Nvidia RTX Expands to New Creative Laptops and Software

Dell Precision 7740 mobile workstation goes up to a Quadro RTX 5000. (Image credit: Dell)

Nvidia announced 10 new RTX Studio laptops from Dell, HP, Lenovo and Boxx today at the SIGGRAPH 2019 computer graphics and immersive tech conference today. The company also highlighted seven new pieces of creative software with Nvidia RTX support. 

RTX Studio devices "meet the hardware and software requirements needed to receive the new RTX Studio badge," Nvidia said, "allowing creators to easily identify the right systems to power their creative workflows." Receiving that badge requires a given product to combine "RTX GPUs with the NVIDIA Studio Stack of specialized SDKs and dedicated Studio Drivers" that are meant to improve performance in popular creative apps.

The 10 devices Nvidia announced today bring the number of RTX Studio laptops to 27. Counting some of the devices separately feels a bit like stacking the deck--several of the laptops are differentiated primarily by their display size--but that's not a particularly uncommon practice. Continued support for the admittedly niche product category from some of the world's largest PC manufacturers bodes well for the RTX Studio line no matter how we tally.

Here's what Nvidia said about the new RTX Studio laptops:

RTX Creative Software

Nvidia also announced new creative apps from ISVs that support RTX: Adobe Substance Painter, Autodesk Flame, Blender Cycles, Dimension 5 D5 Fusion, Daz 3D Daz Studio, Foundry MODO and Luxion KeyShot.

That brings the number of creative apps taking advatange of RTX technology to 40. Some use RTX to improve performance, others have enabled real-time ray tracing and still others are introducing new features based on artificial intelligence. The list of developers reads like a who's-who of the creative industry, with everyone from Adobe and Blackmagic to Pixar and Siemens at least dabbling with RTX technology in their apps.

Support for Nvidia RTX is only expected to grow from here. "Every major 3D design application in the world has committed to supporting RTX by year’s end," Nvidia said in its announcement. "The entire gaming industry is on board with a robust ecosystem that includes support in industry-standard APIs, such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan, as well leading game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine." Not bad for technology introduced just one year ago.

Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.