Best laptop for Sims 4 in 2023 – best budget friendly way to play Sims 4

With the best laptop for Sims 4, you’ll be able to play this enduringly popular game on the go.

The game has been a certified smash hit, and you can read about why in our Sims 4 review. A big part of this is the huge amount of expansion packs regularly released that keep the game feeling fresh. The game was also recently made free, serving to further boost the number of players.

We enlisted the help of our in-house laptop enthusiast, Aaron Ritchie, who tests and reviews the latest laptops. Under his expert eye, the following products come highly recommended if you want to play Sims 4 in 2023. Generally speaking, these laptops fall in the budget to mid-range category, so you can expect to spend around $800. If that’s outside your budget, then you may want to find a cheaper option amongst our picks of the best budget gaming laptop.

Sims 4 is a game especially well suited to laptop gaming. Because it doesn’t require the precise accuracy and precision of other games, you can play it anywhere from the comfort of your own bed to the discomfort of a long-haul flight.

One thing you’ll need for that, however, is a laptop suited to playing the game. Unfortunately, this doesn’t include Chromebooks, though most other laptops should be able to run Sims 4. Sims 4 system requirements are pretty low, meaning you should find our selection of laptops nice and affordable. However, the more powerful your computer the more smoothly it will run, and the more likely it will be able to handle future releases. That’s why we’ve found the best gaming laptops to help you narrow down your choices.

Best laptop for Sims 4 is the Acer Nitro 5

The Acer Nitro 5 is our pick for the best laptop for Sims 4, this is because of its great versatility. First of all, it is a gaming laptop, one that brings with it an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 and 12th Gen Intel i5 process. This makes it more than capable of handling Sims 4 on the highest settings with no issues at all. Take a look at WePC’s Acer Nitro 5 review to get a more detailed breakdown of the laptop’s performance.

Whilst this is overkill for those who know Sims will be the most taxing thing they’ll be asking of their laptop, for many of us, it makes more sense to buy a laptop that is capable of playing more demanding games. The Acer Nitro is our pick for that reason.

It would be nice to see a longer battery life but this will always be a weakness in gaming laptops as their high-spec GPUs devour power.

Its build quality is high and the display is crisp as we’ve come to expect from a reputable brand like Acer. The built-in speakers are high quality as well. This coupled with its screen size of 17.3 inches, the largest on this list, makes it perfect to watch a movie on.

Best gaming laptop for Sims 4 is the IdeaPad Gaming 3i Gen 7

Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i Gen 7

Display Size

15.6″

Resolution

1920 x 1080

RAM

8GB

GPU

RTX 3050

CPU

Core i5

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Pros

• Excellent battery life
• Doesn’t ‘look’ like a gaming laptop
• Comfortable keyboard

Cons

• 8GB of RAM may not be enough for most people

The IdeaPad Gaming 3i is another great all-round laptop and an especially good gaming laptop. Our resident laptop expert Aaron recommended this laptop because you can get a respectable FPS without breaking the bank, thanks to the RTX 3050 GPU. While not boasting the highest specs imaginable it doesn’t come too far off, all while costing a fraction of the price of the top-end of gaming laptops. To be paying under $1k for an RTX 3050 Ti, 12th-gen Intel i7 processor and 120Hz refresh rate is a nice treat.

The specs ensure it will handle Sims 4 with no problem at all, and the high storage space means you can install every expansion pack under the sun, and still have plenty of space for your other computing needs. For a gaming laptop, the IdeaPad Gaming 3i also performs really well for battery life, lasting up to 4 hours playing 4K video.

If 4K has pricked your ears, consider our selection of the best 4K gaming laptops if you want to take Sims 4 to the next level. Furthermore, its understated, tasteful look makes it a great choice for those who also need to bring their laptop to class or work.

Though firmly a budget pick, the Lenovo IdeaPad series has been very popular since launch. If you can spend a little more though, our laptop expert recommends looking at the Lenovo Legion Pro series for a more premium pick. You can also delve into our guide explaining the best Lenovo gaming laptops.

Best non-gaming laptop for Sims 4 is the ThinkBook 15 Gen 4

The ThinkBook 15 Gen 4 is a deluxe device. What’s especially impressive is the amount of return you get on its very reasonable price. It’s a very capable and fast device with a 12th Gen Intel i5 processor and generous 512 Gb of storage.

