I want to use unreal engine for film making and also want to run after effects and premiere pro. I currently have an old macbook pro, but it’s buggy and slow. I believe it is best to switch to pc, apparently even the M2 macbook isn’t great (nanite, lumen, raytracing) but have no idea where to start. I have a budget of $3500 and would like to get the best laptop that would run UE5, After effects and Premiere pro, flawlessly and I want to make things look as real as possible for exporting for films… Please help
Hey @RSpreviz! Welcome to the forums!
Disclaimer: This is my PERSONAL opinion, and it does not represent the views of Epic Games, Unreal Engine, or their partners. It is simply something that I suggest because of personal experience.
So you need a workstation laptop, if it doesn’t say “Workstation” it’s likely that it isn’t going to meet your standards, just as a quick tip. SOME “Gaming” laptops will be acceptable, but not most.
Now as far as a SPECIFIC laptop, I suggest the ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo. It has about as good of specs as you’re going to get in a laptop, for just under $3k.
With this, you’re looking at an i9 5.3 GHz processor, an Nvidia RTX 2060, 4k 15-inch (for portability) fold-back touch screen, 32+ GB RAM, and dual-fan cooling (AND KEEP the fans unblocked, rendering is very heat-intensive) all in a low-profile, on-the-go package. The only downside is the battery life, rated at 5 hours or so… Which is pretty standard for workstations, lots of power. If they made it 10 hours the battery would be so heavy the laptop might as well be a desktop. 
But that’s about as future-proofed of a rendering laptop you can get right now, in my honest opinion.
I would also suggest “Downgrading” to Windows 10 until more bugs get worked out of 11, to reduce program crashes.
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Hey @RSpreviz!
To add on to the fantastic recommendations @Mind-Brain suggested, here is the link to the minimum hardware and software requirements you will need to run UE5, just in case you need to make some concessions anywhere when looking at Laptop builds:
I will also add that if you can, more storage and memory is always a good idea. UE5 can get pretty beefy especially on graphically heavy projects.
Good luck on finding a good build for your laptop!
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Thank you so much for the info, just checking is this the laptop you are talking about It looks like it has the rtx 3070, not sure if that matters, also doesn’t say workstation, but i’m assuming it is if you recommended it. https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-i9-10980HK-ScreenPad-Celestial-UX582LR-XS94T/dp/B08ZJQ6NDG the other laptop I’m looking at is this alienware x17 Alienware x17 R2 Gaming Laptop I also don’t see workstation anywhere, but I do like the 2T ssd how do you think these compare? Is it true that the Mac cause issues, even the M2 Max ? Thanks again for your advice.
That’s the one! It looks like it has dropped in price!
This link is not associated with Epic Games, Unreal Engine, or their partners
And I misspoke on the graphics card, I meant 3060, but if you can get a 3070 at that price, GO FOR IT! I also forgot to mention the secondary pad/monitor built into the base.
And the “Workstation” thing is just a classification of laptop. “Netbook”, “Multimedia”, “Gaming”, “Workstation” are the categories they’re typically split into
Great, thanks for the advice
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