Is is worth it to wait a year? for the Maxwell Generation? Or GTX 780m all the way to future

Currently planning on buying the Sager/Clevo P157SM/158SM-S from PROSTAR COMPUTERS with the GTX 780m and 4700mq. I want the laptop to at least last me 3 years of use and wait for the rumored Skylake 10nm, DDR4 support, new gen SSD, and Volta techs to come out. Does anyone think that the Maxwell architecture will be massively better than the GTX780m? Say 40% or more pure performance increase? I don not care about power consumption if that's all what they are going to do. Really torn apart trying to decide which to buy now...

 

If you wait a year or more for newer tech, whats stopping you from waiting even longer for even newer tech. But it seems the 800 series will probably be a big boosts in performance compared to the 700 series. The 680m was 50-55 percent faster than the 580m and the 485m was only 15 percent faster than the 580m. The 780m is around 25-30 percent faster depending on the application, but even then, no official drivers have been released yet for the high end 700m series. Since the 800 series will be a new GPU core, chances are the new gpu will probably be around 40-50 percent faster. But if you want a new rig, get it now. You can always buy it now, use it for a year and then sell it and buy a new rig.

 

If you're ok with the laptop you have now, I'd personally wait for Maxwell. It will be pretty significant as far as performance improvement. Maxwell will likely offer improvements better than 580m (Fermi) to 680m (Kepler) which was nearly double the performance.. You can expect 12000+ 3DMark11 scores with top end Maxwell GPU (880m likely). But 780m is very powerful and can handle pretty much any game out there at Ultra settings no issue.

 

wait for maxwell. thats what im doing

 

This ++++1
There is no guarantee buying a sager/clevo that it will support next years GPU's. Look at the EM series with the enduro problems and no upgradability to the new 780m's. Given this do as elmyo suggests.

 

It seems like TSMC pushed 14nm production to 2015, there might be a year delay before Maxwell comes out which I believed 2014 was the expected year...

 

Source please?

 

GTX 780m should last you for a long time, it's basically a downclocked GTX 680/770, and you can always overclock it to get more performance.

 

I am thinking of skipping this gen aswell maxwell is looking pretty darn good, it is going to be tough roughing it out on my current laptop though . ^^

 

Why wait for Maxwell when you can wait for Joel or Howell or Vowel in 2025 assuming we are not at WW3 Can you imagine the cpu and gpu performance by then if you would just be patient to wait it out lol just kidding

But you know what I mean, haswell just came out and if you are needing a newer computer then now is the perfect time to buy unless you messed up and bought an ivy bridge machine in the last 4 months.

 

The thing is I don't have a laptop at the moment lol. All I have is a MacBook Air from 2011, which does me no good even at heavy daily tasks so...

 

My bad, been thinking Maxwell goes to 14nm

 

Looking at what happened to fermi, when maxwell hits even GTX870 will be faster than GTX780, so saying it last you a long time is exagurating.

Paying that much for a 780m is too much, when you can get better machine next year for less cash.

 

What laptop are you currently using if you don't mind me asking?

 

Do you reckon that Broadwell will also be introduced alongside with Maxwell? With the new 14nm architecture?

 

I have no idea what you just said.

OP,

here is my take. We are gaming on rigs with a native display of 1900x1080. This resolution is perfect for 780m. This is a great card for this resolution. Eventually notebooks will have to drastically up the resolution for GPUs to even have to work. However, it's best to play a game at your screens native resolution. With that, if you need a new notebook, this card is perfect for 1080p gaming.

We are currently starting to see technology outpace the actual software. CPUs from 4 years ago are still plenty fine for gaming. Phones have hardware that is so far advanced that their sole purpose is for bragging rights. Quad core processors with GPUs that are practically console worthy! GPU advancements on the notebook and desktop front are also moving forward really quickly. However, if you wait a year, you will likely get a Maxwell GPU that will indeed be much faster than the Kepler architecture. However when the new native resolution of, say 1600p becomes standard on notebooks, then you will NEED that horsepower to just run the same games at the new native resolution. Any deviation from native resolution drastically alters the image quality of notebook screens. Plus we don't even have a firm release of Maxwell. Now is a great time to buy a new notebook with Haswell and 780m just hitting the market. With the relatively weak console components, you will be just fine with a Haswell+780m combo for 3 years just like you want to accomplish. Your first year alone will keep you on the top. The next two years will still allow you to game at your screens resolution. I say go for it because you are looking to buy.

The general rule in technology is to get the best you can afford when you need it. You can always wait. So don't wait. "Go go go" (CS:S voice).

 

I've always been a desktop user, I'm running 2 GTX 680 in SLI mode right now. But I find myself going out for more and more so a laptop would definitely be a need for me. As I have the old MacBook Air and it's slowing down

 

Like I said in the previous reply, a laptop is actually a kind of must need to me now as what I have now is no good if I put any sort of heavy task to it, even with multiple tabs open. So you would think that I should be able to run BF4 (BF3 is the main game that I play right now so I would say BF4 will likely be what I'm after) on ultra at 1080p? Crysis 3 and games that are high graphic demanding I could just run at the second highest settings as it really doesn't make any difference on a laptop. As for my usual tasks, I doubt they will utilize full 780m potential but definitely need more than a mere MacBook Air.

 

Consider the P375SM and get SLI 780m!

 

I've found that those questions are almost never about "the next tech" but actually about YOUR OWN PREVIOUS TECH. i.e. is it already slow enough?

If it is then anything is fast.

There are some rare exceptions. e.g. Intel releasing a new architecture in a few days but in general the slower your old system is the more irrelevant to wait is.

 

Haswell AND 700 series just came out, yeah a kepler refresh but its still more performance. Seems like the PERFECT time to buy a laptop, at least thats what im doing. Buy what you need when you need it.