I'm getting a new laptop for Daz use!
thenotoriousjed
Posts: 397
I know everyone will say a better deal would be on a desktop, but I work 50 plus hours a week at a desktop and when I get home the last thing I want to do is be at a desk. My current Dell laptop has been good to me, but it wasn't intended for the abuse I put on it with Daz Studio. I've just paid off a big bill and now want a new, shiny laptop. I've found one at Newegg and have credit there to purchase https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154299
How much difference does 6GB video to 8GB video make? Is there a better deal I don't see? I'm willing to put up to 2 grand in the investment, but don't want to spend money I don't need to. I render mainly toon related pics and scenes, not too big but not real small. Use 3delight now becaue my current laptop doesn't handle Iray. In the meantime I've stocked up during sales on a lot of great Iray content I would like to use. Thanks to anyone willing to give me some help.
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Comments
I love rendering on a notebook personally. I too have a job which require far too much desk work so I hate to sit at a desk when at home. I tend to favor Asus gaming laptops. I would get more ram than that... at least 24 but seems like a nice rig. I hope you enjoy it. The more v ram the better I say.
The same one in a 32GB is $300 more. It has a bigger SSD too. Is it worth the price difference in your opinion?
It depends on the size files and scenes you create. Are you talking system memory or GPU memory? You will be at a loss with 6-8GB. You need to get as much system RAM as possible.
How about this idea: Instead of dropping a fortune on a notebook that still will not be very good at rendering, how about beefing up the desktop and streaming it to a laptop? That way your desktop does all the heavy lifting while you sit back and relax with your laptop. Plus, if you put the laptop in your lap, it will not set your family jewels on fire because it runs at full power running renders. Gaming laptops can get VERY hot.
If your current laptop is 1080p, then that is enough to stream at pretty decent quality. A 720p laptop might be too fuzzy, but it can be serviceable.
I frequently stream from my desktop to play with Daz. It doesn't stress the GPU so much.
The only downside is this of course ties up the desktop, so no sharing.
Need a streaming app? Look up Splashtop. For in home use with wifi, it is 100% free, and has no ads or other junk. There is a paid version, but this is only for streaming AWAY from home, and it is only $16 per year anyway. I've made renders on my desktop hundreds of miles away from home. As a bonus, Splashtop also has mobile apps for Android and Apple, you can stream the desktop to anything with these. And they are free, too.
Anyway, the in home streaming version is free, so you have no reason not to at least try this before busting out the wallet on a fancy new laptop. You may be pleasantly surprised by the results, and can use that money to upgrade the desktop for a much better machine. $2k will do a lot. You could buy a 1080 AND a laptop with that and stream.
Thanks for this info. Interesting, to say the least. I may look into it for the next time I travel (bringing three laptops takes a lot of space (2 for me, 1 for my wife).
Well now that is interesting. You have just given me something to really think about and look into.
32 gb is a great idea especially running win 10. I wouldn't take less than 24. The ssd is most likely going to be your boot drive and everything on the planet will want to install on c. I think they overcharge for ssd drives personally. Mine is 256 and I constantly have problems with running out of space on it and battling installers to put content on the partitioned t drive . It the end it comes down to what you an afford. I wouldn't drop too much on a laptop because you'll want to upgrade to a new rig in a few years as the tech keeps changing and you'll want more speed
Question @outrider42, does the streaming on the laptop use the keyboard and mouse associated with the laptop? I just want to make sure I wouldn't need to carry anything other than my laptop around with me.
No problem. I think it would work well depending on your situation. Some full screen apps (generally, games) will not work with Splashtop, but Daz certainly will. I have done almost everything streaming at one point, like photo editing, and watching movies and some light gaming (for gaming, I use Steam to stream the games instead of Splashtop.) And my laptop is a i3 junker. With streaming, all you need is a screen with a decent wifi connection.
I have used the Splashtop Android app a number of times. I even tested my wireless mouse, which worked without needing any drivers. I just used a Micro-USB adapter. Most Androids these days can use a mouse, so even a tablet or phone could be used for Daz if you stream it. I can even use it on a super cheap Amazon Kindle HD, after doing the easy hack to get the Google Play store installed on the tablet. The mouse worked, too. Combine with the Kindle's stand, and you have a surprisingly good little screen for streaming, though I prefer my laptop for sure.
The options are almost limitless.
Wait, so could you technically use DS (or Photoshop) on an iPad with their paid app???
This is an interesting conversation. It never occured to me that system RAM would be a bottleneck - I was always thinking GPU memory was the problem. I just loaded up a test scene with a complex environment (Fern Lake) with 4 genesis 3 characters (with no clothes). During scene setup my memory consumption went to the full 16GB I have installed, and it tooks > 6 minutes just to start rendering. The scene size exceeded by 980Ti memory (6GB), so it started rendering, painfully slowly, on the CPU. However once the render started system ram consumption went down to about 8GB. I think system ram probably helps speed up scene setup prior to the render starting, but unless you have massive massive scenes it probably doesn't make much difference once the rendering actually starts.
In practice so far I haven't felt limted by 6GB VRAM, but I rarely do scenes with more than 2 characters. With 2 chars and clothes and a relatively complex environment I'm usually at or below 5GB.
