k I know this has been discussed, but I have some specific questions if anyone would like to contribute...

I need a laptop for m. arch, and my school says I MUST get a dell M6400 (which has a nvidia 3600 quadro graphics card)
but f*** that cause its like 2500 bucks so
I was going to get a nvidia geforce graphics card, either the 8000 or 9000 series, and do the soft-mod to switch the driver and try to get it to run like a quadro fx

Has anyone done this? if youve soft-modded, does your laptop run quickly with rhino, autocad, maya, 3ds, etc etc?

or just, in general, does anyone have an nvidia geforce and how does it run with all the architecture software? I know it only has 512 MB vs the 1 GB of the quadro fx, if that makes any difference?

also I know rhino uses the openGL and auto cad uses...um whatever the other one is (sorry I dont know too much about computers) so...has anyone had problems with running both these programs on their laptop, because of that difference in requirements?
any thoughts on anything at all would be appreciated. even if you just want to respond to tell me what laptop you got and how its working out for you in m. arch/ professional life. I cant believe I really need an M6400 laptop, but my school is telling me its required.
Thanks!

don't buy a a quadro unless you plan on putting that computer in an office and never doing anything with it but professional work.

quadro's are fast for professional work... as soon as you throw a curve ball at them and install a video game, they won't be worth more than 45 dollar 9500GT.

i have an nvidia 9800GT on my desktop. rhino runs beautifully. maya runs beautifully. i can set up mental ray to use openGL and get a bit of rush in render times. it runs games like TF2, L4D and ET Quake Wars perfectly, and it can even run crysis warhead at a high quality setting (something everyone should see at least once in their lifetime).

I am seriously not convinced by quadro cards. suppose you want to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqsk4WARk2I
try doing that with a quadro card, using your favorite engine, oh wait, you gotta make sure it's supported by the quadro before even starting.

video drivers can cause serious problems with these kind of software. Always make sure you have the latest approved driver for the program(s) you're running and if you don't know much about computers stay away from soft-modding your card to a Quadro. It's not a "supported" configuration (even though it works) and could cause your program(s) to become inoperable or create seemingly unrelated crashes/errors.

The card really only controls what's onscreen so if you're just modeling and using a software renderer you should be fine with a higher-end non-Quadro card. I'm running a GeForce 8800GT at the office using Rhino, Revit, AutoCAD, Maxwell, etc with no problems…

I had been using a desktop with a highend quadro at office but never really felt a big difference. I'd rather spend the money on a faster CPU, more and faster ram, faster harddisk, nicer screen and of course a high end geforce gtx card. Remember that photoshop and rendering rely a lot more on how fast your CPU, ram and HD work together.

my intel q9500 quad core = so gud.

fluxbound:

Just curious to see what kind of work you are doing with Maya, etc. I seriously need to replace my 3+ year old desktop and looking at some various options but a big road block right now is that according to the Autodesk site, Maya is not supported with the GeForce or ATI Radeon video cards forcing me to choose a computer with a Quadro card (which basically means BOXX...not a problem although expensive). I have a Quadro on my existing machine but not having really used anything else I can't compare. I don't really have a need for a "gaming system" so real-time graphics are not a big deal to me. This would be used strictly for architectural and animation production.

Software/Rendeing I would need to run: Maya, Rhino, Maxwell, Viz, Mental Ray, Revit, Autocad, Adobe Suite.

More than anything I just want to hear from people who have used Maya, etc. with a GeForce card to see if they have had any problems so I can make sure it is or isn't a deal breaker.

Thanks.

I remain convinced that the "professional" designation on high-end video cards (quadro from nvidia, firegl from ati) is 99% bullshit. Near as I can tell they're taking the same hardware and putting it in different packages with slightly different drivers. "Certified" = we ran it with a bunch of different CAD softwarez and didn't crash. Gamer cards probably aren't tested with CAD wares but that doesn't mean they won't work just the same as the Pro cards.

I've been running rhino/autocad/3dsmax for years on "gamer" cards w/out any problems. And paying about 25% for the same ram/chipset as the pro cards.

Feeling rich one year, i splurged on an ati firegl5100... replacing a much older ati gamer card (i forget what version). For my trouble and money I noticed very little improvement in display performance... maybe 10% faster for 3x the price.

anyway, YMMV. Easiest way to find out what card is right for you is to try your favorite software on a friends rig and see if it runs to your liking.

any video card that can handle crysis at maximum quality, resolution, and frame rates is unlikely to choke on your maya files.

Good luck and please report back on what you get and how it works.