Good time to buy a gaming laptop?

I've currently got a £1500 budget for a gaming laptop. Mostly looking at PCspecialist and getting one with a 980m gtx. Obviously I don't want to rush things so I wanted to ask whether this is a good time to buy a new laptop or should I wait a bit longer for new graphic cards? If so when are new ones out? Are the current ones going out of date soon? Also mostly looking at Nvidia as I've had bad experiences with AMD.

Thanks!

 

Well, usually there's leaks of new mobile GPUs a couple of months in advance. Nothing has yet come up concerning a new flagship mobile GPU. I'd wager that 980M will keep top position for a good few months yet. We're looking at a mid-late summer release at the earliest for any replacement flagship. AMD are making their move around then, NVIDIA will most likely counter attack a few weeks/months later. As to what exactly it could be is anyone's guess at the moment, with no reliable rumours to go on. It could be a 2048 core GM204 chip, or it could be a rebranded, slightly higher clocked 1536 core GM204 chip - or anything in between.

In summary, I really doubt we'll be seeing anything until AMD make the first move with their 300 series. 980M is not that old and is still the undisputed top dog. No reason for NVIDIA to do anything until AMD force their hand. Of course, the OEMs will want a refreshed series for their marketing before the end of the year, but unless AMD has a deathwish I think that they will act before that happens.

Judging by the lack of any rumours whatsoever concerning new mobile GPUs from either AMD or NVIDIA, I think we have a minimum of a few more months before anything new is released and possibly not until late Autumn at the most.

 

The 980m is like a 1440p GPU in a 1080p system, before the DX12 bump. It is sure to keep you in console ports for quite a while.

 

I would wait Microsoft will be releasing windows x this year around late summer /fall it should be main stream and personally I rather wait for the new OS to release first then upgrade to avoid compatibility issues upgrading from older ones to newer. I rather have the system with the newest pre installed. Also new cpu's are expected around the same time such as broadwell so again waiting will give you a newer chipset. And also you mentioned graphics cards we may see new graphics cards around that time and that too should gain more performance.

The 980m/970m are powerful but nivida will more than likely up the core count and increase speeds and efficiency and may add new features on top of that. The 900m series was first released fall around October but earlier 7 and 800 series were released at different times like winter and spring so its not confirmed when to expect the 900 successors yet pal, but even without a gpu upgrade the other reasons like newer cpu's and winx os are enough to make me hold off until fall2015/winter 2016 but that's just me.

 

I would wait till September/October.. Something like the Clevo P751ZM should be available with Skylake Desktop CPU + new GPU's hopefully..

 

There won't be any new* mobile GPU's this year. If your current rig is satisfying your needs for now, I'd suggest waiting. But if not, jump in and buy whatever you can. There will always be something new around the corner. Get something upgradeable. You'll probably regret not doing so.

*New, of course, referring to Pascal.

 

The right time to buy is the moment you want to be playing games.

Waiting means better GPUs waiting until 2016.

 

This right here. It's unlikely anything major will happen in the coming months and besides, who knows if nVidia will block overclocking for good on their next cards?

The 970M and 980M are great cards and we currently have workarounds for all of the shenanigans nVidia has pulled. Next round is overclocking blocked by the system BIOS itself which won't be as easy to get around.

This is also the last generation that will have MQ socketed CPUs (Clevo SM-A machines). The future is all board soldered unless you buy a Clevo with a desktop CPU.

I say buy now if you want a great gaming machine. Waiting may end up being a poor choice.

As for the Windows 10 reasoning offered earlier, there's nothing to worry about. 10 works great on current hardware.

 

Grab an upgradeable laptop with the 970M, and then get the 1070M or 1080M next year. Should be a pretty significant boost in performance.

 

Could you link me to some upgrade able laptops? Which ones are best? Does CLEVO do upgrade able ones?

 

Pretty much any laptop with the 6GB 970M or 8GB 980M is upgradeable. Usually Clevo/Sagers are, yes.

http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-clevo-sager-notebooks-ct-95_51_162.html

 

Leaks about upcoming Nvidia GPUs have already begun.
One was badly photoshopped (I think), while drivers have entries of 1 new upcoming card. More could follow.

Wait to buy a new computer until Skylake is here. You`d get new GPUs from Nvidia/AMD and Skylake and support for PCIe SSDs. And hopefully DDR4.

 

I've been wanting something like an ASUS ROG G751JT-DH72 for a while now. But now that I have the money to spend on a new gaming laptop I'm not sure if I should go for it or wait for the new round of laptops to come out with windows 10. Does anyone have any idea if good gaming laptops like the ASUS ROG series will be available right away when windows 10 is released or will it take a few months or something after its finally releaased? I don't really like windows 8 but if its going to be quite a while I can deal with it I guess lol.

 

The Windows 10 upgrade is free and only a download away. I doubt manufacturers will be shipping them as quickly as you could just download it. They'll likely be depleting Windows 8 machines for months.

That's honestly not a good reason to wait, lol. Rumors suggest a Fall release (around August).

