How Future Proof Is The M860TU/NP8660?

^^?
With this config.
P9500.
9800M GTS.
4GB RAM.
320 5400PRM HDD.
Windows Vista HP 64bit.
1680x1050 screen.

When I say future proof I mean how long do you think it'll be able to play all new games release at atleast medium settings?
(Guessing not long if they all start becoming like GTA IV, but how long do you guys think?) Years wise.

Also, how long do you owners of it think they will last if taken care of?
Thanks.

 

its the latest in mobile technology.

as long as you take care of it, will easily last at least 3 years or more.

my notebook is reaching 3 years, and still near mint.... and gaming performance still better than current mid-range gaming notebooks.

 

around a year or so, but it's just me

 

that particular model is now even more futureproof, since clevo didn't launch a competitor or successor to that 15" model!... gonna be the best 15'er for a while... enjoy...

 

Well Gophn you ARE the Clevo expert so glad you replied
So thanks for your input on how long it'll last.
But how long do you think it will last for games?
Like in what year do you think it'll start having to put the majority of the newer games on settings lower then medium?


Thanks for your input Boypogi.
Was hoping for it to last till atleast end of 2010 though gaming performance wise.
Maybe I'm expecting to much.

Thanks as well Doodles.
Yeah I'm happy its the best 15" for now.
Its those gorgeous 17inchers technology right now thats pissing me off lol can't get myself to opt for a 17". To dang big for me.

 

I'm hoping to almost max well optimized games for about a year from now

 

^^ That'd be perfect.
Planningo on buying another laptop at the end of 2010 so if it maxed well optimized games for a year, it could play the other 10months of games on medium

 

By the way InsaneXIII.
Have you tried GTA IV with your system?
If so, hows it run?
Also, what about Crysis (or Warhead)?
Settings good?

 

GTA refused to cooperate with me and wouldn't let me see textures so I uninstalled it. I might give it another go later but I'm still kind of pissed about it. Crysis runs very nicely at a mix of very high and high, and so does warhead. Just mess with the settings a bit and find the balance between FPS and quality. I can average 30 fps all very high except for shadows on med and shadow quality on high

 

2-3 years for gaming Id say; As Gophn said his 7800mGTX still goes toe to toe with current midgrange cards, and his GPU came out in late '05 / early '06. However at the same time, newer things are getting better faster, and as such games should become more strenuous at a faster rate, so when accounting for that, the initial 3 years should be closer to 2. By the end of 2010 your 9800mGTS will be in a similar position with Gophns current 7800mGTX

 

Thanks Insane.
You should try all the new drivers and tweaks people have come up with and see if they helped you (if you havent already).

Sounds good NAS. Thats all I needed to know :]

 

As long as desktops have 256bit memory bus, and games don't suddenly require much more, it's reasonably futureproof. But think of it as having an overlocked 9600 GT or underclocked 8800 GS desktop card.

 

Alright, thanks.
Is it a big difference from the 8800GS to the 9800M GTS? (without the underclock)

 

Oh also forgot to ask you InsaneXIII.
Can you max out COD4? At what resolution?
And does the online multiplayer effect FPS much?

 

The texture problem is fixed with the new drivers. I use 180.84 with the modded inf from laptopvideo2go.

BTW the computer runs cod4 very well. I think cod5 lags a little for me in places that have heavy firefights, such as the tank mission. Other than that it's quite unnoticable (when you are in a firefight, it's already messy as is to notice the frame drop)

I run both at 1680x1050

 

probably not a big difference, considering that desktops are generally faster. however the 512 mb ram on the 9800 will help, so yea it would be an upgrade. by how much? not much considering they use the same cores.

 

Thanks. Is that running at all maxed out?

Alright thanks, was wondering what desktop card to compare the 9800M GTS to since most games requirements list desktop GPUS.

 

Rule of self value. Don't ever rate your laptop based on how well it runs unoptimized and badly coded games. That is the fault of the developer that even a quad core and the best graphics cards can struggle on it.

