Radeon R9 M275 1gb ok for 3D rendering/modelling?

[gravity121]

Hi guys,

Need a cheap laptop for uni. Will be doing 3D modelling and rendering. Can't really afford to spash out on a K1100. Would something like the Radeon R9 M275 in the Lenovo Y40 be sufficient? I hear pro cards aren't really worth the money?

Thanks for your advice

 

[C12Friedman]

In most cases, if not using a professional graphics card, an NVidia GPU is considered a better "fit" (Cuda cores being desirable) for that work.
Having said that, the Lenovo Y40 with an R9-M275 should perform much better than a laptop without dedicated graphics. There may be a significant difference in rendering times between similarly priced AMD and NVidia graphics so if you know what programs you'll be using, that information may help.

 

[gravity121]

In most cases, if not using a professional graphics card, an NVidia GPU is considered a better "fit" (Cuda cores being desirable) for that work.
Having said that, the Lenovo Y40 with an R9-M275 should perform much better than a laptop without dedicated graphics. There may be a significant difference in rendering times between similarly priced AMD and NVidia graphics so if you know what programs you'll be using, that information may help.

Heya,

Thanks for your reply. I've been in touch with the Uni and we'll be using MATLAB, Python, and/or some form of CAD software (like Catia or Solidworks).

The Y40 I am looking at has the R9 with 4 gigs of dedicated Ram on the card. It has a 5th gen i7-5500U and 8 gigs of ram as well as an SSD. This is all coming in well within budget.

Anything with a K1100 I've looked at is quite a bit more expensive and usually the ssd adds more on top of that.

So any kinda of advice/recommendation/best guess on whether this will be sufficient or whether I should really just find a way to get the pro card would be appreciated. Alternatively, if I was to go with a NVidia Gaming card, what would you recommend as the minimum required?


Thanks again