How do Workstation GPU's handle Gaming?

Because I plan on going into Media Arts and Technology as a major, people recommended workstation styled laptops. However I do plan on using my laptop for personal gaming (primarily emulators) and I heard of differences between Workstation GPUs and Mainstream GPUs. Essentially would it be possible for gaming via Workstation GPU?

 

Yes, the drivers tend to be a little less optimised for games but they can run them just fine, you just have to be aware of the specifications.

 

Possible? Of course. Compared to "gaming laptops," they might lack in these aspects (depending on which workstation you buy): drivers, how upgradeable they are (not a problem for higher-end workstations), BIOS options, and workarounds for muxless switchable graphics.

 

I hate to say it, but if these are college classes, you probably won't need to drop a ton of money of a workstation laptop. Honestly, even a gaming card would probably work very well. There's no point dropping 2k$ on a workstation laptop that will be out of date in 4 years when you graduate.

Keep in mind, many of the Nvidia workstation cards are nothing more than gaming cards with a different vbios.

 

no our friends at NVidia are kindly doing hardware modifications now too. softmodding alone hasn't worked in quite awhile for full functionality, they caught on to us doing softmods and saving a lot of money.

as for gaming ... in quadros take your gaming equivelant and subtract roughly 15% eg k5000m is about 15-20% down from its 680m counterpart
FirePro to Radeon is in the 8-15% range

 

Need to, nope, want to, that's another matter. The OP will want a dGPU for sure and from personal experience, if you can do it on your notebook, you're going to take the assignments home and do them there instead of spending evenings in the university's labs. That doesn't mean that a pro GPU is needed, but it can be nice to have if you have the money. If you are on a tight budget, better save money and get a gaming notebook.

As KCETech1 said, there are some hardware differences now, the use of ECC GDDR5 for example if I'm not mistaken.

 

ECC Ram and on the desktop cards atleast you have to mod resistors for straps

Hacking NVidia Cards into their Professional Counterparts - Page 1

( yes I have been following modding GF cards for years )

 

Yeah, my apologies, that's what I meant. And if I'm not mistaken, you might be able to use school funds as part of your budget.

 

I was under impression that Quadro and GeForce are not the exact cores either. GeForce having 50% less GPGPU CUDA power than Quadro.

In general it seems to me 7970M from AMD still has beefy enough OpenCL power for a student's needs. I'm actually curious what kind of lab work a student does that would require more?

My only recommendation, is whether you choose GeForce, Quadro, FirePro, or Radeon, skip the switchable graphics. Get one that can be dedicated. I know there are some 3D applications that just won't work with switchable. I've tried running 3DS Max I think on 7970M, just wouldn't budge.
- Some programs I believe see your Intel first, and then immediately shut down GPU assistance.

- Alienware have a hybrid system, so you can fix it to dGPU in BIOS.
- Clevo P370 or P570, are SLI ready notebooks that don't support switchable graphics. I'd go with P370 personally, and just don't do SLI.

I think it would be totally worth it to sacrifice battery life if you really want to make sure your awesome choice is supported by any application you use for graphics/media. You don't want to be stuck with assignment late at night screaming how much switchable graphics sucks.

As for driver support, I'd recommend Nvidia over AMD. I get the impressions AMD driver team is 5 people or something. For example, they announced in March they would fix the stuttering issues with CFX in JULY, and 7970 was released in December, 2011.

 

up to the Keplers they were the same die just the GF cards had certain data lanes cut. Keplers are two different dies, but the GF die can do some of the Quadro functions ( nopt OpenCL though as the guy who modded the desktop card found out )

very much so, only a hair slower than the k5000

I second this, Optimus and Enduro can cause you premature balding very quickly

again I agree... if saving battery life is going you three to 5 times the render time .... why bother

Nvidia if you want a dual GPU switching solution, or CUDA, for OpenGL, OPenCL and such the Radeons and FirePros are just as good as any Quadro. where AMD falls down is on dual GPU solutions which you DONT want running in a rendering laptop since neither AMD or Nvidia can get it working right for pro level applications just games

 

It is, depends on whether you have software that is picky about hardware, need support from the devs (doubtful for an undergrad), etc. There's also the fact that if you do not opt for the beefiest GPU, a K2000m can give you an edge over a 650m for example in a small enough package like the Thinkpad W530 or Precision M4700. They're somewhat less bulky than the Clevos as far as I can tell, so if you're trying to balance performance, weight & size and price, a 15" workstation might not be a bad idea.

