What's the highest hair poly count that you'd download/your computer could handle?

I have a Sims 4 hair mesh that I converted that was 46,000 polys. I've got it down to 20k, but I feel that I'll lose too much definition if I go lower.

Is 20k tolerable?

I don't think I've had issues with my computer not handling hair (or meshes in general) with very high polycounts, but I try to avoid the very high ones. Mostly because TS2 has a rendering issue with 30k+ CAS items (need shaders to show up properly, and renders as bald heads/bodies in preview screens).

If I'm converting meshes, I keep them below the 30k limit, preferably much, much lower. It depends on the mesh. In my opinion, there are extremely few hair meshes that would have any reason to be above 30k if people just mesh them properly to start with. Most could easily be around 20k or preferably far below. It's all about where the geometry is placed, and to not start too high. Plus to realize that most of the time you're not even going to be close enough to the hair for it to need extreme smoothness (you can get away with a lot when you've got good textures, too).

How do I find out how high poly my hairs are? I honestly don't know.whether my hairs are high poly or not. Mostly my hairs are quite old (because the "emo" style that I like was popular a few years ago. I tend to use Raon hairs, Flora from XM Sims, Newsea hairs, Deditalsheep hairs, Peggy's hairs, and of course Maxis hairs. The main reason for me having so many hairs is to try to make all my Sims look different. I have more male hairs than female ones, and I could really do with a lot more female hairs. I've never consciously had any problems with high poly hairs causing lag, not even on my old netbook. The only thing that really caused me a problem there was a male boa by theninthwavesims (aka joninmobile) -- my on-board Intel graphics chip took one look at that thing and told me to get lost!

I like my Sims to have long hair that moves when they move their heads. I don't know if that makes high poly more likely.

Open the mesh file in SimPe, find the GMDC resource. The polycount is listed there. Sometimes the creator or recolorists lists the polycount.

The Sims hair database is also a handy tool if you don't want to check every hair with SimPE (here). Search for the creator, or find them in the dropdown list that currently says A1:J1.

Long hair doesn't necessarily warrant a higher polycount, but waves, braids, and other details probably do. The more details, the more likely it's a higher polycount. Some creators tend to generally have a high (or low) polycount, so most often the hairs by a particular creator will be roughly in the same area (if you compare a simple low-detail hair VS a complex high-detail hair by the same creator, you'd get roughly the polycount they keep within).

I try to keep it under 15k - not so much a strict rule, it is just that I like to have a lot of sims, and send them on outings, and have parties, etc. - I think (note the "thinking"-part here) that it is safer for my hood that way.

I don't like to go about 20 if I can help it.

I try to keep the polycount maximum limit for myself to 15k-25k but have few that are more than that. Luckily I mostly like older hairs and of the newer ones only Newsea hairs that tend to have sensible polycounts so it's usually easy. My least favorite hairs are those short male cuts I think must be at most 5-9k at polys and then turn out to be 30-45k, yes I'm naming and shaming Anto/CoolSims, S-Club and Wings for that. Literally why?