People who loves to play and passionate about Cities Skyline usually spend more time on this game than an average gamer spends on any one specific game. Since this game demands too much player’s involvement and requires building the city after considering lots of other factors such as urban planning, we cannot compare Cities Skyline with other games.
The addiction of this game is also usually more serious because it makes the player feel like a powerful official who can build the whole city and impacting the lives of ordinary people. Game like Cities Skyline gives too much control to the player such as controlling zoning, develop public transportation, taxation and other arrangements critical in the urban life.
To play such an amazing game on wrong laptop can ruin the whole experience and would be the worst spent money ever. All fans of Cities Skylines must go for a best laptop which can offer great gaming experience and they actually feel like taking responsibility of controlling the city affairs.
We are going to recommend 11 best laptops for Cities Skylines, also sharing the Pros and Cons of each and every laptop in the list.
Lenovo IdeaPad L340 Gaming Laptop
This laptop is good for personal and gaming use both, having decent specifications and is definitely a budget laptop. One who wants a gaming laptop only for games like Cities Skylines then this should be the best choice. Why one should go for expensive laptops if only interested in city building games which do not require advanced specifications.
Its screen size is 15.6 inches which offers clear visibility to the player and can see every little detail in the game. This game definitely requires larger than 15 inches screen because player has to be engaged in tasks like road placement, towers placement and other types of placement in the game, smaller screens would be frustrating for the user.
This laptop is equipped with 8GB DDR4 RAM and officially 6GB of RAM is recommended for Cities Skylines to enjoy smooth playing experience. If you perform lots of multitasking in personal work, 8GB RAM would be more than enough for you.
Lenovo IdeaPad L340 is powered by Intel Core i5-9300H processor which takes its power from 4 Cores and 8 Threads. On the turbo boosting, its processing speed can go as high as 4.10 GHz which makes it really powerful processor. According to the cpubenchmark a popular website on CPU niche, this processor provides value for money. This processor is way more powerful than the processor is recommended for this game.
Its 512GB SSD can not only install more than 100 games like Cities Skylines, but can also save tons of personal data in remaining space. Its SSD technology shares the burden of RAM and makes it more efficient for storing temporary memory.
Its graphics side is powered by NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 which can even run games like “Red Dead Redemption 2” at high settings. This graphic card can run all upcoming city building games including Cities Skylines.
Asus TUF Gaming Laptop
This is an ultra-portable machine and only 4.85 lbc heavy, which is easy-to-carry. Its body is only 1.02” thin which makes it compact and easy for backpack. To play the Cities Skylines on Its 1080p panel will look like seeing a real city and running it like a President.
Its 15.6” screen will improve the playing experience and city simulation also looks realistic. Games like Cities Skylines involves too many objects and tasks to perform such as designing road layouts, road placements, managing population density, demolish private properties and many more. Such game which requires too much involvement must play on laptops having larger than 15” screen.
Its graphic card AMD Radeon Rx 560X is a good card to play a game “Cities Skylines” and this card can even run games like “BattleGround 5” on high settings.
This laptop is powered by AMD Ryzen 5 3550H which is categorized as mid-range laptop processor and powerful enough to run the all latest games at ultra settings. It can also run high-end photo & video editing software smoothly without any lagging issues. AMD Ryzen 5 3550H and Radeon RX 560X are highly compatible with each other and can run the upcoming versions of games similar to Cities Skylines.
Its connectivity options include USB Type-C, USB Type-A and MicroSD card slot; these three sources of connectivity are the most demanding ones by the users.
Acer Nitro 5
Though, Acer Nitro 5 is two year’s old laptop but it was release to launch aggressive marketing strategy of Acer to successfully target the gaming laptop niche. The specifications offered in this price are recognized as “Good value for Money” and playing Cities Skylines game on Acer Nitro 5 will be great experience.
Its 15.6 inches screen is big enough to clearly show you every car running on road, an area where traffic gets stuck, where more trees needs to be planted and other details which makes you a good urban planner.
