Suggested laptop for the game?

[sss1927]

Hey all! I'm planning to buy a new laptop soon - my current one is pretty old and barely runs the game - and I'm wondering if you have any recommendations for PC laptops that would run the game reasonably well, allowing for a decent amount of mods and assets, ideally not topping $600. (Hopefully such a thing is possible!) I'd also be open to it being one that comes with, for example, 8 GB but upgrading it to 16 GB, especially if that allows the total cost (adding in the extra ram) as still being below the 600 mark, as it sounds like 16 GB is basically required, especially for asset use. Thanks!

[Phantom Xiang]

I have no suggestions. But I think you'll need a laptop with at least 4G VRAM and a strong CPU which has over 2000 Cinebench R15 score.

[MarkJohnson]

For $600 I don't think you'll find anything at all. Minimum $1,000 and even then it will be questionable.

You need one with a dedicated GPU with GDDR5 memory. So a GTX model from nvidia. The GT models have DDR3 and they're too slow.

8GB is playable. But limiting on your workshop to only a few nmids and maybe a hundred assets. But you can do a lot with 100 assets.

Your CPU needs to be 4-cores (8-threads). So the CPU must end with an HQ or similar.

If it ends in u, then it won't work at all.

[zapisol]

Hi. I have a Dell XPS 15" model no: 9550. A nearly $2000 laptop. I can say, with a lots of mods and assets its hardly playable. Currently have around 10 fps, sometimes 15, sometimes 5. And thats when having a small town just a couple of thousand people. Whitout any mods you will probably get 20-25 fps on a small town.

Laptop config:
6th gen intel i7 6700HQ, 2.6 GHz
16 GB RAM
Nvidia GTX 960m, 2 GB VRAM

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by zapisol:

Hi. I have a Dell XPS 15" model no: 9550. A nearly $2000 laptop. I can say, with a lots of mods and assets its hardly playable. Currently have around 10 fps, sometimes 15, sometimes 5. And thats when having a small town just a couple of thousand people. Whitout any mods you will probably get 20-25 fps on a small town.

Laptop config:
6th gen intel i7 6700HQ, 2.6 GHz
16 GB RAM
Nvidia GTX 960m, 2 GB VRAM

I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But Dell's aren't good gaming laptops. They usually share a single heatsink for both CPU and GPU and is causes your system to overheat sooner than it should if they were separate. When it starts getting hot, it will slow itself down to get the temps lower and you lose FPS and simulation time as well.

Dell's Alienware are better, but I still wouldn't recommend them, I hear lots of bad reviews on them. MSI seems to be king right now. Asus is always good if you go top tier.

17" is as small as I would ever go on a gaming laptop. 15" is too small and leaves little room for good coolers. Like I said, cooleres are #1 priority for gaming laptops or they will throttle.

[sss1927]

Wow, I guess my dreams of having a super modded out dream city aren't particularly feasible. Thanks anyway, this has still been a lot of help, I'll do some research on it all.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by sss1927:

Wow, I guess my dreams of having a super modded out dream city aren't particularly feasible. Thanks anyway, this has still been a lot of help, I'll do some research on it all.

No big deal, those dream super modded out cities are a nightmare anyways, and you'll end up mostly vanilla in the long run. lol That workshop ends up being more of a curse than blessing sometimes.

But aim for an i7 quad core with 16GB RAM and you can have decent performance. You can probably get one for around $1,000. Just read reviews and comments carefully of heating, etc.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by ..:

No worries, your dream can still come true if you're open to a $600 desktop, which can get you way more performance for less than a laptop. Just try to find a Ryzen CPU, as they are less expensive and excellent price to performance.

For laptops, look for the new Ryzen 2500U with 4-core/8-threads with the new integrated Vega GPU, such as the Acer Swift 3 - https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Swift-Ryzen-Windows-SF315-41-R8PP/dp/B078BC1YL2

It doesn't have a dedicated video card. It's just built-in integrated graphics.

