Which laptop is better for Sims 4?
@f9p4i29f6297 Loading times are determined by CPU speed and drive speed and RAM, both the speed of the memory and the amount up to a point. That point is basically the enough/not enough dividing line, and 8 GB should be enough as long as you don't have a bunch of other apps open at the same time. That includes bloatware installed by the manufacturer, especially on a laptop, and I'd suggest getting rid of all the excess pre-installed apps just as a matter of course.
Windows itself only uses about 2 GB RAM, maybe a little more if you're running 11 and not 10. The rest is taken up by other software, both the manufacturer-provided bloatware and whatever you install that sets itself to start with Windows. I don't allow either—no manufacturer bloatware and nothing gets to start on its own—and Windows 10 uses 2.0 GB memory immediately after I restart my computer, and only about 2.5 at most if I've been running it for a while.
Having said that, RAM is very cheap right now and very easy to upgrade, even on a laptop, and especially on a gaming laptop because the manufacturers expect that most users will want to. (I believe they sell laptops with 8 GB anyway to keep costs down and because some users will install 32 rather than 16, but that's a separate discussion.) Buying another 8 GB would still keep you under budget, and it's also not something you'd necessarily need to do right away. But you can't upgrade the processor or graphics card, and upgrading the storage can be much more of a project.
Point is, as long as the computer has enough memory, the loading speed is determined by the processor and the drive. All these CPUs are fast enough for it not to make a difference. All the laptops have NVMe solid state drives, and while there's some variation in absolute speed among the different models, it doesn't actually make any meaningful difference to Sims 4. If you were loading from an HDD, it would be noticeably slower, but that's not the question here.
Once you're in-game, lag is caused by the game itself and/or the processor. True lag is a delay in something happening, so anything from sims pausing before responding to commands to the interaction menu not appearing right away to the game just seeming to stop for a few seconds. If the CPU is running at full capacity, that can cause this lag, but more often it's the game engine. All these processors are more than powerful enough to not be the problem; you'd need to be doing some heavy multitasking, for example installing a major Windows update, at the same time to see any real hit on performance.
What players often refer to as lag is actually low framerates or delays in rendering, both of which can be caused by the game engine but are mostly based on the graphics card. Low fps makes the game seem choppy or stuttery, especially when moving the camera, and a delay in rendering an object is pretty obvious when you see it. The reason I strongly suggested a dedicated graphics card is because the integrated chips are not capable of rendering enough frames per second to make Sims 4 (all packs included) look and feel smooth on ultra settings even before you start adding custom content.
Technically, the processors in the second and third laptops you linked are stronger than the models in the laptops I linked, but I doubt you'd see much more than a percent or two difference in the game's loading time. What you'd definitely notice is needing to turn your graphics settings down to get smooth gameplay.
By the way, I learned yesterday that when someone has a lot of mods and custom content, suppressing the pop-up at the Main Menu that lists the mods and cc can lessen loading times by a considerabe margin. Try it out and see what you think.
