Re: Is a gaming laptop necessary?
@megan1095 Someone else asked about sub-£500 laptops today as well, and I wrote out an answer for them here:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Sims-4-laptop-500-under/m-p/13222547#M263443
All of that applies to you too, although given that you could theoretically increase your budget to £750, I would absolutely recommend one of the options with 16 GB RAM if you decide to go in that direction.
I do want to mention that a few entry-level gaming laptops can be found for under £750 as well. For example:
https://www.box.co.uk/82S900YQUK-Lenovo-IdeaPad-Gaming-3-Intel-Core-i5-8G_4415151.html
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3268753?clickPR=plp:2:34
These can all run Sims 4, all current packs included, on ultra graphics settings. I don't know as much about Skyrim, but it should also run fine on one of these as far as I can see. With a gaming laptop, having 16 GB RAM is still helpful, but it doesn't matter as much as when the laptop doesn't have a dedicated graphics card. That's because the GPU has its own VRAM rather than needing to borrow from main memory, leaving the full 8 GB available for the processor. The Ideapad's RAM is also upgradable should it become necessary.
I'm not saying you need a gaming laptop, and you certainly don't if you're willing to compromise a bit on the graphics settings. It's really a question of whether having better graphics is worth the higher price tag.
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask.