Graduate students are another matter entirely, I got a friends who has access to a dual hexacore/octo GPU workstation for example.

With the Precisions, you can disable Optimus in the BIOS so you can still get nice battery life and bypass switchable if needed as well, the Elitebooks don't have switchable, dunno if you can disable optimus for the W530.

Definitely and I was surprised by the battery life I get with my M6700, I still get 5 hours of battery with my firepro M6000 (which is weaker than a 7970m by the way).

The firepro drivers are usually alright since they go through certification, I didn't really have problems with my HD5870 either, but that was some time ago. nVidia still has overall better driver support though.

 

Seems to me then for the OP, his best bet is to go with an Alienware with 7970M or a Clevo P370 with 7970M emphasis on gaming. Or go with a Dell Precision, as that also allows you to disable switchable in BIOS.

 

Precision 15, don't know what carrying a 17" laptop around campus will do to me o.o

 

That depends on what kind of carrying you're going to do. Carrying my M6700 to university isn't a problem and I got 45 mins of commuting to get there and then another 45 mins to get back home, so it is doable, but if you're going to carry textbooks (which I don't), 15" is more practical. 15" is also more practical to take to classes because of usually limited desk space. Carrying a 15" and some textbooks wasn't a problem back in my undergrad days and I'm talking big engineering textbooks too. You will want a backpack though, I got some serious shoulder pain with just a shoulder bag and carrying the textbooks back home with me.

 

thats my take as well, backpacks are needed, did this for 8 years in college, imagine carrying the law, economics and social political books everywhere, my shoulder was in shambles, not to mention I needed to carry 2 or 3 bags

 

tomshardware did an article about this exact topic very recently, although with desktop versions of these gpus

How Well Do Workstation Graphics Cards Play Games? : Can Workstation Graphics Cards Play Games?

 

New info from professor: The software used are Adobe Creative Suites from Design Premium to Master Collection. I will get Master Collection just because I run Photoshop and Premiere Pro on my current computer for editing pictures and videos.

 

In my opinion go with a workstation class notebook. I've always ran workstation class notebooks and they tend to have extreme durability compared to anything else on the market. I've personaly had thinkpad in pentium 3 era it finaly died around 6 months ago after my father ran over it with a tractor in our garage. Next was hp nc8430 which is now in said garage in pretty harsh enviroment and was used bruttaly and after 7 years it refuses to die. Now i'm using elitebook 8530p for last year and its working like a charm and it will go to my gf once my m6600 arives in two weeks. From my experience you can game on the same level as you would on the standard gamer grade gpu. And as a student nothing is worse than a non reliable notebook. Regardless to say that all of my colegues form colage are now using business/workstation class notebooks regardless of their job description. If you need portability go with 15", altho not even 17" is that troublesome if you buy a proper backpack. I would recomend any of the 3: elitebook, precision or the thinkpad. And for gpu - just take anything that fits your budget. Ati cards tend to give more power for less money and nonsense lile enduro wont make any issues as it is disabled or bypassed in some way.

Cant really say about dell precision line as its still en route to me but knowing my friend who is transporting games on it like a madmen for the last month i say it works fine.

P.s. All my notebooks were purchased as refurbs. From my first p3 thinkpad tru hp and now dell that is still en route.

 

I have never understood the driver issue -- do the Firepro/Quadros not allow you to install the respective Radeon/Gerforce drivers?

Certainly wouldn't want then while compiling (or whatever it is you kids are doing on your workstations these days), but what's to stop you running gaming drivers when gaming?

 

Some cards do not work with regular drivers, others do. There is nothing wrong with gaming while using firepro/quadro drivers for gaming. Switching drivers is usualy painful proces as it requires few restarts or a dual boot system.

Other thing you can do is flashing workstation card to its "gamer" equivalent.

sent via tapatalk - as i have big thumbs and small phone expect rettradred typos.