Notebook advice: Dell Precision 5510 (M1000M Quadro) / XPS 15 (GTX 960M)

[markoskoblar]

Hi guys,

 

so I've been breaking my head for the last couple of months on what notebook to buy. My priorites are good transportability since I have to move a lot, a good display and hopefully decent performance. My budget is around 2000-2400€. I narrowed it down to the new XPS 15, Precision 5510 or 7510. Other suggestions are welcome.

 

Programs I am using: Autocad, Archicad, Rhino, Vray, Sketchup and Photoshop. In the future possibly 3ds Max and Revit.

 

My dilemas:

 

1:Is it worth getting a M1000M Quadro (512 Cuda Cores) over a 960M (640 Cuda cores), both 2GB Vram. I could also get a M2000M Quadro (640 Cuda cores) and 4GB, but in the heavier 7510 option. Will there be a significant differnece in viewport flow and render times?

 

2. Is the I7 6820HQ worth it over a I7 6700HQ?

 

3. Do you think I will have trouble with a 4k display in the above mentioned programs? It is not a necessity, but the near 100% Adobe RGB coverage just sounds too good.

 

Thanks for any advice

[joelmcwilliam]

Let me try to help you out. First read topics below and see what questions you have left.

 

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/79464-gtx-950m-3ds-max-element-3d.html

 

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/78588-graphic-card-2d-cad-3d-modeling-photo-editing.html#post404077

 

For you no need to get a quadro. Any gaming laptop will do nicely. No need to get I7 6820HQ over a I7 6700HQ. And everything now anno 2015 just scales nice with windows 8 and 10 and 4k. No worry's. Older and not up to date software may give some problems with scaling on 4k.

 

Rendering in your software is mostly done with processor only, so the gpu stays out. And 2 gb gpu ram vs 4 gb gpu ram won't matter for viewports and rendering. For rendering just get a powerfull cpu like an i7 and plenty of ram like 16 gb.

 

For 2000 euro you can get a serious gaming laptop. Remember: a gaming laptop is also a good ws laptop. No need to narrow your sight to dell ws laptops with quadro gpu's and paying premium.

[markoskoblar]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

So to sum it up, there is no benefit of a quadro card for the mentioned software? The official sites all recommend them, is it realistic that I will have driver problems with a GTX?

 

I would be open to buy a gtx 970M laptop, but so far I haven't been able to find one with a comparable display and transportability to the new Dell laptops.

[joelmcwilliam]

Yes, no need for a quadro. You won't have driver problem. Official sites do recommend quadro (especially adobe), but I think that is because they don't have the time to test all gaming cards. So they have to narrow there advise down to just a small portion and after they tested those they do a recommendation.

 

Guess you will be fine with a 950m/960m. However I don't know how you use your software. Like how big your models are and such. My steps of importance with pro software is: first cpu, than ram and than gpu.

Edited December 25, 2015 by joelmcwilliam