Best laptop for graphic design?

[Cy-Fy]

Hey guys my sister will start university in september to study graphic design. She plans to save up money to buy a laptop (not a desktop because she needs to be able to carry it home/school etc.) and she was thinking about an Apple mac of some sort that is not ruinously expensive.

 

However, I was thinking that maybe a windows laptop would be better value because you may find one with a decent graphics card (which I think would be helpful for graphic design) for a lot less than the most basic mac that includes a graphics card.

 

She also believes that because most schools and people go for a mac it would simply be more convenient t get a mac to not have to deal with compatibility issues between friends or when working in school and then taking the work home etc.

 

So basically what do you guys think would be a good laptop for graphics design? Is a graphics card needed if mostly Photoshop and Illustrator will be used with maybe some light 3D animation? How powerful should a laptop be for this purpose?

 

Thank you very much guys for your help.

[BrandonTheCat]

Oh hell, Ive been there, done that. 

 

In my opinion, If I were to go back into graphic design, I would go get me a basic macbook pro. Anything with images, apple wins for me. For photoshop or illustrator, the graphics card is used lightly. Get anything higher than 512 MB of VRAM for 3D rendering in photoshop.

 

If you were to go Windows, (Huge mistake BTW, you'll regret it later) go get an XPS 13 or something. Anything with a display resolution that's VERY high, and with decent integrated graphics and more than 8GB of RAM.

 

Also keep in note that the CPU should probably be dual with hyperthreading. 2 cores and 2 threads is ok, but 4 cores and 8 threads is always better. 

[Cy-Fy]

Uh, I use CAD and photo editing programs on my laptop with the integrated graphics with no issue. Sure, it's not the fastest thing but it certainly gets it done. i5-3230m @3.2GHz turbo stg2 3.0 turbo stg 1, 16GB HyperX Impact RAM.

 

Honestly, get a laptop with hyperthreading, 2.5GHz+, 8-16 GB of ram and whatever storage happens to be. will do nicely

 

 

however, if the 3D apps are going to benefit heavily from paralell computing and GPU acceleration I would get a laptop with a gtx 960m or above in it, preferably 970m or above as the 960m isn't exactly brilliant (but agani, isn't rubbish either)

Thanks for the advice I really appreciate it. I think that a laptop with the specs that you have will be just fine!

 

Oh hell, Ive been there, done that. 

 

In my opinion, If I were to go back into graphic design, I would go get me a basic macbook pro. Anything with images, apple wins for me. For photoshop or illustrator, the graphics card is used lightly. Get anything higher than 512 MB of VRAM for 3D rendering in photoshop.

 

If you were to go Windows, (Huge mistake BTW, you'll regret it later) go get an XPS 13 or something. Anything with a display resolution that's VERY high, and with decent integrated graphics and more than 8GB of RAM.

 

Also keep in note that the CPU should probably be dual with hyperthreading. 2 cores and 2 threads is ok, but 4 cores and 8 threads is always better. 

Try to convince me: why would my sister regret buying a windows laptop? The most basic Macbook Pro costs £999.00 and it has a 2.7GHz i5 with 8GB RAM and Intel Graphics 6100... I think that for that kind of mone I could get a windows laptop with more ram, a faster processor (or even an i7) and maybe even a graphics card if I shop around so why should she choose a macbook pro?

[BrandonTheCat]

Thanks for the advice I really appreciate it. I think that a laptop with the specs that you have will be just fine!

 

Try to convince me: why would my sister regret buying a windows laptop? The most basic Macbook Pro costs £999.00 and it has a 2.7GHz i5 with 8GB RAM and Intel Graphics 6100... I think that for that kind of mone I could get a windows laptop with more ram, a faster processor (or even an i7) and maybe even a graphics card if I shop around so why should she choose a macbook pro?

 

Its more of the operating system than anything. Hey if you can load OS X on a windows laptop, go for it. But it will probably not work well. 

 

"Most graphic designers automatically veer towards the Mac OS X platform as a matter of course. Partly this is a result of Apple's graphic design heritage. (Apple pretty much created the desktop publishing market back in 1985 with the original Apple Macintosh computer, combined with PageMaker and the first LaserWriter printer.)

These days most designers work in a purely digital format, and will be using very different software to that created back in the 1980s. However, Apple is still the choice for designers thanks to its more comfortable Mac OS X operating system, wide software support and lots of industry love."

 

Source: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/best-mac-graphic-design-3450093/

 

Edit: I'm also serious on this: You DO NOT Need a huge graphics card at all. Like, for example, people who buy a GTX 980 on a desktop, will have VERY LITTLE difference to people on a laptop with integrated graphics. I recommend putting more money to the processor or display than the GPU. So to the post on top: a GTX 960M is overkill for graphic design unless HEAVY 3D work needs to be taken into consideration. 

 

My macbook air 2012 review would be here. I suggest reading that. 

[Cy-Fy]

Its more of the operating system than anything. Hey if you can load OS X on a windows laptop, go for it. But it will probably not work well. 

 

"Most graphic designers automatically veer towards the Mac OS X platform as a matter of course. Partly this is a result of Apple's graphic design heritage. (Apple pretty much created the desktop publishing market back in 1985 with the original Apple Macintosh computer, combined with PageMaker and the first LaserWriter printer.)

These days most designers work in a purely digital format, and will be using very different software to that created back in the 1980s. However, Apple is still the choice for designers thanks to its more comfortable Mac OS X operating system, wide software support and lots of industry love."

 

Source: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/best-mac-graphic-design-3450093/

 

Edit: I'm also serious on this: You DO NOT Need a huge graphics card at all. Like, for example, people who buy a GTX 980 on a desktop, will have VERY LITTLE difference to people on a laptop with integrated graphics. I recommend putting more money to the processor or display than the GPU. So to the post on top: a GTX 960M is overkill for graphic design unless HEAVY 3D work needs to be taken into consideration. 

 

My macbook air 2012 review would be here. I suggest reading that. 

Thans a lot man this and your review were really helpful!

[Cy-Fy]

I'd suggest something like this, let her use it for a term and if the 8GB of RAM isn't enough then something along the lines of this (which just got installed in my laptop) will definitely do the job

Thanks very much I'll show this to her and we'll see what the decision is thanks! She's really into macs though but this being so much cheaper might convince her