this game has been off my list for a long time

Thanks for the information Dr Death =)

 

Use a smart phone for web surfing, skip the laptop. Can get a smart phone that does youtube for 10~40$ at the dollar store (depending on the sale) and just forget the laptop unless you need it for school work (then just get a net book with office software on it).
Use a desktop for this game, period. Do not use a laptop, it will not live very long as mentioned above with the cooling, plus they're very hard to take apart and clean properly (which you need to do several times a year).
Laptops can run some games, even if they're not marketed as a dedicated gaming laptop, but just not THIS* game. This is a simulator more than a game.
If you want to run a physics simulator like beamng, get a solid desktop. It doesn't have to be brand new, even an i5 or i7 2xxx series processor will give acceptable frame rate with some decent graphics card and the appropriate settings.
However, where the fault lies is expecting a yet-incomplete early access 'simulator of tomorrow' to run on a spud. That's just NOT going to work.
Try to avoid AMD APU chips unless they clearly say RYZEN on it. The AMD stuff that was out before Ryzen (like FX series) does not provide the FPU performance to run this game well and will not please.

*Well, some newer gaming laptops can run this, but if you're on a budget, you shouldn't be buying a laptop as you'll go a lot further with a desktop.

 

The 20GB of ram was my last ditch attempt at getting some more performance.
It has 4GB built in but it had an empty slot for more ram, so I've just jammed a 16GB stick of DDR4 in there.

Doesn't make so much sense really, but I'm thinking if I do eventually upgrade I can just transfer it over?

You say that but, four years without cleaning, no maintenance except the occasional virus scan, and this lappy's still running smooth.
My previous laptop served me nearly eight years before the HDD gave out, this one looks to be going a similar way, but that could still run Beam (and that was an Intel Celeron with 8GB ram).

And for someone on a budget who isn't bothered about visuals its perfectly fine.

 

Yep. The RGB lights its like the flame decals on a car.
--- Post updated ---

Any DDR RAM is transferable as long as its the same DDR on the motherboard. Laptop or desktop doesn't matter.

 

I too had good experiences with a laptop on this game. Played on an ASUS Q550LF up until this last August when I built this PC.

I certainly wouldn't recommend it over a PC for 90% of people; I'm just saying that it's not impossible and there are some life situations where it could be a reasonable option.

 

I've been playing on a kind of "in-between" laptop recently (recently being like 5 years) with a bogus old i5 and integrated graphics. Soon i swear i'm gonna buy a decent laptop.

 

Um...
I doubt anyone can put desktop rams in a laptop. unless its those special super thin and long ones. but ive never seen a laptop with those in my life.
As for laptop rams on a desktop. you will need to buy an adapter to get them functional on a desktop.
Rams arent cross compatible out of the box just like that. you still have to make sure you can support the mhz of the rams.

 

If we wanna talk low spec and how well this game runs on it, I used to run this game on my 2010 MacBook Pro...

Intel Cor2Duo... dual core... no hyperthreading... 2.4Ghz
4GB Ram
NVidia 320M... just about the most pathetic graphics card you can imagine... basically one step above integrated graphics in 2010...

I ran Beam on that until the update came that upgraded from DirectX 9 to 11 (or whatever it was). My Graphics card didn't support that at the time, so even though I owned the game, up until 2 years ago, I couldn't play it at all till I got a new computer (which ironically also ended up being a 2010)... but I didn't complain. I knew my computer was several years out of date when this game came out already, so what did I expect... remember, this game is early access. Honestly, if they didn't keep raising the bar on the minimum performance so they could make the game better and better before release I would be pretty disappointed.

 

Who said BeamNG is dead? Because people who have low-spec computers either need to upgrade or suck it up and deal with the lag.

 

Agreed... if your computer meets the minimum requirements at the time of the complaint (as they are subject to change) and you can't attain proper gameplay... then you have grounds to make a case...

But if they are below the minimum requirements... then they don't have a leg to stand on...

 

I don't think the guy said BeamNG.Drive is dead. I think he said that the game has been less enjoyable for him at least since the 0.17 update because of his computer. He also said that he has some financial issues.

 

Honestly I've gotten to a point where you realize it's just not worth playing any sort of sim-oriented car game on a laptop. It's a mindset thing too. Laptop should be for more casual or even some strategic games. You can get plenty of those on steam sales and Fanatical bundles for less than a coffee. I use my desktop PC for simulation games and that's that.

 

Alright then, thanks for the information =)