Budget Laptop for 3D Rendering

[Vampire21]

I want a good laptop below $1000 for this software: 3Shape Dental CAD Design . Here are some options for me in Egypt:

1. Asus TUF Gaming A15 FA506ICB 2021: Ryzen 5 4600H RTX3050 RAM 8GB SSD 512GB ASUS Link ($700)
2. HP Victus 15-FA0031DX: i5 12450H GTX1650 RAM 8GB SSD 512GB ($675)
3. Someone offered me this used workstation for ($470) imported from the US and he told me it's very good for rendering: Dell Precision Mobile Workstation 7520 with i7 7820HQ and Nvidia Quadro M2200M DDR5 4GB and RAM 16GB

Most importantly, the laptop should have good cooling and be value for money. I also want to know if I can upgrade both the storage and the RAM in the ASUS and the HP laptops (as I want at least 16GB of RAM).
One more thing, if none of the laptops meet the recommended requirements for Dental CAD Design, recommend me other laptops with good performance but should be under $1000.

 

[SpookyCitrus]

The Dental Cad software support site should list it's recommended and minimum specs for a system to run it. Find those and base your decision off of that. Hell, call them or contact their support line and see if they have a specific laptop in mind for it. I've worked with a few Dental Cad software supports for clients before and most of the time if you just ask them they'll already have recommendations ready. However, most use DC software on desktops not laptops so they might not have a recommendation specifically for that.

 

At the very least find the spec requirements for the program and link them here so we at least know what is needed. Typically anything with a decent, compatible CPU and GPU and at least 16GB of ram should be able to run DC software just fine. I'd honestly go for whichever one has the best GPU/ CPU combo in it, even if it has 8GB of Ram you should be able to upgrade that later. However, some DC software prefers certain hardware over others so the recommended specs are necessary for us to help you.

[da na]

Precision all the way. Best value for the money, I have an older Precision M6700 and occasionally use it for CAD on the go, I love it. The HP one is pretty awful, Asus is the next best bet.

[Jon-Slow]

Hey, I don't think 3D rendering best describes what that software does. While it is doing rendering ( realtime) per say by showing you those 3D models you work on, it's not what's commonely refered to as 3D rendering and no one would ever really suggest you a laptop for actual 3D rendering which is the ultimate processor hug. The use case of this software looks similar to other 3D modeling software that make use of high poly modeling. This is what I've gathered looking at the software on Youtube, if there is a point in there where you render out those teeth with pretty lighting and get an animation or image out of it then I'm wrong.

 

But that being said, I would still say that considering a desktop instead would be a much better choice as a laptop would be absolutely limiting in every aspect for something like this. The software seems to be making use of high poly models which makes it CPU intensive as you move around and modify your model. This means high CPU usage at all times. high poly models will also fill up your RAM but you really have to monitor the software to know how well optimized it is or how much RAM is enough. I wouldn't go with anything below 32gb for something like that( or at least 16gb). Having a dedicated GPU ( any GPU) is also important. Having a larger screen would also be pretty important.

 

 

But all that being said, if portability is your main priority and you have no choice, then you need to priortize CPU > RAM > Just having a dedicated GPU. I'm would never buy Apple but the Apple Macbook Air M2 has really good hardware for what you'd need for around your max budget. the MSI Creator M16 M16 A12UD-266 is also a great choice at $1099 rocking a 12700H. the Creator M16 A11UD-671 is slightly cheaper at $899.

 

But again, I wouldn't buy a laptop for this if I wasn't forced to have portability.

[Jon-Slow]

1 hour ago, Vampire21 said:

Someone offered me this used workstation for ($470) imported from the US and he told me it's very good for rendering: Dell Precision Mobile Workstation 7520 with i7 7820HQ and Nvidia Quadro M2200M DDR5 4GB and RAM 16GB

Also regarding this one, It's a very old model now for any type of productive work. It has a nice price tag and will do what you want it to do but I would probably spend a bit more to get something that came out recently and also has warranty on it.

[Vampire21]

On 1/25/2023 at 6:20 PM, Mel0n. said:

Precision all the way. Best value for the money, I have an older Precision M6700 and occasionally use it for CAD on the go, I love it. The HP one is pretty awful, Asus is the next best bet.

Why do you think Precision is a better choice? The issue here that it's used and I don't trust used laptops to be honest so unless this Precision laptop is better than ASUS. I would get the ASUS laptop. What do you think?

On 1/25/2023 at 7:15 PM, Jon-Slow said:

Hey, I don't think 3D rendering best describes what that software does. While it is doing rendering ( realtime) per say by showing you those 3D models you work on, it's not what's commonely refered to as 3D rendering and no one would ever really suggest you a laptop for actual 3D rendering which is the ultimate processor hug. The use case of this software looks similar to other 3D modeling software that make use of high poly modeling. This is what I've gathered looking at the software on Youtube, if there is a point in there where you render out those teeth with pretty lighting and get an animation or image out of it then I'm wrong.

