Best laptop for Enscape?

  • Hello everyone -

    I am very new to Enscape, and need to know a good laptop to get to support Enscape with Sketchup. I have a MS Surface Laptop, but the video card is less than 1 Gb so I can't really do anything in Enscape. I'm looking at Dell Alienware laptops now, but how critical is the video card/memory, and does anyone have a recommendation for a good device? It's not for gaming or anything...just interior design renderings.

    Looking for something around $3000 - $3500?


    thx!

    • Official Post

    Hello everyone -

    I am very new to Enscape, and need to know a good laptop to get to support Enscape with Sketchup. I have a MS Surface Laptop, but the video card is less than 1 Gb so I can't really do anything in Enscape. I'm looking at Dell Alienware laptops now, but how critical is the video card/memory, and does anyone have a recommendation for a good device? It's not for gaming or anything...just interior design renderings.

    Looking for something around $3000 - $3500?


    thx!

    Welcome to our Forum!


    There aren't any specific models we usually recommend, but what we do recommend is any card from the NVIDIA 3xxx lineup especially with your budget - So, anything ranging from the RTX 3060 to the RTX 3090 even. In your case, you may even be able to find a Laptop that includes a 3080, which will make you future-proof for quite a while. Or of course you are lucky and even find one with a 3090 (in general, the more VRAM your GPU has the better especially for larger scenes), go for that instead especially if you plan on using VR in the future as well, although the 3080 or 3080 Ti would also be sufficient for that.


    If you stumble upon any specific, share them here as well if you like and I can directly let you know whether or not they'd be suited for Enscape.

  • Hello everyone -

    I am very new to Enscape, and need to know a good laptop to get to support Enscape with Sketchup. I have a MS Surface Laptop, but the video card is less than 1 Gb so I can't really do anything in Enscape. I'm looking at Dell Alienware laptops now, but how critical is the video card/memory, and does anyone have a recommendation for a good device? It's not for gaming or anything...just interior design renderings.

    Looking for something around $3000 - $3500?


    thx!

    We are just on the cusp of there being new machines featuring intels' 12th generation CPUs -I would make sure you are grabbing a new model with one of these - they are faster, cooler and more efficient.

    If you are working in 3D, especially something like Enscape, then you want to be paying attention to the GPU. a 3080 or a 3090 with the most VRAM available will serve you best.


    These new chips have also benchmarked better for single threaded performance, which is what you want for working with Sketchup (which doesn't really care for the GPU at all)

  • My desktop Nvidia RTX2070 has 8Gb of ram and I can easily run into its limits, I therefore tailor my models/rendering to fit the 8Gb ... not an ideal solution.

    If I was buying today I wouldn't go below 12Gb simply to future proof myself, I'd even go for a slower card if it meant more memory.


    As Adam mentioned Intels 12xxx processors are apparently a leap ahead of the 11's/10's/9's before them and certainly worth waiting for unless .... you could get an 11th gen at a massive discount ... I'd need to be massive too as the 12's are supposedly that much better, especially for laptops.

  • Hey everyone -

    Thanks so much for the input!! So, I'm looking at a couple options here...While I would like to wait until the 12 gen CPUs come out, I don't have that luxury...but here's a couple that I'm leaning towards - thoughts?


    • Official Post

    dennyf , the X15 R2 is of course a very powerful and capable laptop to be used for Enscape - The 3080 Ti is a great pick that offers lots of performance while also allowing you to work with more complex scenes and/or export larger renderings and such through having 16GB of VRAM. If you can go with that one instead of the other with "just" a 3070, you'll be even more future-proof and able to make use of VR without problems either.

  • Razer Blade (almost any model)


    I run Enscape on the following models:


    Blade Stealth 13 (ok performance for ‘on the move’ workflow but not a full time work horse).


    Blade 15 Base Model (great all round performance, quick render times for still and animations, plus pretty decent performance for VR when plugged into the mains).


    Blade 15 Advance (as Base model with some minor speed improvements but unless a must have, I’d save the extra cash)


    Blade 14 (Ryzen model gives great performance all round in a really good size compact laptop. Big improvement over the Stealth 13 and on par with its bigger brothers)


    Hope this helps

  • I'd suggest going for a 12th gen Intel-laptop for maximum performance and a RTX 3080 graphics.


    I've tried a few laptops for this purpose and from my experience a larger monitor on the go is essential. The Zephyrus G14 was too small in my opinion. Then I tried a Lenovo Legion 7 16" 16:10 display and I gotta say I love the 16:10 ratio on a laptop which tends to be more and more popular nowadays.


    So I'd suggest a Lenovo laptop since they have the feel, display and specs for your task. I don't think they have the 12th-gen Intel processors yet but the Ryzen 6000-series is just around the corner and they seem to have awesome performance.