Need help for laptop specs

[amessysimmer]

Im thinking about buying a laptop only for playing Sims 4. My MacBook runs it okay with low settings, but I wanna be able to put the graphics high, and still be able to have packs and cc without lag...

Im on a budget, and can only afford a used laptop... I’m gonna get my MacBook upgraded as well. I’m gonna list those specs, so I don’t buy the same as my MacBook can run..

I hope someone can help me navigate in this, cause I’m still confused after trying to learn about what specs to look for, and what is able to actually make the gameplay and graphic smooth..

What I use now:

Macbook pro 13” mid 2012

2.5GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5

Intel HD Graphics 4000

4GB RAM 1600 MHz DDR3 (Gonna be upgraded to 16GB)

500GB hard drive

What I’ve found so far:

Asus x550j 15.6”

Intel Core i5-4200H 2.8Ghz

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M

8GB DDR3 RAM

Windows 10

111gb hard drive

MM Vision laptop P150HMx 15,6”

Intel Core i5-2520M 2.5GHz

AMD Radeon HD 6900M

8GB RAM

Windows 10

500gb hard drive

HP ZBOOK 15,6”

Intel Core i7-4700 3,4GHz Turbo boost

Quadro K2000

20GB RAM (?)

Windows 10

128gb ssd hard drive

750 gb hard drive

Thank you for your time

[puzzlezaddict]

@amessysimmer  None of those are ideal, to be honest, even for a used laptop.  The 950M is the fastest graphics card by a wide margin, and in this category, that could mean the difference between high and medium settings.  But a single 111 GB hard drive isn't really enough space for even just Sims 4 (and Windows), unless you plan on never adding much custom content and storing all other data, even screenshots, elsewhere.  Even then, it would be cutting things close, especially as more packs are added.  And while you could run the game from an external drive, that would slow it down considerably.

If you'd like me to look for other options, just let me know your budget and country, and the site(s) where you're comfortable buying.  If you'd prefer to keep looking yourself, the best place to start is with the graphics card:

1050 ti > 1050 > 960M > 950M

Hopefully you won't have to go lower than a 950M though.  Another thing to keep in mind is the age of the laptop.  You can get a good sense of it by the processor—Intel names its models based on the year they were released, so for example an i5-4xxx was released between the end of 2013 and the end of 2014.  Newer is better in that laptops wear out eventually, but it's still not as important as the speed of the graphics card.

After the graphics card, you just need to make sure you have enough storage and RAM (8 GB is fine, less could be a problem).  A solid state drive (SSD) will run the game faster than a mechanical drive (HDD), but it's not critical to have one.  The more important thing is that you're not going to run out of space with just Windows and Sims 4.

[amessysimmer]

Thank you for your explanation! So are you saying the 950M would be able to run the game on high settings? Cause then I could upgrade the storage if it’s not too expensive..

I don’t know if it’s too complicated for you to search, as it looks like all new laptops are way than my budget..

I was also wondering, does more packs installed, need better graphic card? Or will it be able to run the same quality no matter number of packs? 

[amessysimmer]

I just found another which may sound better, let me know what you think

Hp 15.6”

I5-8300TH 2.3GHz

NVIDIA gtx 1050

8GB DDR4 RAM

1TB Hard drive

Windows 10

[puzzlezaddict]

@amessysimmer  This last one should run the game on a mix of high and ultra graphics settings.  An Nvidia 1050 is significantly faster than a 950M, and until recently, it could run all packs together on ultra settings.  So if you don't have all the packs, you may still be able to play on ultra.  The only drawback of this laptop is its mechanical hard drive, but that just means slower loading; the game would run fine once loaded, and so would other apps.

In general, the more expansion packs you add, the more demanding Sims 4 becomes.  It's not linear though: the oldest three EPs are less demanding than the newer ones, and the load isn't always even.  For example, the effect of the Seasons pack depends in large part on the weather in-game.  Stuff packs are not demanding, and neither are most game packs, with the exception of Realm of Magic.  (I don't know about the Star Wars pack.)  Overall though, you can expect the EPs starting with Cats & Dogs to add a significant load, and everything else to have a smaller effect.

If you can get a laptop wtih an i5-8300H and an Nvidia 1050 though, you really don't have to worry too much, provided the laptop itself is in good condition.  This is the kind of laptop we'd been recommending to people on a budget until recently, when new models became hard to find as they were phased out in favor of the newer generation.

[amessysimmer]

Thank you so much for your help! I’m gonna buy the last one then, but gonna let the thread be open in case its gonna be sold to another.

In case I wanna have better loading time, would it then make sense to upgrade the hard drive to ssd? 

[puzzlezaddict]

@amessysimmer  Swapping out the mechanical drive for an SSD would improve loading times for sure, and it would also make Windows run faster.  But you'd have to reinstall Windows on the new drive to get that benefit, although Sims 4 would still load faster if you moved it and nothing else to the new SSD.  Reinstalling Windows isn't complicated, I'm just mentioning it in case you notice less of an improvement than you'd expect.

I can't know for sure without the laptop's model number, but it's possible this one has an empty slot for an M.2 SSD; many laptops with this hardware do.  So you could add the SSD without having to remove the HDD.  If there isn't an SSD slot though, you'd be stuck reinstalling everything from scratch, which might be more trouble than it's worth.

If and when you get this laptop, or another one, and want to add another drive, let me know the model number and how much you'd like to spend on a new hard drive.

[amessysimmer]

The HP laptop model number is 15-bc402no

As the seller haven’t replied in some time, I’ve looked for another just in case .. I found one. It’s more expensive though, and I would only buy that one it if it would make a big difference for my gameplay, but it doesn’t look like these specs is much better when i search... Would this one be worth the extra money?

Lenovo Y520 15.6”

I5-7300HQ 2.5GHz

NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB DDR5

16GB RAM

256GB SSD + 1000GB HDD

Windows 10

[puzzlezaddict]

@amessysimmer  The processor in the newer model is slower, but the graphics card is significantly faster, somewhere in the range of 60-75% for gaming, although it does vary to a large extent by game.  The gap is closer to 60% in Sims 4, at least the base game (that's the only benchmark I saw), but that's still quite a difference, and can mean playing with ultra settings rather than high.

The fact that the laptop is more expensive may be offset by its 256 GB SSD.  While it's small, it's enough space for Windows, Sims 4, and all your user data, and you'd have the secondary HDD for overflow storage.  Whether the price is worth it depends on your preferences and also on how much more expensive it is.  The game should definitely run much faster though, again provided the laptop is in good shape overall.

[amessysimmer]

The Lenovo laptop is 2 years old, and is 445$
the HP is 1 year old, and is 318$
would it make sense to pay that extra for the specs and ssd?