4 replies to this topic

[thebigconsultant]

Hi,

I am an engineering designer, and I need a Quadro capable laptop for 3D CAD and SolidWorks.

I have had quotes at £3000 and much more for a suitable notebook. I did have a Dell M90, but this has recently died! And cost nearly £3000 new!

So I am wondering if anyone can tell me the best "Standard" laptop with good Nividia Gforce or similar grahics, that I can softmod to a Quadro using RivaTuner? http://www.techarp.c...rtno=539&pgno=0

I am happy to softmod or flash... recently I modded my Windows 7 32-bit so that it accesses 8GB Ram, and was quite annoyed at the artificail limit imposed by MicroSoft. I was always told that Win 7 could only support 4GB!

So now could someone reccommed a suitable notebook or laptop that I could consider modifying to a Nvidia Quadro emulated graphics for 3D CAD. I am happy to purchase any brand. Just so long as I dont have to pay over £3000 for the 'official ones' which are a real rip off.

Many thanks,
Bid

[Cyberdemon]

Here is the thing:

I can put an M5 badge on a base model BMW 5 series, but that does not turn it into a M5.

At a time long ago, soft modding worked because Nvidia did not put any type of hardware locks on their boards, which truly enabled the cheap Geforce part to function like a Quadro.

Years ago (following the 8000 series of cards which is already 4+ generations old) Nvidia locked these parts down. Nvidia also changed their driver architecture...what used to be "Quadro Drivers" and "Geforce" drivers are now just "Verde" drivers which support ALL Nvidia devices.

Because of this driver change, you can not softmod any cards made in basically the last 4 years. The good news, is with the exception of some Quadro only functionality like Realview, a modern 550GT or similar Nvidia GPU will still be very powerful even in CAD applications.

Also - Windows 32 bit does not support 8 gigs of ram. This is not an "Artificial" limit imposed by Microsoft. Windows may now tell you that it SEES 8 gigs of ram, but this is a fundamental function of the way computers operate (2^32 is the maximum amount of memory addresses, which means you will NEVER access more than 4 gigs of ram on a 32 bit OS) even if your Windows properties says it sees 8 gigs installed.

[krywarick6]

I recently purchased a Dell M4500 and am very satisfied with it. Windows 7 64 bit CORE i7, 8 gig ram, 2 gig video card. The M6500 (M6600?) might be another option to consider.

[zxys]

yeah, if you can downgrade, you may be able to get it to work but... looks like nVidia did not like this and worked more to lock out the mod options..

.. it was http://www.guru3d.com/ .. but, may be this can be of some help??

http://somemorebytes...re/nvpmmanager/

..

[Cyberdemon]

Keep in mind soft modding was primarily around desktop cards - so it doesn't help if you're trying to use it on a laptop.

A modern Geforce card is plenty capable for most applications. And if you need the dedicated workstation support you're stuck forking over the cash for a workstation. If you want to be more budget minded look for a refurbished Dell machine on their outlet site.