Share or Dedicated?!

Hi all,
I am to buy a Dell Inspiron 6400, the config. is Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 1GB, 120GB, but the critical point for me, is the graphic card. I have 2 choices, an ATI X1400 and an Intel graphic card. the 2 has about 256MB of mem but as I use CATIA and other high demanding graphic softwares, I want to know if someone has any idea about how the two graphic cards will perform with such softwares. Is there any clear deference between the 2 under such huge loads of demand?
thanks.

 

The X1400 is a dedicated graphics card, and will definetely help during graphics, modeling and rendering. Incidentally, you might want to look at the Latitude and Precision notebook lines from Dell, since these feature graphics cards that are tailored for CAD/modeling work.

 

I second the CAD/rendering optimized cards. The nVidia series are quadro and the Ati are FireGL (though I believe Dell sells nVidia).

 

Have a look over the Dell Precision M90. The M65 doesn't have a great card, but the M90 has good options for the Quadro. For CAD/CAM applications, you'd find the Quadro FX much better than an integrated card. If not a specialized card, then do consider the X1400 as your bare minimum requirement. Integrated graphics really lack what you require,

 

Thanks all, I think I can't afford the Precision series, but about the Latitude, I will have a look. BTW thank you very much guys.

 

You're running graphic intensive software right? Go for a dedicated memory card. There's two benefits, dedicated don't eat your main ram and you'll get better performance.

 

Any CG rendering software will rely on your graphics card's pixel shaders, and render everything else on the CPU, so, the X1400 is the best bet, but also try to get the best CPU that's available.

 

Shared means you're running off of the system ram to support the graphics card. You see a system that says "128 MB shared ram" and 1 GB installed RAM" means that available ram for the system is really only 896 MB. This is fine for low-end/business users who don't need a lot from their systems.

Dedicated means your graphics card has it's own memory installed, and doesn't 'bum' off of the system RAM. This allows for more performance and speed. Downside might be greater heat generation, but other than that, dedicated graphics RAM makes a great solution for power users like media specialists and gamers.

Hope that helps.