I've been using the Razer Blade 16 4090 about six months now and it's been a superb experience. It's one of the only laptops I can use as a professional video editing desktop replacement in the morning, then take it with me to a serious business meeting later that day without people thinking it's a "gaming toy" and finally use it as a gaming toy to play Cyberpunk with the path tracing on in the evening. It's the first computer I ever had that can dot it "all" and actually made me to sell my desktop. There are some quirks of course like the sometimes unreliable Synapse software and the infamous Razer customer service but in an everyday use it's a versatile beast!
I really like how this video asks and answers the question to whether or not 4090 laptop GPU's are capable of pulling of production-level 3D work. I'm a 3D artist that spends most of my time on textures, materials, and shaders and I've spent the last 3 or so years trying to find a laptop that can serve as a comfortable desktop replacement. I pulled the trigger last year on a Razer Blade 17 with a 3080Ti and it has a few quirks but overall it's been a very pleasant experience for 3D work. Part of me really wants to upgrade to a 4090 Blade 16 but I'm trying to hold off on any laptop purchases until the 50-series GPU's come out hopefully sometime early next year.
The video I've been looking for, awesome! I've been remote desktopping as a digital nomad, but couldn't sell myself on just getting a laptop like this while my 4090 is back at home. Thank you!
Gamer and professionnal photographer, my razer blade 18 - 4080 is a very good tool and toy for me. The REAL issue is the 8bit display. You can work around an incomplete adobe color space, but it is a nightmate to work around bandings of an 8bit display for creative purposes. Most of the time it is not an issue as I'm docked to external monitors. But on the go, it is a bad flaw
I'm wondering why Razer puts the same exact keyboard on all their laptops regardless of the size. It's not like it's a good keyboard either, it's terribly cramped, has low key travel, and looks completely weird on this 18 inch beast of a machine. Anyway, great video once again Alex!
I must admit I like the clean look of it, even tho I am a big fan of their keyboards either. And if you put the 14"/16" and 18" next to each other on a marketing image, it looks insanely classy ;)
The reason is simple: Cost savings. They just want to use the same keyboard for all devices. So they don't have to develop a new keyboard. Second reason is design. Placing the touchpad in the middle of the device looks more clean. But then you cannot implement a numpad. Razer is design over usability.
These Blades are becoming almost as genuinely impressive as they are expensive. I guess that when everything jumped up in price with the 40 series, especially the 4080 and 4090, Razer was already at that higher pricepoint so they barely had to adjust. It's quite impressive how they have this incredibly sleek 18" machine that looks like a MacBook but is basically a 13700K + 3090 Ti in disguise. You do pay for that, but the sheer capabilities it offers are astounding. "Desktop replacement" has never made so much sense.
It is funny how this gaming laptop is actualy better than not most, but all of the so called "creator " laptops in terms of creativity performance , and sheer power. So why the heck do other laptop firms make useless machines that are maybe easier to carry around but suck at actual performance as compared to this?
that machine is a beast want it so badly, my old i7-6700h+gtx960m just barely holds up with my work apps and games (especially games since the gpu is so crappy ahah) I'll wait when Razer will release new models and put discount on these so it would not hurt so much to my wallet
Just got the machine. Migrated a Blender project that sucked up all of my desktop 3090's 24gigs of VRAM. The blade has 16gigs VRAM, resulting in drastically increased render time, about five to ten times as long. Optimization is key for working with these laptops. They are powerful, yes, but they just can't handle everything you throw at them and expect only marginally less performance. If you prep your CGI to work within certain parameters, the Blade is a breeze to work with. Still i'd be hesitant to accept CGI jobs when this machine is all my resources.
"I really enjoyed watching this episode, as it brought together a talented unconventional artist and one of the most powerful laptops in the world. What motivated me even more to continue watching was your fantastic presentation, Alex, and how you and the director added an element of excitement and challenge to this episode! I am a fan of yours and a follower of Notebookcheck, the famous and amazing magazine. You deserve praise 👍
Just in time, thank you! I am about to pick a laptop for light to medium to light 3d work. As a side note. Please, use new Cinebench 2024 GPU benchmark for the future laptop tests. It mimics real life 3D work quite well. I've noticed you used CB24 to test m3 MAX CPU but not GPU.
