GTX 980M / 970M Maxwell (Un)official news

P34Gv2 cooling is more than efficient, last model has upgraded battery (lasts 5 hours now easily on 60%-70% brightness) + HD Slot too
860m Maxwell peaked at high 60 during full load and cpu did run hot but was not throttling and fans was still not running at max speed.

GS60+RB has cooling issues, A part of why p34gv2 was doing great because it has maxwell GPU, something RB+GS60 didnt have
P34GV2 has other issues though

- Track bad was not that good and Keyboard does flex a bit
- No Subwoofer/optical out and speakers were decent but not that great
- No 144hz output only hdmi and vga out if you want to connect to external screen

As you notice main issue was outputs digital sound+144hz if you don't care p34gv3 would be perfect for you

Sure it didnt look as good as others but it was
1-lightest one of all even with HD+SSD+Battery in it was only 1.76KG
2-better battery life than most (the model with upgraded battery)
3-Runs cool

These 3 reasons are pretty much the reason why people want a laptop, aka portability you can't beat its weight/running cool/battery

Razerblade looks cool but besides that it has so many issues

- No ethernet or SD card and less usb slots vs others
- resolution is ridicules for a 14 , Windows scaling sux and you can't game at that resolution, gimme 1080p ips instead
- MAX OUT at 8 GB ram lol...
- No HD slot and 1 SSD slot only, need at least 2 SSD or ssd+hd for me
- Runs hot and noisy
- Overpriced for what it's offering


When these companies refresh their line up Razerblade might get stronger and will be cooler aka less heat/noise but if it others issues remain i'll remove it from my list
For me it will be one of the new laptops (Asus gx500/refreshed a14?/etc if were good) or GS60 VS P34GV3 if GS60 fixed its fans setup (GS60 CPU can only access 1 fan which sux if you video edit/browse/etc none gaming since it gets nosier/hotter than it needs to be )




What are guys planning to get when these laptops are refreshed?

 

My dealings with MSI support have been great. I think their days of poor support are behind them.

 

So far, the GS60 with 970m is still my first choice. I like the added durability of the aluminum chassis, and the included accidental damage warranty gives me a bit more reassurance for when I'm traveling.

From those images, it looks like MSI could tweak the mobo to get the heat pipes to line up, and have something closer to the Gigabyte design, which I admit I do like a lot.

 

What are guys planning to get when these laptops are refreshed?

Over the past few months, I've ordered, received, trialed for at least 7 days, and returned the following laptops:
1) RB 14
2) MSi Ghost Pro
3) Gigabyte p35w v2
4) Aorus X3 plus

($50 Premier Membership to Newegg - free returns on RMA's. Best $50 I've ever spent )

To be honest, my favorite was definitely the RB. As a long time rMBP user, I found it's keyboard, trackpad and utilities to be very intuitive. Yes, the DPI scaling is a PITA, but you can work your way around that. However, the other detractors you mentioned (8gb RAM - w.t.f.?, minimal ports, small SSD, etc) made it a tough sell. I was ok with all of that till I got it home. Loved it, loved the screen, graphics, everything - then I started gaming and I thought a C-130 was taking off. Few minutes later I could've cooked an egg on it, WITH a cooling pad being used. So, I'm hoping that with the new GPU in there it will get it down to *reasonable* temps and noise. Fully understating we're not at *perfection* yet, but if they can get it under control, that will be my choice. If not, MSi was my second fav and will likely go with that one.

Which one are you leaning most heavily towards?

 

Definitely the GS60, hoping a 970m update will be available when I'm ready to buy in early October. The P35 would be a contender if it had an aluminum chassis for added durability.

 

Can you please list what you didn't like about each of mentioned laptops besides RB issues you mentioned? the X3 did look great on paper never tried it
For me leaning toward P34GV2 the most (Best cooling/lowest weight/great battery/so its the most portable of all mentioned laptops)
RB and GS60 looks way better than p34gv2 and I would assume RB/GS60 has much better resale value (Gigabyte not that popular)
RB to me is a big NO for reasons i mentioned but G60 interests me the most currently if heat issues were resolved and they linked the CPU to the second fan.

