MacBookPro 17 vs Dell Precision

[gelfie]

I own the 17" MBP and it is a beautiful machine. It's battery life is nowhere near 8 hours when doing 3D stuff, even with the 9400m. (Although it gets like 7ish hours doing normal stuff)

But you are going to get far more performance out of that Dell system. But the quadcore processor it is using is a desktop model, so battery life will be short. Mobile workstation perhaps, but only if you're near a power outlet.

[cgbeige]

If you want pure performance get the Dell or wait for the updated MacBook Pro with i5. Not sure when it's coming but the good news is that Maya 2011 x64 will be faster in OS X:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=6403012&postcount=811

And get the 8GB of RAM but don't buy it from Apple. datamem.com is where I get my RAM for my Macs (if they have any special certification, like the temperature monitored ECC RAM that the Mac Pro uses).

Otherwise, the old arguments about why not to use the Mac fading: Maya 2011 is 64-bit, After Effects CS5 is 64-bit and the 64-bit update for Nuke 6 is coming soon.

[earwax69]

I would take the Dell for the extra power and probably lower price. Why not take the i7 processor in the precision??

If you use mostly compositing apps, I would choose another configuration with a gamer card. Maya will run anyway for less money.

[olczyna]

I would take the Dell for the extra power and probably lower price. Why not take the i7 processor in the precision??

If you use mostly compositing apps, I would choose another configuration with a gamer card. Maya will run anyway for less money.

Thank You guys ! So which graphic card do you recommend ?

[cgbeige]

Dunno - just don't waste your money on a machine with a Quadro. This is one good thing about the Mac - you get support for the gaming cards in Maya. Go look in the Maya 2011 thread - there are people with Quadros that don't work right with Maya but it works fine on the Mac cards.

[earwax69]

I dont really know the new cards because Nvidia changed all the nomenclature since my last buy. For compositing, after effects... whatever, you dont need graphic power. A cheap 9600gt will do the job. For maya take something a bit stronger of course.

Depend what you do too... for motion design I dont need to push 20 millions polys, for arch visualisation, well, you need more power. I say get something at around 140$... generally its the sweet spot power/price.

mmm... yeah, of course you are dependent of what Dell is offering...

[cgbeige]

That graphics card bit is going to change with regards to AE - I can't say anything but google is your friend.

[earwax69]

ha really? not the mercury engine, its only for premiere pro... I hope it is something useful, not another gimmick.

[cgbeige]

Ah - you're right. It's Premiere only. Stupid UI looks the same.

[cgbeige]

The i7 MacBook Pros are out now. New graphics cards too.

[goldilocks20]

Looking at the specs, I would say go for Dell if you're looking for performance and a power house. Moreover it is cheaper than the MBP.

However if you are always on the move, you might want to take the MBP due to its battery life.

Personally I would go for a MBP because I always have difficulty finding power when I am out. It can be really frustrating when you finally found one and see someone is using it. :banghead:

[cgbeige]

ya, but you won't get 10 hours doing 3D work. For web browsing and stuff, maybe but definitely not doing renders or CUDA/OpenCL stuff.

And that Dell above is not more powerful than the i7 MacBook Pro that was just released:

- 2.4GHz or 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 3MB shared L3 cache; or 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache (this is a dual core i7 - 4 threads, not like the Core 2 Duo, which doesn't have hyperthreading)

Dell probably has an i7 machine though by now. The Dell graphics card has more RAM, which is important if you're going to use Mudbox (which I wouldn't do on a laptop anyway).

But do yourself a favour and get an OCZ Vertex SSD as your system disk. Jesus. So fast.

[cgbeige]

the graphics switching in the new MacBook Pros is pretty cool:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/inside-apples-automatic-gpu-switching.ars

Start any OpenGL app and the high-end card kicks in.

[goldilocks20]

SSD is great but it is still pretty costly. :cry:

Anyway a 1-2TB WD drive will be good for me. Not sure for the TS though.

[gawl126]

the graphics switching in the new MacBook Pros is pretty cool:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/inside-apples-automatic-gpu-switching.ars

Start any OpenGL app and the high-end card kicks in.

Yep, it is a pretty handy feature. I hope to see Nvidia improve upon their own similar technology.

[cgbeige]

ya, the way Nvidia does it on Windows/Linux with a database of apps sounds like overkill. Why not just do it like the Apple method - when a certain level of OpenGL (or DirectX) feature is called? It's kind of dumb to have a cloud-based scheme for this type of thing - what happens when you need to beta test the next version of Maya that's not in the database or run a more obscure GL app like Topogun, Headus UV Layout or 3D-Coat? I somehow doubt that Nvidia knows that Nuke is also a GL 3D program. The more specialized your program gets, the less likely it is Nvidia knows it needs to turn on acceleration for it.

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