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Best PC to run the Sims
shelym11
Posts: 47 Member
I'm looking to buy a PC that can run the Sims 3 & 4 with all their respective packs. If anyone could please guide me I would really appreciate it.
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Or, if you prefer, I can write out the specs you'd want in a new system, so that you can look yourself.
Budget up to 1000 I prefer a desktop.
Country US. I don't play any other games on PC.
I had being looking at this one but wasn't sure
https://skytechgaming.com/product/azure-2/
Thank you for replying 😊
Just so you have more ideas, here are a couple of other possibilities to consider. They're certainly not better than the one you found, but they are cheaper, and they'd run the games on ultra graphics settings as well.
This one, at $635, is the lowest I'd go. Its AMD RX 580 is just enough for ultra graphics settings, it has a slightly stronger processor than the one you found, and it has only 8 GB RAM, not that you couldn't add more yourself. (A single 8 GB RAM stick might cost you less than $50, but you'd want to make sure you matched the model already installed in the computer.)
https://www.amazon.com/SkyTech-Archangel-Gaming-Computer-Desktop/dp/B07JYF2394
This one is $730, with the same processor you found, and an Nvidia 1660, which is enough for ultra settings with room to spare. It also has only 8 GB RAM.
https://www.amazon.com/SkyTech-Shadow-Computer-Desktop-GeForce/dp/B07RG74BS9
Both these computers are available on the SkyTech website as well, although for a higher price, and Amazon offers free shipping.
The best option with a 1660 ti, the next card down from a 2060 (and of course better than a 1660 without the ti boost), is $850. It also has 16 GB RAM, but paying only $50 to upgrade to a 2060 is a pretty good deal. Still, in case you want to see:
https://skytechgaming.com/product/legacy-mini/
Finally, I poked around CyberpowerPC's website, because why not. There are a couple of excellent deals right now, and with the right configuration and the right daily sale, you could actually get a system with a 2060, 16 GB RAM, and a 500 GB SSD for just under $900. This doesn't include tax or shipping though. What it does include is a better motherboard and power supply, and faster RAM, as well as the option to pick exactly the hard drive(s) you want, not just size and type but brand. Just as importantly, it includes a significantly stronger processor, one of the new AMD models that's much faster than its predecessors.
Interestingly, the downgrade to a 1660 ti would only save $45, and getting a 1660 would save $91. It's probably because people are so excited by the 2060 Super that the regular 2060 is falling in price.
Anyway, it's something to consider. Otherwise, you'd do very well with the model you picked out, and any of the computers on this list should have no trouble handling everything TS3 and TS4 could throw at them.
None of that takes into account the age of this computer or how well it's been maintained over the years. Some laptops hold up better than others, partly with extra care and partly due to luck, but you couldn't expect any five year old laptop to run as well as it would have when it was new. So while it's impossible to say exactly how this one would run Sims 3, you're unlikely to get the play experience you want.
If you have the option to wait for your brother's computer to be fixed, that's probably the better way to go.
@AlexyPower - Like the previous poster said, the Lenovo B5400 came in a number of different configurations, so the question is, which one of those have you got?
If you want anyone to be able to give you a more definite answer you'll have to run a DxDiag report on your computer, copy it all, upload it to Pastebin and put a link to it in your next post here.
How to gather information on your PC using DxDiag.
Since you're still a new member I don't think you can post links properly, so you have to put a blank space between h and t like I've done below.
h ttps://pastebin.com/NwV1XQsq
@puzzlezaddict - Where are you looking for information about the Lenovo B5400? I looked here at the Lenovo official site, but it's not very detailed about the specs.
At any rate, even assuming the most favorable configuration (i5-4200M, Nvidia 720m, 8 or 16 GB RAM), that hardware wouldn't have run the entire game very well when it was new. It's reasonably likely that all packs could technically have run, but with lots of lag, frequent crashes, delays in rendering, and a generally poor play experience, even on low graphics settings. The GPU would simply not have been able to handle all the data it was asked to process in anything resembling a timely fashion. The base game and a few early packs probably would have been fine, especially if the game wasn't running on ultra.
And all that's with the best possible configuration. It looks like most of them don't have a dedicated card at all; the cheapest has only the very weak chip integrated into the Pentium 3550M. That chip would be completely overmatched by even a handful of packs, and even the fully patched base game alone might not have run very well.
Plus, hardware ages, and laptop hardware usually doesn't age particularly gracefully. It's impossible to say how much the performance of this particular computer might have dropped off in the last several years, only that it certainly has.
There is a problem with laptops that people usually forget, and that is that they are very prone to overheating if/when they're forced to run games or other programs they're not made to handle. If a laptop is running on a very high temperature for months or years, it's potential lifespan will most likely be shortened considerably, maybe even cut in half.
I have two older low end laptops myself, and I haven't bothered to install anything more than the base game on any of them, because they seem to have enough to do with running that alone.
I also have a few Asus gaming laptops, and they're able to run the whole TS3 (=all EPs, all SPs and everything from the Store) pretty easily. But after I bought myself a good gaming desktop I mostly use the laptops only for lighter stuff like office programs, internet, watching videos etc.
I ran the Anno 1800 beta on my MacBook Pro 14,3 (yes, I know, not a gaming machine, but it does great, and even runs Windows when I ask) on the default high settings with no evidence of lag or other performance issues. I put books under the corners, and while it ran hot, it didn't give me any reason to worry. On the other hand, if I'm sitting on my couch browsing the forums with the laptop in my lap, and I decide to load TS3 to check something, the fans get loud before I even hit the intro movie.
Of course, all the air circulation in the world won't help if the heat isn't being dispersed from the core components quickly enough, nor will the best cooling setup possible fix performance issues if those components can't keep up with the demands being placed on them. It's too bad that there really isn't a good way to run TS3 on lower-end systems, at least not with the more demanding packs. On the other hand, it's precisely that goal (among other things) that led to TS4, so the tradeoff doesn't really seem worth it.
One thing you'll want to do for TS3 is use an app to lock in-game frame rates to the refresh rate of your monitor. TS3's fps limiter doesn't work (TS4's is fine), and without an outside tool doing the job, your card will generate excessively high fps. Aside from the excess workload, this can cause graphics glitches and heat your card more than necessary.
The first tool to try with an AMD card is RivaTuner Statistics Server. It's very straightforward to use, but if you'd like instructions or a couple of screenshots, feel free to ask. Be sure to pick the right executable for the game: TS3.exe for a patch 1.69 (Origin) install, but TS3W.exe, with the "W," for a patch 1.67 (disc or Steam) install.
If you did want to invest a bit of money in your computer, upgrading to 16 GB RAM from the 8 GB it likely has would be a good choice. Neither game needs it, but more memory will help with multitasking (especially while you're playing, but also in general). It's more a quality of life upgrade, and a matching 8 GB RAM stick might cost you $40.
@puzzlezaddict - No, it sure doesn't, never has, not for me anyway. I've always wondered why it's even there since it's totally useless...
This might be an even better place:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-4/ct-p/the-sims-4-en
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
If you look a bit further up in this thread you can see that she helped the OP with finding a suitable computer for both Sims 3 and 4.