{"id":500,"date":"2016-02-25T12:24:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T12:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/?p=500"},"modified":"2018-06-06T11:49:20","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T17:49:20","slug":"best-laptop-revit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/best-laptop-revit\/","title":{"rendered":"In-depth guide to 6 Best Laptops for Revit (2018 Summer Update)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n 2018 June 3rd<\/sup> update. Updated CPU, GPU write-ups, replaced all laptops and updated the spreadsheet!\n<\/p>\n \n I’m very glad that Autodesk put in the effort to outline various levels of Revit hardware\/software requirements<\/a> 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.\n<\/p>\n \n Autodesk makes it very clear that the processor should be #1 priority:\n<\/p>\n \n “Highest affordable CPU speed rating recommended.” – Autodesk\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n Unlike other visual software (AutoCAD<\/a>, Solidworks<\/a> etc.), Revit does not need a powerful graphics card for rendering the drawings.\n<\/p>\n \n So what do I recommend?\n<\/p>\n \n For an entry model under 950$ – a higher-end Intel Core i5 model is a necessity<\/strong>. Anything above that should have a 5th-7th generation “i7” processor<\/strong>. In some rare cases (covered at the end of the guide), there are laptops under $900, that come with a fast i7 H-series CPUs.\n<\/p>\n \n Exact models, I am talking about are:<\/p>\n \n As per usual, 8 GB of RAM should be your starting point and 16 GB is the magic spot where you don’t have to worry about the memory (for the most part).\n<\/p>\n \n Right now, 1000$ 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.\n<\/p>\n \n It does not matter much whether memory is DDR3\/DDR4.\n<\/p>\n \n 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.\n<\/p>\n \n 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.\n<\/p>\n \n 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).\n<\/p>\n \n 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.\n<\/p>\n \n 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.\n<\/p>\n \n A good screen is essential in 3 simple ways:<\/p>\n \n Every screen can be broken down by its resolution, contrast, brightness and color gamut.\n<\/p>\n \n When talking about the resolution – go for Full HD (1920×1080)<\/strong>. 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.\n<\/p>\n \n Contrast<\/strong> should be 800:1 or more, average brightness<\/strong> 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.\n<\/p>\n \n Finally, color space\/gamut<\/strong> 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.\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n Importance of battery run-time varies person-to-person.\n<\/p>\n \n 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.\n<\/p>\n \n 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.\n<\/p>\n \n Requirements for a graphics chip are practically non-existent.\n<\/p>\n \n 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”.\n<\/p>\n \n 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!\n<\/p>\n \n So why am I even bringing this up?\n<\/p>\n \n 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.\n<\/p>\n \n 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.\n<\/p>\n \n If you’ll be working with other 3D software, you should refer to the following table:\n<\/p>\nWhat are we looking for?<\/h2>\n
Major Requirements for the best Revit laptop<\/h3>\n
Processor<\/h4>\n
\n
Memory<\/h4>\n
Solid State Drive<\/h4>\n
Minor Requirements for the best laptop for Revit<\/h3>\n
Screen<\/h4>\n
\n
Battery Runtime<\/h4>\n
Graphics card<\/h4>\n