In-depth guide to 6 Best Laptops for Revit (2018 Summer Update)

What is the best laptop for Revit?The upside of Revit is that it doesn’t require a powerful graphics card and that makes Revit a lot more suitable for laptops. Knowing that I’m going to guide you through the requirements for a good Revit notebook and my picks for the best laptop for Revit.

2018 June 3rd update. Updated CPU, GPU write-ups, replaced all laptops and updated the spreadsheet!

What are we looking for?

I’m very glad that Autodesk put in the effort to outline various levels of Revit hardware/software requirements instead of just putting up a list of minimal requirements. This allows us to understand which parts scale better than others and where we should put our focus on.

Major Requirements for the best Revit laptop

Processor

Autodesk makes it very clear that the processor should be #1 priority:

“Highest affordable CPU speed rating recommended.” – Autodesk

Unlike other visual software (AutoCAD, Solidworks etc.), Revit does not need a powerful graphics card for rendering the drawings.

So what do I recommend?

For an entry model under 950$ – a higher-end Intel Core i5 model is a necessity. Anything above that should have a 5th-7th generation “i7” processor. In some rare cases (covered at the end of the guide), there are laptops under $900, that come with a fast i7 H-series CPUs.

Exact models, I am talking about are:

  • Intel Core i7-7700HQ, i5-8300H, i7-8750H or equivalent for 950$+ models
  • Intel Core i5-7300HQ, i7-7500U, i5-8250U for anything under 950$

Memory

As per usual, 8 GB of RAM should be your starting point and 16 GB is the magic spot where you don’t have to worry about the memory (for the most part).

Right now, 1000$ is a good line to draw for what amount of memory is acceptable. Any laptop under 1000$ can have 8 GB of RAM and anything over that must come with 16 GB on board.

It does not matter much whether memory is DDR3/DDR4.

Solid State Drive

For Point Cloud interactions, it is required to have either a 10,000+ RPM hard drive or a SSD. Since laptops don’t come with HDDs over 7,200 RPM, that leaves us with only 1 option – a Solid State Drive. SSDs have fallen dramatically in price and apart from budget laptops – should be a part of any Revit laptop.

Now you need to draw a line on how much storage you need – 250, 500, 1000 GB? Most likely, something like 250/500 SSD + 1 TB HDD is enough. In that case, your OS, Revit, and projects you’re working on should stay on the SSD while older projects and general media can be moved to a spacious HDD.

There are some well-rounded laptops that don’t come with an installed SSD. In that unfortunate case, I recommend keeping 100$-200$ extra for 250/500 GB SSD (I’ve had the best experience with Samsung drives, but there’s plenty of good brands to choose from).

Minor Requirements for the best laptop for Revit

We’ve got down our 3 major requirements – processor, memory, and storage. Now any leftover budget should go towards making sure it lasts long, it has a great screen to look at and it can perform well when using other professional software apart from Revit.

Screen

You’ll be looking at it throughout the day (and once in a while – throughout the night), so we might as well make sure it looks good.

A good screen is essential in 3 simple ways:

  • it allows working during bright sunlight without straining your eyes
  • it helps you see your work as it should be seen (as it will be in real life and how your clients will see it)
  • it makes your work a bit enjoyable

Every screen can be broken down by its resolution, contrast, brightness and color gamut.

When talking about the resolution – go for Full HD (1920×1080). There’s not much reason to go above Full HD, especially when Revit developers do not recommend going above 150% DPI scaling. That simply means, that fonts and buttons in Revit will not scale properly at high resolutions.

Contrast should be 800:1 or more, average brightness should be 280 cd/m or more (which is ~20 cd less than usually advertised maximum brightness). Good contrast and brightness are mostly important when working outside or near a bright window.

Finally, color space/gamut is not usually mentioned with other specifications but some reviewers measure it. In that case, 90%+ sRGB coverage and 60%+ Adobe RGB coverage indicate a wide color space. That means that the screen can produce vivid colors. In some cases, you might need to manually calibrate the screen to minimize its color bias – tendency to be a bit too blue/green or red.

