After Effects PC Buying Guide | RAM vs Cores, GPU & Laptop vs Desktop

Thinking of buying a new computer for Adobe After Effects? After seeing countless posts on forums and Reddit asking about what computer someone should buy, I decided to break down exactly what to look for when shopping for a PCthat can handle After Effects.

I discuss laptop or desktops, Windows or Apple, graphics cards, storage, RAM etc... In order to determine what's important, I briefly explain how After Effects works, as that gives us some clues as to what hardware to prioritise (spoiler: it's RAM), I then try to answer some frequent questions:

• RAM vs CPU cores – which matters more for After Effects
• GPU choices – does Nvidia still beat AMD?
• Laptops vs desktops – is upgradeability more important than RAM?

Linked on the video page is a scoring spreadsheet you can use to compare potential computers Whether you’re a motion designer, 3D artist, editor, or student, I hope this guide will help you buy smart and get the most performance out of your budget.