Sweet, hopefully this was helpful for you then! What software are you working with? Thanks for your input regarding CB 2024. We started to include it in some reviews, but we are always a little slower to include new benchmarks, since our big strenghts is our database that lets you compare almost everything we ever tested. But you will see CB2024 a lot more often in the future!
Not interested in the Blade 18, but you actually got a proper CG artist. I know, because I am one and I instantly recognized my software :D with actual feedback instead of someone clueless about CG stating FPS in the viewport.
😮😮 I am in the market for a "really" good workstation type laptop that can game as well since I just started Architecture school!!! This review has sold me!!!!
Cool. I’d like to see a video dealing with real time audio virtual orchestral production in a DAW, perhaps using the Asus ROG Flow x16! Because DPC latency is a critical problem with many laptops. Your review had the Flow x16 at about 1 millisecond-can that be reduced or how badly does that affect things, eg, if you’re recording live guitar through a Neural DSP amp plugin or playing 80 tracks at once for an orchestral mock-up ? Thanks! (The Dell XPS is infamously somehow great for many but almost useless for others in this field.)
More like a sidenote, but I wish there would be a bigger selection of thinner gaming laptops with around 2cm of thickness. This Razer looks absolutely stunning. (Where is the Discord server, Alex?)
But if there were more, then more people would complain that thin gaming laptops do not make any sense ;) I will see what I can do once I get some time to breathe, but December and january will be very busy! ;)
@@NotebookcheckReviews hmmm, you have a point that gaming laptops are performance oriented and thinner models leave some power on the table, but I believe there is a target audience for them. Maaaaybe if solid state cooling and Strix Halo kicks off, we will see more of them. I hope you will manage to get a server going, it's nice to interact with this community during live streams.
thanks for the informative video! What model of laptop stand is shown in the video? This laptop is large and heavy and it is not so easy to find a suitable stand for it. Thank you!
Creator laptop should have Numeric section on keyboard - 2D/3D artists may have shortcuts there. For 18 inch there is no excuse for puting crippled keyboard.
The Blade is actually really good, especially in the balanced profile. You will hear it when you crank it, but I would say its still a bit better compared to the other options on the market!
@@NotebookcheckReviews would be interesting to hear the different modes and what performance is possible. Especially quiet mode is of interest since you can walk away when it is rendering for long periods.
Probably not much. The limitation is in the power draw and therefore resulting heat problems. Especially if you have a juicy 13950 or even 13980 inside, so throttling becomes a heavy issue and they can’t keep up the performance in real usage like they do on paper. That’s why I went with a current zbook i7-13800 and 4080 (just cause of vram for 6k video editing). And don’t forget it’s an ad, so they exaggerate the performance.
I would agree, I would love to see more VRAM across the board for future cards, especially for content creation applications. And while it was an ad, everything Alex and I had to say, was entirely our honest opinion. ;)
Sweet, quite the monster that thing. I tested/used the 2022 version for quite some time and really enjoyed my time with it. Never got the chance to work with the updated model.
When you are booked on assignment you most likely do not really care about battery life … And this was not supposed to be a laptop instead of desktop debate, both have their advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes you just need the one or the other, sometimes both!
I've been using the Razer Blade 16 4090 about six months now and it's been a superb experience. It's one of the only laptops I can use as a professional video editing desktop replacement in the morning, then take it with me to a serious business meeting later that day without people thinking it's a "gaming toy" and finally use it as a gaming toy to play Cyberpunk with the path tracing on in the evening. It's the first computer I ever had that can dot it "all" and actually made me to sell my desktop. There are some quirks of course like the sometimes unreliable Synapse software and the infamous Razer customer service but in an everyday use it's a versatile beast!
I also enjoyed my time with the 16"quite a bit for our production, I just wished they would include sRGB/Rec709 display profiles.
I really like how this video asks and answers the question to whether or not 4090 laptop GPU's are capable of pulling of production-level 3D work. I'm a 3D artist that spends most of my time on textures, materials, and shaders and I've spent the last 3 or so years trying to find a laptop that can serve as a comfortable desktop replacement.
