can anyone with the New Inspiron 15 try something for me?

i am looking to pick up some New Inpsiron 15 laptops for a 3D modelling course that i give for a non-profit organisation. the price point for this laptop is very good for us but i want to make sure that it can run the software nicely.

if you have a New Inspiron 15 with the x4500HD GPU (or the HD4330, id like to hear accounts from both users) can you go download the Autodesk Maya trial from http://www.autodesk.com/maya-trial and run it, maybe just scrolling and rotating around the workspace for a bit just to see how smooth it is (create some primitives (spheres, cubes, whatever) and see how much it bogs it down (if at all). i know its a lot of work but if i am ordering 15 of these suckers, i want to make sure they work properly first

 

Would it not be better to ask Autodesk how it will run on your intended system? I'm afraid I am not going to help; not because I do not want to - but downloading nearly 700Mb file is going to eat into my monthly internet usage allowance.

 

Note, a little browsing on their site uncovered this:

Important Notes
• There are many cards based on GeForce® GPU chipsets. NVIDIA® and Autodesk do not recommend these cards for use with Maya as you may experience various refresh, display and stability problems and inadequate performance. We suggest you choose from NVIDIA's workstation cards instead, such as the Quadro® families which are much better suited to high-end 3D packages such as Maya. Nvidia GeForce VS Quadro White Paper [PDF]
• For the same reasons as the ones listed in note (1), ATI™ and Autodesk do not recommend the use of ATI Radeon™ GPU chipsets cards.

I'd suggest reading up from the following links:

http://download.autodesk.com/us/qualcharts/2009/Maya2009_GraphicsReadmeFirst.pdf

http://download.autodesk.com/us/qualcharts/2009/maya2009_qualifiedgraphics_win.pdf

Hope that helps

 

thanks for the quick reply, i understand if you have bandwidth limitations. unfortunately, autodesk has always "not recommended" the use of Geforce and Radeon cards even though they work fine with the software. they suggest buying workstation cards (like the Quadro) which is overkill for what we need. i will keep checking this thread if anyone else would like to update. thanks

 

final (desperate) bump

 

I downloaded the application and gave it a try.

I just created 2 objects (a cylinder and a toroid) and some more objects.

The animation (not the rendering but the wireframe view) was really smooth. I don't know if more objects would effect it though...

BTW here is my config:

T5850 @ 2.1GHz
3GB RAM 667MHz
GMA965 <----on board graphics no discrete card.

If you need any more info, just ask!

 

The inspiron 1545 doesn't have the GMA 965. It either has the ATI HD 4330 or the GMA 4500 MHD

 

Oh my...my mistake...

I have a 1535 not a 1545.

 

it doesn matter he tested an inferior card it could work.
but if he wants some realtime render(not even the solidworks Dell workstation in my university has achieve that) he'll need a full workstation not laptop!!.

 

shameless bump because i would like to see this resolved. more interested in the x4500hd benchmark than the ATI 4330

 

well i tryied Autodesk acad 2010 on this machine. so i make a 3d tingy or 2 it handle it well not like a real video card but to learn it should be enough so i think the 1545 cand handle a little 3d modeling