Battery Runtime

Importance of battery run-time varies person-to-person.

Someone like me might not care about battery life past 4 hours – I almost always have a plug nearby. But maybe you are dependent on your laptop not failing for a full work-day.

There’s nothing much to it – if you need a lot of battery life, make sure you look out for it. Just be aware that most manufacturers tend to overestimate the battery time by 1-3 hours as they measure it in a lab setting with lowest brightness settings, no internet connection, and various small optimizations.

Graphics card

Requirements for a graphics chip are practically non-existent.

For an entry-model, “basic graphics” requirement is a “Display adapter capable of 24-bit color” which is just a mouthful way of saying “everything works”.

And for more advanced graphics you should have “DirectX 11 capable graphics with Shader Model 3” which has been an industry standard for the past 5 years. Even old integrated graphics modules as Intel HD Graphics 4000 have DirectX 11 support with Shader Model 5!

So why am I even bringing this up?

Yes, this is not a major requirement for Revit, but in many cases getting a beefy graphics card can be a lifesaver when using a lot of other professional software. If you’ll need to work with video editing/AutoCAD/Solidworks – a better graphics card will help you out tremendously.

Therefore, if the situation is right, I suggest increasing your budget by up to 100$ if that means getting a better graphics module. Sometimes it might not even mean getting a better, dedicated graphics card. For example, you might as well get an otherwise performance-identical 6th-generation processor over a 4th-gen one as Intel has greatly improved their integrated graphics in the few past generations.

If you’ll be working with other 3D software, you should refer to the following table:

Graphics performance Chips
Tier 0 (worst) Most Intel HD graphics
Tier 1 Intel Iris; Intel HD 620; Nvidia GTX 940M/MX
Tier 2 Nvidia GTX 950M, 960M; Nvidia Quadro M1000M, M2000M; FirePro W4190M
Tier 3 Nvidia GTX 970M, 980M, 980M, 1060; Nvidia Quadro M3000M, M4000M, M5000M
Tier 4 (best) Nvidia GTX 1070, 1080; Nvidia Quadro M5500M

Nvidia Quadro should be preferred if you want a more stable card (less likely to crash) and you’re working with huuuge projects.

Laptop suggestions

Acer Aspire 5

1
Cheap laptop for Revit
Price
$600
i5-8250U | MX150 | 8GB RAM | 256 GB SSD | 15.6″ 1920×1080 | 6h

Acer has some of the best offerings in $400-$700. Acer Aspire 5 is one of the best examples of good performance at a low price.

It comes with a mid-range Intel Core i5-8250U processor and an above entry-level dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050M graphics card. 8 GB of RAM is decent, but for such price its worth it, since you can upgrade it anytime. Finally, 256 GB SSD setup offers enough space for Windows and Revit. It’s a bit limiting and some might prefer 1 TB HDD, but if you don’t need much storage space – this setup is better.

Display is nothing great but not as bad as one would expect for a $600 laptop. Even though it doesn’t have an IPS panel or matte finish, it comes with ~350 nits brightness, 1300:1 contrast and 85% sRGB coverage. Some $1,000 laptops don’t even reach these benchmarks, espcially display brightness. Of course the display is not as good as in various flagship models (such as MacBook, Surface, XPS or ZenBook) but it’s plenty for a budget laptop.

MSI GL62M 7REX-1896US

2
Great performance, dissapointing display
Price
$850
i7-7700HQ | 1050 Ti | 8GB RAM | 128 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD | 15.6″ 1920×1080 | 3h

If you want a better processor, better graphics, more storage and better display viewing angles – MSI GL62M might be a better option.

