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Why does Lenovo persist with the Quadro GPUs? None of their workstation models have the option for a GTX 10-series. I recently bought a gaming laptop (not a gam

by mastry 8y ago

Why does Lenovo persist with the Quadro GPUs? None of their workstation models have the option for a GTX 10-series. I recently bought a gaming laptop (not a gamer) so I could have the GPU power for ML. Surely there's a big enough market for this to warrant a ThinkPad option by now?

Rotdhizon 8y ago
I think it's because lenovo really isn't a brand you buy for gaming. Sure they have a gaming lineup, but they are more business and production oriented, and the Quadro cards back that. The Quadro cards aren't bad for gaming per say, you can still do quite a bit with them. I have a P51 mobile workstation with what I think is NVIDIA Quadro M2200 4GB GDDR5, and it lets me play anything I've tried so far without issues. Granted the CPU and GPU get extremely hot on these things if you so much as think about loading up a game. My internal temps are constantly between 80-90 degrees. Also, gaming rigs and mobile workstations have differences in how the hardware functions. I don't have an intimate explanation, but gaming laptops are not meant for virtualization. If you have a gaming rig and mobile workstation with the exact same specs, the workstation will host VMs smoothly while the gaming laptop VMs will be slow and clunky.
- gargravarr 8y ago
  Workstation-class machines seem to focus on executing multiple tasks in parallel and sharing resources fairly among them. Gaming laptops focus on giving one task 100% of the power.
i_am_good 8y ago
As one of the comments mentioned, you can use an external GPU with USB-C for your ML needs.
gaius 8y ago
None of their workstation models have the option for a GTX 10-series. Microsoft Surface Book comes with a 1060 option
muro 8y ago
I tried different things to make it work, it was never worth it. Just get a desktop PC and login remotely, or use some cloud ML. Sanity restored.
bitbckt 8y ago
I wonder how much this is an effect of AutoCAD/ArcGIS/SolidWorks/&c. certification? "Workstation software" vendors don't typically certify "gaming class" cards.

by mastry 8y ago

Rotdhizon 8y ago

I think it's because lenovo really isn't a brand you buy for gaming. Sure they have a gaming lineup, but they are more business and production oriented, and the Quadro cards back that. The Quadro cards aren't bad for gaming per say, you can still do quite a bit with them. I have a P51 mobile workstation with what I think is NVIDIA Quadro M2200 4GB GDDR5, and it lets me play anything I've tried so far without issues. Granted the CPU and GPU get extremely hot on these things if you so much as think about loading up a game. My internal temps are constantly between 80-90 degrees. Also, gaming rigs and mobile workstations have differences in how the hardware functions. I don't have an intimate explanation, but gaming laptops are not meant for virtualization. If you have a gaming rig and mobile workstation with the exact same specs, the workstation will host VMs smoothly while the gaming laptop VMs will be slow and clunky.

gargravarr 8y ago
Workstation-class machines seem to focus on executing multiple tasks in parallel and sharing resources fairly among them. Gaming laptops focus on giving one task 100% of the power.

i_am_good 8y ago

As one of the comments mentioned, you can use an external GPU with USB-C for your ML needs.

gaius 8y ago

None of their workstation models have the option for a GTX 10-series. Microsoft Surface Book comes with a 1060 option

muro 8y ago

I tried different things to make it work, it was never worth it. Just get a desktop PC and login remotely, or use some cloud ML. Sanity restored.

bitbckt 8y ago

I wonder how much this is an effect of AutoCAD/ArcGIS/SolidWorks/&c. certification? "Workstation software" vendors don't typically certify "gaming class" cards.