FM24 - PC/Laptop advice thread *** PLEASE READ OPENING POST BEFORE POSTING ***

[jrc29]

Hi guys, I’m looking for a laptop for general tasks and mainly playing FM (only game I play)

 

I’m currently running it on a god awful mid 2010 MacBook Pro. 

 

I’d be looking to go second hand and spreading the cost. What are the best spec to price ratio laptops? Is it worth sticking with apple or pc? Can any laptop max everything loaded and still progress at a decent speed?

 

thank you!

[jrc29]

4 minutes ago, jrc29 said:

Hi guys, I’m looking for a laptop for general tasks and mainly playing FM (only game I play)

 

I’m currently running it on a god awful mid 2010 MacBook Pro. 

 

I’d be looking to go second hand and spreading the cost. What are the best spec to price ratio laptops? Is it worth sticking with apple or pc? Can any laptop max everything loaded and still progress at a decent speed?

 

thank you!

I’m not exclusively looking at second hand I should add.

[kevhamster]

8 hours ago, jrc29 said:

Hi guys, I’m looking for a laptop for general tasks and mainly playing FM (only game I play)

 

I’m currently running it on a god awful mid 2010 MacBook Pro. 

 

I’d be looking to go second hand and spreading the cost. What are the best spec to price ratio laptops? Is it worth sticking with apple or pc? Can any laptop max everything loaded and still progress at a decent speed?

 

thank you!

What is your budget?

[jrc29]

31 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

What is your budget?

Probably 1.5k max but could go slightly over if it was really worth it.

[jrc29]

3 minutes ago, jrc29 said:

Probably 1.5k max but could go slightly over if it was really worth it.

Obviously I’d be up for saving some money if there’s something really good for less.

[kevhamster]

22 minutes ago, jrc29 said:

Probably 1.5k max but could go slightly over if it was really worth it.

Well, for that price if you are happy to stick with Apple, you could get the Macbook Air with 16GB and 512GB SSD: https://www.box.co.uk/Apple-MacBook-Air-13-M1-Chip-16GB-RAM-5_3542961.html

Or, if you're happy to go for a Windows machine or want something larger than a 13" screen, this is in theory a better performing laptop at a significantly smaller cost: https://www.box.co.uk/30031893-Medion-Erazer-Deputy-P25-AMD-Ryzen-7-16G_3820600.html

[jrc29]

4 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Well, for that price if you are happy to stick with Apple, you could get the Macbook Air with 16GB and 512GB SSD: https://www.box.co.uk/Apple-MacBook-Air-13-M1-Chip-16GB-RAM-5_3542961.html

Or, if you're happy to go for a Windows machine or want something larger than a 13" screen, this is in theory a better performing laptop at a significantly smaller cost: https://www.box.co.uk/30031893-Medion-Erazer-Deputy-P25-AMD-Ryzen-7-16G_3820600.html

Thank you. I’m not really bothered on operating system if I can get better specs and better performance. Is FM with a pretty large database and multiple leagues likely to run well on both?

 

thanks, I’ve seen recommendations for the razer blade 15 (I think that’s what it’s called) 

 

thanks

Edited August 26, 2022 by jrc29

[kevhamster]

48 minutes ago, jrc29 said:

Thank you. I’m not really bothered on operating system if I can get better specs and better performance. Is FM with a pretty large database and multiple leagues likely to run well on both?

 

thanks, I’ve seen recommendations for the razer blade 15 (I think that’s what it’s called) 

 

thanks

Based on what I can see, the Razer laptops are vastly overpriced.  They are well specced, but the cheapest one on their site is over £3k and you can get laptops with the same spec for half that price or less.

To your original question, FM will run well on both but should be better on the Windows one.

Edited August 26, 2022 by kevhamster

[robsfc]

On 24/08/2022 at 01:14, kevhamster said:

https://www.box.co.uk/30033285-Medion-Erazer-Defender-P15-AMD-Ryzen-7-1_4098859.html

 

Kev, my current laptop used to overheat when playing FM so I bought a cooling pad that resolved the issue to some extent.  Would the laptop you provided above suffer from overheating? or would it be modern enough and slick enough to not have an issue? 

[jrc29]

31 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Based on what I can see, the Razer laptops are vastly overpriced.  They are well specced, but the cheapest one on their site is over £3k and you can get laptops with the same spec for half that price or less.

To your original question, FM will run well on both but should be better on the Windows one.

Thank you very much for your response. So that windows pc is the best at that price range? Anything better or worth it under 2k?

[kevhamster]

16 minutes ago, robsfc said:

Kev, my current laptop used to overheat when playing FM so I bought a cooling pad that resolved the issue to some extent.  Would the laptop you provided above suffer from overheating? or would it be modern enough and slick enough to not have an issue? 

Any gaming laptop will get warm due to the amount of high powered components.  As for overheating, there's nothing in the reviews I've seen to suggest heat is a particular issue with this model but obviously I can't give any cast iron guarantees one way or the other.

[kevhamster]

14 minutes ago, jrc29 said:

Thank you very much for your response. So that windows pc is the best at that price range? Anything better or worth it under 2k?

This one will offer more of a performance uplift compared to the previous one.  This is probably the best value one in this range that I can see: https://www.box.co.uk/G513QM-HN106T-ASUS-ROG-STRIX-G15-AMD-Ryzen-9-16GB-RAM-_3569894.html

[jrc29]

12 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

This one will offer more of a performance uplift compared to the previous one.  This is probably the best value one in this range that I can see: https://www.box.co.uk/G513QM-HN106T-ASUS-ROG-STRIX-G15-AMD-Ryzen-9-16GB-RAM-_3569894.html

Thank you very much mate.

[jrc29]

The ASUS TUF gaming laptop has the best benchmark results of all the laptops tested. Is it wise to go for that over that one you listed above mate?

 

thanks again.

Jonathan

4 hours ago, kevhamster said:

This one will offer more of a performance uplift compared to the previous one.  This is probably the best value one in this range that I can see: https://www.box.co.uk/G513QM-HN106T-ASUS-ROG-STRIX-G15-AMD-Ryzen-9-16GB-RAM-_3569894.html

 

[kevez27]

Hi, 

I’ve just purchased a Razer Blade 17 as my old MacBook Pro was started to struggle 

It has a 3060 GPU in it so I was expecting it to perform very well. Although high graphics look good, there is the occasional stutter and the fans are in overdrive so I thought I’d drop it down to medium to get really good performance with less pressure on the laptop 

However, this looks awful. It’s incredibly blurry which makes no sense as my previous MacBook didn’t have the blurriness on medium 

Any ideas as to why it’s doing this? 
 

 

[DarJ]

4 hours ago, kevez27 said:

Hi, 

I’ve just purchased a Razer Blade 17 as my old MacBook Pro was started to struggle 

It has a 3060 GPU in it so I was expecting it to perform very well. Although high graphics look good, there is the occasional stutter and the fans are in overdrive so I thought I’d drop it down to medium to get really good performance with less pressure on the laptop 

However, this looks awful. It’s incredibly blurry which makes no sense as my previous MacBook didn’t have the blurriness on medium 

Any ideas as to why it’s doing this? 
 

 

Do you play with it plugged in or on battery?

[fc.cadoni]

4 hours ago, kevez27 said:

Hi, 

I’ve just purchased a Razer Blade 17 as my old MacBook Pro was started to struggle 

It has a 3060 GPU in it so I was expecting it to perform very well. Although high graphics look good, there is the occasional stutter and the fans are in overdrive so I thought I’d drop it down to medium to get really good performance with less pressure on the laptop 

However, this looks awful. It’s incredibly blurry which makes no sense as my previous MacBook didn’t have the blurriness on medium 

Any ideas as to why it’s doing this? 
 

