Still waiting for nVidia GPU's

I have a two year old T61P, and I'm looking for a processor speed boost, but I'm discouraged by Lenovo's offerings.

I know that nVidia has some packaging problems the other years, but I'm not buying an ATI GPU'ed machine. nVidia's drivers are arguably more solid for CAD, and their Linux drivers work. I also do a little light gaming, and want better performance than Lenovo's ATI offerings could give. 3D is 3D.

 

With the problems Nvidia has been having in the GeForce 8xxx and 7xxx and corresponding Quadro offerings, I don't think any manufacturer will be in any hurry to switch over all their production to Nvidia. Besides, I'm liking ATI's offerings recently, in both the mobile and desktop markets.

Anyway, if you must have an Nvidia GPU, the W700/W700ds do use the Nvidia Quadros, and the Dell Latitudes and Precisions offer exclusively Nvidia Quadro GPUs.

 

The Dell Precisions actually offer ATI as well (FirePro M77440, based on the HD 4860).

 

cool story bro.

 

This.

 

Nvidia was also having some supply chain issues, so i am not sure whether many manufacturers will be comfortable with that either.

 

ATI is also doing better in the power management department at this point.

I'm not just soured on nVidia's packaging problems --I'm soured that they never owned up to the extent of the issues. There are a number of notebook GPUs nVidia didn't put on their problem list that are part of the same family and had the same issues. nVidia has covered up several flaws over the years --broken PureVideo on first-run NV40/NV45 graphics chips, broken hardware firewalls on nForce chipsets --and they let it go, and the customer was stuck with hardware that didn't deliver.

ThinkPads aren't really designed with gaming in mind. So, they don't put ATI or nVidia gaming GPUs onboard. If gaming's your thing, I'd look for a laptop that has a gaming design.

 

What about these Lenovo's with Nvidia GPUs? Or have you seen them already?

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...3E0DE54435882FABC3CE1BC569A&filter=Graphics_2

 

Those are not real gaming GPUs. They are rebranded Nvidia 9400m/9300m. Nvidia has been doing this rebranding thing a lot lately.

On the desktop front, ATI has the fastest GPU right now with the HD 5870. Power consumption is also very good for a gaming card, especially at idle. It has much better power consumption than previous generation ATI and Nvidia cards.

 

Ya, things are looking good for AMD right now...at least as far as GPUs go.

And drives for nvidia and Ati have sucked over the years.

 

Most are budget line GPUs but the GT 240M is among the top of the mainstream line (128-bit), while the FX 2700M is the middle of the enthusiast (256-bit, workstation) line. Desktop wise and with current drivers, the HD 5870 is the fastest single GPU card, but the GTX 295 still beats it overall (but its a dual GPU card). It has lower power consumption due mainly due to the 40nm manufacturing process.

 

Much lower power consumption. That, and full DirectX 11 compatibility, and dual-GPU configurations aren't supported well for every gaming title.

I've had ATI and nVidia cards from the earliest days to now (my first VGA card was an ATI VGA Wonder 256k that I upgraded to 512k by adding DIPP chips), and seen both of them have good days and bad. Right now though, ATI's got the game on performance, lower heat, and lower power with their newest desktop stuff, and it will be interesting to see how mobile Radeons and FireGL chips benefit as things trickle down.

 

Like stated below Im also upset at the rebranding old tech as new technology. But I have to agree, thinkpads are meant for work and not gaming. Although I have done a decent amount on mine so far.

This is what has turned me off of nvidia cards for a while. They take last years chip and OC it and brand it a new generation. 8XXX to 9XXX especially. Upgrades like that are supposed to be 8X00 to 8X50, not a newer generation.

 

Dell Precision M6400 has the 40nm HD 4860 workstation equivalent (FirePro M7740). Hopefully benchmarks will come out soon (though to be honest I really haven't looked very hard around the net).

 

I believe that the game/work issue is as invalid as it is threadbare. A competent game machine makes an excellent work machine. When a 3D graphic program is started, loading textures, from filled triangles to triangle strips the GPU doesn't know whether it's a game or a 3D design program.

My friend uses a Geforce 8800 card for AutoCad.
My T61P with a Quaddro 570 can run hacked Geforce 8700 drivers because, baring faster memory--it's the same GPU.

Don't let marketing people lie to you.

 

Sure there can be driver modifications for the same GPU for certain types of applications, but that is not to say that there are not very specific graphic workstation cards.

 

Yes, there are some a few high performance workstation cards out there, but many are re-branded game cards with less texture memory.

 

Those Quadro/FirePro cards have drivers that are tuned more for those specific professional apps and ensure that they work optimally. Sure, they are overpriced, but you are given a proper workstation graphics driver. That is important for businesses.

Normal gaming graphics driver are optimized for the latest games but may break other games. It happens all the time on ATI and Nvidia. The performance and stability of these CAD-type programs cannot be guaranteed.

 

dude, seriously? you won't even consider an ATI GPU? ATI makes some seriously kick-a** GPUs for a better price than Nvidia. The new 5000's are a testament to that.
If Linux support is your only concern, then I guess you have a point. But I use Windows so it doesn't matter to me. But don't bet on every Thinkpad getting an Nvidia GPU. More often than not Thinkpads have been ATI and not Nvidia.

 

The finite element analysis program I use runs under Linux, and ATI's record is not good in Linux. Even though they open sourced a driver, ATI's were broken lately on Linux, and well, fear sells, in this case nVidia.

My friend had problems with ATI drivers with 3D Studio max some time ago. With that said, versions aside, OpenGL is OpenGL and Directx is Directx, and as long as the drivers and hardware support are there, paying more for a "workstation" card is not something I would do--unless it actually has better hardware performance. I don't care much for per-program optimized drivers as it degrades the flexibility of a computer as a whole. I used Rhino 3D 4.0, and it has a choice of either Dx or OpenGL rendering.

I'm glad that OpenCL is here, and might level the playing field, but I'm fairly certain that nVidia is putting more effort into GPU computation that ATI.

[It's quite sad, as for desktops, I usually build AMDs, but I am sad to hear that the AMD/SLI chipsets are being phased out, as there are some very economical quads from AMD now.]

After a long day of doing CAD stuff, it's nice to relax by slaying some stuff in Guildwars, or playing an ancient but beloved game of Thief II. I am not a fan of over specialized computers. Because 3D gaming also makes me better at stuff like this:

http://www.brendamake.com/resume/rhino/rhino.html

 

which finite analysis program do you use?? Are you doing it for mechanical or civil engineering?