Solved! Laptop memory leak with 3d app

kunz

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I have bought a samsung rc 520 i5 with Nvidia 520M graphics card and 4 GB ram a few days back , when i use any 3d applications like Houdini on the laptop , the memory gets used up in just a few seconds , and the laptop hangs , even though i have forced houdini to use the nvidia card and not the integtrated intel card .
I was reading on some forums that this problem is occuring even with other brands of laptops using the Nvidia optimus technology.... since this is my first laptop , so i was a little worried wether this issue has a solution , maybe by updating the latest nvidia drivers ? If yes , should i just download the latest drivers from the Nvidia site ? How would i know which ones apply to my specific problem ?
 
Solution
I'm really not sure if you can get a laptop with a Quadro/FirePro card in it for under $1000, unfortunately :( However, you can potentially just get a laptop with a somewhat better standard graphics card, which can still probably run Houdini better than your current setup, but probably not as good as a real professional grade card.

Perhaps this would work quite well for you?
it's a 15" Lenovo Ideapad Y570
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:Enter?mtm-item=%3A000000F3%3A0000449B%3A

The processor doesn't matter so much to Houdini, but the Geforce 555M should be pretty good

Alternatively, the 14" version, the Y470, has a tincy-bit weaker graphics card(doubt you'd notice, tbh), but is...

sidewinderx2

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You can try to update the drivers, but i think the true problem is that the nvidia 520M that comes with your laptop is really a very very low end graphics card, only BARELY better than the integrated graphics. Since Houdini is a rather high end 3D modeling program, i highly doubt that it'll run well on such a low powered card :/

EDIT:

Yeah, just read the requirements for Houdini: You need a professional grade graphics card for Houdini. Namely, Nvidia Quadro or ATI FirePro cards, which mostly comes on fairly expensive workstation type laptops. The 520M you have in your laptop is vastly underpowered, and is not even a professional grade card. If possible, I would suggest actually building a desktop for this, as laptops that comes with the professional cards are all rather expensive :S
 

kunz

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thanks sidewinder , the info was really helpful , so what is my best option , waiting for the driver updates or trying to get another laptop with a better config ? since its just been a week since i bought it , maybe i can exchange it for a better one , can you suggest anything under 1000 dollars ? which can atleast run 3d apps. properly , since i will be doing some amount of rnd only using the 3d softwares . Thanks .
 

sidewinderx2

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I'm really not sure if you can get a laptop with a Quadro/FirePro card in it for under $1000, unfortunately :( However, you can potentially just get a laptop with a somewhat better standard graphics card, which can still probably run Houdini better than your current setup, but probably not as good as a real professional grade card.

Perhaps this would work quite well for you?
it's a 15" Lenovo Ideapad Y570
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:Enter?mtm-item=%3A000000F3%3A0000449B%3A

The processor doesn't matter so much to Houdini, but the Geforce 555M should be pretty good

Alternatively, the 14" version, the Y470, has a tincy-bit weaker graphics card(doubt you'd notice, tbh), but is smaller/ligher, and probably have better battery life due to its smaller size:
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:Enter?mtm-item=%3A000000F3%3A00004496%3A

I mean, you can just go on their site and pick one of the other customization options, with various different processors, amount of RAM, or HD size... but they're mostly under 1000 :)

Hope that helps
 
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kunz

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will check out these laptops , but basically , what i understand is that only the Quadro/FirePro cards are designed for such stuff, and any other graphic card would only be a compromize , right ?
As for my laptop , the main cause for the issues would be something to do with the way nvidia handles openGL ? just wanna pinpoint the issue here . Could you also give me some options in brands like Samsung and dell , in the same price range ? Thanks again .
 

RetiredChief

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Here is a link to mobile GPUs performance. http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html

Just click on the GPU to see a full review of that specific GPU
The ones listed as SLI/Xfire are going to be expensive.
The best single card would be the ATI 6990M or The Nvidia GTX580
Also listed is the Nvidia Quadro 5010M (Probably rather expensive also).
While the performance running Houdini may be hard to find, you can compare the cards looking at Say Cyris to to get an Idea.
 

sidewinderx2

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It has less to do with now your card handles openGL, and more to do with your card wasn't designed for anything graphically intensive.

A really terrible car analogy would be if you're trying to tow a semi-trailer with a VW Beetle, and you're asking us if the reason your setup is going so slow is that you're not using high octane gasoline. What you really need is a semi (truck), but as a stand in, you can use a big pick-up or SUV instead.

Back to laptops, I'm not so sure about Samsung's offerings, but for dell, you can try to look at the XPS 15 line, and customize one with a 540m, which would be infinitely better than the 520m you currently have.
 

kunz

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I had gone back to the store to have the laptop exvhanged, I installed and used houdini on some other laptops also , the only one that ran without any issues was this one -

Model - HP pavilion DV6-6023TX
2nd Generation Intel Core i5-2410m 2.3 GHz With Turbo Boost Up To 2.9 GHz CPU,
ATI Radeon HD 6770m With 1GB Dedicated Graphics, 4gb ram

How would you rate this laptop , i wont mind buying this since it is the same spec but with a better graphic card , i guess . Please suggest.....

 

sidewinderx2

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I would still suggest buying it from an online retailer, as they usually have better deals. However, if you must buy it from a brick and mortar store, i suppose that this one will do (although it is still not great). Perhaps see if you can find a laptop with a Geforce 540M or above, or Radeon HD 68XXm or above?