SW and Laptops
SW and Laptops
(OP)
Hi there,
Does anyone run SW happily on a laptop - ie similar performance to a mid range workstation??
Anyone have any recomendations for a good manufacturer/brand?
I assume the main bottle neck in a laptop is the graphics card.
I see some are getting the 1 gig RAM mark with a reasonable CPU.
Dave
Does anyone run SW happily on a laptop - ie similar performance to a mid range workstation??
Anyone have any recomendations for a good manufacturer/brand?
I assume the main bottle neck in a laptop is the graphics card.
I see some are getting the 1 gig RAM mark with a reasonable CPU.
Dave






RE: SW and Laptops
Wanna Tip? FAQ731-376
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
RE: SW and Laptops
Jay
RE: SW and Laptops
I think alot of peaople would agree with u jay Re video card power.
IMHO laptop manufactures could sacrifice size/weight savings to accomodate space for video cards and required cooling. Carrying a laptop around thats an extra 10mm thicker than a standard one wouldn't be an issue for most people wanting performance required.
Anyone else have any views on this?
Dave
RE: SW and Laptops
I might be getting my articles confused, but I want to say that the article talked about one of them running CAD (either ProE or ACAD) and it was surprisingly "nice". This might also have been a posting to comp.cad.solidworks.
I guess spending too much time in front of my monitor has affected my short term memory...
Anyways, I just remembered that the tablets only run on a special version of Windows, so you might run into problems trying to run SW on a non-approved OS. It still might be worth looking into.
Wanna Tip? FAQ731-376
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
RE: SW and Laptops
I have a Dell 8200 with 512 RAM, XP Pro, and a GF 4 440 go video card. The worst card you can get with the dell laptops to run SW on. You can open parts and assmeblies alright, but if you open a part of an assemlby...it's time for a smoke or coffee break which you do
So pay the money and get the M50 if you don't to
Regards,
Scott Baugh, CSWP

3DVision Technologies
http://www.3dvisiontech.com
http://www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376
When in doubt, always check the help
RE: SW and Laptops
It is important that you do not get a "gaming" video card. You want a video card that can handle Solid Modelling (like the Quadro 2Go). Here are a couple laptops...
IBM ThinkPad A30P with an ATI Mobility FireGL 7800
Dell Precision M40 with a nVidia Quadro 2Go
Dell Precision M50 with a nVidia Quadro 500 GoGL
Cheers,
Joseph
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
768 DDR Ram
64MB Nvidia GeForce4 440 Go
XP Home
UXGA ultra high definition screen
I have been very happy with this laptop. It runs both my CAM software and SW2003 at the same time with no problems. I mainly do industrial design so i will have alot of intensive features in my part but not alot of assembly type work. Now I would not suggest doing large assemblies on it because of the video card. One trick that i did to increase performance was to change in the bios the setting to max performance. Another thing people forget with a laptop that all intel mobile processors will clock down if on battery power. I use mine on ac power if doing alot of cad work.
The 8200 has been replaced with the 8500 but it is still quite a bit cheaper than the M50.
RE: SW and Laptops
It does seem kind of odd to me that there seem to be very few (I know there must be more than what are menstioned here) options when it comes to a high end 3D CAD/modelling laptop.
Just my thoughts anyway.
Cheerio
Dave
RE: SW and Laptops
The Dell M60 has the NVIDIA Quadro Go700 128MB card available. Not for free of course
have fun make money
Paul
RE: SW and Laptops
Does it really matter if you get a 'gaming' video card or not, so long as your video card RAM is a minimum of 64mB? The lager the RAM on the video card, the better I expect the program to run. Besides, if a company is ready to pay the $$$ for Solidworks, I would expect it is ready to pay for the video card as well.
If you are doing some serious engineering design, I would expect the company not to skip on the cost of the the tools to perform the work.
I also noticed no one mentioned a docking station with a video card in it. Just a thought.
RE: SW and Laptops
You kind of answered your own question, in that the company should be buying you a CAD card over a gamming card, especially if they are willing to buy a solid modeler.
Wanna Tip? FAQ731-376
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
RE: SW and Laptops
I purchased a Toshiba Satellite 1805 a year and a half ago. This is a mid-level laptop with a 1000 mhz Celeron processon / 512 ram / and a built in video card. I think the cost of it was $1,400 to $1600 at that time - I'm not sure because I got it as part of a replacement package for a dead laptop.
