What minimal laptop requirements, so I can play Sims 3 and/or Minecraft?

I have no experience with gaming on PC, but want to buy my daughter laptop. She wants to play Minecraft and Sims 3. I found some page, but it says I need "2.4 GHz" CPU. Which is usually not an option. It also says that it should be P4, so I guess it's older CPU, so I can use something slower (in terms of GHz), but more modern.

But what exactly?

How do I compare performance of "P4 GHz" with newer processors?

Anyway - I'm looking for information on minimal hardware requirements for pleasurable gaming on laptop, for Sim3 and Minecraft. What processor(s) should be OK, what graphics, how much RAM? Should I stick with Windows 7, or is Windows 8 OK? And what about 8.1?

user68708

Posted 2014-02-07T20:06:19.123

Reputation: 13

If your processor was released after the Pentium 4 then its better than it. 2.4 Ghz most certainly is an option. The requirements of both games are on the indivual game's website. – Ramhound – 2014-02-07T20:09:11.333

Yes, and I found the requirements - but they refer to P4. Clearly not every processor released after P4 will be faster than "P4 3Ghz". But how do I know how exactly to compare them? – user68708 – 2014-02-07T20:31:27.500

P4 = Intel Pentium 4 Processor – Oxymoron – 2014-02-07T20:41:03.197

Any computer built after 2004 will most likely be okay. I couldn't image any A64's being built at that time – Oxymoron – 2014-02-07T20:45:29.920

Actually every processor would be faster. – Ramhound – 2014-02-07T21:32:05.373

@Oxymoron, Ramhound - well, the low-end Atoms or AMDs too? That seems strange. – user68708 – 2014-02-07T21:56:09.987

@user68708 Get an AMD Phenom or AMD Bulldozer and I would actually get kinda jealous. However, I don't know how you are comparing those to low-end atoms. – Oxymoron – 2014-02-07T23:09:32.897

Answers

Both games will run well on new mid-level computers, as they both have rather lax system requirements. Minecraft is the more demanding of the two, so I will focus on its requirements.

Minecraft is however an oddball as far as graphics options, it can be tuned down to run on almost any newer computer, or turned up high enough to require a PC designed for gaming. One unfortunate fact is that one of the biggest performance adjustment is render distance - and this can have a huge effect on game play. Tiny render will run on almost any machine, but playing on Tiny is a vastly different game than Far.

So as a minimum? An i5 (maybe an i3), integrated graphics, and 2GB of RAM will run the game well enough to play, but with some minimal frustration. However if you wish to avoid that frustration I would recommend at least an i5 and at least 4GB of RAM and discrete graphics. The exact graphics card isn't very important, any discrete card should be able to run Minecraft fine.

The game can actually run on much less, however lag spikes, low frame rates, and various other issues arise as a result. Many things in the game can cause sudden reductions in frame rate - if you can pull 100 FPS then dropping to 50 isn't a big deal, but if you barely can manage 20 a drop to 10 will make the game nearly unplayable.

As for operating systems as long as she isn't dead set against Windows 8 for some reason there is no need to avoid it. (8.1 is a free upgrade, so even if the system comes with 8 it's best to install the update).

zeel

Posted 2014-02-07T20:06:19.123

Reputation: 2 766