How many GPU refresh cycles should i wait to upgrade my gtx 485m??

I am happy enough with the performance apart from DX11 games at 1080p. I was thinking whenever a GTX 590m has been out a few months and get that, sticking to a 2 refresh cycle till i upgrade.

 

You should upgrade every time a new card comes out!

(Or you could just stop worrying and be satisfied with what you've got)

 

Two things impact this really:

1) Does your current card still play all your games at a reasonable level? Will upgrading it be worthwhile? (especially in terms of upgrade cost versus buying a new machine, where GPU's on the high end can be upwards of $700)

2) Is an upgrade still supported? The current MXM standard may not be in use by the time the next big product refresh is announced, and there's no way to know.

Basically, if you can still play everything you want at decent settings, it may not be worth it to upgrade anyway. However, if the next upgrade is 50% faster and conforms to the same standard and you've got the money to do it, well that would be your deciding factor

There's no way to know what the next product cycle will have or at what performance levels.

 

Oh man your that youtube guy who I subscribe too! P.S your gf is hawt

 

I only consider an upgrade if a GPU offers around 50% more performance than my current one. Having said that, it is usually more cost effective to just buy a whole new rig unless you go with a cheaper ATI card or something. Even in that case you could be looking at $300-400 so I still question whether it is worth while.

I have the same laptop as you and upgrading is the last thing on my mind, this thing maxes out 99% of my games and plays the older ones like nothing.

 

Like i said, the only thing that bugs me is extreme dx11 games like Metro 2033 and Crysis 2 arent plasyabled maxed out at 1080p and even have dips in 720p. In maybe 2 years i would consider an upgrade, if my slot still accepts the new gpus.

 

would you consider upgrading to the 6990m if it turns out to be great at overclocking?

 

Why did you create this thread if you're planning to upgrade two year down the line?

Sorry if I'm perceived as trolling, but this thread is just silly.

If gaming at extreme, 'ultra' settings is that important to you, you should invest in a desktop (unless you don't have room for a designated desk to do your gaming).

No offense intended.

 

It will have great overclocking just like the 6970m has, not sure about Nvidia, but aduy just overclock your card to the 580m stock!

 

in terms of high-end, I would get one when it's around 50% better.

 

For me if it costs me more than 700 USD to upgrade . Then i just wait 3 years and buy a whole new laptop

 

I don't go by cycles. I'll buy a new machine every two years, with the best GPU available at that time.

So my cycle has been 8600M GT -> 9800M GT~GTX 260M -> 6970M

So each step has been a jump of at least twice the performance. The move from 9800M to 260M was just so I could have a machine with Core 2 Quad compatibility. I was able to sell my M860TU and upgrade to M860ETU basically for free.

Chasing GPU refresh cycles within a single year is madness, because you're basically left jonesing every 6 months.

 

You should always upgrade when there is a significant change in hardware like an update rater than refresh. Specs wise, both the 485m and 580m have the same amount of shaders only the latter is more efficient. I would only upgrade if the number of shaders has risen. Say if I owned the 470m, I would consider upgrading to the 570m because that wasn't just a refresh but an actual hardware increase.

 

i generally upgrade when real next generation comes out.

recently amd and nvidia are just renaming cards and ocing them and calling them "next gen"

 

lol i overclock mine to the 585m stock clocks.

 

What the heck is a 585M?

 

i think he meant he overclock his "bamf" to 580M clock

 

I know, but I still want to ask. And I'm still loling at him naming his GPU "bamf"

 

You don't actually need to upgrade until next generation consoles come out, except for a few exceptions like Crysis 1/2 and Metro 2033. I dare say it has been this way since the 9800 GTX times. Theres virtually no point in developing games that really require the amount of power available in the newest graphic cards if it wont run on current consoles, which are 5 years behind in technology.

Not even important PC exclusives like Starcraft 2 require powerful hardware to run at full settings. The only one is Crysis... and that's just 1 game.

