Current budget has me at 960M now, how will Pascal change that?

Hi,

My 5-year-old laptop (specs in sig) died recently and I've been considering replacing it. I have a desktop so it's more of a want than a need, but I would like a new one; I just don't know when we'll replace it (hoping within the next few months, maybe take advantage of holiday sales).

That being said, my budget is about $800 give or take $100, but could maybe be talked into going up a little more (I don't know if I can get away with more than $1000). My understanding is that puts me at the GTX 960M being my best option. I had been looking at the HP Pavilion (17.3" version, as that's the size I want) because with coupons it is good specs for the price. However I was made aware of the new Pascal coming out and was advised that waiting might be better.

I want to preface this by saying that other than the little research I have done today/yesterday I have little knowledge/experience about the performance and price trends of GPUs, so please forgive my ignorance.

So my questions are: How do you think the release of the Pascal line would affect my GPU choices? Clearly a 1060M would be better than the 960M, but how will it compare in price? Will it be within my budget? Will it bring other currently more powerful out-of-budget cards like the 970M into my budget range? If I was hoping to buy a laptop by the end of this year or so would these card availability/prices have taken effect yet, or will I have to wait longer?

On a side note, I considered upgrading the i5 to i7 and FHD to UHD for about $150 more (with coupons). In your opinion is that worth it, or not really? I tend to play older games, but also like to play some new games as well, like Starcraft 2, Civ V, Heroes of the Storm, and Star Wars Battlefront. I consider myself a casual/moderate gamer.

Thanks.

 

We're less than two weeks away from the announcement of mobile Pascal GPU's. You should just wait until mid-August. It'll be worth it.

Should be available for purchase by the end of August or early September.

 

We don't know, it may be a desktop 1060 instead of a 1060m (fairly likely) but that could drive the cost up. So no one can tell you yet.

 

pascal will most likely not change anything for your budget, since the upcoming 1060 mobile is actually a 970M successor (thus prices will be accordingly higher than for a 960M successor). lower-tier pascal mobile gpus will take quite a while to be released, according to @Prema

 

So best option is to wait for 1060 to come out and get an older 970M laptop

 

That's the kind of thing I'm wanting to know. So you think the 1060M will drop the 970M into my price range?

 

Depends on how long you can wait, as any of the new cards won't be available before September (they'll just get announced in early-mid August). Eventually, sure, the price for 'outdated' tech comes down really quickly.

 

I don't know for sure when we're buying, but my current guess is going to be late Fall (like November/December-ish). Can we expect some price drops by then?

 

960m can be found anywhere from 700 to 1000dlrs machines. 970m can be found at 1kdlrs.

960m is very underpowered compared to any of the upper released models. A mid range pascal of the same TDP might offer a healthy 70% boost. Forget names because it may not be called 1060 at all for mobile.

you can probably expect something between 970m and 980m for the successor of 960m, provided nvidia is not overly greedy and releases an underpowered mobile variant.

 

Christmas/new year is generally a good time to buy tech, as stores compete particularly heavily and often offer nice discounts during that time.

You could also buy a used notebook from someone who's upgrading to Pascal, I'm sure once the new gen is released many people will sell their "old" machines (that are still pretty new). Check out the NBR Marketplace sometimes. I bought a used K5000M there recently (as my 680M died), which will hopefully last until I upgrade myself.

 

You should wait and get a new pascal laptop but if the price for the laptop is out level your budget then get a maxwell laptop is not too bad.

 

I would wait if you're on a limited budget.

However, I picked up the laptop in my SIG for $999 (plus tax) at my local Micro Center just a couple weeks ago. It's a great laptop that would last you at least a couple of years at 1080p gaming with decent settings and maybe another year with reduced settings. I would imagine even GTX 1060/70 laptops that release in the near future will be more than your budget allows. I'm planning to wait and see prices of Pascal laptops as well as performance differences before I decide to sell this new one and grab a Pascal laptop. My main motivation was something that can play BF1 at 1080p medium and the 960m I had previously was just not going to cut it.

I figure I'll go ahead and link you a few laptops that are serioulsy great deals at the moment and the one I purchased.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/466732/ROG_G751JT-WH71(WX)_173_Gaming_Laptop_Computer_-_Black -- Still a great processor and a 970m, IPS display and G-Sync for $999! If I didn't mind carrying this laptop around I would have purchased this. G-Sync is amazing.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/...4_156_Gaming_Laptop_Computer_-_Aluminum_Black --The one I purchased for $999. Good Skylake quad core CPU that hasn't held me back at all. 970m again, GREAT IPS display, although not G-Sync like the above laptop. I also upgraded the RAM and WiFi.

 

1070 = 980M replacement
1060 = 970M replacement
1050 = 960M replacement

 

Yes, wait for the new Pascal notebooks. They are rumoured to display massive performance increase over their Maxwell counterparts.

 

...aaand 1080 = 980 replacement ^^

Sent from my Huawei Mate 8 NXT-AL10

 

So does that mean my budget will be priced to get me a 1050M?

It sounds like waiting is certainly a good idea. I just hope "waiting" means 2-3 months, not 6-8 months.

