Forum Discussion

Rising Newcomer

1 year ago

Solved

New laptop to play Sims 4 on

Hello!

I was thinking about getting a new laptop for playing sims 4, since my current one is very old and outdated. I want it to be a gaming one with a dedicated graphics card, but since my budget is tight I am looking for second-hand laptops in a good condition. New business laptops would probably cost the same but that's not what I want because I need a dedicated graphics card.

I am not a heavy gamer. Currently I only play sims 4, with all packs and currently 7gb of cc and mods, mostly maxis match. I don't use many gameplay-changing mods and I regularly clean and update my mods folder. I'd like to play on high/ultra settings, but I'm willing to put some settings on medium if it's really necessary and doesn't change the appearance of the game too much. Besides sims 4 I don't play any other games, but if I do, I don't think it will be anything new and demanding. I'd also do some college stuff on it.

I don't need a very powerful gaming laptop that would be an overkill for sims 4. Any laptop I get would be considered a big upgrade since I'm currently stuck with an i5 4th gen and Intel HD Graphics😂 however I still want it to be something that will secure me a lag-free experience in sims 4.

These are the offers I come across most often:

AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, RTX 2050, 8gb ram, 512gb SSD;
Intel Core i7 9750H, GTX 1650, 16gb ram, 512gb SSD;
Intel Core i7 10750H, GTX 1650, 8gb ram, 256gb SSD;
AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, GTX 1650, 16gb ram, 512gb SSD.

All of them have a display with 120Hz or more. I'd say these should be okay, but I'm not quite sure. Will 8gb be enough? Or should I maybe consider upgrading to 16gb? Also, is GTX 1650 okay, since most of the laptops I found online have it? I've also found some laptops with an i5 9th or 10th gen so I wonder if that's okay when paired with a GPU like GTX 1650.

Any help will be appreciated, thank you😊

puzzlezaddict
1 year ago
@Andja03 At a 1920x1080 resolution, a GTX 1650 is faster than an RTX 2050, so the 1650 is the better choice for this class of laptop. The 1650 should be able to run all Sims 4 packs together on ultra settings, although you might need to drop some settings down to high if you like to use high poly custom content. It's fine to experiment with the settings too.

All of the processors you've listed are capable of driving a much faster GPU than the 1650, so they're all fine. I would suggest as tie-breakers (aside from price) that you consider the release date of the CPU, as that will determine, roughly speaking, how long the laptop will get driver support, as well as give you some idea of how old it is. It's not a perfect measurement, but it's worth considering.

The other important factor for the processor is the turbo speed, but this is not a one-to-one comparison either because CPUs get more efficient with every generation. Thus a CPU from four years ago running at 4.5 GHz is probably slower than a brand-new one with the same number of cores running at 4.2 GHz. You don't need to spend too much time thinking about this because anything paired with a 1650 or 2050 will at least be good enough, but if for example you can choose between a 9750H and a 12450H, the latter is clearly faster even though it's an i5 with a slightly lower turbo speed. But the 9750H is fine; this is about choosing among multiple good options.

Core count doesn't matter at all past 6 because Sims 4 can only use 4 cores. Even 4 is enough if you're not multitasking—Windows processes don't use much power at all when idle.

For the RAM, it is of course better to get 16 GB, but don't pass up an otherwise-perfect laptop because it only has 8. Memory is cheap, and in a gaming laptop, almost always simple to install, so you can add another 8 GB module down the road if you want. In the interim, 8 GB is enough for a laptop that has a dedicated card and therefore separate video memory. I'd suggest not running much alongside the game though, just to keep resource use relatively low; restarting the laptop before playing is going to be helpful here.

3 Replies

puzzlezaddict
Hero+
1 year ago
@Andja03 At a 1920x1080 resolution, a GTX 1650 is faster than an RTX 2050, so the 1650 is the better choice for this class of laptop. The 1650 should be able to run all Sims 4 packs together on ultra settings, although you might need to drop some settings down to high if you like to use high poly custom content. It's fine to experiment with the settings too.

All of the processors you've listed are capable of driving a much faster GPU than the 1650, so they're all fine. I would suggest as tie-breakers (aside from price) that you consider the release date of the CPU, as that will determine, roughly speaking, how long the laptop will get driver support, as well as give you some idea of how old it is. It's not a perfect measurement, but it's worth considering.

The other important factor for the processor is the turbo speed, but this is not a one-to-one comparison either because CPUs get more efficient with every generation. Thus a CPU from four years ago running at 4.5 GHz is probably slower than a brand-new one with the same number of cores running at 4.2 GHz. You don't need to spend too much time thinking about this because anything paired with a 1650 or 2050 will at least be good enough, but if for example you can choose between a 9750H and a 12450H, the latter is clearly faster even though it's an i5 with a slightly lower turbo speed. But the 9750H is fine; this is about choosing among multiple good options.

Core count doesn't matter at all past 6 because Sims 4 can only use 4 cores. Even 4 is enough if you're not multitasking—Windows processes don't use much power at all when idle.

For the RAM, it is of course better to get 16 GB, but don't pass up an otherwise-perfect laptop because it only has 8. Memory is cheap, and in a gaming laptop, almost always simple to install, so you can add another 8 GB module down the road if you want. In the interim, 8 GB is enough for a laptop that has a dedicated card and therefore separate video memory. I'd suggest not running much alongside the game though, just to keep resource use relatively low; restarting the laptop before playing is going to be helpful here.
Andja03
Rising Newcomer
1 year ago
Thank you so much for a detailed answer! Either I'll grab the third configuration with the i7 10750h while it's still available (the others are already sold out) or I'll keep looking for more offers. If I manage to find something that's even better than the configurations I've listed, I'll definitely go for that. But if not, it's good to know that GTX 1650 is still good enough for sims 4. I don't mind dropping a few settings down, it will still be so much better than what I currently have! I'll also consider upgrading my ram just to have some extra memory if I ever need it.
Another question, does refresh rate also matter when playing sims 4? I know 120Hz is better than 60Hz, but will that make a difference in sims 4? The laptop with the third configuration is a Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 15IMH05, and I'm not quite sure if it's a 60Hz or 120Hz display, I can't find it anywhere, but I think it should be 120Hz.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
1 year ago
@Andja03 The refresh rate doesn't affect actual performance. The graphics card will render as many frames as it can, unless you set a manual cap; the refresh rate only affects how many frames the monitor can display. So you might notice a practical difference between a 60 and >100 Hz screen, but only if the graphics card is sending that many frames to the screen. And as far as the human eye goes, it's easy for many (but not all) of us to tell the difference between 60 or 75 and 120 fps, but not necessarily between 60 and 80.

As far as Sims 4 goes, a GTX 1650 can generate well higher than 60 fps at 1080p under ideal conditions. But conditions aren't always ideal, whether it's because there are 20 sims on the lot or it's raining or snowing or you've added some high poly custom content that takes extra resources to render. For comparison's sake, my GPU maintains about 170 fps with nothing much happening and drops into the 90s under certain conditions.

So while a higher-refresh-rate screen is nice to have, and I'd never turn one down, I'm not sure it would make a consistent difference for you, at least not if you're buying a system with a 1650. For an RTX 3050, maybe, and anything faster than that, yes most of the time. Still, it's not like the game won't run well; you'll just see 60 frames instead of however many the GPU is capable of generating. The game wouldn't look choppy at 60 fps, just not quite as smooth as at higher framerates.