PC recommendation to run the Sims 4
Hello people,
I need some advice. Since I’m going to do remote work at a point in my job, I’m looking to get myself a desk computer to make things easier and have a nice home desk office.
So while I’m at it, I want this computer to be able to run the Sims. I’m currently playing on my old 8 years Macbook Pro, which is starting to slowly decrease and not even talking about the lack of storage for the game.
I’m a Mac lover, they run perfectly for all sorts of stuff but within my job, I don’t think Apple can handle all the systems we are using in my office so I’m resigning myself to get a Windows one for mostly these two purposes. My work and the Sims, lol.
Also, it’s a budget matter, I don’t have much money yet and at first, I wanted to buy new, obviously but then I checked out the Best Buy’s warehouse and I stumbled across amazing computers that seem to meet the Sims requirements more than enough.
I wanted to know if some of you would be able to tell whether or not one of the following P.C.s would be a good match to play the game despite the fact they might be a tad old.
The double screen is a must for me, especially with my job, and that would be cool.
This one seems to have better specs though and is probably more recent than the previous ones.
My 1st option was the following one, as a brand new computer of course
But the RAM is a bit low (there is the higher version but it’s really expensive for me)
So if you all can give me some advice about refurbished computers and their capacity to run the Sims, I would appreciate it.
Or if you know any good desk computers on a budget that could do the job as well.
Thank you 🙂
@EriSims974 None of these is a great option for Sims 4. They don't have a dedicated graphics card, and the integrated graphics chips are not particularly fast either. The graphics card or chip would be the limiting factor in how well Sims 4 would run. It's not clear whether any of these would take a GPU upgrade—that would depend on the power supply and the space inside the case, neither of which is discernible from the product pages. Even if the same model does also come with a dedicated card, it might have been equipped with or upgraded to have a better PSU, so that alone isn't sufficient information.
In terms of performance, the last one would probably do the best overall, even if that only means medium graphics settings at most. But its price is far too high for the hardware, and it sounds like 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage won't be nearly enough for your other tasks, even if Sims 4 itself would manage. The next-best option is the third one: its iGPU is somewhat faster than the one in the first two systems.
Please don't limit yourself to options that come with two monitors, or even one. You could easily find a cheap monitor or two on Ebay or Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, and monitors are simple to test: plug one in and play a video, and you'll know whether it's in good working order. Because higher-end monitors are a lot cheaper than they were four or five years ago, I'd expect to see a lot of people upgrading and happy to get some trivial amount for their old screens.
For the computer itself, there are lots of refurbished options from third-party sellers that have a dedicated graphics card and 32 GB RAM, too many to list even within your price range:
I can't speak to the quality of the sellers, but if you're comfortable with one of them, or with the one-year guarantee that some of them offer, it's a reasonable purchase. And like I said, you can find the monitors elsewhere, especially used. An Nvidia GTX 1050 ti, desktop edition, is fast enough for ultra settings, if not by a large margin. A 1650 is a bit faster, and anything higher than those (1060, 1660, 3050, etc.) is more than good enough, although those would drive up the price.
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask.