I guess it is good advice in general to have as much system ram as possible (Maybe I'll drop in another 16GB). If I were in the market for a new graphics card I for sure would get an 8GB card.
Great idea. I've tried realVNC but there is a problem with the mouse that makes navigation difficult (it goes crazy when you try to use the gizmo to spin the scene around). I'll try splashtop to see if it works better.
Be careful in purchasing a laptop...here is my most recent experience...3 days ago: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1956111/#Comment_1956111
The short answer is, don't buy a laptop for rendering. You get more for less with a desktop.
Yes. You can use what the laptop has. My laptop doesn't have the best trackpad out there, so having a mouse is better for me. It still might be better for you. I would test it out first.
This is interesting, because I have that issue on my phone if I try to use the phone's touchscreen to scroll. The Splashtop app has a middle mouse scroll button, but in the app it scrolls too fast compared to a real scroll wheel. But my laptop I do not have this problem. Either way, if I plug in a mouse, the problem does not happen. It may depend on what sensitivity settings you have. I actually use a wireless gaming mouse (Logitech G602) and it has its own settings.
YES! And Splashtop has a iPad version! And the updated version even supports a mouse!
- New feature: Now, a mouse for your iPad! Support Swiftpoint GT mouse for a remote desktop session for enhanced productivity or remote gaming. Learn more about Swiftpoint GT mouse at http://www.swiftpoint.com/splashtop and claim your special discount in-app (Settings => Options => Swiftpoint mouse).
Yes, but now I'm so confused when looking at desktops. I don't know enough to build my own. Too many choices, too many possibilities. My head hurts.
I too like Asus, but I think their latest crop of gaming laptops haven't pushed the window a lot.
I'd suggest you also check out gaming laptop options from Alienware(Dell's gaming line), Eurocom, MSI, and Saeger before you make a decision. Take your time on this and don't be afraid to delay your purchase if the one you want ends up being above your budget. Don't EVER cheap out.
I'd go for an i7 (nothing less), a 17" screen, 64 GB (or at least get one you can upgrade to 64 GB), and do get the 8GB GPU memory.
Any opinions on acer desktops? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883101467
It has 32 Ram and a 1070 Nvideo 8 Gig card. Only thing I see I might want to add is another hard drive.
I got this for Christmas so I'm gonna try daz and poser, it's. It to replace my laptop I guess mostly just to try on as there's not a lot of hard drive space
https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Flyer-Red-15.6-15-f272wm-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Pentium-N3540-Processor-4GB-Memory-500GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-10-Home/46429958
I prefer working on a laptop as well. I don't get much time to work in DS while home, but try to while I am away from home.
One of the issues I ran into was hard drive space as well, but I picked up one of these: http://a.co/4CD0Dwi
I don't install everything, but I use DIM to download all of the files to this hard drive. Then I always have the files on hand to install if I need them.
To be doubly safe I picked up one of these: http://a.co/34KTqY4
I carry the drive inside that inside my laptop bag.
Oh it's so much smaller than most external drives mi e are all huge, I'll have to save up and get one maybe I could Install my library there instead of on the laptop lol
I decided on this laptop - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154298
It was within my budget, has 32GB memory and a 512SSD drive. I like the idea of that 512 in addition to the 1TB because I use several base programs for making my books besides Daz. Hope that will be plenty to keep them up and running. I only get 6GB on the video, but it is a new Nvidia 1060 and stil a lot more than I have now. Can't wait til it comes in and I get to start playing with items like Terradome 3 that won't work on my current system.
Thanks everyone for the help and ideas.
Nice laptop. Mine is similar,, tho I don't have as much system ram and DS runs fine on my laptop. I really love the MSI gaming laptops :). I might suggest a latop cooler to go with it. You can't have enough cooling. LOL
Laurie
@outrider42 Thank you so much for posting this suggestion. I had used Splashtop ages ago for something totally different and forgot what this program can do. I checked it out again the other day and seems like it's gotten a lot better. It's opened up new possibilities for me, like rendering away from home. My computer is slow for Iray, but being able to start a render from anywhere is saving me huge amounts of limited free time at home.
Congratulations. That sounds like a great setup, and I think you'll be happy with it. Being able to maximize tools you already have (such as Terra Dome 3) will be a big boost to your work. For me, it was being able to use the morph tool in Poser 11 that changed the way I work. My old system took so long to resond with it that I just couldn't use the tool. Now I can't live without it.
If you look in my signature line, you can see the Alienware laptop I got. It's very fast and I'm happy with it (especially the ability to upgrade my external video card in the future).
I know I can upgrade the gfx card in my MSI laptop, so it's probably the same in the OP's laptop ;). Most gaming laptops you can upgrade the gfx.
Laurie
Yep, that's what sold it for me. I can still upgrade if needed even though it's a laptop. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow so I'm anxiesly awaiting.
Have you priced the additional cards? I have a gigabyte with a 980m. I too was sold on the fact that not only could i upgrade the 980m, I could actually add another for sli! Pretty awesome! Until I saw the price on the additional card -- 800+$. Don't get me wrong -- i love the laptop. But I wont be upgrading.
I'll only be upgrading only if the one I got goes belly-up ;) But at least it's an option.
Laurie
"Upgrages, you want to talk about upgrades"
I don't plan any either, I mean, I just bought it. But it's nice to know I can as Laurie said.