Re: Laptop Purchase for Sims 2 UC and Sims 4

@SerenitySims101  On the Amazon site, under the Buy Now button, you can see the "ships from" and "sold by" labels.  If you click on the seller name, you'll see the company's overall rating and can look at individual reviews as well.  I'm looking at the desktop site; I don't know whether that makes a difference.

The Acer I linked is the same overall model you linked, just with a slightly faster graphics card, which shouldn't change the thermals very much, if at all.  The thing is, all the gaming laptops in this price range run quite hot if you push their hardware enough.  I wouldn't worry about the processor temperature that much if the most strenuous task it will ever run is Sims 4—that shouldn't come close to maxing out the CPU or its temperature.

GPU temperatures are much more important, especially as the graphics card will throttle performance at high temps to protect itself.  Even then, it's usually more useful to look clock speed on high load: you know the GPU will hit the temperature where it starts to throttle; the question is how much performance you lose when it does.

If you want a comparison, take a look at the thermals listed in these reviews:

https://laptopmedia.com/review/acer-nitro-5-an515-55-review-can-it-handle-the-comet-lake-h-processors/

https://laptopmedia.com/review/dell-g3-15-3500-review-they-hardly-changed-anything/

https://laptopmedia.com/review/lenovo-ideapad-gaming-3i-15-review-second-generation-ideapad-gaming-10th-generation-processors/

The "temperatures and comfort" section should give you an idea of what you'd see.  The fps tests in games that are more demanding than Sims 4 may be interesting to you as well.

I'm not saying that temperature isn't or shouldn't be a concern, just that it's possibly a problem on any gaming laptop in this class.  Even most non-gaming laptops will heat up quite a bit when running games, unless the manufacturer throttles performance to a significant extent.  So the question is what you do about it, and the answer is usually just make sure the laptop can cool itself, expect the internal software to throttle performance when appropriate, and run utilities like CPU-Z and GPU-Z to keep an eye one temperatures yourself.

@puzzlezaddictYeah, I see the two labels underneath Buy Now, thank you for bringing that to my attention I never even realized that.

After looking at the temps of the Acer Nitro 5, I did become concerned with the heating situation (but I'll still be considering it in my final decision). However, I did find this https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Premium-Processor-GeForce-Keyboard/dp/B07WNGFTN2/ref=sr_1_30?dchild=1&keywords=gaming+laptop&qid=1618071984&refinements=p_36%3A50000-80000%2Cp_n_graphics_type_browse-bin%3A14292273011&rnid=14292272011&s=pc&sr=1-30 that seems to have pretty much the same specs as the Acer. I know this one is also sold third-party, but the ratings seem pretty good overall. I will still be looking at this laptop to check with the cooling as well to compare it to the Acer.

Or this MSI: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-gf63-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i5-nvidia-geforce-gtx1650-256gb-ssd-8gb-memory-black/6456141.p?skuId=6456141 (only thing is it has a 1650 not 1650 ti).

@SerenitySims101  I couldn't find a review for the specific configuration in the Asus, at least not in a few minutes of googling, but I would expect it to run with about the same temperature profile as the others based on similar Asus laptops.  I'm not saying it's a worse choice, just not necessarily any better, at least from a temperature or performance perspective.

For the MSI, the issue is not so much that it's a non-ti card but that it's the Max-Q variant.  That stands for maximum efficiency, which means the card uses less power.  It also therefore doesn't perform as well as even a regular 1650.  The gap is not dramatic, but going from a regular 1650 ti and a 1650 Max-Q, you might expect to lose around 10% of performance, depending on the game and the graphics settings you use.

The MSI does run cooler because of that efficiency though.  So the question is what's more important to you: getting the best performance for your money, or keeping temperatures in check.  Either answer is valid.

@puzzlezaddict Thank you for the breakdown. I think I'm concerned with the thermal issues because I have no plans to replace this next computer anytime soon, especially while I'm still in college, so I assume that a computer with more thermal issues has a shorter lifespan. While researching, I did see multiple people recommend undervolting and using thermal paste, but I've also seen some reviews saying that even when using those two methods, the temperature still gets high in the Acer (I also watched a simmer's updated Acer Nitro 5 review and she said she wouldn't recommend/her con list was bigger than her pros list).

