before I pull the trigger I’d like to crosscheck on the spec from an offer I received for a new laptop.
Is there anything I may have overlooked? Does the price sound about right?
Please be aware that there a number of reasons which we do not need to debate here why I’ll buy a laptop and not a desktop. So comments pointing towards a desktop are not needed. Thank you.
So, here the background:
I’m working primarely on ArchViz & VR withvery large rendered equirectangular images (12000 x 6000 pixel). Most renderings are done in Cycles, but I plan to get into Unreal now.
I am not a gamer, and will use this purely for ArchViz & maybe some high res video cutting.
I got the following offer within my budget (2500€ net max, better less). I specifically like the Schenker/XMG, because of its upgradability. The CPU is not soldered, the graphics card can be changed in a couple of years, and I can add another SSD or HDD later:
Schenker XMG Apex 15
AMD Ryzen 3950X (16core/32 threads)
1x NVIDIA RTX 2070 Refresh 8GB GDDR 6
2x 32 GB (=64GB) DDR 4-2666 Samsung
1x 1TB M.2. Samsung 970 EVO Plus PCI 3.0 x4 N
1x Empty bay on motherboard (I will buy that one later due to budget)
I’m not familiar with this brand, but from what I see: In regards to the CPU, I don’t think you would find many laptop that can compete with full blown desktop processor (which this laptop has). But the GPU is limited to 2070, which is only 8GB of VRAM.
I would like to know how much memory your scene typically use during render?
If the answer is between 8 - 24 GB then I would say you would be better of going with laptops that has Quadro RTX 5000 or 6000 that has 16 / 24 GB of VRAM.
If it’s less than 8 GB or more than 24 GB, I would say this laptop is a good choice for your needs.
thanks for the comment. That really interesting. Could you please expand a bit on why you say the following?
Why is it good for less than 8GB and more than 24GB?
And not for the area between 8GB and 24GB?
I’d like to understand the logic, even though the price of the Quardo option might not work with my budget.
Btw. they say that the GTX 2070 is mounted in a way that it could be swapped for a RTX 2080 or bigger later.
I just looked at the prices, unfortunately even the Quadro RTX 4000 is almost twice that of the RTX 2070.
RTX 2070 439€ vs Quadro RTX 4000 938€.
The Quadro RTX 5000 is at 2198€ which is alone almost more than the complete laptop I am looking at.
If it’s using less than 8GB of memory, then the scene would fit nicely inside the 2070 VRAM, so laptop with that specifications would still be a good choice because you can still render with GPU (which is faster than rendering using CPU)
If it’s using more than 24GB of memory, then the scene would not fit inside any GPU (even the Quadro), so your only choice is to render with CPU. And that laptop with 3950X is pretty much the best CPU you can get on a laptop
If it’s using between 8 and 24GB of memory, then the scene cannot fit in 2070 or 2080 but has a possibility to fit inside some GPU, like the Quadro RTX 6000 (yes I understand it’s very expensive and usually not worth the money, but I’m offering this as one of the possible option you can consider)
Great answer. Now I do understand. Thank you.
And good that the CPU seems a good pick too, as thats the component which might unlikely to be changed later down the line.
Thank you.