Need help to make final decision on laptop purchase.

[BUGNUT]

I've narrowed down the search to 3 MSI laptops. They all have 3 year warranties. No one else offers a warranty like these do. I'll be using the laptop for both work and play. At work I'll be programming PLC's and making drawings using a program called Inventor. When the boss isn't looking I'll be playing games like Quake 4 and Doom. My problem is I don't know anything about laptop graphics. The choices are ATI Radeon HD 4570 with 512 VRAM, ATI Radeon HD 4330 with 512 VRAM or Intel graphics media Accelerator HD. Here are the links to the laptops:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...892&CatId=4938

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...389&CatId=4938

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...390&CatId=4938

The laptops are in my price range. I've built a few desktop PC's using MSI components and they served me very well. I hope a MSI laptop will serve me just as well. There is really not much in these forums about MSI laptops. I welcome all opinions and suggestions. Thanks.

[glc]

The 4570 is the strongest graphics.

[Kidd]

Well, I don't know much about GPUs in general, but Autodesk products by nature have always been picky about which graphics cards have been 'certified'. Then I read this :

http://www.inventor-certified.com/graphics/

It seems as though as long as Microsoft Direct3D is supported, then Inventor will be also, by default. If only I knew what that meant.

Also, Bug, I think you are the only other poster who hasn't had some horrible experience with MSI before. I've only used a couple of their products, so I haven't had to RMA a motherboard or anything, but it seems to have been a great buy, competitively priced, and no problems in the first year.

[BUGNUT]

Hey Kidd, I'm running Inventor 5 on an old Dell 2.8 using on board graphics. It just chokes when I try to do the 3D animation. Otherwise it works just fine.

I'll have to do some research as to what laptop graphic chip I need that works with Inventor 5.

As for MSI I said I've never had any problem with their motherboards or graphic cards. It seems as though there is no history on the net as to their laptop reliability. I wonder if MSI is new to the laptop market? I've read all the Tigerdirect reviews/Feedback on MSI laptops and for the most part they seem to be OK, All though there seems to be a few black sheep in the lot.

Anyone out there own an MSI laptop?

On a couple of the laptops in my first post there is an Express card slot. What is it used for?

[glc]

The Express card slot is the modern day PCMCIA slot.

I told you which one was the best graphics of the 3.

[Miskatonic]

Dell Inspirons have always treated me well, for whatever that's worth.

[BUGNUT]

I told you which one was the best graphics of the 3

Yes, thank you. But not knowing much about laptop graphics I need to know which chip if any will meet the spec's identified in the Inventor link provided by Kidd. In the past Inventor was very specific about what video cards to use. There is nothing specific to laptops I can find. They seem to have relaxed their spec's according to the link.

[glc]

Their certification database is very old. I don't see why a Radeon 4000 series wouldn't work.

[Tin]

The laptop GPUs should be pretty close to their desktop counterparts. They may have a slower clock speed to aid in cooling and power consumption, but the architecture is the same.