Best Laptops For Revit

Top 6 Best Laptops For Revit (+Hardware Guide-2023)

If you are in search of the best Laptops for Revit for yourself, you have exactly landed in the right place. This is very clear that choosing among tons of laptops there in the market can be very hectic and will take lots of time. To simplify this issue, I have reviewed the best Laptops For Revit so you’ll go through them and choose for yourself a suitable one according to your needs.

You must be well aware that the auto desk Revit has some official system requirements that require it to be fulfilled for Revit to run successfully in your system.

You certainly have to keep these in mind in order that you don’t end up buying a laptop for yourself that can’t even run Revit properly. Also, at the end of the article, you’d find a buyer’s guide for you that might assist in choosing the best laptops for Revit.

The top of Revit is that it does not require a powerful graphics card which makes Revit a lot more suitable for laptops. Knowing that I am going to guide you through the requirements for a good Revit notebook and my picks for the best Laptops for Revit.

Best Laptops for Revit

1. Acer Predator Helios 300 – Best Laptop For Revit (Editor’s Choice)

Best Laptops For Revit

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Deal Alert: Amazon is offering the 2018 version of Acer Predator Helios 300 at the discount value of $1099 (The original price was $1299). Grab this offer before it’s too late. If you have a budget slightly over $1000 (i.e between $1000-$1100), then this is the best laptop for Revit you can get right now at this budget.

Note: This laptop has been reviewed by over 1200 customers on Amazon with a rating of 4.1 and this is often the highest rating laptop on this list with more than 1k reviewers.

There are such a lot of good things to talk about this laptop but I will talk about only relevant points to you.

The display of the laptop is a 15.6-inch full HD IPS display that has good viewing angles and color accuracy however it isn’t the best display at this price.

The build quality of this machine is top-notch. the top panel of the laptop is formed out of metal whereas the rest of the body is made of plastic mostly. By no means that, this is a lightweight or portable laptop. It weighs 6 pounds (2.7 kg) and it might be very hard to use as a portable machine.

The Helios 300 comes with 256GB SSD storage and if the 256GB does not sound good for you, there is a 2.5′ empty slot available wherever you can an additional hard disk. Acer is offering a free kit for HDD accessories, you will order it here.

The read and write speeds of the SSD that comes with the laptop are 520MB and 450MB respectively. The laptop comes with 16GB DDR4 RAM that will manage tasks all right but you can upgrade up to 32GB if you wish.

The surprising part concerning this laptop is its graphics i.e GTX 1060 with 6GB VRAM. There are several laptops on the market like Acer VX 15 and Lenovo Legion Y520 that have been like Helios 300 yet they do not offer GTX 1060 at this price. You will get only GTX 1050Ti and not GTX 1060.

The performance of GTX 1060 is quite fantastic I would say. You will get superb frame rates even on highly demanding games. to give you some plan, here are some of the results of real-world testing of gaming on this laptop.

The keyboard of Helios 300 has of course, backlit and it’ll surely help to use the laptop at night times. The port selection on this laptop is fine I would say and not great. Here is what you’ll be getting.

The Helios 300 does not have excellent battery life. When using it for entertainment purposes, you will expect up to 4 hours of battery life. When you are doing some heavy tasks, you must expect less than 2 hours of battery life.

Specifications
  • Screen Size: 15.6 Inches.
  • Storage:  256GB SSD.
  • RAM: 16GB DDR4 RAM.
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-7700HQ.
  • Graphics card: GTX 1060 6GB (dedicated)
  • Operating System: Windows 10.
  • Weight: 6 lbs.
Pros
  • Excellent build quality.
  • GTX 1060 GPU at this price range.
Cons
  • The display may not be suitable for outdoor usage.

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2. Lenovo IdeaPad Y700

Best Laptops For Revit

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This laptop comes under the 3rd category supported AutoDesk system requirements which are for heavy users. By the looks of the laptop, you can clearly say that this is often a gaming laptop however it is not a powerful one. (More on it later).

It comes with 17.3 inches full HD display that has good viewing angles and color accuracy. The display is suitable for out of doors usage. The display comes with 2 other options i.e 14 inches and 15.6 inches.

