The best GeForce RTX laptops for STEM students

AN RTX laptop handling STEM apps, creativity and gaming
A GeForce RTX laptop is perfect for STEM students (Image credit: NVIDIA)

The computing requirements for students are changing. Data science has become one of the most popular classes on campus. GPUs have become critical tools in 3D design and modeling. And remote learning, at first necessitated by the global pandemic, is now being adopted by universities as a teaching modality that is here to stay.

Students in STEM subjects need powerful computers to be successful. For engineering students, powerful GPUs mean smooth, interactive 3D design and modeling. They also receive faster numerical simulations, making it easier to tackle challenging design projects and finish coursework faster. For students studying computer science, data science, or economics, GPUs mean accelerated artificial intelligence workloads, which can save minutes or even hours. Without a powerful GPU suited to running this technology, you’ll be stuck waiting in line at the computer lab while your coursemates cruise ahead.

You might associate NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics cards with gaming, but NVIDIA GPUs are one of the key breakthroughs that has enabled the massive expansion of accelerated computing tools that we see today. For example, 3D modeling and simulation workflows are made many times faster and more interactive by RTX GPUs. In addition, the on-board Tensor Cores deliver the massive compute required for artificial intelligence and machine learning in a way nothing else can.

Beyond providing the horsepower for your technical software, GeForce RTX laptops are suited for student life in many other ways. For example, they’re available in thin and light form factors, with some designs even under 20 millimetres and less than 4 pounds.

Thanks to NVIDIA Max-Q technologies, you are able to turn down the fans and make your laptop quieter when it’s not under a heavy load and  automatically extend the battery life by a dynamic system that switches to integrated graphics when the GPU isn’t needed.

On top of all this, GeForce RTX 30 Series laptops also come with NVIDIA Broadcast, which has amazing AI-powered audio and video clean-up tools that make it easier for you to engage in online lectures and collaborate with classmates. And of course, when it’s time to relax, these are some of the fastest gaming laptops out there so you can enjoy the beautiful ray traced graphics of today’s top titles at their very best. 

Let’s look at some examples. These are some of our favorite GeForce RTX laptops that have everything you need for STEM classes, your creative pursuits, gaming, and more:

ASUS TUF Dash F15 with GeForce RTX 3070

An ASUS TUF Dash laptop

Style and power from ASUS (Image credit: ASUS)

With its mecha-inspired design, ultra-thin bezels and slim form-factor, the TUF Dash F15 is as stylish as it is powerful. It’s marketed as a gaming laptop, but the hefty RTX 3070 Laptop GPU has Tensor Cores that are purpose-built for accelerating AI-powered apps and workloads. It has great connectivity, fast DDR5 RAM and a long-lasting battery.

Legion 5i Pro Gen 6 with GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU

A Lenovo Legion 5 laptop

The Lenovo Legion 5i Pro uses AI to manage its power (Image credit: Lenovo)

Also based around the RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, Lenovo’s Legion 5i Pro is ideally suited for any AI-powered task. It has a 16-inch, 2560 x 1600 screen, super-fast WiFi 6, and Legion Coldfront 3.0 technology for first-class thermal performance when you’re pushing the system to its limits. It also has the Lenovo Legion AI Engine, which optimizes performance with dynamic power distribution for the CPU and GPU.

Dell G15 Ryzen edition gaming laptop

A Dell G15 Ryzen Edition laptop

The Dell G15 Ryzen Edition is a portable powerhouse (Image credit: Dell)

Dell’s G15 gaming laptop is based around an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU with an AMD Ryzen 5000 H-Series CPU, a powerful duo that will handle the most important AI-accelerated science and engineering applications as well as your favorite games. This system prioritizes thermal performance so clock speeds can stay higher for longer for processing-intensive tasks.

Acer Nitro 5 with GeForce RTX 3060 GPU

An Acer Nitro 5 laptop

The Acer laptop has a 17.3-inch screen housed in a sleek black chassis (Image credit: Acer)

With its 17.3-inch screen, the Acer system is slightly larger than the previous three, should you prefer a more immersive experience. It has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU and an AMD Ryzen 6800H 3.2GHz processor so it can do everything you’ll need it to on a STEM course. There is 16GB DDR5 memory and a 1TB solid state drive, all contained within a sleek black chassis.

HP OMEN 17.3" Gaming Laptop

An HP Omen laptop

The HP Omen has the larger screen with a higher resolution (Image credit: HP)

Like the Acer system, the HP machine also has a 17.3-inch screen. However, it has a higher resolution so there’s much more space for your applications. It’s an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU paired with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, and the whole package is housed in a slim casing with some sharp lines, a large touchpad and a 4-zone RGB backlit keyboard.

Study faster

If you’re a student in engineering, data science, computer science and economics, a GeForce RTX GPU can run your software faster and enable you to complete more expansive projects in less time. For example, benchmarking tests show that an RTX GPU can deliver 8x faster rendering in modeling software SolidWorks compared to an average modern laptop, giving engineering students a smooth workflow and the option to embark on more complex projects.

GeForce RTX laptops have been shown to deliver 50x faster AI training, so computer science, data science and economics students might train a neural network on a huge dataset that would take days to process on a typical laptop in a totally different time frame.

The NVIDIA AI platform

A major benefit of choosing a GeForce RTX laptop is that it gives you access to NVIDIA’s AI platform. Within this platform, the applications, libraries and system software are all fine-tuned to work together efficiently. It’s also the platform that you’ll be using while in school and eventually in the workforce, so getting to grips with it now prepares you for the future.

NVIDIA’s AI platform supports top AI applications and frameworks including TensorFlow, PyTorch, MxNet, WindowsML for deep learning, and NVIDIA RAPIDS for data analytics and machine learning. With NVIDIA software you can train models faster and process a larger range of samples.

Thanks to Microsoft’s Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL), NVIDIA’s AI software stack is now available on Windows 11.

Your two-in-one solution for work and play

Whether you’re pushing your system to its limits in the classroom, collaborating remotely with a lab group, or blowing off some steam in your favorite shooter, a GeForce RTX laptop will deliver the performance you need—and even if you’re on a budget, there are some great deals around now that will get you a very capable machine.