Laptop Under $1000 to Run TS3?

ickleron

Hello, I know this question was asked fairly recently, but I'm looking for a new laptop under $1000 (ideally closer to $750) to run The Sims 3 and most of the expansion packs. Currently I've been playing TS2 and occasionally TS4 on a 10+ year old laptop, and previously poorly ran the Sims 3 on it too. My expectations are not high, but I would love to be able to be able to play it smoothly with decent settings. I have zero knowledge of the technical specifications of computers, and only casually play the Sims so I definitely don't need anything super fancy. I have done some research and have seen suggestions for the Acer Aspire 5, or an ASUS gaming laptop. Also any mods or other suggestions to be able to play are welcome. (:

puzzlezaddict

Are you shopping in the U.S.? (A few different countries use dollars.) If so, you have plenty of options under $1,000, and even under $800, that should run Sims 3 on ultra graphics settings, minus the two (water and high-detail lots) that need to be turned down to reduce the load on the game engine. The question is what other features you want.

Since you've mentioned Sims 4 as a possibility, I'm guessing you don't want a laptop with a 256 GB hard drive. While that's technically more than enough storage for both games and a reasonable amount of associated content, it could easily be a tight fit even with a moderate amount of custom content, backup saves, and screenshots. Since you have the budget to pay the ~$50 extra for a larger hard drive, it seems like the logical move.

This Acer Nitro is $700 and has an Nvidia 1650, which should handle ultra settings just fine both for Sims 3 and for all current Sims 4 packs. It's a good laptop, no upgrades or embellishments, just the basic components you need.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1560811-REG/acer_nh_q5uaa_008_nitro_i5_9300h_8gb_512gb_ssd.html

For $800, you could get a slightly faster 1650 ti, which isn't necessary but can help buffer Sims 3's framerate drops to some extent. These have the same hardware except for the 16 GB RAM in the Acer; while not strictly necessary, it's nice to have extra memory if you like to multitask while playing.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-g3-15-6-gaming-laptop-120hz-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650-ti-512gb-ssd-red-print-keyboard-black/6436214.p?skuId=6436214
https://www.newegg.com/obsidian-black-acer-nitro-5-an515-55-54q0-gaming-entertainment/p/N82E16834316919

In the category of overkill, these have a 1660 ti, around 40-50% faster in gaming, on average, than a 1650, although the gap tends to be somewhat smaller in older games. To be clear, you don't need this kind of power for Sims 3, and you may not ever need it for Sims 4, depending on how the game develops. But since you can get a laptop with a 1660 ti, or even the slightly faster 2060, and 16 GB RAM for under $900, these are worth mentioning.

https://www.newegg.com/bonfire-black-asus-tuf-gaming-a15-fa506iu-nb53/p/N82E16834235505
https://www.walmart.com/ip/921861606

This is certainly not an exhaustive list, just the cheapest good options I found when doing a general search. If there are other details that matter to you, for example if you want a lightweight laptop, I can look for those as well. That might drive the price up a bit, but you shouldn't have any trouble staying under $1,000.

ClarionOfJoy

Also make sure that it has an SSD so that you can install TS3 to that - that will make the game load much faster and you can play ALL the EPs and SPs even if your game is from Origin version 1.69!

ickleron

I ordered the Acer Nitro. Thank you so much for all of your suggestions!