6 years ago
What laptop for sims 4?
Hi I'm looking for a laptop that will be able to run sims 4 smoothly along with being able to do ordinary things like searching the web/watching netflix. I am from the UK and have a budget of around ...
@emilygrce Among those three, I'd cross off the first: its graphics chip is slower than the ones in the other two, and you could do a lot better for the price. The only real advantage of the third one over the second is its larger hard drive, atlhough again, you could do better for £600.
These laptops are all in a lower class than the ones I listed in terms of performance, capable of running Sims 4 on medium graphics settings, or maybe medium-high if you only have a few expansion packs. (Game and stuff packs don't have nearly as much of an effect.) Gaming-level graphics cards don't come in 14" laptops, at least not until you get into a higher price range.
If you want other options, I found a few. This Dell has the same larger hard drive as the third laptop you found, and otherwise the same specs as the second one, and is £550:
You'd want to upgrade at least the processor in this HP, putting the cost at £500, but you'd also have more flexibility in the other specs.
https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-laptop-14t-7ax33av-1
The same goes for this Lenovo: you'd want to upgrade at least the processor, but you'd have flexibility in choosing more upgrades if you wanted.
https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/ideapad/s-series/IdeaPad-3-14%2C-Intel/p/81WDCTO1WWENGB0
If you're willing to spend just over £600, you could put a real graphics card in this Lenovo, aside from the other upgrades. The available cards, an MX330 or MX350, are not on the same level as the gaming graphics cards I mentioned earlier, but they're both much faster than the integrated cards in the other options. That's the difference between medium and high graphics settings. Plus, the dedicated card would use its own memory rather than borrowing from main memory (RAM) while you're playing, meaning the rest of the system would have full use of its installed RAM.
https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/ideapad/s-series/IdeaPad-5-14IIL05/p/81YHCTO1WWENGB1
There are a number of options for customization, depending on which model you look at, and I can describe the benefits of each one if you want. But the first question is how much you want to spend, and the second is whether you like the look of any of these laptops enough to consider them as options. Let me know either way.
So if I got this one and added the MX350 graphics card would I be able to run sims 4 in high. Also would I need the i5 processor or the i7?
https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/ideapad/s-series/IdeaPad-5-14IIL05/p/81YHCTO1WWENGB1
@emilygrce You don't need the i7 processor. It's stronger, but not by that much if you look at gaming benchmarks, and difference in performance in non-gaming tasks (e.g. video or heavy photo editing) is how quickly something gets done, not whether it can be done at all. I don't think the upgrade is worth anywhere near the price.
The MX350 should handle high settings without any trouble. It's too new for us to have seen what it can specifically do in Sims 4, but we can make an educated guess. An Nvidia 1050 (mobile version) is about 40% faster, and that card can currently handle ultra graphics settings, albeit barely. The MX350 is close to 200% faster than a couple of cards that run Sims 4 on medium settings. So yes, high settings should be fine.
It's not necessary for Sims 4, but if you're willing to spend the extra £25, getting 16 GB RAM may be worthwhile. The extra memory would help with multitasking, especially if you like to have browsers or other apps open while you play, or maybe edit your in-game screenshots. But if you'd rather not spend the money, the laptop will still be fine, and you can add extra RAM later if you change your mind.