AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 (1.8Ghz) CPU...same as P4 3.2Ghz?

[darkstar782]

The differences between Quadro and Geforce are almost all driver based.

Its possible to BIOS mod a Geforce card and run the Quadro drivers on it, and get almost all the benefits of Quadro.... but I'm not sure how easy that would be on a laptop tbh. Both the 7900GS and the Quadro FX 2500M use the G71 - the same GPU.

Based on the extra 4 pipes and the faster clock, I'd epect the Quadro to be about 60% faster, just in terms of raw GPU power.

The Quadro has extra OpenGL orientated features, and coule be 5x or more faster in a handfull of professional applications.

Of course, the Quadro drivers are released at a much slower rate, and MUCH more thoroughly tested. Thats what you pay for when you buy a Quadro - the massive effort they put into the drivers.

This slower release cycle is the only thing that holds back the Quadros DirectX performance at all, it takes alot longer for new driver optimisations to work their way into the Quadro. However with 4 more pipes and a faster clock, the 60% raw speed advantage and 256MiB more memory would leave this particular Quadro still beating this particular Geforce by a significant amount.

Almost all professional (non-gaming) applications are OpenGL based. All CAD related things will be OpenGL.

ATi cards are currently the DirectX performance leaders, and ATi do the same thing as nVidia with their FireGL cards - They are the same GPUs with different BIOSes and drivers.

However, nVidia completely dominate the OpenGL professional graphics sector. This is why it took ATi multiple driver revisions and optimisations to even be able to compete in Doom 3, their mArch is just not as good at OpenGL. The most recent roundup of FireGL and Quadro cards I can find is this one from May this year.

Personally I think the extra £200 is well spent to get the Quadro rather than the ATi Radeon x1400. As well as not being a FireGL, its much lower down in the ATi range, in a completely different league.

I also dont trust eBay at all, but thats just me...

For the applications you are talking about, any of the choices you have mentioned are likely to outperform your existing desktop anyway, and hopefully the Quadro based system would be able to take a Core 2 Duo if you ever needed it to anyway.

I'm not really sure how much professional apps rely on the CPU and how much on the GPU, so I cant comment which is more important. But if those machines were the same price and I was buying it for gaming, I'd be going for the Quadro based one - even if I wasnt going to use the Quadro features, its still the faster card by a significant margin.

 

[Doughbuy]

Darkstar pretty much nailed it. I didn't want to go into all the differences betwee workstation and consmer graphics card, but they're pretty much all there laid out for you. One more thing is that you get much better support with the Quadro drivers compared to regular consumer drivers, and thats what most of the price goes to pay.

Whether or not you feel the added cost for the quadro is worth it compared to the sacrifice of everything else is up to you. Another thing to keep in mind though, is that both computers will do nearly everything you can throw at it just fine, except some encoding might be faster with the consumer laptop, but how much mp3 or video encoding do you really do?

Just throwing in a few more angles.

 

[kukito]

Thanks darkstar. Enjoy your E6700.

 

[mojo77uk]

I think I'm going to go for the dell 9400 with the 7900gs and look into getting the Quadro drivers for it.

I was just talking to someone on another forum and they also suggested using Quadro drivers for the 7900gs and it might be possible since they have the same G71 GPU.

So how would I go about doing this? Is it a difficult process? Where would I find out?

IF I CAN update the driver for the 7900gs, so that it performs like a Quadro, then that would be brilliant!!


I have one other MAJOR question about the Dell 9400 and Dell M90 listed above....

I can't afford to upgrade the Dell m90's 1GB Ram to 2GB. If I were to buy it, with the spec listed above, would it be a faster system than the Dell 9400 (listed above with 2GB Ram) ???



CAD Program I use: BENTLEY MICROSTATION V8.
I found a list of graphics cards that this program works best with:
http://selectservices.bentley.com/en-US/Support/Support+Tools/TechNotes+and+FAQs/MicroStation+V8/8331+-+Bentley+Hardware+Partners+-+Graphics+Accelerators.htm

I also use Photoshop + Illustrator, and sometimes Autocad and Maya too.

 

[darkstar782]

Well, it wont get you the extra MHz or unlock the 4 missing pipes, however....

The best way imho is to download nBiTor (google will find this). Read the current BIOS with it, change the device ID in the drop down list to Quadro 2500M, save it, flash it with nvFlash, and reboot and install Quadro drivers.

The problem comes from the fact that with a laptop you are facing a blind reflash if it fails as you cant add a PCI card....

I believe RivaTuner can sometimes unlock Quadro support too.

 

[spearhead]

I need a laptop that gives me equal/better performance than my current desktop PC:

My Desktop PC: Intel P4 3.2Ghz 800FSB, 2GB DDR 400Mhz, 128MB Ati X300, 200GB 7200rpm

This is the laptop I am thinking of buying (HP dv9030ea) to replace above mentioned PC:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06a/21675-38187-38191-38191-38191-12435946.html

This laptop has a AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 (1.8Ghz)

Is this BETTER than my 3.2GHz Pentium 4 800FSB CPU??