It comes with a hardware package that can put much more expensive laptops to shame. But it comes at a price. Not in dollars, but in display quality, battery life and possible throttling. First of all, it has a dim display (~240 nits) which is definitely usable indoors but will be a pain when working outside. It also has weak color contrast (400:1) but a decent sRGB coverage. It looks particularly dissapointing when compared to IPS panels. Also, it has a limiting battery life of ~3 hours when browsing online over Wi-Fi with half-dimmed display.

Overall, budget laptops cannot be fast and portable. And since Revit demands performance, we’ll have to sacrifice battery life and in this case, display quality.

Eluktronics N870HK1 Pro

3
Best laptop for Revit at $1,000
Price
$1,100
i7-7700HQ | 1050 Ti | 16GB RAM | 500 GB SSD | 17.3″ IPS 1920×1080 | 3h

First and foremost, it has a great processor, a lot of memory + a dedicated graphics card as a bonus.

Also, it has a large 500 GB SSD which is . Just last year at this price range I could only find fast laptops with 250 GB SSD or 128 GB SSD & 1 TB HDD. I’m very glad we finally seem well-rounded laptops with plenty of fast storage at an affordable price.

The screen seems to have no major drawbacks but I couldn’t find any in-depth screen benchmarks. But I did find that this laptop uses Full HD LG® 72% NTSC IPS panel, which is likely to be one of 10 LG 17.3″ panels. After filtering out by NTSC and form factor, I narrowed it down to some variation on LG LP173WF4 panel. These have 300 nits brightness (average) and 700:1 contrast (slightly below average) but good viewing angles. Overall, it’s a good display panel, comparable to LGD049B (seen on the right).

The full-sized backlit keyboard is always nice to have. Also, the laptop can be upgraded with additional storage. But sadly, even a 6-Cell 62Whr battery is not sufficient to power this laptop for more than a few hours.

It’s worth noting that Eluktronics is offering a 15.6″ model.

HP Omen 15t

4
A workhorse laptop for Revit
Price
$1,400
i7-8750H | 1050 Ti | 16 GB RAM | 500 GB PCIe SSD + 1 TB HDD | 15.6″ IPS 1920×1080 | 4h

Even more power and more storage.

To begin with, it comes with the about the same level of performance as previously mentioned models. With 1 big exception. It packs a whole 512 GB of PCIe NVMe SSD. That surpasses any hard drive requirements for Revit by a big margin.

The screen seems to be based on LG Philips LGD0532 panel, which offers slightly below brightness (~250 nits) and a low ~55% sRGB coverage. At least it has an IPS panel and comes with an average contrast of 800:1.

Eluktronics N857HK1 Pro-X Special Edition

5
Revit workstation laptop
Price
$1,700
i7-7700HQ | 1050 Ti | 32GB RAM | 1 TB PCIe SSD + 2 TB HDD | 15.6″ IPS 1920×1080 | 3.5h

Great processor, sufficient desktop-grade graphics card, plenty of memory and massive amount of storage. This laptop will handle anything you could throw at it.

This Eluktronics laptop also has a very similar LG IPS Anti-Glare display panel. It is hard to tell what are the exact display benchmarks, but LG IPS panels are usually at least average, sometimes better. That should result in ~300 nits, 1000:1 contrast, 80%+ sRGB coverage.

It has enough juice to get up to 4 hours of battery life which is reasonable considerable its specs. It’s laudable that Eluktronics decided to build a laptop with an interchangeable battery which can be easily replaced. It’s even possible to buy a spare battery that can be used when the primary battery runs out.

If you want even more storage and you don’t mind a gamer look – take a look at ASUS ROG STRIX GL503GE SCAR Edition

MSI WE72 7RJ-1032US

6
Best price-conscious Revit laptop
Price
$1,800
i7-7700HQ | Quadro M2200 | 32 GB RAM | 512 GB SSD | 17.3″ IPS 1920×1080

Once you get around $2,000 mark, you can get a workstation with a Quadro card. These cards are not necessary for Revit but they are used by other professional CAD and modeling software.

