9 Best Laptops for Solidworks Worth Every Penny
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While curating this list, we also decided to include some budget laptops for Solidworks because not everyone can spend a huge sum of money on laptops.
And that being said, let’s see which laptop made it to our list.
9 Best Laptops for Solidworks
1. MSI GS75 Laptop
- Smooth Display: The 17.3” 240Hz display
- Powered Up: The 10th Gen. Intel Core i7 processor
- Supercharged Graphics: The RTX 2060 features ray tracing
- Featuring CPU and GPU cooling technology
- Thunderbolt 3 port, get up to 40Gbps transfer speeds
Our first pick is MSI GS75, which is a perfect fit and a budget laptop for Solidworks. Yes, you read it right, its a budget laptop, but only when you consider it for software like Solidworks.
Performance
This laptop comes equipped with Intel Core i7-10875H and 5.1 GHz power that runs the entire system like butter. You won’t feel a hitch while working on Solidworks software. The i7 processor powered at 5.1GHz would enable it to make and develop even the largest of the designs without worrying about the system crashing or burning down.
To handle the graphic intensive program of Solidworks, you would be getting an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU complete with 6GB of dedicated video memory.
With this laptop, you would be getting yourself 32GB RAM, which is quite efficient while working with Solidworks. It is a solid RAM, and you can expect your software to complete its job without any issues.
Equipped with 512GB NVMe SSD, the exact recommended drive for working with Solidworks, you can easily store anything and everything from your developed projects to your leisure materials.
The system runs on the Windows 10 Home version, which is a good sign because OS plays a major role in running software smoothly.
Design & Build
With a black and shiny gold color scheme, you get a very modern and sleek-looking laptop, almost giving it a luxurious look.
The matte-finished lid adds a lot to this look. And it just does not end here. Build from aluminum alloy with large and sturdy hinges, and your laptop would be extremely safe.
Display
The best part about getting an MSI laptop is its screen quality. You get a 17.3-inch IPS screen, it is aimed right at giving you the most vibrant and bright screen with a flawless display. It peaks its performance with a native Full HD display and a 240hz refresh rate.
Other features
Speakers- The speakers are placed on forwarding corners and produce a loud noise, but the quality is compromised. The bass is hardly audible, and the sound feels flat.
Keyboard- the layout is pretty standard, including everything that you get with regular laptops. The essential travel is a little more than average, but it gives a satisfying click and doesn’t take much effort.
Pros:
- Slim and sleek build
- Bright and vibrant display
- Great sound quality
- Smooth performance with solid specs
Cons:
- Loud fan
- It tends to heat up
2. Alienware M15 R6 Gaming Laptop
- 15-inch G-SYNC display
- 240Hz refresh rate and Advanced Optimus technology
- 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz memory
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
- Alienware Cryo-Tech maximizes overall performance
The next on the list is none other than the Alienware M15 R6 Gaming Laptop, which is a solid laptop for Solidworks.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 8GB GDDR6 makes it one of the most preferred laptops suitable for Solidworks, gaming, video editing, or anything that requires a high-end laptop.
You get 32GB DDR4 RAM which is sufficient for handling Solidworks on your laptop. Additionally, there’s a 1TB SSD that’ll help you store as many projects as you want to. You may require an external drive in case you want to create hundreds of projects.
Moving ahead to the display, this laptop has a 15.6-inch QHD 240Hz Display which is definitely the best one on this list, and close to the MSI GS75 laptop. Refresh rate plays a major role in gaming, and design, this laptop’s 240hz will surely help you a lot.
Lastly, the Intel Core i7-11800H processor makes it more powerful, and a suitable gaming laptop for SolidWorks. I’d recommend this laptop to anyone who is willing to spend a few more dollars for a solid machine, you’ll definitely never regret this purchase.
Pros:
- Excellent performance
- Bright, vibrant display
- Premium case and build
- Fast, responsive keyboard
Cons:
- A bit heavy, that’s it.
3. MSI Stealth 15M
- 15.6” 144hz display delivers true-to-life images
- 11th Gen. Intel Core i7 processor
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
- MSI’s exclusive Cooler Boost Technology
Another MSI laptop? Yes, because MSI is quite good at making affordable yet powerful laptops. It is a cheap laptop for Solidworks, that ticks all the boxes.
Moving forward to the specifications part, it has an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor which is fast enough to deal with the system processes.
Talking about the GPU, this budget laptop for Solidworks has NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, which is so far one of the hottest GPUs in the market.
The system can handle multiple processes, and even handle more than 50+ Google chrome tabs, all thanks to its 16GB RAM.
