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graphic card for 2d cad, 3d modeling, photo editing


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Hello,

 

I want to buy a new laptop for 2D CAD, 3D modeling in 3ds max, Rhino, Revit, Autocad, etc... and photo editing in Photoshop. Would a Quadro K1100M, 2GB, the AMD FirePro W5170M, 2GB or the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 2GB (GTX 970M) graphic card be a better choice for me?

 

Thank you very much!

Edited by liabaasch
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Anyone and neither at the same time...

 

Autodesk is so bad in working with properly supporting new hardware (it is not just nVidia's or AMD's responsibility to work towards better drivers you know), that the 960M, despite being the faster of the 3, might end up not being stable with the latest Revit or Autocad, and perhaps finding the only solution in completely disabling Direct3D acceleration - as was the case for me with GTX 970 (desktop) cards and the latest Revit 2016 (part of a dearly expensive subscription model that promises access to "latest of everything").

 

Over the last few years I had to do that with a few Quadro cards too, the fact that Autodesk doesn't bother is not a "gaming card issue".

 

Fortunately the issue is small once you disable D3D, as the optimization for GPU accelerated graphics is horrible in Revit and Autocad to begin with...

 

For 3DS, I think the 960M might be the fastest choice, and I would expect far less issues - if any - as they do a tighter job with the nitrous gfx engine. Rhino should be ok with either, and the GTX should again lead as far as GPGPU goes with Photoshop, although the GPU accelerated portions of the app are not that important for all ArchViz workflows.

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Thank you!

 

If you were me, which one of these would you choose?

 

ASUS G771JW:

Core i7-4720HQ

8GB RAM (max. 16 GB RAM)

GeForce GTX 960M

1TB HDD 7200 rpm

17'' Full HD IPS

3,4 kg

1000 euro ( I can add more RAM and SSD later.)

 

XMG P705:

Intel Core i7-4720HQ, 4x 2.60GHz

RAM: 16GB (max. RAM 32 GB!)

1TB HDD 7200 rpm

GeForce GTX 965M, 2GB

17.3" IPS

3,2 kg

1500 euro

 

Dell Precision M4800 Mobile Workstation

Intel Core i7-4810MQ, 4x 2.80GHz

RAM: 8GB (max. RAM 32 GB)

500GB SSHD (8GB SSD-Cache)

Grafik: AMD FirePro M5100, 2GB

15.6", 1920x1080, NOT IPS

 

Dell Precision M3800 Mobile Workstation

Intel Core i7-4712MQ, 4x 2.30GHz

RAM: 8GB (max. 16 GB RAM)

500GB HDD

NVIDIA Quadro K1100M, 2GB

15.6", 1920x1080, Multi-Touch

1,88 kg

1600 euro

 

HP ZBook 15:

Intel Core i7-4700MQ, 4x 2.40GHz

RAM: 4GB (max. RAM 32 GB)

750GB HDD + 32GB SSD-Cache

NVIDIA Quadro K1100M, 2GB

15.6", 1920x1080

2,8 kg

1680 euro

 

HP ZBook 15:

Intel Core i7-4710MQ, 4x 2.50GHz

RAM: 8GB (max. RAM 32 GB)

750GB HDD

AMD FirePro W5170M, 2GB

15.6", 1920x1080

1500 euro

 

Lenovo ThinkPad W541:

Intel Core i7-4710MQ, 4x 2.50GHz

RAM: 4GB

256GB SSD

NVIDIA Quadro K1100M, 2GB

Display: 15.6", 1920x1080, NOT IPS (and not that good display specs)

1700 euro (and pricier)

 

Comparing the screens of the Asus G771JW and XMG 705, do you think the XMG 705 is that much worse? Do you think it would be ok for photo editing?

 

 

Asus G771JW:

Maximum: 344 cd/m²

Average: 333.4 cd/m²

Brightness Distribution: 92 %

Center on Battery: 343 cd/m²

Black: 0.38 cd/m²

Contrast: 903:1

Colorchecker DeltaE2000 * 7

Greyscale DeltaE2000 * 4.33

Gamma * 2.12

AdobeRGB: 59

 

XMG 705

Maximuml: 336 cd/m²

Average: 325.8 cd/m²

Brightness Distribution: 93 %

Black: 0.47 cd/m²

Contrast: 700:1

AdodeRGB: 56%

Greyscale DeltaE2000: 3.36

Colorchecker DeltaE2000: 3.95

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I've toyed with Blender a little bit in the past, but never got to use it seriously - not because the software is not capable, the contrary, it is amazingly good - because employers are tied with Autodesk subscription models and family life over-time deducts from the rush for personal projects.

 

You can still get lot of stuff done with Blender, and the community supporting it is very helpful and willing to get you engaged. You could be working on it exclusively as a small Viz studio or an individual, but architectural offices will most likely never use it as the 3DS/Maya cost has been bundled with the design tools.

 

To elaborate: it is becoming increasingly unsustainable to buy standalone versions of Autodesk products and keep updating them, something that is not needed for AutoCAD really, but needed for Revit that cannot "save down" to previous versions.

And if you want to subscribe to more than one program, you pretty much subscribe for all the Building Suite, which means 3DS Max & Maya are practically coming "for free" for all professionals that would be working with Revit and ACAD.

 

It is also "for free" to employees that want to login with the work account @ home in the evenings and weekends.

 

So "selling" the Blender idea to someone that falls in the above categories is increasingly tough.

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Hi Lia,

 

it can be a pita getting those hardware questions marks sorted out. Hope those two following links helps you out:

 

http://www.revitforum.org/hardware-infrastructure/72-revit-hardware-video-graphic-cards.html

 

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Notebook/153

 

(you can also do a search like: ''top 5 laptops under 1xxx'' on the net or have a look on youtube)

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