Re: Whats the best laptop for sims4 and work?

@Player_njlrsklo  I've split your post into its own thread, since your issues are quite different (and it's easier for me to keep track of this way).

First of all, macOS is very good at throttling performance to protect the hardware.  The major reason gaming can damage a computer is through excessive heat, but your OS should prevent that.  It's still possible though.  If you want to monitor temperatures, iStat is probably the best tool for Macs, at least among those that offer a free version.

The CPU temps (including the graphics chip integrated into the processor) should ideally stay below 80º C, although you don't really have a problem until you get into the 90s.  You can also get a cooling pad to help, which would obviously be much cheaper than a new laptop.

By the way, the other major source of damage to a graphics card is maintaining excessively high framerates over a long period of time, but your integrated graphics chip probably isn't going to maintain high enough framerates for that.  Still, if you're playing on lower settings, it's best to enable vertical sync in the graphics options, and make sure the framerates don't go over 60.  To see fps in real time, bring up the cheats console (ctrl-shift-C) and enter "fps on" without quotes.  The number will apper in the lower left corner.  ("fps off" makes it go away.)

By the way, it's normal for your processor to turbo and for the fans to rev up while you're playing.  The processors in my computers start running at their max turbo clock as soon as I launch Sims 4, even though their load is low enough that it's totally unnecessary.  To be fair, I haven't paid close attention in macOS, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the same result.

Your graphics chip is about equal in gaming performance to an Nvidia MX130 or MX150 in gaming, although it's hard to be sure since so many games don't run at all in macOS.  If temperature isn't a factor, you should be able to play on medium-high settings as it is, so I'm not sure you'd want to buy a new laptop just to get the same performance, at least not without seeing whether you can play effectively on this one.  Again, as long as temps are under control, you really don't have to worry too much.

If you do want a new laptop just to play, you could one that would run all Sims 4 packs together on ultra graphics settings for $700:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1542057-REG/msi_gf63_thin_9scx_005_gf63_i5_9300h_8gb.html

The hard drive is small, but it's more than enough for the game, your saves, and all the custom content you could ever download.  If you wanted to save a bit of money, you could get an open-box version of this one, with the same hardware (other than a larger hard drive); the option that's not sold out is $607.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650-512gb-solid-state-drive-black/6356774.p?skuId=6356774

Or you might be able to find a used laptop with an Nvidia 1050 (regular or ti), if you trust the seller enough to take that risk.  But the next class of laptop down is going to be almost as expensive and only provide a marginal improvement in performance, if any.

If you would in fact like a laptop that would handle only medium graphics, something like this would work:

https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-laptop-14t-7ax33av-1

Let me know if you want to see similar options.  And please feel free to ask more questions.