Am I going to get a better performance with the laptop?

I've looked at benchmark comparisons with the AMD Turion X2 and other Intel Duo Core CPU's, but there aren't any benchmark tests with the Intel Pentium 4 3.2Ghz.

Can someone give me a rough idea if I'm going to get roughly the same performance?

I need a laptop that I can use for 3D Modelling and rendering (CAD work).

Iam amazed TL-56 running only at 1800mhz has can handle quite much. i do have one in my amilo xa 1526 you know it is fast enough for vista and CAD starting up the laptop is done in a short time but when you are unplugged from the power and it runs at 800mhz it is notably slower and actualy somewhat to slow that it gets annoying however it is possible to play games such as unreal tournement 2004 at good framerates at that speed. i would only consider it if it comes within a notebook with a reasonable graphic card. But i recommend you get a faster cpu if you can get one at a simular price. the diffrence between amd models should not be that much in price. My notebook has 2gb ram tl56 geforce 7600 go 256mb and some nice entertainment options such as a remote that is why i choose this one above the basic PI model which our school had to offer it was worth the bigger screen and other features. but turionx2 is quite comparible to pentium4 but only it is more stable and execution is somewhat faster

 

[B-Unit]

Check the date, this thread is over 2 years old

 

[wayneepalmer]

I am not an expert but I would think you would get far better performance with a dual core AMD than a single core P4. One of my friends recently switched over from a P4 to a dual core AMD and has been preaching dual core ever since so I would bet it would be better.

Laptop vs Desktop is a different story, i would think if u have the same components in a laptop as a desktop that you would get the same performance so that to me is a non-issue.

Not sure if Intel Dual Core would be better for CAD than an AMD though, you might want to look at some reviews to see what is better of an intel dual core and an amd dual core at handling graphihcs rendering.

To me when you say you cant find a comparison of P4 and AMD Dual core you really arent comparing apples to apples so if I was you and I was looking to buy a new comp I would compare new Intel Dual Core processors to Dual Core AMDs.

I think you may find the new Intel Dual Cores are quite a bit better than the AMD CPU's so maybe see if HP has a good core duo laptop out there in a similar price range.

If you are going to do CAD you would be REALLY advised to get something a lot better than a P4 system AND THE COMPONANTS THAT COME WITH IT.

For one of my systems, I'm running an old desktop P4 3.4 Ghz with the attendant ATI 9800 AIW Pro 128 AGP video card in XP. Even with all of the fans (5 including a 7000 series Zalman CPU HS) and a very open case for airflow, CAD (AUTOCAD 2008 or SOLIDWORKS 2007) and higher graphics games will always cause a BSD due to overheating after a couple hours of hard use. It's slow and choppy and you will be far happier to get a new Dual or Quad Core system.

Bite the bullet and spend the bucks for a better system ESPECIALLY ONE WITH A PCI X16 video card with at least 512 mb Ram.

 

[willi541]

Buy the Dell TL60, with 7200 drive and XP for $500. Mine is a lot faster the my Desktop[ same as yours] Then take a trip to Hawaii with what you save over a Core 2..... Willi

Thanks alot for that darkstar782 😀 That's clarified alot for me.

Intel Core 2 Duo has a marginal edge over the Intel Core Duo, and is a little better in every aspect.

The Quadro does seem specifically designed for CAD designers/3D modellers in mind.....Looking at the link you gave me it seems amazing 8O

Would you say the Quadro is 50% better performance/speed than the 7900GS?? (with 4more pipelines/200Mhz faster)

In answer to Doughbuy; I believe the 7900GS has "Complete DirectX support, including the latest version of Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 AND Full OpenGL support, including OpenGL 2.0"

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=868&cid=2

I don't know if this makes it smooth/quick enough for CAD users though. It always sounds good in theory, but the proof will be in trying it out - by which time it's too late if you've got it wrong



P.S. I'm not caring too much about upgrade possibilities because I only need this laptop for 6 months......

P.P.S. Just found another Dell and HP for $400 less than the 2 Dells I listed in Post #13. But I'm thinking the 256MB dedicated DDR ATi Mobility Radeon X1400, is inferior to the 7900GS :?: But maybe worth sacrifice for the savings in $$$ :?:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=009&item=190046146743&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290044548473&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=019

 

[loneninja]

Wow, how many people are going to give advice to a thread over 2 years old? Just cracks me up. lol

 

[willi541]

Wow, how many people are going to give advice to a thread over 2 years old? Just cracks me up. lol

It would be nice if TOM'S would date questions and answers. This came up first when I did yahoo search on simular question. Glad you enjoyed. Why are you reading old posts?