 

1. Enable Ultimate Performance.
2. Remove GeForce Experience.
3. Apply these settings in NVIDIA Control Panel.

[kevez27]

35 minutes ago, DarJ said:

Do you play with it plugged in or on battery?

Plugged in

 

 

[Juego de Posicion]

Hello friends,

Looking to buy a laptop that will be for playing Football Manager only. I will not use it for anything else.

I found this laptop for $1,385 (AUD - probably around £850 or so):

Processor

11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-11800H (24 MB cache, 8 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.60 GHz Turbo)

Video Card

NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050 Ti, 4 GB GDDR6

Hard Drive

512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD

Memory

16 GB, 2 x 8 GB, DDR4, 3200 MHz

 

Display

15.6", FHD 1920x1080, 120Hz, Non-Touch, AG, WVA, LED-Backlit, 250 nit, Narrow Border

 

Essentially, I would like to have a laptop that can run FM22 smoothly, with a large database and multiple leagues (is 10 possible?) loaded. Would appreciate any guidance as to whether the specifications I’ve posted would comfortably meet this requirement and whether there are any performance issues that I should be aware of. Thank you. 😊

[kevez27]

10 minutes ago, fc.cadoni said:

1. Enable Ultimate Performance.
2. Remove GeForce Experience.
3. Apply these settings in NVIDIA Control Panel.

Many thanks 

I will try that and report back 

[NathyP11]

Hi all,

Looking for a laptop/PC under £400 with decent enough specs to run a few leagues. 
 

Will also want to browse in the background/listen to Spotify etc…

 

It won’t ever leave the home really so desktop unit probably better value. I already have 2 monitors. 
 

appreciate the help! 

[talhak]

4 hours ago, kevez27 said:

Hi, 

I’ve just purchased a Razer Blade 17 as my old MacBook Pro was started to struggle 

It has a 3060 GPU in it so I was expecting it to perform very well. Although high graphics look good, there is the occasional stutter and the fans are in overdrive so I thought I’d drop it down to medium to get really good performance with less pressure on the laptop 

However, this looks awful. It’s incredibly blurry which makes no sense as my previous MacBook didn’t have the blurriness on medium 

Any ideas as to why it’s doing this? 
 

 

Hi, I recommend you to take a look at the great Performance Benchmarking Thread by @Brother Ben for your laptop to see the performance of the same/similar machine. Then, a couple of things might let you play in the "High" graphics detail level as follows:

• Use the machine plugged in as recommended by @DarJ,
• Set the Windows' power management mode to "Maximum performance",
• In Nvidia settings, set the “Select the preferred graphics processor for this program” to “High-performance NVIDIA processor” for FM
• Enable threaded optimization,
• Disable triple buffering,
• As a general rule of thumb, close all other running applications,
• Be sure the Nvidia driver is up-to-date via the GeForce Experience app,
• Reduce the crowd quality in game settings,
• Disable the HDR through Windows settings

Hope these help you.

Edited August 28, 2022 by talhak

[kevhamster]

On 26/08/2022 at 17:32, jrc29 said:

The ASUS TUF gaming laptop has the best benchmark results of all the laptops tested. Is it wise to go for that over that one you listed above mate?

 

thanks again.

Jonathan

 

In theory, the CPU in the one I've linked should perform better than the CPU in that ASUS TUF laptop in the benchmarking thread, but both are very much at the top end performance-wise.

[kevhamster]

6 hours ago, Juego de Posicion said:

Hello friends,

Looking to buy a laptop that will be for playing Football Manager only. I will not use it for anything else.

