3D modelling, rendering, and animation laptop

steve.alpha

After 7 years of service my Acer has finally died. An apparently common but unfixable screen problem. I'm now on the market for something powerful for 3D modelling, rendering and animation. As well as smoothly running the adobe suite, some gaming and possibly video editing. Since it's been 7 years since I've researched computers for purchase I'm a little or of the loop. I've mostly been looking at gaming laptops as I'm assuming that if they can run high end games they will be good for my purposes. is that a safe assumption or am I completely off the ball? I am hoping to get a large screen for my desk which I can plug into for work aswell. If i could get both for under a grand that would be savage. Could anyone please suggest some options?

Overheal

Its kind of a mixed bag. GPUs generally come in two flavors thanks to the manufacturers: Workstation, and Gaming graphics. I've done a little research the last day or two because this has been bothering for a hot minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgdKuUzrogg

Theres an interesting comparison between a radeon and a firepro card.

You can see that the Firepro blows the radeon up in the workstation graphics suite, but when it comes to the gaming benchmark program, the Radeon makes the Firepro look like a joke.

The two styles of card are really designed to do 2 very different things.

If you're serious about professional graphics, make that your primary focus and get something with actual workstation graphics. Either a Firepro or a Quadro card. These are expensive, don't get me wrong. But reading up, its for a good reason. The cards are designed for libraries and pipelines that are used in animation, modeling, rendering, CAD, etc. whereas a gaming card is rigged up for other things, like physics particles, directX calls, anti-aliasing and texture filtering. Things which make games look shiny in real time, but aren't much use in professional graphics. Not that some researches dont make good use of PhysX, but you get those tools in the Quadro Workstation cards as well. A chunk of the cost also goes to the cost of certification and development that goes along with the card manufacturer and the programs (like Adobe, Maya, etc) publishing certified drivers and program features that make sure the cards make the most out of the programs you plan on using.

I'll have this same problem before I know it. I love my games, but within a couple years I'll be in the market for a Workstation. My university already recommends I enter the curriculum with a $1800 Firepro W4000 laptop, and I think I'm going to be the poor kid waltzing in there with an i5 with HD 4000 graphics...

Black Swan

Some desirable specs for 3D modelling, rendering, and animation laptop (and gaming) may include: Intel Core i7-4700MQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz) with Intel Turbo Boost Technology, 16GB DDR3L 1600MHz SDRAM, 3GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M w/NVIDIA Optimus Technology, 17.3" FHD TruBrite LED Backlit Display (1920 x 1080), Blu-ray Disc RE with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer drive, and SSD not HDD for storage.

When gaming, you may also want a cooling pad, as the CPU and GPU get a bit warm, especially when playing something like Skyrim Legendary.

steve.alpha

Thanks for that overheal. It's actually shocking to see the differences in how they perform. My old laptop never ran as slow as that running solidworks. Though it wasn't fantastic for gaming it ran fallout 3 at a basic enough level quite well. So for 3D modelling a firepro would be ideal i guess? Maybe it can run some older games?

That's a great guideline black swan. Can you recommend a good website for buying from? Or suggest an actual laptop that would do the job?

steve.alpha

Just input those specs into pc specialist. Damn that gets expensive, and that was a desktop. Any suggestions for a laptop and screen for under a grand? I'm hoping to have something I can use in the living room for surfing and then hook up to a screen for work so a large screen laptop is not important. Is a good graphics card more important than RAM or processor? I'm sure it's a delicate balancing act.

Overheal

steve.alpha wrote: »

Thanks for that overheal. It's actually shocking to see the differences in how they perform. My old laptop never ran as slow as that running solidworks.

yar, theres a couple more compares online, like this one actually put out by AMD

Not English, but this Nvidia comparison video might be a little more insightful as its a standardized benchmark in whatever program they've used. In this nvidia vid you can see the two cards stack up OK in most tasks but when you start working on things with more complexity (near the end of the video, and on the first Car benchmark) its clear the workstation card is much more useful.

and this one is dear to my heart, because I have the 5770. It cant even tolerate the program, it essentially locks up. Id rip my hair out.

My conclusion is if someone plans to get any meaningful work done, get a workstation card. Using a gaming card, even a high end card, will add precious hours to any project you try to accomplish.

steve.alpha

So with that being as it is, can you recommend a laptop for 700-1000 that would have a graphics card approaching those kind of capabilities? I came across this on another forum "Intel IGP < Nvidia 6xxm < Nvidia 5xxm < Radeon 6xxxm < Radeon 7xxxm < Quadro < Quadro kxxxxm = FirePro" Does that have any merit do you think? If so, would something like this: http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=ECE2754133 be appropriate?

Overheal

http://www.dell.com/ie/business/p/precision-m4700/pd

Dell Precision range of Workstation laptops

http://h20386.www2.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=B5W63ET&opt=ABU&sel=PBNB

HP Elitebook is their Workstation laptop brand

http://shop.lenovo.com/ie/en/laptops/thinkpad/w-series/w530/

Lenovo Thinkpad W-series, but these are out of your budget.

The key word you're looking for is Workstation, they are a category unto themselves.

steve.alpha

I just saw this: http://www.donedeal.ie/laptops-for-sale/precision/5299200 a precision second hand. Whattaya think?

Overheal

you're saving quite a bit. the model is about 3 years old Im guessing but for the savings its likely to be worthwhile. especially given the amount of memory installed. 1st gen core processors were good still, even though each generation since has brough cool new things to the table, like better performance and battery life