Hi everybody,
Time has come again to look for a new laptop and I would like to know your opinions on what is the best option this year on the market to run vvvv. I wouldn’t like to spend more than 2500 € (if less better). My last machine was MSI and I’m pretty happy with it. I would like to know what would be the best configuration for performance, if there is a big difference between GTX 1070 and 1080, what processor to get and basically anything that could help me to choose a reliable machine for next few years.
I was just looking at this
Any help much appreciated
With prices for used PC laptops falling like they do, I wouldnt buy a brand new machine. Realistically even a year old used machine will be so much cheaper and as far as I am aware there have been no major breakthroughs in CPU and GPU in the last year.
GTX 1070 is enough in my opinion. It can run a Vive comfortably with even the latest Steam games at totally smooth fps. I would assume that for vvvv even for VR you need a lot less unless you have some magic shaders that are super demanding. Even with Superphong + Depth of Field at 8xAA I get a nice 45 frames/s at 1080p on a GTX1070 - although this is in no way objective, since it depends on so many more factors, but I am not sure how much faster the 1080 would be. There are however quite a few more laptop options once you go “down” to a 1070 or even 1060.
So rather than going for the latest and greatest, I would go for a solid performer from last year and save some money to invest in other goodies.
Also dont forget external GPUs! With Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C finally becoming somewhat common even outside of Apple, this is really a great option if you need lots of (upgradeable!) graphics power, so keep this in mind. Most times you need a lot of graphics power for vvvv is not in a totally mobile environment, but somewhat stationary, like hooked up to a TV, projector, vive/rift, etc. Not to mention power. These ultra-performance laptops usually have atrocious battery-life when running graphics-intense stuff.
So, not really making any recommendations, but just some food for thought.
Let us know what you decided on in the end and how it all panned out.
@seltzdesign thanks a lot for your reply and thoughts, I think you’re having a good point with latest and expensive machines, appreciate it
Quite welcome. You can find an Asus ROG with a 1070 and i7-7700 from last year new for around 1500 Euros, for example here (if you are in Germany). Also getting a slightly older model, you will find some good reviews on youtube and other websites that are done a while after release, as many problems or quirks aren’t apparent during early reviews, so its better to get something that is a little battle-tested.
Wouldn’t be able to choose between 3 laptops be enough? 2017 would be a long list; I’d be confused by that.
@H99 - not sure what you mean. Why only choose between 3 laptops? Surely finding one that has everything you want AND has some solid reviews is the best strategy. There aren’t THAT many to choose from after all and they all have their own configurations, ports, sizes, weight etc. Its not like choosing between 3 types of orange juice. If I am investing around 2000 Euros into a work machine for the next couple of years, I would look at more than 3 options and wouldn’t limit myself to just the 3 newest ones.
With the complexities of coding in vvvv, I am surprised a list of more than 3 laptops confuses you ;)
What are the 3 that are there to choose from in your opinion?
3 was just a number… it may be 5, 7, 25… but I stand by my point: 2017 it’s a bit too much.
@h99 2017 is just a time reference, I’m not asking about all the laptops made this year but what is the best option to get at the present moment
@matka I think it depends on a few more factors. “Best” is a very subjective term and it certainly doesn’t mean just the latest ones.
So the questions you need to answer and weigh by importance are: will you carry this thing a lot? how much do you rely on this thing as your main work machine? how much as your main tool for creating income? Do you need maximum power? which ports do you need on a regular basis?
@h99 I still dont get what you mean, we ARE in 2017, so how could you limit yourself even further? Surely there are only a handful of serious options (Asus, Acer, Razer, MSI gaming laptops) to consider which came out in 2017 and the best for matka’s case might not be from 2017 at all, since it might make more sense to get a slightly older machine that was more expensive than matka’s budget when it came out, but has now fallen in price to within his limits. You dont have to literally look at every single laptop ever made in 2017. Or just go on Amazon, search for e.g. “gtx1070 laptop” and sort by avg. rating. That doesn’t mean you have to look at every result on that list, but maybe just the first 2 pages. I dont even know how you would search for “gtx1070 laptop, but that came out in the last 3 months” !?!
h99 is absolutely right, thats waaay overkill!
just my 2017 silly cents ;)
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@tgd - seriously? why? If you were to look for a new car, you would only look at the ones that were released in the last few weeks or months, but not even the whole of 2017? Where’s the fun in that?
If you look at that list there are several from early 2017. So you’re saying we shouldn’t even look at those or even the top 10 of 2016, because they are not recent enough? That logic makes no sense…
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@seltzdesign Yes I will be using this thing for gigs and live action but also it will be my main tool for creating income so I need something rather powerful. More precisely I will use it to create content for Dome projections, both non realtime and real time so I will need a video output with large resolution (2048x2048 or if its possible 3072x3072). Thank you
@matka oh cool, I used to work on some dome projection stuff too with these guys: https://www.4piproductions.com back when I was living in the UK.
Hm, okay, thats a tall order for a laptop that needs the best power possible, while also needing to be very reliable/serviceable.
Not sure about those square output resolutions coming from a “normal” graphics card. I guess you will know what works.
I would look into external graphics a bit more, as it will make you a lot more flexible to adapt to needs and be able to get the best in graphics (graphics cards in laptops will always be limited in some way over full size cards). Also you dont need to unplug the whole setup when you take your laptop with you at the end of the day. What kind of setup will you usually have? Single projector or multiple?
@seltzdesign For this project my output will be captured by datapath card inside of main server that does all the mapping etc. So basically just need to be able to send out my final renderer with mentioned resolutions.
What external cards would you look at?
@matka ok, that’s what I thought. Its the better way to have a dedicated server run everything. Can I ask which one you are using. Cant remember the name of the one we were using, it was some japanese thing, which we got super cheap, but was total badass.
I meant that I would look at external GPU’s if you really need maximum power, but it also adds some complexity (and stuff to carry around). I think honestly, just get a good gaming laptop with like a 1070 or so. No need to go for the extreme. If its not running smoothly on a 1070 or even 1060, it wont really run smoothly on a 1080 either. Like with any programming, any improvements in the algorithms usually far outweigh the benefits of faster hardware.
It¨s a project for SAT Montreal,
http://sat.qc.ca/fr/splash#section …sorry can’t see the english version
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