Workstation Laptop suggestions for 3d Apps, and rendering with Multiple CPU & GPU cores.

[DoDidDont]

Hi,

I am looking for a powerful laptop for when my main workstation is busy rendering, or if I have to be onsite for a contract.

I don’t mind about budget or weight. My main workstation has 32 logical cores, over 10,000 Cuda cores and 64Gb1600 quad channel Ram, so it can handle anything, but I have tried opening some of my files on my friends laptop that has only 8 logical cores 8gb ram, and I think a GTX 660 with 2gb ram. and the files simply refuse to open, or take forever to load and are sluggish to work with.

I want to be able to showcase 3d scenes on site, so fast possessing in Mental Ray using Multiple CPU cores, and iray using GPU Cuda cores is essential, so the more CPU and GPU cores the better. Will also need a laptop with a built in DVI output so I can connect to a larger monitor if needed.

I'm guessing I'll need at least a 17" laptop as working with anything smaller will be a little difficult on the eyes and for precision adjustments, and at least 32gb on-board ram. I am not sure if you can get dual socket Xeon laptops, or if there are mobile equivalents of the GTX Titan with 6gb of memory on-board? A dual CPU and GPU set-up would be ideal but I’m not sure if any manufacturers or custom builders make a laptop like this?

I have looked at Dell and HP, and their so called “workstation laptops”, but I don’t think their choice of laptops with poor performance professors and GPUs and a max of 4gb or ram can really be justified as a workstation laptop, and more suited to the home user that just wants to edit a few home photos, definitely not for professional use.

Any suggestions?

Thanks : - )

 

[Achaudhary997]

Ok! Dual Xeon Socket in a laptop. No way. At least not till now!
You can take a look at eurocom laptops they do offer a 12 core xeon in a laptop with 32gb ram and dual gpu support.
But they are costly about $5000-8000 and even more. Considering the specs of your main workstation i think you should not have the budget issues

 

[DoDidDont]

Thanks for the reply Achaudhary997.

I'll have to enquire with Eurocom to see if they ship to the UK. Definitely an option. Also been looking at the alien-ware laptops with Dual GPU's, plus the 18.4" screen would be a little less eye strain for detailed work. They come with either 700 or 800 series GTX cards. Dual 780m's would be the best option because of the 4GB on-board memory, but as they are Kepler architecture, I'm guessing they suffer from the same poor GPGPU computer performance. But I need Cuda, so looks like its the only option. Shame there isn't a 6GB TITANm on the market.

 

[Achaudhary997]

Thanks for the reply Achaudhary997.

I'll have to enquire with Eurocom to see if they ship to the UK. Definitely an option. Also been looking at the alien-ware laptops with Dual GPU's, plus the 18.4" screen would be a little less eye strain for detailed work. They come with either 700 or 800 series GTX cards. Dual 780m's would be the best option because of the 4GB on-board memory, but as they are Kepler architecture, I'm guessing they suffer from the same poor GPGPU computer performance. But I need Cuda, so looks like its the only option. Shame there isn't a 6GB TITANm on the market.

The reason i was advicing you eurocom was that the main benefit that you will get is the 12-core Xeon cpu which is far more better than the MX (Mobile Xtreme) cpu offered in most of the laptop. Also eurocom offer of mobile quadro gpu's in sli if you want. But for Cuda you should go for the gtx 880m sli.
Alienware is also a good choice but choose the new gtx 880m sli model as they have 8 gb GDDR5 (16gb total) ram on each.

P.S. I know that in sli the gpu ram does not add up so it will still be 8 gb.

 

[DoDidDont]

Glad you mentioned about the 8GB, The spec I looked at was 4 + 4GB, that's awesome. I've found some nice deals on the M18X with Dual 880M 8GB, I7 4930MX, 32GB, Blu-ray etc just under £2.6K. I've written to Eurocom with some questions, so I'll wait for their reply before deciding. Thanks for the info on Eurocom and the 8Gb 880M. Do you know of any benchmarks that compare say 680M, 780M, and 880M in app's like Iray & Blender?

Cheers

 

[Achaudhary997]

Well glad i could help you.
About the benchmarks of those gpu's in app's like iray and blender is a little tought. As those are categorized as "gaming gpu's" rather than a "workstation gpu". But google and youtube are your friend.
Well Nvidia says that there new 880m is about 25% faster than the earlier 780m. You can easily find some gaming benchmarks like unigine valley or unreal engine.

 

[Morpheus2]

The XMG C504 is 2cm thick and can have the 6gb gddr5 gtx 870m gpu you want and is really cheap for what it is (it's not out yet)(out in mid July) www.xmg.gg