Sizing a new machine dedicated to visuals

Julien Bayle's icon

Hi there, I’m trying to explore setups for a new laptop dedicated to visuals.
My i7 mac book will still get everything audio.

I'd like to get a Windows system also because I'd like to combine max and TD too.

My purpose is both playing live and working in studio. I’d prefer a laptop, actually, except if I find a small form factor more powerful machine (that I’d remote control without screen/keyboard eventually)

My main needs are:

  • lot of polygons and meshes

  • big particles systems (I know cuda based systems are very powerful)

  • textures processing

  • easy on 4K

I know I’ll need RAM, i7 or even i9, I read about Nvidia Quadro.
But I’m asking myself if I should do i9 and maybe not the most powerful Nvidia Quadro VS i7 and the most powerful Nvidia Quadro, things like that…

I know this kind of thread is eternally never ending, but I’d appreciate some references, or experiences or just ideas.

My budget is around 3k€.

Any ideas, references, would be very appreciated.

Julien

Dante's icon

Lenovos workstation laptops have similar specs to what you describe for just over 3K. and i think that gets u i9.
Can I ask why quadro over a gaming graphics like rtx? I have only seen a couple posts discussing this in the forum, one seemed to mention that max couldnt support cuda and another seemed to express the benefits, of quadro but i cant find the benefits one.

https://cycling74.com/forums/workstation-vs-gaming-gpu-for-jitter

Julien Bayle's icon

Hi Dante Lentz and thanks for your message.
As far as I imagine, fastest CPU is required here and yes I read about quadro vs geforce debate, a bit.

nvidia would be required if I also combine TouchDesigner with Max, for instance.

I don't know about future cuda/nvidia ways with Jitter...