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6 Best Laptops For Sims 4 2020 – (All Expansions Packs CC & Mods)

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The best laptop for Sims 4 should not only prevent the game from crashing often but also make the animations run as smooth as butter.

If you’ve played long enough you know how depressing it is to have the game crash right after you’ve spent tons of hours trying to build a house. 

The best way to minimize the chances of this happening is to find a computer that’s never bottlenecked by lack of power.

Which is another way of saying..

You need decent framerates (50ish) when playing with the several expansion packs,mods and custom contents available.

Unfortunately…

That’s not what you hear online.

A lot of people will tell you to buy cheap old laptops reassuring  you that they will handle the game no problems.

Although many of those laptops might be able to run the base game, that doesn’t mean the graphics and gameplay will be buttery smooth nor does it mean it will handle all the expansion packs or extra content  you want w/ no framedrops.

No worries…

In this post we’ll go over everything you need to know about the game and the hardware you need to enjoy it to the fullest. 

But….

Because I know most of you just want to pick up a laptop without doing much reading, I’ll list the best laptops that can run the game first telling you what you can expect from them(what settings, expansion packs, framerates,etc).

I’ll also list a laptop that will play Sims 3 and past versions.

I’ll leave all the computer jargon to the section after that. You can use as a guide to buy a laptop if you don’t have access to these computers wherever you are, it has a step by step guide on how to do this.

Top 6 Best Laptops for Sims 4

EA’s hardware requirements has two parts: 

1.Minimum requirements: to run the base game only:
Dual Core Processor with +2.3GHz , 4GB RAM, Intel HD 4000+

2. Recommended Requirements: to run all the available expansion packs.
Quad Core Processor with +3GHz , NVIDIA GTX 960M or 1050 and beyond + 8GB RAM.

My advice: Go with recommended requirements but add a CPU with ~4GHz. This will make sure your laptop will be able to support the entire game as new patches or eps are added to the game. 

 

Laptops 4,5 are more suitable to handle pretty much everything at high. Only opt for laptop 1 & 2 if you are on a tight tight budget and can’t afford anything else(but try to push your budget a bit more and grab at least #3).

1. HP 14 TouchScreen
Cheap Laptop For Sims 4

best-laptop-for-sims-4-HP-Touchscreen

  AMD Ryzen 3 3200U

  8GB RAM DDR4

  AMD Radeon Vega 

  256GB PCIe NVMe SSD

  14” IPS full HD 1080p

  3.24lb

  8 hours

 Performance

This laptop doesn’t have the recommended requirements but it is stil labove the minimum requirements and I believe this is the cheapest of the cheapest laptops you should try to play the game on. 

Luckily, we are in the year 2020 and even the cheapest machines have insane clock speeds. The processor here is at 3.5GHz which was considered super high 2 years ago.

A cool thing about this laptop despite being cheap is that it’s already upgraded to 8GB of RAM and a PCIe NVMe SSD so there’s nothing else you have to do it to make up the lack of “GPU power”.

Yes, the GPU unfortunately, is not a dedicated one you’ll only find them on laptops above 600$. But it is still a recent one (integrated) and you should be able to play Sims 4 without resorting to laptop mode at a 50FPS lowest settings and 30-40FPS at medium (768p resolution).  Here’s the video of a laptop with the same specs.

 

As for those of you planning to play Sims 3, it’s one of the few systems that can run it. You can play expansions like Ambitions, Late night and Seasons. However if you try to add heavy custom cotent, it’ll struggle and overheat massively because again it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics cards.

  Design

It’s just a bummber that even in 2020, we can’t buy it with a dedicated GPU at this price range so the FHD resolution might not be useful to play the game because it is very likely that you’ll stick with 728p.

Remember that you won’t be able to run all the expansions with this one due to that, especially Pets and Paradise. However any expansion  less demanding than those should be playable as long as you tweak the settings.

But overall this is just a laptop to play the base game of Sims 4 and 3 with a few expansion and custom content.

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2. Lenovo IdeaPad 3
Best Laptop for Sims 4 under 400

  Intel AMD Ryzen 3 3250U

  4GB RAM

   Intel UHD

  256GB SSD NVMe PCIe

  15” HD 

  4.07 lbs

  8 hours

This lenovo is even cheaper than the HP 14. Pretty much the same performance and all but  there’s one big catch: it’s only got 4GB RAM. If you think you can do the upgrade yourself to 8GB by getting your own RAM stick you could save yourself quite a lot of money ~70 bucks because buying a RAM stick will cost you 30$. It is likely you have one in your house though or you could just take it out of an old laptop you got somewhere.

