Re: Laptop for the Sims 4 on Ultra/High Settings + packs, mods/cc
@PandaJewlz There's not much point in making a specific recommendation so far out from Black Friday. It's impossible to predict which laptops will be on sale, for how much, and how quickly they'll sell out. I can give you a more general sense of what to look for though.
An Nvidia RTX 3050 will run Sims 4 on ultra graphics settings, all current packs included. A 3060 or 4050 would be better if you plan on adding Reshade or a similar utility, or using a significant amount of high poly (high resolution) custom content, but it's not necessary if you're comfortable turning down some settings to high. Any processor paired with one of these graphics cards will be more than good enough for Sims 4. Many such systems will come with only 8 GB memory pre-installed, but RAM is cheap and quite easy to add to a gaming laptop, so don't cross off an otherwise-perfect system because it only has 8 GB.
One potential problem is what you mean by "thin and portable." Gaming laptops are significantly thinner than they were a decade ago, but they're still mostly in the 4-6 lbs. range, at least until you get into the premium category. And those tend to be 14" models, which might not be your preference.
Another problem is battery life: gaming laptops use a lot of power no matter what they're doing. These days at least, AMD processors use less power than their Intel counterparts, but that's not going to make the difference between three hours of battery life and eight. The fundamental issue is that batteries need to have less than a 100 Wh capacity to be allowed on planes, and powerful hardware uses a lot of juice.
If you're willing to compromise on the graphics settings, there are plenty of not-too-expensive thin and light options that could run Sims 4 on medium-high to high settings and that have good battery life. But these are mostly options without a dedicated graphics card, and performance will be significantly lower than you'd get with a discrete GPU. Even an RTX 3050 is twice as fast as the fastest integrated graphics chips.
I would suggest using the next six weeks or so to figure out your priorities, not just the lists you have now but the order within each list, as well as where in-game performance falls relative to the other features. One other thing you can do is borrow laptops from friends or family members and carry them around. Note their physical size, not just screen size but overall dimensions, and their weight, then use that to figure out what you're comfortable with. Once Black Friday sales start, come back and let me know what you're looking for, and I'll help you find some good options.
