You asked for a Laptop costing under £2500.

You told me that you needed a high performance laptop for high performance/speed in productivity. You also added the following additional information: Office, CAD, video editing, photo editing. Lots of RAM needed. Storage space useful but not essential as much will be saved to network.

With this additional information, I was able to offer you some diverse choices. All of these had discrete GPUs, which will be very helpful to your CAD and editing work. While professional workstation GPUs such as the A4000 or the Quadro line deliver great performance, they do tend to be somewhat overpriced compared to the GeForce RTX line of GPUs, particularly when it comes to performance per £ in professional applications. If you are only buying one laptop for your own use, I would strongly recommend the GeForce GPUs below. If you are buying multiple (10+) laptops for deployment in a large busineess, that’s when you would consider paying the extra for the Quadro or A- series GPUs, as they will receive priority when it comes to workstation-related driver updates. But bear in mind you are paying a considerable amount extra (for the same or worse performance as GeForce GPUs) for this support which an individual user is unlikely to need.

Long story short – I think you’ll get much, much better value out of the GeForce GPUs, as long as they have enough video memory. As many laptops that contain these GPUs are aimed at gaming, you should check the designs of the machines I recommended below as they might not fit in with a professional workplace, although do remember things like lighting can be disabled.

I searched a range of different shops for something that would suit your needs. I have chosen the three options below as the best ones to suit your requirements. However, we all have our own tastes (and of course, prices can change), so I have also included search links for each shop at the bottom of this page in case you’d like to browse further.

I always choose three options – the best performing option within your budget (i.e. best suited to meet your needs for the longest possible time), the cheapest option that still meets your needs effectively and a mid-range option which is a compromise between the two. If you are able to, I would usually recommend the first option as it is likely to be powerful enough to meet your needs for the longest before it needs replacing. However, I specify three choices so that you can pick the one that best suits your circumstances.

If you only want to see laptops with Quadro or A series GPUs, fill out another request specifying exactly what you want in the additional information section.

Prices correct as of 18th Jan 2022


1. Best overall performance: MSI GE66 Raider 11UH-601UK Core i7 32GB 1TB SSD RTX 3080 Max-Q 15.6" QHD Win10 Home Gaming Laptop
£2499.99

Key features:
CPU: Intel Core i7 11800H 2.3GHz
RAM: 32GB
Storage: 1024GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q 8GB
This choice represents the best overall performance I could get from your budget. I chose it primarily based on its CPU, RAM and GPU, all of which are excellent. It has everything you will need – plenty of RAM, enough storage to be able to work locally on files up to about 750 GB and an excellent GPU.


2. Cheapest option: Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-54 Core i7 16GB 512GB SSD + 1TB HDD RTX 3060 15.6" Win10 Home Performance Gaming Laptop
£1299.99

Key features:
CPU: Intel Core i7 11800H 2.3GHZ
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 1.5 TB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB
This choice represents the cheapest device I could find that still meets your needs. I chose it primarily based on its CPU and GPU, both of which are very good. It will not give the same level of performance as the other two options, but it will be able to cope with your workload.


3. Best of both worlds option: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 Ryzen 9 16GB 1TB SSD RTX 3080 15.6" FHD Win10 Home Gaming Laptop
£1999.98

Key features:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS 3.1GHz
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 1024GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 8GB
This choice represents the best of both worlds – cheaper than choice 1 but more powerful than choice 2. I chose it primarily based on its CPU and GPU, both of which are excellent. This will be more than enough for your needs.


Why did I choose these for you?

It is important that you understand what the components of a laptop do so that you can make an informed choice. Here is my very basic explanation for each:

  • CPU: The brain of your laptop. A better one makes your laptop faster.
  • RAM: Your laptop’s short term memory – more of this means it can cope well with doing more things at once.
  • Storage: How much space your laptop has to store files, photos, apps etc. More storage means you can store more stuff.
  • Graphics: Your laptop has a graphics processor (GPU) responsible for how things appear on the screen. A better GPU will mean your device will cope better with more complicated graphics, such as in 3D games.

If you would like to browse the shops I searched for yourself, here are some links that will take you directly to the search results you require:

Some of the links on this page are affiliate links – that means if you go on to buy after clicking one of them, I may receive a small payment. This is how I am able to provide this service for free. It does not affect the price you pay, nor does it affect the recommendations I make – I will always recommend the best I can find to fit your usage, regardless of what shop it is from or any affiliation.

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