Seeking the true saviors of this earth!!!!

Hi... I need to get a notebook by around june 2008. I need it to render 3d models in Alias or 3ds or autocad... and with good media features as well..

Is it true that a great graphics card could make better quality renderings than a slightly lower graphics card? (8700m GT SLi Vs 8700m GT based open GL Vs 8600m GT) or will the difference only be slower performance?

and can the normal dx 9 cards work well for rendering? or will open GL make a big difference?

for a price of around 2500 - 3000$ could anyone suggest the best notebook for the purpose explained above? I'd pefer it if it were a more popular brand like dell/alienware instead of sager, clevo only cos of easier service and stuff...

Thank you so much for ur time!

 

I wouldn't waste my time with an SLI laptop for you its too much & cuts down on battery life. Everything will run just fine.

 

The actual rendering is traditionally done mainly by the CPU, the graphics card helps when viewing and/or manipulating the rendered model in real time. The quality of the rendering is not dependent on your GPU. For your needs, if you plan on doing really advanced 3d work, I'd recommend something like the HP 8510w or the Thinkpad T61p. If your work won't be that advanced, then something like the Dell Inspiron 1520/Vostro 1500. If you're looking for a larger screen, check out the HP 8710p (or 8710w for really high performance).

 

June 2008!?

Great to be proactive, but 8 months in advance? Wow! I'd wait like five months and then see what's available then.

 

if you do 3d rendering then you would probably want a Quadro or FireGl since sli and the gpus you mentioned tend to be for gaming mostly. but who knows what will come out in 2008...post this about a week before you order then you might get better answers.

 

Hey THANKS! That was pretty freakin fast!!! Haha... I know its waaay too early but I sorta enjoy dreaming... lol. and customizing laptops for fun. anyway thanks so much...

just one more thing, if the rendering quality depended on the CPU, would it make more sense to invest in a very good CPU like T7700 or would the extreme version X7900 offer much better quality rendering? cos i think they'r basically the same chips except that the X7900 is an overclocked version... by 400mhz...

Could anyone tell me what actually influences the rendering quality?

 

The quality isn't dependent on the CPU either, only the speed of the actual render. Get something like the T7500 (or when you buy it, a T9500).

I think the actual quality is dependant on the program, and what settings you're using.

 

invest most of your money in the cpu, although have a solid discrete card is important.

Rendering quality can be influenced by many things, it depends how your actually rendering the image. All games use a technique known as rasterization, basically it takes geometry and converts it to pixels, this can be done very fast with the aid of a video card. OpenGL for instance is rasterized so is direct X they're just different api's although they do the same. So all games use this technique as well as many 3d applications typically in your preview windows because it allows you get to a rough idea of what your working with.

Once you render something in a 3d application and your going for a very high quality result you'll probably use a rendering technique called ray tracing. There is currently no ray tracing accelerator so it is rendered solely with your cpu. So this is why its important to have a fast cpu, with multiple cores . By the time your ready to buy my guess is there will be quad core laptops by then, so your patience will pay off

I hope that gives you a better idea, there is a ton of info all over the net about other rendering types, those 2 are just the most common.

 

Thank you so much guys... really really appreciate it! I thought I'd have to blow lotsa money on an SLi or something! I'd still like one though... haha... or maybe by the time I get my laptop there will be rendering accelerators!

thanks again!

 

sorry i have 1 more doubt... will 4 gb of ram against the 2 gb make any kind of difference considering i can use only 3gb of it with a windows 32 bit OS?

 

If you're going to be running 3D modeling software, you're best bet is to get a 64-bit OS and use the 4GB of RAM. Otherwise, 4GB would still be worthwhile and as you pointed out, would only be able to use 3GB of it.

 

when xp uses only 3gb of the 4 gb will the dual channel memory feature work?

 

Yes. However the dual channel feature will also work with 2GB + 1GB configuration just as well in a 32-bit OS.