1k Laptop that might actually be able to run Octane.
Joe Cotter
Posts: 3,259
Between new notebooks like this having a 750m vid card, 8gb ram, etc... notebooks coming with hdmi ports to allow hookups to large screens, and cloud rendering services, who else sees a potential change in the future of computer graphics production for at least some?
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I don't, not a fan of laptops I love my PC tower.
Of course notebook processors/video cards aren't the same as the non mobile versions... to keep things in perspective here is a comparison chart for the video card.
You don't think anyone would consider it or you personally wouldn't?
I agree for myself I will stick with a full system most likely as portability when I'm working on graphics isn't as much an issue as raw power. However, I could see changing after the next system depending on how things continue to progress. Cost effectiveness of cloud rendering will eventually play a big part for me, along with the ability to attach peripheral monitors/devices to a possible portable core.
Sure some will prefer mobile laptops, but since I have little use for mobile computing (or cloud anything), it's not for me. I have a high end laptop that I rarely use other than movies in bed at times. That is a nice Alienware system at a good price though. My biggest issue is not that I begrudge anyone their computing styles, but as we have seen with consoles vs PC gaming, it is usually one over the other and if I had to chose which to support, tower style desktops win every time with me.
Notebooks with a 750m are not what I'd call the first to be able to run Octane. The actual 7xx serie and former 6xx serie have crappy performance in Cuda compute because of Nvidia doesn't want consumer card to be used in place of Pro cards for that job. Market segmentation. They made the error with the 5xx serie being better
The old GTX 580m was better at compute and it's been there since 2011 not counting Mobile Quadro cards.
In the actual serie, only the GTX 780 and TItan for desktop have a bit unleashed compute performance (not in double 32 bit precision)
Now If you really want power for octane on a notebook, I've seen some with two GTX 780m SLI cards. They should have very decent rendering capability but won't be as good as Mobile Quadro cards for 3D modeling
Examples :
http://www.hidevolution.com/msi-gt70-2od-064us-i7-4gb-nvidia-gtx-780m-17-3.html
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Alienware-18-Gaming-Notebook-New-Look-Even-Better-Performance/
http://www.slashgear.com/origin-pc-eon17-slx-laptop-rocks-two-nvidia-geforce-gtx-780m-graphics-cards-29303353/
I personnally like to work on my notebook as I can do things anywhere (was doing some blender in a train few days ago), but as notebook are way more expensive than desktop PCs I don't think it will be a trend. But who knows?
[Edit] There is another point I've just thought : there seem to be more 3D online apps for modeling. I've tested a few but wasn't satisfied as the tools were very basic. But that is something to check in a few years to see where it leads. The future may be to have all in the clouds
I knew the 580's used to be better but I thought some of that got sorted out. Could be wrong though. Haven't been following closely since I wasn't planning on building a new system yet. I know one of the problems with 580's for rendering is that they only typically have 1.5GB memory and that's an issue when doing gpu based rendering.
There was a lot of 3 gb 580 gtx. Three of 580 gtx almost equal to 2 titans in performance but 4 times cheaper. Depending on motherboard you may use up to 7 (in case of xeon there may be more pci-e slots) 580 gtx via risers and additional psu per 1 octane license (if you don't want to spend really a bunch of bucks on hardware that includes titans or external riser boxes).
To me 750m is no more than a monitor plug to make it show something.
One of the main issues with laptops and notebooks, they are not built for sustained high CPU and GPU usage. They either step down performance to avoid overheating, or they overheat, crash and burn. The cooling is not efficient enough unless you render in Arctic climates, outdoors.
That's a good point Totte, one of the reasons for the difference in mobile processors iirc actually is that they step down so quickly under load compared to desktop processors.
Well that's part of the other side of the equation, how fast are consumer level devices going to evolve into semi-smart terminals for cloud services. I'm old school as are many here I'm sure so I'll probably hold on to doing it on my own desktop as long as it makes sense financially. But, at some point in the not too distant future, it might not. I don't say that lightly as I'm not a big fan of cloud services for various reasons... but it only makes sense to look at trends.
I have multiple laptops, but I would never dream of doing serious graphics work on them, they just aren't strong enough compared to even a modest desktop. By the time you make a laptop that can do serious work, you have usually added so much weight and heat, and reduced battery life to next to nil, that you have lost all the benefits of a laptop.
Well that's part of the other side of the equation, how fast are consumer level devices going to evolve into semi-smart terminals for cloud services. I'm old school as are many here I'm sure so I'll probably hold on to doing it on my own desktop as long as it makes sense financially. But, at some point in the not too distant future, it might not. I don't say that lightly as I'm not a big fan of cloud services for various reasons... but it only makes sense to look at trends.
I would say that if it is a trend, the only way I look at it is to know what to avoid. There does not seem to be much independent thought anymore. Am I the only one who hates cell phones. People are spending hundreds of dollars a month to be interrupted constantly.
@Dino Gramps : no you're not alone. I use Mobile phone that is more than 5+ years old and don't feel the need for a new one. It does what I ask : phone and I only need to recharge the battery once a week.
About the notebools not beeing built for sustained CPU and GPU usage I think that base consumer cards are not that better. You have to choose your hardware well and may be do some bit of customization espescially replacing cooling systems. That is easier on Desktop for sure.
On notebooks, if you put the price, there are some well designed to evacuate the heat. One advantage nowadays, is that SSDs are cheaper and almost standard and they don't heat. And CPUs as well as Graphic cards are made to produce lesser heat than previous generations or more efficient for a comparable heating.
There ARE laptops that would do well for 3D work and for basic rendering of stills. But these are not at the OP's desired price point; they are more along the lines of $2,000+ due to the cost of the components inside.
Apple's Macbook Pro, for example. This machine has a quad-core Haswell processor and I think you can put in up to 16 GB of RAM and a Terabyte of SSD.
Windows users have an option too. I have an old Asus G73. These are gaming machines with quad core i7 CPUs and very competent Nvdia GPUs. Mine is a 17" monster with massive exhaust ports and dual fans. I upgraded the hard drives and now have 2 TB of internal storage for just about any work I may want to do. Mine does very well as a mobile 3D and music recording studio. The only drawbacks are that the in-line power supply is LITERALLY a brick and I had to buy a special backpack to be able to carry it AND my company laptop together whenever I travel. You should see the looks at TSA checkpoints when I pull TWO laptops out of my backpack, and one of them is downright HUGE.
Asus has new model, the G750; also a quad-core Haswell processor. The G750 is available at several price-points. But for rendering, I'd just get the most powerful one, and if your renderer supports GPGPU rendering, then I'd just "buck up" and get the discrete graphics card too.
Gaming machines generally make for good 3D and music making machines too. Business-class machines; not so much. Making music and rendering images requires more guts than do Excel spreadsheets. ;-)