If you want to get a laptop that was designed with work and not gaming in mind – you’ll like MSI WE72.

Table of Best Laptops for Revit

LaptopPrice (approx)
Acer Aspire 5$600
MSI GL62M 7REX-1896US$850
Eluktronics N870HK1 Pro$1,100
HP Omen 15t$1,400
Eluktronics N857HK1 Pro-X Special Edition$1,700
MSI WE72 7RJ-1032US$1,800

Final thoughts

I’m glad you managed to reach this closing section of the article. As a bonus, I’m giving out this laptop comparison spreadsheet including laptops in this article and many others that didn’t make it!

Best laptop for Revit comparison sheet

Here’s the link to the laptop comparison spreadsheet

I hope this article helped you to find the best laptop for Revit. Don’t forget to share it with your colleagues and drop a comment down below if you have any suggestions or questions!

58 thoughts on “In-depth guide to 6 Best Laptops for Revit (2018 Summer Update)

  1. Thanks for this great guide! I’m looking for a new laptop to run Revit on and to be honest I didn’t have a clue what to look out for, thank you so much this was very helpful

    1. recently bought an AZUs rog for high end engineering and found that the Fn keys and touch
      pad only work with win 10. drivers not available for win 7
      not much use if autodesk and Microsoft have yet to get their act together:-((
      Bought PC direct from states and had to return it!!
      shame was a good power house

  2. Awesome article! One quick question: should I be concerned about buying a laptop preloaded with Windows 10 in order to run Revit? I know some people experience issues when updating to 10.

    1. Problems with Windows 10 are basically solved. Though, that mostly depends on your Revit version. Revit 2017 is officially supported and should work flawlessly. Most people report 2015 and 2016 working just fine but if you’re going to use Revit 2014 and below – stick with Windows 7.

      If you face some problems, you might need to reinstall Microsoft C++ Visual Studio Redistributable 2012 and .NET 4.6 (which are the frameworks required to run Revit).

      There still can be issues if you’re buying a laptop with a very high resolution. Then you should manually adjust font sizes as seen here.

  3. Thank you so much for this valuable resource. I am looking to make a laptop purchase soon. Do you have any updates since the time this was posted, such as a price drop on a particular model that makes it a better deal, or new insights, or just anything that would make you recommend another laptop beyond the 5 listed. Do you know how easy it is to see if there are empty slots to just add more ram rather than replace? Also, I’ve always thought a dedicated graphics card was extremely important when working in 3D, sounds like that is not necessarily the case? Any additional insight at this time is greatly appreciated. Thank you

    1. Hi, thank you! I hope, I’m still in time to help you out!

      The Asus Zenbook fell $100 in price which makes it a bit better deal. I’ve also just posted a new guide for architecture laptops. The laptops in that section can be used almost interchangeably with the laptops for Revit.

      To know whether a laptop has empty memory slots, search for “[model] disassembly] on Youtube. More often than not, there are videos showing the default memory bank and how many slots are still ready for an upgrade. Apart from that, you could make an educated guess that every 17.3″ will have spare memory slots and anything under 14” most likely won’t.

      Dedicated graphics are important, but only starting ~$850. Trying to squeeze in Nvidia GPU under that price point requires to sacrifice CPU or RAM which are more important for low budget machines. Starting with $1000, there are almost no reasons to not get a dedicated GPU for Revit just because the CPU and RAM requirements have been met.

  4. I am also looking more at a 15″ screen, as you mentioned, and I’ve experienced, traveling with a 17″ is not convenient at all, Thanks again for all your help.

  5. The computers I’m looking at have GeForce 960M cards which are DirectX12 capable cards, is that the next step beyond Direct X11 or just because its Direct X 12 capable, does that not mean it is Direct X11 capable? Thanks

    1. I assume you’re talking about Surface Pro 4.

      I wouldn’t recommend it for most. Even though it has one of the absolute best screens on the market, it falls short in other more important areas when it comes to Revit.