This Lenovo Idepad 3 comes in two versions two, the other version which is 100$ more expensive has a slightly faster CPU and a better GPU than the Ryzen 3 3200/Vega, so you’ll definitely squeeze out +10-15FPS when playing the game at low settings to a total of 60-65FPS at medium settings HD resolution.

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3. Acer Aspire 5 
Best Budget Laptop For Sims 4 and Sims 3

Acer Aspire 5 - Best Laptop For Sims 4

  Intel Core i5-1035G1

  8GB DDR4

   NVIDIA GeForce MX350

  512GB NVMe SSD,

  15.6” 60Hz Full HD IPS

  5.79lb

  5 hours

If you want your laptop to handle most expansion  packs and custom-content mods you’re going to need a dedicated GPU.

Laptops with a mid-range GPUs for gaming start at 750$. This is well below 700$ and is the cheapest laptop with a “dedicated GPU” you’ll find online as of september 2020.

Although the dedicated GPU on this model may seem like a realy weak GPU, this is its 3rd generation released in early 2020 and equals in power to the 1050GB which you could find on laptops 700-800$ last year.

This is enough to push the game. This is a laptop that can push the game well into the mid-50s at high settings. 

Another advantage of choosing it or any of its cousins : MX150,MX250 , is the fact their architecture is based on the 940MX which was released 4 years ago so it will be a lot more compatible with Sims 3 (Sims 4 too of course) than most modern laptops.

If you got 100$ more bucks I really think you should consider the next one.

4. MSI GF63 THIN 9SCX-005
Best Gaming Laptop For Sims 4 with all Expansions

MSI GF63 THIN 9SCX-005 - Best laptop for sims 4

  Core i5 9300H

  8GB DDR4

   GeForce GTX 1650

  256GB PCIe SSD

  15.6” 60Hz Full HD IPS

  7.78lb

  7 hours

Just like the third laptop above, this one can handle the game at high settings with high framerates  ~80FPS and unlike the third laptop this one has enough juice to handl pretty much every expansion. 

However, I have to admit both the GPU/CPU are a bit too powerful for just Sims 4 they are both considered “mid-range” among gaming latpops but this is way too much for a game with graphics like Sims 4 anyways.

The cool thing about it though is the fact this model is only 699$. Just a bit more expensive than the Acer Aspire 5 but with a far more powerful GPU/CPU combo.

5. ASUS TUF FX505DT 
Best Gaming Laptop For Sims 4 w/ 120Hz All Expansions

  AMD Ryzen 5 R5-3550H

  8GB DDR4

   GeForce GTX 1650

  256GB PCIe SSD

  15.6” 60Hz Full HD IPS

  4.85lb

  5 hours

The ASUS TUF is actually my favorite laptop on this list and it’s been my favorite laptop since the start of the year. Yes it was released a while ago but still offers what no other laptops as of Sep 2020 can offer: a 120 Hz and only for an extra 40 bucks. (120Hz display usually adds 100$ to the cost but this one has stayed cheap during the year).

If you take a good look at the specs and compare them to the MSI, you’ll notice pretty much every spec is the same except the CPU.
But fear not, the AMD Ryzen 5 3550H is only about 10% less powerful than the Core i5 9300H. Yes, you’ll get slower framerates Probably 10 FPS.

But…

You’ll actually feel the game run smoother because the MSI/Acer Nitro 5s with a Core i5 9300H only have a 60Hz display which limits the framerate your eyes can see to 60FPS. The 120Hz display obviously has a bigger cap at 120FPS which you’ll definitely need as you’ll be easily going past 100FPS at low to medium settings and hit nearly 80 at high settings.

6. Acer Predator Helios 300
The Best Laptop For Sims 4 and Sims 5 

  Core i7-10750H

  16GB DDR4

   NVIDIA RTX 2060 

  512GB PCIe NVMe SSD

  15” full HD 144Hz IPS

  5.07

  4 hours

I think the Acer Nitro/MSI/ASUS TUF with the 1650GTX GPU hits the spot for the game to run at all settings with high framerates, it should be enough. I wouldn’t advice to get a laptop anymore powerful than those.

 The game will look and feel awesome with just 60FPS at high settings and if you lower down the settings, then it’s even less likely almost impossible to ever crash.