 

For sure. Here's what I found, personally, that I liked/disliked about each:

MSi Ghost Pro:
Enjoyed:
- 3K screen
- Multi light functional keyboard
- Size (my preference is 15", another knock on the RB)
- Design factor (chassis is solid and well put together)
- Speakers
- SSD and RAM upgradeability (16gb and lots of choices on HD and SSD)
Disliked:
- Trackpad (I am a rMBP snob, I'm well aware of this, but MSi had one of the least enjoyable trackpads of the ones I tried, imho. It's "grainy" if that makes sense - not good responsiveness and multi finger gestures struggle)
- Keyboard layout - not a fan of enlarged keyboard with numpad on a 15" model. Would rather have more space and larger keys than the numpad
- Heat/noise - not the loudest or hottest (that belonged to the RB), but still above what I would consider my "comfort" zone
- Bloatware. Holy crap the bloatware. 2 hours of my life removing it all that I'll never get back
- Power brick - big and heavy. While most machines this size will have that issue, the RB's brick is small and light, +1 to RB

p35w v2:
Enjoyed:
- Great track pad - tied with RB for use of pad itself, but gets the nod over the RB because the buttons are added into the pad itself, whereas the RB has two actual "buttons" on theirs at the bottom (who does that in 2014?)
- Size was good, very similar to MSi Ghost Pro, easily transportable and light weight
- Next to zero bloatware and what they did include was actually usable
- Manual fan control (albeit it just OFF, AUTO or TURBO) - still nice to have some control over that
- Ability to auto lock WIN Key from software, no need to access BIOS
- SSD and RAM upgradeability (16gb and lots of choices on HD and SSD)
Disliked:
- Screen (1080p Matte). Got spoiled by the MSi and Razer screens (and of course, my rMBP). Yes, it's a bummer to have to scale down to lower res on the 3k and 4k screens, but in my opinion, even at the lower res and lower FPS, they still look better than the 1080p screens (again, totally my opinion and I know some people will 150% disagree with me on that)
- Power Brick - huge. Biggest of the 4
- Heat and noise were the *best* of the 4, but still louder and hotter than I had hoped for. However if this is a deciding factor (which it is for a lot of people), this will be the choice for many
- Not the most pleasing notebook to look at. I'm cool with it not being all "bling-bling" but this one is about vanilla as it gets
- No wireless AC - only b/g/n (believe this can be upgraded, however Newegg only sells "as is" models)
- Same keyboard design as MSi (with numpad) that I'm not a fan of
- Monster keyboard flex, especially near left side and middle (did a lot of research on this and apparently it is on all of them, not just a bad unit that I received. Google it and you'll see the keyboard is made of just one thin piece of aluminum which flexes more than Hans and Frans from Saturday Night Live)
- Speakers - sounded like crap (was better with earphones)
- Chasis - aluminum on top, plastic on bottom. Meh.

Aorus X3+:
Enjoyed:
- Super sleek design - looks like a stealth bomber, but nothing gaudy; perfect size to carry around, really light
- Screen - great resolution like RB and MSi
- Lack of bloatware (Aorus is made by Gigabyte so it has the same useful programs the p35w v2 has - fan control, WIN key lock, etc)
- SSD and RAM upgradeability (16gb and lots of choices on HD and SSD)
- Chasis - all aluminum build, very solid
- Ports - for a 13.9" laptop, this one has it all - plenty of ports
- Macro keys (5 of them on left side with multiple configuration options, both in game and for general use. Also can be color coordinated; adds nice touch to the white back lite keyboard)
Disliked:
- Speakers - like the p35w v2, just not good
- Heat/Noise - should've put this comment with the p35w v2 as well. The fan throttles up to it's "max" settings whenever the CPU gets to 90c or higher. It will run that high till it drops 5 degrees. Problem is, the lag time between running 90c and 85c is like, 4 minutes. So the fans are constantly running super loud, then medium loud. The back and forth started to give me a nervous twitch after a while. Other than that the heat was bearable, much like the p35
- Trackpad. It's glass. Best way to describe is that it's like the face of an iPhone. I just wasn't feeling it. Was like my fingers kept getting "stuck" on the glass surface. Responsiveness was good, but I just couldn't get used to it
- Screen size - know it's listed at 13.9", but I swear it felt a lot smaller then the RB, which is listed at 14". I must be getting old
- Power brick - again big and heavy. If RB can make a small PB for a larger laptop with less specs, Aorus should be able to as well
- Keyboard flex here as well, although not as bad as the p35w v2; mostly contained to center of keyboard

Think that about covers it. As someone else was saying in an earlier thread, wish we could pick and choose certain components from each machine and put it together in a custom laptop. Someone on here should start that company (looking at you HT, Cloud, n-1 etc.

