I played around a bit in TouchDesigner and I realized I need to get a better laptop since this one has become too old. I was looking around to see what choices I have once suddenly an idea cam to my mind, whether or not it is a good one, well, that is why I am asking you I guess.
The idea is pretty simple, looking at laptop prices I think if I bought a PC for that same money I would get maybe double or triple the performance. So, a bit naively, I ask you this, what do you think of using PCs instead of laptops for vjing? What are the main disadvantages?
My guess, without having any sort of feedback, is the weight of such work stations. But this is the only thing that comes to my mind.
So given one could get over this obstacle, by, say carrying it in a car to where he needs to, what else could come in play? Why aren’t people doing this?
Forgive me for maybe being too simple but I don’t know much about this industry and would like to know more.
Another thought that comes into my mind is context. For example, I live in a somewhat periferal zone, so if I need to move from one place to the other I can simply use my car and be there in a “usefull” time.
But maybe if one lived in the city, mobilitation by car would be discouraged in some zones because of traffic, and using the metro would be the only real way to move. Now, if one had to carry a whole PC station like that, then I would understand and it would make sense. Carrying it in a big backpack would be very tiresome in the long run(maybe everyday one would have to do this) and also become very dangerous since we all know how often theft occurs in metros/subways.
I’ve always found the dedicated GPUs to be more powerful than an integrated GPU, so I recently built up a desktop PC. The one thing I didn’t consider was the awful state the GPU market is in right now. It just isn’t possible to get an NVIDIA GPU for a reasonable price. Want last year’s model? Too bad, they stopped manufacturing them and the prices are just as expensive as a 50 series. So let’s get a 50 series. Extra bad, there’s no stock, and when a GPU is available for .02s it’s double or triple the MSRP.
I haven’t seen any specs on running TD on an AMD GPU but I’d be interested in this. I don’t think the availability of these cards is any better though.
So a laptop setup may be easier to get a hold of. Or buy a prefab PC. Building from scratch isn’t fun right now. Just my $0.02.
This answer is very detailed, thank you. I did not know about the market state, this sounds really bad, hopefully something will come out of it.
Unfortunatley the reason I really wanted to buy a new laptop/PC was because of dotsimulate’s new StreamDiffusion software. I really love to see those ai generated images . But thing is, he only tested it (rightfully) on his own machine which has a NVIDIA gpu, and up untill now there is no support for AMD, not that I know of in any case.
So I really need to go for NVIDIA unfortunaley.
Can I still ask you what are your thoughts or experiences on mobility with a laptop or PC? As that is also a factor I am considering in this choice
My laptop has a RTX 1060 which gets around 5-8FPS in StreamDiffusion. My desktop is running on a borrowed 3060 gets about 30 FPS in StreamDiffusion (@1024x1024). The laptops also run hot, and I was getting annoyed with the fan sound all the time.
I recently ran a project on an Dell Alienware m16 4070 laptop and managed to output about 8k of NDI streams to various projectors. I didn’t like the Alienware LEDs firing off at all times, but otherwise it was a good little laptop for using TD. Had to give it back at the end of the show though.
I’ve lugged workstations around and trust me, it’s not fun.
Consider that you will also need to carry a monitor, keyboard, mouse & all the cables to make it functional.
I decided to buy a Legion 5i pro laptop (i7-12700H + RTX3070ti), a couple of years ago and never looked back.
If you accept it’s limitations and make suitable allowance in your networks, then you should have no issues with a similar spec’d device
edit: I highly recommend doing your research on things like dGPU power (TDP) for each candidate laptop, even mobile GPUs with the same model number can be vastly different…many are throttled for thermal reasons. I almost bought an MSI device as it seemed to tick my boxes, but on closer inspection the dGPU was limited to 90w, whereas the Legion I got is 150w…this is a huge difference in performance.
Also be aware, that laptop GPUs generally have the less vRAM as the same numbered desktop model
. But thing is, he only tested it (rightfully) on his own machine which has a NVIDIA gpu, and up untill now there is no support for AMD, not that I know of in any case.