      First of all, the processor of its ‘high-end’ model, i7-6650U, is weaker than i7-6700HQ, which is found in every laptop in this list, by a factor of ~1.6x. That’s a bit underwhelming for their most expensive Surface Pro 4 model. Also, a small 12.3″ screen is not ideal for professional work in many cases (I’d suggest to go for 14″-15.6″). That’s why I wouldn’t seriously consider it – not because it’s bad, but because there are better options at its price point (for example, if you want a small tablet-laptop hybrid – VAIO Z Canvas – though, it doesn’t have a long battery life due to its powerful processor).

      On the other hand, I could recommend i5-6300U model if you want a laptop/tablet hybrid. It’s just slightly slower than i7 model and it’s a lot cheaper.

      Overall, Surface Pro 4 is a good option if you have an actual need for it in its tablet form. Otherwise, there are better laptops to choose from.

    1. They’re comparable to GoBOXX 15 SLM, but not the Performance Edition. At the same time, GoBOXX Performance Edition laptops cost 2x than laptops in this list. But if you need highest performance no matter the price – sure, you can go for GoBOXX.

  6. Hi! Thank you so much for your articles they are a great resource for students. I am looking to purchase a new laptop and I’m willing to spend a bit more for something that will last me through grad school (M. Arch). So far I’ve been looking at ASUS ZenBook Pro UX501VW, Lenovo ThinkPad P50 or Ideapad Y700, or this not yet released MSI VR Ready GS63VR Stealth Pro-068 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IS33OLC/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)

    I like that Lenovo offers a number of configurations so I could put a lot of upgrades in but Asus doesn’t offer many options and from what I understand doesn’t have the space to add much. I have noticed through some of your recommendations you tend to favor the Zenbook though so I was curious why. I’m actually pretty drawn to the MSI in part because it seems like one of the more portable options and I commute to school. I’m also not particularly concerned with battery life and I know I tend to run my machines pretty hard. I’d love any advice you might have!

    1. Asus tends to have less models but they’re often a good deal compared to other brands. Tough, I’m aware that due to my research/comparison methods, Asus (and to some extent Acer) models are overrepresented. Right now I’m working on adding build quality and upgradability measurements to which I haven’t paid as much attention as I probably should. Then, I presume, Lenvono (and HP/Dell business lines) might earn a few more spots in my laptop evaluations.
      Thank you for the question. I’ll get back to you with my opinion on these laptops in just a bit!

      1. IMO, there is two good options in the market for 3D/CAD: DELL Precision (7510/7710) series and Lenovo P series (P50/P70). Lenovo is more expensive for the same specs (at least +1000-1500eu/$). It would be a dream to pick such mobile workstation with Intel Xeon or i7 with 2,7-2,9GHz and (very important) 8Mb cache + Nvidia Quadro M2000M + 32 Gb RAM. That’s it. This would be enough for at least 3 years.

  7. HI! I am overwhelmed trying to figure out my best laptop option for Revit. There are just sooo many options. I am an apple user making the transition to PC and totally lost.

    Im sort of narrowing it down to Ideapad Y700 17″, HP Pavillion or Dell Precision 15 5000 M5510 15.6

    Guidance please. Thank you so much!

    1. All these laptops are good options in their respective price ranges – great picks!

      Out of all of them, Dell Precision M5510 is best but it’s also the most expensive. Now, we need to know whether you’ll need what it offers.

      You can save a hefty sum of money by going for HP Pavilion if you’ll need to run Revit but not other 3D intensive software. Even though Revit is a 3D application, it’s mostly CPU-driven. In that case, HP Pavilion is a great match for it as it has great CPU but poor GPU performance.

      A step up from that would be Y700 and it’s great if you need a budget laptop for Revit and other 3D applications.

      Finally, Dell Precision laptop is oriented to professionals, which is not hard to tell by looking at its price tag. It has a CAD-certified graphics card (which is irrelevant to Revit, but it can play a big role in AutoCAD and SolidWorks). It also has a lot of small advantages over cheaper laptops: good Wi-Fi reception, high-quality display, USB 3.1 Gen 2 port (w/ Thunderbolt III) and a long 36-month warranty. I would suggest getting Dell Precision if you’re established professional and you can invest into all the bells and whistles that come with it.

  8. Hello,
    Thank you for all the time and effort u put for us students looking for laptops!
    I’m a BIM student (building information modeling)
    And I will be working with revit and Tekla in first hand but also a bit with 3dmax/ sketch
    I find portability as a prior, also the need to take my laptop to construction sites.
    The laptop I wanna invest in that will take me through my 2 years in uni (after uni I’ll invest in a much more powerful PC)

    Latest generation lenovo X1 Carbon
    Windows 10 pro
    I7-6500U
    Intel HD 520
    192 GB SSD, SATA-600, M.2 (I will be using an external HDD at home)
    8GB RAM

    Can I survive with this for 2 years or do you recommend something else that has similar portability?
    Thank you,

    1. You could “survive” 2 years with it.

      It’s a great laptop if portability is very high on your priority list. Since it has a low-end i7 processor and an integrated video module, it will struggle with Tekla and 3dmax.

      Tekla has very high requirements (their 2016 version recommends getting 1060, which is found only starting at $1,500 and only on “desktop replacement” laptops that are very heavy and with virtually no battery life.

      Trying to match the portability with the needed performance you’d basically need to go for Dell XPS 15. But that costs ~$2100 and might be not within your budget.

      Right now, if priority is above all and you will not be working with large Tekla/3DMax projects, you can get survive 2 years with this Lenovo X1 Carbon. Otherwise, you’ll need to sacrifice the portability or you’ll need to spend a lot more to get the best of both worlds.

        1. Yes. HD 520 is a slow GPU, but for OpenGL computations (that are used in Tekla) it’s not that bad. If you stick with small projects you’ll be OK.
          Meanwhile, in 3DMax, you’ll definately need to use the lowest 3D preview settings.

  9. Any thoughts on this Costco Deal?
    http://www.costco.com/ASUS-K501UW-Laptop—Intel-Core-i7—4K-Ultra-HD—4GB-Graphics.product.100291434.html

    Processor & Memory:
    Intel® Core™ i7-6500U Processor 2.5GHz
    16GB DDR4 System Memory

    Drives:
    512GB Solid State Drive
    NO OPTICAL DRIVE

    Operating System:
    Microsoft® Windows 10

    Communications:
    802.11 Dual Band Wireless-AC + Bluetooth 4.0
    10/1000M Gigbit Ethernet (RJ-45 Connector)
    Integrated Webcam

    Graphics & Video:
    15.6″ 4K Ultra HD (3820 x 2160) Matte Display
    4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M Graphics

    1. Hi.

      Great find!

      For the most part, it’s a very well-rounded laptop. The only weak point is its CPU. Even though it’s i7, it’s the weakest 6th generation i7 CPU. That might not be ideal if you want a lot of performance (then, it would be better to get i7 6700HQ + 960M + SSD setup).

      But if you don’t need a high-end CPU, which would speed up 3D rendering times, there aren’t any reasons to not go for this laptop. I just love its 16 GB RAM + 500 GB RAM setup.

  10. Very useful article. I was about to go through the entire process of making this comparison spreadsheet myself – you have saved me a days work at least!

    Many thanks for taking the time to do this and publish for everyone.

    1. Thanks!

      I’m already working on a new & updated spreadsheet with latest 7th gen CPUs and Nvidia Pascal GTX cards. Hope to get it out before the end of November!

  11. Hi,
    I am looking for a $500- $700 laptop that can run revit, Autocad, photoshop, ect. A lot of the laptops in that price range on your spreadsheet have low ratings. Could you give me your top suggestions for this price range? I’m looking for something lightweight with good battery life. Any help is appreciated. I am replacing a macbook air that I’ve been using for the past four years and it’s my first PC purchase.

