Hi,
I want to move my graphics programming sessions to a notebook. I currently use
a 64MB GF3 and a P4 1.4GHZ.
The Quadro4 500 / 700 Go GL should be fine but is it the most intelligent option for game / graphics programming?
I belived the GeForce4 4200 Go to be my cup of tea, but no-one seems to build machines using it (they say they will but still no sign of it).
What about the Geforce 4-440 GO and the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB?
Thank you for your help.
Well, the GF4 TI4200 is a very good choice. If manufacturers don’t build systems with them, it’s because they are stupid. It’s the most popular card for PC enthusiasts, due to its overcloking abilities and it’s high performance/price ratio. It’s cheap, and it’s got all the functionnality of a GF4 TI4600. If you are on a budget, and looking to program OpenGL, it’s perfect. You have enough power to do anything you want, and not go bankrupt. Personnally, now, I’d go for a Radeon 9500 pro. More powerful than a GF4 TI4200(sometimes equals a TI4600), slightly more expensive, but DX9 compliant, so more futureproof. However, if you want to keep using the Nvidia extensions, I am not sure if the radeon cards support them. If you are used to code with an nvidia card, stick with a GF4 TI4200 128mb, until Nvidia release a cheap DX9 card. The GeforceFX looks more like an expensive frankenstein monster than a video card.
[This message has been edited by oliii (edited 03-01-2003).]
Ive had a Dell Inspiron 8000 with a 32mb GeForce go and now I’ve got a Dell Inspiron 8200 with a 64mb ATI Mobility Radeon. Both perform 3d substantially better than any other laptop I’ve seen. In terms of gaming performance and shader support I think the ATI is a little better than the GeForce Go. I think the nvidia linux drivers were better though.
Good luck
Originally posted by fritzlang:
Hi,
I want to move my graphics programming sessions to a notebook. I currently use
a 64MB GF3 and a P4 1.4GHZ.
oups, forgot the notebook part. check out an early review. http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1745&p=6
You get a performance drop from a standard TI4200, and forget about overclocking it (which defeats the point really). It still outperforms the radeon mobility by a considerable margin. However, there are concerns about its high power consumption. check out the radeon mobility FireGL 9000 too.
I believe ATI’s next mobile part (the M10) is due out within the month. This uses the R300 core, i.e. it supports fragment as well as vertex shaders.
I’m hoping this will make it into Dell’s next refresh of the high-end Inspirons. Fingers crossed.
The M10 will likely be based off of the RV350, which will be a slimmed down version of the R300. It’ll be a .13 micron chip and I’m guessing that it’ll be best compared to the current Radeon 9500. That is, it’ll have four pixel pipelines as opposed to the Radeon 9700’s 8. This means a smaller transistor count and an easier time achieving higher clock speeds (and with less heat). If rumours speak truth and the RV350 is to be officially revealed next month, the M10 should come around some time within the next 2 or 3 months.
Personally for devlopment purposes I would stick with NVIDIA, their driver support is far superior on both Windows and Linux and ATI always sends you after the laptop manufacturer for laptop drivers (which are often several releases behind their current drivers). Until ATI tidys up their driver story, you’ll probably save yourself a few headaches.
See the following thread for some of the driver related issues you may encounter whilst trying to develop.
http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubb/Forum3/HTML/008689.html
Ribeye.