Buying the best laptop to use 3ds Max

Omnipherant

So im looking at the macbook pro 17" with 16 gb of memory. but I was thinking of getting the imac 27" but gave it up because i would love the portability of a laptop.
Just wondering how many polys a macbook pro with 16 gb memory be able to handle? my old imac can barely handle 1 million polys with 2gbs,

any recommendations?

Ben Apuna

Perhaps consider:

Mohammatron wrote: »

Don't know if this has already been mentioned but man, check this out
http://www.splashtop.com/
Lets you control your computer from anywhere in real time, with sound, everything. I love this program. I was actually working on an aftereffects project from my crappy laptop and tricked people into thinking it was some sort of superbeast (the real superbeast lives at home) And I managed to fly a jet around in battlefield 3. Until some ass shot me down.

Bruno Afonseca

Why are you buying a mac to use max?

SpeCter

Yay i have an Apple product which is highly overpriced and the only good thing is it´s OS, let´s boot windows on it to use 3dsmax!

WarrenM

It's not THAT weird. Linux people install Linux and then want to install Wine or whatever almost immediately to get access to Windows apps.

I don't have a suggestion, unfortunately, just chiming in on logistics. Macs are awesome but they don't always have versions of stuff you need. ZBrush and Photoshop are there but no Max yet. :-/

SpeCter

WarrenMarshall wrote: »

It's not THAT weird. Linux people install Linux and then want to install Wine or whatever almost immediately to get access to Windows apps.

Don´t put linux people on the same level as mac users please...
Wanting some windows apps is one thing, but at least they don´t a buy overpriced machine which only forte is its OS.

It´s like buying a machine which costs 3000$ just to use facebook.

arrangemonk

It´s like buying a machine which costs 3000$ just to use facebook.

happened, and will continue to happen

for that price tag id go for some lenovo/hp workstation laptops

EarthQuake

Here's my take on this:

A workstation and a laptop are two very different things. Do not try to get one computer that is both, its not worth the price/compromises you have to make.

You can buy/build an EXTREMELY fast workstation PC for under $1500. You leave this in your office and you don't need to worry about size, heat, power, etc.

You buy a laptop for what you *really* need to do on the go. Its unlikely you'll really do much high end rendering or 3d work while you're on the bus or whatever. A mid-range laptop will suffice for light-moderate 3d work. The big plus here is you can get a fast, small, and light laptop that has good battery life and cooling, as apposed to a huge, hot laptop that has such poor battery life you always need to be near a power source. A "workstation laptop" is just such an oxymoron! Not to mention the painful ergonomics of doing serious work on a laptop - just a bad idea all around.

I've got a Lenovo X220 with a very nice IPS screen, I5 CPU and 4-6 hour battery life. Its about 3 pounds and I can actually take it out with me and use it when I need to without worrying about the weight or finding a power source. Its plenty fast for photoshop etc, but honestly I would never do 3d work on a laptop without first plugging in a mouse and a real keyboard. Even then, its fully capable of light-moderate 3d work even with the crappy onboard intel graphics(which aren't so crappy with an I5/I7 gen CPU).

Depending on what you REALLY need a laptop for, most people can probably get by with a low end laptop or even a netbook. I went with the X220 with the upgraded screen because it is one of the very few on the market with a quality display, and that's important for me when I'm processing photos on vacations etc.

For the cost of a 17" I7 macbook pro you can build/buy an even better I7 windows box PLUS an e-IPS 23/24" dell monitor PLUS a nice mid-range laptop.

TLDR; The best laptop is a laptop that can actually leave the house!

Ace-Angel

Even the software that supports Mac OS is flimsy at best, ZBrush might as well not support it with all the headache you can have if an issue occurs. I'm not kidding, the support is barren for Mac, not out of malice or anything, but because here is a lack of users who use and actually submit feedback.

Unlike Windows, which a single issues has about 10 solutions on average on the fist page alone.

Buy a standard Win lappy, period. As EQ said, there is a certain compromise you need to aim for at the end of the day.

My suggestion is to look up some Asus Laptops and their gaming laptop's, that about as 'workstationy' you will get without breaking the bank or you back.

I got a nice G51J with the rating of a G61, it can do pretty much everything, although it chugs like a duck on a shark when it comes to shadows and is not DX11 capable.

r_fletch_r

EarthQuake wrote: »

Here's my take on this:

A workstation and a laptop are two very different things. Do not try to get one computer that is both, its not worth the price/compromises you have to make.

You can buy/build an EXTREMELY fast workstation PC for under $1500. You leave this in your office and you don't need to worry about size, heat, power, etc.

You buy a laptop for what you *really* need to do on the go. Its unlikely you'll really do much high end rendering or 3d work while you're on the bus or whatever. A mid-range laptop will suffice for light-moderate 3d work. The big plus here is you can get a fast, small, and light laptop that has good battery life and cooling, as apposed to a huge, hot laptop that has such poor battery life you always need to be near a power source. A "workstation laptop" is just such an oxymoron! Not to mention the painful ergonomics of doing serious work on a laptop - just a bad idea all around.

I've got a Lenovo X220 with a very nice IPS screen, I5 CPU and 4-6 hour battery life. Its about 3 pounds and I can actually take it out with me and use it when I need to without worrying about the weight or finding a power source. Its plenty fast for photoshop etc, but honestly I would never do 3d work on a laptop without first plugging in a mouse and a real keyboard.

Depending on what you REALLY need a laptop for, most people can probably get by with a low end laptop or even a netbook. I went with the X220 with the upgraded screen because it is one of the very few on the market with a quality display, and that's important for me when I'm processing photos on vacations etc.

For the cost of a 17" I7 macbook pro you can build/buy an even better I7 windows box PLUS an e-IPS 23/24" dell monitor PLUS a nice mid-range laptop.

TLDR; The best laptop is a laptop that can actually leave the house!

^This. I've been down the path your heading and a desktop is a much much better machine for work.

pasha_sevez

Also keep in mind that 3ds max became available on Mac not long ago... And if the mac version is the same f***ing buggy as windows one - then why overpay? )) Use standard win-based laptop and buy something useful for you savings - like tablet or second screen as EQ adviced. That's imho ))

passerby

get a powerfull desktop, and a seprate laptop.

much cheaper, and more versatile.

think about how you work, do you really want to be bent over some small laptop while modeling, or painting your textures, or sit at a proper desk, with a nice big moniter and tablet.