Razer Blade laptop?

I’m looking to get a laptop that can run Rhino and Grasshopper, and also be relatively portable and light. The Razer blade and blade stealth seem promising - does anyone have experience with those? Specs are below:

Razer Blade 15 - Base Model:

  • Processor: 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H 6 Core
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti or RTX 2060
  • Memory: 16GB Dual-Channel (8GB x 2)

Razer Blade Stealth 13:

  • Processor: Quad-Core 10th Gen Intel Core i7-1065G7
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q
  • Memory: 16GB dual-channel (fixed)

There are other available (more expensive) configurations but these are the ones I’m considering. I’m also open to other laptop suggestions

Thanks!

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I am using a Dell XPS 15 right now, with i7-8700k, 1050, and 8gb ram (i bought it couple years ago)
so far, the laptop is holding well, but it is noticeable that it is a platform that is aging with rather limited thermals, and yes, i could use a better graphics card and ram capacity, which i am planning to upgrade.

Razer does too have a great display with great colour accuracy, if you are into that sort of thing. I have couple of friends who is using the Blade 15, the thermals are great, and keyboards are a charm, much better than the one on XPS.

I would prefer the 15 inch because I find that the display size is very important when it comes to modelling. For now, I think razer blade 15 is top pick laptop now! Just make sure you buy them where your warranty can be easily resolved if you face any problems in the future.

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In this day and age you should shoot for at-least 32gb RAM. As software goes on they tend to eat more and more RAM and depending on what you are doing you could hit the limit fast (especially if you using other software at the same time). It isn’t uncommon to hit around the 20gb RAM usage especially when doing mass boolean operations on complex geometry. When buying a laptop you should always future proof a bit rather than buy for the current. If you could swing it, I would say to up the Graphics card as well to at least a RTX 2060 which supersedes the GTX 1650 (I see Razer Blade has an option for the RTX 2060 in the 15" model).

In the end usually if you spend more money (wisely) now you will actually spend less in the long run, where as if you get low specs you may need to replace your computer sooner when you find you need more power.

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Thanks! Looks like the Razer blade can be upgraded to 32gb of RAM if I need it.

I had bought one of those laptops for a demo situation. I had to return it because the fan was unbearably loud and in frenzy-mode. It was a model with a gtx 1080 card. Also the keyboard was absolutely terrible, and it didn’t even have a display port for monitor.

So make sure it’s also a good machine to live with, not just specs.

G

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Thanks for the input - I did check one out in person and liked the keyboard and trackpad (but that might just be personal preference) Good to know about the fans. “machine to live with” is a great way to put it.

Hi gustavo, the latest versions of blade 15 have way better fan management and keyboard. Razer heard about issues of their first version and fixed it.

I’m looking for a new laptop too, and compare between the razer blade 15 last gen and the Alienware M15.

In any case, choose the most powerfull CPU is always the best thing to do.

I have the Razer Blade 15 with the 9th gen i7 and 1660ti in mercury white and use it every day. I bought it as an open box buy from Best Buy a few months ago. So far I love it. It has the build quality that I love about the MacBook but the horsepower that I love from other traditional windows gaming laptops like the Asus ROG’s. My only gripe is I wish the power brick was a little smaller. So far I’d do another one without hesitation.

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Hi Sharon,

I’m eyeing the Asus Zenbook duo.

I have a Razer Blade 17" i7-7700HQ, the previous model, with NVIDIA GTX 1060. In my opinion, it is an excellent machine, really well built and performing well on anything I have tried so far, including Rhino and Vray. I use Rhino 6/7 on a daily basis. In fact, I am thinking about buying the latest model or the Razer Core, in addition. The only problems I have/had are related to the erratic Windows 10 Pro behaviour, problems related to itself and not to the machine. However, I cannot compare it with other machines of course, as I have not had the possibility to test them for free.

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Thanks to everyone for your input! I ended up going with the Razer Blade 15 with RTX 2060 graphics. I ran holomark and can post the results here for anyone interested. So far I’m happy with it but I haven’t tested out any of my big gh files yet.

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Yes, please. I am interested in seeing the Holomark results. Thanks

Hi Sharon and everyone!

Really glad to find your post as I haven’t been able to find a great deal of information regarding the Razor Blade 15 for architecture use.
I mainly model and render in Rhino, Grasshopper, Vray although looking to expand into Revit, Blender, VR in the future.

