Software OpenGL for laptops

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

I recently bought a HP NC4000 laptop. I am very happy with it, except Blender in XP is really slow. This is due to the fact that has a ATI Mobile Chip in it. However I recently switched and started using XP/Ubuntu(Linux) and Blender in Linux is REALLY fast. Most of the time it seems to run just as fast as my 1.2 Duron with a GeForceFX 5200 PCI in SuSE 8.2.

So, if you have issues with Windows/ATI/OpenGL. Try software rendering in Linux. It worked for me on my 1.4 Pentium M with 1MB Cache, and 512 MB RAM.

BTW, the NC4000 is incredible. All the above at 3.5 lbs. Love this thing…

(End of shameless linux plug)

2

you’re saying software rendering in linux is faster than in windows?

… somehow I’d disagree, but if you want you can try compiling mesa in windows

or you can try my compile [copy this dll into your blender folder or path]
http://geocities.com/z3r0_d/files/OPENGL32.zip [copy/paste url, 475k]

you could also try installing the proper drivers [16 bit color is woth trying too], even newer intel video chipset based laptops run blender reasonably