Two Best Laptop for Autodesk Maya 2022

A few months ago I wrote an extensive article for students and professionals about the best laptop for Autodesk Maya 2022.

This is a continuation of that topic, looking into what the best laptops would be in 2022 (latest release date and up) and also doing a comparison with Poser Pro/Design 2020 as we follow this industry closely.

CONSOLE DEVELOPMENT: 2020-2021 vs 2021-2022

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When it comes to console development, there are two main events that occur in this industry. The first is the release of a new console – PlayStation 5 for example, and the second is the release of a game that which developers can take advantage of all the new hardware in the console.

For example, a new console will be released on November 15th, 2022, and a game like Kingdom Hearts 3 is released shortly after on December 5th, 2022. This makes sense as it takes time to develop games for consoles – up to 2 years from the time of announcements from developers! So, this means that there are not many games coming out until late 2020 or early 2022 that can take advantage of the latest hardware specs.

As Will Smith said in Men In Black “A person is smart. People are dumb… panicky dangerous animals and you know it”. It seems developers agree with him…or they just throw everything at us at once! How do I know this? By looking at past trends:

Note: You can click on the images to see a larger version of them.

What you can see from these charts is that there aren’t many games released until at least 2 years after a new console release, and even then they only have 4 titles during those first two years! Imagine having a console with those specs today – that’s how powerful it is! Let’s now compare with Autodesk Maya 2022 as this software will be able to take advantage of all those features.

GAME DEVELOPMENT: 2020-2021 vs 2021-2022

You might say “what about game development? Will Autodesk Maya still be relevant?”. This is why I want to bring up Poser Pro 2020 and Designer 2020. This software is also used for game development. So, let’s compare that with Maya:

Maya is still going strong in 2020-2022, but by 2022 it starts to decline even more! It seems Poser Pro and Designer 2020 will be the favored software of choice when it comes to game development. Why? Look at this chart…

You can see a steady decline during this period, while Poser Pro and Designer only decline slightly. This makes sense as these two specialize in rendering whereas Maya specializes in animation (even though both are tools from the same developer). Also, keep in mind that many companies use custom engines to develop their games – they could still use other software like Maya for portions of the work then integrate them into their engine for performance reasons.

So, let’s summarize all of this:

– Console development can take up to 2 years or more from the time of release and only has 4 games released in those first two years. The latest console specs will not be available until 2022 at least we do not believe so as developers need time to learn and develop for new hardware.

– Game development is either a hit or miss with Autodesk Maya – it goes through periods of strong growth then declines slightly as Poser/Designer takes over. This is due to those companies using their own custom engines which may run better on Poser/Designer than they would on Maya.

Top 2 Best Laptop for Autodesk Maya in 2022

This leads us into our next section where we compare both Dell XPS 15 (2020) and HP Spectre x360 15 (2022).

1) Dell XPS 15 2020 –

No Thunderbolt 3 / Gamers, this is not the laptop for you!

(released November 14th, 2019)

As we know from our previous article here, Dell has a 2-year release cycle for their laptops. This means that the Dell XPS 15 2020 was released on November 13th, 2019, and will be available until at least November 11th, 2022. So this means it’s best to buy by January 1st, 2020 as newer models may come out towards the end of 2022.

This also applies to other manufacturers such as Razer and Asus who have similar release cycles:

So why does this matter? Well keep reading…we’ll tell you!

It looks like the Dell XPS 15 2020 is a decent contender for Autodesk Maya as it has Thunderbolt 3…but no USB-Type C. This means you won’t be able to hook up an external GPU (eGPU) to this laptop, and that’s a deal-breaker for many 3D artists who want to use tools such as Poser or Designer along with Autodesk Maya. Why? Well, let’s talk about our next contender:

2) HP Spectre x360 2022 –

No Thunderbold 3 / Gamers, this is not the laptop for you either!

This model was confirmed by HP back in 2019 so we don’t have any specs on this as of yet. According to the laptop release cycle, this laptop should be available around January 1st, 2022 which is just right for those artists who want to learn Autodesk Maya 2022 and have a decent laptop that can run it at good speeds.

The HP Spectre x360 has a USB-Type C port so it’s perfect for those users wanting to use eGPUs such as the Razer Core Pro or Asus XG Station Pro along with their laptops. You can also easily hook up other devices such as hard drives so you’ll never have to worry about running out of storage space (1TB base model).

So why go with Thunderbolt 3? Well here’s what I’ve noticed:

Most companies that make GPUs tend to produce their own eGPU enclosures and sell them as a kit or bundle. For example, Sapphire makes this kit:

This kit has everything you need to start using an external GPU with Thunderbolt 3 on your laptop. It comes with a graphics card (NVidia GTX 1080TI), a power supply unit (550W PSU), and the enclosure itself if you wanted to use your own graphics card. If not, there are plenty of others out there that range from $700-$1,000 which is nothing compared to the price of a new laptop that’ll cost at least $2,400 for Autodesk Maya 2022…

Nvidia Quadro GPUs can also be used through Nvidia’s website here (separate login required). So I’d say go with Quadro if you’re running Autodesk Maya 2022 on a laptop.

So to summarize everything…

Best Laptop for Autodesk Maya in 2022

This all comes down to user preference and how much they are willing to spend. The HP Spectre x360, (March 1st, 2022 is when pre-orders started) will cost anywhere from $1,300-$2,000 depending on the specs that you want. The Dell XPS 15 2020 can also be purchased by January 2022 for roughly the same price starting at $1,200, but keep in mind there’s no Thunderbolt 3 or USB-Type C port meaning eGPUs won’t work out of the box unless you buy an adapter for it.

Needless to say, I’ll be waiting until late 2022 to purchase my next laptop for Autodesk Maya 2022…I suggest you do the same!

Happy Animating!