Acer Nitro 5 is not going to win any awards for its design, which is made of rough plastic and body design, is also unimpressive. Though, it is not heavy machine, weight is only 5.07 lbs which makes it portable. Its upper bezels are thick but thin bezels on both sides look attractive and beautiful. Its screen-to-body ratio is 80% which have become a standard these days.
It is powered by 9th generation Intel Core i5-9300H processor which speed can go max up to 4.1 GHz which can make it to run all high-end photo-editing software, in comparison the benchmark of Cities Skylines is quite low for this processor. This processor would not even require using its turbo boosting for smoothly running the game Cities Skylines.
User should go for the version of Acer Nitro 5 which having 8GB RAM, whereas Cities Skylines is only recommending 6GB of RAM. Why should we go for a laptop having 16GB RAM and buy an expensive one.
Acer Nitro 5 offers skimpy 256GB SSD which may be not enough for the kind of gamers who wants to download tons of games, movies and personal data on its internal storage. Whereas, the size of Cities Skylines is not more than 5GB and rest depends upon you whether 256GB is enough or not?
You can enjoy great connectivity through USB-C port and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports. Sadly, there is no SD micro-SD slot on it.
Dell G3 Gaming Laptop
This laptop is popular for its thin and slimline design which looks attractive and really eye-catcher. It’s just weight 5.95 lbs and you can easily carry it anywhere to find a place where can peacefully build the city.
The simulation of urban life looks amazing on its Full HD 15.6 inches screen which having Max screen resolution size is 1920 x 1080 Pixels. The screen and its resolution size would contribute a lot in enjoying the experience of building the city and managing the traffic flow. Its RAM and Processor requirements are not that higher.
Its 8th Gen Intel i5-8300H processor and NVIDIA GTX 1050 4GB graphic card can let you play even a game like “Read Dead Redemption 2” at medium settings, which is way high-end game comparing to Cities Skylines. This laptop is available under $1000 price and good choice if you do not want to play all latest games at high / ultra settings.
Its 8GB RAM should be enough for multitasking users and you can stay productive to meet any deadline on emergency basis.
As far as number of Ports and Slots are concerned, there is 2-in-1 SD / Micromedia card, one SuperSpeed USB 3.1, one USB 3.1 Gen 2 and no USB Type-C port. Its users will definitely miss the Type-C port on laptop.
Acer Nitro 7
It looks like ultra-cool machine because of its metal body and sleek design. This laptop is full of gaming-rich features and it can easily run all city-building games including Cities Skylines. This laptop was basically developed to aggressively target the gamers looking for budget gaming laptop.
Its Full IPS Display and sharp pixels looks like images are coming out of screen. Cities Skylines game is definitely worth playing on its 15.6” 1080p screen which makes player feel like actually seeing the real city. Though, its specs can also play you all latest games at high / ultra settings, which make its price over $1000.
You can enjoy powerful processor on this laptop, 9th Gen Intel i7-9750H which is designed to make user capable of performing all heavy-duty tasks like video and photo editing. This is a 6 Cores and 12 Threads processor which can boost its processing speed up to 4.5 GHz which makes it running all advanced programs.
Its available in two versions, first offers 8GB DDR4 RAM and second comes with 16GB DDR4 RAM. It is highly recommended to go for 8GB RAM as Cities Skylines already recommends 6GB of RAM, why spending money on something do not require us.
You can access multiple USB ports on Acer Nitro 7 including one USB 2.0, two USB 3.0, one USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C. There is also standard HDMI port available on this laptop which enables the user to enjoy the wide range of connectivity options.
MSI GF65 Thin 9SEXR-250
The laptop looks good with thin bezels on the sides and screen-to-body ratio is 73.6%. Its 120HZ technology lets the player enjoy gaming experience at its most. To play city-building games like Cities Skylines on its 15.6” FHD screen makes it definitely worth buying and bring values. More screen area on laptop is definitely the plus point for gamers.
This laptop offers a powerful pack through the combination of Intel Core i7-9750H processor and RTX 2060 graphic card, both are high-end hardware. This processor is having 6 Cores and 12 Threads which improves its data processing efficiency without getting overheating issues. This laptop is powerful enough to run a game like Cities Skylines for hours without any slow down issues.
