Help! I miss my Sims 3!!

[SimCrazy]

My desktop no longer plays Sims 3 and I'm going to replace it with a laptop. I have added the specs below for what I'm wanting to buy. I believe will be able to play Sims 3 smoothly (hopefully, on high settings also), but would love a second opinion.

ASUS K53SD-DS71
•2.2GHz Intel Core i7-2670QM quad-core processor
•Intel HM65 Express chipset
•64-bit processing
•15.6" diagonal active-matrix TFT color LED-backlit LCD display with 1366x768 WXGA resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio
•6GB DDR3 SDRAM
•750GB SATA/300 hard drive
•NVIDIA GeForce 610M graphics with 2GB dedicated DDR3 SDRAM graphics memory

 

[azathoth]

What is the price of that laptop you have selected?

 

[jaguarskx]

The GeForce GT 610m is crap. The integrate Intel HD 4000 is overall more powerful. Also you do not need a quad core CPU to play that game. It only uses 2 cores. Look for a Core i5 laptop with a GeForce 630m at the very least for that game. The GeForce 640m should give you better longevity in case the Sims 4 is released, or if you want to play first person shooters.

 

[zhou luke]

610m will be able to run Sims 3 on 1366x768 with settings on med-high fluently. (averaging 40-50 fps, no spikes)

I have a laptop with 610m, and I tried it before.

 

[jaguarskx]

610m will be able to run Sims 3 on 1366x768 with settings on med-high fluently. (averaging 40-50 fps, no spikes)

I have a laptop with 610m, and I tried it before.

Do you have an Intel Ivy Bridge CPU, if so then how the Intel HD 4000 performance compared to the nVidia GT 610m? As I stated above, benchmarks have shown that the Intel HD 4000 is overall more powerful than the GT 610m.

 

[SimCrazy]

What is the price of that laptop you have selected?

Around 800.00

 

[SimCrazy]

The GeForce GT 610m is crap. The integrate Intel HD 4000 is overall more powerful. Also you do not need a quad core CPU to play that game. It only uses 2 cores. Look for a Core i5 laptop with a GeForce 630m at the very least for that game. The GeForce 640m should give you better longevity in case the Sims 4 is released, or if you want to play first person shooters.

Confused....I was told to stay away from of the integrate intel and that the 610M and 630M were good. So, does the game not play well on quad core or just not necessary to have more than 2? I don't want to get bare spec computer because like you said I would like it to be able to handle the Sims 4 when or if released. Sorry I have so many questions, but it is a big purchase and would like to know I'm making the best decision when I get one.

 

[SimCrazy]

Maybe someone could give me what specs I should be looking for in a laptop to play Sims 3...such as processor, ram, graphics and so forth?

 

[SimCrazy]

How about this one as another option? Cost is around 950.00

Dell Inspiron 15R i15Rse-1667ALU
•2.5GHz Intel Core i5-3210M dual-core processor with 3MB cache
•Intel HM77 chipset
•15.6" diagonal widescreen display with Full HD 1920x1080p resolution
•6GB DDR3 RAM
•750GB 5400 RPM hard drive
•AMD Radeon HD 7730M graphics with 2GB graphics memory

 

[jaguarskx]

Confused....I was told to stay away from of the integrate intel and that the 610M and 630M were good. So, does the game not play well on quad core or just not necessary to have more than 2? I don't want to get bare spec computer because like you said I would like it to be able to handle the Sims 4 when or if released. Sorry I have so many questions, but it is a big purchase and would like to know I'm making the best decision when I get one.

The GT 630m is fine. In fact, I believe I recommended that should be the minimum card to get in my previous post.

The GT 610m is a different matter. It actually does performed worse than the Intel HD 4000 in most benchmarked games. I believe there were 12 games used in that review.

 

[jaguarskx]

How about this one as another option? Cost is around 950.00

Dell Inspiron 15R i15Rse-1667ALU
•2.5GHz Intel Core i5-3210M dual-core processor with 3MB cache
•Intel HM77 chipset
•15.6" diagonal widescreen display with Full HD 1920x1080p resolution
•6GB DDR3 RAM
•750GB 5400 RPM hard drive
•AMD Radeon HD 7730M graphics with 2GB graphics memory

That should last you a while. More than enough to play Sims 3.

 

[SimCrazy]

That should last you a while. More than enough to play Sims 3.

I have seen several computers with the "discrete-class graphics and I'm not sure what this is. I am assuming it's not a card with dedicated memory. I have heard of switchable graphics, is that what it is and is it bad?

•AMD Radeon HD 7520G discrete-class graphics, up to 4077MB total graphics memory

 

[jaguarskx]

It's a marketing term used by AMD to describe how "powerful" their integrated graphics core can be. Integrated graphics, whether it is the Intel HD 4000 or the various integrate Radeon HD cores in their various Llano or Trinity APU which includes the 7520g and 7660g, are more powerful than integrated graphic cores in the past. However, that is generally to be expected. The Intel HD 4000 is basically as powerful as a desktop Radeon HD 5550 graphic card while the integrated Radeon HD 7660g is more or less equal to the desktop HD 5570.

