Architecture requires decently powerful machines. This is because they have to render 3D models of houses, which is a graphics-intensive task, and having a graphics card will increase the speed at which they are rendered.
We have listed the best and most powerful laptops that are suitable for all sorts of architectural work, may it be rendered in CAD or just making an excellent sheet for some clients. These laptops are best for architecture students as well since they will be versatile to render the models as well as aid create your thesis for submission.
One of the major components that is required for rendering 3D is a graphics card. Graphics cards help in rendering images and videos. They can do that faster than a processor because they have a large number of cores. They have hundreds of cores with each core drawing a small part of the image. All the cores together can draw an image faster than if the processor with four or six cores with each core having to draw a lot of parts.
We have gone through a large number of laptops of different price ranges to find the ones that have a graphics card and the best in fact to help you render images and use the software easily. Having a powerful processor will help decrease the time taken for the application to load and for small tasks. Having an excellent processor is also essential for architectural needs.
Best Laptops for Architects
The best laptops for architects are:
1. Lenovo Legion Y540
Buy from AmazonProcessor: 9th Generation Core Intel I5-9300H processor
RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 1650 Graphics
Storage: 1 TB HDD + 256 GB SSD
Display: 15.6-inch screen with (1920X1080) full HD display
A laptop which is powerful enough to render even large drawings with relative ease, this laptop is perfect for architecture students. This is one of the best budget value-for-money laptops.
The laptop is powered by a 9th-generation Intel Core i5-9300H processor. It has a base clock speed of 2.4 GHz and a turbo clock speed of 4.1 GHz. These are the speeds at which the processor runs. The higher the speed better is the performance. The processor is a quad-core processor. It comes with 8MB of smart cache.
Now to the main part, an architect's laptop needs to be compared to a regular laptop. The graphics card. A graphics card is what helps you to render the models on the screen. This laptop features an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card. This is a 4GB graphics card and offers unparalleled performance. The graphics card will help you render your models fastly so that iterations won't take time.
The display in the laptop is a 15.6" screen and has an anti-glare display. The anti-glare will help you in taking the laptop out in the sun, or onto the construction sight and not worry about the sun's rays striking the screen and reflecting. It has a refresh rate of 60Hz and a brightness of 250 nits.
The laptop comes with 8 GB of DDR4 memory. This RAM will help access the documents and load applications faster. With this amount of RAM, your laptop won't feel sluggish. For permanent storage, the laptop has a 256 GB SSD and 1 TB HDD. This combination will give you a lot of space to store files as well as the performance needed. We recommend you install AutoCAD on the SSD as the loading speed for the software will increase tremendously.
The laptop weighs around 2.3kg and has a battery life of around 5 hours. The laptop also comes with a 1-year onsite domestic warranty. This means that they'll come to your house/ workplace and fix the laptop for you.
Overall, the laptop is one of the best laptops for architects and architecture students. The laptop keeps the perfect balance between battery life and performance.
2. Mi Notebook Horizon Edition 14
Buy from AmazonProcessor: 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10510U processor
RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM
Graphics Card: Nvidia MX350 2GB GDDR5 Graphics
Storage: 512 GB SSD
Display: 14-Inch (1920X 1080 )Full HD Anti-Glare Screen
One of the most professional-looking laptops in this series is the Mi Notebook. The reason why the other laptops have lots of lights and colours and look fancy is because they're gaming laptops. The majority of people who use a laptop with a graphics card are gamers, and the laptop manufacturers have gone to fulfil their needs rather than the general public.
Mi has made its laptop extremely professional and has given great value for money. This is one of the latest models and contains all the latest bells and whistles. The laptop is powered by a 10th-generation Intel Core i7-10510U processor. This was released in 2020 and had great potential.
The processor has a base speed of 1.8 GHz and a maximum turbo clock speed of 4.9 GHz. The processor has 4 cores and having 2 cores per thread takes the thread count to 8. This makes the laptop smooth and you, a smooth operator.
The laptop comes with Windows 10 preinstalled. It also has a one-month subscription to Office 365. You can install all the software you require on the laptop.
The laptop comes with 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. The storage is an SSD storage to give the performance you deserve.
The laptop has a robust metal body and is very portable due to its thin form. Weighing just 1.35kg, this is the lightest laptop of the lot and it even ups its portability capabilities with a battery life of 10 hours. This is one of the lightest laptops for architectural needs and also has the most battery life.
