Re: Need help for laptop specs

Thank you for your explanation! So are you saying the 950M would be able to run the game on high settings? Cause then I could upgrade the storage if it’s not too expensive..

I don’t know if it’s too complicated for you to search, as it looks like all new laptops are way than my budget..

I was also wondering, does more packs installed, need better graphic card? Or will it be able to run the same quality no matter number of packs? 

I just found another which may sound better, let me know what you think

Hp 15.6”

I5-8300TH 2.3GHz

NVIDIA gtx 1050

8GB DDR4 RAM

1TB Hard drive

Windows 10

@amessysimmer  This last one should run the game on a mix of high and ultra graphics settings.  An Nvidia 1050 is significantly faster than a 950M, and until recently, it could run all packs together on ultra settings.  So if you don't have all the packs, you may still be able to play on ultra.  The only drawback of this laptop is its mechanical hard drive, but that just means slower loading; the game would run fine once loaded, and so would other apps.

In general, the more expansion packs you add, the more demanding Sims 4 becomes.  It's not linear though: the oldest three EPs are less demanding than the newer ones, and the load isn't always even.  For example, the effect of the Seasons pack depends in large part on the weather in-game.  Stuff packs are not demanding, and neither are most game packs, with the exception of Realm of Magic.  (I don't know about the Star Wars pack.)  Overall though, you can expect the EPs starting with Cats & Dogs to add a significant load, and everything else to have a smaller effect.

If you can get a laptop wtih an i5-8300H and an Nvidia 1050 though, you really don't have to worry too much, provided the laptop itself is in good condition.  This is the kind of laptop we'd been recommending to people on a budget until recently, when new models became hard to find as they were phased out in favor of the newer generation.

Thank you so much for your help! I’m gonna buy the last one then, but gonna let the thread be open in case its gonna be sold to another.

In case I wanna have better loading time, would it then make sense to upgrade the hard drive to ssd? 

@amessysimmer  Swapping out the mechanical drive for an SSD would improve loading times for sure, and it would also make Windows run faster.  But you'd have to reinstall Windows on the new drive to get that benefit, although Sims 4 would still load faster if you moved it and nothing else to the new SSD.  Reinstalling Windows isn't complicated, I'm just mentioning it in case you notice less of an improvement than you'd expect.

I can't know for sure without the laptop's model number, but it's possible this one has an empty slot for an M.2 SSD; many laptops with this hardware do.  So you could add the SSD without having to remove the HDD.  If there isn't an SSD slot though, you'd be stuck reinstalling everything from scratch, which might be more trouble than it's worth.

If and when you get this laptop, or another one, and want to add another drive, let me know the model number and how much you'd like to spend on a new hard drive.

The HP laptop model number is 15-bc402no

As the seller haven’t replied in some time, I’ve looked for another just in case .. I found one. It’s more expensive though, and I would only buy that one it if it would make a big difference for my gameplay, but it doesn’t look like these specs is much better when i search... Would this one be worth the extra money?

Lenovo Y520 15.6”

I5-7300HQ 2.5GHz

NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB DDR5

16GB RAM

256GB SSD + 1000GB HDD

Windows 10

@amessysimmer  The processor in the newer model is slower, but the graphics card is significantly faster, somewhere in the range of 60-75% for gaming, although it does vary to a large extent by game.  The gap is closer to 60% in Sims 4, at least the base game (that's the only benchmark I saw), but that's still quite a difference, and can mean playing with ultra settings rather than high.

The fact that the laptop is more expensive may be offset by its 256 GB SSD.  While it's small, it's enough space for Windows, Sims 4, and all your user data, and you'd have the secondary HDD for overflow storage.  Whether the price is worth it depends on your preferences and also on how much more expensive it is.  The game should definitely run much faster though, again provided the laptop is in good shape overall.

The Lenovo laptop is 2 years old, and is 445$
the HP is 1 year old, and is 318$
would it make sense to pay that extra for the specs and ssd?

I’ve bought the Lenovo Legion! I’m not completely sure how it works with the ssd and the hdd, is it possible I can text you private for further help? Dunno if it would be a bit easier 🙂

@amessysimmer  I'd say whether the extra price is worth it depends on the person and the level of performance they want, but it sounds like it's worth the money to you.  Managing two hard drives is quite simple once you get the hang of it, but if you need a few screenshots, let me know.  It's easier to do this in a thread though, since PMs don't allow for attachments and are generally a headache to manage if the conversation is more than a couple of messages.

When you get the laptop, open a File Explorer window, click This PC in the left panel, and you'll see an icon for each hard drive.  You can click on each one and create whatever folders you like from there, then organize your files however you want.  A 256 GB hard drive is plenty of space for Sims 4 and your user data, so I don't think you need to install the game on the larger HDD, but you may want to store backup files (screenshots, downloaded cc you're not using, etc.) on the HDD.

The system is on both ssd and hdd, should I keep it like that or remove it from the ssd?

@amessysimmer  I'm not sure exactly what's on each drive.  It would help to see screenshots of what's in each place.

In general though, anything you want to load or run quickly should be on the SSD.  The HDD is for backups and data that you just need to view, like photos or movies.