Brace yourself: NEW MAXWELL CARDS INCOMING!

Prices of DDR4 are pretty reasonable though - link. I'm contemplating a mATX X99 build.. actually trying to talk myself out of it

 

You're still looking at at least $200+ for four DIMM's in quad channel.

I miss the days of dirt-cheap RAM.

 

mATX and Haswell-E?! Are you building a desktop or a room heater lol

 

LOL n=1 room heater

that aside i gotta wait for pcie SSD raid 0.. not even gonna go for x99 with haswell E unless dual screen.

 

Yeah I think that sounds plausible too.
N16E-GT: GTX 960M;
N16E-GX-B: GTX 970M
N16E-GX: GTX 980M

 

So, any news/leaks about release date?

 

Whatever I build has to be able to fit in a suitcase at the very least. Anyway it's fun for me to have limitations to work around besides money. Otherwise it's buy something like a 900D and the limitation is money instead of temps :laugh:

 

Anyone think the new generation of laptops shipping with Maxwell will be DDR4 compatible?

 

No. DDR4 support won't be here until Intel Skylake.

 

Still no legit leaks yet? What's the deal?! We've always seen leaks months before the release.

 

Bingo... .

 

Nvidia keeping their cards close to heart until mobile Tonga beats GTX 880M.
Which is happening this month

 

Well, then I would hope to see something soon.

 

They say silence is golden, but this kind of silence is unbearable!

 

Yes, it is especially when you're waiting to see what's released to make a decision on which laptop to get.

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I'm sorry if this post is slightly off-topic, although it is sort of relevant:

I'm in a bit of a pickle. I want a top-end Maxwell machine for certain. However, I also want a replacement for the Samsung in my sig; because now that I have got used to the 1080p screen on my Clevo, it makes the washed-out 768p display of the Samsung look abysmal by comparison. My Clevo is my current gaming powerhouse while my Samsung is my coursework machine for taking to the library at uni. I'm not too keen on the prospect of taking a gaming laptop to my university's library though, mainly due to the unwanted attention such a mammoth laptop would undoubtedly receive! Hence why I desire a cheap, small secondary laptop to complement my future Maxwell-fuelled powerhouse.

I have £3100 budget. I also have the ability to sell my Samsung to recoup a hundred or two back into that once I've bought a new machine. I'm pondering over whether I should buy a nice new svelte 1080p ultrabook for uni but I'm wondering how much of that budget I could safely sacrifice whilst still leaving enough in reserve for a SLI 980M gaming laptop.

I guess my question is; how much more of a price premium could we reasonably guesstimate there to be on a new 980M SLI notebook compared to existing 880M SLI machines?

 

They just replace the current cards. Prices usually stay the same.

 

Good to know!

I've just realised that I would be stupid to buy an ultrabook now when Broadwell is just around the corner. I'll have to wait for Broadwell and by then *hopefully* the 980M Maxwell will be with us too, so I can buy both machines at the same time! Or maybe I'll just splurge it all on the gaming notebook and make do!

I sure am tired of this waiting game!

 

I think AMD and their poor showing is going to kill any 40-50% performance increase from the 980M. NVidia has no reason to actually release something so powerful now.

They are going to milk Maxwell for all its worth. I'd love to be proven wrong but I think the future is not looking good.

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Nvidia can always go down in performance on the unreleased cards. Disable more cores, downclock it more etc. Nothing is set in stone (silicon) just yet.
But I hope Nvidia doesnt butcher the GTX 980M now that AMD have completely dropped the ball with the M295X. :/

I just don`t understand why AMD still havent countered GT 840M and GTX 860M with a better architecture. They have been alone on the market for over 7 months now without any competition.
Now it seems Nvidia will be the first one out with the high end for the new architecture as well. Have AMD given up mobile?
They are falling further and further behind.

Is it our fault for buying Nvidia instead of AMD? I was actually perhaps ready to jump to M295X now, but no way I`m doing it after todays news.

 

I think we will see AMD bow out of the dedicated market for laptops and focus on the desktop until their 14nm finfet cards are ready would be my best guess. They probably realize they can't compete with Maxwell right now. Shifting focus to the desktop could be the smartest move for AMD right now while trying to push their APUs for the low and mid range laptops.

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I just hope the desktop GTX 880 is still on track for Sep/Oct release, and will actually beat the 780Ti in performance. Otherwise I may as well scrap my plans for building a desktop :/

 

Desktop markets have shown that users won't upgrade unless a significant performance increase has happened so it's much more likely to see the high performance increases there.

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That would be very sad if happened. We need competition and what fun will it be if everyone owns the same cards?
Yeah I dont think they have anything to answer Maxwell, which is very surprising because pretty much everyone believed Tonga would be the red Maxwell. But no, ugh.

The huge event in September is already settled man. Dont panic, the GM204 cards are def coming AMD or not.
September 10th or 11th is when it all goes down. Fingers crossed it will be 10x better than the event today

17 days left

 

Apple event is on the 9th I think. They are supposed to reveal something no one is guessing. Watch them come out of nowhere with their own dedicated GPU for their systems. They have all the money in the world to find it. It would drive their newer more dense retina displays, and get more market share. I mean it's 99.9 percent not going to happen, but it would really put nvidia in the hot seat if apple made a GPU more powerful than their gpus. Apple is known for getting creative and doing crazy stuff. I just think it would be hilarious.

 

Never. Gonna. Happen.

Apple doesn't care about underpowered graphics.

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Considering how the laptop vs desktop market is evolving amd will not be bowing out of mobile. That and the current sweet spot match up of high mid end desktop chips with mobile high end.

 

I doubt Apple is ready to drop a billion USD into R&D.

