best laptop for 3d animation / rendering on 3ds max $2100 or less

[lenadoesntknow]

I know building my own pc is better than a laptop but for moving issues I need the laptop so, here come the question..
-Which brand would you recommend?
-What about the graphics card? gtx or quadro?
-what is the difference between gtx 980m 4gb and gtx 970m 8gb? which is better in performance?
-how much ram should it have?

Some people have recommended me an alienware or an msi but i do feel very lost. thanks!

 

[okcnaline]

Depending on what program you use, I would recommend different computers entirely. For example, a Quadro at $1800 is the same as a $500 GeForce card. A mobile professional GPU would always be lower in raw numbers than a consumer GeForce. However, what gets them the speed to beat the consumer cards is acceleration. Therefore, if you're doing this professionally, tell us. I recommend different products depending on answer.

Here's a Dell Precision laptop for around your budget:
http/www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m6800-workstation/pd?oc=cap6800w7p201&model_id=precision-m6800-workstation

 

[OreoTheCookieMonster]

Brand - I guess asus i mean they do offer bang for your buck laptops. i am not really sure about other brands and i am unaware of some brands

Graphic card - Depends - Been through blender and autodesk forums and both has their pros and cons. Personal choice and budget are huge factors but in your case budget isn't a issue so it depends on availability.

Difference - Amount of Vram helps in loading assets according to blender forums. Performance wise i think the 980m might be better.

Ram - Minimum 8gb i guess since you have such a huge budget.

Alienware is a lot like Hp they charge a bit for their brand name.
Msi - I have friends who had msi motherboards and graphics who reported problems with it. I am unsure about laptops though

 

[Scott_D_Bowen]

I'd avoid Alienware laptops like the plague.

 

[lenadoesntknow]

I'd avoid Alienware laptops like the plague.

What's so bad about them? Aren't they manufactured by dell? also if not alienware which brand do you recommend? what about hp zbook?

 

[lenadoesntknow]

Depending on what program you use, I would recommend different computers entirely. For example, a Quadro at $1800 is the same as a $500 GeForce card. A mobile professional GPU would always be lower in raw numbers than a consumer GeForce. However, what gets them the speed to beat the consumer cards is acceleration. Therefore, if you're doing this professionally, tell us. I recommend different products depending on answer.

Here's a Dell Precision laptop for around your budget:
http/www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m6800-workstation/pd?oc=cap6800w7p201&model_id=precision-m6800-workstation

first, sorry for the -1 I pressed the wrong button :S lol

I do plan on doing this whole 3d thing professionally but i'm starting with 3ds max so I'm looking for a good mobile workstation and thanks for the suggestion but i do have some questions about it.
Can I do upgrades in a future (memory, hard drive, graphics card)?
also is a 2gb graphics card enough for rendering?

Which other workstations do you think are worth the money?
and what do you think about hp zbook 17?
thanks!

 

[lenadoesntknow]

Brand - I guess asus i mean they do offer bang for your buck laptops. i am not really sure about other brands and i am unaware of some brands

Graphic card - Depends - Been through blender and autodesk forums and both has their pros and cons. Personal choice and budget are huge factors but in your case budget isn't a issue so it depends on availability.

Difference - Amount of Vram helps in loading assets according to blender forums. Performance wise i think the 980m might be better.

Ram - Minimum 8gb i guess since you have such a huge budget.

Alienware is a lot like Hp they charge a bit for their brand name.
Msi - I have friends who had msi motherboards and graphics who reported problems with it. I am unsure about laptops though

thanks! i guess i'll keep doing some research!

 

[okcnaline]

first, sorry for the -1 I pressed the wrong button :S lol

I do plan on doing this whole 3d thing professionally but i'm starting with 3ds max so I'm looking for a good mobile workstation and thanks for the suggestion but i do have some questions about it.
Can I do upgrades in a future (memory, hard drive, graphics card)?
also is a 2gb graphics card enough for rendering?

Which other workstations do you think are worth the money?
and what do you think about hp zbook 17?
thanks!

Don't worry about the -1! I'll get it dealt with!

As for the recommendation for the Dell Precision, I know that you're going to use Autodesk 3ds Max. The laptop is certified on the Autodesk website.
http/usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert/system?siteID=123112&catID=18254205&id=18844534&product=132&os=131072&system=146
It, along with being able to run Autodesk 3ds Max decently, will also get a performance boost and extra features because of the CUDA acceleration of NVidia Quadro cards.

As for the VRAM, no worries. 3D modeling and rendering depend more on CPU than GPU power.

 

[lenadoesntknow]

Don't worry about the -1! I'll get it dealt with!

As for the recommendation for the Dell Precision, I know that you're going to use Autodesk 3ds Max. The laptop is certified on the Autodesk website.
http/usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert/system?siteID=123112&catID=18254205&id=18844534&product=132&os=131072&system=146
It, along with being able to run Autodesk 3ds Max decently, will also get a performance boost and extra features because of the CUDA acceleration of NVidia Quadro cards.