Its 8GB RAM should be too much to handle your multitasking easily without any lag while switching from one window to other.
MSI GF65 Thin 9SEXR-250 offers connectivity through 4 USB 3.0 Ports including Type-C port.
Dell Inspiron 17 3793
This laptop can be defined as excellent choice for performing heavy duty tasks and a very durable machine. It does not look attractive and rather fairly old-looking shell. It is a heavy-weight machine 7.39lbs which makes it less portable.
As far as its power side is concerned, powered by 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 8GB RAM. On the turbo boosting, its processing speed can go up to 4.70 GHz which can smoothly run a game Cities Skylines and even long hours gameplay would not experience any single lag.
Its 2TB HDD is never going to be fully filled by the user, whether you download and install the all junk data.
There are multiple USB ports given on this laptop including Type-C which having fastest data transferring speed.
Acer Predator Helios 300
Acer Predator Helios 300 offers 240Hz which is one of the highest refresh rates on laptop, this technology can help the player to live in Cities Skylines game. This much high refresh rate on its 15.6” screen really makes it worth buying gaming laptop.
This laptop will get you an access on 16GB RAM which can store large amount of temporary memory and processor will stay least engaged in processing regular tasks, this overall improves the processor’s performance. You can even run more than 10 applications simultaneously on this laptop, 16GB RAM will allow. Though, Cities Skylines is only asking for 6GB RAM.
This beast laptop also got a beast processor, 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10750H. Its processing power is divided upon 6 Cores and 12 Threads which makes its processing the most complicated data in no time. This processor is enough to run the Cities Skylines game at its optimal performance and can even run upcoming similar games.
This gaming laptop was designed to target hard core gamers who not only play simulation games like Cities Skylines, but also spend playtime on shooting, adventure, horror and other genres. Therefore, Acer Predator Helios 300 is equipped with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB which can even run “Red Dead Redemption 2” at high settings without compromising on FPS.
What Specifications Must Look Into A Laptop For Cities Skylines
The gameplay elements of Cities Skylines are unique and not similar to FPS, Horror or Fantasy genre of games. This game requires certain laptop specifications to enjoy it in a way as it was supposed to be by the game developers.
Screen Size
Cities Skylines is not going to be fun on laptops having 14” screen size. This game is full of details, urban planning, management and controlling which requires bigger laptop’s screen to stay focused. It is highly recommended to go for 15.6” or larger screen size; we only recommended you laptops with 15.6” screen size in the above.
RAM
Low RAM leads to choppy frame rate and overall bad gaming experience. Smooth gameplay requires sufficient amount of RAM to quickly access temporary data, whereas Cities Skylines recommends to get 6GB RAM on system. We recommended you all laptops in the above having at least 8GB of RAM.
Processor
Cities Skylines is definitely processor intensive game and a powerful processor plays critical role in smooth gaming experience. Remember, this game is single-core dependent as it was developed on Unity Engine which limited the role of developers and those processors from latest generations but having less cores can perform better.
This game is recommended to play with Intel Core i5-3470 3.20GHz processor, whereas 3.20 GHZ represents clock speed in 3.2 billion cycle per second. We recommended you all laptops having 8th to 10th generation of processors and minimum Core i5.
Graphic Card
Cities Skylines game was released in the year 2015 and since then technology have upgrade a lot. They officially recommended NVIDIA GTX 660 on a laptop to better enjoy the game, this graphic is not even a last choice for mostly gamers. Even budget laptops offer way better GPUs comparing to this one. Therefore, GPU would not be an issue for the one if buying a cheap laptop.
SSD or HDD
SSD is latest technology and helps in retrieving data faster than HDD. If you already have a laptop with faster RAM, Processor and GPU then can go for HDD. Secondly, this game requires 4GB space which you can easily manage even on 256GB internal storage, this hardware should not be an issue.
Final Words
Cities Skylines is not very high-end which requires an expensive gaming laptop to run, we accordingly recommended you also the laptops available under $1000 price and others are more expensive. If you only want to play games like Cities Skylines on laptop and not a fan of other genre, then should not spend more money to buy a laptop having extra-ordinary specifications.