 

I doubt Apple would develop their own GPU. They'd be more likely to contract Imagination Technologies to develop a new GPU rather than do it in house. Maybe they'd buy out Imagination or something, sort of like how the bought out PA Semi before developing the Swift uarch.

 

Except they have no experience with large desktop class chips. The last time they were in the market 3D fx were still around.

 

Back to the 980m...

I read that directx12 will have a 50 percent reduction in power consumer and 60 percent boost in fps. Could that be a big contributions factor to the 980m being a 40-50 percent performance increase or are they totally not related to each other? Sorry im still a noob

 

They are not related to each other. DX12's real-world performance boost won't be that great and all of Nvidia current DX11 GPU's--those being Fermi, Kepler, and Maxwell--will support DX12.

 

The boost is related to reducing CPU overhead. Therefore, if your performance is being limited by a slow CPU (I.e. most laptops) or if your GPU horsepower is ridiculous then you will notice a boost. It will not make the GPU faster if the bottleneck wasn't the CPU in the first place.

 

"Performance is being limited by a slow CPU (i.e. most laptops)". I don't think that's right, most laptops have comparatively good CPU's with underpowered GPU's, especially if you're talking modern Intel CPU's from Sandybridge onwards. GPU performance is where laptops are generally lacking.

 

Exactly, laptops have more than enough CPU, they lack GPU instead

 

Technically, the U and Y CPUs will severely bottleneck a top of the line GPU. But given that such combinations don't exist, laptop CPUs aren't a bottleneck. (well I suppose you could argue that the MSI GX60 which came with an AMD A10 and 7970M would be such an example)

Heck even a base quad core like the 4700MQ is equivalent to a desktop 4670K at stock.

 

I third that. Comparatively speaking, laptops have much stronger CPU's than GPU's.

 

Yes, the GX60 will be the only one, and a good one by the way, people with that laptop have reported doubled performance with Mantle

 

Clevo/Alienware 18 with Maxwell SLI will benefit from DX12 I think

 

The seeds of doubt are being sown in my head whether I really need an SLI Maxwell. I've been looking at the current offerings on the SLI front and they seem very lacklustre - for the UK it seems the only options I have are the Alienware 18; which looks great but is very expensive and would gobble up my budget in an instant (I desire plenty of SSD storage, I simply can't go back to HDD ever), or alternatively several options all based on Clevo chassis's; which are good but I'm looking for a more 'premium' build than my current Clevo this time around (better speakers, design etc.).

From what I've read, the MSI GT72 is looking a VERY attractive option for a better-than-Clevo build quality and cheaper-than-Alienware option, but it isn't an SLI machine and that fact's not gonna change after a 980M release.

I'm wondering if it makes more sense to keep some of the money I've stockpiled to invest in a future upgrade rather than opt for an SLI machine. Simply because it really does look as if I have only two options if I go the SLI route: Alienware or Clevo but stepping down to single-GPU territory options up more options from MSI and Asus.

 

I reckon if you decide to go with an sli model you should get a model that you feel is premium, because you'll be likely keeping it for nearly twice as long as a single GPU machine - by virtue of the fact that you have nearly double the performance, so the future proofing is better. If you're getting sli I wouldn't compromise on the rest of the experience - like aesthetics, screen & keyboard, build quality, warranty, reliability. I'd also recommend getting basic drives & upgrading with your own super-duper SSD's (same would go for RAM if base amounts aren't enough), so as to keep costs down (although customisation options with alienware are limited nowadays).

 

Yeah I feel the same way, which is why the Alienware 18 seems to be the only option for a future 980M SLI notebook with 'premium' build quality. And yet popping over to Alienware's website today shows me that an AW18 with i7-4910MQ/880M SLI combo is £3,008.99, the i7-4810MQ/880M SLI combo is £2,858.98, while a i7-4710MQ/880M SLI combo is £2,488.99 - all with the base 1TB 5400RPM HDD & 80GB mSATA SSD. Those higher configs leave barely any spare cash for buying a separate high capacity SSD with my ~£3000 budget and the lower config may prove to be bottlenecked by the CPU - when substituting 880M for a hypothetical stronger 980M (perhaps DX12 will resolve that issue).

I'm sorry that this question is off topic but: are there any actual non-Clevo based alternatives to the Alienware 18 out there? In terms of the SLI, not the display size. Are there likely to be any by the time 980M arrives? Any rumours of upcoming options that I'm not aware of?

 

Out of those 3 I'd buy the base config, the CPU performance difference is negligable whereas the cost difference is not. And can't you overclock the the 4710MQ by a couple of bins in the BIOS anyway?

 

I would go with the base config as well but don't forget you never have to pay the sticker for Alienware laptops. Only last month I got my 17 for £1790 which was £240 under the price on the site and with the instant savings of £300 made it £530 under the RRP! When you've got the specs you want open up a live chat and see what you can get taken off you really will be surprised how much wiggle room they have.

 

Yes haggling can be effective, especially when purchasing a machine as premium as an Alienware. If you have good interpersonal skills, I actually suggest doing it over the phone. Here are some tips: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/456885-aw-dell-ordering-advice-how-save.html

 

ROFLMAO this gotta be the most hilarious thread on this forum

 

Yep, I'm laughing all the way to the bank.

 

That thread is hilarious

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I find it a bit strange that Nvidia is the only one making a new architecture on 28nm.
AMD is apparantly waiting for 20nm next year before releasing their new architecture.
AMD's Future GPU Architecture Code Name Leaked - Faraway Islands Features 20nm And Coming Next Year

Not sure if I should laugh or cry. Or if we all have been trolled and the upcoming GPUs are 20nm and not 28nm.

 

Shouldn't be much longer now. We'll know soon enough.