HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR PERFECT CREATION STATION Processing power Superfast storage
With no easy way to upgrade your laptop’s core components, it’s incredibly important to do your research before you buy
This month’s contenders are designed for workloads above and beyond the mainstream. mainstr Professional video editing, 3D d design and image editing all require h high h levels of performance, not to mention fast storage and plenty of it.
What’s more, they’re used in industries where colour and d detail matter, making it imperative that h screens are colour-accurate and a can handle wider colour gamuts. These machines may also need to handle ha dl more data-intensive applicat applications, which push CPU and GPU com compute capabilities and ask a lot of storage. st
Manufacturers love to make mak bold b ld claims about their laptops’ advanced capabilities, but what does it really take to make the grade?
Workloads such as 3D image rendering, video processing o or data modelling all thrive on multicore processers with – preferably – high clock speeds. The more cores and threads you can throw at these tasks, the quicker the CPU is going to churn through them. That’s why you’ll see six-core and eight-core processors with simultaneous multithreading (SMT) or Hyper-Threading perform much better than four-core CPUs with SMT. Last-generation Core i3 and Core i5 mobile processors need not apply.
That said, clock speeds still count, and too many manufacturers make the mistake of thinking that a lowpower, speed-restricted CPU will still cut it when running intensive workloads. Sadly for them, it won’t.
Some of Intel’s rather confusing naming strategies can make it challenging to tell a true powerhouse processor from a low-energy pretender, so if you’re buying a laptop for high-performance workloads, look for six-core or eight-core CPUs with SMT and a Max Turbo clock above 4GHz. This should cover most of the tenthgeneration Core i5, i7 and i9 lines, and some from the ninth generation.
Curiously, AMD’s
Ryzen processors –
“The more cores and threads you can throw at these tasks, the quicker the CPU is going to churn through them”
hugely successful in the desktop space p – haven’t made such an impact p in this market, but we’ve already seen that laptops based on AMD’s new 4000 Series Ryzen 7 and 9 mobile processors can match and beat Intel’s latest for performance.
GPU grunt
Mainstream laptops are fine with integrated graphics, but in these more intensive workloads, a dedicated GPU is crucial. For one thing, most 3D design applications use the GPU for live views and previews, so a fast GPU makes the experience smoother. For another, some professional rendering engines now use the GPU to accelerate the process.
Meanwhile, the leading imageediting, video-editing and video effects packages can harness the GPU to speed up effects, transitions, colour grading and many other tools. Even applications you might not think of as graphically intensive can use the GPU, putting its immense parallel-processing power and advanced features to work on data analytics, scientific simulations or even AI technologies such as machine learning and deep learning.
For many laptop manufa cturers this means Nvidia GPUs, either in the workstation-centric Quadro range or the mainstream GTX and RTX lines. The main advantage is the adoption of Nvidia’s CUDA instruction set in many graphics and workstation applications, and the introduction of AI acceleration in the GeForce RTX, Quadro RTX and RTX Studio lines. AMD’s Radeon Pro chips can also be found in some laptops, although support isn’t generally as widespread or as deep.
Colour-accurate screens
If you’re working in professional video, design, photography or 3D, a colour-accurate screen is a must. At the most basic level, this means an
IPS display capable of resolving 95% of the basic sRGB colour gamut and with an average Delta E (the standard metric for colour accuracy) of under three, and preferably under two.
However, many graphics workstations and creative laptops now go further, with screens that cover more of the higher-end Adobe RGB and PCI-D3 gamuts, with support for 10-bit colour depths (or over a billion colours) and an average Delta E of under two. A growing number also support HDR to enable editing of HDR images and video, and the production of content that will look good on today’s OLED-based smartphones, monitors and TVs.
Be aware, though, that HDR on a laptop screen isn’t likely to meet the standards of HDR on a high-end TV.
Many only meet the low-s low-spec VESA HDR400 standard, which means that their maximum brightness brightne levels are stuck at just over 400cd/m2 400cd/m2. As such, they can’t hope to hit the 1,000-nit brightness levels required for true HDR. In some cases, they might even play tricks such as reducing brightness levels level to make the brightest ton tones look brighter, which results resu in crushed blacks and shadow tones.
Graphics and data-intensive workloads usually feed on (and produce) huge amounts of data, whether that’s for ingesting complex models and high-resolution textures or processing dozens of 24 to 42megapixel stills. That means you’re going to need plenty of storage space, and it had better be fast. Luckily, today’s mainstream M.2 PCIe NVMe drives are up to the task, although capacity is usually limited to 512GB or 1TB to keep costs down. Avoid laptops with the bare minimum of 256GB because you’ll be crying for more space in no time.
Cutting-edge connectivity
The fact that storage space is crucial but also at a premium makes connectivity particularly important. Obviously, you’ll want to be able to connect a mouse or graphics tablet, a printer or a large high-resolution monitor, but connectivity for high-speed external storage is a must-have.
Thunderbolt 3 with its 10Gbits/sec bandwidth has you covered, and modern docking solutions could give you a full desktop setup over just the one connection. Otherwise, watch the USB port specifications carefully. USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 1 (what we used to call
USB 3.0) tops out at 5Gbits/sec, which won’t allow you to run the fastest external drives at their full speed. USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 gives you 10Gbits/sec, while the rare USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 takes that up to 20Gbits/sec. Make sure your laptop has the faster standards covered now, as it will give you options later.
While wireless speeds aren’t as crucial, if you’re spending over two grand on a laptop we suggest you look out for Wi-Fi 6 rather than Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ax rather than 802.11ac).
Ergonomics
If you’re buying a laptop for work, ergonomics really count. A decent keyboard and trackpad won’t just make the whole experience better, but will also ensure your comfort over long periods at the desk. Meanwhile, backlit keyboards can be incredibly worthwhile if you need to work in conditions without ideal lighting.
While e so some e o of the t e e extreme t e e RGB G lighting effects you’ll find on gaming laptops aren’t necessary – or even desirable – proper backlighting on the keyboard is a definite plus.
Support level
One of the things you pay for on any business-grade laptop is reliability, backed up by service and support.
That extends from things such as regular driver and firmware updates, to proper driving testing and certification and a decent warranty. Try not to skimp on these details. When your work depends on a laptop, any amount of downtime can have serious consequences. Look, therefore, not just at the length of the warranty but the terms. Are you expected to send the laptop in, what kind of turnaround is offered, and is there service and support out of normal working hours?
Finally, you should consider how each of the companies have performed in PC Pro’s own Excellence Awards; the reliability and support scores you see in the feature table are based on the experiences of each company’s customers ( for a full rundown of this year’s awards, turn to p24).
“Laptop downtime can have serious consequences. Look, therefore, not just at the length of the warranty but the terms”