The graphics card in this laptop is an Nvidia MX350 2 GB graphics card. The graphics card is not as powerful as the GTX 1650 but has the same core, and therefore offers comparable performance. It can render all your models easily and with this price range, and the portability capabilities this laptop provides, we feel this is one of the best laptops, if not the best laptop for architecture students.
3. HP Omen
Buy from AmazonProcessor: Intel i5-10300H 10th Gen processor
RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB Graphics
Storage: 512 GB SSD
Display: 15.6-inch screen
HP has been making great laptops with great performance for a long time, and Omen is one of their best lineups. The Omen series feature laptops with great graphic capabilities that are extremely budget. These laptops offer the best value for money bang for the buck laptops.
The laptop has as its brain, a tenth-generation Intel Core i5-10300H processor. It has a base speed of 2.50 GHz and a maximum turbo clock speed of 4.50 GHz. This is supplemented by 8MB of Intel Smart Cache to make the performance even better. This is a quad-core processor and comes with 8 threads.
The graphics card in the system which helps create 3D models and so on, is an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card. These are 4GB graphics cards with great spirit in them. You can also use this laptop for gaming due to the great performance this laptop provides. All the AAA games of today can be played on the laptop at High or some games even on Ultra settings.
It comes with 8GB of DDR4 RAM. You can browse the internet and open a lot of Chrome tabs on this laptop. It has 512 GB SSD which offers great performance.
The laptop looks brilliant and comes with an inbuilt microphone and camera.
The display on the laptop is a full HD IPS panel. It also supports dual 5k displays. The display has anti-glare and micro-edge technology. It is WLED backlit and has a maximum brightness of 250 Nits. It supports 45% NTSC and has a resolution of 1920x1080.
The display, paired with the Bang and Olufsen speakers in this system makes this a go-to machine for all your entertainment needs also. The keyboard is backlit so you can work in the dark also.
This is the go-to machine if you're an architecture student. This laptop provides great gaming capabilities and media capabilities to binge-watch Netflix.
4. Acer Nitro 5
Buy from AmazonProcessor: Intel Core i5-9300H processor 9th Gen processor
RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics
Storage: 1TB 7200rpm hard drive
Display: 15.6-inch screen
Acer is a brand extremely known to us. They've been in the laptop business for a long time. The Nitro 5 is a great offering from Acer.
The laptop features a 9th-generation Intel Core i5-9300H processor. This is an extremely common processor at the 60k mark and offers impressive performance. The processor has a base speed of 2.4 GHz which brings great smoothness to the laptop.
The laptop comes in Obsidian Black colour and is great to look at. The vents behind the laptop are aesthetically pleasing and do their job excellently. The vents cool the laptop sufficiently even after long hours of usage.
For rendering 3D models, the laptop has a GTX 1650 graphics card. This is a 4GB graphics card and renders media in a short amount of time. The display on the laptop also is of great quality. It has a 15.6" display with IPS technology. This helps in the laptop having quite accurate colours.
The laptop has CoolBoost technology to keep the laptop cool during media renderings. If you have rendered 3D models before you might have noticed that laptops heat very much. This laptop dissipates the speed quickly and keeps it cooler for a long time.
For temporary storage, it has 8GB DDR4 RAM. For more permanent storage it has a 1 TB HDD. The lack of an SSD is disappointing, but you can upgrade it later.
The laptop comes with 11 hours of battery life so you can take the laptop with you on the go. The keyboard on the laptop is backlit to help in writing or using the laptop at night or in dim light conditions.
It comes with the Windows 10 operating system which most of the apps required for architecture support.
The laptop has numerous amount of ports to help you with all your needs. A multitude of USB ports and HDMI ports make the laptop extremely versatile.
5. Lenovo Legion Y740
Buy from AmazonProcessor: 9th Generation Core Intel I7-9750H processor
RAM: 16 GB RAM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 2070 Graphics
Storage: 1 TB SSD
Display: 15.6-inch screen with (1920X1080) full HD display
If what you want is an extremely powerful laptop that makes no compromises and renders models at lighting-fast speeds, then this is the laptop that you need to buy.