I pulled the trigger last year on a Razer Blade 17 with a 3080Ti and it has a few quirks but overall it's been a very pleasant experience for 3D work. Part of me really wants to upgrade to a 4090 Blade 16 but I'm trying to hold off on any laptop purchases until the 50-series GPU's come out hopefully sometime early next year.
The video I've been looking for, awesome! I've been remote desktopping as a digital nomad, but couldn't sell myself on just getting a laptop like this while my 4090 is back at home. Thank you!
My Blade 18 has changed the requirements I have when buying a laptop. Forever.
Gamer and professionnal photographer, my razer blade 18 - 4080 is a very good tool and toy for me.
The REAL issue is the 8bit display. You can work around an incomplete adobe color space, but it is a nightmate to work around bandings of an 8bit display for creative purposes.
Most of the time it is not an issue as I'm docked to external monitors. But on the go, it is a bad flaw
We have actually just been talking about adding 8Bit/10Bit as a factor for our rating because of this exact reason.
I'm wondering why Razer puts the same exact keyboard on all their laptops regardless of the size. It's not like it's a good keyboard either, it's terribly cramped, has low key travel, and looks completely weird on this 18 inch beast of a machine. Anyway, great video once again Alex!
I must admit I like the clean look of it, even tho I am a big fan of their keyboards either.
And if you put the 14"/16" and 18" next to each other on a marketing image, it looks insanely classy ;)
The reason is simple: Cost savings. They just want to use the same keyboard for all devices. So they don't have to develop a new keyboard. Second reason is design. Placing the touchpad in the middle of the device looks more clean. But then you cannot implement a numpad. Razer is design over usability.
These Blades are becoming almost as genuinely impressive as they are expensive. I guess that when everything jumped up in price with the 40 series, especially the 4080 and 4090, Razer was already at that higher pricepoint so they barely had to adjust.
It's quite impressive how they have this incredibly sleek 18" machine that looks like a MacBook but is basically a 13700K + 3090 Ti in disguise. You do pay for that, but the sheer capabilities it offers are astounding. "Desktop replacement" has never made so much sense.
Agreed, and even with this screen size, they managed to keep the chassis dimensions "in check" so you can still fit it in a large backpack!
It is funny how this gaming laptop is actualy better than not most, but all of the so called "creator " laptops in terms of creativity performance , and sheer power. So why the heck do other laptop firms make useless machines that are maybe easier to carry around but suck at actual performance as compared to this?
Most manufacturers simply call their high-end notebooks "for creators" without actually asking professionals what they would like to see/use.
that machine is a beast
want it so badly, my old i7-6700h+gtx960m just barely holds up with my work apps and games (especially games since the gpu is so crappy ahah)
I'll wait when Razer will release new models and put discount on these so it would not hurt so much to my wallet
Fingers crossed, that you can get a good deal soon!
Just got the machine. Migrated a Blender project that sucked up all of my desktop 3090's 24gigs of VRAM. The blade has 16gigs VRAM, resulting in drastically increased render time, about five to ten times as long. Optimization is key for working with these laptops. They are powerful, yes, but they just can't handle everything you throw at them and expect only marginally less performance. If you prep your CGI to work within certain parameters, the Blade is a breeze to work with. Still i'd be hesitant to accept CGI jobs when this machine is all my resources.
"I really enjoyed watching this episode, as it brought together a talented unconventional artist and one of the most powerful laptops in the world. What motivated me even more to continue watching was your fantastic presentation, Alex, and how you and the director added an element of excitement and challenge to this episode! I am a fan of yours and a follower of Notebookcheck, the famous and amazing magazine. You deserve praise 👍
how beautiful is this laptop
I’m waiting until I’m not relying on my nans bank account before I buy this lol
Just in time, thank you! I am about to pick a laptop for light to medium to light 3d work.
As a side note. Please, use new Cinebench 2024 GPU benchmark for the future laptop tests. It mimics real life 3D work quite well. I've noticed you used CB24 to test m3 MAX CPU but not GPU.
Sweet, hopefully this was helpful for you then! What software are you working with?
Thanks for your input regarding CB 2024. We started to include it in some reviews, but we are always a little slower to include new benchmarks, since our big strenghts is our database that lets you compare almost everything we ever tested.
