Laptop upgrade
Use to play on a 2010 MacBook Pro, but definitely time for an upgrade as it is not feasible to game on it anymore. Mostly looking for a laptop to play sims 3 & 4, collection of steam games, and using...
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@puzzlezaddict Thank you for the information! I went and uninstalled the sims 4 from my current MacBook and have it now set just for sims 3, which surprisingly works well. Eventually I plan on building a gaming desktop, but I will still need a laptop for school and whatnot. Since my mac appears to be doing well with just the sims 3, I think I would be able to focus on getting a new laptop for life and being able to play sims 4 along with steam games.
With this, would you still recommend the same laptops or are there now other options I could consider? I have been looking at what Micro Center has to offer, as there a few near the city I work in, but again, I am still not sure what options would be best for my situation. Again, thank you.
@infinitespectral If you're satisfied with how your Mac runs Sims 3 and are eventually going to build a gaming desktop, then you could certainly spend a lot less on a laptop for Sims 4, maybe somewhere around $500. In this range, all the options have integrated graphics (a chip integrated into the processor), so the only question is how good that processor's graphics chip is.
To that end, a laptop with an i5-1135G7 and at least 256 GB storage is your best bet. If you saw an i7-1165G7, that would be even better, but those often come in more expensive laptops, and while Sims 4 would benefit from that extra power, the difference probably isn't worth an extra $200, especially when that $200 would put you in range of a proper gaming laptop. 256 GB is enough storage for Sims 4 and all your content, plus however many smaller apps you want to install, but you might want 512 GB just so you don't need to worry about it in the future (or if you want to install other games).
I have no idea what your local Microcenter will have in stock, but you can look over the options with those specs and pick something that works for you. Before buying, google the exact model and the word cooling; if you see any red flags, pick something else. And if you see a specific model and would like a second opinion, feel free to link it here.
Again, it's possible that a laptop with one of these processors would also run Sims 3 perfectly well, but it's not guaranteed. So feel free to experiment if you want; just be prepared to go back to your Mac for Sims 3.
@darkaudit Thank you for the input and suggestions! Ideally I would love to have a setup that lets me play both sims 3 and sims 4, so it is good to read abour others having success running both on the same computer.
@puzzlezaddict. Could I get your input on these specs? Again, I am woefully ignorant as to what would be considered good and/or what would run the game. Also, how does the Intel Iris XE graphics card stack up compared to Nvidia and AMD Radeon?
HP Pavilion 15-ec2121nr 15.6" Gaming Laptop Computer - BlackAMD Ryzen 5 5600H 3.3GHz Processor; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5; 8GB DDR4-3200 RAM; 512GB Solid State Drive
@infinitespectral The laptop you've listed should be able to run both games on ultra graphics settings with some room to spare, although Sims 4 might eventually be demanding enough with future expansions that you'd need to dial some settings back to high. This is a good laptop overall too, well-built and less prone to overheating than many others.
The Nvidia 1650 is more than twice as fast as the fastest Xe graphics for mobile. The fastest AMD integrated graphics chip for mobile is a bit slower, on average, than the fastest Intel equivalent, but there's a lot of variation from one game to the next. AMD discrete graphics, e.g. the 5500M, is a separate category akin to Nvidia discrete graphics. For that, you'd want to compare individual cards, for example the 5500M is somewhat faster than the 1650 and slower than the Nvidia 1660 ti. But for Sims games at least, if you're buying a new gaming laptop with a new dedicated graphics card, you should be fine.
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