Not sure $600 is feasible with a desktop anymore. Price have gone up a lot lately. Probably closer to $1,000

[Phantom Xiang]

Originally posted by ..:

The new built-in Vega graphics in the new Ryzen APU's such as the 2500U highly outperforms an intel integrated graphics. The RX Vega 8 gpu integrated inside a Ryzen 2500U is equivalant to a dedicated Nvidia MX150 gpu. The bigger brother Ryzen 2700U's integrated RX Vega 10 gpu is equivalant to a dedicated Nvidia Geforce 950MX gpu. So these new Ryzen APU's are much different and faster than the old ones. The new Ryzen APU's bring good performance, with both the cpu and an RX Vega gpu (dedicated gpu like performance even though it's "integrated") combined into a small single 15 watt chip, that can fit nicely in a small thin and light laptop.

Believe me, built-in GPU is a piece of shxt.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by ..:

The new built-in Vega graphics in the new Ryzen APU's such as the 2500U highly outperforms an intel integrated graphics. The RX Vega 8 gpu integrated inside a Ryzen 2500U is equivalant to a dedicated Nvidia MX150 gpu. The bigger brother Ryzen 2700U's integrated RX Vega 10 gpu is equivalant to a dedicated Nvidia Geforce 950MX gpu. So these new Ryzen APU's are much different and faster than the old ones. The new Ryzen APU's bring good performance, with both the cpu and an RX Vega gpu (dedicated gpu like performance even though it's "integrated") combined into a small single 15 watt chip, that can fit nicely in a small thin and light laptop.

Where did you get this misinformation? This is impossible in a 15-watt chip. You may want to investigate this further.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by ..:

See links below, to the official AMD specs showing 15W TDP, an official 3Dmark benchmark slide and a few video summaries. You may want to investigate this further, as it launched the other month with other articles and reviews since. AMD is doing really well with their new Ryzen line up, especially the new laptop APU's with Vega graphics that destroys intel's iGPU. It's pretty exciting times for AMD by getting back into the game, as competition brings innovation, better prices, benefitting the consumer.

1. https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-7-2700u

2. https://techreport.com/r.x/2017_10_26_AMD_s_Ryzen_7_2700U_and_Ryzen_5_2500U_Raven_Ridge_APUs_revealed/timespy.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwWRWC-34xQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpWHL34G52o

You're looking at the wrong charts. You don't look at AMD for benchmarks. They'll use cherry picked processors on optimized benchmarks.

Try looking at 3rd party benchmarks. for more realistic scores.

While AMD beats intel graphics by maybe 50%, it is still way below minim specs. My GT 940 w/1gb vram on my i7-6500u is 400% faster than my integrated Intel graphics, and it still runs like crap. I can build slightly larger cities before lagging to GPU overload. But 3-tiles vs 4-tiles isn't much of an improvement with 400% more GPU processing power.

AMD is moving right along, but it has a long ways to go and taking its time advancing and don't take much advantage of their lead. I mean they own the console market, yet do nothing about it. :( sadly they're destined to fail.

[SkiRich]

Originally posted by -DI- rmjohnson144:

Originally posted by zapisol:

Hi. I have a Dell XPS 15" model no: 9550. A nearly $2000 laptop. I can say, with a lots of mods and assets its hardly playable. Currently have around 10 fps, sometimes 15, sometimes 5. And thats when having a small town just a couple of thousand people. Whitout any mods you will probably get 20-25 fps on a small town.

Laptop config:
6th gen intel i7 6700HQ, 2.6 GHz
16 GB RAM
Nvidia GTX 960m, 2 GB VRAM

I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But Dell's aren't good gaming laptops. They usually share a single heatsink for both CPU and GPU and is causes your system to overheat sooner than it should if they were separate. When it starts getting hot, it will slow itself down to get the temps lower and you lose FPS and simulation time as well.

Dell's Alienware are better, but I still wouldn't recommend them, I hear lots of bad reviews on them. MSI seems to be king right now. Asus is always good if you go top tier.

17" is as small as I would ever go on a gaming laptop. 15" is too small and leaves little room for good coolers. Like I said, cooleres are #1 priority for gaming laptops or they will throttle.

I had a Dell XPS 17 and I can confirm it stinks for games.
Heat sink is the problem.
I upgraded the ram, ssd, and even toyed with custom FW to unlock the OC beyond the limits.
The heat basically kills the CPU and then thermal limiting kicks in.

Get yourself an MSI gaming laptop. https://us.msi.com/Laptops/#?tag=GT-Series
I did and never looked back.
Best money I spent, but boy did my wallet cry, and I haven't told my wife the cost yet.