ATI/NVidia choice for Compiz Fusion and some gaming

[teo_m]

I have a dilemma. I bought a Dell XPS M1530 with an NVidia 8600M-GT and the only problem I noticed was the fact that the Magic Lamp effect under CompizFusion was unusably slow. Unfortunately, the whole notebook had a lot of problems, like grainy screen, cpu whine, raised keyboard, so I had to return it, got back my money and now I'm in the market again.:( I found something that I think could be a good deal for these two laptops, the first with an ATI and the second with an NVidia:

* HP 8510p GR539AW: C2D T7700, WSXGA+, RAM 2GB, 120GB SATA, ATI HD2600 Mobility 256MB ~1500€
* HP 8510w GC113EA: C2D T7500, WSXGA+, RAM 2GB, 120GB SATA, NVidia Quadro FX 570M 256MB ~1480€

As you see, there isn't much difference between the two notebooks, visually they are identical. Considering the small price difference, the slight difference in CPU clock, the fact that the Quadro FX 570M is performance-wise something like the Geforce 8600M-GT, and the current (and future) state of drivers and Compiz Fusion, which one would you pick?
I've been using Compiz Fusion constantly on my old Intel GMA950 since the compiz-quinn times and I need the snappiest experience possible. The 8600M-GT was less smooth than the 950 but still bearable, how does Compiz generally behave on the cards in the two notebooks?

[some-guy]

The reason for the GF 8-series performing badly with compiz is that they have a mode where they pretty much sleep then wakeup, this is useful if you use games, but not compiz because, sleep, wakeup, sleep, wakeup...

ATi is going to most probably become much better than nvidia within a year or two, with the OSS drivers coming, but Nvidia is in the best condition now, so it depends, if you plan on using this laptop for 5-6 years, (imo) go with ATi, if it is for ~3 years, Nvidia...

I would suggest waiting for other peoples opinions though..

[teo_m]

The reason for the GF 8-series performing badly with compiz is that they have a mode where they pretty much sleep then wakeup, this is useful if you use games, but not compiz because, sleep, wakeup, sleep, wakeup...

if you plan on using this laptop for 5-6 years, (imo) go with ATi, if it is for ~3 years, Nvidia...

I would suggest waiting for other peoples opinions though..
And one can't disable the sleep state of GF8 cards?:o
I plan on using it for 5-6 years, that's why I'm buying a (hopefully) high quality business laptop, but I also want things to work right now. I just can't decide if the Quadro/GF8600GT is worth the slower CPU clock, since the price is roughly the same.:confused:

[SmSpillaz]

run this

#while true; do nvidia-settings -q > /dev/null; done;

That's generally want to do to keep it awake. My bash is a little flaky though.

[some-guy]

so a script would be
#!/bin/bash
echo "Keeping Videocard awake"
while true; do
nvidia-settings -q >/dev/null
done
exit

[SmSpillaz]

so a script would be
#!/bin/bash
echo "Keeping Videocard awake"
while true; do
nvidia-settings -q >/dev/null
done
exit

Err sorry, forgot to mention that we should add a sleep in there so that we aren't constantly spamming the CPU.

It's a hack unfortunately, but it's the only real solution to the problem. You'll notice the same lagginess issue if you boot into vista, leave it alone for a while and then hit Flip3D.

Anyways, I'm practically sold on this laptop. Can you tell me what does / doesn't work with linux so I'm prepared =) (I'm buying it in a week)

[teo_m]

Err sorry, forgot to mention that we should add a sleep in there so that we aren't constantly spamming the CPU.

It's a hack unfortunately, but it's the only real solution to the problem. You'll notice the same lagginess issue if you boot into vista, leave it alone for a while and then hit Flip3D.

Anyways, I'm practically sold on this laptop. Can you tell me what does / doesn't work with linux so I'm prepared =) (I'm buying it in a week)

If you're talking about the HP 8510w, everything should work except the NVidia sluggishness I guess.

[SmSpillaz]

If you're talking about the HP 8510w, everything should work except the NVidia sluggishness I guess.

nah, I meant the xps

[teo_m]

nah, I meant the xps

If you ask me, don't. Trust me. Just pick another notebook, you'll spend 100-200€ more for the same config but at least you'll have a quality laptop.
On Arch Linux the thing works reasonably well. The touchpad is an ALPS so you'll have to tweak it a lot to make it work somehow on Linux, still don't expect the precision of a Synaptics.
You have a high probability of getting a grainy screen, a whining CPU and a deformed keyboard or screen frame. And you'll almost surely get a touchpad that doesn't work the first 1-2 minutes after opening the lid. And the earphones output has a permanent hiss.
After finding these problems on my XPS, I called Dell's tech support and they sent the repair guy, who tried to fix at least the keyboard and he couldn't, let alone the rest, so he just reassembled the laptop and told me to request a replacement. He also told me that the XPS M1530 are the some of the worst Dell laptops he ever saw.
I requested a replacement and the replacement had the same flaws except the keyboard that wasn't raised on the second laptop, so I just returned them both and asked for a refund.
The casing is really stylish but the build quality is like a Compal cheapo - not 100% sure it's a Compal casing but it sure feels like one of the cheaper Compals around, maybe a little better than the cheapest but nowhere near a ThinkPad. All the things I listed here are well documented on forums around the 'net.