Graphics card for OpenGL shader development

Question

I need some hardware for high bandwidth video processing using GLSL. Could anyone recommend me the best GPU for the job?

My requirements (most to least important):

• fits into laptop
• good fragment shaders support (high instruction limit etc)
• pixel buffer object extension
• quality opengl windows driver
• low price :)

Answer 1

This page contains some good information on OpenGL and various "pro" rated video cards. I think if you stick to one of those, you'll have good luck with OpenGL compatibility.

Answer 2

I was with you until you say 'fits into a laptop', generally you don't have a lot of choice with laptop GPUs, you certainly can't just go chopping and changing as you can with a desktop machine. My advice would be to get the best machine you can afford with a top-end ATI or NVidia card (ideally an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850X2 or 48xx or NVidia 98xx xxx card). You're not looking at a low price though, you can't have everything.

Answer 3

• fits into laptop: unfortunately changing the gpu of a notebook is very rare, if not unheard of
• quality opengl driver (both windows/linux): nVidia tends to care more than ATI about it

High end solutions for laptop include pretty expensive SLI configurations (have a look here).

As for the available extensions, check this database; for recent cards you shouldn't have any problems to meet your requirements.

For performance, have a look here; I would personally suggest one of the (non-SLI) nVidia 9800 cards as the best quality/price compromise.

Other performance tips: avoid Quadro cards, they have another focus; download the latest available drivers from laptopvideo2go, because laptop producers rarely update their "official" drivers.