Best laptop for Sims 4 2023
If you’re looking for the best gaming laptop for Sims 4, we’ve got some fine selections for you: one for each of the three main resolutions (1080p, 1440p, and 4K).
Although The Sims 4 is quite a venerable game now, and isn’t very demanding at all, it’s a bit more demanding these days since EA upped the system requirements back in 2022. Regardless, we’ve tried to pick affordable options that will let you play the game on maximum graphics with smooth FPS at your chosen resolution.
Products at a Glance
Can my laptop run The Sims 4?
The Sims 4 specifications (since the latest 2022 update) can be seen below. These are only the recommended specs as the minimum specs for games aren’t usually worth bothering with if you want an enjoyable experience (trust us on this).
The other thing to consider is that laptop CPUs and GPUs are always weaker than desktop components, so you’ll need to aim for one SKU above to achieve the same level of performance. Below we’ve suggested some laptops that would be ideal.
Sims 4 recommended system requirements (desktop)
- Processor: Intel Core i5 (4 cores) / AMD Ryzen 5 or better
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 650 / AMD Radeon HD 7750 or better (at least 1GB of VRAM)
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- SSD: >51 GB available space
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Best laptop for Sims 4 2023
- Nvidia GTX 1650 dedicated graphics card for very cheap
- Reasonably powerful Intel Core i7-9750H CPU
- Only 256GB SSD
- Only 8GB DDR4 RAM
The MSI Thin GF63 is a terrific value gaming laptop for around the $500 – $600 mark. It’s basically the cheapest gaming laptop you can get with a dedicated graphics card at this level of power, most other models coming with iGPUs (graphics integrated within the CPU).
This is an old-tech machine but is plenty good enough for a game like The Sims 4. The refresh rate is capped at 60Hz, but again, this doesn’t matter too much for a slow-paced top-down management game like The Sims 4.
- Powerful CPU & GPU for the price
- Good battery life for a gaming laptop
- Good speakers for a gaming laptop
- No webcam
This ASUS ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition with QHD resolution is arguably a bit overkill for The Sims 4, however it’s such good value in terms of the power/price ratio, that it doesn’t make sense to buy something for marginally cheaper with the same resolution, but considerably less powerful specifications. To be clear we wouldn’t spend more than around the $1,350 mark for this machine, but it’s often reduced to around this, which is a terrific deal.
You essentially get similar FPS power to an Nvidia RTX 3070 laptop, but at a lower price. The one main drawback of this laptop is the lack of a webcam, though we think that this is a worthwhile trade-off.
- 120Hz 4K gaming laptop at a cheap price
- Good build quality
- More powerful GPU needed for playing demanding games at 4K
Playing The Sims at 4K, on a native 4K screen is a bit of a weird one. Basically any gaming laptop with 4K resolution needs to have a decent amount of power to play any game, even if this ends up being overkill for something as non-demanding as The Sims.
With that in mind we’ve gone with this MSI Creator 17 with RTX 3060 and 120Hz 4K display because it is often reduced to near the $1,500 mark (we wouldn’t pay much more for it than this).
Our Verdict
For most people the MSI Thin GF63 with GTX 1650 is the best laptop to play The Sims 4. It’s an affordable 1080p gaming laptop with no more power than you need to run the game, available for around the $500 – $600 mark.