Laptop advice - Acer Nitro 5

[nataliesarena]

Hi,

I’m looking to buy a laptop to play the Sims 4 and was just after some advice. Sorry if I haven’t posted this in the correct place.

I’m currently using an iMac 2015 and experience long load times and some lag. The iMac’s overall performance is quite slow now and I think this is because of the Sims.

I play with all expansion packs plus mods and CC. Overall I’d like something that has good quality graphics (doesn’t need to be ultra) and has shorter load times and less lag if possible. I’ll also be using the laptop for general internet usage, YouTube/Netflix, word processing and photo storage through Google photo.

I’m located in Australia and ideally want to spend under $1000 on a laptop. I know nothing about specs and I’m worried I’ll buy something and the game won’t run well.

I’ve been looking at the Acer Nitro 5:

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/acer-nitro-5-15-6-inch-i5-11300h-8gb-512gb-ssd-gtx1650-4gb-gaming-la... 

Would this one be ok for my needs? Or is there something better I should consider?

Thanks!

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@nataliesarena  I think this laptop is an excellent option.  Its processor and graphics card are capable of running all current Sims 4 packs together on ultra graphics settings, and it has plenty of storage, more than double what you'd need for Sims 4 and all the custom content you could reasonably use.

Plus, it's a really good price.  (For comparison, this laptop is usually $750-800 U.S. and more like $1,100-1,200 AUD.)  I guess that's because the laptop is an older model and now on clearance, but the age shouldn't be an issue.  The graphics card was still being made until recently, and while the processor is almost two years old, it's more than capable of keeping up with the GPU, which is the relevant question when running games.

If you'd like, I can look for other good options as well.  (Just ask.)  But I doubt I'd find anything either cheaper with the same hardware or better for close to the same price, so if you like this particular laptop already, then there's no reason not to buy it.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@nataliesarena  I think this laptop is an excellent option.  Its processor and graphics card are capable of running all current Sims 4 packs together on ultra graphics settings, and it has plenty of storage, more than double what you'd need for Sims 4 and all the custom content you could reasonably use.

Plus, it's a really good price.  (For comparison, this laptop is usually $750-800 U.S. and more like $1,100-1,200 AUD.)  I guess that's because the laptop is an older model and now on clearance, but the age shouldn't be an issue.  The graphics card was still being made until recently, and while the processor is almost two years old, it's more than capable of keeping up with the GPU, which is the relevant question when running games.

If you'd like, I can look for other good options as well.  (Just ask.)  But I doubt I'd find anything either cheaper with the same hardware or better for close to the same price, so if you like this particular laptop already, then there's no reason not to buy it.

[nataliesarena]

Thanks so much for your help and quick response! Makes me feel a lot more comfortable buying it. As I said I really didn’t want to buy something that just wouldn’t work or be similar to what I already was using. 

One last question, is it likely to be able to handle additional sims 4 game releases in the future too without compromising too much on gameplay/load times?  

[puzzlezaddict]

@nataliesarena  We can't know for sure how demanding future Sims 4 packs will be.  However, it seems from how this game is programmed that the developers are trying very hard to keep it accessible to players with low-end computers.  That's not always possible, of course, but I will say that there is a very large gap, including probably the majority and definitely a large percentage, of Sims 4 players, between what hardware can run the game now and the hardware in this laptop.  In other words, if this laptop couldn't run Sims 4 in the future, neither could the computers of a great number of current players that the developers would very much not want to exclude.

The short answer is, I think this laptop will always be fine, and if I had to guess, the biggest adjustment you'll ever need to make is turning down some graphics settings to high instead of ultra.  Load times should always be about the same; the only thing that significantly increases them is adding large amounts of custom content, and that's independent of game updates.  Sims 4 is built in such a way that the game itself loads very quickly on a solid state drive, and that couldn't change without an overhaul of the entire game.

[nataliesarena]

Amazing! Thank you so much for your help