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NVIDIA Announces GeForce GTX 980 GPU For High-End Gaming Notebooks

Posted by samzenpus on from the running-the-numbers dept.

MojoKid writes: NVIDIA is taking things is a slightly different direction today, at the ultra-high-end of their mobile graphics offering, introducing a "new" mobile GPU implementation, that's not really a mobile part at all, the GeForce GTX 980. Notice, there's no "M" on the end of that model number. NVIDIA is betting that the enthusiasts that are most likely to buy a notebook with a GeForce GTX 980 in it are savvy enough to understand the difference. Through some careful binning and optimization of the components that accompany the GPU, including the memory, voltage regulation module, and PCB, NVIDIA was able to take the full desktop GeForce GTX 980 GPU and cram it into mobile form factors. The mobile flavor of the GeForce GTX 980 features selectively binned GPUs that are able to achieve high frequencies at lower-than-typical voltages. And those GPUs are paired to 7Gbps GDDR5 memory and a heat sink with up to 2X the capacity of typical solutions. Notebooks powered by this GPU will be unlocked, and fully overclockable.The performance of the GeForce GTX 980 will also allow notebooks powered by the GPU to push multiple screens or power VR gear. NVIDIA was demoing a GTX 980-powerd Clevo notebook at an event in New York, connected to a trio of 1080P monitors, running GTA V at smooth framerates.

90 comments

  1. Ten Gauge Power Cord by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So does the charger for this monster have a 10 gauge cable, to prevent cable overheating?

    1. Re:Ten Gauge Power Cord by RogueyWon · · Score: 1

      Actually, the power and cooling requirements might not be that bad. When the full-sized version of the 980 first appeared back in 2014, it came as a bit of a surprise. It wasn't, in some respects, the generational leap in terms of raw performance over its direct predecessor, the 780, that some had expected. But it was significantly cooler and more power efficient; startlingly so for what was, at the time, Nvidia's top-end card.

      The official specs list the power requirement of the desktop-version card itself as 165W and recommend a PC with a PSU of 500W or higher. That compares with 250W for the card and 600W for the PSU for the 780 (which is where Nvidia's high end cards had been pitched for a couple of generations previously).

      My 980 does have a reasonably sized fan on it, but even under heavy load (for instance, in The Witcher 3, which is a real hardware stress-test) that fan rarely operates at full speed. I can't find specs on the official site yet, but by the sound of things, they've managed to get those power and cooling requirements down even further for the notebook version.

      Of course, the basic 980 is no longer the top-end desktop card. Nvidia's two higher-end offerings, the (ludicrously priced) Titan and the (significantly more attractive) 980ti are both listed as having a 250W power requirement. Some of AMD's top end cards, meanwhile, more or less require that you hook them up to their own power-plant (coal, gas or nuclear is fine), while seating them at the bottom of a frozen Antarctic lake.

    2. Re:Ten Gauge Power Cord by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      shouldn't need it. the last time that this was done was yhe ati radeon mobility hd 4850/4870 series. they were desktop parts at lower core and memory clocks, which is why i finally gave in and tried ati again(msi gt725) to see if their shit drivers had gotten any better. they hadn't and to this day i think that 48xx had hardware bugs as i could hardlock them in certain rendering conditions hot or dead cold, meanwhile they'd happily chug furmark for hours @ 80C.

      i expect that the mobile 980 will be the same, i.e. cut down clocks and voltages. that said the 780/880m weren't at all shabby, essentially about 770/870 desktop ability(fewer shader modules v. 780/880 desktop, although for some reason most 780m came with 4GB GDDR5 v. 3GB desktop.. my situation...)

  2. More info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Worlds-Fastest-Mobile-GPU-Full-GM204-GTX-980-Notebooks

    http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/70314-nvidias-gtx-980-notebooks.html

  3. Savviness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess the next Apple iMac might contain this GTX980 without any indication that it's the mobile version.

  4. Re:*fart* *fart* *poop* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You racist pig are no cow. You dont say moo. you say shit.

  5. Notebook, not laptop. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Put this thing in your lap and it will cook your wedding tackle!

  6. The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by sinij · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The only Gaming Notebooks that should exist are Pen&Paper.

    Why would anyone game on a ultra-light budget-oriented laptop that has no way to provide adequate cooling or power to game?

    1. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a recently bought MSI gs70 with a 970M (6GB version). Epic performance, perfectly acceptable cooling, and wonderfully portable. I'd be curious to see if this does even better in a similar form factor.

    2. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would anyone game on a ultra-light budget-oriented laptop that has no way to provide adequate cooling or power to game?

      And what relevance does this have to do with the article?

    3. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      We're witnessing the final death of the desktop - right here.

      Never gonna happen.

      In the corporate world, physical desktop machines will stick around for a long time.

      And as long as you pay a significant premium for a laptop which isn't as easily upgraded, a lot of home users will continue to buy a desktop.

      With a desktop you can swap out pretty much any component, with a laptop not so much. You can pretty much have a desktop machine built to spec, whereas a laptop is always going to be a much more limited menu.

      Yes, there will be tablets. Yes, a lot of people find a laptop covers their needs. But I don't see the desktop going away any time soon.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am the other way around on this one.

      I refuse to use a Laptop unless I have to. I hate the touch pad and really don't need them, I much prefer a more durable and powerful desktop. If it is weak enough that I don't need my desktop, I would rather just use a tablet instead.

