NVIDIA RTX Studio Laptop Buyers Guide

Powered by the latest NVIDIA RTX GeForce graphics cards, RTX Studio laptops provide a high performance and stable platform for crafting your latest masterpiece in content creation applications. NVIDIA Studio supports over 60 RTX enhanced applications and over 200 DCC applications from the likes of Adobe, Autodesk and Blackmagic.

An RTX Studio laptop is a great alternative to an NVIDIA RTX Studio PC. The two main benefits are size and portability: a laptop takes up far less space than a desktop PC and is much easier to take with you for work or on holiday. This buyers guide will walk you through everything you need to know so you can choose the perfect content creation laptop.

Laptop Graphics Cards

The graphics card or GPU is the most important component when running content creation applications, as it most directly affects how graphics and video will look on-screen. The majority of laptops marketed for home and office use rely on inbuilt graphics chips within the CPU. Whilst they may be capable of rendering some very simple content, a discrete GPU is always the way to go for a great visual experience.

NVIDIA GPUs accelerate complex graphics processes that previously would have been run on the CPU and taken much longer to complete. 3XS RTX Studio laptops are pre-installed with the RTX Studio driver which is tested by NVIDIA with leading content creation applications, ensuring a smooth and consistent user experience. What’s more, GeForce RTX graphics cards are also brilliant for gaming, so if you feel like letting your hair down in-between projects then an RTX Studio laptop is also great for enjoying the best PC gaming has to offer.

Animation

Visualise stunning photorealistic models as you create virtual worlds in real-time with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, or experience lag-free interaction and massive speed boosts with RTX-accelerated ray tracing and AI denoising. The larger the models to be animated a higher rated RTX card will be required.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX range comprises a dozen models - to make the selection process easier, we’ve divided the GPUs into four main categories in descending performance for content creation, as summarised below:

RTX 5090 • RTX 4090

Ultra High End

RTX 5080 • RTX 5070 Ti • RTX 4080

RTX 4070 • RTX 3080 Ti • RTX 3080

High End

RTX 5070 • RTX 4060

RTX 3070 Ti • RTX 3070

Mid Range

RTX 4050 • RTX 3060

RTX 3050 Ti • RTX 3050

Entry Level

Laptop Size & Weight

Following your choice of GPU, the next consideration should be overall size and weight. Size will be primarily governed by the size of the laptop screen which can vary from as small as 12.4” to as large as 18”. While a larger screen is obviously more immersive for gaming, it does come at the expensive of weight, so if you’re going to take your laptop around with you a lot a smaller screen may be advisable.

It’s also a good idea to look at the weight and thickness of the laptop. High-end laptops tend to be made from lightweight metal, whereas cheaper laptops are made from heavier plastic. You’ll also pay a premium for thinner laptops versus a thicker bulkier laptop. The below table compares two 15.6” laptops from the same manufacturer, MSI - the laptop on the left is the standard Raider model, with the premium thin and light Stealth model on the right.


Thickness	23.4mm	19.5mm
Weight	2.38kg	2.1kg
Price	££	£££

Laptop Screens

The two key characteristics to look out for in a laptop screen are the resolution, which is the sharpness, and the refresh rate, which is the speed. Most RTX Studio laptops also have at least one graphics output for you to connect an external monitor. This is often a preferred method of gaming when using your laptop at home - we’ll cover this a bit more later.

Resolution

Resolution is the number of pixels (the tiny dots that make up the image) that the screen possesses - it is shown as a number for screen length and a number of screen height. The higher the resolution the sharper and clearer games and applications will appear. However, its important that the GPU is powerful enough to run games smoothly at the screen’s native resolution. For instance, we’d only recommend a 4K screen (3840 x 2160) with a high-end GPU.

Laptop Processors

Although of secondary importance to the GPU, it’s still important to choose a laptop with a suitable CPU. There is wide change to choose from either the AMD Ryzen 5, 7 and 9 range or the Intel Core i5, i7 or i9 range. Intel has recently added to its Core range with the Ultra series, aimed at premium laptops, offering built-in AI acceleration to boost productivity and improved efficiency.


AMD PROCESSORS	INTEL PROCESSORS
MID-RANGE -> HIGH-END	MID-RANGE -> HIGH-END

Laptop Memory

Following your processor choice, it is important to ensure that its performance will not be hindered by lack of memory or RAM within your laptop. Usually the base memory listed will be in line with the processor’s capabilities – an entry-level to mid-range content creation laptop will feature at least 16GB, while a higher-end laptop will feature 64GB or more of memory - if you intend to use numerous applications together, then consider upgrading the memory capacity. This can be done at the time of buying or a later date, as your needs develop.

128GB

ULTRA-HIGH-END

(Most demanding applications and multi-tasking)

64GB

HIGH-END

(Demanding 3d graphics/video Or multi tasking )

32GB

MID-RANGE

(Moderate graphics / video)

16GB

ENTRY-LEVEL

(Basic graphics)

Laptop Storage

An SSD is essential in a laptop, not just to make applications and projects load fast but also because they consume less power than a hard disk, helping to boost battery life and weigh less too. We recommend a laptop with at least a 1TB SSD or larger, as with applications and media files taking up a lot of space, you can never really have too large an SSD in your laptop. If you do run out of storage space, many laptops will have a spare M.2 slot or 2.5in bay to add in another SSD. However, this isn’t always possible with thin and light laptops, so check the specs carefully before buying an extra SSD.

Laptop Accessories

Although you may be choosing a RTX Studio laptop over a RTX Studio PC due to the added flexibility and portability, you may still have a desk area at home where accessories will improve your user experience.

Graphics Controllers

Content creation applications may be accelerated by the use of dedicated graphics mice and tablets alongside the integrated keyboard and trackpad. These offer much greater control and flexibility with 3D and spatial workloads. You can learn more by reading our GRAPHICS CONTROLLERS BUYERS GUIDE.