Strange Question: Quadro 2000M vs Geforce GT540m (Thinkpad W520 vs XPS 15)

Yes, I know that these systems and those graphics cards have radically different purposes. Normally, I wouldn't have considered the Thinkpad W520 and the Quadro (I don't use CAD at all). However, due to strange workplace arrangements, it turns out that I can purchase a Thinkpad W520 with almost identical specs to the XPS 15 I was planning to get, for about the same price; the only significant difference between the specs is the graphics card.

Since the Quadro 2000M got significantly better scores than the GT540m in notebookcheck with respect to gaming and multimedia, and since I do prefer Lenovo's brand name over Dell's, I'm leaning towards getting the W520, despite the fact that it was not made to fit my needs. I would like to hear your opinions in the matter; is it reasonable to use the Quadro 2000M for gaming and multimedia instead of its intended purpose? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!

 

You can, but the Quadros drivers aren't fully optimized for DirectX functionality, so you will see a minor loss of FPS as a result. However, you will still get a decent multimedia and gaming experience on a powerful Thinkpad when compared to the weaker GeForce XPS 15. Besides if I had to pick between the two you mentioned, I would take the ThinkPad any day! However, if it was against a Precision, I would have to think a bit!

 

The minor loss would be relatively to the GT540m? I didn't quite get from your answer whether you believe that the Quadro 2000M is superior to the Geforce GT540m for gaming and multimedia or vice versa.

 

The ThinkPad will still win against the 540M by a margin, even though it won't as strong as the its 460M/555M GeForce counterparts due to its driver/BIOS setup and that it is still on 128-bit GDDR 3.

 

I would think build quality on the W520 would be better than the XPS as well.

Check out the two cards here: Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Looks like the 2000M beats out the 540M by a significant amount (50%).

 

Sure it does:

The only downside is a lower bandwidth (192 vs 128) and no DDR5 option.
Otherwise it would be the quadro version of GTX460m.

 

Indeed, the notebookcheck results seem to be clear; however, I believe that they tested the 540M on significantly weaker systems, and so I am not sure if that is the reason for the gap. How much of a difference can the system around the GPU make for these tests, do you know?

 

NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
NVIDIA Quadro 2000M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

You can click on each individual FPS on the bottom of the page for details on the unit it was tested with.
The higher frame rates on the 540M page is mostly from testing on i7 SB units and those are still fairly weak compared to the 2000M results.

 

Isnt it MXMIII? I mean you can try to look if the Chip is identical and flash a GT540M BIOS. Give it a try if you want to have more FPS in dX9/10/11.

 

None of these GPUs are MXM III and hence are not replaceable by users. Both companies (for these particular models) solder their GPUs onto their motherboards.

 

To expand on this, any system that uses NVIDIA Optimus has its GPU soldered onto the board. This covers most, if not all, of the non-GTX/GTS-class NVIDIA cards from the 3-, 4-, and 5-series.

 

Really? That is surprising since the previous generation of the W520 was on MXM III.