Choosing a creative laptop – how powerful does my creative laptop need to be?

Choosing a creative laptop
(Image credit: ASUS / ROG)

There's plenty to ponder when choosing a laptop for digital creative work, from which CPU, GPU, SSD and memory you need. But what components actually matter for graphic design, video editing, 3D modelling, rendering or digital art? In short, how much performance do you actually need? And how much do you really need to spend?

CPU performance matters pretty much across the board, albeit you don't necessarily need the very highest specification chip for all creative workflows. On the other hand, how much memory, GPU power and storage performance and storage space you need can vary quite a bit by task type.

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Jeremy Laird

Jeremy has been writing about technology since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just loves machines that go 'ping!'. He has written for a variety of publications, including TechRadar, The Independent, Digital Camera World, T3, PC Gamer, GamesRadar+. 

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