new laptops (switchable graphic) any experiences?

[helikaon]

Hi guys,
my 8yrs old ibm r61 is giving slowly up. Integrated sound card stopped working (solved with external usb one atm), but fan (3x replaced already) and battery (2nd replacement) are bad too.

Anyway, i wanted to ask if you've got any experience with switchable VGAs on laptop with linux, particularly SL (rhel) 6 and 7.

From what i read the situation in is not 'optimal' and there is many problem either with proprietary drivers for Linux from Nvidia (optimus) or from AMD (Catalyst).
And 'open' drivers like Nouveau and Ati open have problems too.

I dont want intel VGA - i work in (atm) at design company, so i know that simply put, the output quality in CAD apps is simply worse compared to AMD or Nvidia cards.
And if i want to make investment to new laptop - i want best screen quality of colors possible. My laptop sits 95% in dock, so battery drain or electricity consumption is not an inssue for me.

i could get laptop with dedicated VGA, but these are only built like 15'' or 17'' big boxes and i dont want huge laptop workstation, i want lightweight 14'' laptop without intel VGA.

So what laptops you use? Which dirvers? Proprietary or open? Experiences?

cheers,

[tux99]

QUOTE (helikaon @ Oct 8 2015, 11:08 AM)

I dont want intel VGA - i work in (atm) at design company, so i know that simply put, the output quality in CAD apps is simply worse compared to AMD or Nvidia cards.

In which way is the "output quality in CAD apps" worse?
These days all connections to external monitors are digital (usually HDMI) so there is no picture quality difference anymore like in good old analog VGA times.
The only difference between graphics chips these days is processing power and max. supported resolution and how many monitors can be connected at the same time.

QUOTE

So what laptops you use? Which dirvers? Proprietary or open? Experiences?

I have two laptops, both with Intel graphics so I use the standard opensource Intel driver, which works fine for me.

The desktop has a Nvidia card and there I use the Nvidia proprietary driver.

I have no experience with switchable graphics but if I was looking for a new laptop I would avoid that as it seems problematic from what I read.

This post has been edited by tux99: Oct 8 2015, 02:05 PM

[helikaon]

QUOTE (tux99 @ Oct 8 2015, 02:02 PM)

QUOTE (helikaon @ Oct 8 2015, 11:08 AM) I dont want intel VGA - i work in (atm) at design company, so i know that simply put, the output quality in CAD apps is simply worse compared to AMD or Nvidia cards. In which way is the "output quality in CAD apps" worse? These days all connections to external monitors are digital (usually HDMI) so there is no picture quality difference anymore like in good old analog VGA times. The only difference between graphics chips these days is processing power and max. supported resolution and how many monitors can be connected at the same time. QUOTE So what laptops you use? Which dirvers? Proprietary or open? Experiences? I have two laptops, both with Intel graphics so I use the standard opensource Intel driver, which works fine for me. The desktop has a Nvidia card and there I use the Nvidia proprietary driver. I have no experience with switchable graphics but if I was looking for a new laptop I would avoid that as it seems problematic from what I read.

Tux, thanks for info :-).
I'm not sure about things like you said, that there is no picture quality differenece... If i connect laptop with intel vga on 24'' scren and send CAD output onto it, it is still uglier in comparison to output of eg. nvidia quaddro cards - maybe it's driver? Not sure.

So basically what you say is, that only way it laptop with intel vga ... because nowadays there is no laptop without it (if it has intel cpu).

well .. i think i'll keep my old laptop untill disk heads will worn out magnetic plates and spark HDD encasing and burn my laptop to ashes ...

Seams to me intel is shouldering his way to vga market and made a deal with nvidia and amd to sell 2 cards. It works bad - even on mighty ms windows (that's what i heard).
Seams like customer pulling short straw ..

cheers,