How to Choose a Laptop for 3D Design and Animation

Jul 13, 2023

With the rising popularity of technologies like AR, VR, and 3D displays, the demand for three-dimensional digital artwork is skyrocketing. And with that, more people are entering the field of 3D creation, making the market more competitive. That means that as a 3D designer, you need an edge. And a big part of gaining an edge can be purchasing the right tools for the task.

One key tool you’ll need is a top-notch laptop made for the most demanding 3D projects. What makes a laptop perfect for 3D design and animation, you ask? Here are a couple of pointers on how to choose the right one, as well as our recommendations.

A laptop display that will meet the strictest requirements of professional 3D designers and animators needs to have a few characteristics: it needs to be responsive and fast, color-accurate, large enough to comfortably see everything, and if it can display 3D directly on the laptop screen, that’s a massive plus.

A great option would be an OLED screen, such as ASUS Lumina OLED. They offer 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, minimal color variance (Delta E < 2), deepest blacks possible on a laptop screen, and are Pantone® validated for color accuracy!

ASUS now also offers an exciting technology that’s perfect for 3D artists: ASUS Spatial Vision. These world's first 3D OLED displays* allow users to see three-dimensional content directly on the laptop screen, without using any accessories such as glasses or VR goggles. Learn more about ASUS Spatial Vision Technology, here.

When it comes to display size, it's best if you opt for a 15- or 16-inch screen, which should provide enough viewing space while keeping the chassis relatively compact for better portability. A 16:10 aspect ratio is also great as it provides you with added vertical space.

The CPU, aka processor, is the brain of your computer. It carries out the tasks you throw at it. As a 3D artist, you need a top-of-the-line, high-performance option.

Key specifications here will be the number of cores, the thread count, and the clock speed. A good benchmark would be one of the most powerful laptop CPUs available: the Intel® Core™ i9-13980HX processor. This beast of a CPU has 24 cores (8 high-performance cores), 32 threads, and a base clock speed of 2.2 GHz, with a boost of up to 5.6 GHz. This should make for a smooth, uninterrupted 3D creation process.

The GPU, aka graphics card, is the part of your computer that is responsible for processing the graphical tasks. Many creative apps are quite graphics-heavy, so to ensure smooth operation when creating 3D work, you will need a latest-generation, powerful, discrete GPU.

A good benchmark for a laptop graphics card for 3D artists would be the NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070 laptop GPU. With 8 GB of GDDR6 video memory, it will prove powerful enough for 3D design and animation. Any less powerful GPU may prove insufficient or might become obsolete in a span of a few years.

RAM is the short-term memory of your laptop. It’s responsible for storing data for immediate access that is required to run your applications. And since creative apps are very RAM-hungry, you will benefit from plenty of memory.

Opt for no less than 32 GB of memory for your laptop. It’s best if you choose the latest, best RAM technology — namely DDR5 SO-DIMM. Keep in mind that RAM sticks larger than 32 GB are rare in laptops, so you will most likely find out that the laptops that offer more than that do so by offering two SO-DIMM slots with a RAM stick of memory in each (e.g., two 16 GB-sticks).

It’s a massive plus if you can also upgrade your RAM later, so pay attention to whether the laptop has available slots, as opposed to the memory stick being soldered to the motherboard. Another thing to consider is the maximum RAM that your laptop can be upgraded to. You can usually find this information in the laptop specs table.

As a 3D designer or animator, you need lots of space to keep your files. Of course, you can choose to use external hard drives, but you should have enough storage space onboard to have immediate access to the most crucial files.

3D files take up a ton of space. For that reason, you should aim for as much space on the SSD as possible. 1 TB is the absolute minimum, but even that amount may mean you’ll be only keeping many crucial files on the laptop’s drive while storing everything else on an external SSD. 2 TB often proves more optimal for 3D artists, however. If you can get even more, that will make things more convenient. You will also need to consider the SSD technology used. We recommend the latest M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 4.0 Performance SSD variant.

As with RAM, storage can be upgraded on many laptops, which is a great benefit since you can always add on more space if needed. Check the laptop specs list for more information regarding available SSD slots.

