What's a good laptop for gaming and animation?
Higher resolution displays and more powerful graphics cards which are really fast in games are only found on physically larger laptops. The really small/thin/light models tend are slower because they have weaker processors and integrated graphics. They're great for everyday work but lag and choke in high-end games and applications like Maya and Blender. Also, the more powerful your graphics card and the larger your screen, the shorter your battery life. High performance and portability/battery life lie on opposite ends of the scale, you have to decide which is most important to you. Laptops are engineered for one at the expense of the other. For 3D rendering & animation the best graphics adapters are the professional ones (Nvidia Quadro ATI/AMD FirePro) instead of the consumer/gaming models (Nvidia GeForce and ATI/AMD Radeon). The professional/workstation cards have certified drivers which greatly accelerate rendering, but aren't as good for gaming as Radeon/GeForce cards. Finally, laptops with the kind of specs you want will be quite expensive. In general, laptops cost about 75% more than desktops of equal performance. So to match the performance of a $800 desktop requires a laptop around the $1400 mark. To match a $1600 desktop requires a $2800 laptop. That's the general rule of thumb, although occasionally you'll find exceptions. Here are some good options for Maya/AutoCad etc. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as... http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as... Here are some nice ones for gaming (but not as good in design/animation applications) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214492 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230142 Here's a great deal: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214604 Mobile/laptop graphics card performance: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
HD4850 1GB GDDR5 256bit is still good for 3D rendering?
No, the HD4850 won't accelerate your 3d renders. If you're going to use AutoCAD then the best you can get is an Nvidia Quadro graphics card. Nvidia's Quadro line is designed for accelerating 3d renders especially in AutoCAD, 3DSMAX, Adobe Creative Suite 6, Dassault Systems Catia, Dassault Systems Solidworks, Siemens NX, Avid Media Composer, PTC Creo, Parametric 2.0 and Pinnacle Studio 16. If you're a beginner or you have a limited budget get a Quadro 410. If you've got a bit more money to spend then get a Quadro 2000. If money isn't a problem then get a Quadro 6000. In the UK the Quadro 410 is 120£, the Quadro 2000 is about 400£ and the Quadro 6000 is anything from 3000£-8000£. If you want the AMD equivalent, the entry level CAD certified card is the V3800, the midrange card is the V5800 and the high end card is the V8800. I can't tell you the prices of the AMD cards because they are much harder to get.