new laptop... whats the best for stellaris?

[Pietrooperv]

So I'm in the market for a gaming laptop and I don't really know what would be the best for stellaris. The latest update didn't really seem to do much for me on my current PC in terms of graphics. I currently have 16 GB of Ram, and it didn't use much more than it did before. Thats not the point though, I'm just wondering what specs are most important or which models are the best for running stellaris, not completly without lag, but at least playable in the late game.

[Tseudonym]

Make sure you get a 64 bit system. In the latest update they made some performance upgrades but in order to make those upgrades they had to drop support for 32 bit systems.

[tempest.of.emptiness]

Check the store page for Stellaris and make sure that the laptop you buy meets or exceeds the recommended specifications. Also, I would recommend reading reviews of the laptop, to make sure that there are not a lot of reports of performance issues in general (which could be a sign that the manufacturer cut corners in their design).

[Pietrooperv]

my current laptop definitely exceeds the recommended specs, in some cases by a lot. so I'm looking for a computer that can run the late game well. im not looking for no lag, thats impossible. i just want it to be playable. right now, it takes a few hours for me to get to 2300, but then it takes me several days to get to 2400. right now, the amount of time i have to put in, just to finish a single game is so much, that i actually haven't. I have not finished a single game of stellaris game in over a year. All i want is to be able to get to the victory year without sacrificing sleep or days of play time.

[tempest.of.emptiness]

Naturally, the more powerful your computer the better your chance of having fewer performance issues as the game progresses. I'm not comfortable with trying to make a more precise prediction based on specific hardware because there are so many other variables at play, and of course I don't have personal experience with Stellaris on a wide array of hardware.

My opinion is that is you find the late game unplayable then trying to upgrade your hardware to solve that problem alone is folly, unless the cost of the new computer represents a trivial impact to your budget. If you happen to be buying a new computer anyway then get the best one you can afford, and then see what effect it has on Stellaris performance.

In any case, the best response to poor late game performance is to reduce the size of the galaxy you play on. More stars means more things demanding processor time, and that increases the chance of bottlenecks that slow down the game. Reducing the overall demand by limiting the number of stars will improve performance.

[Pietrooperv]

I cannot play the late game on a 200 star galaxy. I meet all the recommended specs, and I PAID for this game, which I love (I have over 2500 hours). I have spent WEEKS playing the game just to 2500 because its fun. I'm sick of that. And since I'm getting a new computer anyway, I want to make sure I will be able to at least complete a game on a 400 star galaxy, in a reasonable time frame. FPS isn't really an issue, the game always runs smoothly, it just slows down so much it takes FOREVER to finish. About 1 day per second.

Seeing as I already meet or exceed the "recommended" specs, I have turned to the community to find computer models that are able to handle an entire game. I sort of feel cheated by paradox, because I have paid money for this game but cannot fully experience it because of...well whatever it is that makes the game so damn slow. I don't really care that much, I just want to be able to play it, because I do in fact love this game.

[Valerian]

The single piece of hardware that matters the most for Stellaris is the CPU, refer to this chart to help making your choice: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

During summer make sure that your laptop is well ventilated, otherwise thermal throttling will happen, slowing down your CPU to prevent overheating. This might be your problem currently actually, two things you can do to help that: access the inside of your laptop to clean the dust on the CPU fan and radiator, and/or buy a cheap laptop cooling pad.

Also if you want the best performance/cost ratio, it's much better to get a desktop instead of a laptop.

[Pietrooperv]

I actually have cleaned out the fan on my computer and I have a cooling pad. My PC rarely gets super hot when playing stellaris though. But thanks for the list, I'll take a look at it.