Make the most out of college life with essential tech

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Whether you’re living on or off-campus, starting your first semester, or heading into your final year, it’s important to set yourself up for maximum success as a college student. That means coming prepared for whatever campus life might throw at you, both in the classroom and back at your home or dorm.

Having the best tech for your lifestyle will be essential to your success — and there’s nothing more important than choosing the right laptop to power your collegiate pursuits. While many students assume a general usage laptop will be the best all-purpose computer for their needs, that isn’t necessarily true. In fact, students looking for speedy and portable machines should consider turning to a gaming laptop.

The key to gaming laptops’ MVP status for college coursework and beyond? The same thing that makes them so great for the highly visual world of your favorite games: a high-performance GPU. A solid GPU delivers eye-popping graphics for gaming, yes, but that also means accelerated performance for the apps you’ll need in your classes and more. NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptop GPUs accelerate apps and creative workflows so that you can make the most of student life.

Along with our picks for the best all-around back-to-school laptops, we’ve got great recommendations for the right tech and accessories to keep campus life running smoothly:

Get a STEM-ready machine

Unless you want to waste valuable time waiting for your computer to process your coursework in your STEM classes, you’ll want a powerful GPU to keep up with your science and engineering apps. With the latest NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, this MSI system enables speedy simulation, visualization, computation, fast model training for data science, economics, and rapid AI processing.

Credit: MSI

Have the power to create

If you’re a creator, NVIDIA Studio laptops offer the powerhouse performance of an entire creative studio, turbocharging your apps so that your ambitions and creative visions are never hamstrung by slow or choppy workflows. Thanks to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs, your creative work will look amazing and run as smoothly as silk. Filmmakers can edit and render 4K, 6K, and even 8K video with ease. Designers and visual artists can render jaw-droppingly detailed 3D worlds at blazing speeds, power Adobe Creative Cloud with breezy ease, and enjoy GPU-accelerated ray tracing for visualizing hyper-realistic spaces. There are tons of NVIDIA Studio options — check out this Acer Swift X laptop as a great example.

Credit: Acer

Empower studying from anywhere

Chances are, you’ll be attending virtual classes or doing some measure of remote work at school. NVIDIA Broadcast taps powerful AI to improve your remote learning and collaboration experiences: AI noise reduction adapts to block distractions in both ingoing and outgoing audio, while background blur, background replacement, and low-light noise removal ensure your camera will work wherever you need to be as you collaborate with classmates. Pairing easily with all top remote learning video conferencing apps, NVIDIA Broadcast will have you covered no matter your prof’s preference of vid-chat software. This lightweight MSI Stealth offers heavy-hitting graphics of an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU in an ultra-portable design weighing just 3.7 pounds and measuring less than an inch thick — with NVIDIA Broadcast tech, that makes for a powerfully portable remote-learning machine.

Credit: MSI

All gaming goodness

For a gamer’s gaming laptop, systems with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU offer visually stunning ray tracing, NVIDIA DLSS AI acceleration, and NVIDIA Reflex, which is a revolutionary suite of technologies that measure and reduce system latency in competitive games. Needless to say, this is a computational powerhouse when you’re diving into coursework. The Razer Blade 14 can be configured with this GPU in a nice 14” form factor.

Enable swift multitasking

Juggle assignments or make power plays with an ultra-lightweight, Reflex Latency Analyzer compatible wireless mouse, designed for top esports pros.

Credit: Logitech

Set up a virtual lecture hall

Even with the return to campus, remote learning is here to stay as a powerful tool for studying on your schedule and digging deeper into a subject. Get immersed in your game with the newest NVIDIA G-SYNC gaming monitors. Models with IPS panels offer great color to satisfy your creative streak, and a blazing-fast 360Hz refresh rate gives you an advantage on the battlefield

Mobilize your tech

Comfortably carry all your gear in a sturdy and stylish backpack with a five-point balance strap system and a roomy interior to fit your laptop and books, as well as headphones and keyboard. It’s also stackable on a roll-on suitcase when you’re traveling.

Credit: EVERKI

Get a smart desk lamp

Illuminate your study space with a dimmable, touch-controlled lamp providing white, warm, and warm white light. Cram for exams late-night and use Alexa or Google Home to let your lamp know when it’s lights out.

Credit: EZVALO