To help you point out the slightest of the elements on the screen, the 15.6” 144hz display will help you.
I know the refresh rate is lower than that of the previous laptops mentioned in this list, but this laptop is priced under $1200, and this justifies the lower refresh rate.
If you are still a college student, this laptop is ideal for you.
Why?
Because it is lightweight and easy to carry. You can take it around in your hands, or pack it in your laptop bag.
Since laptops get hot while doing heavy tasks, there’s MSI’s exclusive Cooler Boost Technology which will keep them cool during heavy processes. Summing it up, this is the best laptop for Solidworks.
Pros:
- Strong performance
- Awesome graphics
- Nice and comfortable keyboard
- Smooth and sleek design
Cons:
- Average battery life
- Speaker could’ve been better
4. Acer Aspire Nitro 5 Laptop
- Intel Core i7-11800H Processor 4.6GHz, 8 cores, 16 threads
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
- 17.3" widescreen LED-backlit IPS display
- 144Hz refresh rate and 80% screen-to-body
- 16GB DDR4 3200MHz memory
- 1TB NVMe SSD (2 x PCIe M.2 Slots)
- Acer CoolBoost technology
One of the hottest selling and best laptop for Solidworks, Acer Aspire Nitro 5 is a perfect fit for Solidworks.
But why?
The primary reason is Intel Core i7-11800H, which is a solid processor, having 8 cores, 16 threads, and 24MB intel smart cache. These CPU specifications are important for smooth performance.
This laptop has NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (4GB dedicated GDDR6 VRAM) GPU, which is very rare to find in budget laptops.
A powerful GPU makes the designing and rendering process a lot more faster and efficient.
Moreover, Acer Nitro 5 comes with a 1TB NVMe SSD, highly efficient for storing large files and opening them in one click. Nevertheless, 16GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM makes it more efficient and powerful.
There’s even room for upgrading RAM and storage further, which is very common in modern-day laptops.
Since I personally own this laptop, I can vouch for its performance, but Acer could’ve worked a bit more on the build quality.
However, the display is pretty good, 17.3″ FHD 144Hz IPS, which is considered as best for designing purposes.
The bottom line is that this laptop is definitely the best laptop for Solidworks and even for other purposes like gaming.
Pros:
- Powerful system
- Sturdy and sleek build
- Reasonable price
Cons:
- Does not come with an SDCard reader and Thunderbolt 3
5. ASUS ZenBook 15 Laptop
- Innovative ScreenPad: 5.65-inch interactive touchscreen trackpad
- App Switcher on ScreenPad
- 15.6 inch FHD NanoEdge bezel touch display
- Intel Core i7-10750H
- GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
It is very hard to make a slim laptop with the best possible specifications, but Asus engineers are pretty good at it, I must say.
TBH, Asus literally makes the best gaming laptops, and never compromises with the hardware quality.
ASUS ZenBook 15 is one of their finest creations of the company. The touchpad is replaced with a ScreenPad 2.0, which is much more convenient when compared to the traditional touchpad.
Under the hood, it has Intel Core i7-10750H, GeForce GTX 1650 Ti and 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD which is a solid configuration, but instead of GTX 1650 Ti, a GTX 3050 would have been better.
The laptop comes with a bright and FHD NanoEdge bezel touch display that is capable of producing high-quality colors, making this laptop ideal for designers like you. If you buy a touch pen, the design will be more flexible since this is a touch screen laptop.
Talking about the build quality, Asus impressed me quite a lot this time. This laptop is well built, not using cheap fiber plastic, but aluminum.
So, is this the best laptop for Solidworks?
Well, definitely. This laptop ticks all the boxes and can be a great fit for your needs.
Pros:
- Glamorous design
- Excellent screen pad functionality
- Easy to use keyboard
- Nice audio
Cons:
- A little expensive
- Could’ve provided a better GPU
6. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Gaming Laptop
- 14" 144Hz Full HD IPS-Level PANTONE Validated Anti-Glare Display
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6 Graphics
- AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS Processor 3.1GHz (8 Cores, 16 Threads)
- 16GB DDR4-3200 Memory
- 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD
- Speakers with Smart AMP Technology and Dolby Atmos
Another Asus laptop? Well yes, :p.
This Asus laptop for Solidworks is significantly better than the one we reviewed above but not in all aspects.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Gaming Laptop comes with a 14-inch screen which is quite acceptable because it has a solid refresh rate of 144hz.
To keep the system lag-free, it comes with 16GB RAM, which is decent enough to play GTA V on full settings, while watching videos on Chrome.
You can smoothly run SolidWorks on this laptop and render your models without having to call the fire department.
