@annamarie1479 It's not hard to find a good laptop for $1,200 CAD, or even significantly less. In this price range, the best available Nvidia graphics card is a 1650; the significantly faster 1660 ti is also significantly more expensive. The AMD 5500M is about 5-10% faster than the 1650, although it's not widely available. The 1650 should run all current Sims 4 packs together on ultra graphics settings, with some room to spare, but that may not be true as future expansions are released—we don't know how demanding they'll be. A 1650 should always be able to handle a mix of high and ultra settings, but depending on what your priorities are, you may want a bit more speed out of your graphics card.
The other hardware matters too, but the GPU will be the limiting factor in determining how well a given laptop runs Sims 4, so that's the main focus. As long as you have at least 9 GB RAM (which can be upgraded to 16 GB if you want) and enough storage, you'll be fine.
To be clear, you don't need to spend anywhere near $1,200. This laptop is $950 and is good enough for what you want. It runs relatively quiet and quite cool for an entry-level gaming laptop, although it does lose a few percentage points of performance as a tradeoff compared to other laptops with the same hardware. But if you're not overly concerned with getting the absolute maximum performance out of your system, it's still a very good option.
https://www.newegg.ca/obsidian-black-acer-nitro-5-an515-55-59nw-gaming-entertainment/p/N82E168343169...
This HP ($982) has the same profile as the Acer: similarly cool, even quieter (especially during low use), a little lower than expected on the performance end as a result, but still good:
https://www.pc-canada.com/item/10M37UA%23ABL.html
If you want better performance, these MSIs would be a good choice; the only difference is the more expensive one has a stronger processor, which won't make a difference to Sims 4. The laptop is louder than the ones above but not excessively loud for a gaming laptop, and it runs a bit cooler than the others. It also loses some performance as a result, in equal proportion to the ones above, but since its 5500M is faster than the others' 1650, it comes out ahead overall.
https://www.thesource.ca/en-ca/computers-tablets/laptops/all-laptops/msi-bravo-15-a4ddr-073ca-15-6%e...
https://www.amazon.ca/MSI-Bravo-15-A4DDR-051CA-Ryzen7-4800H/dp/B08BW1XBRK/
This would be an example of a high-end laptop that runs quiet, cool, and fast, although its graphics card still winds up a bit slower than the 5500M. This Asus also has 16 GB memory, although that's only an advantage if you're not interested in upgrading the RAM yourself, since $1,200 for 16 GB instead of 8 is not a reasonable price—you could buy 8 GB separately for maybe $60. Still, it's worth looking at as an alternative.
https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=710_1925_1920_1923&item_id=165760
The highest rated laptop in this price range is a Dell with an AMD 5600M, a graphics card that's significantly faster than the 5500M and a few percentage points slower than the more expensive 1660 ti. The issue is that the Dell only has 256 GB storage, which, while enough for all your Sims 4 content, might not be sufficient if you're also going to store a large amount of data, whether that's movies or music or school projects that are more involved than just essays or problem sets. And for $1,200, you'd only get 8 GB memory as well. On the other hand, its performance is ahead of the others by an obvious margin, and it's very quiet and reasonably cool.
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/dell-g5-15-6-gaming-laptop-grey-amd-ryzen-5-4600h-256gb-ssd-8gb...
There is an open-box option for $1,100, if that doesn't bother you.
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/dell-g5-15-6-gaming-laptop-grey-amd-ryzen-5-4600h-256gb-ssd-8gb...
There are a lot more options, but these are the ones that have the best overall reviews and do well in the categories that matter to you. If you'd like to see other options or just have more questions in general, please feel free to ask.
——————————————————————————————————————————
I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
