Author Topic: New Laptop for architecture studies  (Read 7567 times)

2020-06-18, 19:34:13

Mettigel Hawaii

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Hi,
I would like to buy a new laptop, since my old one is crashing a lot. I want to run Vectorworks, Corona/Cinema4D and PS on it. I am building complex models, thats where my old laptop is struggling the most. Do you have any recommandations which specs are suited in my case?

2020-06-19, 09:08:36
Reply #1

Mettigel Hawaii

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My old notebook is a
Dell Inspirion
Intel Core i7-6700, 2.60GHz
Geforce GTX 960M
128GB SSD
16GB RAM

I am searching for a stronger notebook with 15" to run large project on CAD and Corona for up to 1800€.


2020-06-23, 11:10:11
Reply #3

Mettigel Hawaii

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Thanks cecofuli! I tried different configurations, I am not sure what graphics card or processor is suited for my case. It would be helpful, if you would explain your recommendation, since I am quite lost in that topic.

2020-06-24, 17:11:39
Reply #4

Mettigel Hawaii

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2020-06-27, 01:12:06
Reply #5

cecofuli

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Absolutely no!

Thin laptops + rendering = very bad idea!

You will be in thermal protection in a second...  (Apple docet)
If you want a serious rendering laptop = Clevo

https://www.santech.eu/home

Italian company. Here you can build your favorite laptop.
But, this is not the best moment to buy a laptop.
If you can wait, I suggest you to buy the new AMD Ryzen 4000 serie



2020-06-27, 11:22:58
Reply #6

Mettigel Hawaii

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In the end I bought a XMG Apex 15 Ryzen9 3900, Geforce 2070, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD. I am very excited to use it soon =)
Thanks for your help!

2020-06-28, 22:30:10
Reply #7

Juraj

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Yup, for serious performance as actual mobile workstation, and good price value, CLEVO chassis (OEM Taiwan maker) from some local company with 3900/3950X desktop Ryzen CPUs (they run in ECO mode).

For just temporary workload addition, the new Dell XPS 17. This is the first laptop that got close (and in many areas surpassed) the Macbook Pro 16.
Please follow my new Instagram for latest projects, tips&tricks, short video tutorials and free models
Behance  Probably best updated portfolio of my work
lysfaere.com Please check the new stuff!

2020-06-29, 00:04:09
Reply #8

zaar

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Would the answer to this question be different if it wasn’t in a cpu renderers forum?

I’m sincerely wondering, not trying to insinuate something. I’m looking around for a laptop myself and found this thread.
Is there a bigger market of laptops with gpu-performance because of the large gaming market. The market for laptops with 12 cores and 64GB+ ram surely must be smaller!

And when you guys are all like “you can’t render on a laptop because it will fry”. But maybe one doesn’t do super heavy rendering, and over night stuff, but just use it for modeling, materials and lighting and use interactive and small renders, and send it off somewhere else for finals or animation?


2020-06-29, 14:17:31
Reply #10

Mettigel Hawaii

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Well, I will not do suuuper ultra large scenes, but big ones and I want to avoid having troubles with my Laptop, so I bought an Apex 15 and hopefully it will do its work for the next few years.

2020-06-29, 18:58:56
Reply #11

Juraj

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https://clevo-computer.com/de/laptops-konfigurator/nach-anwendung/multimedia-und-unterhaltung/4496/clevo-nh57af1-amd-ryzen-desktop-prozessor-nvidia-rtx-2070?c=841#config

Isn't this one pretty much the same as my XMG Apex 15?

CLEVO is the actual Taiwanese manufacturer who makes the OEM chassis. Roughly 500 +/- local companies like XMG,etc.. then re-sell them with custom configuration.
You can also buy them directly yourself :- ).

Would the answer to this question be different if it wasn’t in a cpu renderers forum?


Yes :- (. Laptops come with far more powerful GPUs than they come with CPUs, and with Thunderbolt3 port, you can add additional E-GPU enclosure.
So for example any RTX 2080 Max-Q (ideally one with 100W power limit for GPU, thin laptops have only 65W for GPU) laptop with E-GPU, you have two powerful GPUs. With Vray or FStorm, you can absolutely work comfortably just using laptop.

With CPUs ? The situation sucks. You either get butt-ugly thick as Clevo, or you are stuck with mobile 8-core chips, which are finally decently powerful, but you know, 3990X is exactly 10 times faster (no hyperbole..it's exactly 10 times).
So "Workstation" is bit of misnomer. No actual CPU rendering will ever happen on most laptops (with exception of those with desktop CPUs like the Clevo one, but those are big, and ugly and still only 15"?)




And when you guys are all like “you can’t render on a laptop because it will fry”. But maybe one doesn’t do super heavy rendering, and over night stuff, but just use it for modeling, materials and lighting and use interactive and small renders, and send it off somewhere else for finals or animation?

Yeah, this is the best workflow with laptops. Set up your scene using Interactive with Optix Denoiser (so Laptop needs Nvidia GPU, no Macbook sadly), and then send the scene to render remotely to cloud or your home workstation/farm over internet.

That's effectively how I want to work.
Please follow my new Instagram for latest projects, tips&tricks, short video tutorials and free models
Behance  Probably best updated portfolio of my work
lysfaere.com Please check the new stuff!

2020-12-12, 21:27:40
Reply #12

octavtirziu

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For just temporary workload addition, the new Dell XPS 17. This is the first laptop that got close (and in many areas surpassed) the Macbook Pro 16.

Hi Juraj do you think this still holds true? Or a laptop with a 4900H amd processor like Zephyrus G14 would be a better option?

2020-12-13, 14:41:06
Reply #13

Juraj

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Zephyrus line is completely different level of build quality, in negative way and imho overpriced (like every Asus product) for such gaming setup, esp. compared to Clevo builds. But with powerful Ryzen CPU.

Dell XPS/ Razer Blade/ Macbook Pros are beautiful aluminium laptops...with weaker outdated Intels at this point... at least until next refresh.

At the moment I would wait for upcoming Ryzen 5xxx Laptops with nVidia Ampere GPUs. It will absolutely wipe the floor with current line-ups performance wise.
Though I doubt Dell or Razer will come with them... Intel helped co-design them. We'll see.

Personal choice, I wouldn't buy it. Razer Blade (I own 17" version) is the most gamery I would ever go. Everything else is too much for me...
Please follow my new Instagram for latest projects, tips&tricks, short video tutorials and free models
Behance  Probably best updated portfolio of my work
lysfaere.com Please check the new stuff!