Recommendations for a graphics laptop
Chakradude
Posts: 285
So my tax return is in(!) and I am shopping for a graphics laptop and I have a hard ceiling of $600. Limited I know but its what I have to work with. Just wondering if anyone can give a not to technical reccomendation for or against either one of these in the links below or another better choice in your opinion. Note; I am not attatched to any brand name but am more conserned with general 3d workflow. I primarily use Daz3d, a little bit of modeling a lot of photoshop and some gaming. I do realize Iray is a consideration for graphics cards.
The first one is an Acer Aspire E5-573G 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i5 5200U, 8GB, 1TB, NVIDIA GeForce 940M 2GB, Windows 10 Home)
this one (below) has more video ram, its also an Acer Aspire E 15 E5-574G-52QU 15.6-inch Full HD Notebook - Cotton White (Windows 10)
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-574G-52QU-15-6-inch-Notebook/dp/B019G7VOSO/ref=dp_ob_title_ce
Thanks in advance for any help on this;)
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Comments
This does not sound very useable for Iray, 4GB is usable but allready needs a lot of Memory managing / layered Renders etc.
Personally, I'd recommend a 17" screen size for doing any serious graphics work on a laptop (unless you'll always be using an external monitor.) Also, look for at least a 960M GPU with 4GB dedicated VRAM.
Something like..... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232849&ignorebbr=1
The ASUS ROG G75 line are quite good....range from $1250 to $3500.
There are also some Alienware laptops that fit the bill similarly.
ETA: Sorry, didn't notice the price limit you wrote. You aren't going to get much gaming/rendering performance at that price range. The second one you listed does have a 940M with 4GB. You won't get great Iray performance out of it, but you can render on it. If you want to do much beyond simple stuff, you'll want a better GPU, and more memory. For that price, you'd be better off looking at desktops.
thanks both for your responses
I hear you on the iray, but since I am more into comic render and I have bought shaders for the render system, I am fine sticking to 3delight. I also have the reality 4 plugin. any general thoughts on the computing needs of either of these renderers?
How about working with several models in a scene? is that more dependent on cpu or Ram or video ram? I can live with long render times but what I hate most is the computer getting bogged down while I am building a scene. I just want to be able to build my scene and let it take as long as it takes to render while I do other things
If you aren't using Iray, then it's mostly system memory you'll want. Lots of it. 16GB minimum, preferably 32GB. That and the best CPU you can get for the price. For Reality/Luxus, you'll probably want as many cores as possible too.
The video ram is mostly a concern for Iray or OpenCL. If you aren't using Iray, it won't matter much. Reality has an option to use OpenCL (I believe, could be wrong) so a decent GPU won't hurt. The scene size is directly related to the number of models, how detailed they are, and how large and how many textures they use. It's usually more an issue for Iray, as the VRAM limitations are a lot more restricting. For 3Delight, it's system memory.
Your going to have a really hard time finding something suitable for this hobby for that price. You need to make sure you have at min 8GB memory and a Nvidia or ATI graphics card with dedicated RAM and supports Open GL. As already stated you will need 4GB of dedicated RAM for Iray and it has to be an Nvidia card. Stay away from Intel Graphics. You want the biggest screen size you can get. You need to check reviews on each of the systems you are interested in to be sure everything is working fine and has suitable airflow for heavy loads.
$600 is not going to give you a lot of flexibility on a laptop IMHO, not unless you have a tremendous threshold for patience when that thing is running and rendering.
you'd get a far better PC but even at that price cap you may have tough time with a GPU that has 4GB RAM and PSU to keep the rest of it under budget.
If you have an older LCD use that.
3D is the top tier of hobbies when it comes to computer demands. Mainstream and budget systems are generally inadequate for the tasks.
If you dont need to be portable you can probably get by with a desktop that will run circles around it. Laptop parts are generally smaller, run hotter are less powerful and far more expensive then same pricepoint for desktops.
If you're in the UK, check out Scan Computers. I've got one of theirs, which I don't intend to use for rendering, but with a mobile 960M, (and also available a 980ti variant).
I've just noticed you quote dollars, but they do give an idea of what is available.
You could get a decent budget desktop for $600 (not including monitor, keyboard or mouse) for rendering; you've pretty close to zero chance getting something suitable for rendering - bear in mind that you pay more (by quite a margin) for the same performance in a laptop.
...I personally would not recommend notebooks as the main system for 3D work as most have inferior cooling, especially if you are going to be doing primarily CPU rendering.
The best ones tend to be the mid to higher end R.O.G. systems as they have full flow through cooling with dual fans as well as intakes in the front and exhaust ports in the back. Even given that, they will still tend run hotter than a desktop/deskside PC.just because the components have to be crammed into a very tight space for portability sake. With a notebook, you also lose flexibility for upgrading down the road.
Also if you are going to be doing 3DL (particularly using UE with GI), I'd save for an i7 system as it has 8 processor threads rather than 4 (i5's do not offer hyperthreading except on some duo core CPUs).
I'd conur here, that a basic or "bare bones" desktop with an adequate GPU would be better as you have the option to upgrade later.
Obviously the second is the better choice (the Acer Aspire E 15 E5-574G-52QU). It has better and newer tech and is cheaper, and has the minimum GRAM useful for Iray. The Amazon comments reveal that it is easily upgradable to an additional SSD drive, and upgradable with a little work (and small risk) to 16GB of RAM. It seems it is greatly beneficial to clean (re)install Windows, as the standard installation comes with a lot of performance-sapping crapware (the bane of laptops).
A probable better option is to not spend the $600 now on a machine that will allow you to merely scrape by in graphics; instead put it into saving toward a computer that can enhance you in graphics.
I doubt you will be draining your battery doing renders on the bus. It's not out yet but this is a likely to cost $500 or less:
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/computing/asus-unveils-trio-of-new-vivomini-pcs-1312361
or just buy the cheapest mini-tower you can afford that has a Skylake processor and nVidia or ATI video card.
Hi, just make sure it can use somthing like this: (EXP GDC Laptop External) Just seach Amazon for this and you can use a subpar laptop with a great desktop video card. if you are handy with tools and moding cases. You can convert a MiniITX case into an external case for your external video card and extra powersupply.
thanks much for all the reccomendations!