Best Laptop For KeyShot?

[Matt.Kinsington]

I will be traveling for my studies and want to learn KeyShot while I travel, so cannot use a desktop.

Also would like to use that same laptop to start doing professional work once I get skilled enough so I don't have to buy an extra PC.

Is anybody using a laptop for professional KeyShot work?  Is it ok?  What models or specs do you recommend?

Thanks 

[mattjgerard]

The requirements to make KS to run well are pretty simple. average video capabilities, average RAM and HD requirements, but the most powerful CPU you can stuff into a laptop. That being said, you are probably going to be looking at some pretty hefty (in both price and weight) options. I'm not an expert in PC laptops, and I woud guess that there are dozens of custom PC laptop manufacturers to choose from. I think you need to consider the following-

1) How much will you be plugged in VS battery? If you are working in locations where there is line power available, you can get the most powerful system you can, without worry of battery performance and endurance of running without plug in power. If you will be operating more and more on battery, then you need to pull back on the CPU to retain battery life. There are other things that can help you extend battery life, such as SSD drives instead of spinning discs, integrated graphics solutions vs dedicated high power GFX cards, display efficiency, etc. But with KS, the main power hog will be your CPU.

2) Warranty and support- While you might be able to find a cool small laptop maker that sells a great machine for a good price, what is their support like? What if the thing craps out somewhere else? Different country? Is it user servicable? With a large company manufacturer like Dell, Alienware, etc you will probably have a larger support network and more options, but at the expense of possibly cost and, to be honest most standard laptop makers machines are just plain boring

3) Size and weight- I've worked with some locations-based video people that haul around laptops that are FRIGGIN HUGE!!!! I'm talking 15+lbs, fullsized GTX graphics cards, dual mirrored drives, desktop class processors (and associated heat solutions) They didn't care, as their stuff was all shipped via pallets and pelican cases. But they would blow away any standard laptop out there, and their livelyhood depending on them, so they usually had 2! While this is an extreme, its always going to be a balance of what sort of traveling that you are going to do, and do you want to lug a 10+lb machine around just for a 20% boost in CPU power? On the other end, you could run Keyshot on a Macbook Air, but I think eye removal with a spork would be much more preferrable.

4) Figure out your dollar limit, and go to it. That's the limiting factor for most people, figure out your budget (allowing for the cost of the software!) and go for it. Make a choice, and don't look back. Remember that its rarely the tools that matter, its the artist behind it.

So, for the most part its all CPU for keyshot. Now, another option is to get a mid ranged decent laptop, nothing too crazy, and then take advantage of the wonderful Keyshot render farms that are out there. That way you can do your look development and training on the laptop, then push renders to the farms for pretty reasonable prices. But my own opinion is that nothing smaller than a 17" screen. 4k if possible.

[Esben Oxholm]

Those are some really great points, Matt!

I won't recommend anything specific but just share my own experience.
I've been running a fulltime freelance business with KeyShot as my main software using a Macbook Pro mid 2015, running approx. 60 FPS in the benchmark scene. See specs attached.
It has been working out well so far, combined with outsourcing the rendering of larger animation jobs to render farms.

I must say though that it has started to become a bottleneck recently, especially when dealing with more than one animation job at the time.

No matter what you end up buying, I'll suggest to have a good larger monitor to hook it up to, if possible at all.
15 inches can work, but real-estate is tight.

Best,

[mattjgerard]

That is a most excellent laptop. I have the exact same one! I hook that puppy to my 28" 4K monitor, and its a dream to use. I don't use Keyshot on it, but I do much After Effects, video editing and photoshop work on it. I also use it for 3D in Cinema 4D, but then dump to my PC for rendering.

I am getting used to windows 10, but I still prefer  macOS.

Then I'm stuck on Win7 at work 

EDIT: for some reason mine doesn't show the AMD gfx card in the about window.

[mattjgerard]

If you can wait for this to come public, game on!

https://www.razerzone.com/project-valerie

[Esben Oxholm]

That is a most excellent laptop. I have the exact same one! I hook that puppy to my 28" 4K monitor, and its a dream to use. I don't use Keyshot on it, but I do much After Effects, video editing and photoshop work on it. I also use it for 3D in Cinema 4D, but then dump to my PC for rendering.

