Sims 4 + All Expansions PC Requirements
HI All, I'm looking to build my own PC to play TS4 + all the expansions, so before i do (and to avoid upgrading later), does anyone know the full PC requirements for the base game plus all the expa...
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@gemski2012 The build you're considering would be overkill in some ways for Sims 4, even accounting for all current and future packs. Of course, you might have other plans for this PC, or you might want to be able to upgrade one or two parts in a few years without buying a whole new computer. Still, if you're considering Sims 4 only, here's what you need to know:
CPU: You could get away with a much weaker processor; even a Ryzen 5 1400 would be fine. On the other hand, if you want to futureproof, spend a little extra money and get the 3600 instead of the 2600. It's a dramatic step up, which means, practically speaking, that it will last longer before becoming obsolete.
Motherboard: Sims 4 will run fine on a cheap board, and so will any of the processors listed. (The benchmarks are only a couple of percentage points apart.) The advantage to getting a more expensive board is that you might want to upgrade some of the parts in the future, so the flexibility would be helpful.
Storage: Sims 4 doesn't really benefit from being on an SSD. Windows benefits a lot though, and so do many other programs. How much total storage you need will depend on what else you'll be installing. If you only want to play TS4, you could get a single 500 GB SSD, or a 256 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD, and have more than enough space. But a 500 GB SSD/2 TB HDD combo is great if you're willing to pay for it. (Also, you didn't ask, but even the most demanding AAA games don't benefit from being on an NVMe SSD rather than a SATA.)
Memory: You only need 8 GB for TS4, but getting 16 GB will be doing yourself a huge favor—multitasking will be so much smoother. AMD processors love fast RAM, although 3000 MHz would be more than enough; I think only the 3rd-gen Ryzens would benefit from 3200 MHz. If you do get a cheaper motherboard, check its specs to make sure it even supports the higher speeds, because some don't. (The ASRock you're considering does though.)
Graphics card: It's highly unlikely that Sims 4 will ever be able to use more graphics power than you'd get from an Nvidia 1060 6 GB or an AMD Radeon RX 580 8 GB. You could bump that up to a 1660 ti and give yourself plenty of breathing room, but it's not strictly necessary. Anything more would be overkill. Besides, it would be easy to replace the card in two or three years if you want to play something else, and a lot cheaper than getting another new computer.
Power supply: You didn't list it, but don't cut corners here. A low-quality PSU can wreak havoc on a system. Spend a little extra for a gold-certified model from a reliable brand. How much wattage you'll need will depend on your GPU, and once you pick that, I can give you a couple of recommendations, if you want.
As for your current list, the motherboard is fine for what it is, although you could do better if you were willing to spend the money. Samsung is a great brand for SSDs, and WD is fine for a secondary drive. G.Skill is great. Interestingly though, the support page for the motherboard lists this RAM at a supported speed of 2933 MHz, so you wouldn't get the benefit of the faster speed.
If you have other questions, please feel free to ask.
Yeah I thought as much. I mean, it will mainly be for TS4 and studying so installation of Microsoft office package, document storingand some storing of photos/ videos etc. Id like a good low/mid range PC that if needed i have the option to upgrade parts in a few years 🙂
Ok cool, do you have any good recommendations for good motherboards for the Ryzen 2600/3600? I heard the B450 Tomahawk is hard to beat but again I don't wanna over kill this just for what I need.
In terms of video card, if TS4 runs on lower specs, do you have a recommendation that's compatible with the above that will at least cover TS4 + expansions?
I was thinking about 650W power supply and deffo gold standard 😊
And that's a good point about the RAM, it looks like it advertises at 3200 but must only have the 2933 output. Any other suggestions?
Appreciate the response!
Ram isn't too much of a concern regarding frequency it operates at, considering TS4 is rather on the low tech side of computing these days.
TS4's system requirements:
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/the-sims/the-sims-4/the-sims-4-system-requirements/
if your computer can surpass these requirements and exceed them by some margin, you'll be fine. if in doubt about your computer performance? you can run comparisons between your components and the recommended requirements on userbenchmark or gpuboss to get an idea. As an example: GTX 650 vs. GTX 1060
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-650-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1060-6GB/3154vs3639
it tells you what is stronger or weaker to give you an idea of what you could be looking for in the mid to low end range. Even a GTX 970 or GTX 780 can perform very strongly on TS4 without much issue, assuming you can find one about.
@gemski2012 The motherboards in the B450 category are all about compromises—getting the features you really want and not minding if the ones you don't need aren't included. The best choice will also depend on price, since a board might be worth an extra $20 but not $40, depending on how much you're looking to spend overall. The high-quality boards are the X570 models, which have newer features like PCIe 4.0 support that you wouldn't be able to use now but might in a few years. Of course, those boards start at double the price of the B450 models, so it might not be worth it to you.
Are you buying from somewhere in particular, or are you doing comparison shopping? Since you're building this PC yourself, you might want to check out PCPartPicker. I don't know how often the Australian site updates its prices, but the American one catches price changes in a couple of hours. You can narrow by category and feature and then sort by price and see the cheapest deal available.
The micro ATX boards will be cheaper but have fewer features. They're also smaller, obviously, which means they can be a bit harder to work with when building, especially if you haven't done it before.
There are quite a lot of boards on the list, and I don't have time to check them all out—my existing knowledge of AMD boards isn't great—but if you pick a few in your price range, I can look them up.
With memory, it's often easier to pick the motherboard, check its list of supported RAM, and then pick one from a good brand that isn't overly expensive. The performance from the top manufacturers will be the same regardless, so you can choose based on price and board specs. And yes, TS4 won't really use the faster RAM, but an AMD CPU will benefit in general.
As far as the graphics card goes, I meant that an Nvidia 1060 or AMD 580 will likely always run all packs on ultra settings, and a 1660 ti (or even just a regular 1660) will give you a buffer above that. EA's listed requirements for TS4's more demanding EPs don't take into account the cost of running them all at the same time, but that's what I was assuming you wanted when I wrote out the requirements.
By the way, you certainly don't need a 650W PSU for any of those cards. Even a 1660 ti would be fine with a 500 or 550W model. But if you're looking to futureproof, and 650W isn't that much more expensive, then it's a good choice.
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