Dell XPS 15

Now that 4K video and 20-50MP sensors are becoming the new normal for photographers and videographers, common tasks like RAW file noise reduction and video rendering are becoming increasingly time consuming and painful to watch. That’s especially true on the road, where we’re limited to laptop power. Nvidia and its Windows partners are trying to address that with a number of new models that include high-performance GPUs. I covered them in some more detail on ExtremeTech. I’ve also ordered a new Dell Precision 5540 to replace my current Dell XPS 15 9560 (current models are the Dell XPS 9570 and Dell XPS 7590), so I’ll be able to report on performance results in more detail over the coming month.

I’ve just updated my guide to some of the Best Laptops for Photo Editing on ExtremeTech, so it is current with the latest models. Not a huge amount has changed since it was last updated 6 months ago, but more models now have Nvidia 10xx (instead of 9xx) GPUs, which is a sizable jump, and now many of them have 7th generation Core CPUs (Kaby Lake). There are also gains in performance, some decreases in size, and ports moving towards newer standards. One important development on the horizon is Nvidia’s new “Max-Q” laptop architecture, which will enable thinner models with discrete GPUs. Those should start showing up in the market by July. Their primary focus is gaming, but as always, gaming laptops can be ideal for image processing.