 

Let me write down why people should NOT buy a computer now:

1. Skylake will be launched in August. Hopefully Mobile as well
Skylake looks to be about 15% better clock for clock vs Haswell, which is what the current notebooks got now. Plus the CPU may get a speed boost, resulting in 20%+ performance over Haswell.
http://hexus.net/tech/news/cpu/82699-intel-skylake-s-processors-detailed-chinese-leak/
http://wccftech.com/intel-skylake-s-core-i7-6700-k-benchmarks/

2. You get notebooks with PCIe SSD support, either through M2 or SATA Express. Speeds from 1GB/s to 4GB/s depending on how many lanes the notebook motherboards allocate to the SSD. SATA3 in comparison is about 550MB/s. Skylake chipset supports PCIe NVME native so the notebooks will be ready for this new fast technology.
Samsung SM951 will soon be out with NVME SSDs for M2 which smokes any SSD out there today. Intel is out with Intel 750, and will probably make one that fit notebooks. Expect many more fast SSDs after Skylake launches. Lots of SSD manufacturers have sampled PCIe controllers a long time ago, so they are ready.

3. You get DDR4 support. It may not mean much, but power consumption will go down as well as IGPs that rely on system memory will get a performance boost.

4. AMD will soon be out with R9 300 cards which show signs of significant TDP reduction. R9 370 which is a R9 200 rebrand is now 110W-130W vs R9 270X at 180W. R9 390 have a lot more cores than R9 290 yet the power supply remains the same. So although R9 M300 cards look like they will be rebrands, TDP could significant go down as well we might get faster card than M295X with more cores since TDP allow it.
Likewise, Nvidia will be out with new Maxwell refresh. GTX 980M will be replaced by GTX 980MX, which I think will have 2048 cores vs 980M`s 1536 cores. Thats around 30% better performance.

5. You get a new OS, Windows 10 to play with. With DX12. Although you can use this on older notebooks as well, nothing beats the feeling of starting with a brand new notebook with a brand new OS imo.

 

Whoa, don't jump the gun here... Got any proof (or anything) of the 980MX? You sound pretty confident.

The 300 series is a response to Maxwell, which came out at the end of last year. Nothing suggests it will be a new architecture. Considering NVIDIA is not scheduled to release Pascal until 2016, my bets are on a re-brand with intent to compete.

 

Of course the 980MX is coming. I guarantee it.
You are crazy if you think Nvidia won`t seize the opportunity to get a lot more sales with a 30% faster 980MX over current 980M.

Nvidia want money. Its as easy as that. And power/TDP of a full GM204 is perfect for notebooks

 

AMD's CEO has confirmed a debut at Computex. NVIDIA hasn't mentioned anything new, not even the 980Ti. Guess it may be a bit too early but I don't think you can confidently say there will be another GPU just yet. I want there to be one, but nothing suggests there is going to be one at this point. After Computex 2015 is when we should start the speculation. It depends largely on what AMD brings to the table.

It's a back and forth game - AMD hasn't responded to NVIDIA Maxwell, yet.

 

I'm still getting that 4690K though .

 

They have my money if they offer such a beastly GPU

I wouldn't be able to resist a fully enabled GM204.

 

That would seriously be a bad investment, the socket will be dead soon so you won't have any upgrade path. Skylake should be out in 4-6 months so at least wait for that.

 

Skylake is soldered, so it doesn't matter.

2016 onward, all gaming laptops have an expiration date. I'm so excited to see what my next hobby will be.

There's hope yet for Pascal being MXM 3.0b, but I don't see that as likely.

 

Clevo will undoubtedly release a Skylake laptop that uses the desktop socketed chips. With any luck, it will need less cooling than Haswell (not holding my breath though)

 

Undoubtedly? Strong statement considering the recent changes in the market. We'll see.

 

He can still upgrade to Broadwell

 

Which won't be much of an improvement (if not even a downgrade) considering Broadwell will have 65W max and almost no IPC improvement over Haswell.

 

Well there are still desktops.

 

Pretty soon there will never be a good time to buy a laptop for gaming, lol. Every year something new is released. I guess now the strategy is to jump generations - buy Pascal, then buy Volta, then buy whatever is after that.

 

That's what they said about Ivy Bridge

 

part of the problem is AMD, they have nothing to compete with Intel on higher level, so Intel doesn't need to push the envelope that much. I'm surprised Intel actually bothers with new releases, mostly just shrinks to lower silicon wafer costs and charge higher prices.

 

That's true. I'd be so blunt as to say AMD exists purely so that Intel does not become a monopoly, lol.

 

Yea I'm really enjoying the 17r2, good to have a semblance of upgrade ability

 

You'll be okay with that Titan X for quite a while. That thing is basically 980M SLI with more VRAM. CPU's don't usually change much, and yours is "good enough" for a while, I suppose.

 

Not really a strong statement. They have 4790k machines right now, had 4930K before, and the i7-990X before that. If Skylake runs around the same temp or lower temp than the 4790k, we should definitely see another desktop machine. The P570WM wasn't a big seller but from what I see in the Clevo forum, the ZM desktop machines are all the rage, most likely because of the significantly slimmer form factor that actually makes them portable over previous iterations.

