Topic: Best Notebook Graphics Card for Lumion

[Whaat]

Hi,

 

I am in the market for a new high-end notebook and I am wondering what type of graphics card would perform the best with Lumion.

 

Would you recommend a high-end gaming notebook with a GTX 480M or would a quadro card (ex. 3800M) work just as well?  Any other suggestions are welcome.

 

Thanks.

[Aaron]

Don't buy a Quadro if it's speed you're after. Unless you want to throw away money and end up with a slower GPU then its GTX counterpart.

A GTX 480M is better. Make sure you have sufficient cooling though

[Whaat]

Aaron said:

Don't buy a Quadro if it's speed you're after. Unless you want to throw away money and end up with a slower GPU then its GTX counterpart.

But would the quadro be faster for my modeling application if it uses openGL?  If not, then why ever get a quadro card?

[Aaron]

Short answer: A Quadro is never-ever faster then the normal GPU card it's derived from. Long answer: search a bit on Google. There are countless topics about this since it eludes most people why those cards even exists and why they cost as much as a pretty good workstation.

Essentially the main difference is the drivers. Quadros use certified drivers that come with certain extended guarantees. They also come with more memory (the high-end Quadros) which can be important for people working with very large scenes. 

The pro-con ration regarding price is however ridiculous, especially since those certified drivers also mean you're always 1 or more driver updates leaping behind those of the normal cards. 

[cpercer]

Whaat said:

Hi,

 

I am in the market for a new high-end notebook and I am wondering what type of graphics card would perform the best with Lumion.

 

Would you recommend a high-end gaming notebook with a GTX 480M or would a quadro card (ex. 3800M) work just as well?  Any other suggestions are welcome.

 

Thanks.

I have been doing massive amounts of research for a new laptop that can handle everything that comes from my desktop.  I have found it.  The Clevo x7200 is not a laptop, it is a desktop with a laptop form factor.

 

The Clevo uses the Core i7 processor of your choice (really....the 980X, too) in addition to up to 12 gigs of triple channel ram, three hard drive bays with raid support, up to dual GeForce GTX 485M video cards (although the Lumion staff does not recommend SLI configuration of video cards), a 17" HD screen, and in and out HDMI ports, all wrapped in a nice looking brushed aluminum body.  Amazing.

 

Prices are comparable to a desktop with the same specs and you can configure yours here - http://www.avadirect.com/produ.....PRID=18340

[Ferry]

For a laptop something with GTX 480M+ and up is probably the fastest you can get. But don't think it is anyway comparible to a real 480 GTX in a desktop. Still we have an asus with a mobile 5870 and you can work with Lumion on that. But it is much slower then my 260 GTX.

[Morten]

As Cpercer already mentioned, Clevo-based notebooks are definitely the way to go right now,. As an example the x7200 with a 460M is about 18% faster than the more expensive Alienware M17x with an ATI Mobility HD 5870.

However, in tests, an older Clevo-model, the W880CU with a GTX 480M (reviewed on Tom's Hardware in July 2010), had "only" about 66% of the muscle of their average reference desktop system (an i7-920 with an ATI HD 5850), so don't expect any miracles…

Having said that, these notebooks are still very capable systems for Lumion, and bear in mind that the resolution you're running Lumion in has a big impact on performance. For real-time walkthroughs, the performance in typical projector resolutions like 1024x768 and 1280x1024 should be perfectly for fine for all but the most complex scenes.

[Brian Hengelsberg]

I am running an MSI GX660R with Core i7 Q740, 6 gigs ram, and an ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card.  I have not run into any issues at all with everything i have thrown at it with Lumion.  If you look in the gallery you can see the scale of project i have been working with as an example.  Of coarse more memory and more graphics power would help, but if you are on a budget, there are options.  Just my 2 cents.

[Chewbacca]

I have been running Lumion on a GoBoxx from Boxx tech with an gtx 480 and have have been happy with the speed and results.  The GoBoxx has really been a good moblie workstation for me.

[Whaat]

AIPGH said:

I am running an MSI GX660R with Core i7 Q740, 6 gigs ram, and an ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card.  I have not run into any issues at all with everything i have thrown at it with Lumion.  If you look in the gallery you can see the scale of project i have been working with as an example.  Of coarse more memory and more graphics power would help, but if you are on a budget, there are options.  Just my 2 cents.

I assume you aren't using a 5870 crossfire card?  That's good info!  From what I've seen, the HD 5870 is quite comparable to the GTX 460M card which is what I ended up going with. 

 

A pimped out Clevo system would be the best, but I do have a budget so I ended up ordering an ASUS G73JW with Nvidia GTX 460M.  The notebook seems to perform well and got great reviews, is quiet, and cool.  If it can handle what I intend to throw at it, I will be very happy.