I am seriously considering purchasing the latest Razer Blade 15, 2070, 4K or the MSI WS Series WS65 or Lenovo ThinkPad P1 and wondered how are you finding the Razer some months later?
Especially, how it copes with rendering or modeling heavy files, in terms of sound, heat, and lag.
Curious if anyone has upgraded their RAM to 32gb or 64gb yet?

Also considered the Dell Precision 5540 but it worked out unaffordable. Open to recommendations but it’s important to me that the machine is powerful and looks professional, as I am currently a student and looking for something to support the transition into practice.

@Holo, I saw in other discussions that you have mentioned Razer laptops and wondered what your thoughts were too!

Thank you so much for any advice you can offer, stay safe everyone!
:slightly_smiling_face:
Sky

Hi Sky,
I have used the Razor quite a lot lately and it works very well!
The fan starts running quite fast, but the noise is about the same level as a macbook when running hot. The mouse pad is great and I can work in Rhino with it.
I have used a macbook 2015 with bootcamp for 5 years, so hardware wise I have been spoilt so here is the pros and cons for the Razor:

PRO:

  • Top notch hardware, 6 core cpu and RTX on a laptop that is silent most of the time? Are you kidding me?
  • Build quality. It’s built like a mac
  • Great screen. I have the FullHD, don’t miss the higher res UNLESS I compare side by side. Having fewer pixels makes Raytraced view even faster. Bumping the view up with 4x pixles WILL bump time up with 4x too.

CONS:

  • Keyboard lighting… This is the biggest issue. It only has lit main key function. So all secondary funtions are difficult to see in dim lighting. HUGE difference from the mac. It’s like night and day. And for programming when secondary functions (&/()# are used a lot, this matters.
  • I don’t like the logo on the lid (Personal, a few years ago I would have liked it, so I got a skin on it and that works great.)
  • The black paint picks up fingerprints fast, so be prepared to wipe it down. It matters, because you want this machine because of looks, just admit it :wink: And compared to a gray mac this is also like night and day. The mac can look fresh after a month of use.

I love the machine, all computers has some camels that you have to swallow, and I gladly swallow these issues. BUT I wish the keys were properly lit. (That said, they look cool and minimalistic though)

Oh, and some has issues with the fan making a bit more noise and I can get that when I render for a while so all hardware is at top heat. But I mean… this little baby has ALL the power that my tower has (I have the same spec on my workstation) And this little black box has two tiny fans while the workstation has three huge fans on the GPU alone… I can not understand how they manage to cool down the hardware so well… I can easlily sit with the laptop on the lap when I type, browse and do light modelling. Rendering makes it too hot for comfort, but not burning hot, so I could do that in a pinch too.

So pros and cons. Oh, and batterylife is goood. (Rendering eats battery though, obviously)
And I reccomend FullHD, I thought that would be a tough change, but it isn’t. But that’s personal, so check for your self.

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super delayed response, but maybe this is still helpful to someone… I’ve been using the razer blade 15 for Rhino and grasshopper since I got it. I have not upgraded the RAM though I might eventually.

I also have an MSI GS65 stealth laptop from work that I use for similar purposes. They are similar performance wise and both work well for large grasshopper files. They both have good fans and neither of them gets too hot. MSI maybe a bit louder, but the razer fan sometimes oscillates in a way that becomes annoying once you notice it. I don’t do any rendering so I can’t comment there. The MSI laptop has more of a gaming aesthetic, especially the typeface on the keyboard which I find hard to read. The build quality of the razer is better - comparable to a macbook pro (which was my previous laptop). The only thing I don’t like about the razer is the charger - it’s pretty clunky.

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Hi,
I’ve been using a Clevo laptop for many years now and what I found on the net generally about laptops is the annoying noise they make.
I will buy a PC now and get rid of the noise. Even if graphic cards are right now incredible expensive.
My laptop produces a level of about 50 to 60 dBa which means you will hear it all time and is equal to a quiet conversation.
Cannot recommend a laptop for daily 8 hour use.
Especially the new graphic cards like the RTX 3070 do produce lots of heat.
Mine has a RTX 1070 with an I7 9700K, 17" display and an dell 49" monitor and this it not suitable for large meshes of about 12 million points and more. For normal work in Rhino it’s still fine, but still far to loud.
Searching the net I have found that 15" machines have more problems with heat and therefore noise than the large 17" laptops.