Hey yall, its been awhile since I've been here. Honestly, my current laptop cant play Sims 3 fast enough or do anything I really need done fast enough, so I havnt really been playing the Sims. I found a new laptop, however I really dont know what to look for when buying a new laptop. This one seemed nice (
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075FLBJV7?tag=laptop-magazine-20) because its a gaming laptop, however im not sure. If anyone could steer me in a good direction (looking to spend about 600$) I would be appreciative.
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I'm afraid you are going to have up the ante a bit if you can. Laptops that can carry the entire game start at $900 (USD). This one is on sale for $800 and hits all the right notes. MSI makes great (and expensive!) laptops, this one is on the lower end of its range and would be fine for TS3, probably TS4 as well. It doesn't have an SSD, but its standard drive is 1 TB so the fighting for drive space issue wouldn't be there unless you have a very extensive collection of high def videos and photos you intend to carry around.
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GV62-8RD-200-Performance-Steelseries/dp/B07D4ZML7M
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@igazor is really helpful in this field.Perhaps they could recommend something.I just know, I didn't have any luck with the mx150.
Edit: Beat me to the punchline.=) MSI is one of my favorite brands, I love my laptop from them
https://graceymanorsims3.tumblr.com/
And I can't begin to compete with talk I saw recently on the TS4 section about stores in the UK with the Royal Warrant that serve coffee and cake to frequent shoppers or something like that. I mean, there are stores here in the US that serve snacks but we don't usually let those things sway our purchase decisions much; prices are a little lower too but perhaps it could be said that we are not as civilized over here.
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What exactly should I look for to run TS3?
To run all of TS3 on better than medium graphics settings on a laptop, this is what one should look for:
Processor: i5 quad core or higher, for a laptop in some cases an i7 or higher should be sought, or the AMD equivalents. The newer H series i5s like the one above are also fine. The U series processors are made for ultra low power consumption and battery usage, they should be avoided.
RAM: At least 8 GB. 16 GB would be nice to have to run other programs at the same time as the game and for future proofing, but that's not essential and usually more RAM can be added later if required.
Graphics Card: Must be dedicated, not integrated, on Nvidia at least a 1050 mobile or higher if on the current range of cards or again the AMD equivalents. Older cards are fine too if they are strong enough (e.g., 960M or higher on that series, 860M or higher on that one), but it would be odd to see older series cards on a newer laptop these days. The also new but weaker MX 130/150 cards should be avoided. Stronger cards like the 1070 and higher would be fine too, but very expensive additions and sims games can't really use all that graphics power.
Drive Space: Solid State Drives (SSDs) are nice, and TS3 happens to be a game that can take advantage of them (not all do, TS4 does not for example) but still very expensive over a certain size. Regardless of whether SSD, standard HDD, or some combination, at least 512 GB in size so as to not keep bumping into drive space restrictions as time goes on.
And the unit must have a decent case and cooling system so as to not fall apart or overheat with "too much" usage.
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I woke up this morning and my laptop was dead when I unplugged it. Strange because I charged it, but I plugged it back in. The battery died overnight, so now I have to leave it plugged in to use it. I can’t wait for Christmas!
I also found a table on MTS that shows a bunch of graphic cards and I’ve been checking it every time I find a new laptop before I bookmark a page.
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My mother just bought me this one, I was looking into the specs and it seems like it's more than efficient to run ts3 and its expansion plus some custom content . The only thing I'm slightly concerned about is th proccesor is 7th gen , I plan to move the game over to the HDD. This one has a lot of great reviews and I'm super excited for it, I just want to make sure everything looks okay and you're the best man for the job.
I take it you mean the Alienware model that you mentioned in your discussions with puzzlez. I didn't participate in those because by the time I caught up with them there wasn't really anything I could have added to what she was saying. I wouldn't have chosen the model you did, just as she said, the SSD is too small to game on (so the game would have to be installed and run from the HDD) and the GPU has more power than TS3 could possibly use, although that could be helpful for other games. The TS3 CC collection you mentioned wouldn't benefit from having a GTX 1070 over a 1060 or the equivalent. The processor being 7th gen isn't really much of a concern. For all of the unkind things we can say about Dell and whether its acquired Alienware brand offers enough value to consider, they do not tend to hide low quality components in their pricier models like some manufacturers might.
That's not to say it was a bad choice, just perhaps not the best one for the intended purpose, but I expect you will end up being very happy with it.
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