Do the video card options on the MacBook Pro accelerate 3D rendering applications?

[amphibious]

http://hardware.slashdot.org/h...08/05/10/0521223.shtml

Just read this article and started wondering if the video cards currently available in the MacBook Pro, the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256MB or 512MB, accelerates non-game 3D rendering applications...

I just went to the Apple store yesterday and I was told that this card would make my 3D modeling and rendering a lot faster.

Any truth to this at all?

 

[ViRGE]

It depends on the application. Traditionally professional 3D rendering is all done on the CPU, but certain applications are capable of some offloading.

 

[amphibious]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
It depends on the application. Traditionally professional 3D rendering is all done on the CPU, but certain applications are capable of some offloading.

Could you possibly give me a short list of programs that would be considered "totally professional" and ones where the video card would help out?

Does the same hold true for Photoshop in terms of what would give it a speed boost and what wouldn't?

 

[ViRGE]

I'm afraid I don't have a good list. My best advice is to go digging around the NVIDIA Quadro site, that'll give you a good idea of what applications are 3D accelerated, since NVIDIA would be using them to promote said hardware.

Photoshop isn't 3D accelerated unless Adobe has changed something while I wasn't looking.

 

[palladium]

Photoshop CS3 requires 64MB of VRAM, maybe the 3D functions new to CS3 might be partially accelerated... not sure, don't quote me on that.

As far as I'm aware of, most professional apps do the actual rendering in CPU ( hence the need for dual socket 8 core systems for these sorts of apps), but some of them ( like Maya) do require ( or recommend ) some graphic features present only in professional video cards, such as multiple overlay planes( which is not supported by GeForce cards).

 

[Seggybop]

A GPU will only help accelerate programs like Maya and 3ds max, and the GeForce drivers are crippled for that anyway.
If you actually need to use those kinds of programs, get an ATI card.

That article linked from slashdot has been obsolete since GeForce 6, btw.