Buy 6990 now or wait for Mobility Radeon HD 7000?

I'm looking at a new gaming laptop and really tempted by the 6990, but I keep reading that the 7xxx series is right around the corner. Does anybody have any ideas as to release date? If I buy the laptop now can I upgrade to a 7xxx later on (most likely I will buy a Malibal Satori with whatever graphics card I end up choosing).

 

If you need to buy now, buy now. The 7000's "right around the corner" are probably several months away from being available in notebooks, not to mention that they will likely be an incremental bump in performance above the 6990m. There's always some bump in performance every 3-4 months.

 

The 7000s are going to use a 28nm process and new VLIW4 architecture (think of Intel's tick and tock combined into one) iirc so it should be a pretty big jump in both performance and effiency (i.e. battery life).

Unless you need a new notebook immediately, I would wait it out until sometime in Q1 2012 when the 7xxx chips are going to be out.

 

you're in for a long wait, so am i!

 

The 6990M was released only a couple months after I purchased my NP-8170, and for the same price as my 6970M, and believe me I did get a little bit of GPU envy. At first I wanted to sell my 6970M and buy a 6990M, but I'm more content with waiting for the 7000 series now.

If you can stand to wait, then just wait, as you will be getting what you actually want. If you need something now, get it now. Remember that there is always the next better piece of hardware just around the corner, and you could be playing the waiting fame for an awfully long time.

 

My biggest thing is if I buy the 6990 will I be able to upgrade to a 7000 later on. As in, will they still be using MXM 3.0?

 

You might be in for a long wait. It's unsure whether AMD will be able to fulfill its promise of delivering the first desktop 7000 by the end of the year. That leads mobile GPUs further away from launch let alone store availability.

Let's say mobile 7000 chips are released around march / april with Ivy Bridge ; you'll have to wait until at least July to have a decent choice of notebooks. In the laptop world supply almost always sucks for the first 3/4 months following the launch of new stuff and the premium is high while you can get excellent value on a broader choice of "outdated" tech.

 

It also depends on just how much of an improvement the 7000 series will bring over the 6990M.
While I will agree the performance difference will be there, but I don't think it will be a radical departure (for that I might wait for the 8000 series).

 

7000 series is supposed to be Q1 2012 so that can be almost half year away in a worst case scenario assuming the leaked info is correct.

Those release times are based on the desktop chips at that so no telling how long till it hits mobile. Then lets hope they dont do like Nvidia did and just overclock an old card and rename it to the new series

Overall the 7000 should bring a lot to the table its a full new series and new tech not just a updated version of the current series, worth the wait is something only you can decide based on need, and funds. A new card may very well cost more and often they do not release the top models in mobile for quite a while only the mid ranged cards extending the wait even longer.

All said it could be a full year give or take before the high end 7000 series is in a laptop.

 

Only the integrated 7000 series graphics on Trinity APU is officially VLIW4, the discrete line-up is believed to be based on the new GCN architecture with possibly a few 40nm VLIW4 GPU filling out the lower ranks.


The mobile 7000 series will start launching at CES as usual, but it's been suggested that the ultra high-end card, that beats the HD6990M, will come later in Q2 2012. The HD7800M cards (codename: Heathrow) may match the performance of the HD6990M but as Vicious said it may be close to a year before you get to buy a notebook with a top of the line HD7900M (codename: Wimbledon).

 

i highly doubt highend 7xxx notebook chips will be out before 2012 q1. i just wish desktop chips will arrive then.

 

The newer 7000 cards have much less power consumption at similar performance of current cards. The high end cards (the 7900s) will use the new GCN architecture.

For GPUs, I am willing to bet they will release something near the 1408sp versions for the absolute high end, as with lower clocks and current expeted power consumption, will be enough to fit the big notebooks without problems. I expect the HD6990 equivalent to drop a tad bit enough in temps and power consumption to be used easily on 15 inchers.

I am waiting for the HD7000 series mostly because I am still rather happy with my Hd5870m and it is very expensive to get an Hd6970/90 so I might as well wait for the HD7000 and see what it brings.

 

Feel free to join me for the "waiting for 2013" Haswell club.

 

If you can wait for the 7000 Radeons, maybe wait for the 8000 Radeons, and perhaps even the 9000 Radeons.

My point being, I played the Sandy Bridge waiting game and regret it. Sure, I have a fast CPU which I love, but waiting from Dec. to April (recall) wasn't wroth it in my opinion. Missing out on 5 months without an able computer is a long time; in your case could be longer.

 

It depends on whether you actually need the new system NOW or can wait until Ivy Bridge comes out.

IB will be better compared to SB in a couple of things: It will be of slightly higher performance and on a lower manuf. process which will reduce temps and probably increase efficiency somewhat (though don't expect drastic changes).
The 7000 AMD series might be worth waiting for if the thing will incorporate both newest architecture and noticeably higher performance gains.

Though if you need a gaming laptop now, then there is no reason to delay.
Getting a high-end laptop today will likely serve you well for the next 3 years (quite possibly 4 - depending on the games you play and settings used in said games).

 

Codenames "Heathrow and Wimbledon" does no one else find that amusing!

 

stop changing the subject to cpus. new gen cpus dont show nearly as much improvement in performance as new gen gpus do.

moving from yorkfield to bloomfield yield a max 10% gain in fps. but moving from 4870 to 5870 showed much much more improvement.

 

at some point you have to bite the bullet.
If not, you will be in a perpetual state of waiting

 

If by any chance you were referring to my post, I was only implying that the 7000 series will likely be released with Ivy Bridge and Trinity laptops, and if you also check my post I hadn't said that it will result in huge performance boosts.
15% to 25% for Haswell maybe due to the new architecture... though IB by itself will be only a bump in speed and a lower manuf. process.
Most games benefit from the GPU, but a lot of them require decent cpu's as well.

 

Ivy bridge doesn't matter for gaming. Even the older i7820 is more than enough. The 6990s are perfect for ANYTHING out today AND tomorrow. Stop waiting. The high end 7 series mobile will be in laptops around June. That's a long wait. Pointless. Get the 6990s, enjoy them, then when the 7 series start to lower in price upgrade if you need to. This is all MOOT when new Consoles hit (sans nintendo) as games are primarily built around consoles and even PC's with quad cores and CF graphics of 2011 play "comparably well" to the console versions. Right now is a sweet spot to buy a gaming laptop as new consoles don't arrive anytime soon and there is no game out that the 6990CF can't swallow. The waiting game is worthless if you are talking 8 months out.

Honestly, don't mean to be blunt, but if people are debating waiting 8 months for a new computer they need NOW (as in games arent playing right or they dont even have a gaming computer)..then they can't afford them. These are a luxury for the most part and you have to pay to play. That simple. Buy what you CAN afford and enjoy it. If you are waiting to future proof, you will be sadly letdown as there is not always something better around the corner; there are also times where laptops don't quite even cut it at the high end...particularly early/mid console life.

With that said, the 7 series high end will be a very nice increase in performance; probably about the difference between 5870 and 6990. But 8 months of lost gaming is worth a LOT of money to me; the question is what about you?

 

I agree, if you don't have something now that is holding you over, then go ahead and buy now. I'm holding out for 2013 and the Haswell platform, but that is only because my 5870M is playing 95% of the current games at high settings and I should be able to last another year. If you buy a 6990 machine today, you should be good to wait for the 2014 or 2015 models.