Hi Fluke, What other applications are you intending to run on the laptop? Here's what we suggest to student in my faculty - Built Environment, The University of New South Wales, Sydney. Our students do architecture and other design degrees and will do a lot of graphic and 3D work, even using gaming engines. --- Processor: You want an i7 (or i5 for lower end tasks) with larger model/chip numbers being better, more GHz means faster) - this is where your laptop's general speed comes from for many tasks (critical for rendering and data processing). Memory: You want at least 8GB for most low to mid end use with 16GB being better for loading up large models into specialised software and working with graphics/video. The price of upgrading from 8GB to 16GB is usually good value. (important for larger 3D models, city plans and video). Hard Disk: Minimum 256GB SSD. An SSD (solid state disk) is much faster than normal hard disk but provides less storage space for the same cost. You will need space for all your software and many files but larger storage options can be expensive. You will also need to make sure that you backup to external drive/s or into the cloud (protecting your files is essential). Graphics: There are 3 main classes of graphics chips (GPUs): 'integrated' (Intel - less suited to graphics applications); 'dedicated gaming' (great consumer graphics eg. NVIDIA GeForce); and 'dedicated workstation' (professional graphics eg. NVIDIA Quadro). Better graphics can make a significant difference when working with visual software - particularly 3D modelling, real-time visualisation and large simulations. The better GPUs can be quite expensive and only available in some laptop models like those designed for gaming. You can compare different GPUs on Notebook ( https://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html). Check and for higher-end users (eg. students running game engines or creating large digital models), you can see graphics cards comparison for various games (better indicator) here - https://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html. Hope that's helpful.
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