WHAT IS A GOOD LAPTOP FOR BEGINNER?
Hi,
i have been developing an interest in 3d modelling for a while now and have started to approach Blender with my laptop (Lenovo Ideapad 700-17ISK). As i had already predicted, i encountered various difficulties due to the performance of this PC, such as the rendering speed. Since i finished high school and i intend to buy a new laptop to use for university, would you be able to recommend a PC (laptop) suitable also for 3d modelling that is under 1000$? Obviously i know i can't expect maximum performance because of th limited budget.
Thanks in advance!!
Replies
Anything with a NIVDIA Geforce or AMD video card in it with 16gb or more of memory should be fine. The problem with your Lenovo laptop is you don't have a separate video card.
Intel or amd Ryzen as processor?
Intel or AMD doesnt matter.
But have in mind if you are doing GPU rendering with Arnold or Vray you need a nvidia graphics card.
It's probably not the brand that's going to matter a huge amount, but as said above, the specs are worth paying attention to.
I'd search to find out whats on sale at the time with the best specs you can for the budget and go with that.
That said, once you do find something, do an extensive google search and check reddit to see if there are a lot of complaints about any particular option you are considering.
Honestly i wouldn't even bother to do any 3d work with a laptop. I need my two monitors, a good cpu and a good graphics card. And a laptop isn't good at any of these. You have usually a tiny screen, and a weak cpu and gpu because of the power they need.
But when it really must be a laptop, then simply search for a gamer laptop with at minimum 32 gb ram.
i work fine with my laptop when i am not at home or in the office. a second or third monitor is not a problem.
one might have to handle some apps with care, running complex unreal stuff alongside substance painter might be tricky, its rather one or the other, not both if i don't wanna run out of vram. But thats also an issue on desktop setups.
That being said my laptop was a little pricier than USD 1000
I agree, but i have to buy a new one also for university so it must be a laptop.
I recently bought a laptop for myself that I do 3d on. These are the specs I looked for:
But it cost closer to $2000 to get all that.
Bought this portable solution on sale three months ago, around $230AUD off RRP (Australian dollars) totaling $1,880 spent purchasing it which I think is equivalent to $1400USD thereabouts.
Although slightly down on RAM but atm does what I need it todo with the software I've currently installed i.e. SPainter, MTB4, Blender 3.x.x, UE5, Adobe After Effects and a couple of 2D apps as well so bit of a bargain, if you ask me.
Plus here's a handy tip worth mentioning when shopping around, it's whether certain brands/vendors enable swapping out components for their product, like for instance RAM....etc.
My MSI laptop: 16gb GF3080, i7-10870H, 32gb ram , 1Tb SSD, 15' IPS 300hz screen. Never had a desktop having that much of a production power. My guess it's 16gb of video memory mostly . Cost just a bit more than 3080 desktop card along at the time I bought it so I decided to buy a laptop.
The screen is a bit small although. Gonna buy a separate screen that could fit my suitcase.
Lenovo are my favourite at the moment if you're not looking to spend thousands.
As far as laptop suitability goes.. My main workstation is an Alienware x15 which works very well indeed for all manner of gamedev related activities. It's getting on for £4k (I didn't pay for it obvs) so not exactly an economical solution but it means I can move around with it