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Graphic card questions?

One Thousand Words

One Thousand Words

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I need to purchase a new laptop for work and one of it's key requirements is to run a graphics heavy cone beam imaging software. I have a desk top that will run it fine but I want to be able to import images and work from out of the office. The recommended graphics card is a ATI Radeon HD 5870, which means absolutely nothing to me. Looking around at off the shelf laptops the one that seems to meet all the other requirements comes with an Intel® HD Graphics 4400. Is there any where I can compare graphic cards? I have been told it is better to have a dedicated graphics card and have plenty of RAM to run this software and the processor will likely bet an intel core i7. Is it possible to over clock this to improve the graphics?
 
Intel HD Graphics is an IGP on the processor die, it doesn't have its own memory bank like a discrete GPU so it uses the system RAM. That's not a good thing for a 3D application that requires a lot of RAM. If your only concern is to be able to work away from the office, it would be cheaper and more effective to build your own workstation for home out of cheap desktop components. I dunno how demanding the software is but typically the type of laptop that runs 3D apps well are billed as gaming laptops, which are expensive and heavy/bulky.
 
It needs to be portable and cost is no problem (the imaging machine alone costs $100 000 so $3k extra is a drop in the ocean). I was wondering why some claim shared graphics, some dedicated and others fail to mention it.
 
Asus and Lenovo are the top brands to look at for laptops, I'm sure you can find something suitable from their high-end products line
 
google "graphics card hierarchy chart"

or just read this

NSFW:
586


how much were you trying to spend? I wouldn't go with Intel for graphics either personally. Overclocking on a laptop isn't something I would recommend doing either unfortunately as they would just run too hot.

any of these would be what I would look at

also, you might want to look up the name of the software you are planning on using and seeing if there is any known issues with either AMD or Nvidia cards in particular because that could sway your decision one way or the other. For 9/10 people, as long as you get an equivalent series card, there really is no difference between the two anyway. They just go about it a bit differently and in ways that actually are beneficial in other situations.

and if price is really no issue i'd narrow it down to either this one

or this one

for a Blu-Ray burner

Alienware does make good computers but they are also pretty expensive as well for the same hardware that would be in those MSI laptops
 
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Dedicated graphics card.

Do not try to overclock a laptop, it'll run too hot and you'll have to replace the damned thing.

Off the shelf laptops stink tbh.

Find out what architects using these days, I'd say. If you're already spending that much money no point in going halfway, is there?
 
damn I hate shopping for computer parts for other people because I invariably just wind up looking at all the new stuff and what prices dropped. PC Technology is seriously the worst with that, buy something at a store and by the time you get out to your car it's already worth $10 less basically.

now that im looking at those MSI laptops again though, the mouse pad is somewhat off-left, which would bother me to no end. That's my number one rule with buying any computer part though, always wait a decent amount of time and look at it later before actually buying it. Odds are, you will miss an undesirable feature somewhere or just find something you would rather have bought instead.

not to mention, daily deals are always changing
 
What software do you use exactly? Got a link to the requirements? (and if not what's inside your workbox?) Not really sure, but there's a good chance the Intel HD 5200 that's built in to higher-end processors is more than enough (maybe even the 5100 that you'll find in those slimline ultrabooks) Those are being released as we speak, might have to wait a month or so depending on where you live and what you exactly need (you can already get an ultrabook with 5100 graphics, I.E the latest Macbook Air or the Sony Vaio Pro 13). Otherwise the latest range of Nvidea laptop graphics is really good and easy to find, anything upwards from a GT 750 should do the trick.

Outside of Apple, the higher-end Asus, Acer (only for the Aspire S7) and Lenovo's Thinkpads are really good. Other laptops just have bad keyboards or trackpads and that's just annoying to use. If you do need a workstation laptop then give the website Anandtech a try, they provide good and thorough reviews (with an angle aimed towards the professional when looking at workstations and the sort)

One good argument for Apple laptops would be the Thunderbolt port, you can hook up an external GPU through that. There's some trade-offs but if you want a mobile machine that allows you to properly do your work at home then you can't really beat this solution.
 
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There are video cards specifically built for CAD / 3D rendering, etc (nVIDIA Quadro and FireGL), and there are laptops meant to work as 'mobile workstations'. Maybe you should with the software house wheter their product makes full use of the features of a Quadro, FireGL or other similar graphic cards.
Remember anyway that powerful graphic cards, multicore CPUs, big screens etc will suck up your battery life. If you need to work while travelling you should also consider buying an extra battery.
 
I have a follow up question.

In the near future I plan on getting a gaming computer. Are dual graphic cards worth the extra investment? Are two pretty good cards superior to just one excellent graphic card? I imagine that with dual graphic card of different brands you are less likely to get compatibility issues. Is that true? I'm 312 years old, someone help please.
 
I would go with a single card pc as it is a lot simpler to setup and more than capable of playing any game out right now if you purchase the right card.

which brand were you thinking about going with, nVidia or AMD?

wow I was about to recommend a 7950 because I got one for $276 back in July but the same exact card is going for $450 dollars right now. The explosion of cryptocoin mining has made certain AMD models rise drastically in price and that probably wont change for a little bit.

basically it always comes back to one thing, how much are you trying to spend? :D
 
For 3k you can get pretty much any laptop. Alienware is overkill and stupidly bulky, but something with a dedicated GPU is what you want for sure.
 
Gloop said:
I have a follow up question.

In the near future I plan on getting a gaming computer. Are dual graphic cards worth the extra investment? Are two pretty good cards superior to just one excellent graphic card? I imagine that with dual graphic card of different brands you are less likely to get compatibility issues. Is that true? I'm 312 years old, someone help please.
Click to expand...

You're actually MORE likely to have compatibility issues if you have different brands even with the same chipset due to differences in the parts used, differing RAM speeds, etc.

Honestly, multi card gaming is a pain. Some games don't support it at all, some games need game-specific tweaks to get the rendering to turn out right, it increases the power requirements, increases the heat dissipation requirements, and just generally isn't necessary unless you are trying to max out every single setting under the sun at a very high resolution. For all practical purposes, a moderate graphics card will do just fine.

There are some games that perform better with one or the other. Some games favor AMD, some games favor nVidia.

If you give an example of the games you are looking to play and the resolution that you're looking to play them at like 1920x1080 (1080p), 1600x900 (900p), 1920x1200 (1200p), 1280x720 (720p), then it becomes much easier to recommend specific cards.

I can still run most games on my 2009 Alienware M17x laptop, albeit at 720p instead of the native 1200p resolution of the screen, and I can't max out the graphics. That said, that's a 5 year old machine.
 
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