Looking to buy a new laptop
Hi
I'm having a lot of issues with my current laptop when playing the Sims and I want to buy a new one. Currently have HP - Pavilion 15-cw1507sa 15.6” AMD Ryzen 5 Laptop - 256 GB SSD which I've had for about 5 years now. I don't think I want to buy another HP laptop.
Budget ideally would be £500 but I could go to £800 if this would make a difference. I only play Sims 4 but have nearly all of the add ons for it so need something that will run them smoothly. From looking at other recommendations on here, I'm think a Acer laptop but not sure if I should go for a gaming one or not? Looking to buy from Curry's.
https://www.currys.co.uk/products/acer-aspire-5-15.6-laptop-amd-ryzen-7-1-tb-ssd-grey-10266472.html
Thanks in advance for any help!
@rottenotter666 I'll address gaming and non-gaming laptops separately. For gaming systems, the most important detail is the graphics card, which will be the limiting factor in determining how well the machine runs Sims 4. An Nvidia RTX 3050 can handle all current packs together on ultra graphics settings with some room to spare; an RTX 4050 is somewhat faster and gives you more breathing room for Reshade or high poly custom content or anything else that makes the game more demanding; an RTX 4060 is more or less the limit of what Sims 4 can realistically use in terms of power.
If you want to keep the price down and don't mind a somewhat noisy laptop, at least under load, this is a good option. The noise shouldn't be a problem with over-the-ear headphones.
https://ao.com/product/9s716r8311251-msi-thin-15-b12ve1251uk-laptop-grey-102521-251.aspx
These are £700 and not quite as noisy, with equivalent specs to the above:
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4884662?clickPR=plp:5:39
https://ao.com/product/fa506nchn003w-asus-laptop-black-99955-251.aspx
This one has the faster RTX 4050 but only 8 GB RAM. I'd suggest adding more (another 8 GB module would be around £20) if you're comfortable doing so.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3365113?clickPR=plp:8:39
If you're willing to go to £800, these laptops have a 4050 and 4060, respectively. The first one has a better screen than anything else listed here in terms of brightness; the others are all more or less in the same category, with the Asus perhaps being a little better. (That's somewhat subjective). But the Gigabyte below is a lot faster if that matters, not that you really need it for Sims 4.
I realize this is a large number of choices, but you can narrow it down by whatever matters to you: price, performance, aesthetics, etc., and go from there.
For non-gaming laptops, this is about as fast as the first one you found:
In case it's not what you want, these are about as fast:
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7144677?clickPR=plp:2:82
This variant of the Dell is right on the border of what could run Sims 4 on ultra graphics settings, as its 14" equivalent (same processor and graphics chip):
If you have more questions, about any of these or in general, please feel free to ask.
