I’m a bit out of date on laptops, especially when it comes to graphics cards.

I need something that will cope ok with number crunching and some 3D rendering, but needs to be portable too.

What should I be looking out for graphics card wise? Any recommended models?
Cost isn’t too much of an issue.

Well, you’re gonna need something pretty bloody powerful to do 3-D!!

Obviously, I’m gonna say Mac, but still think any laptop will struggle a bit with full-on 3-D.

Well, it’s only to do a bit of stuff at home/on the move. I have a big quad processor workstation for most stuff.

Macbookpro if you are serious about it. Any non apple laptop built to the same spec/quality will cost a similar amount anyway.

I’d have thought processor levels would be more important with rendering, rather than graphics, unless its animated 3D.

What specific 3d software are you using?

Depends on your software, what are you using?

HP, Lenovo and Dell all do Windows based ‘Portable Workstation’ machines with decent graphics cards, bundles of RAM and fast processors.

Been using Dell Precisions for a few years now, modelling, animating and rendering, in many packages. I would definitely look at models with Nvidia Quadro graphics options if your software is opengl based. Rendering usually requires plenty of processor grunt so quad core would be usefull, I normally use several machines over a weekend for this. You could take a look at using a cloud service like https://witsbits.com/ for rendering.

btw, current 17″ M6300 is a bit of a slab to carry around.

If you’re doing real rendering work then (depending on your needs) a better approach might be to just use a normal laptop to “Remote Desktop” to the PC in charge of your rendering farm.

i.e. the farm will still be doing all the work and your laptop will just be displaying the results.

coffeking – after looking around a bit I think you may be right. Macbooks have pretty good processor and graphics chips, plus since most of the software I’ll be using doesn’t run under windows, it avoids have to have a dual book machine too!

Eh? most of the 3d apps I have used / know off are either bug riden crap on a mac or are a generation or two behind.

I’m not up to date on the current gpu’s in macs but up until very recently they were at least a generation behind their pc counterparts – and obviously you pay through the nose for that priviledge. Processors and ram are exactly the same.

Get one of these. Failing that try Alienware or a Dell xps.

Obviously, if the software you’re using absolutely wont run on anything other than osx….then um, dont I suppose.

What do you mean by 3d apps?
I won’t be doing any gaming on it. I just need decent graphics for 3D modeling (maya etc) and rendering (although a lot of reneders don’t use the GPU).

The performance of the geforce 9600 in the macbook pro and the fx3700 in that goboxx thing look pretty similar on paper.
The Quad core processor would probably be useful, but i suspect it would cane the battery?

i bought an acer with an ATI option, was pretty good; not as quick as my workstation but thats’ to be expected

p.s. I bet that goboxx is expensive. I know I said money wasn’t a big issue, but I can get a MPB for not much over £1k.

Oh, and I need it to be portable too.

I’m not up to date on the current gpu’s in macs but up until very recently they were at least a generation behind their pc counterparts

Which is why, of course, no-one in the film industry uses Macs at all… 🙄

RudeBoy
Which is why, of course, no-one in the film industry uses Macs at all…

Go away and do your homework on that one then come back to me.

glenh – Member
What do you mean by 3d apps?
I won’t be doing any gaming on it. I just need decent graphics for 3D modeling (maya etc) and rendering (although a lot of reneders don’t use the GPU).

The performance of the geforce 9600 in the macbook pro and the fx3700 in that goboxx thing look pretty similar on paper.
The Quad core processor would probably be useful, but i suspect it would cane the battery?

3d applications. Rendering is almost entirely down to processing power – open gl performance obviously dependant on the graphics card. On paper the geforce is similar to the quadro, however the quadro is designed with 3d professionals in mind and is optomized for 3d app performance as opposed to games performance – it should have a higher level of customisability and a better compliment of drivers for specific 3d apps too.

The quad core processors might kane the battery but I wonder how much meaningful rendering or modelling one could get done during a typical bus or train journey. I’ve found the battery life on macs to be lousy anyway so I’d say it’ll compare favourably. And yes it is expensive. Alienware or Dell xps, not so much so. See how they compare spec wise with their mac counterparts. I think you’ll find that maya works just fine on pc btw.

Go away and do your homework on that one then come back to me.

Already done it, mate! Actually, I know quite a few people who work in the film production industry, here in London. Do stuff like 3-D, spesh effects, titling, etc. Guess what make of computer almost all of them use?

Mac The Force Be With You.

Pixar use Macs quite a bit…

And countless others; can’t be bothered listing them. But one or two good recent films have been made using Macs.

Give it up. You’ll only make yourself look silly.

I know that a few years ago (4ish), you wanted an Intel chip for sound production, as most programs were optimised for an Intel. Also the Intel crunched numbers slightly better than the AMD.. Not sure if the same applies these days.