Re: Laptop recommendation Sims 4

Thank you so much for getting back to me. We have decided to buy noise cancelling headphones to deal with fan noise so that shouldn’t be too much of an issue now. 

The laptop will mostly be used at home so weight isn’t really an issue. I think a gaming laptop would probably make most sense as that will be its main use. I have seen the Acer recommended by a few people!

I won’t be buying from PC World as that’s where we got the first one. 

I am just really nervous over spending so much money on something that could turn out to not cope well with the game. There are so many different recommendations around. I really appreciate your help. 

Thank you! This is unbelievably helpful. 

If you were choosing between the Nvidia 3050 and the 1650ti, which would you say is best? 

@PixieSDimples  All else being equal, I would definitely choose the 3050.  It's faster and newer, and it's reasonably priced.  But Sims 4 doesn't need the extra power, so if you don't like the options with a 3050, the models with a 1650 would still be good choices.

Thank you so so much!

Hi, I’m not sure if you only help folk with Sims issues but I am looking for help in choosing a laptop for my dad’s birthday. 

He used to play Formula 2002 with a steering wheel and pedals. 

I’d like to get him a laptop that would allow him to play that game, with the wheel/pedals, plus the new 2021 version.

He also uses it for browsing the internet, watching YouTube, social media and writing. I’d like it to run smoothly and quickly for him. 

Do you think a budget up to 500 would do the job? 

@PixieSDimples  For F1 2021, which I think is the game you're referencing, the best $500 laptops would be cutting things close.  Specifically, I'm talking about a laptop with an Intel i5-1135G7: this is the fastest graphics processing you can find in a laptop under about $700, although if you happened to see a model with an i7-1165G7 on sale, that would be even better.  Either of these is below the minimum requirement for the game, which of course doesn't mean the game won't run, just that you can't expect good results.

For the i5, it runs F1 2021 fine on low settings most of the time, from what I can see; medium settings is pushing things and may be too choppy depending on your dad's taste.  Another option that comes out at almost the same place as the i5, at least with respect to F1, is a laptop with an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U.  It's slightly slower overall but not in this particular game, at least from what I can see.

As far as the 2002 game goes, it looks like even installing it in Windows 10 could be difficult if not impossible.  Your best bet there would be to find a forum that discusses that game, or old games in general, and ask for help.  This being Windows, there are probably workarounds, but I wouldn't know what they are.

If you'd like suggestions for a laptop for F1 2021 at least, I can list some.  But if you're thinking about great graphics and high settings, or using Raytracing at all, you'll want to hold off until you can pay a little more for something with a dedicated graphics card: at least in the $800 range for high settings, a little more for Raytracing.

Hi, I’m really sorry I thought I’d put a pound sign next to the 500. It would be £500 rather than dollars. I think £600 may be manageable and £700 if had to but wouldn’t want to go that high unless it was needed to play a decent game. I want it to run smoothly for him with decent graphics but it doesn’t have to be the best, fanciest graphics! 

That’s a good idea about looking for a forum for older games, I will try that for the older game and see if anyone has found a way to make the earlier version work. 

@PixieSDimples  Sorry about the currency; I should have checked.  However, in terms of prices at least, the situation is basically the same.  The only difference is I found a couple of gaming laptops at a heavier discount than you'd see in the U.S.:

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8440710?clickPR=plp:20:120

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9375482?clickPR=plp:34:120

The graphics card in the second one is somewhere in the range of 50% faster than the GPU in the first, which for F1 is the difference between playing comfortably at medium settings vs. high, give or take your father's personal preferences for framerates and various graphics settings.  I'd also be hesitant to buy a laptop with only 256 GB storage, but if your dad really isn't doing anything other than playing F1 and various tasks that don't take up internal storage (browsing the web, streaming music, etc.), it should be fine.

In terms of the options I mentioned before, this laptop is the cheapest among those that have the highest-end graphics chip.  I actually didn't cover it because laptops that have this processor are usually more expensive, but it's a little better than the i7 I mentioned overall and somewhat faster than the i7 in F1 2021.