As of right now, it seems as though I'm leaning towards the MSI more, but I do have a question regarding the graphics card. So I know now that the 1650 Max-Q is a downgrade from the regular 1650 and 1650 Ti, so would you say that it would have trouble with high/ultra settings in the Sims 4 with the high amount of CC and mods I mentioned in my original post (I would say around 10-15 GB, maybe more)?

@puzzlezaddict Hi, it's been a while but I wanted to thank you again for helping me with the purchase of my laptop. I bought my gaming laptop a while ago and now that I have it, I wanted to learn more about how to go about capping the in-game framerates (I was not sure if it was okay to continue this thread to ask or start up a new thread). I also installed the sims 3, so if there is a way to cap those framerates as well, I would gladly appreciate learning more about that.

@SerenitySims101  Asking here is fine, as would be starting a new thread.  Sims 4 has a default fps limit of 200, and enabling vertical sync (fullscreen mode only) will cap framerates to the refresh rate of your monitor.

For Sims 3, things get more complicated if you have a laptop with dual graphics, which is what you were considering last year.  The usual Nvidia Control Panel settings don't apply to most of these laptops, so you'd need to use another tool instead.  One popular one is RivaTuner Statistics Server, which is lightweight and easy to use.  Choose TS3.exe (Origin install) or TS3W.exe (disc or Steam install) from the menu, highlighted in blue; enter the limit you want, usually the refresh rate of your screen (red box); and choose whether to allow RTSS to start with Windows (yellow box), in case you don't want to have to remember.

Another option is to use D3DOverrider to force vertical sync.  This tool is built on RTSS's resources and only works with older games, but that does include Sims 3.

https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/84-d3doverrider/?changelog=32

Sims 2 is said to not need an fps cap, but I don't actually own it and can't test myself.  Still, it's not described as causing any issues with overheating graphics cards.

@puzzlezaddict Thank you so much for the instructions and yes, so far I haven't noticed an issue with the Sims 2 overheating. I'm not entirely sure if my graphics card is dual (I have a gtx 1660 ti for the HP Omen 15-en0013dx).

@SerenitySims101  You do likely have dual graphics: the 1660 ti and the graphics chip integrated into the processor.  A few processors don't have their own graphics, and a few laptops disable the integrated graphics by default, but both of these are the exception.  It's still best to check though: hit Windows key-X, select the Device Manager, and expand the Display adapters section.  If you see two entries, that means you have two GPUs.

In any case, for Sims 3 at least, please check in-game to make sure fps is capped wherever you want it.  Hit crtl-shift-C and enter "fps on" without quotes, and you'll see a number in the upper-right corner of the screen.  (Use "fps off" to make the number disappear.)  You may see some fluctuation, but the important thing is that framerates never go above the limit.

@puzzlezaddict Yeah, I see two entries (AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti). So if I am understanding correctly, I will download the RivaTuner program and go through your instructions and make sure I enter 144 (I determined my refresh rate in my settings) where you have highlighted red on your screenshot? And do you recommend I still use D3DOverrider or will just using the previous instructions suffice to have the fps cap?

@SerenitySims101  Yes, you're understanding correctly.

Whether you use RTSS or D3DOverrider, or both, depends on how you play and what you want to accomplish.  There are two separate features here: vertical sync, enabled by D3DOverrider, and a simple fps cap, imposed by RTSS.

Vertical sync caps fps to the refresh rate of your monitor and also helps prevent graphics glitches like screen tearing, but it only works in fullscreen mode.  So if you were going to play in windowed mode at all, ever, you'd want to set up a manual fps cap whether or not you enabled vertical sync.  If you were never going to play in fullscreen mode, it would be pointless to enable vertical sync.

Personally, I both enable v-sync and set a hard fps limit because I play in fullscreen mode but occasionally switch to windowed mode when I want to use another program.  (Sims 3 doesn't like players alt-tabbing in fullscreen mode, although whether it reacts badly is kind of hit or miss.)  But that's my own preference.  You could play in fullscreen and only use RTSS, and as long as you don't see any graphics glitches (screen tearing, flickering, stuff you'd definitely notice), that could be sufficient.

@puzzlezaddict Thank you for all the help, based on your advice, I think I'll stick with only RTSS for now seeing as I barely play in window mode, but I will keep the other program in mind if that changes in the future!