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Help: T40, Dell D800, the Radeon 9000 or the Fire GL?

E

ES135

Member

What would you folks think would be a better system or video card for the following applications
and preferences...

Is it possible to get thin and light and some multimedia performance ?:

Systems/Cards in review:

Dell D800 (Nvidia 4200 GO with 64mb/128 bit path)
IBM T40 (Radeon 9000 32mb/64 bit)
IBM A31 (Radeon 7500 with 32MB, but has 128 bit path)
IBM T40P (Fire GL 64mb/128 bit path)

Application Use:

1 - I'll start with 2/3 business apps and 1/3 multimedia streaming downloads, lite captuing
and video editing, web surfing and maybe some lite gaming, but not the key factor.

2 - Will then want to build basic web pages, insert content, capture, edit and encode
short 30-60 second audio and video clips. (think picture editing, video editing tools,
encoding, etc) Hobby use not full production.

It maybe that a laptop will never be the platform even for hobby useage, but I don;t
know. I am not trying to weigh in storage and screen size etc because I can add all
those things externally, but the card and cpu choice I am stuck with.

I am leaning towards the thinkpads ie the T40P, but do not want to take a huge hit ie
with dell offering the Nvidia 4200 GO 64/128 bit path card which gets great reviews
with 3d gaming and presumably multimedia apps., but does offer the IBM quality,
battery life or portability. Guess I am trying to get it all, but don;t know how that GL
stacks up.

I am trying to determine which componets do these apps rely most on ie CPU, amount
of system ram, video ram/processor, card drivers etc...

The 7500 and 9000 mobile radeons seem better tweaked for games and MM, but do not
have 64mb option or 128bit of the fire GL although the IBM A31 has a 128bit path, but only
32MB with the R7500.

The T40P seems to have a nice blend of all, but at a slight premium which i can write off
anyway. I am concerned that the other cards ie "9000 and 75000 mobile Radeon" might
be tweaked more for my apps than the GL which is tweaked for business and cad, but
maybe the GL card can also do what radeon cards can do???

BTW: I have spoke to both ATI and IBM on this with little useful feedback and have seen
the specs of these cards.

Then there's the P4 which apparently has mulitmedia capabilites built in for what exactly I
do not know??? That said, the performance of the PM 1.6 looks impressive.

Net/net, if cost were not the issue and quality, performance and versatility were, which
card or system would you get of the ones listed unless you have a strong opinion and
experience of other systems too.

Many thanks if you have read this far. Sorry for the long post. Also posting in general HW

😕
 
not sure you'd want the fireGL unless you're running discreet brand software (3dsmax/combustion etc) or doing other 3d/cad work.
 
thks everyone.

The thing I am trying to find out about the t40P(more then its cad, 3d development abilites),
is if the 64MB of video ram and its 128bit data path will be of significant benefit for general usage
and the MM apps I listed above and will it also out perform the radeon 9000/7500 anayway.

If so, then the t40p/s 1.6 processor and 5400 hd seem like a good mix of performance,
portability and quality.

The dell D800 seems like a solid machine(probaly a better graphics card anyway), but I am
suspect of quality and it would have less portability.

That said, if the desktop is the only way to go, then the answer really is to get a cheap laptop
for travel and best of breed components for the desktop. Decisions...Dang.

 
It sounds like you want the geforce go4200 if your most rigorous use of the vid card will be gaming. for nle (non linear editing) the video card makes little difference until you get pretty complex.
 
I would think that for video editing and stuff, like what you said you wanted to do, the video card shouldn't make too much of a difference, you going with either the T40 or T40p should be fine... the T40p's 40GB HD is 5400RPM while the T40 (if you're thinking of the higher-end, unlisted ones) is 80GB and 4200RPM, but from benchmarks I've seen, the differences in speed are marginal (Benchmarks of 80GB vs 40GB drive), with the 80GB having a lead most of the time. Since you said you can write off the premium, and it sounds like you could use HD space, why not get a T40p and upgrade the HD to the 80GB one?
The T40's fine for what I do with it, and it's 32MB Radeon 9000 can handle the occasional 3D game I throw at it. And just for fun, I installed and tried 3D StudioMax 5 on it and it ran fine, even with some complex meshes loaded.
 
thx everyone. You helped me understand the relevance of the video card
for my needs.

I thought the GL having 64 MB Vram and 128 bit path would speed performance signiifcantly, but apparently not.

Perhaps the T40 with the R9000 and 80 GB drive makes sense ie if
the 80 performs well according to metrics referenced and its less expensive. Plus, I'd like to use a game now and then, Does not sound like the gl would help here either.

Down the road sounds like a desktop would be the way to go for when and if my production requirements grow substantially.
 
yea a desktop would be the way to go if you're going to do a lot of video/multimedia stuff (SMP!). Otherwise, I'd say go for the T40, since I have one and think it's the best laptop out right now, but that's just my opinion 🙂
 
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