  12. Have a nice day Sir.I’m civil engineer from Myanmar.I’m looking for around $700 laptop to use autocad and revit. What is the best for these software running.
    Thanks you Sir.

  13. Hi .. Would a gaming laptop like the accer predator helios 300 be good with revit ( I also use autocad and lumion video render )
    It has the gtx 1060 6 gb and ssd drive core i7 7700 .. 16 gbs of ddr4 ram and a good cooling system
    But the screen isnt that gr8 brightness wise it has 250 nits and rgp 70%
    Should this screen be a reason not to buy the laptop ??

  14. Great article. I’ve been looking for a laptop for my daughter entering an interior design track in college. Your article confirmed the three models I was looking at (that had better portability) – Asus ZenBook UX501/510, Lenovo IdeaPad 710, and Dell XPS 15. Interesting note about Revit and CPU vs. the GPU usage. As a gamer, the GPU was my focus, but I will have to place more emphasis in a better CPU. Thanks for reviews.

  15. I am absolutely astonished at what a thorough, detailed, and incredibly insightful article this is. Immensely impressed with all of the hard work and research you’ve gone through here. Thank you so much for your help and I will look no further than your website for any future analysis/reviews on gear I may need later on. You’re a badass.

  16. Thank you for this wonderful guide.
    I am going to buy this laptop(HP Envy 17-AE013CA, Bilingual Notebook, i7-7500U2) for autocad and revit . I’d appreciate if you give me your idea about it?

    Kind regards,
    Kiana

    1. Hello Kiana. If you’re getting the laptop version with 1 TB HDD (and without an SSD storage) – you might have a rather long boot up times compared to other contemporary laptops. If you can, ask if the laptop can be upgraded with at least 250 GB SSD. Apart from that, you’re in the clear!

  17. Hi that was a great read, I am currently looking for a new laptop for when i’m working on site and traveling around so i can use revit out of the office, I am leaning towards the new surface pro i7 , 16gb, for its portability and pen drawing application for marking up plans or concept sketches, i was just wandering if this is good enough for revit? I have read some reviews from a few years ago for the surface 4 and seemed good but some hit and misses. but i figure the new surface should be suitable.

    Kind Regards

    Paul

  18. I found your article extremely helpful. My problem is that I need a new computer and they all seem to come with Windows 10 but my school provides all of its students with Revit 15 which needs Windows 7 or 8. I am not confident that Revit 15 will run well on Windows 10. I am willing to buy a computer with Windows 7 but I am getting confused with the system requirements. Are they the same as what is in your above article? I was looking at the
    Lenovo Think Pad X260 but the processor isn’t as strong as you suggest.
    Intel Core i7-6600U Processor (Dual Core, 4M Cache, 2.6 GHz up to 3.4 GHz) with Intel vPro Technology
    16GB DDR4 RAM, 256 GB Opal2 SSD
    12.5″ Full HD IPS (1920×1080) with Intel HD 520 Graphics
    Intel 8260ac 2×2 WIFI + BlueTooth 4.1 , Fingerprint Reader , Backlit Keyboard
    Windows 7 Professional Installed with Licence Upgradable to Windows 10 Professional, Lenovo Warranty Ends by 2020.
    Would this be ok?

  19. Great analysis! Have you looked at OriginPC, though? I need a new laptop, and I work at a level where cheap computers cost more money than they save. I do not know anyone who has used them for Revit, though, so would love to hear from folks who have actually tried this brand.
    Need it for large workshared Revit models and Navisworks model creation and clash detection, so need pretty much everything to be maxxed out.

  20. Hi. I am using now Dell Precision M4700 which has Core i7 3840QM, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD (Samsung Evo). Do you think I need you to upgrade now or this is still okay for the meantime?

