I personally would've suggested you to go with more RAM. Sims 4 can be quite memory hungry by itself, but the more mods and CC you add, the more memory will be needed. 16 GB may still be OK for Sims 4 without mods, but with mods, I would really suggest you to go with 32. And if you plan to add more strategy games like the ones you mentioned, more memory will not be wasted, trust me on that.
Okay, I will go with that one!
@allyspeidel @peno11 All of these systems have at least 16 GB RAM, which is more than Sims 4 needs. The one with 32 GB has a slower GPU than the third one, and in case of a tie, it's almost always most important to get the fastest GPU. I listed other possibilities so you could choose based on price and whatever else mattered.
Memory and storage are easily upgradable in any desktop, so it's never that important to get extra. I mean, you could if you wanted to, but given how much cheaper it is to upgrade these compoents than a GPU or CPU, they're not critical at all.
Having said that, it looks like some of the sales have ended, so if you want more suggestions, please let me know.
@puzzlezaddictI will politely disagree with your statement. For Sims 4 GPU is not that important and this goes for other management strategies, which seems to me the games OP is mostly interested. Cities: Slylines 2 is the only game in this genre for which GPU is important and that game is still not in a state where it's worth playing. But for others, GPU is pretty much irrelevant. You can still play these games on GTX 1050 and get satisfying results as long as the rest of your PC is decently strong. With this said, I daresay 4060 Ti 16 GB is more than enough for these kind of games. Yes, RAM can be expanded, but in desktop PC it's still better to have two memory sticks for optimal performance. Adding two more 8 GB sticks will lower the performance and that's not ideal. Yes, if the OP would play other games than management strategies, I would agree with you to go with the one with strongest GPU. But as it stands, I recommand more memory. Though, in this particular case, it's also not ideal that the CPU is slower than in the 4070 Super machine, but still not that much, so, in this case, I would go with more memory.
@peno11 The OP said they might get more games in the future, not which games, let alone how demanding the games would be on various components. And NO current game uses more than 16 GB RAM, whereas some of them do benefit from an upgrade over a 4060 ti, although admittedly not much.
My point is less about proving that they need the GPU more than the extra RAM now because they currently don't need either. This is about the cost of upgrading either component vs. the benefit of not having to do so. If they need more memory, they can drop $100-120 or whatever the current price is on a matching kit and install it themselves with minimal computer knowledge. If they want a faster GPU than a 4060 ti, how much is that going to cost, and can they install it themselves? And then there's the question of whether the PSU can support the extra power draw.
There is never a reason to get more memory over more graphics processing power for the sake of playing a game. Even if the game does need the extra RAM, it's more efficient to add it yourself.
Yes, the OP never mentioned what other games they will play, but they also never mentioned what else besides gaming they plan to do on the PC. If they work with big Excel sheets, for example, there's never enough memory for that. I am the one who chose more memory over stronger GPU and don't regret it. But, of course, that's me. Still, I stand behind the fact that 16 GB for Sims 4 with all packs and a lot of CC and mods, is not enough. Even with 32 GB the game still hiccups on me from time to time and unlike OP, I still don't have all the kits. My friend only has 16 GB and had to reduce the amount of CC and mods to prevent lagging in Sims 4. She also has lagging in Transport Fever 2 on a maps I don't experience that much of a lagging. And her PC is way better than mine otherwise. She surely regrets now that she went with an advice on some computer forums, where she was told exactly what you are suggesting here, that 16 GB is enough for gaming and she should invest to stronger GPU. Well, for Sims 4, that surely is not right. I am saying that from personal experiences.
@peno11 16 GB IS enough for Sims 4. It might not be enough for Sims 4 and everything else you have open at the same time. But the fact is that saves that use more than about 10 GB are so unwieldy that they don't work on any machine, even a high-end gaming system with 32 or 64 GB RAM. I've seen this happen and heard from others who test or have had their own saves bloat in size.
Mods and custom content don't have as much of an impact on the game as you might expect. Most of the data isn't read at all and never gets anywhere near RAM.
I always find it interesting to benchmark the game, to see exactly what it's doing to the hardware. It's simple enough to leave benchmarking software open and logging while you play and check back when you're done.
Still, my underlying point is that we don't know what else the OP will want to do with this machine, and a RAM upgrade is much cheaper and simpler than a GPU upgrade.