However….

I know there are people here with deep pockets and want to get the best they can to play their fav game. This is why I decided to post a 2060RTX laptop with one of the most powerful processors.

The truth is is that…

It’s really overkill for the game but at least it will make sure you’ll run it at the highest settings with +150FPS  without ever having to worry about the blue screen of death right in the middle of your most creative achievement.

 Performance

Anything with a 2060RTX and a 9th/10th generation Core i5/Core i7 CPU will get you ~130FPS when designing/building and 60-90FPS when interacting with people at ULTRA settings.

Another reason to get a laptop like this one is that it will surviva every expansion that’s coming up and every new edition of the game, it’s just way too powerful for most games made this year.

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How To Buy The Best Laptop for The Sims 

There are many sources to find systems requirements for the sims 4. It’s best to check the official website  and then compare them with other sources such as: Carl’s sims 4 guide website.

Before going into the details of the specifications you need to look in  a laptop. You need to be aware of the following (especially if you are new to the game).

Versions, Expansion packs, Mode, and CCs

Be aware that  different versions of the sims, the mods, expansion packs and ccs will affect how smooth your laptop can run the game.

Versions

Sims 1 and 2

The first two versions do not take anything special to run them on. They are so old that you can play them on any laptop even the lowest end HP and Dell you can get your hands on.

That is because their graphics and textures are nothing compared to the current versions Sims 3 and 4. 

Sims 3 
 
This is the version that has huge issues running on laptops. If you are trying to play the Sims 3 on a laptop, give this section a read if not skip over(it’s long).
 
The Sims 3 uses more hardware resources than the current version and it was midway through the game that the problems with laptops started.
 
I suppose EA just did not care much about how the comaptible Sims 3 would be with laptops at that time. You could say launching the game for console was more important back then. That’s not to say you can’t play the Sims 3 flawlessly on a computer, you can on a desktop but it can be a huge issue on a laptop.
 
Why? It’s not just that the game is very hardware demanding but the game might not even recognize current graphics cards (I think it does up to GTX 680).  So, if you buy a laptop today, you would have to make the game recognize your graphics card manually. This is a really good tutorial for getting the card recognized. Another way to deal with the Sims 3 is to find a laptop from the late era of Sims 3, 2012-2014 so the game will recognize its graphics card.

If you want a modern laptop to play Sims 3, look up Carl’s Sims 3 guide to buying a laptop for TS3(the base requirements are demanding). Basically, you are going to need a discrete card, a quad core CPU and +8GB RAM as the minimum. Even if you get the best computer out there, it will never run the game perfectly. The game itself is more prone to crash and corrupt your saving files. That’s just part of the game but it’s playable and many simmers still play deal with it (constantly save their progress).

Low end budget laptops: While there are a few lucky souls that can run the Sims 3 on integraphted graphics card and cheap laptops such as the first one on this list.
 
I’d recommend not buying a low end laptop unless you’ve read a review that clearly states how well the game can run . As mention before, newer hardware will become more of a problem as the game will not recognize it.  The addition of Pets, which can be considered a totally different game, might make the game unplayable. Island Paradise, Into the Future and Seasons are not far behind.

I am going to stop here and recommend you get a desktop or play the sims 3 through a console for the game to run smoothly. If not just remember. You can try the following to make the game run better (if it does on your current laptop):

  • Disable vertical sync throug the graphics card control panel (FPS can go nuts on new comptuers if you don’t)
  • Make sure your graphics card is recognized by the sims 3.
  • Use mods online such as Naars that will help with some of the problems the game has. 

Sims 4

Luckily, the Sims 4 is much less hardware demanding.Although it is a much better improvement than the Sims 3 it is still poorly optimized compared to other games. 

Laptop Mode: The Sims 4 however has a laptop mode which allows you to run tne game on cheaper and less powerful machines at the lowest settings possible.Keep an mind not all systems out there can run the game smoothly even on laptop mode.  With the laptops shown here , the cheap ones, you won’t have to resort to this option. 

Expansion Packs

The more packs you add to this game, the more demanding it’ll become in terms of hardware. Pets being the most demanding ep to this date, paradise, Into the future and seasons are not too far behind Pets. Highly detailed and old mods will might slow down your computer and make it unplayable. So It’s always best to stick with the recommended specs by the official website.

