can’t close it.

I do think I first played the sims at too high settings. I don’t know exactly what settings anymore. But I already changed that to low settings. 

But I definitely made the mistake of placing my laptop on a carpet floor (also when using it for other things) and sometimes even on blankets. I stopped that with the blankets already, because I found out you had to place your laptop on a ventilated surface, and I noticed when it was on the blankets, it got overheated really fast. I never knew this. Still, I didn’t know how much of a problem a wrong surface and dust in your computer were.
I definitely think there could also be too much dust in my computer.

However, the problem doesn’t get any better if I play the game with my laptop on a table.

I think the damage is already done and the wrong surface/dust damaged the computer. Maybe that causes The Sims 4 to run bad.

There also has been a problem with my laptop a year ago. It got fixed, but I feel since then, my laptop is still running slower than before, which I think is a sign something is still wrong. Around the same time I installed the EA app and The Sims 4 (I still had it from the Origins time). I don’t remember what happened first. It could be that The Sims isn’t running well because of that.

At this moment, my  laptop is at the computer store for an antivirus subscription renewal and a basic check up, so at least, if there is too much dust in it, that’s gonna be removed.

I also want them to look at the problem with The Sims 4, but the thing is, because in general for games now you need to have a gaming computer and a video card, they assume that that is also the case with The Sims 4. I think that because of that, I won’t get them to look at it and if needed fix it, because they think the laptop just can’t run the game. 

I have to call them back, so I hope that if I tell them your answer on the phone I can get them to look if there is a problem with my laptop/the game that causes The Sims to not run well.

At least, thanx for the effort that you put in it.

Butterflowery​  Multitasking in this sense means using multiple apps on your computer at the same time.  For example, while you play, you might have a couple browser windows open, and also Spotify, and also a photo editing program, etc.  All of these use at least a little bit of RAM if they're open at all, and more if you're actively switching to them, and sometimes a bit even if you think you've closed them.  (They can leave background tasks open.)  Restarting the system releases all this memory, as long as you don't open the apps again, of course.

As for whether you could upgrade the memory, that depends.  I'd need to know your exact model—some have one or two free slots for memory modules, and in others, the RAM is all soldered to the motherboard.

When I mentioned excessive heat, it was in the context of saying this is the only meaningful way to damage a laptop quickly, and it's not specific to Sims 4 or any other software.  You'll get wear and tear on the components even with normal use, but this is on a scale that's unlikely to matter for the useful lifespan of the computer.  So other than physical damage, say from dropping the laptop, heat is the only significant risk you need to pay attention to.

Laptop chassis are built to dissipate as much heat as their components can produce, or often more since one chassis may be reused for a number of different configurations.  As in, your laptop chassis might be equipped to handle all the heat that an i7-1265U can produce, a processor that's a higher SKU and capable of generating significantly more heat.  This is speculation since I don't know what model you have, but it's cheaper for the manufacturer to have only a few chassis that can accommodate a wide range of hardware, and as I noted earlier, the i3-1215U doesn't produce much heat, relatively speaking.

So the point is that as long as you don't artificially impede the laptop's ability to cool itself, and it's not mechanically defective (e.g. a broken fan) and doesn't have its vents blocked by dust, it should be able to dissipate however much heat it produces running Sims 4.  Plus, modern hardware, especially the processor, is built to throttle when it senses it's overheating, thus protecting itself from damage.

The fan or fans running at high speeds isn't necessarily a sign of a problem, and you can check the components' temperatures if you're worried.  You can also get a cooling fan or pad to help.  And when you're not getting someone else to check out the laptop, you can use compressed air to blow out the vents, that is if nothing is stuck there.  But opening it up is better.

As for why Sims 4 runs slowly, we can look into that once you have the laptop back, that is if you don't get a good answer from the shop.  Feel free to tell them that I see players running the game on hardware like yours, and even weaker components, all the time.  The experience isn't ideal but is certainly good enough to keep them playing.

Hi,

Thanx.

I have my laptop back from the store. They did a general check up and say it works fine. They didn’t want to look further at the laptop to see if something is wrong with it, and to see if the problem from last year caused other problems. And they got annoyed with me and didn’t even listen when I asked them to look at the Sims. 
There was minimal dust in it, which is at least removed.

I’ll put my laptop on a right surface from now on, I have it in a laptop case, and the little bit of dust is removed. From reading what you say, I would think my laptop then shouldn’t get overheated.

The thing is: there wasn’t much dust that blocked the vents, and the computer also got really overheated really fast when I placed it on a table. While it shouldn’t. The overheating got less a while back after I updated the computer (the laptop, not the Sims game). I don’t understand this. Because I alway’s update my laptop when it has to, and before that time, it never decreased the overheating. The loud sound, however, didn’t change at all. Before, that would alway’s go together with the overheating. I didn’t yet check what happens if I play the Sims for longer than an hour or maybe 2 hours after that.

I alway’s thought the loud sound meant the laptop was going to get overheated, mainly because that would alway’s happen at the same time. Because of that it stresses me out. Is it normal that the laptop makes this big sound? I don’t multitask when I play the Sims and most of the times that I played it, I just started the computer up to play the Sims, so I didn’t open any other apps before that. Only a screen from the virusscanner and the EA app open automatically (and that virusscanner had to do with the problem last year). The virusscanner window I close (I don’t know if it leaves any background tasks).

Other than the overheating and the sound the game runs ok if I don’t play it on too high settings, untill the thing with the camera options. (The Sims 4 doesn’t run slow on the right settings, my laptop does).

How can I find out the exact model of my laptop? I wrote down the whole name I could find on the papers that came with it.

Butterflowery​  If you can, I would take the laptop back to the store and instead of asking about Sims, ask someone to put a heavy workload on the machine and listen to it.  Say you're worried a fan is broken or catching or not working as it should.  It really doesn't matter what kind of workload they test with as long as it's pushing the processor, which it should since that's the only kind of workload anyone would test your computer with.

There's no way for me to diagnose anything over the internet—I can't even hear the noise, much less tell you whether it's normal for your machine or what might be causing it.  You really need someone hands-on with the computer.