The build of this machine is superb but it is quite serious though. It weighs 7.7 pounds (3.49 kg) and it won’t be simple to travel with. If you are working in one place, then it will be perfectly suitable for you and you won’t have any problems. If you travel lots and planning to keep the laptop with you, then this could not be the right choice.

When it comes to performance, it comes with Intel Core i7-6700HQ which isn’t the latest and greatest processor in the market right now however still, it will the job very well. Lenovo has offered 128GB SSD+ 1TB HDD as storage options on this machine that is fairly enough to run Revit with ease. The hard drive that comes with the laptop is 5400 rpm which is kind of slow nowadays however having a further is always a good thing.

The system boots up in just 10-11 seconds and also the real-world performance is also nice on this machine. Running Revit on this laptop won’t be an enormous deal. One of the simplest things about this laptop is, even activity any hardcore tasks, the laptop stays cool and does not heat a lot.

When it involves gaming, the Lenovo Ideapad Y700 comes with the dedicated GeForce 960M that will the job reasonably well. You can play most of the games at good frame rates without any problems. I am not saying that this is a whole gaming laptop because many different laptops on this list have better GPU compared to this one.

The keyboard on this laptop is good and it has a backlit feature with two levels of brightness. The trackpad of the laptop is not very accurate and you wish to press it hard to make it work. I would suggest you get an external mouse for this laptop for a higher experience. Best Laptops For Revit.

Whereas running Autodesk Revit and doing little heavy tasks, expect up to1.5-2 hours of maximum battery life. While using it for personal purposes such as browsing the web, Youtube, movies, etc, you can expect up to 4 hours of battery life.

Specifications
  • Screen Size: 17.3 Inches.
  • Storage:  1TB HDD+ 128GB SSD.
  • RAM: 16GB RAM.
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-6700HQ.
  • Graphics card: GeForce 960M (Dedicated)
  • Operating System: Windows 10.
  • Weight: 7.7 lbs.
Pros
  • The build quality is very good.
  • Decent performance.
  • JBL speakers are very loud.
Cons
  • Quite heavy.

Watch the video by Canoopsy to know more about the laptop.

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3. Acer Aspire E 15 – Best Value For Money Laptop For Revit

Best Laptops For Revit

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I have talked about this superb laptop many times before too however again I am going to discuss it because it is low-cost, faster, and provides great value for money at just $600. Based on Autodesk requirements, this laptop would be available in the 2nd category which is for moderate usage.

Let’s talk about the laptop in detail. The Acer Aspire E 15 comes with a 15.6-inch full HD IPS display. This can be a 60 Hertz Panel that has good viewing angles and color reproduction rather than the above Lenovo IdeaPad Y700.

This is the latest Acer Aspire E15 that was released in October 2017. The laptop comes with Intel’s 8th gen processor i.e Intel Core i5-8250U which is an upgrade from Intel Core i5-7200U Processor. The latest processor can for certain boost the performance by at least 10th or maybe more.

When it involves storage and RAM, this laptop provides you with plenty of customization. First, let’s talk about storage.

By default, you will get a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD that performs extremely and manages the tasks smoothly. If the 256GB SSD isn’t good enough for you, there is a 2.5-inch empty slot to feature either the hard drive or solid-state drive (SSD). (Here is a recommended SSD drive for this laptop).

Acer has offered 8GB RAM on this machine however you can upgrade it up to 16GB by spending simply $80-$90. The process of upgrading the RAM is just about simple. It won’t take you over 5-10 minutes to upgrade the RAM on this laptop. If you are interested to understand how to try this, then you should watch this video. It explains everything in a simple way.

Acer has offered a dedicated GPU (GeForce MX150) i.e on a $600 laptop is actually a nice thing. Though it is not a strong GPU still having a discrete GPU can surely help when doing some projects in Revit. It will play most of the games however not every game. Best Laptops For Revit.

Acer is claiming to offer 15 hours of battery life on this $600 machine however that is not the case in real life. Once you are doing your task in Revit, you can expect around 1-1.5 hours of battery life. While doing some basic tasks, you can simply expect 8 hours of battery life.

Overall, this is the best budget and the best laptop for running Revit in my opinion.