I found this laptop for $1,385 (AUD - probably around £850 or so):

Processor

11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-11800H (24 MB cache, 8 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.60 GHz Turbo)

Video Card

NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050 Ti, 4 GB GDDR6

Hard Drive

512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD

Memory

16 GB, 2 x 8 GB, DDR4, 3200 MHz

 

Display

15.6", FHD 1920x1080, 120Hz, Non-Touch, AG, WVA, LED-Backlit, 250 nit, Narrow Border

 

Essentially, I would like to have a laptop that can run FM22 smoothly, with a large database and multiple leagues (is 10 possible?) loaded. Would appreciate any guidance as to whether the specifications I’ve posted would comfortably meet this requirement and whether there are any performance issues that I should be aware of. Thank you. 😊

As per the OP, we don't comment on how many leagues etc a setup will run to your liking as we don't know what your expectations are.  However, that's an excellent spec and there's no reason to suspect you'll find performance issues with it.

[kevhamster]

6 hours ago, NathyP11 said:

Hi all,

Looking for a laptop/PC under £400 with decent enough specs to run a few leagues. 
 

Will also want to browse in the background/listen to Spotify etc…

 

It won’t ever leave the home really so desktop unit probably better value. I already have 2 monitors. 
 

appreciate the help! 

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideacentre-5i-desktop-pc-intel-core-i5-512-gb-ssd-grey-10240223.html

[kevez27]

8 hours ago, talhak said:

Hi, I recommend you to take a look at the great Performance Benchmarking Thread by @Brother Ben for your laptop to see the performance of the same/similar machine. Then, a couple of things might let you play in the "High" graphics detail level as follows:

• Use the machine plugged in as recommended by @DarJ,
• Set the Windows' power management mode to "Maximum performance",
• In Nvidia settings, set the “Select the preferred graphics processor for this program” to “High-performance NVIDIA processor” for FM
• Enable threaded optimization,
• Disable triple buffering,
• As a general rule of thumb, close all other running applications,
• Be sure the Nvidia driver is up-to-date via the GeForce Experience app,
• Reduce the crowd quality in game settings,
• Disable the HDR through Windows settings

Hope these help you.

Many thanks for the suggestions @talhak @fc.cadoni

These tips do seem to have helped quite a bit and I am now able to drop it back to medium without it looking like 360p video. High runs pretty smoothly too but fan noise is loud but this is still the case on medium so I might as well stick to high and learn to deal with the noise 

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated 

[NathyP11]

3 hours ago, kevhamster said:

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideacentre-5i-desktop-pc-intel-core-i5-512-gb-ssd-grey-10240223.html

Thank you!! How well do you think this will perform? 

[talhak]

1 hour ago, kevez27 said:

Many thanks for the suggestions @talhak @fc.cadoni

These tips do seem to have helped quite a bit and I am now able to drop it back to medium without it looking like 360p video. High runs pretty smoothly too but fan noise is loud but this is still the case on medium so I might as well stick to high and learn to deal with the noise 

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated 

Glad to be helped. Enjoy! 

[kevhamster]

6 minutes ago, NathyP11 said:

Thank you!! How well do you think this will perform? 

It'll be very good, especially considering the price.

[Kevinho7]

About how many leagues and player count could a Ryzen 5 5500U 8gb ram handle with ease for going 5-10 seasons in?

[kevhamster]

4 hours ago, Kevinho7 said:

About how many leagues and player count could a Ryzen 5 5500U 8gb ram handle with ease for going 5-10 seasons in?

Please read the original post before posting - like it states in the thread title

On 05/11/2020 at 12:43, kevhamster said:

 

We don't know:
We cannot test every computer/laptop, we only speak about the specs and if it's suitable for Football Manager and if it's within your budget. There is no way to know for certain how many Leagues/Divisions/Database size or how fast the game will progress. One user may be happy with the game progressing a week in 20 minutes, for others that may be too slow, so It's all subjective.

 

[Kevinho7]

7 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Please read the original post before posting - like it states in the thread title

My dearest apologies

[NathyP11]

20 hours ago, kevhamster said:

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideacentre-5i-desktop-pc-intel-core-i5-512-gb-ssd-grey-10240223.html

Thank you again, for £100 more would you say this represents better value? 

