Looking for a new laptop for Sims 4 – please help me, I’m so confused
Hi!
I’m looking for a new laptop for both everyday use and Sims 4. I’m feeling very overwhelmed by all the options and information – I’d really appreciate your help and advice, so I won’t end up spending way too much money on something I don’t actually need.
My old laptop (Asus Vivobook S14) is still running the game so-and-so, but it can be extremely slow and sometimes it just freezes completely.
Here are the basics about what I’m looking for:
- budget ideally no more than 700€-ish (the cheaper the better)
- max 15,6” screen, 14” preferred (could I get an external monitor? I have so many questions, sorry)
- 8GB or 16GB RAM (Do I really need 16GB? No idea. See, this is why I need help.)
- able to run Sims 4 with a lot of expansion packs but only a few build mods and no CC
- not strictly a (heavy) gaming laptop since this is for everyday use as well (no other games, just Netflix, basic work stuff etc.)
- I’m a builder so the focus would be on something that could handle even the bigger builds while still looking nice enough and not dying on me
- it’s always a cool bonus if it comes in a colour other than black/grey/white (not a deal-breaker)
- I have a weird, just-vibes-no-logic preference for Asus (also, not a deal-breaker)
And here are some of the options I’ve considered (I live in Finland, so unfortunately these sites are in Finnish. The specs should be there, but I’d be happy to post them here if needed).
The two first ones are on sale atm but is the Intel Iris Xe Graphics going to be an issue? I’ve never even heard of that one before.
Every piece of advice you could think of would be super helpful! This decision is stressing me out, it’s a big deal for me and a lot of money.
@Runaeir For Sims 4 at least, the important detail here is the graphics chip. The processors in all of these laptops far outpace the iGPUs in terms of gaming performance, so it effectively doesn't matter which CPU you get beyond the iGPU that comes with it.
The first laptop you linked this time has a Radeon Vega 8 graphics chip, which is a few percentage points slower than the Xe Graphics 96 EUs in the Intel laptops you linked before. The difference is small enough to ignore if you prefer an AMD laptop for other reasons, but given the price difference, the Intel laptops seem like a much better choice.
The second laptop you linked this time has a Vega 7 chip, which is more like 15% slower than the other two in gaming. That's enough of a downgrade to avoid laptops with this chip if you can afford better, which you clearly can. This laptop does have a higher resolution, which is great for everyday tasks, but you might find you need to turn down the settings a bit in Sims 4, or else lower the resolution to more like 1920x1200 in-game. And if the higher resolution is worth the higher price to you, the laptop I linked last time would be the better option in terms of performance.
In case you're still looking around, this page lists all the AMD processors that come with a Vega 8 graphics chip:
In case you happen to find other information about this chip, be aware that AMD used "Vega 8 graphics" for an older and slower chip as well, for some reason. This one is much faster and is only found in Ryzen 4000-series and newer CPUs.
Intel likes to make things complicated, but essentially, an i7 processor 11th-gen or newer and paired with 16 GB RAM will likely have Xe Graphics with 96 EUs. An i5 11th-gen or newer CPU with 16 GB RAM will have Xe Graphics with 80 EUs, roughly equivalent to Vega 7 graphics.
