Graphic card choice - need advice (K5100M vs 980M)
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Hy guys,
I'm planning to change my graphics card in my laptop (Dell Precision M6800) - I currently have FirePro M6100.
I was looking at two options:
- Nvidia GTX 980M
- Nvidia Quadro K5100M
I've been reading about, seen tests, etc... benchmarks; can't decide. Some say that Quadro is better for CAD (generally), others say that nowadays technologies made the GeForce (GTX) cards competitive enough to overcome the Quadro advantage... so I am totally confused.
The main use for the machine is SketchUp, Rendering (mostly CPU based, but I am planning to move to CPU+GPU), some FreeCad occasionally and gaming now and then... So, for me would be interesting to know if there is any major advantage especially when it comes to SketchUp and Rendering in making this choice.
Also, if anyone here has (or had) this laptop and did any upgrades to it, I would appreciate to share some insights with me.
Thanks a lot guys!
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How do you change graphics cards in a laptop?
To make best use of Quadro cards the software you use has to have a special driver, usually supplied by the Software Developer. To my knowledge, there is no such driver for SketchUp. Considering the rest of your usage, I'd say got with the GeForce card, but see if you can get a GTX 1060 / 1070 instead (I know it is a money thing, but think about it before you buy), the 980's are good (and uses a lot of electricity) but the newer generation is more efficient (thus running cooler) at delivering the same power (or better).
https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060
I realize the above refers to desktop units, but, in general, the same holds true for mobile (notebook / laptop) editions as well.
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@juju said:
How do you change graphics cards in a laptop?
Thank you, juju for this useful insight.
This machine has MXM card (that can be replaced) - it's a feature in gaming and CAD laptops and desktop-replacement laptops. So, is not soldered to the motherboard.The graph you provided, I assume is for desktop cards, but definitely I will be looking into GTX 1060 / 1070 options. The problems with laptops is the X-bracket, heatsink, power drawn... I need to see that all of them get into my machine's specs.
In the meantime, I'll be waiting for more advice and suggestions.
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@derei said:
This machine has MXM card (that can be replaced) - it's a feature in gaming and CAD laptops and desktop-replacement laptops. So, is not soldered to the motherboard.
This is something I did not know before, it may be a fairly specific feature since I have a gaming laptop (Lenovo Y5070 with GeForce GTX860M 4GB) and this bracket does not feature. I will have to keep this in mind then the next time I upgrade...
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@juju said:
This is something I did not know before, it may be a fairly specific feature since I have a gaming laptop (Lenovo Y5070 with GeForce GTX860M 4GB) and this bracket does not feature. I will have to keep this in mind then the next time I upgrade...
This is one of the options that I've found. You can see the connector: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Precision-M6800-VGA-Upgrade-Kit-NEW-NVIDIA-GTX-980M-8GB-DDR5-MXM-3-0b/122300661179
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If you are doing some gaming then GTX. For normal CAD (AutoCAD) and SU you will see no difference in a Quadro card, especially for the price difference.
Here is an older test back in '13 with Quadros, GTX and AMD cards. I hate that they did not test SU with the cards but for normal CAD (AutoCAD, Inventor, Max) I can see no reason to spend the extra $$ on a Quadro.
Workstation Graphics: 14 FirePro And Quadro Cards
We put 14 professional and seven gaming graphics cards from two generations through a number of workstation, general-purpose computing, and synthetic applications. By the end of our nearly 70 charts, you should know which board is right for your workload.
Tom's Hardware (www.tomshardware.com)
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