I was running SW2001 at the time on a 350 P3 machine at work – they were dragging their feet about purchasing replacement machines. I did a speed comparison between the two systems and then quickly disconnected my work machine and started using my laptop. A short time later – they offered me an AMD 1500+ (I think) machine (the 2100+ was available) – I did another speed comparison and gave it back to them (It was marginally faster) – They eventually gave me a halfway decent machine but they specified a nVidia GeForce 2 graphics card – Hay - what can I say - Stupid AND Cheap
I do have to use software OpenGL – but it worked as my desktop for 4 or 5 months – that is good for me
You are just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
RE: SW and Laptops
If you do get a Game Card...
Get nVidia GeForce 4
my SW copy at home works great with this card...
voodoo cards and SW DO NOT MIX...
and whatever you do... DO NOT BUY the cheapest card you can find...
In 9.99999 cases out of 10... YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
And get a card with as much memory as you can... SolidWorks DOES Use It...
-------------Botom line-----------
If you can Afford it get a WildCat
If you can't... nVidia GeForce 4
3dlabs 10PK OEM WILDCAT VP 880 PRO 256 MB Video Card ~$4,017
GeForce4 Ti 4600 GPU,128MB DDR 128-bit,8 X AGP/TV-Out/DVI ~$229
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
Please read the Title for this thread. It is NOT about choosing a video card. It is about using SW on a Laptop. Since most Laptops simply do not have the room or the ability to handle the heat generated by a video cards – your posts are almost inappropriate.
This does not mean that the video card issue should be ignored. Instead – it should become a primary consideration in the purchase of the laptop. I got lucky when I purchased mine. I had trouble with SW until I set the Software OpenGL check box. Then I compared the built in Video Card to the list of acceptable cards on the SW web site. There was not a direct match – But – most of the cards built by that company had problems and needed OpenGL. – I also found that if I had spent $250 more I would have gotten a much better Laptop that did not have the video card limitations that mine did.
So if you haven’t purchased the Laptop as yet – print out the complete list – and then use it to make your purchasing decision. Shop in your price range - but eliminate every laptop that has video problems. Decide in advance if you are willing to accept the slower performance of the software OpenGL (time SW on a similar machine with it on and off).
You are just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
RE: SW and Laptops
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=quadrofx_go
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
All the HDD has to do with it, is opening the file off the HDD not the refresh speed on the screen. That's the job of the video card.
Regards,
Scott Baugh, CSWP

3DVision Technologies
http://www.3dvisiontech.com
http://www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376
When in doubt, always check the help
RE: SW and Laptops
Side note: The new Serial ATA (SATA) drives that appearing (as well as SATA equipped MB's) will seriuosly blur the performance line between medium to high end SCSI and IDE. Maxtor has recently a 10K RPM SATA drive that when installed on the new ASUS MB with SATA onboard the sustained reads and writes to the drive are now in the realm of SCSI 3. Speeds 500 Mb's/sec throughput are not far off for this protocol. And the price point makes SCSI less and less attractive as most new workstation motherboards PCI slots are only 32 bit (short slots), not 64 which defeats high end SCSI HBA and precludes getting the top performance out of them.
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
However, please be aware that the SW 2004 Beta information suggests strongly that you should buy NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards for future compatibility. They have apparently looked at trade studies and determined that the most popular and "most stable" gaphics for our application were Quadro based. SW 2004 development is apparently being baselined on this. We can argue that till the cows come home, but it seems to be a fact and at least they made an attempt. Many chip sets and cards do not appear to be as fully Open GL compatible as the manufacturers claim.
3/4 of all the Spam produced goes to Hawaii - shame that's not true of SPAM also.......
RE: SW and Laptops
But getting back to Laptops with the Quadro Go700 card. Has anyone found/or know of a competitive machine to the Dell M60 using this card?
$5500 (NZ) is getting a little rediculous for the M60. For example; basic compaq (& Dell) consumer laptops are running faster processors, similar RAM & HDD, but minus a good vid card (for 3D modelling) for half the price! Does this mean we are paying a couple of thousand dollars (NZ) for the priviledge of using a decent vid card in a laptop for 3D modelling?
djw
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
have fun make money
Paul
RE: SW and Laptops
yeah I realise the Dell has the capability for a 7200rpm HDD drive as an option. But the model I am comparing the costs for was the standard 40GB 5400 etc
Thanks Rocko will look into that
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
Couple questions on the M60. I have been looking at laptops for a while and have looked into the M50 and 60. My question is that the M60 has 1.7 processor, while the M50 has a 2.5. I know that the the M60 will perform better and use less battery when not plugged in, but I am always plugged in and initial part loading times mean little to me (negating the faster hard drive.) Do you know of any reason in these situations that the M60 would be a better performing laptop? Thanks for any info.
Daniel
RE: SW and Laptops
Pentum M 1.6ghz = Pentium 4-M 2.4 GHZ
I know it can be rather confusing but it seems that once again Intel is changing the number of chips that can fit into certain mobile systems.
