Dedicated Graphics question?

[danielsun]

I am looking at buying a laptop and spending aprox $1600 . so far I have my eye on a couple of Toshiba Satellite models, the first model has ATI Radeon x1200 319MB dynamically allocated RAM and the other model has 256MB of dedicated graphics Just wondering if someone can tell me if either of these will make a dfference in astrophoto processing?


The first model is an imported version with 250gig 2.2GIG processor 3GIG ram.
with windows Vista Ultimate at $1588.


The second model is distributed in Australia with 200 GIG HD 2 GIG RAM 2GIG processor and Vista premium. $1790

Cheers Daniel.

[JohnH]

Daniel, as ever it will depend on the apps you intend to run. For AP image processing a fast (7200 rpm) and capacious hard drive, lots of RAM, and a fast processor and a big/high res screen will be more important than the 3d graphics card, that is mostly of used for gaming and CAD type apps, the exception being Adobe apps that can utilise the Open GL features of the card eg PS CS3 Extended but I do not expect you will use that for AP.

Windows Vista is probably a bad idea as it is a resource hog and there are many apps and drivers yet to be certified as compatible with that vsn of the Windoze OS, so I would stick to XP especially if you are going to use the machine for camera/mount control and data acquisition, IIRC XP cannot utilise > 2G RAM.

Make sure about the screens too, for me a very important component - bigger is better here (at the cost of portability)... Hope that helps....

[vash]

I've recently purchased a new laptop to take over my editing computer so I will share some of what I found out.

As mentioned the graphics card won't make Photoshop run fast, but what this means is that instead of the graphics getting it's ram from another source, it will be taking the ram from the computer. Eg if you have 1 gig ram with no graphic card, you might only really only have 944 meg of ram. That means that all the programs have to run from a lesser amount of ram than is written on the box.

another problem is that laptops that come with XP are becoming rare these days as everything is going to vista, but if you never go online with it it's a waste, why have better internet protection if it's not going on there?. So you have to do a bit of searching around to get xp these days, I found that smaller computer shops are better than larger retail.

The laptop I bought was an LG has core 2 duo 2.2ghz, 2 gig ram, 383meg graphics card. I'll put a link to it, it cost me 1700 after 200 cash back, come with XP but can run vista with ease if I have to upgrade.
http://au.lge.com/products/model/detail/itproducts_notebookcomputer_eseries _e500s*a8x2a.jhtml

When I come to editing images however I find the old CRT's are better, to fix this problem I'm set it up with a dual screen, I have the image on the CRT and photoshop on the laptop screen. The best of both worlds.

[danielsun]

Thanks heaps John and Vash for your info and help. :thumbsup:
I have been reading about some Vista problems and am now checking out some Sony models which support XP.

Thanks again guys ;)

[g__day]

I'd go for more RAM - unless you can find a GPGPU (aka general purpose GPU group) add on that shifts load to the GPU (a wish list item today - it could appear tomorrow (for Photoshop CS2 or 3) next month, next quarter or never).

I note that on a Intel QUAD core, 2GB machine with a 8800GTS card and oodles of RAIDed HARD drivers some PS 2 operations still take 30 secs to 2 minutes - I can't see you doing these operations on a lap top in under 2- 5 minutes unless you have alot of RAM and a lot of luck!

[vash]

I can now use deep sky stacker in a quarter or less time than it used to on my new laptop. used to take over 10 min. Now it takes under 3 min for more files, for me that a massive upgrade, so I'm really happy with that.

having used Photoshop for years I've come to learn to wait for some processes that take time, cause I remember I could be waiting a lot longer on an older machine

[Shaun]

This page will answer your questions on cards and what you are getting

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568


I will take more ram over a faster cpu any day, if you can avoid vista do so and take a look at some ASUS notebooks very good system at good prices

[programmer]

7200 RPM is not really considered fast, it is normal these days. 10k-15kRPM is fast, or you can RAID slower drives (7200) for performance benefits.

Vista with 3Gb RAM (now ridiculously cheap) will fly. Don't assume you will have driver problems.. research the hardware you have for Vista compatibility.

This is incorrect; XP (32bit) with SP2 can handle 4Gb and XP 64bit can handle tens of Gb of RAM. Definitely get 3-4Gb of RAM whether XP or Vista.

CPU and RAM are you friends. Quad CPU is more future proof if you can stretch it. And don't give Vista the cold shoulder without due consideration. Better to look forward than back.

[joshman]

hahah, alot of people would consider XP as looking forward :D

my advice would be, use XP! if for nothing else than ease of use. it is also better supported by drivers and it' less of a resource hog. guaranteed to be less frustrating.

[danielsun]

Thanks again guys for all the feedback and Excellent link Shaun,very helpful.:thumbsup:
I am now torn between a number of laptops I am looking at, one of them being the LG E-500 that Vash has and another Toshiba satellite model with a few extras but it has Vista home premium.
So now I have another question.
Does anyone know if programs like Registax, Deep sky stacker and Photoshop run O.K with Vista? And if so with Vista being a bit of a hog and whilst running these programs will it slow things down considerably?

Cheers Daniel.

[joshman]

hey, i found this link the other day while surfing digg.com, and found it quite an interesting read about what the critics are saying about vista... it may just answer a few questions.

http://www.microsplot.com/news/2007/12/anything_speechless_100_things_peop le_are_really_saying_about_windows_ vista

[Hagar]

Go for more RAM, and dont worry about Vista. The only problems being experienced with Vista are hardware problems and I have not found a software package which doesn't work with Vista Ultimate yet, and I run a lot of different software packages.
GO FOR RAM AND HARD DISK SPEED AND SPACE.

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Daniel I posted this under "general" earlier tonight, thought you may be interested. I haven't explored the "custom" options yet to see if there's an option that includes stand alone graphics memory, I reckon it's still a nice laptop for under a grand ..... AND comes wit XP instead of Vista if you so choose

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=27514

[joshman]

if you are going to go down the vista path, i would recommend getting dedicated graphics memory. vista is extremely resource intensive, as well as graphically demanding (those pretty effects don't come cheap), and dedicated graphics memory would boost it along.

[danielsun]

Thanks Joshman ;).After reading that and other forums I am a bit worried about getting Vista.
It also said in there that if you have Vista and want to downgrade back to XP you have a chance to only with vista business or ultimate but not with Vista home basic or premium.

Thanks Hagar:thumbsup:I am wondering if I can upgrade the ram on any laptop later on or not because some models advertise upgradeable RAM and other models don't say anything.:shrug:


Thanks for that Steve, I may give them a call tomorrow.:thumbsup: