I desperately need to host OpenGL on a laptop PC and I cannot find any graphics cards solutions that will allow me to do this. I understand that NVidia is introducing the GeForce2 Go for the laptop but details on this card are incomplete at best. Are any of you hosting accelerated apps on a laptop? If so what card are you using … where did you find it … what is it’s price range? If the cost is reasonable I will buy at least one today…
Thanks in advance,
Paul Leopard
At least Dell and Compaq have laptops using ATI’s Mobility chips. They have been on the market for a while, but I don’t know their OpenGL performance though.
If the Apple PowerBooks with ATI Rage 128 Mobility are any indication (that’s what I have), their performance on PCs should be quite good.
A friend has a laptop with an ATi card, and the problem I found is that the cards 3D only kicks in 640x480 and 800x600, but not in the native resolution (1440x1024 or something like that). This is because of video memory limitations.
I have a GeForce2 Go laptop, and it’s got all the same features as GeForce2 MX. It will be a couple of months before these are available – but they’re worth the wait.
But the MX is already a scaled down cheap
version. Now you’re making us wait until
six months after the Ultra came out, putting
it right on time with the nv20 based cards.
That 2 Go laptop will feel so puny in
comparision. Thus, it won’t be any good.
Honest. Please look away from your desk for
two seconds.
Well, this is the way things are: laptops are always scaled down versions of high end PCs in many ways, because the have less space and they must use less energy.
Look at the MHZ, the memory, the disks, etc, and you’ll see that you can build a high end PC with better feature set for a lot less money.
I think the GeForce2Go is the first step towards laptop graphics competition between ATi and NVidia, and that will sure bring on some good products.
Originally posted by bgl:
Now you’re making us wait until
six months after the Ultra came out, putting
it right on time with the nv20 based cards.
That 2 Go laptop will feel so puny in
comparision.
Although I agree with you, the fact is that the GeForce2Go will at last bring 3D to laptops…
Most of you talked about the ATI chips on laptops. We have 2-3 laptops here equipped with an ATI Rage Mobility and I must say I find their capabilities very VERY poor…
On my boss’ Inspiron 7500 (P3 750Mhz), it is faster to use software rendering than the ATI card… not mentioning all the strange artefacts (bugs?) of the current OpenGL driver !
I just hope the GeForce2Go will bring stable, reliable and fast OpenGL support to laptops (as far as I am concerned, nVpeople, you can drop Direct3D support… 
).
Regards.
Eric
Does anyone have any clue as to when the GeForce2Go will be shipping? Any ideas of what kind of interface it will have?
Originally posted by pleopard:
Does anyone have any clue as to when the GeForce2Go will be shipping? Any ideas of what kind of interface it will have?
Cass said a couple of months (he actually works for nVidia).
I suppose the card itself is already in the hands of laptop manufacturers…
Regards.
Eric
It won’t be long… but you’ll have to check with individual manufacturers for pricing and availability.
I’ve been very pleased with my experience. The unified driver model still applies, so you can always get the latest detonators and everything “just works”. Every demo on the developer web site that runs on GeForce also runs on the laptop.
The first laptop I ever bought, I got a “3D” accelerator in it, and I was quite disappointed. This, however, is the real McCoy. I’m travelling next week, and it will be really sweet to be able to do graphics work on the plane and in the hotel. (Not to mention playing quake – although doing that with a touchpad sucks…).
Cass
Guys, I’m still trying to convince myself
that those laptops will suck so I don’t have
to buy one. Please make it easier for me.
Or distract cass while I sneak into his
office.