Screw my logic though. Not even I follow it. I'm waiting for the 6990m to come out to upgrade from my 5870. I'm a genius.

 

I'll go with Kevin_Jack2.0... about every 2 years or product 'generation' unless
1) the shoddy console ports continue
2) a 'must have' game comes out like BF3, and you cant run it on your 485M
3) you're flush with cash; then YEARLY!

I think it depends more on your personal finances than any other reason. Not everyone can afford a $700+ GPU every generation, much less every release cycle

 

Crysis 1/2, Metro 2033, The Witcher 2, Battlefield 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Guild Wars 2.

You wont need to wait for the next console gen to not be able to play a game in highest settings with a top mobile gpu.

 

Thanks for the responses, to the guy saying why dont i just buy a desktip pc if i want power? I hate the idea of the big box pcs now, it seems so outdated to me and i love the convenience of being able to move a laptop from room to room and playing games on its own screen wherever you want.

And to the person who said wait till the next gaming console generation....thats actually a good idea. Since most games nowadays are designed to run on the consoles with dx9 settings.

Metro and Crysis actually dont run that bad at 720p so i'll tough it out for a few more years.

 

You're making a 50-60% jump in performance though. That's a logical move.

 

what i mean by 585m clocks is:
-----------core/shader/memory
485m stock: 575/1150/1500
580m stock: 620/1240/1500
my stable clock settings: 695/1390/1800

so its faster than the 580m therefore 585m

 

How do you keep those clock speed stable? I tried the 580m clock speeds on my 485m and the game would lag bad, temps went up to the 90s and the game owuld crash, do you have a special cooling solution or something?

 

ic diamond, and it will run around 83-87 with those clocks when gaming, it ran consitently 87 on the bf3 alpha, but its an alpha so i expected as much. im thinking about taking some fans and mounting them in my laptop lapboard thing, and putting in ventilation shafts in the board, but right now im not using anything, not even fn+1.

 

I would say don't upgrade unless it supports dx13

But this thread IS completely useless and irrelevant as you have all gone off the subject and are obviously much more interested in overclocking, cooling mods, and... your beautiful machines as they are now!

 

Ahhh, IC Diamond...yea i got the default paste. Its weird though, even when i overclocked it to the 580m clocks i didnt notice a change in fps playing Crysis 2 in dx11 at all. In fact it seemed to run worse overclocked than at stock speed.

Would the 90 degree + temps make the games actually run worse?

 

Not that I know of. My GPU can game consistently at 100+ degree temps and not have a performance hit. I simply dislike the idea of my card boiling water, so I usually take a break if anything makes my temps cross 100 *cough* borderlands *cough*. Then again I live in a hot country and a concrete house (traps heat), so in the US I might have far cooler temps. My card's overvolted too.

As for audy, those clocks sound completely insane. Are you positive they run at those speeds? Try running GPU-Z, and tick "refresh in background" and "log to file" so you can see if they're actually running those clocks while you're playing a game. I know IC Diamond is nice and all, but that's a 20% OC on the core and shader clocks, and an 8% or so OC on the memory. IC Diamond is supposed to be 5 degrees cooler at best. I bet most 580Ms wouldn't get that high. And you aren't overvolting or anything? Bakana.

 

well aduy fortuned a good constitution(oc potential) core
just like all retail boxed cpu: some can do 4+ghz easily and runs cool, most have to overvoltage to get to 4ghz..................thats why extreme overclockers often talk about cpu batch

 

Every single GTX 485M is still an individual chip with different tolerances and potentials concerning overclocking. When some one elses GTX 485M can hit certain clock rates there is no guarantee that anyone elses will be able to.

 

i tried to do a print screen, but ever since i installed the 280.19 driver its been glitchy even on stock clocks. im going to go back to the previous non beta driver and try it again.

 

How well your chip overclocks is just a random gamble.

Lately I seem to keep ending up on the wrong side of the coin.

 

can u tell me pls ur idle and full load temps of ur 6970m??room temp too.thx.

 

lightscreen is a useful screenshotting tool.