 

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideacentre-5-desktop-pc-amd-ryzen-7-1-tb-hdd-and-256-gb-ssd-grey-10234367.html 

[kevhamster]

20 minutes ago, NathyP11 said:

Thank you again, for £100 more would you say this represents better value? 

 

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideacentre-5-desktop-pc-amd-ryzen-7-1-tb-hdd-and-256-gb-ssd-grey-10234367.html 

Yes.

[Talmansen]

I'm looking to upgrade my CPU from an i5 4590, and am looking for advice on what I could possibly replace it with that would cost around or under £200? There's just so many options and I've looked at the benchmarking thread but I am still feeling undecided on how much I should spend as I'm not sure if the noticeable difference will have diminishing returns as I spend money on more expensive CPUs. I intend to be able to upgrade to the point where my PC can simulate a good amount of leagues quickly, let's say something like 20-25 leagues, my i5 can only manage around about 10 at a pace I find acceptable. Thanks. 

[kevhamster]

7 hours ago, Talmansen said:

I'm looking to upgrade my CPU from an i5 4590, and am looking for advice on what I could possibly replace it with that would cost around or under £200? There's just so many options and I've looked at the benchmarking thread but I am still feeling undecided on how much I should spend as I'm not sure if the noticeable difference will have diminishing returns as I spend money on more expensive CPUs. I intend to be able to upgrade to the point where my PC can simulate a good amount of leagues quickly, let's say something like 20-25 leagues, my i5 can only manage around about 10 at a pace I find acceptable. Thanks. 

To get any significant upgrade, you're going to require a motherboard upgrade as well, which in turn means you'll need to buy new RAM sticks as you'll have DDR3 in your current system and generally current systems will have DDR4 in them (I understand some of the new releases happening will be DDR5, but that's by the by).

This lot will see you just over £200, but it will be a fair upgrade on what you currently have.  But, this CPU does not have integrated graphics, so if you don't already have a dedicated graphics card then this won't work for you anywhere near your budget as you'll then need to buy a graphics card as well:

CPU: https://www.ebuyer.com/1414618-intel-core-i3-12100f-12th-gen-alder-lake-4-core-processor-bx8071512100f

Motherboard: https://www.ebuyer.com/1424894-msi-pro-h610m-b-ddr4-m-atx-motherboard-pro-h610m-b-ddr4

RAM: https://www.ebuyer.com/1286114-kingston-fury-beast-4gb-2666mhz-ddr4-ram-black-kf426c16bb-4

 

[Derry2709]

Hi,

would anyone be able to point me towards a laptop that would be able to run FM on decent enough graphics, and multiple leagues and countries. I’ve looked at afew but the one I was about to purchase has gone up out of my price range. I have a budget of £600 - £650, I would also be doing college work on it, however nothing too strenuous. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[Baines]

Thinking of purchasing the 24inch iMac just wondered if anyone is using it and how does it run football manager 

[kevhamster]

18 minutes ago, Baines said:

Thinking of purchasing the 24inch iMac just wondered if anyone is using it and how does it run football manager 

If it's the current model with the Apple M1 chip, it runs FM very well.

[kevhamster]

42 minutes ago, Derry2709 said:

Hi,

would anyone be able to point me towards a laptop that would be able to run FM on decent enough graphics, and multiple leagues and countries. I’ve looked at afew but the one I was about to purchase has gone up out of my price range. I have a budget of £600 - £650, I would also be doing college work on it, however nothing too strenuous. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

https://www.box.co.uk/FA506IC-HN011W-ASUS-TUF-Gaming-A15-AMD-Ryzen-7-8GB-RAM-_3952772.html

[Derry2709]

4 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

https://www.box.co.uk/FA506IC-HN011W-ASUS-TUF-Gaming-A15-AMD-Ryzen-7-8GB-RAM-_3952772.html

I am probably looking for a non - gaming laptop with good enough specs, due to portability and looks doing college work. I have looked around myself and have found this one( linked below ) And am now just looking for confirmation as to how well it will perform playing fm

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideapad-3i-15.6-laptop-intel-core-i7-512-gb-ssd-blue-10239688.html

[Baines]

16 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

If it's the current model with the Apple M1 chip, it runs FM very well.

