How Future Proof Is 660M Card?

Now before you laugh hear me out. I'm not expecting it to handle games at high, max or ultra for 5 years but do you think it will at least be able to run games at medium for 5 years? Right now as it stands only game I can't run on high and get great FPS is Witcher 2.. Which is still good for 30 plus fps on high settings with new drivers on this card. I don't see any games coming soon that are GPU killers like that.

Will overclocking help me future proof a little more? I have yet to find a legit overclocking 660m thread here and that must be because it's a new card. Thanks for all opinions and info in advance.

 

gpu killers, crysis 3, ghost recon is very harsh on the gpu, arma III, the upcoming nfs hot pursuit, i know the new call of duty coming out this year will finally have revamped gfx and dx11, there are a few more i cant remember. However you should be fine if your okay with high-medium for a little while and then medium for 1 to 2 years, for 5 years? no way, thats way to long for any GPU to last, even for my 7970m. Overclocking will help when needed depending on your clocks. might get a 10% boost

ALSO: when the new consoles come out soon expect a huge increase in graphics intense games for PC, with some bad ports, we will need all the power we can get

 

call of duty with demanding graphics? are we talking about the same horseback riding call of duty with the same engine from cod4? anyway, without the new consoles, call of duty graphics upgrade doesn't sound very likely..

on the question, I think you are ok for 3 years, but 5 years is very very wishful thinking.. not crysis 3 (same cryengine 3 nowadays), but Metro Last Light and some other games will give very hard time to 660m next year..

 

Halo good thing is that there are already so many epic games to work with from last 10 years I console gamed. Last time I did PC gaming was Wow and D2. So no way it can handle games on medium for 5 years?

 

It will be future proof for a while. Even though people are speculating about the next gen consoles, I truly believe they will ONLY be a refresh to update them to what PC gamers have been enjoying for the past 3.5 years, DX11. Your machine should STILL be able to play whatever new console ports will be released years to come.

Sure the UE4 demo required ridiculous power, but there will never be a game released for consoles requing that power. It will still be just the games we see now with some DX11 features and bring consoles up to par with PC was 3 years ago I think.

I could be wrong, but I wouldn't worry. Go with the 660M and be happy. By the time games out when your 660M can't go, you'll have saved enough to upgrade to a new system anyway.

 

Thanks so much Hula. I know computers advance quickly but people act like the card will drop 3 classes in a couple years. Im not a gamer who needs to play high or ultra but will be more ofa casual gamer. I got 660M because it was cheapest graphics card that could run Witcher 2 decently on high. I'm a huge WRPG guy and heard Witcher was incredible.

Do you know if I can overclock the 660m safely and notice big gains?

 

A mobile 680 won't even be able to run games on medium in 5 years...

 

check out black ops 2 coming out this november, they updated the gfx engine and added in dx11

When Activision announced Black Ops 2 earlier this month it promised a "visual overhaul", with graphical upgrades a mix of "tech and technique".

it may not be crazy looking but will def use more of the gpu than previous cod's

 

Should be good enough for a little while...we wont see next gen console for at least 2-3 years...

 

If it can make it 3 years ill be fine I guess. Buy then ill buy top of the line tower.

 

There isn't a game I can't play at 1080p on the 5870M that I bought 3 years ago.

Sure I can't play most on Ultra setting, but what I found, Ultra setting are rarely ever worth the anguish of wanting to upgrade since the visual improvements are either minimal or actually worse. Just makes the bloom obnoxious and the HDR so harsh all the lighting becomes blinding. And for competitive play, you turn off all that junk anyway...

Me I bought this beast only because I'm sort of hardware junky and I couldn't resist the temptation of 28nm fabrication and the brand spanking new AMD GCN architecture.

 

I agree. Im good with medium/high mixed.settings. Plus wont.drivers keep improvin performance?

 

Clippers..
We don't know but it is not likely it will last more then 3 years, even on medium.

Also the 5870m is the equivalent of the 7970m now, 660m is mid of scale.

 

yeah thanks for the headsup, E3 video looks much better than "call of horseback riding" we have initially seen but looks still inferior to BF3 and C2, right? (still a revolution in CoD franchise )

 

Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Still a class 1 card. It's being categorized as bottom of the high scale or very top of the mid scale. Regardless... 3 years works... I just don't see a big jump like you guys are predicting. I may not have been PC gaming all these years but I had a Dell tower that stayed relevant for about 7 years. Maybe not high/max settings but the games that came out dropped me to medium-low only after 5+ years.

