I need to change my laptop, and I would like to buy something that is portable but still powerful enough to run touchdesigner very well. My budget is around 2000€ (i am based in Europe).
Scraping around, I found the Asus G14 with the following specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9-4900HS.
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q.
RAM: 16GB.
Storage: 1TB SSD.
I also found the Asus G15 with the following specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7-10750H 2.6GHz (Turbo up to 5GHz)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB GDDR6.
RAM: 16GB DDR4.
Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD.
Design / portability wise, I think I would prefer the G14. My doubt is on the GPU: is the 2070 making a huge difference in comparison with the 2060?
Also, Asus recently announced the 2021 version. This would come with a RTX 3060 for the new G14 and a RTX 3080 for the new G15. Are these new versions worth waiting?
Finally, would you have any other recommendations? I am a bit lost, and I would greatly appreciate your help! Thank you so much in advance!
Concerning Computer, I never take the risk anymore of saying: this one is good for you. I can only share my propoer experience with computer I use extensively.
On your description what is also important:
– The number and type of plugs (USB, TB, HDMI, DP etc.)
– How it is cooled (important with TD and powerful Graphic Card)
– How it’s build, how you can upgrade it, repair it
– weight, dimension
– and other parameters proper to your use
Personaly, I bought an MSI GS65 (i7, GTX 1070, 32 Go, 2 To SSD) and I am quite happy with it (powerful, sufficient plugs) but I am deceived by the construction as I travel a lot for master class and performance and by the noise when its fully loaded.
Some say good things about Gigabyte or Clevo.
Personaly I also have the G14 in as the contendor for my next Laptop. It seems to take the most punch in a nice size-package. But take this with a caviat because I only use a Laptop no as my main mashine but only for small stuff like small patches and fixes, remote-control or smaller shows where I just jump in and out or workshops.
Otherwise I have a 19" currently standing in my office as my daily driver and a SSF-Computer that easily fits in a small Euro-Case that is the main show-mashine.
Meaning: I would never use a Laptop as a production-mashine because depending on which site you lean on you have to make to many compromises:
Portable → Less Power. Small Screen.
Power → Heavy, Loud, Still bad stability through thermals.
And as I already have a device that is somewhat portable in my SFF with enough punch I’m going for a small portable mashine with some punch, but nothing exciting
Thank you very much! really appreciate your feedback and experience! what would you recommend in terms of type and number of plugs?
Thank you again!
Also thank you so much for your feedback and help! it is very much appreciated! this would be for me a machine to start learning TD, and maybe do small shows. Unfortunately I don’t have now the budget to afford more than this. Do you think it would suffice anyway?
generaly, the computer depends of what you want to do with it, working at home and sometime prepare a work running on other computer? teaching? Working with another software (Adobe Suite, daVinci, Houdini…). Considering plugs, I teach a lot and I prepare a lot of project on my computer for performance using their computer and their licence. I have another desktop machine to work at home and a very light MacBook everytime with me. So for my laptop PC, I have/need three display outputs (1 hdmi, 1 mini-dp, 1 TB3) because I have often projects with 3 projections and one command screen. I have 3 USB 3 and I can also use the TB3 for a hub with Firewire, SD card and another USB.
I dont have a SD reader on the computer and I regret it.
If you use your computer for performance, be careful with cooling.
In Q2 2021 I’m seeing a new wave of GTX 3000 series of gaming and content creation laptops from Asus, MSI, AlienWare, etc. They are just hitting the shelves now and are mixed in with late 2020 holdovers with the RTX 2000 & 1000 series cards. Why would anyone want one? because they do underperform their desktop equivalents by 40% because of a shorter 240-bit buss. Because you can’t buy a decent desktop video card anywhere without paying a 100% or more markup to a scalper. So building and or buying a pre-built windows machine is out of the question unless you’re willing to pay a premium and wait 6-8 weeks for a decent NVIDIA based desktop.
With that being said, I purchased two different NVIDIA 3000 series laptops this week, The stock on these items moves very fast. I purchased an Asus Zypherus AMD 5900HX RTX3060 16g RAM, 1TB NVME for $1499 - kinda of an unreal price from Best Buy, It shipped and should arrive today. I also found an Asus Strix G15 with the same specs but with an RTX3070 for $1799 from New Egg, it’s been sitting in the Warehouse with a UPS tracking number for several days, but has not been picked by the shipper - which tells me it might be vaporware.
Anyway, I just thought I’d share that. I’m looking forward to this new hardware as I kind of hit the wall with my Mac Book Pro and authoring TD content as the newer shaders and anything dependant on OpenGL has it’s limit’s.
One last note, I’ve read a lot of blog posts elsewhere that insist on using NIVIDA Quadro cards for TD, but really they don’t seem to be anywhere near as powerful as the RTX3090 or even the lesser 3060 cards.