Sims 4 Laptop Requirements

CPU

The Sims 4 is one of the few games who benefit quiet a lot from processors with more cores. That is, processors labeled with HQ label (four cores) as opposed to dual core processors (U label).

For Low settings you can settle with the: 

i3-5010U, i3-5020U, i5-5200U, i5-6200U, i3-7100U, i5-7200U, etc.That is processors with the U label and the latest generations 5th,6th,7th,8th.

For high settings and best performance look for processors with the HQ labels

 i5-7300HQ, i5-6300HQ, i7-6500 HQ.

The sims 4 will crash much less frequently with HQ processors if budget is not a problem invest on an HQ processor.

GPU

The most important component of your set up its your graphics card. It will define how smooth your game will play and at what settings. The game can run on pretty much any modern GPU, but be aware of their performance:

Intel ‘Bay Trail’ HD

This is a lower card than the Intel HD series that you find regularly on budget laptops. They usually come with a Pentium Processor and surprisingly the game can run at 1280×720, Low settings, laptop mode with 20-60fps and nothing else installed on it (ep packs, ccs, mods). Laptops such as these can cost you lower than 300$.

Intel HD

These are the graphics you’ll come across frequently when shopping for laptos less than 500$. As long as your CPU is of the latest generations (the first number starts with a 5, 6 , 7: Intel Core i3-7100U), you’ll get an intel HD Card decent enough to play the game. However try to get the latest Intel HD cardsavailable:

Intel HD 550/520/530, Intel HD 620/630

You’ll be able to run the Sims at medium settings with 30-40fps. Of course the more expansion packs and patches you add, the slower it’ll become.

For the base game:

Core i7-6500U with the Intel HD 520: 1080p medium settings 30-40 fps.
Core i3-7100U with the intel HD 620: 1366×768 medium settings 30-40 fps.

Dedicated GPUs

Having a dedicated graphics card is recommended, with addition of more expansion packs, especially pets, lower end systems such as the ones shown above will perform much slower and even go as far as becoming totally unplayable even on Laptop Mode.

Plus Sims 4 is not complete and assuming you’ll get most of the collection and expansion packs it’s best to invest on a dedicated GPU. Here are the ones you’re likely to encounter:

 
GTX 940M

Can run the game without hiccups and several expansions too. If adding too many EPs severely lowers the average FPS of 38 – 39 at 1080p resolution and high settings, then you can always lower the resolution and / or graphic settings. 

GTX 960, 1050ti, 1060,1070,1080

These cards can run the base game and all of it’s expansions at ultra settings without issues. While the 940M and lower end cards might not survive the whole sims 4 game (as new expansions come), these are the recommended graphics cards by EA that will. 

If you come across an older model than the ones discussed here. You can check their compatibility and how well they’ll perform with the game in this post from the sims forums.

RAM

You would need at least 4GB RAM for the base game, the above recommendations are always assuming you have a 4GB RAM.

The more expansion packs and content you add,. the more RAM you’ll need, preferablt 8GB RAM. While this is not possible with low end systems, if you want to buy a laptop +300$ bucks, invest on extra RAM.You can always upgrade it yourself or have someone do it, it’s not expensive.

If you are buying a high end laptop it will naturally come with 8GB RAM.

Storage

Although the Sims 4 needs 10GB,  adding Expansion packs,CCs and mods to the game on a small hard drive will eat the space away very quickly plus you also need to leave a lot of free space for your laptop not to feel sluggish.

If you are just playing the Sims 4, a 256GB will be OK.

If you plan to play other games  get a hard drive with +256GB of memory.  Preferably +512GB as other games take around 50GB.

SSD(Solid State Drive)

Although it is not required for the game to be playable. It is a huge bonus.

If you have thousands of mods and plan on installing the expansion packs, the game will take long to load on regular hard drives. An SSD might make all the difference for the game to run better by rendering images faster as well.

Remember that if you want an SSD on your laptop, buy one that already has it at the time of purchase, installing one later on your own will void the warranty. 

MacBooks

If you have a MacBook Pro from 2014 onwards, it will run Sims 4 with all the expansions perfectly fine on low/medium graphic settings. However there will might be problems with the Sims 3.

The MacBook Air from 2015 onwards is also capable of running Sims 4 with almost every expansion at the lowest settings.

Comments?

I am aware this may not be entirely clear for those are not acquianted with computer tech.

So if you have any comments, suggestions, questions about a laptop you’ve come across or you think it can fit with our best laptop for sims 4 list. Please let us know in the comments below,.