This Asus laptop for Solidworks comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS, another reason why I included this laptop on our list.
Moreover, it comes with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 which makes this laptop significantly better than the previous one.
So if you want to comprise 1 inch of screen size and top-notch build quality, this laptop is the best for Solidworks.
Pros
- Solid GPU & CPU
- Easy to carry
- Affordable
- Attractive design
Cons
- Screen size is only 14”
7. Lenovo ThinkPad P52
- 8th Generation Kaby Lake R Intel Core i7-8550U
- NVIDIA Quadro P500 with 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM
- 15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS Technology LED Backlight Display
- 32GB DDR4 Memory, Built-in HD webcam, Full-Size Backlight Keyboard
- 512GB SSD (Solid State Drive)
Next on our list of best Solidworks laptops is Lenovo ThinkPad P52s Mobile Workstation Ultrabook Laptop, which is a beast machine. This laptop is powerful enough to run CAD software like Solidworks, Mastercam, and Maya.
It has an NVIDIA Quadro P500 with 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM that is a professional-grade graphics card ideal for running industry-level software. This laptop is even good for teletherapy and gaming.
Furthermore, it offers 512GB of SSD storage and 32GB of RAM that’s a pretty good combination. The keyboard is backlit, there’s a fingerprint sensor for additional security, and it has several ports for enabling connectivity.
However, the processor (Intel 8th Gen i7-8550U 4-core) is something which I think could be better, but overall, this is one of the best laptops for Solidworks.
Pros
- Industry-level GPU
- Enough RAM for multitasking
- Backlit keyboard
Cons
- CPU could’ve been better
8. Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming Laptop
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor
- 16GB DDR4 RAM, and 512GB NVMe SSD storage
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics
- 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS display
- Legion TrueStrike keyboard with 4-zone RGB backlight
Looking for the best budget laptop for Solidworks? We have got you covered :).
Lenovo Legion 5 is one of the best-selling budget laptop suitable for Solidworks. It offers a solid configuration, capable of running not only SolidWorks but AutoCAD, Maya 3D, and music software like Ableton and Adobe photoshop.
It comes with 16GB RAM, 512GB Storage, both are upgradeable. I’d recommend adding another 512GB SSD storage later. Its GPU, i.e., NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050Ti is sufficient enough for rendering the projects efficiently.
Furthermore, it features an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, best for running Solidworks. Overall, this laptop is the best budget laptop for Solidworks, and we recommend this to those who have a budget under $1200.
Pros:
- Sturdy build
- Good performance
- Nice audio quality
Cons:
- Battery life is very bad
- Rear ports can be hard to navigate
9. MSI Creator 15 Professional Laptop
- 15.6" 4K UHD True Pixel Display with 100% AdobeRGB color gamut
- Intel Core i7 processor
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER
- MSI's exclusive Cooler Boost Technology
CPU or Processor
The MSI laptop comes equipped with a 16-thread Intel Core i7-10875H processor with a speed of 2.3GHz base that can be extended up to 5.1GHz.
The excellent graphics is supported by an 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 GPU. The one place that it might lack a bit would be the RAM of just 16 GB and the storage of 512 GB. But it is a budgeted laptop so you are getting yourself a steal.
The processor is perfect for sustaining Solidworks software and backed with the RAM so you can easily develop and create small to mid-level projects.
And it comes pre-installed with Windows 10 software as well, so you need not worry about your projects; it is the best laptop for Solidworks!
Design & Build
It has a stylish yet professional look to it; it would fit right on your work desk. It comes with a standard IR camera and a fingerprint scanner for an extra layer of security. It has a pretty solid build and does not feel cheap.
Display
The full HD display with 1,920-by-1,080-pixel is just made for creative works. It has a sleek display and one of the best things about it would be the anti-reflective screen.
So you wouldn’t be distracted by either your reflection or anything in front of the screen.
Other features
Speakers are nicely situated on either side of the palm rest and give good sound effects without sounding dull or monotonous.
Keyboard- With a 1.5mm of key travel it is really shallow and reduces the effort to type and makes minimal noises. It is the layout that might prove to be a little troublesome.
The ctrl key is bigger than necessary, forcing the fn key to be on the other side, which is different from normal keyboards and also makes pressing Fn and keys combo difficult. The RGB backlights have been replaced by white color which is very pleasant.
Pros:
- Strong hardware at affordable prices
- Very long battery life
- Fingerprint scanner
- IR webcam
Cons:
- Tends to heat up
- One USB Type-A port
System Requirements for Solidworks
Before we go on to our list of best laptops for Solidworks, you need to understand the basic hardware requirements that a laptop needs to have before installing the software.
Remember you cannot just buy any random laptop that looks fancy; make sure that it has the following features in them:
CPU or Processor
The first thing you would require for a laptop for Solidworks would be a solid processor or CPU.
For the software to work, it needs to have a multi-core processor that can give you 3.3Ghz or better clock speed.
And you don’t need to stop at just that; if you find it even faster, go it. It is your projects that would get done with even more speed.
As for the core, Core i7 or i9 processors hosting at least six cores would be suitable for Solidworks.
The applications like Solidworks Simulation and Photoview 360 require the backing of a multi-core processor for their best performance. Anything less than that, and you will be compromising on a lot of things.
But if you require it, you can use in-context references, extensive assembly modes, and other performance tools to reduce the strain on the processors.
Operating System
Solidworks makes their software just for Windows users. Therefore, you should avoid purchasing a MacBook for Solidworks just because it is powerful.
Furthermore, even in Windows, Solidworks supports only Windows 7 and Windows 10, 64-bit versions.
The Windows home & 8.1 versions are also excluded from the supported software list.
RAM
To use Solidworks, you need at the very least 16 GB of RAM, if not more. It depends on the type of projects that you plan to work on.
If you have 8 GB RAM, you can work on just small or medium projects and models. If you try to do anything more significant than that, then your laptop would crash.
And if you work with particularly massive projects, it is best advised to purchase a laptop with 32GB of RAM. And if you deal with 3D designs, then DDR4 RAM should be preferred.
Hard Drive
Instead of the traditional hard drive, a laptop for Solidworks is recommended to have an SSD drive of at least 512GB for the best performance.
This is because the CAD files, including renders, are so large that your 128 or 256GB SSD would fill up real fast.
And if it is already not equipped, then you can buy it as a separate entity.
If not SATA SSD, then PCIe NVMe SSD drive would give you excellent results.
Graphics Card
Since Solidworks is primarily a modeling/rendering application, it requires solid and powerful graphics cards, more precisely a workstation-class, OpenGL enabled GPU.
NVIDIA Quadro, AMD FirePro, and AMD Radeon Pro WX series cards are some of the workstation-class GPUs that will give you even better performance than the GPU that you will find in gaming laptops.
If you want a budgeted one, you can go for Quadro P600 or Radeon Pro WX3100 cards, while in the mid-range, you will get Quadro P1000/2000 or Radeon WX 4100. As for the higher-end GPUs, we have NVidia Quadro P4000 or Radeon WX5100 or higher models
FAQs
Is a gaming laptop good for SolidWorks?
You cannot declare all gaming laptops as being suitable for working with Solidworks. As such, Infinity gaming laptops and Asus TUF Gaming laptops are pretty good ones that would double as gaming and application developing laptops.
They have good GPU memory, inbuilt VRAM, and RAM specifically designed to launch heavy-duty applications. ASUS laptops will be recommended if you have a limited budget.
Is 8GB of RAM enough for SolidWorks?
It is enough but with the catch that you won’t be able to work on big projects and would have to rely on just small or mid-range ones. Anything bigger than that and your laptop would crash.
Which laptop is best for SOLIDWORKS?
There are several laptops that give good support to Solidworks. But amongst them, Asus, Acer, and MSI give you the best laptop for Solidworks.
Is more RAM better for Solidworks?
Absolutely! Solidworks is a very heavy-duty software that requires a lot of RAM to work. And better the RAM, the faster and smoother the software will work. If you use it for big developments then it would be best to go for the largest RAM that you can possibly buy.
Is CPU or GPU more important for Solidworks?
Yes. Solidworks is a CPU and GPU-backed software that won’t run in the absence of any of them. And even then you would be required to have a strong CPU and GPU in order for a program to run smoothly.
Verdict
Our top pick for the best laptop for Solidworks is ASUS ZenBook 15 Laptop. It has a gorgeous display with RAM, GPU, and processor fitting perfectly against the requirements of Solidworks.
Another reason to feature it as the best Solidworks laptop is the build of the laptop that is suited for long-term usage without taking a toll on your body.
And if you ever want to distract yourself from work, the speakers too give you an environment to immerse yourself.
By Sam Rhodes
Hi, I’m Sam Rhodes, a passionate tech reviewer, and gamer. I started Geekyslug with the motive of sharing my knowledge about tech gadgets like gaming laptops, tablets, graphic cards, keyboards, and whatnot.
I also share troubleshooting guides, helping people resolve issues with their gadgets. When I’m not writing, I prefer playing Valorant, Call of duty, GTA5 or outdoor activities like skateboarding and off-roading on my bike.
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