Are NVIDIA GeForce cards good for programs like solidworks?

[gcon22]

Im looking to get a new laptop. I wanted to do some gaming on it also so i was considering one with a geforce gpu. But then another laptop i'm looking at has NVIDIA NVS4200M which apparently isnt good for gaming but from what i heard may be good for solidworks or rendering programs.

I don't know much about gpus, but i'm thinking since the geforce is able to play games, is it safe to say that it can operate solidworks smoothly? Or are the two cards (geforce vs nvs) two totally different animals?

Thanks

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

Gaming cards are built for DirectX and Workstation grade Cards are built for OpenGL applications.

If you are using Solidworks, then you should get a graphics card that is built for OpenGL, like the Quadro workstation cards.

W series ThinkPads have Quadro cards, which are built for OpenGL applications like Solidworks.

Gaming cards aren't really that suited for OpenGL apps, and they suffer from performance hits if you do try to use these OpenGL based applications.

[nibs Guru]

The real use of the NVS4200M is to enable the use of an additional display. It is only slightly better than the integrated GPU that ships on the systems that use it.