3d Modeling / rendering laptop

[JBSyren05]

I'm going to be doing a traveling architecture studio this summer so I unfortunately have to trade in to get a laptop to do the job. I would like to have a mac to normal word processing + email, and run bootcamp to do Rhino, Maxwell, 3dsMax, Autocad. . .

 

I worried about the GeForce GT graphics card. I have a quatro FX 580 in my workstation and runs really nice for me. I would like a lighter machine but I'd but more marks on 3d modeling performance.

 

Right now I'm in between this two:

 

Macbook Pro 15"

i7 2.6

8 GB ram

GeForce GT 330

500GB HD @ 7200rpm

high res screen

$2500 (before tax)

or

 

Lenovo ThinkPad W510

i7-820QM

NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M

8 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory

500GB HD @ 7200rpm

$2300 (before tax)

 

What do you think?

Thanks.

[AJLynn]

The i7 in the Thinkpad is the better rendering chip - it's a quad core and the Mac has a dual core - but I wouldn't sweat the video cards. The Quadro FX 580 isn't a fast card - the new Geforce models should have no trouble keeping up. The real question is, do you want to run OSX? If you do, get the Mac. If not, get the Thinkpad.

[blumentopferde]

I would definitely get a laptop with an i7 Quadcore Processor and a CUDA-enabled Nvidia GPU. CUDA is a very promising Technology and many developers of render software jump onto it. Here's a list of compatible GPUs: http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_gpus.html

A Quadcore simply gives you double the speed of a dual core when rendering. And at least with Maxwell Render the i7 Quad (Desktop Version, i can't say if this also applies to the mobile version) has by far the best cost-performance ratio. see: http://www.benchwell.com/

I would'nt invest into a Quadro GPU, the performance increase stands in no relation to the price increase, better get a good consumer GPU instead of a bad Quadro GPU (most Quadros built into Laptops are rather low end models)!

Actually a good gaming Laptop would also make a good rendering Laptop, ive seen models for as low as 900€ (as hardware is more expensive in europe that might be around 1000$) with really good hardware. Of course these models are heavy as stones, noisy as hairdryers and look and feel cheap, but rendering doesn't really need very expensive hardware any more...

If you want OSX, get a Mac, but make sure you get a Quadcore CPU and a CUDA-enabled GPU.

Oh and by the way, I wouldn't invest into a Mac if I did all of my major work in Windows, I couldn't see any benefit in doing so - but that's just my personal opinion...