Jump to content

Welcome to eMastercam

Register now to participate in the forums, access the download area, buy Mastercam training materials, post processors and more. This message will be removed once you have signed in.

Use your display name or email address to sign in:

Dell XPS & ATI Mobility Radeon & MC X

Ripper3785

By Ripper3785,
in Industrial Forum

 Share

Recommended Posts

Ripper3785 Newbie

Ripper3785

Posted
Posted

I've seen this topic addressed by Bullines and Jack back in October. At the time, there hadn't been much testing of the ATI cards with MC X. So I'm wondering, now 4 months later, if anybody has been testing MC X with these infamously not-MC-friendly ATI cards. I'd be curious to hear if the problems are mostly resolved with MC X as Bullines was supposing that the X experience with nvidia and ATI would be comparable.

 

Jack, did you end up getting another XPS in december like you had talked about? If so, is MC 9.1 on it still plagued with the same problems as your previous XPS? (thinking maybe by some miracle something changed on a newer ATI card, doubtful tho)

 

No ATI flaming in this thread. We all know that they don't play nice with MC 9. I wouldn't bother asking the questions except that we're looking to get a Dell XPS notebook and they still only come with ATI Mobility Radeons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ripper3785 Newbie

Ripper3785

Posted
  • Author
Posted

the Dell's that still have nvidias don't have the processor we're looking for.

 

I must thank trevor for the recommendation on the alienware notebook. Surprisingly the cost difference between alienware desktops and notebooks is not a huge jump like it is with a dell. Unfortunately they don't have that comprehensive plan like dell does for the notebook being destroyed in a fire, dropped, etc. That plan is worth it to our boss, he already bit the big one after our sales guy accidentally ran over his company laptop. (lean laptop carrying case against tire, open door, forget about computer, backup, crunch)

 

And I guess the answer to my question re: X and ATI cards is either "no we haven't tested X with ATI cards yet" or "yes we have tested X with the ATI cards and you don't want to go there". Some light as to which answer it is would be great. biggrin.gif

 

If X is going to be out in 3-6 months, just "sticking with nvidia" for a new computer that's going to last 3+ yrs here doesn't seem like good logic to me. There's always the workaround to run MC by turning down hardware acceleration. I have to do it anyway cuz this desktop has a radeon 9500 in it. unless of course ati still isn't gonna play nice with MC, or vice versa.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bullines Newbie

Bullines

Posted
Posted

You're right, Ripper. ATI has caugh nVIDIA sleeping and has become the market leader. A few beta testers have tested X with ATI chipsets and found it was comparable to nVIDIA chipsets. We'll be getting a notebook shortly with a Mobility RAdeon 9600 that I'll be sure to test.

 

And I noticed you're looking for specific CPU. Is it safe to assume you're looking for Intel's 552, 548, 538, 532 or 518 CPUs (aka: P4 with HyperThreading). I've noticed that most manufacturers only offer 1 or 2 notebooks with this CPU (Dell has the Inspiron XPS). I've found that these CPUs run hot....really hot. Really hot in an enclosed area is bad for hardware. Uusually those notebooks with P4 /w HT CPUs have bigger chassis; probably to accomodate fans and big heatsinks. Most manufacturers seem to favor the M CPUs now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bullines Newbie

Bullines

Posted
Posted

I'm not sure how much multithreading, if any, is going on under Mastercam's hood. If there is multithreading, then the P4 w/ HT CPU will take advantage of it. The P4 w/ HT CPUs also have higher clock frequencies than the M's but the M's are equipped with 1 to 2 MB of onchip cache where as the P4 w/ HT CPUs are equipped with 512KB to 1MB of cache. P4 w/ HT also tend to have faster FSBs (533MHz) where the M's top out at 400MHz at the moment. But I'm somewhat sure that a Pentium 4 M at 2.13GHz will be comparible to a Pentium 4 HT at 3.06GHz. I may be able to benchmark this soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Posted
Posted

Just bought an HP zd7000 w/ a 3.4 and HT. It has an NVidia Chipset and I'm liking it.

 

This is as close as I am able to find my laptop. My CPu is faster, I have XP Pro, and I have the same Graphics Card. I have the Accidental Death and Dismemberment plan for it also. biggrin.gif It will take up to 2BG RAM.

 

zd7260

 

HTH

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 months later...
Rick Damiani Newbie

Rick Damiani

Posted
Posted

quote:
Just bought an HP zd7000 w/ a 3.4 and HT. It has an NVidia Chipset and I'm liking it.

How portable is that monster? My D800 at ~7lbs plus the supporting equipment (power supply, mouse, cables, ect.) is enough of a bear to lug around that I find myself somewhat envious of my wife's 4lbs Gateway.

 

As for the P4 with HT vs Pentium-M issue. Some things to keep in mind when selecting a processor:

 

- Intel CPU familys in the post-486 era have often been less efficent on a cycle-for-cycle basis than the previous generation. Personal experence here - my PPro overclocked to 233MHz outperformed a PII at 233MHz, and PIII CPUs at 1GHz were signifigantly faster than P4s at 1.4 and 1.6GHz. It wasn't until P4 speeds got over 2.0GHz that they started to pull away from the PIIIs at 1.0 and 1.13GHz.

 

- The Pentium M is not a slower version of a P4. It's essentially a much faster version of a PIII. Look here for a heads-up comparison:

Tom's Hardware

 

The non-overclocked P-M at 2.1GHz outperforms even the P4EE in just about everything but synthetic benchmarks. No real surprise, given that it's essentially a PIII running at a higher clockspeed.

 

- HT has the potential to comprimise MasterCAM performance the same way that multi-processor systems do. Given the way the scheduler works, you end up thrashing the L2 cache into uselessness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rick Damiani Newbie

Rick Damiani

Posted
Posted

quote:
The HP weighs 9.5 lbs plus I have external floppy dive,flash drive, serial port replicator, mouse, usb extension cable, and mastercam post book I carry in back pac back and forth to work. It isn't to bad.

Oh. My. God. And I thought I had it bad. My D800 has serial and paralell ports, so I don't have to lug them. As for the manuals - that's why 60GB USB-powered hard drives, 80GB internal drives, and PDF files were invented. I keep the post manual, Machinery's Handbook 26, and a bunch of other stuff like that on the hard drive, while the external drive carries all the ISO images of CDs I might need.

 

Italian' stylin':

 

I've been way busy. Not getting to see my clients in Hawaii as often as I'd like (I'm going to Honolulu next month though biggrin.gif ), but I get to see my clients all over the rest of Californa and Nevada pretty often, so that makes up for it. Kinda.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Join us!

eMastercam - your online source for all things Mastercam.

Together, we are the strongest Mastercam community on the web with over 56,000 members, and our online store offers a wide selection of training materials for all applications and skill levels.

Useful Links

Contact Info

Subscribe to eMastercam News

 

Legal

Privacy Policy

Store Terms & Conditions

Forum Guidelines

Follow us

×
×
  • Create New...