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    Nvidia GT 555m and AutoCad?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by melman9, Aug 30, 2011.

  1. melman9

    melman9 Newbie

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    I recently purchased an Alienware M14x and after doing some searching on the net I'm starting to second guess myself. I will be doing a lot of 3d modeling, revit and autodesk to be exact, and I'm not finding any good reviews with the Nvidia GT 555m. Is there anyway I can upgrade to the Quadro with my current setup?

    here's my specs
    Intel Core i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.9GHz Turbo Mode, 6M cache)
    8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
    3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus technology
    500GB 7200RPM SATA 3GB/s
    14.0 High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
     
    melman9, Aug 30, 2011
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  2. KCETech1

    KCETech1 Notebook Prophet

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    OP how heavy of a CAD/ Revit user are you as Optimus graphics switching alone caused me a few hundred hours of nightmares.

    as for upgrading to a Quadro, I dont not think AW has bios support for Quadros in the M14X. im not actually even sure if it has an MXM card like the M17X and M18X
     
    KCETech1, Aug 30, 2011
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  3. TitanGod

    TitanGod Notebook Evangelist

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    My M11x R2 ran autocad amazing. I'm pretty sure the GT555m in the M14x will run circles around it.

    The M14x videocard is soldered onto the MoBO by the way.. It's not MXM like the M17x or the M18x.
     
    TitanGod, Aug 30, 2011
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  4. /Drakk_

    /Drakk_ Notebook Consultant

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    Graphics is directly attached to motherboard and not upgradeable.
     
    /Drakk_, Aug 30, 2011
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  5. Mazzacre

    Mazzacre Notebook Guru

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    If you're having trouble with Optimus, just white-list 0.0
     
    Mazzacre, Aug 30, 2011
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  6. KCETech1

    KCETech1 Notebook Prophet

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    that all depends on your renders and how hard you push it. many users are fine with a light card such as the 555 or smaller, but there are some of us that will make a larger card choke, or will hit enough polygons and vector data to make any laptop with Optimus crash in minutes. it all depends on the user and the applications. Revit and many 3D modelling Apps especially are much better on a Quadro.

    in some apps it makes no difference since the main issue is the passover from the Nvidia card to the IGP for final render/display. sonce the dedicated card does not have its own MUX. We have a years worth of Issues in the Autodesk forums for Civ3D and REvit on this especially.
     
    KCETech1, Aug 30, 2011
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  7. melman9

    melman9 Newbie

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    I'm an Architectural Drafting student so I will be using revit, autodesk, and 3ds max quite a bit. Is there a way I can turn optimus off? What was your solution?
     
    melman9, Aug 30, 2011
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  8. melman9

    melman9 Newbie

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    Should I just cancel my order and go with something else?
     
    melman9, Aug 30, 2011
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  9. KCETech1

    KCETech1 Notebook Prophet

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    my solution after many months was sell every laptop with Optimus, but that may not be needed for your case. if your ot looking to game hard and it is in budget I would say look at a proper workstation unit. a W510 or Elitebook 8560W or even 8560P may be a bit better choice but will give you a hit on gaming performance as mot of the high end cards are in the 17" models that compare with the 6970 and 485.

    I can not give you a perfect answer here as I dont know exactly how hard you will push it or what your precice work will be.

    as for optimus being turned completly off I believe that only a couple of thinkpads have a hardware MUX for the dedicated card accessable in BIOS. I do believe a couple HP consumer models can do it with the AMD switching too.
     
    KCETech1, Aug 30, 2011
    #9