 

But that being said, I would still say that considering a desktop instead would be a much better choice as a laptop would be absolutely limiting in every aspect for something like this. The software seems to be making use of high poly models which makes it CPU intensive as you move around and modify your model. This means high CPU usage at all times. high poly models will also fill up your RAM but you really have to monitor the software to know how well optimized it is or how much RAM is enough. I wouldn't go with anything below 32gb for something like that( or at least 16gb). Having a dedicated GPU ( any GPU) is also important. Having a larger screen would also be pretty important.

 

 

But all that being said, if portability is your main priority and you have no choice, then you need to priortize CPU > RAM > Just having a dedicated GPU. I'm would never buy Apple but the Apple Macbook Air M2 has really good hardware for what you'd need for around your max budget. the MSI Creator M16 M16 A12UD-266 is also a great choice at $1099 rocking a 12700H. the Creator M16 A11UD-671 is slightly cheaper at $899.

 

But again, I wouldn't buy a laptop for this if I wasn't forced to have portability.

Yes, unfortunately I need laptop for portability. I have already a computer with higher specs but I need a laptop. The laptops you listed costs more than $1000 here and I don't want to spend that much unless it's a must requirement for the software. Someone recommend that I should spend $100 more and get this ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Core i5 11400H, 8GB RAM, RTX 3050 ,so it'll be worth it. What do you think?

On 1/25/2023 at 7:34 PM, Jon-Slow said:

Also regarding this one, It's a very old model now for any type of productive work. It has a nice price tag and will do what you want it to do but I would probably spend a bit more to get something that came out recently and also has warranty on it.

Yes, I thought so that's why I'm thinking to avoid it. Thanks.

[Jon-Slow]

1 hour ago, Vampire21 said:

Yes, unfortunately I need laptop for portability. I have already a computer with higher specs but I need a laptop. The laptops you listed costs more than $1000 here and I don't want to spend that much unless it's a must requirement for the software. Someone recommend that I should spend $100 more and get this ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Core i5 11400H, 8GB RAM, RTX 3050 ,so it'll be worth it. What do you think?

 

If you already have a desktop PC then you can see how resource heavy that software is. What you specially want to know is how your processor does and compare it to the  Look at how the software utlizised your processor while working on your projects using HWinfo. Look if it is single threat or multi thread when using different fuctions of it.

 

For example when you rotate around your heaviest model, make changes to it,..

 

Then you'll need to know how much RAM is being occupied, you can keep a look out for your GPU load and GPU dedicated memory load as well for good measure.

 

This will help you realize what exactly you need and what difference the CPU makes to your work and what you will need to buy. Unfortunetly that software is not as popular as something like Zbrush or Substance painter,... With those software I could just tell you what you need because they are better known and I know and easier to choose for. So depending on how this goes, you might not even need a more powerful laptop than the HP Victus One you've mentioned which has a really nice processor.

 

 

The ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Core i5 11400H, 8GB RAM, RTX 3050 you've linked is okay. It has 6 cores and 12m cache and up to 4.5ghz. definitely a better choice for professional work compared to the other ASUS TUF you've mentioned with the Ryzen 4600h. Will still need to ask for a memory upgrade from the 8gb to at least 16gb. But do run those tests I've mentioned with your software to see how it goes. I wouldn't suggest any of these laptops for a software like Zbrush for example, but that's why you need to know the software better to know what you're buying.

 

[Jon-Slow]

Also if this is getting too complicated for you, then just go with the ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Core i5 11400H, 8GB RAM, RTX 3050

 

This will probably work fine for you unless your software is as heavy as something like Zbrush.

[Vampire21]

On 1/27/2023 at 5:00 AM, Jon-Slow said:

Also if this is getting too complicated for you, then just go with the ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Core i5 11400H, 8GB RAM, RTX 3050

 

This will probably work fine for you unless your software is as heavy as something like Zbrush.

I don't want to go through the hassle of trying the software on the PC because it still needs a new HDD and a monitor and other stuffs. The hardware requirements listed on the site is not clear; for example: it says that i7 is more recommended than i5 which doesn't make sense due to many variations in the processors.
In a nutshell, I have 2 options for $800:
First: ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Core i5 11400H, 8GB RAM, RTX 3050
Second: MSI GF63 Thin i5 10500H 8GB RAM 1TB HDD +256GB SSD GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 4GB

Both almost cost the same but the MSI has slightly lower performance in processor but better GPU and higher storage with NVMe SSD. Which do you think is more value for money and would be more suitable for my usage?

[Jon-Slow]

7 hours ago, Vampire21 said:

it says that i7 is more recommended than i5 which doesn't make sense due to many variations in the processors.

Yeah, that's a little funny. Intel damned us all by making people thing i7 or i5 means how fast a CPU is and normies would never bother to know the difference.

 

Both of those laptops you've mentioned will do about the same and the one with 11400H will give you a very slight edge if you put them side by side. The difference between 3050 and 3050 ti in that application will most likely not be noticable at all. So the reason why I suggested you test it out was to see if the software is entirely CPU dependent and the GPU might only matter if it exists as a dedicated chip, in which case the HP Victus could be a much bigger win for you after adding 16gb of RAM.

 

But this is all about chasing numbers and trying to maximize things, rest asssured you'll be happy with any of these. Between the last two units you've linked, I'd probably go with ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Core i5 11400H, 8GB RAM, RTX 3050 Then double the RAM and add an NVMe if I could afford it.