Gangor

Well no, but as anyone can see I don't make the claim you're implying. I said "much more likely". Personally I'd be shocked if an FM was released in the next few years that didn't work at least on low detail settings with a laptop 2050. Given historical hardware targets for this series I don't think that's an unreasonable point of view.

@josuts just to clarify, the performance of the processor on that link is about 30-40% slower than that of a modern Ryzen 5 or i5 in a £500 laptop. Yes it was top of the line when released, but that was almost a decade ago.

The European retailer I'm most familiar with is Mediamarkt, so I looked up their Greek site, which redirected me to Public.gr. No idea if they are representative of local pricing, but from what I can see 500 euros is likely to buy you a modest i5 or Ryzen 5 laptop with 8gb of RAM and no dedicated GPU. This would run FM24 just fine, particularly the Ryzen models which have superior integrated GPUs which will be better able to handle the 3d match engine. I suspect however that this would be a sub-optimal experience for FM25 as it moves to a new engine with improved visuals. At about 700 euros you can get a basic gaming laptop with a faster processor and a dedicated GPU which, while certainly not top of the line, will be much more likely to manage FM25 competently. If you don't mind the second hand market, it might be worth looking out for low end gaming laptops which are a couple of years old which may fit more into your budget.

I'd guess most of these issues are because the players' reputations are higher than the club's. They come about because humans tend to be better at squad building than the AI so will often have a better squad than the club "deserves". I don't see that as the problem - if the AI just became better at squad building this would be less of an issue

Before knowing what the requirements are for FM25 I would be hesitant to choose a laptop without a discrete GPU or less than 16Gb of RAM. If that's a firm budget you might consider looking for a laptop with the AMD Ryzen 6800u processor either refurbished or second hand. It still won't have a dGPU but AMD's integrated GPUs are significantly better than Intel's and would be more likely to manage the new game. Most laptops with this processor were also equipped with 16Gb of RAM. It's also possible you might find an 11th or 12th gen i5 (or AMD equivalent) paired with a RTX 3050 for around that price on the second hand market.

Keeping in mind that this laptop is a couple of years old at this point, it's decent value. It should be fine with FM24 but I suspect it will struggle with FM25 due to the lack of a dedicated graphics processor.

I would like to see a more efficient sorting algorithm for the player and staff search lists

If you want to go the mini PC route this is a good option - of course you'd still need to add a monitor, keyboard etc that you wouldn't need with the laptop. The processor on this is more powerful than on the laptop Kev suggests, but it relies on integrated graphics which, while perfectly fine for FM24 and likely adequate for FM25 are weaker than the dedicated GPU on the laptop. https://store.minisforum.uk/products/minisforum-um780xtx?_pos=2&_psq=780&_ss=e&_v=1.0&variant=46847065489686

Of more concern I'd have thought is the readiness of the AI to accept sell on clauses being added in on players the human sells. They hardly seem to value them at all

Maybe move your playmaker to a more advanced area so if he gives the ball away it's in a less dangerous area and more men are behind the ball.

If you can get the 16GB version you'll have a better all around experience, especially as the RAM has to be shared with the GPU.

A Macbook is overkill if you're just playing FM. 8GB will however hold back performance so 16 would be preferable. If it's just for FM you might however be better off to consider a Windows laptop

You could easily run the 3D match engine with this laptop.

No but there are loads of wonderkid shortlists you can download

The Apple silicon processors have pretty powerful integrated graphics. I would be surprised if they were inadequate for FM25