 

Well, mid- and lower end cards tend to be released after the high end ones... I read some people say they expect mid end mobile cards to be released in October.

 

Well save more for 2-3 months and get a better laptop.. I know yours is old but hold for longer

 

Well, it's not so much an issue of how much money we have to spend on it, it's more about how much money we should spend on it, especially considering that it's really a want rather than a need. And I'm cheap. I just find it hard to spend much more than $800 when we have a decent desktop already (i5 4430, 8 GB RAM [which I plan to upgrade to 16 GB soon], and GTX 760) and lately haven't needed 2 computers at once a whole lot, although that can change.

As for my current laptop, it's... it's.... it's DEAD Well, I bought it nearly 5 years ago to the day, and it died just under 3 weeks ago, so it lasted a little more than 4 years and 11 months, which is pretty good. It was starting to get obsolete and unable to handle the newer games.

 

Your budget may put you in the range of a used or manufacturer refurbished 1060M laptop (from eBay or something), if you need one now, now, now. You could also save up for another month or two and buy a new one. You're literally $200-$300 away from 1060M laptop range. The cheapest 1060M laptop should be around $1100-$1199.

Prices will decrease significantly after a few months of being out, especially before the holiday season.

 

I don't need one now, I can wait. So you're under the impression that 1060M laptops will be released in the next couple months, and might decrease by late November/December for the holidays? I can wait until then. When I said "2-3 months rather than 6-8" I was thinking Christmas was closer than it actually was. That being said, I don't want to wait until January/February.

 

Just curious where did you get that price information? The current leaks show the 1060m laptop will start at $1700, same price as 970m at releasing.

 

Those are the "desktop" 1060 prices, not the 1060M.

 

Watch for sales, sales are everywhere...


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HP dv7t 6100-CTO | 2nd gen. Intel i5-2410M (2.3 Ghz) | 17.3" FHD Anti-glare LED 1920x1080 display | 6GB DDR3 RAM | 500GB HDD (7200 rpm) | 1GB Radeon HD 6770M GDDR5 | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

 

we have Pascal Mobile-gpu and normal gpu for laptop??

 

Some laptops will be outfitted with the desktop variants, and some not.

 

Just nVidia making things more complicated for notebook buyers.

 

I'm exactly put at the same situation as yours.
I own a 2011 Acer Aspire 5750 multimedia laptop (back then). It lasted 5 years and 2 months and it is still working, although extremely obsolete for even opening multiple tabs in Chrome.

Right now I have a budget of 1000-1100$-ish. I'm not sure whether I should buy a fully equipped laptop from MSI (the GE62 with the i7 6700HQ, GTX960M, 16GB of DDR4 and an HDD+SSD sounds like a great pick) or just wait more for the release of Pascal GPUs. The unfortunate thing about me is the fact I move a lot, so no Desktop around to depend on.

If anyone can advise me on whether I should wait, while increasing my budget and going for a 6th year with this junk, or just spend my cash for a properly fast laptop for daily tasks and light gaming, I would highly appreciate it. Thank you!

 

I'm the one seeking advice (the OP of the thread), but from the responses I've gotten in this thread it looks like the wait will be worth it if playing games on your laptop is important to you. I have the advantage that I have a reliable desktop to use in the mean time, but it seems like the new Pascal cards are right around the corner. I've been closely watching the Pascal news thread and from there it seems literally days or weeks away from becoming available.

I'll let the experts here give you more information, though, as they are sure to have a heck of a lot better insight than I would on the availability/pricing of the new Pascal laptops.

 

Thanks for the reply!
I went through this entire thread and the answers were not quite "that satisfying" for me to make a decision. The prices of the laptops with the Pascal GPUs are still unknown (although the very first 1080M laptop is already out for pre-order, but it costs 2500$), and the release date of the mid-tier mobile Pascal GPUs is unknown too (Usually, the X50 and X60 make it to the market few months after their high end variants). I'm not even quite sure if this laptop can last few more months, it might even die on me while I'm waiting. And that would be really troublesome!

I decided I'll stick around until August 15th (MSI will reveal their "Next gen Notebooks"). If the release dates are still too much for this laptop to handle, I think I'll just go with the 960M.

 

Yeah, because of all the uncertainty I was not fully satisfied at first, then things got more clear that Pascal would be worth the wait. It might be different for you since it's your only computer, though. Waiting until August 15th sounds like a good idea, although the 19th is also rumored as an important day (like maybe when the non-disclosure agreement about the mobile GPUs ends). Hope your computer holds up until then. Do you have any sort of internet access in case you decide to wait 2 weeks but then the laptop dies on the 10th?

 

I should just slow down while using it and refrain from running photoshop and games (It lags a lot now, running heavy apps will cause it to overheat and BSOD after few minutes). I think I can help it survive for few weeks, but the problem here is, although the new mobile Pascal GPUs will be announced in, let's say August 20th, the laptops won't arrive nor sell here unless I wait for many months (Probably 3 or 4 months). Even if I wanted to settle it with this laptop and wait such period, it'll die on me while I'm working on it in school. It's really a shame buying a new laptop ASAP is a necessity for me. Otherwise I'd be more than happy to wait...