As 3D work puts a heavy strain on all key components in a laptop, a lot of heat is created —which can lead to discomfort (e.g., the chassis of the laptop gets hot). More importantly, 3D work can slow down your laptop due to so-called throttling — when the CPU slows itself down to avoid overheating. In extreme cases, the heat can even lead to long-term damage.

That's why good cooling will be crucial in a laptop for 3D work. You will want a laptop that has a sufficient combination of high-performance fans and heat sinks or a vapor chamber, and plenty of vents that will allow for smooth heat dissipation. Heat sinks or a vapor chamber will help with thermal management without making your laptop noisy. A more novel solution like using liquid metal applied on the CPU’s heatsink is also a recently emerging way of ensuring top-notch heat dissipation in top-notch, high-performance laptops.

A good measure of thermal performance for a laptop is the max TDP (Thermal Design Power) of the CPU and the GPU. If a laptop can pull off 150 watts or more, that means it’s a high-performance machine with sufficiently powerful cooling.

Chances are you are using more than just your laptop to create your 3D art. Most creatives opt for various peripherals, such as an external monitor, mouse, keyboard, pen tablet, hard drive, etc. Conveniently connecting all of that requires either a rich lineup of I/O ports in the laptop or an external hub. Needless to say, it's better if it's the former.

A laptop for a 3D artist should have at least two Thunderbolt™ 4 ports with power delivery and display support, two USB Type-A ports, an HDMI port, and an audio jack. Additionally, if you can get your hands on a machine with a built-in Ethernet port for a wired Internet connection when stationary and an SD card reader for downloading files from other devices, such as a camera, it would benefit you as well.

To achieve top-notch wireless connectivity, seek out the latest and most advanced technologies. Opting for WiFi 6E will guarantee speedy downloads and uploads while selecting Bluetooth® 5.3 will ensure seamless wireless pairing with other gadgets and peripherals.

Regardless if you work mostly in your studio or office or are frequently on the go, you may prefer to use the laptop’s built-in keyboard and mouse. If you want to use your laptop without any peripherals, search for a laptop that includes a full-sized keyboard with dished caps and ample key travel, along with a spacious and precise touchpad.

Certain laptops take things up a notch by offering specialized input tools designed for creators, facilitating the creative process and making it more effortless to work with creative applications. The ASUS Dial and DialPad are among these features, with the former being a physical dial and the latter being a virtual rotary input function. They enable users to swiftly and instinctively modify various settings, such as brush size, opacity, or zoom, streamlining workflows. You can learn more about how ASUS Dial and DialPad help creators work efficiently here.

As a 3D artist, you need a top-notch laptop. And for creators, it doesn't get more top-notch than the latest ProArt Studiobook 16 3D OLED.

This unique mobile creative workstation features the ASUS Spatial Vision technology 3D OLED display that combines the benefits of OLED with the wonders of glasses-free 3D for ultimate visual immersion. You can see your art in three dimensions directly on your laptop screen!

The ProArt Studiobook 16 3D OLED is crafted with world-class creative pros in mind. It’s a powerful machine with the latest 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9 HX high-performance processor and a powerful NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070 GPU to handle even the toughest workflows. In addition, the plentiful 64 GB (32 GB x 2) RAM and massive 8 TB (4 TB + 4 TB) SSD make sure creation goes uninterrupted.

It also features the ASUS Dial for convenient creative control. Compatible with hundreds of apps, including the most popular creative software, it can be customized via the ASUS ProArt Creator Hub app to fit perfectly into your unique workflows.

Last but not least, this beast of a creator laptop packs a full I/O ports lineup, including two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, Two Thunderbolt™ 4 with display and power delivery support, an HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5 mm combo audio jack, an RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, and an SD Express 7.0 card reader.

If your budget doesn't allow for the purchase of this ultimate creator laptop, we have another, more budget-friendly laptop that packs many of the benefits of the aforementioned laptop, including the 3D OLED display. Be sure to check out the ASUS Vivobook Pro 16X 3D OLED.

Please also note that both of these laptops are available with a non-3D display while having all the other mentioned features.

Are you curious to learn more about ASUS Spatial Vision? Click the button below!

*As of November 15, 2022 based on internal ASUS market analysis, comparing ASUS Spatial Vision technology to competing laptops with an autostereoscopic 3D display, ASUS is the first to use an OLED display with this technology.