Clevo has always been on the bleeding edge when it came to desktop replacements and I don't see that changing, especially since the unlocked mobile quads are going away. If anything, what was once a Clevo niche market will start attracting people tired of Intel's BGA CPUs that throttle to their base clock under load.

 

From what little information I can gather, it looks like Clevo has some big plans for desktop Skylake and Pascal

 

We will see. I believe they can, just wouldn't go as far as guaranteeing anything. Not yet.

LGA1151 is supposed to replace LGA1150. That I can see in Clevo's and Sager's.

 

I don't really care. All I know it's either I'm buying a new rig in the end of June or not at all (and not until next year then). Besides there's always something better around the corner, one can wait for something better infinite amount of time. And seeing how good 2500K holds up even to this day, I'm not a bit worried about not getting the newest and shiniest parts. I'll work with the parts I'll have at my disposal at the time of my purchase.

 

DDR4 doesn't benefit gaming or FPS. The added CPU performance over chips like the 4790k is also not going to make a difference. NCIX did extensive testing and found no benefit to gaming:

Spoiler: Image

You shouldn't be worried about Skylake. You should be worried about socket compatibility in laptops for 2016 regarding Graphics Processors.

 

I think the CPU isn't such a problem any more.
Once Windows 10 is out even my heavily OCed 920xm should be adequate with a next gen GPU running the DX12 API right!?

So long as you can swap out your GPU simply do a GPU upgrade + OS upgrade and reap the API improvements. I will be doing the simultaneous upgrade around a year from now most probably and throw in some CAS 7 16GB kit of ram as well

 

Sure, AMD may respond first. But the last 2 years Nvidia haven`t responded to anything, rather than running their own race with AMD asleep .

Everything suggest we will see a faster GM204. Where have you been the last years?

DDR4 will:
1. Benefit IGP`s. Try looking at Intel`s IGPs tested with various DDR3 speeds and you will understand.
2. Benefit batterylife since DDR4 use less power than DDR3.

Here is a recent test of Skylake on Battlefield 4. Wouldn`t want to say "not going to make a difference"
You may also note that 6700K is clocked at 4.2GHz while 4790K is at 4.4GHz. Still got a 5FPS boost. Who wouldnt want that for free?
Thats just one game. You find many more where a faster CPU counts (CPU bound) so buying a computer now is just dumb when new computers with much better features are right around the corner.
imo (not counting if you need one right now or want a cheap one)




MXM concern regarding Pascal is a valid one which I agree with. Especially since OEMs have already started going with soldered. Skylake mobile CPUs will be soldered only, but then again you won`t get any new CPUs for your Haswell notebook anyway, so its more come down to adapt or go to desktops.
I know what I will do

 

Delaying purchase for DDR4 is ridiculous because its main benefit is efficiency. They increased latency while also increasing frequency, which does nothing in regards to performance. The fact that the 6700k performs slightly better than the 4790k is expected, not because of and entirely unrelated to DDR4 memory. Other benefits include decreased temperatures and less power consumption.

Aside from that, I doubt it will be much more beneficial. A 10%-20% boost in CPU performance does little for FPS. It will help with synthetic benchmarking... But will overclocking even be a thing of the future with these new "green" chips? Don't know. With that said, I'm not worried about buying a 4790k. Gaming does not even benefit from more than 4 hyper-threaded cores, and the 4790k is overkill for even the best of mobile GPU's.

I am worried about GPU's more so than anything right now. BGA gives me nightmares.

 

There is just too many benefits with the upcoming systems vs today that I`d not recommend buying anything now
Buying one now because it have MXM while fearing MXM will be gone doesnt make much sense. Are you gonna keep buying older GPU`s then?

 

Try living without a PC for six months, then let's talk about waiting until 2016.

 

I don`t think you are reading my posts J.Dre.

For those that don`t need one NOW, waiting is a much better option than throwing cash toward hardware thats gonna be replaced very soon. We could have Skylake in August, new GPUs in June-September. Thats 4 months waiting for many benefits.

 

I am reading them, lol. Just selectively responding to areas of concern.

Nothing confirmed for mobile is worth waiting for this year. Everything we've seen leaked regarding improvements has been for desktop graphics, and even that is not impressive. Computex should give us a better idea...

It's mostly re-branding until 2016 when Pascal finally hits with an entirely new process. Waiting 4 months and buying something this year would be an even bigger mistake with Pascal coming shortly after, which we all know is a substantial improvement. If you jump in now, you'll at least get a year's use out of your laptop.

 

Yeah. It's like the cake has already been served this year. There is nothing really worth to wait for. Not Skylake and not AMD gpus. Next year in summer would probably be a good time to buy, but that's just waiting madness

 

Buy whenever it is convenient for you

 

Just wait until you're on your death bed to buy a gaming laptop, and then you'll never have to worry about new stuff again.

On a more serious note, just buy whenever you want. There's going to always be something new and better on the horizon... Technology advances rapidly. Just buy something that'll satisfy your needs/wants for the time being.

 

This is sooo stupid. I can't wait my college end, then I can get rid of notebooks

 

What's your financial situation?
You could go for a small Win8 2 in 1 (like Asus T100) and a desktop. That combo seems like a nice one.