7970m for CAD work?

Hey guys, looking into the P150EM to last me about four years. The hold up right now is what graphics card to get. I'll be using this with some gaming, but more importantly CAD work as well. As far as I know, many CAD programs utilize the CUDA technology that nvidia has to offer. In terms of gaming I know the 7970 would last me four years, but would it be an unwise choice given my needs for CAD work? Apparently AMD has a similar offering called OpenCL, but as far as I know, not many programs utilize it.

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As far as nvidia is concerned last years alienware m17's have dual gpu's. The 7970 is radeon and before people start attacking with their pitchforks radeon isn't reliable enough in my opinion to make a 4 year investment in. The best thing about the alienware is that you will be able to upgrade the gpu's down the line if you see fit and since the new ivy bridge models are out you can pick one up at a premium.

 

OpenCL is an open standard. Some programs are starting to use it, like the latest Adobe package. Dunno about CAD support though.

But in terms of GPGPU performance the 7970m is a monster, it beats what nvidia offers in kepler, the problem is if this power is going to be used or not.

the m18x was the model with dual gpus.

regarding upgrades in the gpu, it appears that all mxm equipped machines are the ones to look after, basically the 7970m has been put in the x7200 (clevo), m17x r3, m18x r1 (aw), gt683 (msi)... we are currently waiting for any input regarding the hm models from clevo, no one has tested yet.
radeon/ati/amd are very reliable, I have used them for many years, along other gpus from different manufacturers as well.

 

If I were you.

I would wait until the nVIDIA mobile release. More power is coming, probably not as much the 7970M but.. still

 

Any idea on when that will be? Are you just talking about the 680m? I was thinking about waiting but the rumors of release are all over the place. I also heard it will be more expensive than the 7970 even though it has less performance.

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I think the question really should be what kind of CAD work are you doing? Are we talking just plain old AutoCAD or other simple 2D drafting or are you talking about 3D modelling such as Revit?

Popular opinion is that for CAD work, the Nvidia Quadro cards are the way to go. My work laptop is a few years old now but runs a Quadro FX 2800M. It has no problem with 2D drafting but in my opinion struggles a little with Revit which is now the main package that I use.

Most would realise that where the Quadro cards out perform their non Quadro equivelent is in rendering, which for me is pointless as I do not create renders of my work.

My home laptop runs an ATI/AMD 6770M and it has no problem at all with 2D drafting in AutoCAD and 3D modelling in Revit. General 3D modelling in Revit in shaded mode runs far better with a gaming orientated video card.

My advice would be to have a look at the supported list of graphics cards for the particular software you're using and work from there. Obviously the 7970M would be over and above the recommended specs of anything on the vendor's list.


I guess to sum it up, the card will eat everything you throw at it for breakfast compared to other laptop cards - this card competes with high end desktop cards. If you keep on waiting for that next bit of new tech to arrive before you buy your laptop, let's face it, you're never going to buy one.

 

^If you're running a quadro 2800m, chances are you can upgrade to some other ridiculously powerful quadro like the 4000m. Just an FYI.

Also, more relevant to the thread, we can probably mod the drivers to Firepro with mixed but good results.

 

Could you please explain or point to a link that differentiates GPGPU from OpenCL? I know that OpenCL is an industry standard (similar to CUDA except not proprietary to nVidia) but wouldn't a particular software be required to be written using CUDA or OpenCL to make use of the GPU?

For example, if I do some pretty large computations on images, those would make the CPU work a lot but wouldn't offload anything onto the GPU unless the software I used to do the image processing was written to take advantage of OpenCL or CUDA right? Or is that incorrect?

 

I e-mailed the university and we will be using both AutoCAD and Revit. I'm pretty set on a gaming card, as I feel I've done enough research on gaming cards vs professional cards and I'm not willing to pay the inflated prices for the professional ones. I just want to make sure I'm not making a mistake by passing up on a card with CUDA as oppose to an AMD offering with no such supported feature (OpenCL doesn't seem to be very well supported among CAD/modeling programs).

 

wiki saving the day
GPGPU - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

OpenCL - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

its basic info mind you

 

Maybe, I cannot say, the only thing I know is that it'll be stronger than the 580M/675M

 

Yes I already read those before posting, but I read it again just in case I had missed something. It still doesn't answer my question as to whether the CPU will simply offload computationally heavy tasks like image convolution, etc. on to the GPU or does the software that uses them specifically need to be programmed to take advantage of the GPGPU concept? I think it is the latter because some packages and software, like MATLAB, specifically say "CUDA enabled" or whatever.

If that is the case and if autoCAD is written for CUDA and not openCL, then OP will not benefit much from using a 7970m for the software as opposed ot the 675m. Games, however, will be far better.

 

What kinda of cad work will you be doing in autocad? if you are doing basic drafting it really doesn't matter, if you are doing 3d models with textures and active rendering, then you will get better job with an nvidia card.

 

OpenCL Will Rock the CAD World, Part 1: Why You Want It CADspeed

 

for many Compute and GPGPU things Kepler is much weaker than fermi. kepler cards are stripped and done more for pure gaming

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...hed-amds-mid-range-radeon-hd-7870-gpu-compute

I really notice it in desktop cards with Creative Suite 6

 

Wow, so I guess no Kepler Quadros, at least not for a while?

 

they have the gtx 690 as the tesla k10, availability is unknown

 

Oh thanks! I have no more rep left sorry.. but on topic again, I guess we'll find out when 680M releases, things tend to shift .. (I hope )

 

I dont see how, it was compared to the 7800 series as well, a 680 couldnt beat it. Although the performance was closer.