DerekL

Please recommend a laptop video card minimum for me: I am a newbie to Jitter but having seen live cinema performance I want to investigate it for myself.

My current system is horribly slow, truly 5 years old. I can't experiment until I get something new, so...

I think I am more inclined towards exploring visuals... but since I am not yet a power user, I want just enough to get started and to develop until I'm ready for a big buy... even an Ebayed $1700 512 mb vid card and duo 2.2ghz system is out of the question for someone like me who only wants to experiment... Portability is key because I will soon be kind of a traveler...

But I don't want to be limited. The new dell duo core entry-level notebooks look great... except for that naggingly bad on-board video chip.. yes??

So I need old but good, affordable technology. What would you recommend? I'm talking in PC terms because isn't it true that with a PC I will get more bang for the buck? Powerbooks hold their value so well it's frightening... I am a Win and Mac user so I have no alliegence for or hang-ups about either.

My current system is horribly slow, truly 5 years old.  I can't experiment until I get something new, so...

I think I am more inclined towards exploring visuals... but since I am not yet a power user, I want just enough to get started and to develop until I'm ready for a big buy... even an Ebayed  $1700 512 mb vid card and duo 2.2ghz system is out of the question for someone like me who only wants to experiment... Portability is key because I will soon be kind of a traveler...

But I don't want to be limited.  The new dell duo core entry-level notebooks look great... except for that naggingly bad on-board video chip.. yes??

So I need old but good, affordable technology.  What would you recommend?  I'm talking in PC terms because isn't it true that with a PC I will get more bang for the buck?  Powerbooks hold their value so well it's frightening... I am a Win and Mac user so I have no alliegence for or hang-ups about either.


budget-video-card-for-laptop-jitter-mix

On Jul 26, 2006, at 12:59 PM, Derek Leverette wrote:

> So I need old but good, affordable technology. What would you 

> recommend? I'm talking in PC terms because isn't it true that with 

> a PC I will get more bang for the buck? Powerbooks hold their 

> value so well it's frightening... I am a Win and Mac user so I have 

> no alliegence for or hang-ups about either.

To anyone considering a new laptop, I would *highly* recommend 

getting the MacBook (Pro) over any straight PC. While you might save 

$200 on an equivalent PC, it's probably worth the extra $$$ to have 

the option of running OSX as well. There are certain things that are 

only available on Macintosh (like image unit support, direct DV 

streaming from disk to camera, etc.), and certain things which simply 

offer better performance under OS X than PC (like UYVY textures, 

which don't require a shader or the CPU to convert to RGBA). 

Conversely there are somethings which work better under Windows (for 

example more supported web cameras, and in some situations faster 

OpenGL performance, etc.). The good thing is that any of the Intel 

Macs offer the best of both worlds, and with your Jitter license you 

If you are considering a cheaper machine with on board graphics, get 

the MacBook. If you are interested in doing a lot of GPU based work, 

get the MacBook Pro. A friend just got a refurb MacBook Pro for even 

If you only care about ever running windows, then you can save a few 

bucks buy not paying for the Apple brand, but the MacBooks are pretty 

great PCs and only slightly more expensive than similar PCs from 

other vendors (at least in the US, I know that Apple's are a bit more 

> So I need old but good, affordable technology.  What would you  
> recommend?  I'm talking in PC terms because isn't it true that with  
> a PC I will get more bang for the buck?  Powerbooks hold their  
> value so well it's frightening... I am a Win and Mac user so I have  
> no alliegence for or hang-ups about either.

To anyone considering a new laptop, I would *highly* recommend  
getting the MacBook (Pro) over any straight PC. While you might save  
$200 on an equivalent PC, it's probably worth the extra $$$ to have  
the option of running OSX as well. There are certain things that are  
only available on Macintosh (like image unit support, direct DV  
streaming from disk to camera, etc.), and certain things which simply  
offer better performance under OS X than PC (like UYVY textures,  
which don't require a shader or the CPU to convert to RGBA).  
Conversely there are somethings which work better under Windows (for  
example more supported web cameras, and in some situations faster  
OpenGL performance, etc.). The good thing is that any of the Intel  
Macs offer the best of both worlds, and with your Jitter license you  
can install on both OSX and XP.

If you are considering a cheaper machine with on board graphics, get  
the MacBook. If you are interested in doing a lot of GPU based work,  
get the MacBook Pro. A friend just got a refurb MacBook Pro for even  
cheaper than the new ones, FWIW.

If you only care about ever running windows, then you can save a few  
bucks buy not paying for the Apple brand, but the MacBooks are pretty  
great PCs and only slightly more expensive than similar PCs from  
other vendors (at least in the US, I know that Apple's are a bit more  
expensive abroad).

Budget video card for laptop Jitter mix