  21. Hello,
    Ive found this thread very very helpful. Am i correct in assuming that its only the Dell Precision M5510 laptop that will work for me wanting to use Revit, AutoCAD and Navis (maybe solidworks).
    If this is not the case would you be able to advise a more reasonable mid ranged priced laptop as the Dell Precision M5510 comes with a hefty price tag?

    Which laptop would you buy if you had $1000 and needed to use Revit/Cad/Solidworks?

  22. If you can’t explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it to any intelligent layman, that really means that you don’t understand it yourself. Allan Bromley, former President of the American Physical Society

  23. I’m wondering what you think of the new Surface Pro (version 5). I am looking for a tablet for Bluebeam Revu. I was considering an iPad Pro but then thought that if I got a Surface Pro and could run Revit, then I could just shift to that instead of running an apple tablet and a windows desktop. With a new Surface Pro I could use it as a tablet as well as my primary computer connected to the network. I am in Revit and need it, but my heavy production days are hopefully passed.

  24. Hi there, I notice that no one ever asks about Mac books? I am a student going into interior design, so will need Revit. I was originally thinking that I wanted a mac book pro, but haven’t found anything about it being successful with Revit. Help or Advice please!

  25. Great article and it was very helpful. thank you! One thing i couldn’t get my head around is the graphic card requirement. i thought Autodesk suggested some pretty hardcore graphic cards for Revit, such as Nvidia Quadro P series. (https://knowledge.autodesk.com/certified-graphics-hardware) which would drive up and price dramatically, and limit the number of computer choices. would you mind enlighten me a bit more on the graphic card requirements? thank you very much!

    1. Hi, thanks!

      It depends a lot on what Autodesk product we’re talking about. In this case, Revit is not properly utilizing fast graphics cards. Even comparing different Quadro cards (https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Revit-2018-Quadro-GPU-Comparison-1001/) shows that the Quadro cards perform virtually the same. In that case, there’s no reason to go for Quadro cards which are mostly only GeForce cards with better silicon and OpenGL optimized drivers for 3D modeling and not gaming.

      Even Nvidia does not recommend high-end graphics cards for Revit (http://www.nvidia.com/object/autodesk-design-suite-find-graphics.html) and they have a massive bias – they’re trying to sell their own product! They’re recommending entry-level graphics cards for AutoCAD and Revit.

      All in all, some Autodesk applications (Inventor, 3DS MAX) can benefit greatly from a Quadro graphics card but Revit is not one of them.

  26. Hi. Great thread. I am using Revit 2017 about to move to 2018. But I want be able to use a HTC Vive VR system and also run VR software such as Enscape and Lumion. Do you have any suggestions for a Laptop system please.

  27. What are your thoughts on using an AMD processor for Revit? I’ve seen some less expensive laptops with similar specs to what you recommend, but with an AMD CPU.

  28. Hi,
    Thank you for the comprehensive information on the subject.
    Its really very informative.
    I need to ask you if the Acer Aspire 5 can be used for AutoCad and Sketch up as well.
    Thank you and looking forward to your reply.

  29. Hi,
    thanks for your article but i’m still confuse, im looking for a laptop where i can run sketchup, revit, cad,photoshop and indesign and, the only option that i tought it was the best, was buying a gaming laptop…like Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming.
    is it true or i can easily use one of your option described above without problems. one of the laptop mentioned above are better the Dell product?
    thanks in advance to try to illuminate me the right way in this laptop forest smog

  30. Hi,
    I have purchased hp pavillion 15 series laptop. I dont know wy I cant do even a medium project in it.while running revit 2019 After several commands it hangs and taking time while scrolling the model.. Reinstall the software many times. Even revit 17 hangs well.. Preinstalled windows 10 also reinstalled..still unlock.. Done all possible ways.. Any one please help me to solve the issue.

  31. magnificent put up, very informative. I wonder why the other specialists of this sector do
    not notice this. You should continue your writing.
    I’m sure, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!

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