topic Re: suggestions - Laptops for 2013 in Hardware (Read Only)

suggestions - Laptops for 2013

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:42:09 GMT

Time to upgrade Laptop and Acad to 2013.

I'm asking this question because a couple of years ago I got shafted because we bought a laptop with graphics card suitable for Acad M 2010. When Acad 2011 rolled out the graphics card was no longer supported.

Graphics anomolies have been a part of life since.

I see a Dell Precision M6700 has a NVidia Quadro K4000M (4GB) graphics card. Has anyone experience with this card on any 2013 Acad products and 3D models?

I do 3D modelling so need the highest end graphics I can get. I saw in the card list the Quadro K2000M (2GB) is supported / certified. I could assume the 4GB version of the K2000M is good but assuming is not a good thing.

Or if anyone has good experience with 3D modelling on any Dell high end laptops with 2013, I have an open ear.

Dell is our office std so other brands are not an option.

Thanks for any help

(ps: I posted this in Acad M's forum but not getting much traffic. I actually use Acad M but I don't see much difference in the system requirements between the two.)

Re: suggestions - Laptops for 2013

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 20:10:59 GMT

Dell doesn't offer "off the rack" Precisions equipped with the K4000......only the K2000/1000 comes on their "off the rack" Precisions. To get the K4000, or even K5000, you have to go full custom ($$$$), and the price jump is insane.....My big concern is will the K2000 be enough of a motor to win the race?

I'd love to get something "off the rack" that came with the K3000 card.....only HP Elitebooks come "off the rack" with those.....

Re: suggestions - Laptops for 2013

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:36:24 GMT

Dell Precision M6700 Mobile Workstation

3rd Gen Intel® Core™ i7-3740QM Processor (2.7GHz, 6M cache, Upgradable to Intel® vPro™ technology)

17.3" UltraSharp™ FHD (1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare, Premium Panel Guarantee

8GB2 DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz

NVIDIA® Quadro® K4000M with 4GB GDDR5

( abbreviated web link: dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m6700/pd?oc=bwct674&model_id=precision-m6700)

This system is an off the shelf Dell laptop we're looking at to run Acad 2013 with CADWorx piping software on it.

Does anyone have experience with this system and how it runs with 3D modelling? (specifically the graphics card)

(it comes with the K4000M Quadro as you can see in the link ... its not cheap)

(my rant - AutoDesk makes it very hard to stay on top of having the proper hardware to run their software. I bought a new laptop a few years ago that had everything on it especially the (graphics card) recommended for that year's Acad. The next version that came out and the graphics card was no longer supported. ... what a bummer its been ever since - minor annoying issues all the time)

Re: suggestions - Laptops for 2013

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:16:05 GMT

I'd say go for it - even the off the rack model is a powerhouse. I recently bought a very similarly set-up Dell M6700, but with 16gb ram, and a slightly faster processor than the off the rack model. The M6700 is one of a very few laptops that even offers a K4000 card, and at a very sizeable discount (the K4000+K5000 can get super expensive - HP charges two arms and a leg for this card on their laptops). I did get a solid-state 128mb drive as my primary drive, and a secondary 750mb 7200rpm spinny disc drive for storage. I'd really recommend thinking hard about getting the solid state drive - it's a real improvement over spinny disc drives. It's a bit startling how fast the computer boots, and launches programs when one has a solid state drive as their main drive.

Sure, you can save money and get a workstation tower, but for those looking for portablility and major muscle -you really can't beat what Dell offers in M6700 setup options (I ordered mine customized). I'm currently running only sketchup, Revit LT 2013, Autocad LT 3013, photoshop, and a few other programs, and so far this computer just smokes! I work on some sizeable sketchup and photoshop files (these can get really klunky on slower computers), and this laptop just churns thru em like butter. I'm really impressed with the build quality of this Dell, and would recommend it for anyone that is looking at a workstation alternative. It's a really powerful laptop (and quiet too!).

Re: suggestions - Laptops for 2013

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:11:48 GMT

Thanks for the input.

The recommended list of Vid Cards has the Quadro 4000M on it and the only difference between it and the K4000M is 2 additional GB of Vram; a memory bandwidth boost from 80.0 GB/sec to 89.6 GB/sec; and CUDA Parallel Processor Cors from 336 to 960 (whatever that means).

Have a nice day.

Re: suggestions - Laptops for 2013

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:29:35 GMT

I'm not a computer tech maniac - I know enough to be dangerous, but as for the CUDA cores - they're what makes the Kseries cards different from the gamer graphics powerhouse cards you see in so many computers. The card architecture is very different from a gamer card, and CUDA cores are the currency ($) - especially for these Kepler based cards (geek talk). I was looking at a Lenovo, nicely set up that offered up the K2000 card as it's highest graphics option.

Only when I stumbled across the Dell, I realized that for not that much more, I'd be able to get what I deem as Nvidia's jumping off point to truly powerful graphics cards - the K4000. The K5000 is just plain too new and spendy for me to really justify, whereas the K4000 hits the mark perfectly.

I've read that the K2000 does fine, but whomever is saying that has probably never experienced the K4000 card.

The best you have, is the best you know!

Keep rippin' that GSXR!

Re: suggestions - Laptops for 2013

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 22:15:03 GMT

Talking about dell precision 4700 or 6700:

with same processor and same RAM 32 gb, does the video card K2000 offered with precision 4700 is a big difference respect the k4000 offered with the 6700???

This is in order to run well hevy sketchup models and CAD.

Thanks fo any suggestions!

Re: suggestions - Laptops for 2013

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:03:09 GMT

The best way for me to help with the question about K2000 and K4000 is to direct you to a nice comparison chart for the Quadro cards:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/product-comparison/Product_Comparison_Oct_2012.pdf

... and regarding the GSXR ...I wish I could rip it ... but I sold it ... what a nice bike it was ... a young Mechanical Engineer I rode with bought it and he's lovin' it.

Re: suggestions - Laptops for 2013

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:19:39 GMT

There's a difference between the K4000 (which is designed for workstation towers), and the K4000m (which is designed for laptops). Both have similar capabilities, but with different architectures.

K4000

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/1841/NVIDIA_Quadro_K4000.html

K4000M

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/1422/.html

K5000

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/565/NVIDIA_Quadro_K5000.html

K5000M

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/1397/NVIDIA_Quadro_K5000M.html

As you can see when you compare - the workstation version runs much faster, and likely much hotter (it takes up two slots in a computer tower!) - must have a huge cooling fan/s. I think for laptops, due to the tight packaging and limited real estate under the hood with regard to cooling - is the biggest consideration. The Dell M6700 has one of the best cooling system of fans that I've seen on a laptop, and is pretty much as good as it gets for this card. And when you compare the K4000M to the K5000M, for bandwidth and clock speeds, there's not as big a performance gap as one would think, considering the price differential.

As I said before - the K4000M hit's a sweet spot between performance / cost.

Re: suggestions - Laptops for 2013

mdhutchinson — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:14:35 GMT

With Solid State as primary drive and a hard drive for working and storage...

What sizes would be recommended? ... maybe 128 Solid State and 512 GB Hard drive... can both of these in the M6700 Mobile Laptop accually fit?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6109/dell-announces-new-precision-m4700-and-m6700-mobile-workstations

My current Laptop is Dell Precision M6400... hard drive is only 78 GB.

(the Laptop is just about dead... keeps shutting down on me while working... so far always starts back up again. On day it shut down a dozen or more times.