Any composers here that do memory and cpu intensive projects ( 30+ GB ram ) in Cubase on windows laptop ?
What laptops are you using ?
Razer Blade 15 2020 with 16 RB RAM. Will be upgrading to 32.
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Custom built 17" laptop stats below -
Boosting to 5 GHz CPU
I have pared down everything I can to run it as a DAW only machine, bare minimum GPU drivers using NVCleanInstall
Used O&O Shutup to disable all of Windows always on tat (onedrive, all telemetry, useless software, etc.)
Used MSER MicroSoft Edge Redirect to disable Edge completely while not affecting Edge WebView which some VSTs use among other software.
Amended the Power Settings, Added NVMe drives, etc., etc.
It is an old gal now (around 9 years) but still churns through most tasks without so much as a hiccup.
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Hi! Here’s my two penn’orth:-
Believe it or not but, alongside a heavily-tweaked Carillon desktop (which itself is no spring chicken!) I use an ancient HP EliteBook 8570W (Core i7-3720QM CPU @ 2.60GHz) running Win10 with 24GB RAM and two 1GB SSD’s and rarely have any issues!!
It has an equally vintage ExpressCard slot (for my ancient UAD-2 Solo DSP card) which is one reason why I’ve stuck with it … that and the fact it still works, has bombproof build quality, and I can buy replacement batteries, keyboards and other bits for it at extremely affordable rates!
I may have one BSOD type failure a year … but that’s usually associated with me attempting to install a Win11 driver (or Win XP / Vista / 7 / 8 driver for some old bit of kit I own) so I’ve really only myself to blame. It’s really stable … and that’s half the battle!
If I had the money to purchase an upgrade - and it would have to be an upgrade - to improve on the scale of projects it could handle at lower latencies, then I probably would … but I don’t so this does almost everything I need it to, repeatably, predictably and with little low-level intervention from me.
Good luck … but don’t necessarily get taken in by the headline specs: there’s much, much more to a usable (and stable) laptop system than raw grunt, especially (but not limited to) the BIOS / UEFI setup capability and config!
Rgds,
S.
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| Device name | MSI Leopard GP66 |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i7-10870H CPU @ 4.30GHz (Overclocked) |
| Installed RAM | 64,0 GB |
| System type | 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor |
| Storage type | 2X Samsung 970 Plus M2 Nvme’s |
| Display adapter | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU |
| Edition | Windows 10 Home |
|---|---|
| Version | 22H2 |
For example, it will run 100+ audio tracks and 200 VSTs with around 50% CPU load and less than 16 GB RAM.
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Used a bunch of Windows laptops with Cubase for many years, but since the introduction of the Apple Silicon Macs, they’re currently hard to beat for performance per watt, and thus, Apple Silicon Macs are thinner, quieter, more powerful, have better battery life, etc., than the vast majority of Windows laptops. However, that is beginning to change, and I think the next few years will balance out the pendulum for portable computing and pro audio. I’m certain that Steinberg is paying close attention to Windows on ARM, now that it is finally gaining some muscle. And Intel’s latest chips aren’t bad at all. 15th gen should be interesting too.
What I wish Steinberg would do is invest in Linux. But alas, that’s unlikely to happen any time soon.
But anyway, you can do some complex production on a Windows laptop no problem. I’d suggest sticking with at least 12th gen and up, but even a slightly older 11th gen i7-11850H (Tiger Lake circa 2021) laptop has quite a bit of punch for a Windows laptop and can handle complex projects for sure. However, it will have lousy battery life, and the fan will annoy you when it gets going, and it weighs almost twice as much as an Apple Silicon machine. But again, I believe the gap will be closing in the near future.