Nvidia or AMD for Productivity?

[nAndFlash]

Hey, I'm trying to buy a laptop for Solidworks and other engineering-focused programs, and, while I'm pretty sure I want a 7040 series CPU (AMD's efficiency is waaaaaaay better than Intel's rn), I'm not sure what GPU to get. I think I remember that the 40 series cards score better in productivity benchmarks in general, but I'm pretty sure they also tend to have less VRAM than AMD's competition, which I assume could be problematic for some use cases. Furthermore, I think Navi has had a bit of an efficiency lead, which I could see leading to longer battery life and/or better performance in a hotter environment. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[DEADPOOLSMOM]

5 minutes ago, nAndFlash said:

Hey, I'm trying to buy a laptop for Solidworks and other engineering-focused programs, and, while I'm pretty sure I want a 7040 series CPU (AMD's efficiency is waaaaaaay better than Intel's rn), I'm not sure what GPU to get. I think I remember that the 40 series cards score better in productivity benchmarks in general, but I'm pretty sure they also tend to have less VRAM than AMD's competition, which I assume could be problematic for some use cases. Furthermore, I think Navi has had a bit of an efficiency lead, which I could see leading to longer battery life and/or better performance in a hotter environment. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Neither. You want Apple M Series Macbooks for Laptops. Windows laptops are really bad for the most part.

[tikker]

The first point is whether any of those programs require CUDA for the GPU accelerated aspects. If so, then Nvidia. Otherwise I would try to find benchmarks of the GPUs in the laptops that are available to you and go from there.

[Zando_]

7 minutes ago, ShawtyT30beTHICCC said:

Neither. You want Apple M Series Macbooks for Laptops. Windows laptops are really bad for the most part.

Not for Solidworks and other engineering stuff you don't. You want something that reliably works with the needed software. Ryzen CPU should be fine, as @tikker said anything that takes advantage of CUDA will be much better on an Nvidia GPU. Nvidia cards just have better driver/software support across the board for this kind of thing, so I would avoid AMD GPUs altogether unless the VRAM thing is a hard limiter and outweighs all other advantages. 

[DEADPOOLSMOM]

Just now, Zando_ said:

Not for Solidworks and other engineering stuff you don't. You want something that reliably works with the needed software. Ryzen CPU should be fine, as @tikker said anything that takes advantage of CUDA will be much better on an Nvidia GPU. Nvidia cards just have better driver/software support across the board for this kind of thing, so I would avoid AMD GPUs altogether unless the VRAM thing is a hard limiter and outweighs all other advantages. 

Oh I missed that first part about the engineering stuff. I just typically recommend M series Macs to the average person for mobile computing. Every windows laptop I've ever had has been ewaste after a few years of heavy use. Even high end lenovos and XPS don't last as long as a good Mac

[nAndFlash]

Thanks for the quick response! I think I found a good candidate. I should be able to upgrade the ram to 32GB, and, while the 7940hs is slower than the 7945hx, I doubt it would be possible to leverage the higher-end chip's full capabilities in such a small package anyway.  

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-14165hz-gaming-laptop-qhhttps://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-14165hz-gaming-laptop-qhd-amd-ryzen-9-7940hs-with-16gb-ddr5-memory-nvidia-rtx-4070-12g-gddr6-1tb-pcie-4-0-ssd-moonlight-white/6535498.p?skuId=6535498d-amd-ryzen-9-7940hs-with-16gb-ddr5-memory-nvidia-rtx-4070-12g-gddr6-1tb-pcie-4-0-ssd-moonlight-white/6535498.p?skuId=6535498

[manikyath]

1 hour ago, Deadpool2onBlu-Ray said:

Oh I missed that first part about the engineering stuff.

literally the first line of the OP...

also, battery life is probably the only "objective win" for apple. it's an important win, but it's the only win.

besides - my college laptop was some samsung shitbook that did 8 hours on battery. it can be done.

 

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on topic: solidworks' system requirements page about GPU's is needlessly dense, as we are used to with CAD software...

 

however, they seem to put more attention towards talking about nvidia, and sort of "mention a Radeon or FirePro card will work"

sooo... ideally get something with an nvidia GPU? but really.. unless any of your software *absolutely requires* cuda.. it's probably not a huge deal if you're not running some very advanced models.