However, an actual discrete graphic card/chip is by itself just for graphics and video (simply stated). In most cases it is just a chip that is soldered into the motherboard. Certain expensive gaming laptops likely have an MXM slot for an actual laptop graphic card that can be upgraded. However, these MXM cards are pretty expensive and hard to find. They can be bought from ebay from time to time.

Switchable graphics basically means the laptop comes with integrated graphic inside the CPU (AMD calls it APU), and a discrete graphics card / chip. The laptop can consume a little less energy by switching off the discrete graphic card / chip, thus using the integrated graphic core.

AMD APUs are a bit unique. They have the capability of Hybrid Crossfire when there is a Radeon HD discrete graphic card / chip in the laptop. This means that both the integrated graphic core and the discrete graphics card / chip work together to provide better performance than either one can provide on it's own. The game must support Crossfire I believe.

 

[jaguarskx]

Intel's advances in their integrated graphic performance is actually pretty remarkable given how under powered the were is the very recent past. It was mainly for business and non gaming usage such as video conferencing and presentations. You can thank Apple for cajoling Intel into improving integrated graphics for Apple's MacBooks and iMacs.

 

[SimCrazy]

Thank you so much for clearing that up. I hope this is the last time I will bother you. After looking beyond the specs I noticed some didn't have a full keybord and I like to use the numeric pad. I have these two Acer's below that do but don't know much about this brand. Are they a good computer? I don't know anyone who owns one and are limited reviews online about them.

Acer Aspire V3-771G-6851
•2.5GHz 3rd-generation Intel Core i5-3210M processor with 3MB L3 cache, up to 3.1GHz with Turbo Boost
•6GB DDR3 RAM
•750GB 5400 RPM SATA hard drive
•NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M graphics with 2GB DDR3 VRAM

and

Aspire V3-771G-9809
•2.2GHz 3rd-generation Intel Core i7-3632QM processor with 6MB L3 cache, up to 3.2GHz with Turbo Boost
•8GB DDR3 RAM
•1TB 5400 RPM SATA hard drive
•NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics with 2GB DDR3 VRAM

 

[jaguarskx]

I generally do not like Acer very much.

The 2nd laptop is better overall for games and for anything processor intensive that you might be doing like video encoding, Photoshop, or 3D rendering. I'm sure it also costs more.

If playing Sims 3 and doing basic stuff like surfing, watch movies, reading, typing a document, using Excel, then the 2nd laptop is overkill. But sometime people like overkill. The 1st laptop is more than capable for the tasks I listed.

What is your budget? Exactly what do you want to do with your laptop (other than play Sims 3)? And what specific features are you looking for in laptop (if any)? You will get better responses / recommendations by providing that type of info.

 

[SimCrazy]

I generally do not like Acer very much.

The 2nd laptop is better overall for games and for anything processor intensive that you might be doing like video encoding, Photoshop, or 3D rendering. I'm sure it also costs more.

If playing Sims 3 and doing basic stuff like surfing, watch movies, reading, typing a document, using Excel, then the 2nd laptop is overkill. But sometime people like overkill. The 1st laptop is more than capable for the tasks I listed.

What is your budget? Exactly what do you want to do with your laptop (other than play Sims 3)? And what specific features are you looking for in laptop (if any)? You will get better responses / recommendations by providing that type of info.

I would like to do the exact things you mentioned above. I would like to keep it at a thousand or below in price. I don't want overkill but would like to make sure will handle my base game and all my expansions and if Sims 4 comes out would like to be fairly certain would be able to play it. As far as features: 15.6 or 17.3 screen size, full keyboard, and if possible a backlit keyboard.

 

[jaguarskx]

Take a look at the Lenovo Y500 laptop. The $800 & $950 version come with a quad core CPU, and the nVidia GT 650m which is a pretty good card. The difference between the two is the screen resolution $800 gets you 1366x768 while $950 get you 1920x1080. I would opt for laptops with 1920x1080 resolution because from a productivity stand point having a high resolution means your desktop area is bigger and you can have more windows open at the same time. I have a 1366x768 resolution screen and it hinders me from multitasking effectively. The high resolution does mean games will not perform as well as with a smaller resolution screen, but for Sims 3 it'll be fine and I'm pretty sure for Sims 4 as well. At worse you'll just need to lower the resolution to 1600x900.

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=5B0116E237099FA0FCA012D9B20ED2FB

For $50 more there is the Lenovo Y580 series. Similar to the Y500, but they come with the more powerful nVidia GT 660m GPU. They also have longer battery life and I believe larger capacity hard drives.

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=AC523278A4F13F27A84F5F5622D1AC7A

 

[SimCrazy]

Thank you so much for all your help. I will look into both of these, but really appreciate you're helping me know what I'm looking for.

 

[SimCrazy]

Best answer selected by SimCrazy.