As the title implies, I have a question about the Lenevo P51 15" model. I'm using apprentice on my workstation and really like it but I need to buy a laptop to be my daily driver and am planning on buying a seat for indie. Just want to make sure everything will work together!

All of the specs for the p51 seem like they'll work except the video card- Quadro M1200. Anyone have any experience with that mobile gpu?

I know a laptop isn't ideal but I need to be mobile. My plan is to keep my regular workstation and push heavy sims to that if need be… (assuming that's possible with Indie?)

My budget is about $2000. What drew me to the p51 is the wacom digitizer screen option and the ability to get up to 64gigs of ram. I do a fair bit of illustration work so having a machine that'll let me work in Zbrush, Photoshop, and Houdini without having to carry around an extra tablet would be great!

Any suggestions or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

The GPU is not supported.

https://www.sidefx.com/Support/system-requirements/supported-graphics-cards/ [www.sidefx.com]

A link to the laptop model specs would be helpful.

Thanks, maybe the Lenevo is too good to be true!
Attaching an image of the configuration I'm thinking about. The only thing this doesn't show are the two 1tb ssds I'm putting.
https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/Thinkpad-P51/p/22TP2WPWP51?menu-id=P51 [www3.lenovo.com]

I did get word from sales that I can indeed submit a sim job to my workstation so that's good!

Being mobile is an absolute must but I could live without the wacom digitizer built in. Anyone have any suggestions in the sub $2500 range?

Wait a minute! Maybe it is?
Looking closely at the Houdini hardware requirement specs I see that the graphics card needs to support at least OpenGL 3.3. The Quadro M1200 in the laptop supports 4.5

Also, further down on the page I see the section for “mobile gpus.”
The quadro M series is supported. This M1200 is, if I'm reading this right (https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-M1200-Benchmarks-and-Specs.207414.0.html), a newer version of the M2000M… if that's the case would it work with Houdini?

I've had the MSI for about 2 months now, still very happy with it, US price seems to be $2399 according to Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GS63VR-Stealth-Pro-469-i7-6700HQ/dp/B072K85Z7N?SubscriptionId=AKIAIOIL6HT4RMUFB3AA&tag=cshopper-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B072ZK89K4&ascsubtag=487f232e-92ce-405f-b01d-3f57675cc39d&th=1 [www.amazon.com]

Some of my observations from a Houdini/VR perspective: http://www.tokeru.com/cgwiki/index.php?title=GeneralUtilties#MSI_G63VR_7RG [www.tokeru.com]

Thanks mestela,

That's a pretty nice rig! Maybe a good choice for me if the Lenovo doesn't pan out.
Waiting to hear back from support.

I really like the Lenovo- the added bonus of the Wacom digitizer built into the screen would far out weigh the benefit of a beefier video card since I don't play any games on my computer. It actually comes out to a little bit less than the MSI.

I'm thinking that the video card will work- it was just announced in Jan 2017 so maybe the official list just hasn't been updated for mobile GPUs? Looking at this page (https://www.sidefx.com/Support/system-requirements/) it seems like the M1200 meets all the specs (4GB of ram, Open GL 4.6, CL 1.2)

Came across my old post- got the p51 back in Nov 2017. Opted for the Xeon which comes with the Quadro M2200. Also got the max 64gigs of ram and pen screen.

Great machine! Renders almost as fast as my dual xeon Z800. Haven't done a lot of sim work but so far it runs Houdini like a champ! Very very stable. Only minor issue is that some right click menus don't work on my second screen but I suspect that's a windows issue- not Houdini.

I just got that very same laptop with dual Xeon and the Quadro M2200 a couple months ago and this spec has been duplicated with a few other peeps at SideFX and they also like this laptop.

I agree there is a lot to like with this laptop.

Also got the fully loaded P51 and love it. Question for you other P51 owners..did u ever get both pen buttons to work? I tried to isntall Wacom AES drivers but says “no Wacom pen detected”. The Wacom branded dual mode pen works in wacome AES mode so I'm guessing its a Wacom digitizer screen but can't find any info on this. In the end I just want to customize the 2 side switches on the Lenovo pen (or Wacom branded one) but can't find any way to do that or any info on digitizer. Any help would be greatly appreciated if you guys have any ideas. Thanks ahead of time!