What processor type would you recommend for working with graphic-heavy software? I've had two people suggest to me that laptops are a bad idea for graphic use. One was a bit more specific in saying that frame-rate in games was too slow. I am interested in a laptop primarily for the benefit of being able to take it with me a do my 3D imaging wherever I happen to be, rather than being tied to only doing it when I am at home (which explains why my gallery here is so small). With whatever computer I get I can upgrade the RAM and increase the HD size but I will be stuck with the processor that it comes with. What are the real performance differences between Pentium, Athlon, and Centrino? I was told that Centrino (in laptops) runs much cooler (a good thing) but that they were crappy for graphics. Is that so? In what way? I plan to use Photoshop, Painter, Bryce, DAZ-Studio & Poser. Maybe someday try Vue. And on the side I will also play games with it. If laptops are really at a noticably lower performance than a desktop then I will not go that route. Do any of you use a laptop for 3D rendering, 2D art (Photoshop & Painter), and graphic intensive gaming?

Hi Zescanner Buy a (desktop)computer with a decent powerpack 650+ and as much ventillation (fans) as possible, base it on an AMD it's pipeline arrangements are much more suited to 64-bit (the future) put yourself out to get the dual core version Athlon 64 x2 (AMD Opteron if you like spending serious money) some of the earlier ones have dropped in price, although not many programmes directly support multi-threading at the moment, Windows does support multi-threading and the programmes will have a whole CPU to themselves and of course you will see significant speed increases over a single cored unit (this includes games), and don't forget the operating system, all 3D rendering is floating point intensive and a 64-bit OS combined with a 64-bit CPU will dramatically improve it, and has very efficient memory handling, the earlier investment will be worth it. The graphics card needs to be OpenGL 2+ to be future proof for 3D packages and DirectX 9+ for games there is a bit of a grey area here but! You'll have to strike a happy balance, with as much video memory as possible 256MB will alleviate the textures taking up the main memory and is far quicker. the graphics card doesn't effect the rendering times but the setting up of the scene takes a lot of time as well and if it's lagging will not only be annoying but extend the overall time. Get a motherboard with Dual-Channel memory support and two sticks, the more memory the better, 4 gigabyte+ will be a much more flexible system and handle larger more complex scenes and won't have to use your harddrive as a temporary storage. Sorry about the techno babble, this will be quite expensive I'm not sure how much you want to spend, let me know if you need to know more specifics and detailed explanations. Chris

Another vote for AMD64 Dual Core. I've got one of those babies, and oh, it works like a dream. Much faster and cooler than the Intel dual cores. Somewhat more expensive, but still you get more bang for your buck than with Intel. chrispoole said it all. I completely agree. Some mainboards have support for larger memory than 4 GB, it might be useful to get such a mainboard. Though they still have only 4 slots for memory, the 2 GB sticks are getting more popular, and I expect 4 GB sticks before 2008. It's worth shelling out for a professional graphics card. Most consumer cards have excellent DirectX support, but lack in OpenGL. It's not the hardware, it's the drivers. The hardware is (almost) identical to the consumer cards. A 3DLabs Wildcat Realizm 100 or 200 will set you back around $800, wich is a lot of money for a graphics card. But it'll perform at least as well as a nVidia 6800GT on DirectX, and it'll far surpass it on OpenGL. And it has full and complete OpenGL 2+ support, guaranteed. Other choices would be an nVidia QuadroFX or an ATI FireGL. Starting at about $500 for decent performing cards.

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Thought I would put my nose in here. LOL. I have a laptop, it plays vue5 fine. I do have the 64 bit graphic card thing in it. BUT it don't play poser. :(

ok I am on my laptop, and it has a Mobile AMD athlon 64, and 1 gig ram. I use adobe PS on it also. I play final fantasy 11 which is a power hungry game. And it plays like my desktop. Ok I just looked at the graphic card. It's a ATI mobility Radeon X600. It's a gateway laptop. I spent 1300 on it. Hope this helps some! :)

For anyone who is interested, I posted this same question in multiple forums looking for lots of suggestions. If you want to read the details look in the forums for Hardware/Technical, Adobe Photoshop, Painter, DAZ-Studio, Bryce, Vue and Poser. Thanx everyone for your great responses. This has been very helpful. There are varying preferences (as would be expected) but you all have given me much information and food-for-thought to help me make my selection. In a nutshell the consensus seems to be as follows: A desktop unit will be faster, better display, and cost less than a laptop. In that vein an Athlon AMD64 processor would be the top choice. Lotsa RAM for sure (1GB or better). DirectX 9+ and OpenGL 2+ is desirable. 256MB video memory. A laptop will cost more, be a bit less powerful and the display won't have the contrast range of a CRT. Having dual processors will compensate a lot by using one for the rendering and the other one for other tasks. As for processors: some said they are happy with Centrino. Andytw suggested the new Intel "Core" chips which replace Centrino will give similar performance to an AMD64. Actually using AMD chips will run hotter and battery life will be shorter. From what you tell me, in either case, COOLING is of EXTREME importance or whatever processor you have will not last so long. Now it comes down to this: I can spend less and get a machine that is rooted on one location, or I can spend more and get a machine that performs a bit slower and be able to take it with me from place to place. Still thinking on that. Will do some shopping and see what I can get. (Hardly anyone suggested prices! but I do know I won't be going the route of the $3000+ Alienware laptop!)

Oh and by-the-way, I wanted to tell you what I currently have for a computer. I don't even remember how old this is. It is an HP Pavilion, 803Mhz Intel, running Windows 2000. A 32KB cache. 4x CDR. A couple of years ago I upgraded the video card, the RAM and added a hard drive. I now have NVIDIA GeForce 2 video, two HD's totaling about 140 GB and 390MB of RAM. It works but it is troublesome and tired.

Alright, here's about prices. Dutch prices, that is, our VAT percentage is quite a bit higher than the US VAT. Specs: Athlon64x2 4400 MSI mainboard with nForce4 chipset 4x 1 GB Kingston HyperX DDR400 2x Western Digital Raptor 10,000 RPM 73 GB Geforce7800 GTX /256 MB Fortron PSU Coolermaster case, 2 extra fans for drives and system. DVD player. No mouse, CRT or keyboard. Purchased the components in December 2005, put them together during Christmas holidays. Price 2200,- (somewhat less than $3000,-) including VAT. It should be possible to put together a comparable system for less than $2500,- in the US. That is, if you're not afraid of screwdrivers and manuals. You could also have the store assemble the machine for you, at a reasonable charge ($50-$100). By the way, a decent flatscreen monitor (19" is quite affordable these days) will have a contrast range that's equal or even better than a CRT. Brightness is better, and power consumption is also better.

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"Andytw suggested the new Intel "Core" chips which replace Centrino will give similar performance to an AMD64. Actually using AMD chips will run hotter and battery life will be shorter."

The comparison I made was to give an idea of the performance that could be expected from a "laptop" cpu compared to a "desktop" cpu.
If you read my original post it already says that a desktop cpu in a laptop (i.e. a desktop replacement) will (usually) be hot/heavy with a short battery life.