Specifications
  • Screen Size: 15.6 Inches.
  • Storage:  256GB SSD.
  • RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM.
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-8250U.
  • Graphics card: GeForce MX150 (Dedicated)
  • Operating System: Windows 10.
  • Weight: 5.3 lbs. 
Pros
  • Value for money.
  • Performs well.
  • Offers a lot of Customization.
Cons
  • Slightly heavy.

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4. Dell Inspiron i5577 – An Affordable gaming laptop for Revit

Dell Inspiron i5577 review

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Update: Get the newer model of this laptop that has almost the same specs for its pricing. If you have a budget of less than $1k and need a strong machine to run Revit, then this could be your excellent choice that can fulfill your desires.

Let me elaborate on this for you.

This is a multi-purpose laptop that might be used for personal use, gaming, office use, and a lot of others. By the specs and quality of the laptop, I will say that this laptop can run Revit like butter.

Let’s talk about in detail what are the benefits and drawbacks of the laptop.

The laptop has a 15.6-inch full HD TN panel and not IPS. I know this is a rewarding thing to go for a TN display however Ryan Clark has assured me that this is a decent display and has good refresh rates. Therefore you don’t need to worry a lot about the display.

Dell has offered 6 variants of this laptop and I will recommend you go for the highest variant which comes with 16GB DDR4 RAM and 512GB SSD. It will cost you around $950 however I have to say it is still worth it.

The SSD that comes with the laptop is based on PCIe which sure outperforms SATA SSD by a large margin. Inside the laptop, you will get Intel’s 7th gen Core i7 processor i.e Intel Core i7-7700HQ. The CPU will do the job of keeping the laptop quite cool and there are almost no overheating problems there.

Many people have shared the concern that there is much bloatware installed on this laptop. I would highly recommend you install a fresh OS (i.e Windows 10) on the laptop and you are good to go. Best Laptops For Revit.

The GPU of this laptop could be quite powerful compared to the above 2 laptops. The GTX 1050 with 4GB VRAM performs quite fast and here are the benchmarks of 2 games played on this laptop.

And finally, battery life. The Dell Inspiron i5577 has a pretty good battery life compared to the similarly priced laptop Lenovo Y700. For Revit and alternative hardcore tasks, you can expect up to a bit over 2 hours and for moderate to basic usage, you can easily have 8 hours of battery life.

Specifications
  • Screen Size: 15.6 Inches.
  • Storage:  256GB SSD.
  • RAM: 16GB DDR4 RAM.
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-7700HQ.
  • Graphics card: GTX 1050 4GB (dedicated)
  • Operating System: Windows 10.
  • Weight: 5.7 lbs. 
Pros
  • Affordable and powerful gaming laptop.
  • Decent battery life.
Cons
  • TN Panel is good but IPS would have been better.

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5. HP Pavilion Power 15-cb077nr

HP Pavilion Power 15-cb077nr review

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The HP Pavilion Power is a mid-range gaming laptop from HP that has good specs for its quality specifications. It may not be as powerful because of the above Dell Inspiron or Helios 300, however, it has good performance and it costs cheaper than many alternative gaming laptops.

The laptop has the same 15.6-inch IPS non-touch full HD display as many different laptops here and there is almost nothing to complain about the screen quality as a result of it having good color contrast and viewing angles. The body of the laptop is made of plastic mostly however still, it feels rigid and solid. It won’t give you a feel of an inexpensive laptop.

Though HP has offered this laptop in various configurations I will recommend you to go for this one. You will get 128GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD+ 1TB 7200 rpm HDD during this variant. I think this can be a good combination of memory for a laptop for both personal and professional purposes. Best Laptops For Revit.

The laptop comes with 8GB DDR4 memory and therefore the processor inside the machine you will find is Intel Core i7-7700HQ. The heat management of the laptop is pretty good and therefore the system remains cool unless you push the laptop to perform some extreme tasks. I would like the laptop should have included 16GB RAM however still, you can simply run Revit in 8GB memory with ease.

When it comes to gaming, this laptop comes with GTX 1050 with 2GB VRAM. It performs moderately well with good frame rates.

Specifications
  • Screen Size: 15.6 Inches.
  • Storage: 128GB SSD+ 1TB HDD.
  • RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM.
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-7700HQ.
  • Graphics card: GTX 1050 2GB (dedicated)
  • Operating System: Windows 10.
  • Weight: 4 lbs.
Pros
  • Good heat management.
  • Battery life is quite great.
Cons
  • 16GB RAM should have been good.

