Football Manager 2023 was released on the 20th October 2022 and is another popular addition to the long running series. Year in, year our, each new addition to Football Manager series is met with widespread acclaim and anticipation. There’s always a lot of questions in the community over which laptop you should buy, so let’s take a look at some of the best to suit different budgets.
- Football Manager 2023 (FM23) System Requirements
- Laptop Specification Considerations for Football Manager 2023
- Best Overall Laptop for Football Manager 2023 (FM23)
- Best High-End Laptop for Football Manager 2023 (Over £1,000)
- Best Mid-Range Laptop for Football Manager 2023 (Under £800)
- Best MacBook for Football Manager 2023 (Under £1,000)
- Can You Play FM23 on Chromebook?
- Best Laptop for Football Manager 2023 Summary
- FAQ
Football Manager 2023 (FM23) System Requirements
Before we can start looking at laptops we need to know the system requirements for FM23 for both Windows and macOS.
| Windows (Minimum) | macOS (Minimum) | |
| 64 bit: | Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system | Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system |
| OS: | Windows 7 64-bit, 8/8.1, 10, 11 | MAC OS X 10.13.6, 10.14.6, 10.15.5, 11.5 – 64-bit |
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 X2 | Intel Core 2 Duo – 1.8GHz+ |
| Memory: | 4 GB RAM | 4 GB RAM |
| Graphics: | Intel GMA X4500, NVIDIA GeForece 9600M GT, AMD/ATI Mobility Raedon HD 3650 | Intel GMA X4500, NVIDIA GeForece 9600M GT, AMD/ATI Mobility Raedon HD 3650 – 256MB VRAM – macOS 10.13 required OpenGL 2,1, macOS 10.14 and later requires Metal |
| Storage: | 7 GB available space | 7 GB available space |
| DirectX: | Version 11 | N/A |
Laptop Specification Considerations for Football Manager 2023
- Processor – If you’re wanting to load as many leagues as possible, you need to be looking at a mid to high-end processor. As a minimum Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 5. This will ensure you have no frustrating delays loading on match days when processing all those fixtures!
- Storage – SSDs are an absolute must to speed up load times and processing speed.
- Graphics – If you’re someone who enjoys the 3D match engine, then also be on the lookout for a decent graphics card.
Best Overall Laptop for Football Manager 2023 (FM23)
Our best overall laptop for Football Manager 2023 is the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 which comes in at just under £900. With this laptop you’ll not only be playing Football Manager for years to come, but it will be able to handle most other games you can throw at it. Let’s take a look at the spec to see why it comes out as our best overall, and provides great value.
The processor is an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H clocked at 3.3 GHz, and has 8 GB of DDR5 RAM. This laptop has a 15.6″ FHD IPS screen with 120Hz refresh rate, taking advantage of the graphics – an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050. For storage you have a 256 GB NVMe SSD.
| Processor: | AMD Ryzen 5 6600H, 3.3 GHz, 6 cores |
| Memory: | 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics: | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 |
| Screen size: | 15.6 inches |
| Storage: | 512 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD |
Best High-End Laptop for Football Manager 2023 (Over £1,000)
At over £2,000, the Acer Nitro 5 AN517 Gaming Laptop would certainly be our choice if money was no object. This beast will handle anything you can throw at it for years to come. Just imagine the amount of leagues you can add to your database. At this spec it would probably last until FM30!
The processor is an Intel Core i7-11800H which runs up to 4.6 GHz, and has 16GB of DDR4 3200MHz memory. The screen is a 17.3″ widescreen LED-backlit IPS display with 1920 x 1080 resolution. For the graphics card it has the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti with 4GB dedicated GDDR6 VRAM, and the storage is a 1TB NVMe SSD with slots for more if required in the future.
| Processor: | Intel Core i7-11800H – up to 4.6GHz, 8 cores, 16 threads |
| Memory: | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics: | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti |
| Screen size: | 17.3 inches |
| Storage: | 1 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD |
Best Mid-Range Laptop for Football Manager 2023 (Under £800)
The best option under £800 is the HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop. This mid-range laptop is perfectly suited to those on a budget, yes you’re making some compromises but will still be able to run lots of games. Let’s take a closer look at the specs.
The processor is an Intel Core i5-8300H, Quad-Core, 2.3 GHz, and has 8 GB of DDR4 RAM. The display is 15.6-inch in size with FHD IPS anti-glare and a 144Hz refresh rate. Graphics wise this laptop has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4 GB GDDR5 dedicated. This is a lower price point laptop, so for storage you will find a 1 TB traditional hard drive coupled with a 128 GB SSD.
| Processor: | Intel Core i5-8300H, 2.3 GHz, 4 cores |
| Memory: | 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics: | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti |
| Screen size: | 15.6 inches |
| Storage: | 1 TB Hard Drive and 128 GB SSD. |
Best MacBook for Football Manager 2023 (Under £1,000)
We know some of your are into your Apple devices. So this is the best Apple MacBook that won’t break the budget. We recommend the 2020 Apple MacBook Pro which is under £1,000. It features an M1 Chip, a 13″ Retina Display, 8GB RAM, and 256 GB of SSD storage.
| Processor: | Apple M1 chip, 8 cores |
| Memory: | 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics: | 8 core GPU |
| Screen size: | 13.3 inches Retina display |
| Storage: | 256 GB SSD |
Can You Play FM23 on Chromebook?
It is rare for a Chromebook to have the processing and graphics power to have the best Football Manager experience. However, there are some workarounds to make it possible.
To find out more, view our article on how to play Football Manager on Chromebook. You will find it suprisingly easy for FM23!
Best Laptop for Football Manager 2023 Summary
There are so many options out there when considering a new laptop for Football Manager 2023. We hope this guide helps you find the right one. Our personal favourite is the Acer Nitro 5!
If you want to dive deeper into what makes a great gaming laptop, then looking no further than our gaming laptop buying guide.
FAQ
Football Manager is compatable with most laptops with Windows 7 onwards. If you have a lower spec laptop, consider buying Football Manager Touch – a stripped back version of the game.
8 – 16 GB of RAM will be fine for Football Manager. The main performance differential is the CPU (Processor). The better the processor, the more leagues you can load!
In order to play Football Manager 2023 a gaming laptop isn’t a necessity. You can still play with a budget or mid-range laptop if that’s all your budget can stretch to. In order to keep the game running smoothly you shouldn’t add too many leagues and players to your database on a budget laptop, as this will slow the game down, especially on those journeyman saves!