 

I'll wait for the X3/X3 plus. Really loved the design just like my Asus G46vw. I'm only lokking at 13-14 gaming rigs with aluminum body and only Razer and Aorus fits the bill. Unfortunately the Razer having no SD card is the deal breaker for me. Hopefully when the X3 is refreshed it'll have Broadwell/Maxwell combo for less heat issue

 

X3/X3 plus just released 2 months ago, I don't think they will refresh its model that quick~ at least til early next year.
But for the Aorus X7, I think the V3 will come out soon just like they released the V2 about 6 months after the V1 model, hopefully we can see it in Oct/Nov

 

Thank you for the update Trigger10
As expected and same cons/pros i listed pretty much, Gigabyte has best noise/heat ratio, best portability in size and weight but has annoying keyboard flex, speakers nothing special and laptop itself looks not as good as RB/GS60/etc it looks cheap/boring

Regrading msi 3K screen its not really a con since they also offer 1080p option for those who wants it

 

I've just got an x3+, and I love it. I may however return it just because of these new gpu's. If it got refreshed soon, I would certainly buy the x3+ again.

 

Haha, man have you tried those? They're mostly terrible. MS needs to give us the option to completely disable Metro UI and its tiles. Plain and simple.

 

They built the OS around tablet users and windows tablets ended up not being popular, should have built it as desktop mainly and after thought add on mini os for tablet users instead

 

Yep I have , I use start is back , I don't even come into contact with the metro UI anymore lol but that's my opinion but something is better than nothing.

 

I bought StartIsBack as well. It doesn't kill Metro, just hides most of it. It makes Windows 8 less terrible but wasn't enough to stop me from switching back to 7.

 

It's a good first step into this mobile card range.

Battery life is important and i know nvidia will fine tune this even more next year so i am certainly looking forward to next years mobile cards but sadly its not a big enough jump for me from my gtx 770m. I was expecting the 980m to be the same as gtx 780 but looks to be quite weaker so still lacking on the mobile side of things.

 

980M is equal to 2x 780m in sli what are you talking about lol all of that while running much cooler and use less watts aka higher battery life.

 

I'm willing to wait for it though

 

Are You joking?
Look at the score! Remember it is test result from Extreme preset!
980M is almost as good as desktop R9-290! Which is faster than desktop GTX780!
When You are currently running on 770M, its like times 4 faster!!!
Had to put exclamation marks all over the place!

 

Strange reply... How could 980m be weaker than 780m anyway man? It is a bigger number lol.

April fools in September? A bit too late.....

 

he was comparing the GTX980 M to the GTX 780 (desktop), I think.

 

Still doesn't make a sense 980m is almost identical in performance to desktop 780 and if you look at the op photo nvidia claim "desktop performance in laptops" for a reason.

 

Firestrike Extreme:
GTX 980M: 4300 (Graphic score)

GTX 780: 4550 (-6%)
GTX 770: 3600 (+20%)
GTX 770M SLI: 3200 (+35%)
GTX 770M: 1700 (+155%)

 

Some interesting things I'm discovering about my shinning new 970 GTX, I'm getting better performance in Diablo 3 while drawing equal power wattage from the wall to my 860m laptop if I limit graphics of GPU to match the laptop. Really is nice seeing my desktop using so low wattage , ofcourse tho if i pump up setting to full blast it draws considerably more but good to know it's SOOOO efficent!

Temps barely breaking 50c

 

That's pretty damn crazy that a Mobile chip is very close to a Desktop 780 and a R290 so impressive. I own this one AnandTech Portal | Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC Review: Our First Custom Cooled 290

Mobile Hitman Absolution Ultra Settings 1920x1080 60 FPS + sign me up

 

Very interesting

I think most gamers with GTX 980M (or 970 for that matter) would greatly benefit from using a FPS cap at 60 or 70FPS. Due to the power of the cards, they will downclock a lot but it will still be smooth cause its at 60FPS on a 60Hz monitor anyway. You will get a much cooler and quiet notebook this way.

A win-win situation due to the efficiency of Maxwell

Yeah it should do 1080p Ultra gaming just fine. Nvidia even wrote in the slides "Beyond 1080p gaming".
This time their marketing is spot on, and it have come to a point where Nvidia offer a GPU that is "too powerful" for our 1080p displays. 120Hz displays and DSR seems to be the way to go this time

 

Can you see the difference? i know I did

Crysis 3, 1080p
<iframe width='560' height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/BbI6_BbpTjE" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>


Crysis 3, 4K on a 1080p display using DSR
<iframe width='560' height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8PRk6ID_iG4" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

The difference is immediately apparent. Wow.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

Maxwell have never been so tempting like now. Gonna need one beastly machine to play Cysis3 on 4K. But just look at the difference!