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6. MSI GL62M

MSI GL62M review

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The last laptop on this list had similar pricing to the above laptop whereas researching about this post. However when a couple of days later, the price got increased up to $70. Still, I have to mention it’s still worth considering based on its specs and quality.

Just like the above 2 laptops, you will find plastic in the body of this laptop however again it is hard and rigid. One important thing that I want to say here is, that fingerprints are simply visible on this laptop. I would recommend you clean the laptop frequently.

The 15.6-inch display has a TN panel on it which has fairly good color accuracy and viewing angles. MSI has offered an anti-glare coating on this display which will for sure help you to use the laptop in outdoor conditions.

By default, you will get 8GB DDR4 RAM however it can be simply upgraded up to 32GB by opening the back. The CPU inside the machine you will find is the same as the above three laptops i.e Intel Core i7-7700HQ. There is nothing a lot to complain about the processor here as a result of it running smoothly without much trouble. The Geekbench 4 score for a single core of the CPU is 4339 and for multi-core, the score is 14614. (Source)

The laptop comes with 128GB M.2 SATA SSD and 1TB hard disk drive (5400 RPM). You will simply upgrade the SSD if the 128GB is not enough for you.

The MSI GL62M comes with different graphics from on top of laptops i.e GTX 1050Ti 4GB version. It is quite quicker than GTX 1050 in terms of performance.

Let me give you a concept of the gaming performance of this laptop.

1. Dota 2= 60 fps (Ultra settings)

2. CSGO= 60 fps (Medium settings)

3. Witcher 3: Wild Hunt = 60 fps (Low settings)

You will get a handful of ports on this laptop and here are they,

On the left side, you’ll get a USB Type-C, 2 USB 3.0, a mini display port, HDM, and ethernet.

On the proper side, you will get a full-size sd card reader and a USB 2.0.

The laptop weighs 5.3 pounds (2.4 kg) and I would say it is fairly portable once you occasionally travel with the laptop. A laptop bag would, sure enough, make it easier to travel with the laptop. Best Laptops For Revit.

Finally, battery life.

Most gaming laptops are not known for battery life and therefore the MSI GL62M also falls under that category. You will expect up to 1.5 hours of maximum battery life when doing heavy tasks. Whereas doing basic tasks, expecting up to 3 hours of battery life isn’t at all impressive.

Specifications
  • Screen Size: 15.6 Inches.
  • Storage: 128GB SSD+ 1TB HDD.
  • RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM.
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-7700HQ.
  • Graphics card: GTX 1050Ti 4GB (dedicated)
  • Operating System: Windows 10.
  • Weight: 5.3 lbs.
Pros
  • Great performance.
  • SSD and RAM are upgradeable.
  • Offers a lot of ports.
Cons
  • Battery life should have been better.

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What are we looking for?

I am very glad that Autodesk put in the effort to outline various levels of Revit hardware/software requirements rather than just putting up a listing of minimal requirements. This allows us to know that parts scale better than others and wherever we should place our focus on.

Major requirements for the Best Laptop For AutoCAD and Revit

Processor

Autodesk makes it very clear that the processor should be the #1 priority:

“Highest affordable CPU speed rating recommended.” – Autodesk

Unlike other visual software (AutoCAD, Solidworks, etc.), Revit does not want a strong graphics card for rendering the drawings.

So what do I recommend?

For an entry model under 950$ – a higher-end Intel Core i5 model could be a necessity. Something above that should have a 5th-7th generation “i7” processor. In some rare cases (covered at the end of the guide), there are laptops under $900, that come with fast i7 H-series CPUs. Best Laptops For Revit.

The exact models, I am talking about are:

Intel Core i7-7700HQ, i5-8300H, i7-8750H or equivalent for 950$+ models
Intel Core i5-7300HQ, i7-7500U, i5-8250U for anything under 950$

Memory

As per usual, 8 GB of RAM should be your start line and 16 GB is the magic spot where you don’t have to worry about the memory (for the most part).