 

Nice thread

just got mine the other day so happy to hear it's reasonably future proof. My previous laptop only had a 1.8Ghz Pentium M and a Nvidia 6600GO. I easily get 8 times the 3DMark06 score with stock drivers and settings with this one. Finally being able to games released after 2005

 

Even if you feel like the m860tu is getting old for your tastes (when that time comes in 2010). Remember that its a Clevo, and it can be upgraded to a greater extend than any other laptop out there.

 

If more games are developed to optimize hardware as well as Dead Space does, we'll be easily maxing out games until mid 2010. I still can't believe how well this game runs on my M860TU. 75-120 fps at max settings and WSXGA+ resolution is simply incredible for a game released in late 2008.

My next test will be Dawn Of War II. Plus I'm just two weeks away from upgrading to my T9800!

 

Thanks everyone.
Oh I have another question.
Thanks Deathwinger for mentioning upgrading is the best with Clevo which reminded me,
Do you guys think anymore GPUs/CPUs that come out in 2009/2010 will be able to be put into the M860TU?
Or do you think the 9800M GTS and T9600 is going to be the most powerful (supported by clevo) hardware for it?
Thanks.

 

I read somewhere that Nvidia has claimed that the slot to place on the laptop used in the 8 and 9 series cards are now standard and therefore any immediate future technologies will be using those same connectors. I could be wrong. But I interpret this as at least one more generation upgrade on these systems.

The system has been proven to handle a x9001 CPU. With these new CPU's coming out for Montevina and Montevina being the last in the line before the completely new architecture of i7, I think its safe to assume if any upgrades to the core 2 series are made, they'd be able to fit and work in the m860tu.

 

The T9800 comes out in the next few weeks. 35w, 2.93Ghz (mine!). There is/was a T9900 set for Q2, which I've been told was canceled, but it's 35w, 3.06Ghz(!).

If a new MXM-III Nvidia GPU comes out, and it's in the thermal budget, we should have no problems upgrading to it.

 

I would really be surprised if NVIDIA came up with something soon. Everyone's already talking about the GTX 295 on desktop, and it would take some time to have it on notebooks. As for the GTX 260/280, I don't know if there will be a portable version :/

 

Nvidia probably isn't even researching the mobility of the desktop GTX200 series yet.

My speculation is that the next high end mobile cards will most likely be based on the G92 8800 GTS, or the G80 8800 GTX/Ultra. But, now that I'm thinking, the 55nm 9800 GTX+ might not be a bad place to start from either.

 

Wow this thread is moving along fast, I guess you already got most of your questions for me answered .

As for the GPU stuff, I've read somewhere that nVidia is going to rename their current mobile cards again; like 9800M GTX=GTX 260M or something like that. I read it somewhere on this site but can't find it now. When they really do come out with something new it probably is going to be based off their current 55nm desktop models like Kevin_Jack said.

 

the geforce 100M series ^^^^

 

In the next year, they are just probably going to change the name of the current lineup of graphic cards and advertise it as a new and improved one.

 

Got it. I don't know how reliable it is though.

 

That would be really lame if they did that, since some 9 series are renamed 8 series.

 

I was going to get one of these when I found the OCZ whitebook is selling for around $1600 on some sites. It can have two video cards (right now only ATI) but Nvidia support is suppossed to be out next year. It's a 17" though. But I think the whitebook is a little more future proof but the clevo is good too. I dont really think you need two video cards right now anyway unless you want to play crysis with everything maxed, one video card will be plenty for the next couple of years I would think.

 

Well.. it was released in August, we're now December so it's already like 4 months old...

 

Indeed the whitebook or any SLI/Xfire notebook will prove to be more future proof but normally they are bulky.

I personally think the m15x and the NP8660 strike the perfect balance between performance and portability.

 

Hmmk thanks everyone.
Only time will tell for sure right lol.