I’m considering two laptops, both of which has 12th gen i7 CPU, 16gb ram, and 512gb SSD. The 1TB versions way too expensive so sadly compromising. So, the decision comes to GPU.
Would RTX 3600 6GB really make a difference?
Is the difference worth spending like $300? Would render that’ll finish in 5 mins in 3050Ti finish in 2-3 mins or even seconds in 3060. How much of a difference are we looking at?
What kind of stuff are you rendering? For large environments, you probably want more VRAM - 6 GB vs 4 GB VRAM will make a huge difference for environments or volumetrics. If you’re doing hard surface stuff or characters, it’s more about the CPU, you won’t really notice a difference, so you can go with the cheaper one
I’ll be dealing with volumetrics and environments for still renders, halfway between realism and art, with soft lighting and such, but my animations will be on eevee. Most of the stuff I’ll do will be eevee but with occasional cycles.
Sounds like you need the 6GB to me
I don’t think you should get the 3050Ti. It gets a really bad reputation from reviews: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/mobile-rtx-3050-ti-terrible-buy
And it also factually performs much more poorly than the 3060: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-3060-vs-Nvidia-RTX-3050-Ti-Laptop/4105vsm1559532
However, you should also consider other options than the 3060. When it comes to NVIDIA graphic cards, the model number represents two thing: the generation, and the series. For example, 3060 means it is the third generation of XX60 model.
It is true that the 3060 is better than 2060, but only for 12%: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-3060-vs-Nvidia-RTX-2060/4105vs4034
And the thing is, older GPUs are way cheaper for its comparative performance. So if you can find a laptop with RTX 2060 in it, it most likely will be cheaper. The 2060 also already has 6 GB of VRAM, so it’ll be enough for your purpose.
However, since the 3060 is basically the third version of XX60 model, it actually performs poorer than 2070, 2070s, 2080, 2080s, and 2080Ti, even though it’s the third generation.
So try searching for laptops with RTX 2070, 2070s, 2080, 2080s, and 2080Ti as well, and note the price. Then you can pick one which fits your budget perfectly.