Best 15" laptop for developer that will drive external 4k monitor @ 60 Hz

gringosweets

Commendable
Apr 21, 2016
1
0
1,510
Would appreciate any recommendations on best 15" size laptop (not necessarily gaming) to buy sub$1500 (around$1000 would be better but I realize this is probably asking too much). It must have enough horsepower to be able to drive a external 4k monitor at 60Hz - like the AMH-A409U below.I am a developer who will be working on games on different platforms and will be testing /debugging also. This is why it must drive external monitor 4k at 60 Hz without problems.

I have heard that many laptops/ graphics cards are only able to drive a 4k external monitor at 30Hz. This then presents ghosting and artifacts(on screen elements, mouse, etc.)

My laptop screen itself does not have to be 4k( it can be regular HD at 1920x1080). however, It would be nice to be able to drive both the laptop screen and the external 4k at the same time.

I am coming from a Apple background but unfortunately they do not have any laptops with that type of spec in my price range( not even close). I also can only get one item at a time (laptop or external 4k display) so it needs that future proofing.

Thank you very much for any suggestions and please let me know if I am overlooking anything. Thanks.

P.S. Would there be any merit in waiting for nVidia Pascal architecture to come on the scene in June? How fast would laptops have these chips?

AMH-A409U
 
Solution
Pascal mobile will be Q1 of 2017 long after the desktop release. I would not wait as they will likely still be GDDR5 as HBM is still too new and expensive to go into mobile chipsets.

As far as 4k, most laptops can drive a screen in 4k for daily use but do anything more and they will not be able to handle it. You would have to spend nearly $3000 to get a laptop capable of playing 4k games or doing 4k tasks in lower details.

Purpletalon55

Respectable
Apr 2, 2016
463
0
2,210
Pascal mobile will be Q1 of 2017 long after the desktop release. I would not wait as they will likely still be GDDR5 as HBM is still too new and expensive to go into mobile chipsets.

As far as 4k, most laptops can drive a screen in 4k for daily use but do anything more and they will not be able to handle it. You would have to spend nearly $3000 to get a laptop capable of playing 4k games or doing 4k tasks in lower details.
 
Solution