Yes it would be and that’s great 

[kevhamster]

1 hour ago, Derry2709 said:

I am probably looking for a non - gaming laptop with good enough specs, due to portability and looks doing college work. I have looked around myself and have found this one( linked below ) And am now just looking for confirmation as to how well it will perform playing fm

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideapad-3i-15.6-laptop-intel-core-i7-512-gb-ssd-blue-10239688.html

It'll do a decent job.  With it only having the integrated graphics, you probably won't be able to max out the 3D graphics, but it will be fine for medium to high.

[rossy86]

Hey guys. Looking at purchasing this laptop, I have not owned a laptop for around 8/9 years. Looking to get back into FM. Will this laptop be sufficient for this version and perhaps future (ie FM23) versions. 
 

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/acer-swift-3-14-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-1-tb-ssd-silver-10225782.html#collapseFour

Thanks Ross

[kevhamster]

1 hour ago, rossy86 said:

Hey guys. Looking at purchasing this laptop, I have not owned a laptop for around 8/9 years. Looking to get back into FM. Will this laptop be sufficient for this version and perhaps future (ie FM23) versions. 
 

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/acer-swift-3-14-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-1-tb-ssd-silver-10225782.html#collapseFour

Thanks Ross

Will be absolutely fine for FM22. Can't comment on FM23 as it's not been announced yet, let alone what the requirements are but the system requirements haven't tended to change much at all, so I would assume it would be OK as long as that trend continues! 

[rossy86]

1 hour ago, kevhamster said:

Will be absolutely fine for FM22. Can't comment on FM23 as it's not been announced yet, let alone what the requirements are but the system requirements haven't tended to change much at all, so I would assume it would be OK as long as that trend continues! 

Perfect. Thank you for your help! I was Hoping the trend was it wasn’t a drastic change year to year. 
Thanks for your help. 

[talhak]

3 hours ago, rossy86 said:

Hey guys. Looking at purchasing this laptop, I have not owned a laptop for around 8/9 years. Looking to get back into FM. Will this laptop be sufficient for this version and perhaps future (ie FM23) versions. 
 

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/acer-swift-3-14-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-1-tb-ssd-silver-10225782.html#collapseFour

Thanks Ross

Agree with @kevhamster but if you watch matches in 3D, I strongly recommend buying a machine with a dedicated GPU. To this end, you might decrease the size of SSD (1 TB is a lot for non-professionals/daily tasks).

[NathyP11]

On 29/08/2022 at 15:56, kevhamster said:

Yes.

Thank you! I have gone ahead and ordered this one: https://www.currys.co.uk/products/lenovo-ideacentre-5-desktop-pc-amd-ryzen-7-1-tb-hdd-and-256-gb-ssd-grey-10234367.html

 

Do you happen to know if the IGPU is the AMD Radeon RX Vega 8? If it is, I read in terms of integrated this is very good? 

 

Also, if anyone has used this website before: https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/gpu-compare/11418/radeon-vega-8?compare=11399 what does it mean where there is one green symbol and one red symbol for a game? 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2022 by NathyP11
error c+p

[kevhamster]

11 hours ago, talhak said:

Agree with @kevhamster but if you watch matches in 3D, I strongly recommend buying a machine with a dedicated GPU. To this end, you might decrease the size of SSD (1 TB is a lot for non-professionals/daily tasks).

Most current integrated GPU's are fine for the 3D graphics at medium to high for FM.  A dedicated graphics card is nice, but is really only necessary if looking to play other games as well.

[rossy86]

Sorry guys me again. If I could stretch the budget, would Ryzen 7 be preferable over Ryzen 5?