Ha, great. Doing a lot of  Photoshop and After Effects work on it as well. Runs smooth!.

If you can wait for this to come public, game on!
https://www.razerzone.com/project-valerie

Well, that is pretty cool. Would love to see the look on peoples faces when taking this out on the lap in the airport or on the desk in the coffee shop 

[Matt.Kinsington]

I've been running a fulltime freelance business with KeyShot as my main software using a Macbook Pro mid 2015, running approx. 60 FPS in the benchmark scene. See specs attached.
It has been working out well so far, combined with outsourcing the rendering of larger animation jobs to render farms.

Wow, Esben, do all those beautiful still image renderings you do come out of a laptop?!?  Now I feel some hope

Thank you for sharing your experience!

[Matt.Kinsington]

Hi mattjgerard,

Thanks for extensive list!  Very very good points.  My dollar limit I hope is approx. $2000 USD.  It will need international warranty.

Probably 15" for better portability.  To fit in my luggage, and not be too heavy for walking.

Battery life I hope is 5-8 hours for normal internet and stuff, but rendering I would always plug in to power(!)  Well, maybe I let it render while on a bus or something ;-)

Sounds like any decent laptop with high spec i7 should do the work.  I'm looking at gaming laptops like MSI.  Not a fan of red LEDs everywhere though, hah. 

Would love a Macbook Pro.  Glad to hear they can be used in KeyShot! I didn't know if they were strong enough.

Make a choice, and don't look back.

Great advice all around.  Thank you!

[Esben Oxholm]

I've been running a fulltime freelance business with KeyShot as my main software using a Macbook Pro mid 2015, running approx. 60 FPS in the benchmark scene. See specs attached.
It has been working out well so far, combined with outsourcing the rendering of larger animation jobs to render farms.

Wow, Esben, do all those beautiful still image renderings you do come out of a laptop?!?  Now I feel some hope

Yup, they do Thanks!

[Matt.Kinsington]

Thanks again for sharing your experiences.  I've decided to get a MacBook Pro. 
Even their older processors from 2014 and 2015 still score higher than the ones found in today's 2017 Windows machines.

And their display is so much crisper than 95% of the Windows laptops out there.  I've actually not seen a Windows laptop yet that compares. 

Looking at Apple's website on the MacBooks vs. the Windows laptops.  The rendering of the Apple Watch really stood out on the Macs.  You could see every individual thread on the band.  But on the Window's laptops it looked flat and washed out.  The text on the watch face was not crisp.  And the threads of the band are all blurred together.

For a rendering machine, that's definitely not what you want.

Maybe you can see what I mean. 
I've attached a screen shot of the Apple Watch from my current Windows laptop.
Can compare that to their website one if you're running a Mac.
https://www.apple.com/watch/

[JakeTse]

@mattjgerard I agree with you and your detailed tips are really good. It's never been an easy task to buy a satisfying laptop and it does require you to consider many things. I got what I wanted by browsing the Amazon best selling laptops and I spent a lot of time reviewing the product specs and what others said about it.

[78finn]

We have just bought 2 x custom spec Dell Laptops at work for just this purpose (Keyshot rendering). Basically we went for the fastest laptop processor we could afford being:

Intel Core i9-7980XE / Clocking Frequency: 2.6 GHz / Cores (Threads): 18 (36)

When we are back in the office we pair the Dell laptop with a Boxx RenderPro 2 (external CPU). This hosts dual Intel Xeon E5 Processor (up to 3.0 GHz
16 cores 2.1 GHz 32 Total Cores), aggregate Frequency of around 67.2 GHz. You only need this if you are serious about rendering of course...the Boxx alone is $8500.

The Dell laptop cost the company about the same as the top spec MacBook Pro (which we have a couple of for basic video editing). The Dell absolutely smokes the MacBook in rendering performance. The MacBook doesn't even come close to be honest. The MacBook Pro's really are quite a poor choice for Keyshot in terms of bang for buck. Shop around for a laptop with a i9, you'll be much happier in the long run.