RE: SW and Laptops
Thanks
Daniel
RE: SW and Laptops
Bottom line is I would make the same purchase today. Tomorrow I’m sure someone will come out with a similar combination for less money and I’ll cry.
have fun make money
Paul
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
SW has publicly stated that SW 2004 wsa BASELINED on Quadro.
RealView will only work on Quadro.
Geforce cards and others have many issues even with SW 2003 on certain hardware/OS combinations. Look at past posts on graphics boards, speed, and performance.
Just get a Quadro and cut your risks (and maybe losses).
3/4 of all the Spam produced goes to Hawaii - shame that's not true of SPAM also.......
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
....and yes, I did have too much coffee, plus a VERY frustrating week - damn customers seem think they know more that you do - so why do they think they need to come to you in the first place.... mutter, mumble.....only been doing this for 20 years.....been the only ones doing this for 20years!!!.....
My appologies for being distracted.
I was merely commenting in general that I think is is wise to minmize risks when you can, particularly since we have seen so many issues in the past that turned out to be Windows/Graphics Board/Open GL related in the end.
Had not gotten down as far as your posts on the Dell M series when I replied. I have slapped my wrist accordingly and will remember to read to the bottom before replying in future (and cut back on the caffein).
3/4 of all the Spam produced goes to Hawaii - shame that's not true of SPAM also.......
RE: SW and Laptops
http://www.digitalpostproduction.com/200...
Lots of info on the M60 and why it is faster than the previous offerings (and lots of desktops)
Daniel
RE: SW and Laptops
have fun make money
Paul
RE: SW and Laptops
I just got the M60 after researching the laptop options and could not be happier. I did some basic comparisions to my old workstation.
Specs on workstation:
Compaq W4000
1.8 pentium 4, 1 gig RAM, nVidia FX 500 card, 40 Gig7200 rpm HD
M60
1.6 pentium M, 1 gig RAM, nVidia FX 700 card, 60 Gig 7200 rpm HD
Open 6500 piece assembly:
compaq: 49 seconds (lightweight)
M60: 17 seconds
Open 500 piece assembly:
compaq: 1 min 5 sec (fully resolved)
M60: 29 seconds
I also did some historically machine intensive operations such as the new automated mold core and cavity creation, the deform feature, and others like that and the trend remains similiar. The M60 is about 2 times as fast as my Compaq for these tasks.
Also to note, the Compaq was fully optimized in terms of XP setup and minimum services running, while the M60 is stock. (and we all know how much crap is running and not optimized on a stock computer.)
Needless to say I am extremely happy.
Thanks
Daniel
RE: SW and Laptops
I just want to know what type of RAM in your compaq w4000,
Is it SDRAM (PC133) or DDR.
Thanks
maxb
RE: SW and Laptops
They though I had a JPEG up until I rotated it real time. I've never seen 10 sets of eyeballs the size of saucers before....
3/4 of all the Spam produced goes to Hawaii - shame that's not true of SPAM also.......
RE: SW and Laptops
It almost makes me laugh some times how much faster the M60 is sometimes. Put it this way. My old machine when I would make a drawing (lightweight) for the 6500 pc assembly(lightweight) I could not add dimensions cause it was so slow...now there is almost no wait for dimensioning and balooning.
Daniel
RE: SW and Laptops
Am I way off? If not, anybody have any recommendations for this midrange (read: affordable) laptop?
MP
RE: SW and Laptops
RE: SW and Laptops
3/4 of all the Spam produced goes to Hawaii - shame that's not true of SPAM also.......
RE: SW and Laptops
omigosh, i have to agree with Daniel Graham...this thing is like a tubocharged, intercooled, nitrous breathing...mini cooper
RE: SW and Laptops
Like the guys in Monty Python say “Don’t skimp on the pâté"
Also Happy new year to all
have fun make money
Paul
RE: SW and Laptops
Worse yet, it seems that Dell wised up: I could not get them to sell me a Quadro without providing a proper M50 service tag.
RE: SW and Laptops
Seriously, you are right, some of the laptops seem to be extremely powerful - particulalry Dell who seem to have it nailed. I am ready to trade my office desktop for a laptop - as soon as there is some budget for it.....
John Richards Sr. Mech. Engr.
Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics
A hobbit's lifestyle sounds rather pleasant...... it's the hairy feet that turn me off.
RE: SW and Laptops
Obviously u pay more for equivalent power in a laptop cf with a desktop - but really the M60 is a relatively high end desktop replacement.
Better watch it, am beginning to sound like a salesman arggggg
RE: SW and Laptops
have fun make money
Paul