Gaming + Work = Geforce or Quadro?

Hey everyone, this is my first post here so hopefully I don't sound too nooby but...
I'm getting a new laptop for college with main specs as follows:
Intel i7 4th Gen clocked @ 2.4 GHz
8 GB DDR3 Ram
1 TB HDD
15.6 inch screen
Windows 8 64-bit

The thing is I'm an engineering major so I will need to run some software modeling programs. Right now the programs I know are SolidWorks SDK, Dreamspark, and possibly AutoCad. However, I will also be doing some gaming on this laptop (nothing too extreme, maybe LoL, SC2, Sims 3, and Skyrim) so I know I need a good GPU. Would I be better off getting a gaming GPU like a nVidia Geforce or a work-oriented GPU like a Quadro? I'm not too sure about the models but I was looking at Geforce 650M or Quadro 2000M. If I get a Quadro I will have to get a Workstation laptop. So I have 1 main question and 2 random questions that are somewhat relevant:

1) Should I go with a Geforce or a Quadro if I want to work and play? (Which is a better mix?)

2) Why do workstation laptops cost so much? It is possible to get a laptop with similar specs that cost a good amount less. I was thinking it was mainly because of the Quadro GPUs. I asked my friend and he said that they were built with a better chassis, better battery, and intended to last longer overall. Is this true? Is there more?

3) What is the difference between 3D modeling and 3D rendering? I keep seeing this over the forums and I'm a bit confused here.

Thank you so much and sorry if I went too much into detail or made this longer than necessary.

 

1. Some Quadros are decent for gaming like the K2000M but the main purpose of Quadro GPUs is doing to rendering with OpenGL. See review : http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-K2000M.76893.0.html

2. Workstation laptops have better build quality , better warranty , and are even sometimes more user serviceable.

 

Even as an engineering student you wouldn't be expected to have professional graphics cards in your laptop. If you end up using programs that require beefy machines, you should expect to have ready access to them in your department. From my experience, I don't think anybody in my undergrad days had Quadro or FirePro. Engineering students or not, most kids won't really know what a graphics card is for tbh

TLDR: just think about gaming when purchasing your laptop

 

Sometimes engineering students end up at doing their work at a computer lab if they don't have their own laptop (or mobile workstation). If you have a mobile workstation you could do all your work on your laptop instead of using dirty school computers.

Some schools actually have agreements (licenses) with certain companies so you can install the necessary programs on your laptop if you don't want to use the school computers.

 

I'm an engineering student and i use a GeForce. Haven't seen anything so far that has required me to upgrade my modest 750M.

And if it does happen, i'll just get a Desktop Quadro. The K600 looks attractive.

 

From my experience, computer labs are seldom equipped with the newest or high-end tech. Even if the labs have some Quadro equipped, they're probably entry-level cards from a few years back. Your gaming card will not be noticeably slower, if at all.

On the other hand if you get into parallel computing (again, don't think anyone even went near that during my undergrad ) the supercomputer clusters are not something you can replace with a personal device.

Come to think about it, what was the last Geforce card that can be converted to Quadro simply by modifying the drivers? That could come in handy and go easy on the budget

 

Not for a while. Nvidia really made sure GeForce is consumer gaming and Quadro is workstation. They gimped the GeForce by I think over 50% compared to Quadro for that type of workload.

 

Well I dug around the net a bit and found this: [MOVED] Hacking NVidia Cards into their Professional Counterparts - Page 1

Apparently the GTX680 and 690 can be turned into K5000's without tempering with the hardware. Those interested might wanna dig deeper for info on mobile cards..

 

Last i heard they degrade the memory on geforce to prevent flashing to Quadro cards which is a shame.

 

I game more so I'd rather have a 780. You would need Quadro if you wanted real time rendering in Solidworks - I think that's Realvision. I think there might be a hack to get Realvision working on a regular gaming v.c..

 

To be specific, what laptops are you looking at?

Usually, if you can't afford a Quadro but need drive OpenGL viewports, you should get a Radeon.

 

I'm surprised it's just a few smd resistors that can unlock a GTX to Quadro. I'm skepticle about that. But no way am I messing around on a mobile card to try to figure out what simd to change.

The other issue, I thought Quadro used ECC, and GTX does not.

Reading further, even if you do these changes, seems there are features of Quadro that are either locked by lasercutting, FPG etc, things I don't know about. And it takes a lot of work messing with nvflash, straps (dunno what those are), calculations etc.

 

Inline ECC is beautiful, isn't it?

 

My school teaches civil engineering and has "high end" computers in the labs equipped with I7-3770 CPUs and 8GB DDR3 RAM.
....
With Windows 7 32-bit as an OS.
....
Don't ever come to my school. I'm still trying to see if they'll hire me instead of whoever the idiot was who bought/installed those lab computers.