Grahpics card vs. "media accelerator"
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Hello,
I am an architect who uses sketchup frequently. I need to purchase a laptop for my wife and need it to be able to run sketchup on occasion. I have been looking at ordering from Dell since I have had good luck with them in the past. Many of the Dell laptops in our price range (hopefully <$1000) come with a "media accelorator" rather than a video card. Adding a 256 or 512 card really runs up the price. Does anyone know if the higher performance media accelerators such as the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD will work with sketchup? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.Josh
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A media accelerator is a fancy word for a weak ass integrated chip on the motherboard that is only good for watching videos.
I suggest not touching this if you want to use your machine for any serious 3D work, look for a laptop with a dedicated 3d card.
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Most probably you could only use SU with hardware acceleration turned off (i.e. like if you didn't even have a graphic card) otherwis you'd encounter all possible graphics issues (due to lack of OpenGL support like Norbert says) and to achieve that, you need not spend a grand for a prestigeous yet good-for-nothing laptop but can by something really cheap.
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@joshvt said:
Does anyone know if the higher performance media accelerators such as the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD will work with sketchup?
even if speed has gone better you should keep in mind, that theses shared video solutions do grab working memory from the (slow) system ram and the OpenGL support (which is used/needed by SU) is often not on par with dedicated video solutions especially of the nVidia CAD series 'Quadro FX'.
Might not have a big influence on small models but if you can afford, check the Dell Precision series w/ a Quadro FX built in. If too expensive you may fall back to the nVidia GeForce home user series which often do show a good performance also, at least for smaller models.
Try to avoid the ATI Radeon home user series which is optimized for gaming purposes but do show some display glitches in connection with OpenGL based 3D applications as e.g. SU.
hth,
NorbertP.S.: if you can still order Vista with the XP downgrade included: do it .. 'cause the OGL support of video drivers for XP is still much better than for lame Vista.
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Gai,
care to point me in the direction of something "really cheap"? Can't say I have had much luck finding anything in that category to date... -
This one don't seem too bad but it comes with 64 bit Vista, not sure how well SU runs in a 64 bit OS but I'm sure if you look around, that you could find a comparable model with 32 bit Vista or a downgrade to XP. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9190038&type=product&id=1218052535546
Mike
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@joshvt said:
.. Can't say I have had much luck finding anything in that category to date...
in the less-than-1k U$ area you might want check the Dell Vostro series (in business area only) which can be configured with a small GeForce included.. maybe sufficient for your needs. But would upgrade the Intel Core 2 duo CPU to at least the T8100 model.
hth,
Norbert -
I can vouch for this one, I own one and it rocks with SU.
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VGN-FZ440N-15-4-inch-Processor-Business/dp/B0014I1VNC
Dedicated graphics, 3gb ram, and general great machine.
And the current price is great, I bought mine when it was $1400, now it's only $800
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"Media accelerator" sounds similar to what my cheap Dell desktop has @ home. As was mentioned it's basically an integrated video card of sorts, and a really poor one. I bought a GeForce eventually to do what I needed. W/ the integrated video I had to turn acceleration off. That said, you mentioned that this was a computer that isn't for you and that it'll only be used for SU occasionally so if your models aren't big and you'd be ok w/o acceleration turned on I think you'd be ok.
I think the Quadro FX, mentioned above, is overkill for what you're talking about. GeForce would be plenty for occasional SU use. I have an GeForce 8800GT on one machine and a Quadro on another and don't see much difference with SU.
-Brodie
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yeah, my wife will be the primary user and she does not use sketchup. I am an architect and use sketchup mostly for single family residences. Occasionally I may use the laptop for casual client presentations or marketing. My models usually are in the 15-30 MB range and while I will rarely be doing a lot of editing on the laptop, I can't deal with the "sticky" factor...
This is from left field, but a friend of mine suggested I look into a Macbook... Any thoughts on that?
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@joshvt said:
Gai,
care to point me in the direction of something "really cheap"? Can't say I have had much luck finding anything in that category to date...I actually meant that in this case you could even go for a "cheaper brand" than Dell since you wouldn't feel the difference anyway.
So if a Dell, with a dedicated video card, would cost too much, I'd rather go for a less prestigeous brand but with a good video card. Your wife would probably not notice any difference but you definitely would when using SU.
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@joshvt said:
My models usually are in the 15-30 MB range...
which is definitely not a small modell size...
@joshvt said:
... and while I will rarely be doing a lot of editing on the laptop, I can't deal with the "sticky" factor...
i.e. professional usage which definitely excludes shared video solutions limited to office/internet/videos.
@joshvt said:
...a Macbook...
thought you wanna stick below U$ 1,000.- ...
... the OpenGL support of the OSX video drivers provided by Apple is currently less mature than the ones available from the makers of the video cards for XP Pro... just check the forum.
buy a Dell Precision w/ Quadro FX if you can, hurts only once... than every time zooming/panning/rotating your models in front of your clients.
jm2cs,
Norbert -
@gaieus said:
So if a Dell, with a dedicated video card, would cost too much, I'd rather go for a less prestigeous brand but with a good video card.
the mentioned Sony Vaio series is maybe prestigeous, the e.g. Dell Vostro series surely not...
...and Dell provides the #1 service in connection with Notebooks, at least according to the latest survey of the most reputable c't magazine in Germany.
hth,
Norbert -
I'm afraid I don't know much about laptop hardware but I wonder if a good solution would be to get a nice cheap laptop but one that has good upgrade capability. You could throw in a lower/mid range video card and be set. Then, if things changed down the road and you were going to use it more extensively or for presentations you could always put in a better card. Would that make any sense?
If you went that route, I'd suspect Dell wouldn't be the way to go. The integrated video card on the desktop is a hassle, on a laptop it could make upgrades even more tricky.
Just a thought.
-Brodie
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well... $1000 was the hopeful budget... then several trusted friends/ coworkers gave the macbook pretty high marks for reasons other than sketchup. I am also a sucker for well designed products- which the macbook is... The local apple store apparently has skup loaded on some of their floor models and you can try it out. I am going to take a nice size model to the store and drop it on a macbook and see what happens. Will let you know.
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@joshvt said:
I am also a sucker for well designed products- which the macbook is...
I would check if all of my apps are available for OSX before evaluating the design, it's still a tool.. but priorities may vary.
Norbert
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