an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 for pro-level 3D?

[Varkatope]

I'm on the verge of buying a laptop that I'd like to be able to use with A|W Maya. For the past couple years, I've been using a GeForce2 GTS with 64 megs of ram and its done a pretty adequate job keeping up and I'm pretty sure that the Radeon Mobility 9000 has significantly more powerful 3D power. What I'm worried about is the robustness of the OpenGL drivers. I've never had an ATI card so I'm really in the dark here.

My Maya work won't really get TOO heavy, but I'd still like to have some Artisan/Paint Effects functionality. Can anyone share any insight as to how the drivers for the ATI mobile piece might work out for Maya? Any comments on the desktop counterpart (Radeon 9000) or the mobile predecessor (Mobility Radeon 7500) for use with Maya would also be helpful information.

I understand that the GeForce Go 440 does an adequate job in Maya, but I'm attracted to the DirectX 8.1 support of the 9000 and might want to explore pixel and vertex shaders should they eventually be integrated in a Shockwave 3D release down the road. Thanks for any help.

-Aaron

 

[kylebisme]

a gefroce2 gts isnt realy much less powerful than a 9000 or geforce4 mx, or their laptop counterparts for that mater. actualy the gts might be a little more powerful than even the newest mx cards, i dont have benchs to back up my asumptions but trust me the mx cards are not powerhouses by any means. as useing maya on a laptop, i dont think they even test radeons with maya and i know gefroce cards are not recomended. you are probably best off with a moble fire gl or a quatro 2 go card although i belive even those cards have troubles with various versions of maya. its probably best that you buy from a company like dell and tell them what you are after, get it and try it out and if you dont like it swap if for something else.

 

[alkemyst]

looking at some GPU charts some older cards are more powerful, but lack in newer features. If some of the older cards have the features you need they may prove faster.

 

[AmdInside]

I say wait a little longer. I've had stability problems with workstation applications on ATI cards. NV28M shouldn't be to far away.