Hi.
I'm looking for a new laptop and hope to get some suggestions here.

I do have rather strong requirements. I need a 3D graphic card which is supported in Linux, Intel processor and 1600x900 resolution (not larger than 15.x inches).

I know there are problems with Optimus Nvidia cards. Does anyone have experience with this?

Does anyone have experience with any laptops meeting these requirements?

Most of the hardware must of course work in Linux.

- dagH

Hi,
Those are IMO quite reasonable requirements... Trust me, I'm a lot harder to please. Does the CPU have to be intel?


I'll tell you what not to get : any dual graphic solution, those are a mess for now. If you must, get an ATI based one, I know that there you can at leats turn off the dedicated GPU, nvidia is (and has always been) hell for me. I am currently writing this on a sony vaio vpcec3 series laptop, which meets your criteria, and works very well in Linux.

you might also take a look at laptops with Linux preinstalled : Zareason and system76.

Serafean

Thanks for you reply.

The CPU does not HAVE to be Intel, but I've grown to the understanding that Intel has a bit better support in Linux. But maybe I'm wrong?

I know about the mess of dual GPU so I'm trying to avoid it, but it's hard to find new laptops that have only one GPU. All the new Nvidia card have Optimus technology. I have no experience with ATI, but also here I've heard that the ATI cards are not as supported in Linux as Nvidia and Intel. But maybe I'm wrong here too?

Do you have any experience with Intel graphics cards? Mostly regarding 3D capabilities.

The US based companies which sells Linux pre-installed is unfortunately not an option since I live in Norway.

I've had good luck with Dells, though they do tend to favor Broadcom wireless. I have a Dell desktop, laptop, and netbook and am quite happy with all three.

AMD support in linux is just as good as intel. You won't find problems with that. But you'll definitely want to look up the GPU online and see if people are using linux with it and what kind of problems they're having.

Intel graphics cards (like the onboard ones) tend to be a lot slower than a dedicated GPU, but I've heard the recent HD 3000 is really nice.

HD 2000/3000 is 'really nice' only in comparison to ancient GPUs, or slighty old entry level GPUs, or any of the previous intel video chips (I wont dignify them with the 'GPU' tag). Its about as fast as a ATI/AMD HD5450.

Well there you have it. I was actually going by this: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/gra...mance-review/1 but that sounds about right. Myself, I'm broke, so my fastest desktop graphics card is an ATI X850.

The question is, what do you need when it comes to 3D? Do you plan on playing new very intense 3D games? Do you plan on doing a lot of 3D rendering? If not then maybe going with graphics that support open source might be just fine for you, and give you a lot less headache.