As for the VRAM, no worries. 3D modeling and rendering depend more on CPU than GPU power.

Thanks so much! You've been of much help

 

[chase03]

Actually a Asus ROG G751 would be the best solution. They have i7 2.6 to 3.6 turbo ( I think) ,16gb, GTX 970 ,with SSD,HDD etc.
I`m about to buy one, with the 965 GTX card, and it is around 1400euro. You can easily get the more advanced version with the better GPU, and then buy 16gb ram more.
Another plus side, they have awesome cooling system.

 

[okcnaline]

Chase, your reply have no regards to what OP needs.

 

[chase03]

Chase, your reply have no regards to what OP needs.

He is looking for a laptop for 3D rendering. The ASUS G751 is the best choice.
My reply was just spot on.
Not going to answer what is the difference between GTX and Quadro,since people already explained it before me, so I just cut to the chase.

 

[okcnaline]

No it's not.

You don't need powerful GPUs for 3D rendering. 3D rendering depends on the strength and amount of cores a CPU has, along with plenty of RAM. 2 GTX 965s are too much for 3D modeling. If it was video editing and gaming then what you said is more than deserving a Best Solution.

3D modeling programs benefit a lot more from CUDA and OpenGL acceleration than having more GPU cores also. A Titan X, for example, is slower than a Quadro M6000 in 3D modeling due to the CUDA acceleration, and the Titan X and Quadro M6000 is the same card, just having different drivers. Also, CUDA and OpenGL opens up features in 3D modeling programs. An example is RealView. The acceleration allows for physics of shadows, glossiness, and lighting to be rendered without detrimental effects on performance.

 

[OreoTheCookieMonster]

No it's not.

You don't need powerful GPUs for 3D rendering. 3D rendering depends on the strength and amount of cores a CPU has, along with plenty of RAM. 2 GTX 965s are too much for 3D modeling. If it was video editing and gaming then what you said is more than deserving a Best Solution.

3D modeling programs benefit a lot more from CUDA and OpenGL acceleration than having more GPU cores also. A Titan X, for example, is slower than a Quadro M6000 in 3D modeling due to the CUDA acceleration, and the Titan X and Quadro M6000 is the same card, just having different drivers. Also, CUDA and OpenGL opens up features in 3D modeling programs. An example is RealView. The acceleration allows for physics of shadows, glossiness, and lighting to be rendered without detrimental effects on performance.

This is interesting. this is entirely unrelated with the topic but i am curious as to why people recommend the gtx sometimes. i have viewed quite some topics regarding this but you do elaborate quite a bit. So why do some people recommend the gtx?

 

[chase03]

No it's not.

You don't need powerful GPUs for 3D rendering. 3D rendering depends on the strength and amount of cores a CPU has, along with plenty of RAM. 2 GTX 965s are too much for 3D modeling. If it was video editing and gaming then what you said is more than deserving a Best Solution.

3D modeling programs benefit a lot more from CUDA and OpenGL acceleration than having more GPU cores also. A Titan X, for example, is slower than a Quadro M6000 in 3D modeling due to the CUDA acceleration, and the Titan X and Quadro M6000 is the same card, just having different drivers. Also, CUDA and OpenGL opens up features in 3D modeling programs. An example is RealView. The acceleration allows for physics of shadows, glossiness, and lighting to be rendered without detrimental effects on performance.

You lost me mate.
I said the laptop I`m about to buy has the 965GTX, 16gb ram and an i7 that goes up to 3.4ghz + awesome cooling,+ssd +whatever. This costs about 1400euro. He has a budget of $2100. That is why I suggested the 32GB version. It fits his budget, and he gets a better GPU too.

Even if GPU is not that important, Quicksilver, iRay and Lumion as an example,uses all GPU power.
(this was not my point before... but it`s some additional info)

In short, the asus ROG G751 has a really great CPU and cooling system, which he will need.
I actually have a small design business, so I do a lot of renderings and so on. I think I looked trough 200 laptops ,and still the G751 has the most CPU power that is also affordable.

My main reason to get that laptop is that I`m moving back and forth in different countries, hard to take my PC with me.

Cheers!

P.S
On my PC I`m running a GTX 770 4GB with 4790K. I cannot care less about what the GPU opens up and so on. Usually I`m more intrested in the rendering time,not what kind of shaders and such are being used while building up the model.

Only thing I regret is that I haven`t got a Xeon instead of an i7

 

[okcnaline]

Lol... Quicksilver is only for OS X. Assuming you Hackintosh...
And Iray is an extension for Autodesk 3ds and Maya.
Lumion seems to be the only one you listed that is valid reason for powerful cards; as Lumion does not support CUDA acceleration.

I know how good the ASUS ROG G751 is. But that's a consumer level. Most of the programs listed utilize CUDA or OpenGL acceleration, which the Dell Precision I listed would do more than better than others. And plus, it isn't hard to get a computer with good CPU power at this price...

And also, http/www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-6.html
What I'm trying to say with the above article is that a weak V3900, some Radeon HD 5xxx-series card, does better than the HD 7990, which is about as good as a R9 290.