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mudigov Calculating status...

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About Mercury Engine in a Dell Notebook (ATI HD 7730M GPU)

Sep 19, 2012 2:10 PM

Tags: #nvidia #gpu #mercury_playback_engine #dell #after_effects_cs6 #ati_radeon

Hey, guys!

(sorry anticipately about any language errors, I'm from Brazil and try my best to say things correctly in english)

I was about to buy a new Dell notebook, the Inspiron 15r SE, that has a really great config (for my use) and comes with this ATI Radeon HD 7730M GPU.

One friend advised me to don't do this, because it lacks the GPU Mercury Engine ability.

With some research, I found that the OpenCL (ATI's equivalent to GeForce's CUDA) isn't really ready to work with CS6 GPU Mercury Engine on any PC.

So, what you guys think? Is it really the best choice, to don't buy this Inspiron because of the lack of GPU MPE or it won't change performance that much?

Additional info:

1. This Inspiron 15r SE config is the following:

- i7-3612QM

- 8GB RAM (1600 Mhz)

- ATI Radeon HD 7730M (2GB)

- 1TB HDD + 32GB mSATA SSD Cache

- 15,6" screen (1920x1080)

2. I will use only CS6, not CS5.X

So, hope you guys could help me.

If this problem isn't that bad, I'm gonna buy this Inspiron, 'cause the price is really good (to brazilian standards :/).

Thanks!

850 Views 4 Replies Latest reply: mudigov, Sep 20, 2012 10:52 AM

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1. Dave LaRonde,

Sep 19, 2012 2:33 PM in reply to mudigov

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You should look at the Cards approved for After Effects here.

For After Effects, Open CL works, but NOTHING about ray tracing is fast in AE.
The Mercury engine really shines when working in Premiere Pro.
And I can guarantee that you will want more memory for CS6. 8 gigs isn't much for AE.

Laptops are nice because they're portable, but if you want to do serious AE work, they're still not the best thing to have. They're fine to take on the road, to work on simple projects, etc. but a desktop machine is still better for heavy work.

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2. mudigov,

Sep 19, 2012 5:07 PM in reply to Dave LaRonde

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Hey, Dave, thanks for the reply!

First: About lap/desktops, I know these things. I do have one desktop too, but as I travel every weekend I like to keep one laptop with me, you know?
Second: I did check the cards list, but they're all too expensive, or desktop, or so.

Now: My use is balanced with Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects. I don't use Premiere that much, although sometimes I edit some stuff. Anyways, nothing intense like multiple RED footage or so. So, about the occasional use of Premiere: The CUDAs would make it insanely better to work in comparison to this ATI card?

Let's take, for comparison, my actual laptop: LG a520 (i7-2630QM, 6GB RAM, 640HDD, GeForce GT 540M 2GB- wich has CUDA but is not on the officially supported list, or is to weak, I Don't know).
My use won't get worse, right? In fact, with PS, AI and AE it will be better, I think.

In the end: I just wanna know if I'm gonna do a bad deal buying this Dell, because, specifically, of its GPU.
(Last thing: About the RAM, this Dell is expeansible up to 16GB. So, if it's the case, in the future, I get some more RAM. Thanks, anyway)

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3. Mylenium,

Sep 19, 2012 11:13 PM in reply to mudigov

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I wouldn't get crazy over that GPU stuff. AE CS6 has completely failed in that department, so you can simply strike it off the list and simply pretend it doesn't exist and well, if you don't use Premiere that much, it's a moot point in the first place. Therefore whatever buying decisions you make should be driven by what plug-ins you may use and unless you have a specific OpenGL plug-in that doesn't like your card, any card/ chip will work. Of course that may be different in CS6.5/ CS7 then with an OpenCL/ CUDA driven 3D spacen and whatnot, but we're not there yet...

Mylenium

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4. mudigov,

Sep 20, 2012 10:52 AM in reply to Mylenium

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Thanks, Mylenium!

So, in conclusion, I think I'm gonna get this notebbok.
I was concerned about my after effects use, but as you say, it won't be the trouble I was thinking, right?

Thank you all.
Any final recommendations/opinions?

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