Powered by a 9th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, this laptop gives you all the power that you need. The processor is Intel i7-9750H. This has a base speed of 2.6GHz and a maximum turbo clock speed of 4.5GHz. This is a hexacore processor.
The powerful processor will help you in opening the applications such as AutoCAD fast. You can see blazing speeds on this laptop. Moving onto the rendering of models, the laptop has an Nvidia GeForce RTX2070 graphics card. This is one of the latest offerings from Nvidia and you get a lot of performance.
This graphics card has a VRAM of 8GB which is especially useful for renderings. VRAM is video RAM and is used entirely for image processing. This will be used by software to render the scenes faster.
The laptop comes with 16GB SSD which is plenty for any task that you may think of throwing at it. This 16GB is in addition to the dedicated VRAM that the laptop has.
For storage, the laptop has a 1 TB SSD. SSDs are high-speed storage systems and are around 3 times faster than traditional hard disks. This makes loading the applications faster. Windows also loads faster due to the SSD. Windows loads in around 10s, which when compared to a traditional hard disk takes around 30s.
The laptop has a 15.6" display and is perfect for long hours of usage. The display has a resolution of 1920x1080 and has a brightness of 500 nits.
The keyboard is backlit and you can customise the colour of the keys on the keyboard. The laptop comes with a one-year onsite domestic warranty so that in case anything happens to the laptop you can get it repaired easily.
6. ASUS ROG Zephyrus S
Buy from AmazonProcessor: 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H Processor
RAM: 32GB DDR4 RAM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design GDDR6 8GB VRAM
Storage: 1 TB SSD
Display: 17.3-inch Full HD (1920x1080) Anti glare IPS-level
This laptop is the epitome of performance. The laptop is extremely expensive, but that price can be justified by the performance this laptop offers. We would recommend this laptop only if you game on this laptop occasionally also. Otherwise, we would recommend you get a laptop which is cheaper than the ASUS ROG Zephyrus.
The laptop is powered by a 9th generation Intel Core i7 processor, the Intel i7-9750H. The processor offers tremendous performance and is perfect for your daily needs.
The processor is hexacore. Multiple cores aid in easy multitasking. Most of the programs which are used in architecture are configured to use multiple cores efficiently so that one application itself can use multiple cores and get boosted performance.
The laptop comes with 32 GB of DDR4 memory. This amount of RAM is enough to blow the competition out of the water. The great performance offered by the laptop helps in being more productive. Less time will be wasted while loading, rendering and other such activities.
The graphics card in this is the top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080. This is the latest and the ultimate graphics card offered by Nvidia. The performance of this graphics card is otherworldly. It has 8GB of VRAM and has a feature called Ray Tracing. Ray tracing is used to map the path of the light and provide great illumination of the scenario on screen.
The laptop has a 17.3" display with IPS technology. The screen has a refresh rate of 300Hz. This means that the screen refreshes itself 300 times in a second. Most of the laptops offer a refresh rate of 60 Hz or a maximum of 120 Hz. 300Hz refresh rates will give the best viewing experience.
The laptop weighs around 2.6kg and is easy to carry around. The position of the keyboard is a bit awkward and is located at the lower half of the base. This is to aid cooling.
The laptop also has self-cleaning fans so that dust doesn't accumulate and hamper its cooling capabilities. The heat sink has 250 blades for extremely efficient cooling.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do laptops for architects need a graphics card?
Yes, laptops for architects need a graphics card. This is because rendering 3D models is a graphic-intensive task. Graphics cards are used to generate images and videos faster. Thus, having a graphics card inside the laptop will help in faster rendering.
What specs do the laptops of architects need?
The laptops need to be fast for better rendering of 3D and other images. This needs a processor and we recommend i5 and above processors for the laptop. 8GB of RAM will suffice but 16GB will help improve performance.
The laptop should have a dedicated graphics card for better graphics performance and also an SSD so that the laptop can perform smoothly.
How much RAM is required?
A minimum of 8GB of RAM is recommended and we would prefer if you can get 16GB. The good thing about laptop RAM is you can upgrade it later also so don't worry too much about it.
Conclusion
These are the best laptops for architects and architectural students. You can't go wrong with any of the laptops in this series. Always go for a laptop with a graphics card since that is very essential to rendering. This will ensure that your 3D images get rendered in the blink of an eye.