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/hp-15seq2510sa-15.6-laptop-amd-ryzen-7-512-gb-ssd-silver-10225070.html

The graphics card in the first option above is still faster than the chip in this one, but the gap in F1 2021 is not all that large on medium or high settings.  (It doesn't run great on high settings on either GPU; on low settings, the Nvidia 1050 is a lot faster.)

I didn't find any laptops with an i7-1165G7 that were cheaper than the option immediately above.  I did see an option with an i5-1135G7 for £500:

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/acer-aspire-5-a51454-14-laptop-intel-core-i5-512-gb-ssd-silver-10212836.html

As I mentioned before, you'd be looking at low graphics settings, but it looks like the game does run.

I also left out some cheaper options with the i5 and 256 GB storage: you'd be saving £50 at most, and the extra storage will probably be useful at some point.  But those options are out there as well.

If you want to do some shopping on your own, just look for the same processors as are in the models above, or the graphics cards in the case of the first two.  The newer Nvidia 3050 is even faster than the 1650, but the cheapest option I saw for one of those was £700.

Thank you again! 

If we were to go for a laptop which covers the recommended requirements, would you be able to suggest an option on the cheaper end of the spectrum, which would fit those specs?

I think the two we were looking at from your options above covered everything apart from the ram? Would those same ones be available at a higher ram or should we be looking at different options? 

I so appreciate your help, the specs baffle me but you’re really helping me begin to make sense of it all! 

@PixieSDimples  Most laptops these days, other than the very cheapest models, have upgradable memory, and most cheaper laptops that come with 16 GB installed are more expensive than the difference in RAM would call for.  So if you want to get the best machine possible for your budget, you're better off buying something with 8 GB and installing the extra yourself.  A matching 8 GB module might cost you £40-50 depending on the market.

Are you now thinking about the minimum requirements or the recommend ones?  Those are two different levels, with recommended meaning what you can expect to run the game on high or ultra graphics settings.  For those options, prices have actually improved a lot in the last month but still may be more expensive than you'd prefer.  As an example:

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-legion-5-15.6-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-rx-6600m-512-gb-ssd-10226856.html

From the benchmarks I can see, this graphics card would run F1 well above 60 fps on ultra graphics settings and faster than the laptop's screen can even display on high.  It's also a quality laptop in general.

This one is technically under the recommended specs but should still run the game reasonably well on ultra settings and above 100 fps on high, and it's also £700:

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/hp-victus-16e0514na-16.1-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-rx-5500m-512-gb-ssd-10227221.html

I didn't do a thorough search because I wasn't sure exactly what you were looking for; these were to give you an idea of what you could get for your money.

The cheapest options with a dedicated graphics card are still going to be in the £650 range, other than the one for under £600 I mentioned before.  (It looks like that's still available too.)  Below that, you're looking at not meeting the minimum requirements and what that means, as we discussed before.

Point is, let me know your preferred budget and I'll take another look.  But there really is a line below which performance starts to drop off a cliff.

I’d like it to play at the recommended settings and if it’s going to take so much just to get to minimum settings I think it makes sense to save up the extra to get to the recommended settings.

Does that mean the first link would be best?

So we’re looking at a budget of about £700 to £800, definitely no more than £900. 

I really can’t thank you enough for your help!

@PixieSDimples  I think the first link should work out very well.  As for the price, I don't know how long you're going to wait to buy or what will be available at that time.  If this particular laptop ends up being more expensive than you'd like, feel free to come back when you're ready to purchase, and I'll do another search.  Regardless of timing, there should always be some very good options available in the £850 range, and hopefully more like £800.

@PixieSDimples  Hey, if you're ready to spend £650 now, I just saw this laptop on sale:

https://www.box.co.uk/81Y6005SUK-Lenovo-Legion-5i-Intel-Core-i5-8GB-RAM-5_2938435.html

Its graphics card is roughly equivalent to the one in this model:

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-legion-5-15.6-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-rx-6600m-512-gb-ssd-10226856.html

that we previously discussed as likely running F1 on ultra settings at 60 fps or higher.  And its memory is user-upgradable too, in case you're wondering.  So it would be a great option for your dad.

We went for the Lenovo yesterday while it was on sale. Your help has been so appreciated!