Laptop/Notebook Performance???
The right laptop within the professional art world:
I'm not too familiar with the performance of laptops or notebooks when it comes to rendering ungodly amounts of polygons or sub dividing 50 times in Z-brush. I don't trust testimonials from manufacturer bases websites so I thought I'd ask Polycount.
I know desktop computers are capable of higher performance when in comes to rendering scenes or calculating millions of polygons but what about laptops. What I’m trying to get out of this is information from artists already in the industry rather than the Best Buy salesmen that’s only interested in selling a product.
So without anymore rambling from me, what type of laptop would keep up with video game design… Or better yet if you’re a game artist in the industry what kind of laptop do you use and what’s inside it?
I'm not too familiar with the performance of laptops or notebooks when it comes to rendering ungodly amounts of polygons or sub dividing 50 times in Z-brush. I don't trust testimonials from manufacturer bases websites so I thought I'd ask Polycount.
I know desktop computers are capable of higher performance when in comes to rendering scenes or calculating millions of polygons but what about laptops. What I’m trying to get out of this is information from artists already in the industry rather than the Best Buy salesmen that’s only interested in selling a product.
So without anymore rambling from me, what type of laptop would keep up with video game design… Or better yet if you’re a game artist in the industry what kind of laptop do you use and what’s inside it?
Replies
I bought a laptop in a electronic store a year ago and now wish I had did my research before hand; as laptops can't be upgraded really in terms of graphic cards and such.
The character i'm creating is Zbrush has about 3 million polys, all subtools on at the same time, and I don't see any slowdown. I regularly have Google Chrome, Photoshop, 3ds Max and Zbrush open at the same time, and I've got about 79 processes active. My cpu usage when i'm working like this is about 11-15%.
Performance in Zbrush, Photoshop, Maya etc. is top notch for me, never had a problem.
Looking to get:
XP instead of Vista (not sure on this yet)???
Core 2 Duo... but what about quad core technology???
At least 4 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800 MHz.
NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX SLI or Higher... Thinking ATI Graphics Cards also???
Vista 32 (what comes on the majority of laptops) is limited to less than 4gb of RAM just like Windows XP. There is a "3gb switch" for both XP and Vista (just Google "3gb switch" and your OS of choice). The limitation is a 32-bit OS, not XPvs.Vista.
Secondly, Vista uses more RAM than XP, so not only does Vista not really offer benefits over XP for maximum accessible RAM, it also uses more for system resources, therefore any "gain" you get from Vista is rendered null and void.
As for me, I use XP64 on my desktop and Vista-32 on my laptop (just because there's no XP support for my laptop).
Back on topic im using a Dell XPS m1530, runs maya brilliantly for animation and is a decent size and bit an bats.
Does or has anyone looked into www.sagernotebook.com or www.xoticpc.com. I'll have to check them out as far as placing orders and sending money. I hate ordering from a new sites over the internet... I could end up giving away money with no order on the way.
I like the NP9262 model (#3) looks nice, customized of course but I don't know about the company.
I love it. Runs everything great altho max is chunkyer than on a desktop, probably due to the graphic card (for some reasons).
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-061-AC&groupid=959&catid=1201&subcat=&name=Acer%20Aspire%206920%20Gemstone%20Blue%20Intel%20Core%202%20Duo%20T5750%202.00GHz%2016.0%22%20Laptop%20-%20Vista%20Home%20Premium%20(LX.APT0X.040)
runs all the programs listed with ease and im really chuffed with it.
Fr0gg1e, where did you order your Sager from? I'm hesitent to order straight from Sager since the BBB (Better Business Bureau) gave them an "F" rating (lowest rating for a business over all areas)...
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/precn_m90
If I was to do it all again today, I'd just get a Dell XPS gaming lappy. For all the bother with hot rod vid cards and new drivers, the xps is a best selling laptop with lots of support and it will handle all your 3d stuff. Yes there may be better options but this is simple, click, click, buy, make art. forget about it.
I went to a B&M shop that was selling it.
If I were to get a laptop today it'd be something with 4gb of ram, Core2 duo or quad at 2.4ghz or higher, a Geforce 9600m or 9800m, and screen at 1680x1050. You can get 8gb of ram but it tends to be extremely expensive due to a limited # of dimm sockets forcing use of 2x 4gb sticks. Screens also go 1920x1200 even on 15' but that resolution can make things more difficult to see on such small screens.
Thanks again to everyone who sent info and recommendations!