Hi all, I'm a novice when it comes to laptops. I'm wanting to purchase football manager for the first time in years so I need to purchase a laptop to run this on. As football manager would be the sole purpose of the laptop I'm trying to work on a budget. I've been looking at a refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad T530. Anybody got any idea if this would be ok? It seems to be powerful enough, it's just whether the graphics are good enough. Thanks in advance.

Min requirements as per Steam:

Windows 7/8/10 64 bit
Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 - 1.8Ghz
Memory: 4gb RAM
Graphics: Intel GMA X4500, NvIdia GeForce 9600M GT, or AMD Radeon HD 3650 - 256mb VRAM
Direct X: Ver 11
Storage: 7gb space


You can choose the number of active leagues to play and this will have a massive impact on the speed the game runs. I'm not sure if the graphics on that Lenovo will be able to run the match engine but the rest of the spec certainly meets the minimum criteria. I'd check out the graphics card first before buying.

Edit: Just realised that I haven't answered the main question you are asking. Whats the onboard graphics card?

2nd Edit: Based on what I could find out, the graphics card isn't quite good enough.

Graphics card doesn't actually matter as much for Football Manager, it's more important to have a good CPU if your just playing football manager as this would allow the game to run the simulations a lot quicker.

Just dont run multiple leagues at a time
Stick to one country

I use an Asus that was 180 from Argos. Runs one country easy enough Prem-Conference N/S. as long as the CPU isn’t overloaded it’s ok.

https://community.sigames.com/forums/to ... e-posting/

Some very useful advice on here. I purchased an Acer Nitro laptop off the back of advice found here.

Go for the fastest CPU you can get together with a ssd drive. Probably want to aim for a 4 core CPU at least. Avoid the Intel processors with a U in the model number.

Might be better buying second hand with your budget.

Personally, rather than buy a laptop just for football manager..... I'd consider getting it on Google Stadia.

You can buy whatever laptop you want, it won't be as powerful as the one it runs on at Google.

It'll be fast, and you can play your 'save' from anywhere, on pretty much any device, whether that be laptop or phone - you just need an internet connection.

You could keep using your old laptop, or a new cheaper one. Either way, the performance of Football Manager will be 5*.

IAmAClaret wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:43 am

Personally, rather than buy a laptop just for football manager..... I'd consider getting it on Google Stadia.

You can buy whatever laptop you want, it won't be as powerful as the one it runs on at Google.

It'll be fast, and you can play your 'save' from anywhere, on pretty much any device, whether that be laptop or phone - you just need an internet connection.

You could keep using your old laptop, or a new cheaper one. Either way, the performance of Football Manager will be 5*.

I play cyberpunk on stadia
No console
Just me my tv and controller

While I understand the comments about running FM with just one league loaded as playable, I do find that if you load every league, just as viewable and load as many players as you can you will get much more enjoyment from finding unknown new gens.
I have a player database of over 375,000 players, but only England as playable league. Scouting for me is a massive part of the game.
I can’t get into FM21 at all, much prefer FM20 and am 45 seasons in, lockdown and shielding had a lot to answer for!

By the time I have every league playable on, it always states the processing speed 1/2 star.

I never find it actually slow when playing. Its not exactly lightening fast, but I am not sure FM is a game that requires lightening speeds.

Make sure you have a laptop with a minimum i5 processor.
I have an Acer aspire and it runs a dream with most leagues selected down to national League.

Hi guys thanks all for you input, I've decided I'm going to spend a bit more money now. What do you think would be the best option out of these three? Thanks

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HUAWEI-Ultrabo ... B091649MP4

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https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-VivoBook- ... B08CR1HR2Y

Thanks again!

Take a look at https://www.techspot.com/review/2027-amd-ryzen-4600h/

The CPUs higher in that list will do better. The 2nd laptop you liked would be best with the 5800u.

buzzclarets79 wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 07, 2021 11:54 am

While I understand the comments about running FM with just one league loaded as playable, I do find that if you load every league, just as viewable and load as many players as you can you will get much more enjoyment from finding unknown new gens.
I have a player database of over 375,000 players, but only England as playable league. Scouting for me is a massive part of the game.
I can’t get into FM21 at all, much prefer FM20 and am 45 seasons in, lockdown and shielding had a lot to answer for!

Who are you managing? Is that with the same club?

gandhisflipflop wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 23, 2021 3:31 pm

Who are you managing? Is that with the same club?

Yeah been with Burnley since the first season, always feels a bit dirty playing any other team. Must admit I’m in 2067 now and losing interest fast, the regen staff are absolute pants, can’t find decent scouts now. We have won the prem on 25 occasions, champs league qualification past 34 seasons, winners on 18 occasions. 100,000 seater stadium.

buzzclarets79 wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 23, 2021 5:00 pm

Yeah been with Burnley since the first season, always feels a bit dirty playing any other team. Must admit I’m in 2067 now and losing interest fast, the regen staff are absolute pants, can’t find decent scouts now. We have won the prem on 25 occasions, champs league qualification past 34 seasons, winners on 18 occasions. 100,000 seater stadium.

Brilliant. It is great when you get a save that you really hammer. I am in my 16th season with Plymouth, managed to break the top 6 and finished 4th on 2 occasions but struggling to actually win the damn thing. I have managed to win an FA Cup though.

superdimitri wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 9:05 pm

Take a look at https://www.techspot.com/review/2027-amd-ryzen-4600h/

The CPUs higher in that list will do better. The 2nd laptop you liked would be best with the 5800u.

I followed your advice here, much appreciated. It's arrived today. Seems very fast so far. The dilemma now is how in depth football manager is it's been a few years since I last played it so going to take a number of hours to get my head around it! Thanks for your help everyone.

colne-claret wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:37 pm

I followed your advice here, much appreciated. It's arrived today. Seems very fast so far. The dilemma now is how in depth football manager is it's been a few years since I last played it so going to take a number of hours to get my head around it! Thanks for your help everyone.

It is indeed. You can use your staff for a lot of it though. There's also a 'touch' game mode you can play like the old cm.

If you download custom skins you can also get an instant result button to get through games faster. It basically holidays you automatically for the game.