GeForce GTX 680MX

I just shuddered

 

I think the AMD Enduro issues finally got to his head

 

I'm surprised they're releasing a 680MX this late in the game with the next generation possibly just around the corner (I've seen low end parts being relabeled as 7xx cards already). I'm also mildly irritated that I ordered a 680M and it's out dated already Oh well, it's enough to wait a couple of generations to upgrade.

 

The 680MX isn't in any laptops, so you're good.

 

yupyup, word is that the 680MX might have a comeback as the 780M for regular laptops so far its only being offered in the current imacs.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I could see a 780M with all shaders on a twaked process but perhaps still with lower clocked memory to save power.

 

We all know the next 780M and the next 8970M will just be rebadged Kepler and GCN. Both companies have given over much control to Intel, and both are now having to find ways to compensate with switchable graphics.

I think that will be the deciding factor. If the 780M is a rebadged GTX 680, then we know it will be severely under-powered and will have mechanisms to prevent TDP from going beyond limits. Whatever AMD has, will be trade blows with Nvidia, that's a given. AMD knows what to expect and will be ready for that.

The big issue for AMD will be drivers. They were on a good roll with 4000-6000, but then they changed their architecture, memory controller and committed to switchable graphics, all new and all not fully optimized. I think that will be the deciding factor for those who are running a 6970M or a 580M now and wanting to do their 2 year upgrade.

For those with 680M and 8970M, I don't think it will make that much sense to upgrade, especially since the next gen consoles won't be out til later. I say, SAVE your money and spend when the NEXT-Gen consoles are released. Then you can be prepared for whatever the gaming industry has to challenge PC Gaming.

Intel is releasing Haswell on 14nm I think. The 880M or the 9980M will be the next big jump. That's just my opinion. Sure the 780M and 8970M will be faster and better than 7970M and 680M, but it won't be needed for the 2013 games. It's 2014 that may pose a challenge. That's how I see it. Upgrade next year with 14nm tech and whatever Intel has to offer and give Nvidia and AMD another year to mature their switchable graphics.

 

u mean broadwell and 14nm? haswell is 22nm, just a different arch than IB...

what u say would make sense in view of last year´s gpu-gen @580M / 6990M being just slight upgrades of their previous models 485M / 6970M. this year´s "slight updates" haven´t seen the light of day, so maybe that´s what the 780M / 8970M will be

 

Ok, well I read that Intel has 14nm manufacturing tech, so I'm just assuming that Global Foundries and Taiwan will have caught up for 2014 releases. But for me personally, I think financially it only makes sense to upgrade for those who really think their 580M (485M) and 6970M are aging, which I would disagree with.

The big issue is next gen consoles. PS4/720 have not been officially introduced yet, so at the very best, we can expect maybe the very end of 2013, but from game developers' hints who and complete lack of announcements for end of 2013 next gen console games, I think early to fall 2014 is better expectation. Next gen console hardware is by no means impressive, compared to my current laptop, it's still pathetic. Even the teraflops that the PS4 supposedly will have, is not something that impressives me. My GPU alone is more powerful.

OK here is the big thing we don't know. Current PS3 and 360 are very limited, they are limited to playing games and streaming videos. That's about it. But with current investors who think more connectivity is better, I think the next gen consoles will be required to become mini-computers. These will need a far more robust OS and will really become the center of the home entertainment system. That's my belief.
- What am I getting at? Current console games are developed to the metal, they don't have any middleware and API getting between the game and the hardware.

I wonder what the next gen console will be like. If it's more computer, we may not see such a huge jump, or maybe we will. Either way, 2014 makes more sense for an entire PC Gaming system upgrade I think. Financially doesn't make sense to spend a lot for games that won't be any more complex than 2012 when 2014 is the year to worry about.

 

Intel for a long time have had about a 12 month fab lead over their competitors.

 

By the way, if you haven't checked out the latest info, these two links are great
VGLeaks: PlayStation 4 "Orbis" Roadmap - NeoGAF
KR4T0S comments on Orbis unmasked: what to expect from the next-gen PlayStation

The neogaf post goes over the latest leaked specs, and the reddit one is especially cool if you want to learn about how developers are looking at the next gen.

Apparently, Sony and Microsoft are making the next gen consoles like normal PCs, with all AMD CPU/GPU hardware. Porting between PC and consoles is going to be a dream for developers, and if rumors are true that the PS4 will be Linux based, then PS4+Steambox will really make Linux gaming a legitimate part of the market, for both consoles and PCs. The PS4 GPU is rumored to be GCN-based, around the power of the HD 7850/7870 (it could go up or down though, as KR4T0S mentioned that hardware can change even months before release), and that means ports for PC will run especially well with our cards and future GCN cards. All of this is still rumors, and who knows if KR4T0S is really legitimate.

 

Would this mean, we will also start seeing more Linux ports in the future as well? While I might still be a noob when it comes to linux, gaming is what keeps me dual booting for the time being. Gonna be trying out Wine for GW2 once my 9150 arrives.

 

No. It doesn't make any financial sense for any gaming company to waste their time to do that. Having PS4 being Linux based makes no difference as most games on PS4 will be either exclusive to PS4 or if it is on PC, will already be available on Windows, making it no point to port to Linux.
- Drivers suck on Linux, suck a lot. People have issues on Windows, just imagine Linux.
- Valve can't even make a convincing argument for gaming on Linux considering how crap TF2 runs on Linux. It's pathetic.

I think the other issue is that, Ubuntu is not that popular even among Linux users, Linux community is already very fragmented.

 

Sadly. the truth hurts so much.

Funny how one of the best thing about Linux is being able to pick what distro to use & due to that, it hurts them at the same time.

 

Hardware similarities are about the most you will get out of porting efforts.

Having similar CPU cores rather than some IBM rubbish will help.

 

Let us note that Linux isn't an operating system. I am not saying that anyone here has been thinking that, but it tends to happen while people argue over Linux.

PowerPC all the way—not.

 

It certainly will be interesting now that almost all platforms are using x86 rather than cell (POWER/Risc). 720, PS4 are all AMD based x86 it seems. I think Nintendo was stupid for going with the IBM Power tri-core. They just copied the 360. That may backfire since developers still complain about how difficult it is to develop for IBM's POWER chips and now future cross-platform engines probably will be highly optimized for AMD GCN and AMD x86.

The next step would be for industry to decide what API to use, OpenGL or DirectX. That is probably a huge annoyance for developers that Sony continues to be brats who refuse to cooperate with anyone. It seems very weird how they think they Apple of Japan.

 

What they did was do the same trick as last time, make it a beefed up version of the wii (which was a beefed up gamecube) to make porting your back library easy.