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Laptop sufficient for 3DSMax, Blender3D, P3D, XP, and VS 2017/2019?

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Deleted member 12505

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I'm good with desktop hardware, but I lack experience with Laptop hardware. I need a Laptop for when I'm "on the road" so I can continue development work.

I have big palms and testing out several laptops I soon discovered the frustration around the touchpad ... drove me nuts and too much wrist strain. Fortunately it seems touchpads can be disabled and/or regular mouse and or touch screen and/or windows ink pen can be used.

Since I'm now "self-employed", my hardware purchases are now on a strict budget. I found this laptop (Dell) at a reasonable price point that has touch screen and Windows Ink Pen support (which I plan to use in a future project) but was wondering if it would be sufficient for development work. I don't know much about the nVidia MX250 mobile GPU? I don't need high FPS when testing P3D or XP, just enough so that I can test my work.

Thoughts?

Cheers, Rob.
 
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That laptop looks good! Just had a brief look on the MX250, nice gpu 4 gigs , little slow in core speed but that’s definitely enough for p3d and so xp.


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arno

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Hi,

That laptop seems to have very good specs. I do most of my tool development for FS on a laptop as well. I use an Intel Core i5-8250U CPU with 8 GB memory. And the laptop has an Intel UHD Graphics 620, MHz, so no NVidia GPU or so. With that setup I can run my programming and scenery design tools without any problems. I can even run FSX and Prepar3D for simple testing with reasonable performance.
 
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Thanks for the responses, I think the MX250 in this Dell model is only 2GB VRAM. Unfortunately 3DSMax 2019 doesn't list the MX250 as "tested", I see the P1000 is tested but I couldn't find a Laptop with the P1000 that was touch screen and Windows Ink Pen support.

Lenovo ThinkPad has the P1000 (4GB VRAM) but higher price.

Anyone using 3DSMax 2019 with the MX250?

Cheers, Rob.
 
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Remember, you can setup to run your laptop on a big screen. HDMI cables link you into a big screen quick. You can then get an extra keyboard and mouse, put the computer to the side of the big TV and Voila, you are into a big screen again. I was doing this when I was going up North for days at a time.

So many computer techies work on laptops. I am impressed how they can do so much work on a laptop or even a phone. My Nephew is like that. Amazes me and gives me hope.

I highly recommend a SSD for your computer, by the way.. One that has 'very fast' read/write. If you drop the unit, the HD survives. And... it loads things with lightning speed. You can have your HD cloned to a super fast SSD. I did mine. Glad I did.
 

JB3DG

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I have a MSI GT72-2QD with a 4th gen i7 and a NVIDIA 970M. Runs P3D and max no problem.
 
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The MX250 has way lower power consumption than for example a GTX1080M, but at the cost of much lower performance (but still faster than integrated graphics).
Have a look around for benchmark comparisons to get some perspective, for example this one:
https://technical.city/en/video/GeForce-GTX-1080-mobile-vs-GeForce-MX250

I have an ASUS ROG G750JS which is 4th gen i7 (4700HQ) and GTX 870M. It's getting a bit long in the tooth but still runs content creation tools pretty well except for compute hungry simulations or renders. I'm drooling over the new Nvidia studio laptops.
 

gfxpilot

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Rob Ive used similar here - However, I invested in a sterTech docking station that is great. It takes the strain off the SSD and to a degree utilises hard drives I have shelved. Means I know have 2 x 1 terra byte filling nicely with likes of blender which runs from the docking station nicely and also allows for me to only have the applications on the comp and all storage etc on the dock. Keeps loading and scanning times to a minimum. AND I believe that they dock can be tax deductible by revenue agencies :mischievo
 
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Deleted member 12505

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Looks like 970M has 4GB VRAM, the MX250 is 2GB in the Laptop's I've seen ... just concerned if 2GB VRAM is enough for 3DSMax. Not to worried about P3D or XP frame rates so long as it runs well enough at lower graphics settings.

I've found a few laptops with 2060 6GB that cost a little more $1700 mark but oddly no touch screen support ... I really need the touch screen support for one of the projects I'm working on.

Agree on the SSDs, will make sure the laptop has atleast a 512GB SSD ... I tend to offline my storage needs onto my NAS and/or my main Dev desktop PC.

Cheers, Rob.
 

Heretic

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Ran 3ds Max 2015 without issue on a 960M with 2+2GB VRam, even in parallel with FSX.

I've lost faith in the whole cloud storage thingas it's just too slow on the third world grade internet in this country, so I bought a 512GB Samsung T5 external USB 3.1 SSD to store all files shared between my PC and the laptop on. To avoid the annoyance of having it dangling about, I fix it to the back of my laptop's lid with a strip of velcro. Works well.
 
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Deleted member 12505

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Thanks for all the input, I did make a purchase ... no sales tax here in Oregon and a $50 rewards certificate so came out to $1500 (my budget limit).

Asus Q536FD.

Installed P3D, XP11, 3DSMax, Blender3D, VS 2017 Ent, Adobe PS and IL, Substance ... runs them all very well at more than acceptable performance. I was a little concerned about the GTX 1050 with Max-Q Design , with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM GPU, but it seems to be doing just fine with 2GB VRAM.

Has Pen support which I'm actually finding to be VERY useful, so useful I turn the Touchpad OFF. Being an old crusty guy I didn't think the Pen aspect would work for me, but it does!

Cheers, Rob.
 

Pyscen

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The pen aspect or use of could come in handy for substance for sure and other applications that deal with fine tuning of textures. Congrats, on your new "baby"... :)
 
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Deleted member 12505

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Yes the pen works well on the touch screen, I'm clumsy around the touch pad so I disabled it and use the Pen as a mouse ... I have a wireless 3Dconnexion mouse that I'll use for whenever there is enough work space.

On a side note, I love the 3Dconnexion mouse for 3DSMax as it has a full sized middle mouse button ... on a conventional mouse the scroll wheel is also the middle mouse button which leads to unintended zooming while moving the mouse. The 3dconnexion mouse solves this problem with a physically separate middle mouse button ... highly recommend.

Cheers, Rob.
 
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