I'm looking to buy a laptop for my young son who has an interest in Computer Animation and I would like a one that works with Houdini 14 Non-Comm. I can see there is a 2GB Vram requirement and I see laptops (refurbished) which have GPUs which match the compatability list but I can't tell if they have 2GB as process manufacturers lists defer to card/laptop manufacturers.

I see man recent laptops with Intel HD 4000 or 4400 (I5 or I7 4th gen); will these work? or is this only the Desktop versions?

I'm not looking for top performance - but I am looking for something (Windows or Linux) that will work. I have two macs which are not up to Houdini requirements. I have Linux experience (2001-07) and I now that hardware compatibility issues have improved.

But I would like to buy a £300-£350 refurbished laptop in the summer; please can anyone advise on the Intel HD GPUs for laptops? will they work? or do I need a better gaming/CAD laptop?

I find cheap PCs on eBay with Nvidia Quadro FX 580 - Which is on the H14 Compatibility list - but this only has 512mb; I must be missing something…
Confused

I would also like to understand if ATI Hyper Memory is ok? If a card is a XFX ATI HD5450 1GB GDDR3 Gaming Graphics Card but is 2GB with Hyper-Memory - is that OK or is the 2GB native only?

Thanks in advance

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Not direct answer but testing H14 on a 512MB Gt120 in a Mac Pro, essentially it doesn't work; the screen flickers and will crash. It may work if you reduce all the viewport quality setting but I'm not sure.

The Hypermemory looks bogus for pro work and I wouldn't want it to work if it could