Which Laptop.

[wolfeking]

Okay, so to sum things up, I am replacing my M90 with something new to be sure that I can keep up. the M90 appears at this point to have a Failing graphics card. Well as I figure it, if I am going to carry a 10ish pound laptop, I am going to want to be able to do more than surf the web.

What I do with it: CAD work, Some gaming, and basic school work with it.

Budget: 800-2400 USD including tax and shipping to Roanoke, Virginia 24013.

What We have figured out: Thanks to Vistakid10 I have figured that most likely I am going for a Precision M4300 or a Lenovo Thinkpad W530. Okay, well I would make them pretty equal to compare, so 1080p, minimum memory (cheaper from newegg), smallest hard drive, Quadro 2000m, and quad core i7.

What I am worried about though is if there will be a bottleneck inside the graphics card though. Because I remember back on the GT540m page at notebook check they said that DDR3 and 128 bit was a bottleneck to the card. Well, the 2000m has nearly double the shaders of the 540m, so wouldn't that make the bottleneck be greater? Is it worth it to go to a Precision M6600 to get the Quadro 3000m with more cores and DDR5/256 bit? I do not want to get a 17 inch laptop if I can avoid it, but I also do not want to spend this kind of cash just to have a bottleneck.

So, which would you get? The Thinkpad or the Precision? I have used both, and I like both. But I do not know what is currently better.

 

[wolfeking]

bump.

 

[byteninja2]

I dont know if you will ever forgive me: store.apple.com/us/configure/MD322LL/A? I am NOT one to reccomend apple products, but I do hear pretty much any mac with a averge gpu will be better than a windows pc with a 10 to 20% better gpu, i dont know, but I think it is because the program only needs to be tailored to a handfull of products, so cad runs better on a mac than windows.But, I utterly and completly understand if you dont want to get a mac, just say no, no screaming at me and coming to my house and beating me with a ax, please.But, if you want a windows, I would go with a 17 inch quadro 3000m, if you will be doing lots of cad, but I think a 2000m is enough for a little bit of cad, even more probobly.Personal preference really, but dell vs lenovo, I have never used a lenovo, but my dell lappy is nice.I think I would go with a lenovo, maybe more durable?Just go with the one that has one better spec, like a backlit keyboard or led screen, etc.

 

[wolfeking]

I am not going to get an apple. Not that I have anything against apple, but for 1700+ USD I can get far better from Lenovo and Dell and it will not need an upgrade of $30 everytime apple releases a new one, which is yearly isn't it?

No offense intended byteninja, but I am going to wait for someone to answer the original question before I commit to anything. I may have worded it badly, but the question was how far the 2000m is bottlenecked by its slow memory and 128 bit bus.