Worst laptop for Scene?

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jedfrechette
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Worst laptop for Scene?

Post by jedfrechette »

I'm going to ask the opposite question of what usually gets asked around here:

What's the crappiest laptop you've successfully used SCENE on?

I'm looking for something small and relatively disposable that can be used for downloading scans and doing basic QC and alignments, primarily for relatively small projects (usually <100 scans). This wouldn't be a primary machine for processing and even final alignments would be handled elsewhere, so I'm just looking for something that's good enough to get a first look at the data while in the field.

At the moment I've got a Lenovo Yoga C930 (specs below) which, although definitely not speedy, isn't horrible.

How far down the price/performance gradient can you go before regretting it? $500 Back to School special anyone?

Lenovo Yoga C930
===============
CPU: i7-8550U @ 1.8Ghz
Memory: 12 GB
GPU: Intel UHD 620
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Re: Worst laptop for Scene?

Post by jcoco3 »

Oh, this is interesting. I would like to know the same thing, but for use with on-site registration.

Jed, I have used a Yogo 2 pro core i7, 8gb of ram on numerous occasions to examine scans and also register about 20 or so. No real issues, and surprisingly fast. We get similar performance out of an old Surface Pro 3 tablet with similar specs, but a new brand new Surface Go tablet with high specs just freezes up in on-site registration. Probably fine for examining scans one at a time though. I am hoping for the day that we get an app that lets us perform these operations on our phones, but I know that is asking too much. Hope this adds a data point for you.
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Re: Worst laptop for Scene?

Post by bobbyf90 »

Regarding the new Surface Pros I heard they are good for 20 or so on site registration setups then it slows so far behind it's not worth it. Can anyone confirm?
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Re: Worst laptop for Scene?

Post by jedfrechette »

I'd be all about registering on a phone. Even hauling one of these small convertible PCs around seems like it is often more headache than it's worth, especially considering how aggressively their CPUs usually throttle while on battery power.

Speaking of which, I've noticed that Scene must have the most computationally expensive progress bar ever. While running an alignment with the main window open the GPU is constantly busy, apparently doing nothing but rendering the spinning progress bar/wheel. Minimize the window and GPU usage immediately drops to zero. The screenshot below is from my Yoga with an integrated Intel GPU, but you see the same behavior with a Nvidia card. I haven't benchmarked it, but especially with an integrated GPU in a small laptop that has limited cooling that extra load is presumably causing more thermal throttling than would otherwise be the case. I wouldn't be surprised at all if simply minimizing SCENE would decrease processing time.

At least that animation is providing useful information though. :roll:

scene_gpu.jpg
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Re: Worst laptop for Scene?

Post by jcoco3 »

Interesting find Jed. Aside from its apparent cpu consumption we had an issue with it from the beginning. The old progress bar(annoying as it was popping up in the middle of the screen) could at least be moved out of the way so we could work on other stuff. I guess they think I am patient enough to wait for it finish one cluster before I start working on another. Unless there have been some recent changes, the way it just takes over Scene and makes you sit and watch all hands off makes me a little too antsy. Back to the old interface I go at that point :( Speaking of...I wonder if the old progress bar consumes that much. The thing needs to be docked at the bottom to encourage users(and my team) to do other work.
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Re: Worst laptop for Scene?

Post by jedfrechette »

Amen brother! I keep trying to use the new UI and it does do some things better, so I do want to use it, but bloody hell is the user experience maddeningly inefficient. The fact that features are split between the two and I need to switch back and forth to get things done is insane.

Running the same alignment in the original (aka. mostly functional) UI doesn't use any GPU resources for rendering fluff.
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Re: Worst laptop for Scene?

Post by Scott »

jedfrechette wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 3:08 am Amen brother! I keep trying to use the new UI and it does do some things better, so I do want to use it, but bloody hell is the user experience maddeningly inefficient. The fact that features are split between the two and I need to switch back and forth to get things done is insane.
Running the same alignment in the original (aka. mostly functional) UI doesn't use any GPU resources for rendering fluff.
+ 1 --stick to 'classics' until they turn to dust...
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