Razer Blade Maxwell Refresh

With nVidia's new Maxwell mobile 9xxM processor line, when does everyone believe the razer blade (and the blade pro) will be refreshed to include these components? If they don't release sometime before ~November, I'd venture to say they will wait until broadwell in Q2 2015 for their blade refresh.

Competing companies such as MSI, Clevo, Asus, and gigabyte all appear to be upgrading their lineups more or less immediately after maxwell's release, and will razer has not been known to follow this trend, they will still have to release a new version soon to avoid losing customers that want these beastly new GPUs as soon as possible.

 

Are the mobile maxwells even announced yet?

 

They seem to refresh once a year I dont see them changing.

 

I would assume next spring

 

They aren't. However, with the desktop GTX 900 series already released, and the numerous leaks on the GTX 900M series, the release is imminent. The thread on it already lists 10-15+ laptops equipped with these gpus that will likely release within october.

 

Unless its for market / business reason, In my opinion the best move would be to refresh in Q1 2015 mostly for maxwell at 20nm or 16nm.
The broadwell upgrade is also a good move, but is not a big improvement has maxwell is, in terms of performance,

 

The 20nm Maxwell GPUs are unlikely to come out by Q1 2015. Having just realized the 900M series, nVidia won't be refreshing with 20nm until at least mid-late 2015. By then, if Razer chooses to refresh, it will be 1.5 years between models, and they'll have skipped one of the most significant generations of GPUs. (1000M series is likely to just be a full gm204 with minor performance upgrades similar to 600 -> 700)

 

If that is true then the best move would be to upgrade to maxwell this year before christmas

 

Can these video cards in blades 2014 be replaced with 970m without replacing your entire laptop?

 

Unfortunately not. As as the GPU is soldered to the motherboard.

 

The anandtech review of the 970m/980m says that NVIDIA is discontinuing the 870m/880m. If this is true, then the Blade will be updated soon unless NVIDIA decides to keep producing the old gpus for Razer.

 

My observation and experience is that they refresh every spring, I would bet money they are not refreshing it this year. Every year there is something new to be had, GPU, resolution, SSD, memory, etc. There is no future proofing this technology. To have the latest and greatest you must upgrade every year. Not a big deal if you are a heavy gamer and desire to be at the top of the heap.

 

The 870 is plenty for me, I might see what they bring out in 2016 and decide then.

 

Same here. I can't imagine that's there's anything that Razer can put in the next Blade that will convince me to upgrade from my 2014.

 

I think 2014 owners have plenty of time ahead with their laptops. The idea of refreshes is to make owners of blades at least two gens before purchase the new one.

 

Machines like this GIGABYTE - Laptop - Laptop - P series - P35X v3 will dominate important categories (performance, battery life, heat) until they refresh. The GTX 980m has a TDP that is similar to the GTX 870m, so you're upgrading not just to a new model year... but to the next higher model as a drop-in replacement.

What I would expect is for the 870 GTX Razers to go on deep discount and a 980 GTX Razer to show up as the new flagship before christmas.

 

I strongly doubt the next RB will have a 980M. While Maxwell is a lot cooler, the RB does have a .70 in high chassis, which makes cooling a 980m very difficult. I'm expecting a 970M from the next RB, but I highly doubt they'll come out before Christmas, but I still have hope!

 

The Gigabyte P35X pulls it off in .80" so it might be possible. I have a feeling Razer will do whatever it takes.

 

I'd rather see a 970M.. keep the fan speeds lower and the unit quieter..

 

I want moar storage! Two m.2 slots might get me to upgrade, though if 1TB m.2 2280s are on the horizon I could wait for that.

 

Razer is losing out on a lot of Christmas sales if they don't push a 970m or even 980m into a machine soon. For people such as myself that are in the market now I cannot even consider a Razer because it has massively inferior specs compares to other machines being sold now for less. I understand wanting to have an annual release schedule, but you have to move with the times as well. The 970m is a huge leap over the 870m and the high res display could really use that jump.

 

Yeah... the 970m should be a no brainier.

 

Agreed.

My job was about to buy me a laptop of my choice. The Razer Blade 2014 edition was at the top of my list... but lately there has been an influx of options with 16GB, GTX970M, and larger sized SSDs (on the base models) which really just push this down the list.
I'd buy one in a heartbeat if it had a 'refresh'

 

I can see several options:
1) They're trying to sell all 870m stock
2) They're trying for a chassis refresh (possibly to accommodate for the 980M)
3) They're sitting on their hands doing nothing waiting for Broadwell
4) They're switching to a 12 month refresh cycle

 

If they were trying to remove stock, they should lower their prices. They're selling last-gen stuff with today's gen prices.

 

They've just begun a sales push in Australia lowering the price and offering free shipping. Doesn't specify how long the promotion goes fr but I can imagine that this refresh is expected soon.

 

I think it makes more sense for them to wait for Broadwell and Win 10. CPU is the hotter of the two main chips in Razerblade 2014, so they're running up on thermal limits there.

 

Windows 10 is still a fair while away. There is a chance that Razer will wait for Broadwell but I can see that being another upgrade down the track here, especially at the rate Intel is going at.

 

Marketwise speaking, they should update the GPU, it's not that I want to update my 2013 blade, its just because Maxwell is so efficient compared to Kepler that it will do no harm on the temperatures (t will actually improve them) and It will generate sales.

If find that the only reason for not updating their product lineup soon would be because Razer is cooking something more than a GPU/CPU upgrade. An OLED screen ? Better multimedia components (speakers) ?? One piece aluminium chassis ?

 

Maybe they're hard at work on the 17" model this time around?

 

Does anyone else see this refresh being done by the end of this year? I've also heard that Northern Hemisphere spring is also guessed at but I not so secretly hope not.

A lot of other manufacturers won't release their models until Deceomber so will Razer be the same you think?

 

If Razer is releasing new products in the next ~4 months, it's going to be pre-December 1st. Otherwise, they lose a huge amount of sales from the holiday season as well as Black Friday & Cyber Monday in the US. It wouldn't make sense at all to release a new product on January 3rd, for example, as nobody buys notebooks right after Christmas.

 

I agree. If nothing comes out before christmas then it would be better for them to just take their time and go for a nice new generation of blades.

 

It's already mid-November. Remember the RB2014 was announced on March 12 and shipping didn't commence until mid-May. I'd say based on precedence, the probability of a refresh being announced and shipped by end of year is almost nil.