Right now, 1000$ is a good line to draw for what amount of memory is suitable. Any laptop under 1000$ will have 8 GB of RAM and anything over that must include 16 GB onboard.

It does not matter much whether or not the memory is DDR3/DDR4.

Solid State Drive

For point Cloud interactions, it is needed to have either a 10,000+ rpm hard drive or an SSD. Since laptops do not come with HDDs over 7,200 RPM, that leaves us with only 1 possibility – a Solid State Drive. SSDs have fallen dramatically in price and apart from budget laptops – should be part of any Revit laptop.

Now you need to draw a line on what quantity of storage you need – 250, 500, 1000 GB? most likely, something like 250/500 SSD + 1 TB HDD is enough. in that case, your OS, Revit, and projects you’re working on should continue the SSD while older projects and general media may be moved to a spacious HDD.

There are some well-rounded laptops that don’t come with a put SSD. in that unfortunate case, I like to recommend keeping 100$-200$ extra for 250/500 GB SSD (I have had the best experience with Samsung drives, but there are plenty of smart brands to choose from).

Minor Requirements for the Best Laptop For AutoCAD and Revit

We have got down our 3 major requirements processor, memory, and storage. Currently, any leftover budget should go towards ensuring it lasts long, it has an excellent screen to look at and it will perform well when using different professional software apart from Revit.

Screen

You will be looking at it throughout the day (and once in a while – throughout the night). So we would as well make sure it looks smart. Best Laptops For Revit.

A good screen is essential in three simple ways:

  • Allows working during bright daylight without straining your eyes
  • It helps you see your work as it should be seen (as it will be in real life and how your purchasers will see it)
  • It makes your work a touch enjoyable

Every screen is often broken down by its resolution, contrast, brightness, and color gamut.

When we talk about the resolution go for Full HD (1920×1080). There is not a lot of reason to go above Full HD, particularly when Revit developers do not suggest going above 150 DPI scaling. That simply means that fonts and buttons in Revit can not scale properly at high resolutions.

Contrast should be 800:1 or a lot, average brightness should be 280 cd/m or more (which is ~20 cd but usually advertised maximum brightness). Good contrast and brightness are mostly necessary once working outside or near a bright window.

Finally, color space/gamut is not sometimes mentioned with other specifications however some reviewers measure it. In this case, 90%+ sRGB coverage and 60%+ Adobe RGB coverage indicate a wide color space. This means that the screen will produce vivid colors. In some cases, you may need to manually calibrate the screen to minimize its color bias – the tendency to be a small amount too blue/green or red.

Battery Runtime

The importance of battery run-time varies person-to-person.

Someone like me might not care about battery life past four hours – I almost always have a plug near. However, maybe you are dependent on your laptop not failing for a full work day.

There is nothing a lot to it. If you wish for a lot of battery life, confirm your lookout for it. Simply be aware that most manufacturers tend to overestimate the battery time by 1-3 hours as they measure it in a lab setting with the lowest brightness settings, no internet connection, and various little optimizations.

Graphics card

Requirements for a graphics chip are practically non-existent.

For an entry model, the “basic graphics” requirement could be a “Display adapter capable of 24-bit color” that is simply a mouthful way of saying “everything works”. Best Laptops For Revit.

And for more advanced graphics you should have “DirectX 11 capable graphics with Shader Model 3” which has been an industry standard for the past five years. Even old integrated graphics modules like Intel HD Graphics 4000 have DirectX 11 support with Shader Model 5!

So why am I even bringing this up?

Yes, this is often not a major requirement for Revit, however in many cases getting a beefy graphics card may be a lifesaver once using a lot of other professional software. If you will need to work with video editing/AutoCAD/Solidworks. A much better graphics card can help you out tremendously.

Therefore, if the situation is right, I recommend increasing your budget by up to 100$ if that means getting a much better graphics module. Sometimes it might not even mean getting a much better, dedicated graphics card. For example, you may as well get an otherwise performance-identical 6th-generation processor over a 4th-gen one as Intel has greatly improved their integrated graphics within the few past generations.

Conclusion:

I am glad you have come to the end of this article. I hope I may have helped you to decide on the best Laptops for Revit. Every laptop on this list has pros and cons however every laptop is perfectly capable of running Revit. If you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate to let me know. Thank You.