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    Which GPU With W520?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Ed H, Oct 3, 2011.

  1. Ed H

    Ed H Notebook Enthusiast

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    I am going to order a W520 and have a question about which GPU to get. Other than the usual browsing and MS Office tasks I am a heavy user of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and IDimager. Is the $250 for the NVIDIA Quadro 2000M upgrade worthwhile or is that primarily useful for gamers?

    Thanks in advance.
     
    Ed H, Oct 3, 2011
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  2. AofI

    AofI Notebook Geek

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    I would spend the extra $250 on memory and maybe an extra drive for the swap file. Will you be doing anything that renders or processes data using CUDA? For standard editing and design I don't believe the 2000M will make any difference.
     
    AofI, Oct 3, 2011
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  3. bogatyr

    bogatyr Notebook Evangelist

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    Shouldn't make a difference for your quoted activities. Just keep in mind that you can't add it later.
     
    bogatyr, Oct 3, 2011
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  4. Colonel O'Neill

    Colonel O'Neill Notebook Deity

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    Yeah you should be fine on a 1000M or an NVS4200M.
     
    Colonel O'Neill, Oct 3, 2011
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  5. Ed H

    Ed H Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for the replies. So, more memory is a definite necessity. Would upgrading to to the 2820QM processor be a noticeable improvement?
     
    Ed H, Oct 3, 2011
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  6. bogatyr

    bogatyr Notebook Evangelist

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    I don't believe you'll notice any performance gain. Perhaps an overclocked XM processor but not the 2820.
     
    bogatyr, Oct 4, 2011
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  7. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    No. In multi-threaded tasks, the quad core will benefit you, but you won't notice any difference in performance between the quad core options unless you have a stopwatch out.
     
    MidnightSun, Oct 4, 2011
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  8. edit1754

    edit1754 Notebook Prophet

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    You'll probably want to spend the money on the FHD screen instead.

    2860QM: not worth it and never will be. It's around a 3-4% gain over the 2760QM.
     
    edit1754, Oct 5, 2011
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