 

I'm particularly intrigued by Big Maxwell, it may be able to fully replace my Crossfire AMD 290s for half the power consumption and absolute silence. I'm ready to move back to NVIDIA, AMD's feature set disparity (e.g. lack of advanced SSAA modes, Ambient occlusion, global illumination etc) and lack of granular control of the drivers is getting old.

 

Anyone have any more links or laptops they can add to this list so we can start per-ordering this week?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...ad-only-where-find-your-next-laptop-asap.html

 

God Damn It... STOP SPAMMING THAT THEARD !

 

any benchmarks of the GTX 970m in SLI? Thinking about getting the Auros and want to see how these mobile Maxwell cards perform in dual.

 

What
Someone managed to get their hands on a 980M and 970M laptop? Nice, but I really hope it's true!

 

REALLY! Astrongtower is spamming his own thread, LOL! This reminds me of an excited little kid, constantly jumping up & down....... because he has to PEE really bad, but he's afraid if he leaves to go pee, he'll miss something. PLEASE!

Once embargos and NDA's are lifted, all speculations can finally be put to rest, and resellers will begin pre-orders soon enough.

 

It's considered bad forum etiquette in general to spam the same thread over and over again. Those interested are already aware of it. On top of that, this kind of behavior usually has a deterrent effect on people, they'll be less inclined to check the thread and post in it because of the aforementioned bad forum etiquette attached to it. It's a forum board, it isn't twitter and such. Enough of our members have complained about this to the mod team to warrant a reply on our part.

Also, if the thread is of interest, it should be able to stand on its own merit without having to be continually linked. There will be solid info available soon enough anyways.

 

Bad forum etiquette... I'm pretty sure in bat forums this etiquette is acceptable with all the shrieking noises.

 

Let's make Bat forum etiquette a thing! You know, like pwn and other intervenes phrases!

But in all seriousness, it is fate. One of my GTX 780Ms dies the day the 980m is announced...

 

I was indeed comparing the 980m to the gtx 780.

I must say though the replies gave me massive amounts of laughs.

 

Well I've resorted to using HOLY FARTING BATMAN in lieu of <del>more direct</del> "unacceptably vulgar" language. *ahem*

Sorry about your 780M On the bright side, the 980M will spanking the living bat out of it

 

Hey Lads,

Since i was just about to pull a trigger on ghost pro, but got on hold due to possible introducion of 9xx series in near future i decided to ask local MSI subsidiary directly about the GS60 and 970m (if/when/pricing).

I did not expect any answer other than "sorry, we cant provide you with any info..." but instead i got something that would translate into english as follows:

"Hello,
The GS60 with the 970m GPU will be available on our market as soon as nvidia officially introduce the 970m/980m."

As far as I'm informed, official introduction is planned for 8.10.2014 so i guess i can w8 a bit more

Best,
F.

Ps. I after getting such answer i also asked for possible models like FHD+970m or 3k+970m only but this time i did not get any info

 

Bah, i've just realised that i messed up threads (wanted to post in gs pro ot) but still you may also be interested in my post so let it be

 

Your 780M failed? Man is this just the time for epic hardware failures? My 880s went kaput on Friday.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

Idk what is true on this but I found it at the another forum:

3DMark Fire Strike GPU Results of the new Maxwell GPU :

Desktop
GTX 980 (3 results) - 12328, 12847, 13005
GTX 970 - 10282
Comparison :
GTX 780 Ti (2 results) - 11096(928/1750), 12702(1150/750)
GTX Titan - 10375
GTX 780 - 10008

Mobile
GTX 980M - 9364
GTX 970M - 7403
Comparison :
GTX 880M - 5980
GTX 870M - 4697

Summary of the mobile GPU :
GTX 980M is almost as fast as the desktop GTX 780
GTX 970M is almost as fast as the desktop GTX 770

 

If you add possible lower temps than 870/880m to this huge performance boost you get a gpu worth w8ing for
I cant w8 to get mine (hopefully this year, not 2015...)

 

well I will rather wait to year 2015 for Broadwell CPUs for longer battery life during Word/Excel things so I hope MSI GSv3 will be there in February or March

 

I think Trigger10 and I are living parallel lives. I've tested all the same laptops and have pretty much the same opinions except I put the gs60 a hair above the RB. I like the scaling with a 3k on a 15" a little more than 4k on a 14". I think 3k gaming with a 970M will be more feasible as well.

 

I am not planning to buy 3K version of GS60 ... In my opition 3K in 15.6" is ridiculous, 1080p is enough ... maybe I will buy a new 27" 3K display but I am still okay with my 27" FHD

 

DirectX 12 will be here soon check the link:-

Maxwell and DX12 Delivered