 

Yeah, if you need it that soon you probably should just buy one now. I have no idea how long after the announcements are made until we start to see them in production (that's a question for the experts, who don't seem to be noticing this thread at the moment). I hope it's not too long. According to what I've learned here, with a $1000-$1100 budget you should probably try to get a 970M though, it will be not be outdated as soon as the 960M will be. I personally am looking at 17" laptops, though, and have yet to see one for under $1k with a 970M. However, with a 15.6" you should find them in that range.

 

I forgot to mention I live in a 3rd world country (Morocco) where gaming laptops are a LOT more expensive than the same models in the US. A budget of 1100$ here would only get me a laptop with a 960M (however fully equipped with RAM and SSD), or a laptop with the 970M (Minus 8GB of RAM and SSD). My first concern for the laptop would be having an SSD since day one, so I can't afford buying the 970M and suffering slow boot times. I don't mind the 960M though!

 

You'll be okay with the 960m. You won't be able to play everything with max settinha though.

 

Yeah, my current gaming desires will most likely be just fine with a 960M, at least for the moment. That's the main issue, though: for now. I like to do higher settings, and I hope the laptop will last several years. A 960M will be fine now, but a couple years down the road I'm sure I'd regret not waiting for the similarly-priced Pascal (1050? 1040?).

On the other hand, if December comes around and the cheapest Pascal laptops are still $1200 or more even with sales/coupons (which I'm huge on), then I will probably regret not buying a 960M now.

 

Black Friday sales are usually a good time to buy.

 

Black Friday is certainly what I have in mind for a purchasing time. My brother-in-law says that the really good deals go very fast, though. On the other hand, that whole time is generally filled with sales/coupons; Black Friday is trending from becoming a single day to more of a season, at least online.

That's when I'm hoping to buy and I hope they are out by then.

 

Good deal. You can check out the link below if you want to get an idea of the FPS you can expect from a multitude of different GPUs on a large variety of games. The list of games go back to early 2000s if you look through the drop down box. Also, if you want to compare 2 or 3 GPUs, click the box next to each one and click restrict. Makes it easy.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html

 

760m still plays games..heck so does 660m what's wrong with 960m

 

That's definitely not wrong, but what about 3 or 4 years later? The 960M will fall to the 2nd class of GPUs and struggle running most games at "acceptable" settings. Bare minimum is a nuisance, right?

 

I don't know.. no one really does...I just about bought that small clevo with 860m.. now I'd guess it will be good for 2 more years...3 might be pushing it.. but in general mid range cards last 3 years. High end 4 years then resolution must be lowered

 

Sorry to double post but just look at the 6990m or 0ther cards 4 years ago and see if they run new games by checking YouTube

 

Depends on games you play. I only "just" bought laptops for my boys with 960m. I'm expecting it to last 3-4 years. Previously one had 650m and other some AMD GPU. Was getting more annoying for me to fix their problems than just buy them a new laptop. Except for a handful of demanding AAA games at 1080p it should manage just fine.

 

Sounds like you'll be waiting for 1050

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

Maybe you could grab a 980M now? Still able to run most title @ 1080p with decent fps depending on settings and optimization. The 980M is between the desktop 960 and 970, that's still some considerable performance. Unless you want to go for the absolute best I don't see any reason to rule out a 980M now, those Pascal machines are currently overpriced anyway

 

The thing is, if he can afford a 980M, he can afford a 1060 too. 1060 laptops are priced at the range of a 970M. Why would he get more expensive Maxwell machines if some Pascal are supposedly cheaper?

 

I figured that the Maxwell machines would have dropped considerably in prices now that Pascal are released. I don't think dealers are stupid enough to price a previous gen product same as a freshly released product.

and there's always the option for refurbished laptops taking tight budget into consideration

 

Your statement is 50% right.
While Maxwell machines will definitely drop in price, some laptops with the flagship maxwell 980M featuring an MXM slot won't drop, simply because they offer a feature barely existent in Pascal laptops.
But the point I'm wanting to make here is: As long as newer technologies and hardware generations exist, the latest tech will always provide a better performance/$. Simply put, you'll expect a new "performance norm" for a said price. At the moment, GTX 1060 laptops start from 1200$ all the way to 2000$ (depending on extras and features used), while you'll still find laptops with the 980M costing 2000 to 2500$, again depending on the features. GTX1060 however is 20-25% better. This shows how better performance can cost cheaper provided you are swapping to a new generation of GPUs. (The same will apply to Kaby Lake vs Skylake)

 

But the thing is in the technology world I think they do. My desktop has a i5 4430 in it and I got it for $180 back in April 2014. If I were to buy that same i5 4430 today it would cost $185. Why would anybody spend $185 on a 4th gen 4430 when you can get a 6th gen i5 6400 or 6500 for about the same price (the 6400 is cheaper than the 4430)? I'm not sure.

It makes sense for older technology to drop to make it compete with the new, but that doesn't seem to be the case as much as we'd think.