Maybe right now it's different but I just find it extremely hard to believe that in 2 years my computer which can pretty much run everything on high (including Witcher 2 and get 30-35 FPS) will not be able to run the average game at medium at least. Maybe the next GPU killer like Witcher 2 was will put me on low settings but the average game of the next 3 years???? Doubtful.

 

Believe it.

 

3 years from now most games will be at unreal engine 4 max level and\or Agnis Philosophy

I mean seriously: 660m is not running this...
Agni's Philosophy -- FINAL FANTASY REALTIME TECH DEMO - YouTube

 

720p will be great for at least 2 years if you're willing to drop some detail for newer / soon to be released titles. Beyond that anyone's guess.

 

I played D2 all through high school. Few horror games, old republic, witcher 2, wow, d3 etc should keep me busy for few years on high settings haha. I just will miss out on some games.

 

That has nothing to do with this discussion. He wasn't disputing the advancement in hardware, he's disputing the GAMES.

As it is, games and software are numerous generations behind hardware.

 

Exactly! For example when each gen of console comes out it takes 5 years to max out the potential of hardware and even then there is usually still some room to improve before new gen. Like you saod I'm talking about the games.

 

Let's put it this way. If you bought the same GPU tech 5 years ago, you would have a Geforce go 7600. Some games that are being released can run on the 7600, mostly at lowest settings, and many AAA titles are not able to run on that GPU.

 

With this in mind



it is one hard question to answer.

My late 2007 8800GTX still plays recent games on a mix of low settings for some of them, mid for others, high for a few.

 

Now if we can get newer drivers...

 

For top end cards we've had:
Recent 680m/580m / 7970m
1.5 to 2 years ago we had 485m / 6970m
2.5 to 3 years ago we had 280m / 5870m
3.5 to 4 years ago we had 9800m GTX
4.5 to 5 years ago we had 8800m GTX
Over 5 years ago we had 7900m GT

That's about par for the course in hardware as far as technology. Use that as your gauge for performance in years to come. The 485m can hold its own in 1080p gaming still but older cards might struggle to run at 1080p with any decent level of detail.

 

I also am not sure the 660M is going to be able to play much above low settings in 3 yrs especially @ 1080p.

The best top level cards fall into mid-range in a couple years. A mid level card today imo won't be handling high+.

I like the 660 too, can't decide right now to go lighter with 660 or bigger machine with 680/7970.

BTW I have a 5870 that was top 2+ yrs ago. I cannot play games like BF3 and GW2 fluidly at even high. Others that tell you they can may have some high settings but other things turned down so not really high.

 

The software req will jump more then the last 5 years simply because:

A- Next gen of consoles are ariving

B- More companies are adopting PC as primary or multi plat and are developing games with that in mind.

So it is safe to say 3 years from now games will look much better then today.
Probably also better physics and A.I.

 

Most of your replies have been looking for and trying to figure out reasons to side with the question that you are asking. You asked a question and heard two sides of the story so why are you continuing to reply to people that are just trying to help you out. Stop convincing yourself of something you know little about since you asked the question in the first place.

The problem with looking at a GPU from 5 years ago (7950gtx) is that the GPU coincided with the release of new consoles. The 8800mGTX that I had in my last AW computer played most games on pretty good settings for a few years. It could NOT max out Crysis. It could hardly run it on high with frame rates I found acceptable. But with a new console being released and then having a more powerful GPU, it allowed me to play most ports (L4d2/COD MW, etc) on relatively high settings.

But in another year or two the new consoles are coming out. The optimizing that will go into their games will make porting a mess for gamers with older hardware.

For example, I had a 7900mGTX in a Dell XPS in 2006. That GPU is about as powerful as the GPU in the ps3. Do you think I could play BF3, Uncharted 3, or God of War on that 7900MGTX? Do you think I could play BF3 on medium? NO way.

The mobile GPU space is advancing faster than it has in a long time (look at phone GPUS, the Vita is already outdated). Enjoy what you have now and don't worry about the future. Five years is a long time and I PROMISE you that you probably won't be worried about it in a few years. You will likely be able to afford a new one or just won't care about it anymore as life has other preoccupations. Enjoy what you have TODAY and stop worrying about tomorrow let alone 5 years from now.