But you will see CB2024 a lot more often in the future!
@@NotebookcheckReviews That's great to hear. Primarily C4D with a Redshift, plus Rhino once in a while.
Can you please tell me the background music is soo good for chill working ?
Not interested in the Blade 18, but you actually got a proper CG artist. I know, because I am one and I instantly recognized my software :D with actual feedback instead of someone clueless about CG stating FPS in the viewport.
😮😮 I am in the market for a "really" good workstation type laptop that can game as well since I just started Architecture school!!! This review has sold me!!!!
Glad you liked it, thanks for watching! :)
Cool. I’d like to see a video dealing with real time audio virtual orchestral production in a DAW, perhaps using the Asus ROG Flow x16! Because DPC latency is a critical problem with many laptops. Your review had the Flow x16 at about 1 millisecond-can that be reduced or how badly does that affect things, eg, if you’re recording live guitar through a Neural DSP amp plugin or playing 80 tracks at once for an orchestral mock-up ? Thanks! (The Dell XPS is infamously somehow great for many but almost useless for others in this field.)
Interesting idea! I was actually thinking about musicians myself. I will keep it in mind for similar future projects!
More like a sidenote, but I wish there would be a bigger selection of thinner gaming laptops with around 2cm of thickness. This Razer looks absolutely stunning.
(Where is the Discord server, Alex?)
But if there were more, then more people would complain that thin gaming laptops do not make any sense ;)
I will see what I can do once I get some time to breathe, but December and january will be very busy! ;)
@@NotebookcheckReviews hmmm, you have a point that gaming laptops are performance oriented and thinner models leave some power on the table, but I believe there is a target audience for them. Maaaaybe if solid state cooling and Strix Halo kicks off, we will see more of them.
I hope you will manage to get a server going, it's nice to interact with this community during live streams.
thanks for the informative video! What model of laptop stand is shown in the video? This laptop is large and heavy and it is not so easy to find a suitable stand for it. Thank you!
It is a very old one from belkin that, unfortunately, was discontinued quite a while back!
Hi, may i have a link to that beautiful wallpaper used on the laptop? Thanks:D
I think I found it on unsplash.com!
Creator laptop should have Numeric section on keyboard - 2D/3D artists may have shortcuts there.
For 18 inch there is no excuse for puting crippled keyboard.
How was the fan noise while working with it?
The Blade is actually really good, especially in the balanced profile. You will hear it when you crank it, but I would say its still a bit better compared to the other options on the market!
@@NotebookcheckReviews would be interesting to hear the different modes and what performance is possible. Especially quiet mode is of interest since you can walk away when it is rendering for long periods.
I wonder how much more performance we will get from the upcoming rumored 4090ti laptop gpu
Let us see, what Team Green has in store for us!
Probably not much. The limitation is in the power draw and therefore resulting heat problems. Especially if you have a juicy 13950 or even 13980 inside, so throttling becomes a heavy issue and they can’t keep up the performance in real usage like they do on paper.
That’s why I went with a current zbook i7-13800 and 4080 (just cause of vram for 6k video editing).
And don’t forget it’s an ad, so they exaggerate the performance.
I would agree, I would love to see more VRAM across the board for future cards, especially for content creation applications.
And while it was an ad, everything Alex and I had to say, was entirely our honest opinion. ;)
I use for my rendering a GT77 and work fine.
Sweet, what kind of work are you doing?
Is it a 2023 Titan?
@@NotebookcheckReviews I am an architect and yes I have Titan 2023, with 4090 on it.
Sweet, quite the monster that thing. I tested/used the 2022 version for quite some time and really enjoyed my time with it.
Never got the chance to work with the updated model.
Good content 😄👍
Thank you!
Old logo was much better 😢the new one is horrible ((
Thank you for your feedback!
@@NotebookcheckReviewsChad reply :)
First
Congrats! ;)
30 minutes of battery life, with space heating, better to stick with a desktop.
When you are booked on assignment you most likely do not really care about battery life …
And this was not supposed to be a laptop instead of desktop debate, both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Sometimes you just need the one or the other, sometimes both!