The display is crisp and flicker free and the battery life is good. As it is not a gaming laptop the GPU will struggle with more graphically demanding games, but should handle Sims 4 without a hitch.

Another good selling point is an extensive list of ports which include HDMI, a 4-in-1 card reader, ethernet, and USB type C. The build is really solid, meaning you can take it on the go with confidence. One small downside is that the off-center track pad can be aesthetically unsatisfying for some.

Best laptop for Sims 4 on a budget / under $500 is The IdeaPad 3

We’re keen to emphasise that this laptop is very good value. While there are of course compromises that have been made to get the price this low, it’s still an incredible amount of performance per dollar.

256 GB of storage will be fine for Sims 4 and other basic computer needs, though you will eat it up if you work extensively with high-quality video or pictures. The battery life is one of the longest on this list, despite the far smaller price tag, meaning you can play on the go for longer.

As we’ve mentioned Sims 4 is a low-intensity game in terms of demands in CPU and graphics, meaning that the IdeaPad 3 will handle it fine, though it won’t be on the highest settings possible. Furthermore, if you’re hoping to play triple-A games on your laptop, you will need to spend a bit more money.

Best MacBook for Sims 4 is MacBook Air M2

Apple is known for its exceptional quality laptops. Many MacBooks from the last few years will be capable of playing Sims 4, we have picked this one because of its quality as an all-round device. While it won’t feature on our best laptops under $1000, it still offers great value for money.

It has a sleek and appealing appearance. This exterior prowess is reflected in the hardware on the inside, with the brand-new Apple M2 processing chip giving excellent results in terms of speed and overall performance.

It will handle Sims 4 on the highest settings, making the graphics pop, though isn’t designed for more intense gaming. However, it excels as a device for work or studying, as MacBooks always have. This is thanks to its, crisp display, well-built and satisfying-to-use keyboard and high-quality speakers and features.

Sims 4 recommended system requirements for laptop – what graphics card do you need?

Sims 4 has a very modest set of system requirements. With simple graphics and gameplay, it really is impressive how engaging a game they have made, showing how getting the basics right is often the most important thing.

• OS: 64 bit required, Windows 10 or above recommended
• RAM: 4 GB or above
• CPU: Intel Core i3 or better (i5 is recommended)
• SSD Hard Drive: 25GB or free space (50 GB recommended)
• Graphics: AMD GeForce 6600 or better

All the laptops on our list exceed these minimum requirements, meaning you can be confident the game will run smoothly.

Is the Acer Aspire a good PC laptop for Sims 4?

The Acer Aspire is a good gaming laptop with loads of brilliant gaming features. These include DDR4 RAM an HD IPS display and an AMD Ryzen CPU. The specs are more than enough to handle Sims 4 but you will not get much use out of it in more power demanding Triple-A titles.

However, this also means that it comes in at a very reasonable price, making it an affordable option. If you’re just looking for a laptop for daily use and want it to be able to handle Sims 4 too, this is a great option to go for.

Acer Aspire 5 Slim

Display Size

15.6″

Resolution

1920 x 1080

RAM

4GB

GPU

AMD Radeon Vega 6

CPU

Ryzen 3 3350U

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Which is better for Sims 4 the Lenovo Legion or HP Omen?

The Lenovo Legion and HP Omen are two incredibly powerful gaming laptops with specs that are easily powerful enough to handle Sims. For example, the HP Omen has 16GB RAM which far exceeds the system requirements.

Because these two gaming laptops are so powerful, far more powerful than is necessary for Sims 4, it’s more a question of which one suits your other gaming or computing needs more, rather than of crowning one an outright winner.

Our laptop expert Aaron Ritchie has discussed what laptop brands are the best for gaming, and was keen to highlight that the Lenovo Legion series frequents in the top gaming laptop lists for many consecutive years. If you can afford an upper-mid range laptop, we personally recommend the Lenovo Legion series thanks to their high TGP cards and impressive 16:10 displays.

Best Laptop for Sims 4 FAQs

Is Sims 4 free on laptop?

Yes – Sims 4 was made free to install and play on all compatible devices in October 2022

Can I play Sims 4 on Chromebook?

No – unfortunately despite their great amount of computing power for a very budget friendly cost, the Chrome operating system that a Chromebook runs is incompatible with Sims.