 

yeah dude, it won't last for 5 years guaranteed.. read what htwingnut wrote, he is quite right (btw htwingnut, your lappies are looking very sexy )

 

but games will noot look like that
this is just a traileer movie etc


back to 660,lower resolution and You can play

 

That's a bit unnecessary. I have zero agenda or way I'm leaning because as you said I asked because I don't know. Can you blame me for getting confused when I have 10 different answers? 5 saying I'll be able to play games on low or medium and 5 others saying I won't be able to game at all? The fact that it's not a collectively similar opinion means there is probably truth to both sides.

 

I get the feeling nobody has an answer because the question keeps getting ignored but I'll try again. Can the 660m be overclocked safely yet? If so can it be overclocked to match the 670m or 675m?

 

Reaching 675M (P3600 3dmark11 stock) will be highly unlikely, 670M might be possible (P2750 stock). The 650M seems to be able to in the rMBP. Might depend on vbios as I think Apple has not locked it. I've seen people hitting 3000 with it.

Go check out 3dmark11 results for 660M the clocks will be in the details.

 

Has anybody on this forum clocked a 660m to 670m performance yet? Is it safe? I tried to do my own research and it turned up empty. Even a guide for overclocking the 660m in general would be great. Thanks for answering though man .

 

yes you can try to reach the 670m performance. OC is safe if you dont mess around the voltage.

To expect the 660m to get medium for 5 years is impossible. Take the example of the 7600m, look at what the 8600m is, take a look at the 9600m/9700m, those gpus are not even mid range now, they are entry range.

That means in 1366*768 they can try a mix of medium/low settings.

the 260m is a mid range gpu now. the 360m was just a thing... the 460m is less powerful than a mid range gpu, including the 560m which was another thing.

The point for you to buy a 660m is already moot given the extreme drop in performance by the 660m to the 680m, those 2 cards are worlds apart.

and 3600 for a 675m is just one of the lowest scores that I ever saw for that gpu.

 

http://3dmark.com/search?cpuName=&g...=0&chipsetId=774&advanced=false&searchCount=2

Have a look at what is being achieved with the 660M. Clocks are in the details.

I would imagine overclocking it is going to be similar to any other gpu. Thermal compound replacement. Cooling duct optimizations. Vbios change if your stock vbios isn't letting you change clocks to your liking or overvolt. Etc...

 

the 650m in the RMBP scores about the same, of course both gpus are OCed

 

Now I remember why I dont PC game lol. Having to upgrade every couple years blows. Consoles always last 5 plus years and even then dont get maxed out. I dont get why consoles can do it and PC's cant though.

 

having to design for a different processor, and an ancient gpu with proper developer tools is one of the strengths of console developers.

However, the difference in graphical quality can be seen even on the first console games against the pc ones.

Ports due to the arguments in the first sentence can also have/usually have poor coding. Simple as that, since sometimes/most of the times they are using a emulator to make it run the processes that needs to be run.

So in terms that consoles gives you more bang for your buck, yes they do. Do they give you the same graphical quality? no they dont.

Do I prefer to game on pcs, yes I do, but its because I like strategy games much more, instead of shooters, or other action games, though I do still think that shooters benefit immensely from a mouse

 

Again it depend of the game you are playing... if you try to play Call of Duty 9 than yes you wont play it at high graphic... but for example... blizzard games arent very hard on the hardware... same with the MMOs... DotA clones... Indie games...

Thats why its awesome to play on PC... so many titles... different genre... different price...

I can play Minecraft on my old Pentium 4 with windows 2000...

 

Hmm. I thought the 260m and 280m were butting heads with the 4850 and 4870, respectively.

 

Nope this is a real time engine developed by Square, they are using a desktop gtx 680 with 16 GB of ram and a high end cpu.

It is not optimised though so it wil lbe able to run on lower hardware (but not that much lower).

 

You're right. nVidia didn't have much of significance around the time of the 5870m iirc.

 

During the 5850/5870 era, I think they only really had the... GTS 360m, I think. Which was just an overclocked 260m (which was just an overclocked 9800m GTX).

 

Yes it was. Hence the 5870m/285m comparison.

 

It was just due to time frame and renaming. The HD4800m series didnt have an impact because very few machines had them. They fought vs the 9800/200 series from nvidia.

Then ATi released the HD5870m, and nvidia didn't have anything to fight back. They rushed the horrible GTX480m and released the 285m meanwhile. The HD5870m was unconstested in its price range until they released 6 months later the GTX460m which was not able to compete either.

Then some more time came, 485m/470m etc came out, HD6970m, then 580m them HD6990m and all silliness came to a stop.

 

Square-Enix releases one big budget game every ten years, and no 3rd party developers license their engines. Oh yeah and their games don't see PC releases.

I think we're safe.