    5. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the corporate world, physical desktop machines will stick around for a long time.

      Most people in the corporate world use laptops not towers.

      And as long as you pay a significant premium for a laptop which isn't as easily upgraded, a lot of home users will continue to buy a desktop.

      LOL, that's an interesting nerd bubble you live in. Most home users don't buy desktops. Laptops have outsold desktops for home users for nearly a decade.

    6. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, if you assume that gaming is always about pushing the most pixels on the most powerful/power-hungry hardware, then no. On the other hand, I've spent a lot of hours playing for instance the Heroes of Might and Magic series on a 12" laptop.

      As for the GTX 980, I'm sure it will now run for several minutes before melting something or discharging the battery.

    7. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by sinij · · Score: 1

      I'd be curious to see if this does even better in a similar form factor.

      Please outline a scenario where it could do better in a small form factor?

      Congratulations, you can theoretically game on your notebook. For 10 minutes on a fully charged battery. While suffering third-degree burns to your crotch and hands.

    8. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      And as long as you pay a significant premium for a laptop which isn't as easily upgraded, a lot of home users will continue to buy a desktop.

      That's pretty hilarious. Even 3 years ago, laptops made up around 70-75% of home computer sales vs desktops. And the laptop share is probably even higher today. "A lot of home users" are not doing what you claim because the people buying desktops are an ever shrinking minority.

    9. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by sinij · · Score: 1

      Well, if you assume that gaming is always about pushing the most pixels on the most powerful/power-hungry hardware, then no.

      For any other definition of gaming, why would you want GTX 980?

    10. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Those things are irrelevant to most buyers. When laptops become more on-par with desktops as far as expense (and they're pretty damn close already), the desktop will be as good as dead.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    11. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by gizmo2199 · · Score: 1

      But that doesn't include the gamer marker this is aimed at. Any new laptop using the 980M will almost certainly be price above $1,500. For half the price you could build a comparably specked desktop.

      --
      This Sig does not Exist.
    12. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 2

      Most home users aren't the sort who buy dedicated PC gaming machines, though. I have a work laptop, that's relatively new and light - but all it needs to run is office/exchange/web browser and anything else corporate decides they need me using. I'm not worried about how many frames of Crysis3 it can push, or how it handles the latest Call of Duty Advanced Modern Black Ghost Ops running at 4k resolution.

      I used to have a 'gaming' laptop, because I traveled a lot, and still wanted to play games. A desktop isn't really an option when you're away from home more often than not. That said, the moment I was back in a stable environment, I splurged on a monster gaming desktop with top of the line video cards and a massive monitor, because laptops just don't provide anywhere near a satisfying experience. I also bought a much more modest laptop, that while it had enough to do some basic stuff (play an MMO, web browse, etc) when I went on a trip, it also didn't weigh so much that I would up wanting to kill myself when trying to lug it through an airport.

      The only way I'd consider going back to a "gaming" laptop is if I was on the road 24/7 again. It's just not worth the cost, because you'll get far more bang for your buck with a desktop as a gamer.

    13. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      Why would anyone game on a ultra-light budget-oriented laptop that has no way to provide adequate cooling or power to game?

      Gaming laptops are neither ultra-light or budget-oriented. Some of them weigh over 10 lbs. because they need to be thick enough to cram the high-end GPUs and other components inside as well as the cooling system to keep it from burning a hole through a desk. They also typically cost several thousand dollars because they're using the premium components that can cost more than another person's entire system.

      I don't know why people buy something like this as it's clearly not for me. I'd rather make a mid-range desktop rig that gets 90% of the performance for under 50% of the cost, but I imagine that some people like these because they're more portable. If you go to a lot of LAN parties, dragging a 10 lb. notebook around is easier than having to lug a PC case around.

    14. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      herpa pcmasterrace derp. you guys are just tools

    15. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      In the corporate world, physical desktop machines will stick around for a long time.

      I'm not so sure about that; at my new (software dev) job I asked for one desktop and one laptop (expecting a Macbook and a Dell tower or something), but got issued a Thinkpad and a Mac Mini. I have yet to see another new employee get a computer with actual ATX-compatible components.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    16. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If desktops can be upgraded easily and are bought less often than laptops, the two statements are not contradictory at all.

    17. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The corporate world is a tiny market compared to home consumers, even adjusted for the size of corporate coffers those places don't spend so much on IT these days. There's too much evidence to suggest the shift is happening: HP out, Dell out, Konami abandoning AAA titles. The game market is moving to mobile, content creators are moving to mobile, manufacturers are moving to mobile. Games drive the extreme end of the desktop, and games are moving away from it. Desktop is being pushed further and further into the "enthusiast" realm - which basically means "only you care about it".

      Further, the move into SoaC, the merging of CPU and GPU (Intel), the merging of CPU and parallel compute...all these things conspire to make your machine "less" upgradable. I haven't owned a machine that survived even one iteration of a CPU in a long time now, so the whole issue of upgradability is pretty moot at this point. Having PCs with a 2 year contract of maintainable service is actually desirable to companies. Heck, Apple now want us buying iPhones every year. That conveyor belt is getting faster, and those big clunky desktops can't hope to keep up.

    18. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would anyone game on a ultra-light budget-oriented laptop that has no way to provide adequate cooling or power to game?

      Why would anyone not drive a Ferrari? Could it be that some of us live on farms with unpaved roads?

      The desktop is rapidly becoming obsolete. I know many people who would rather gaming laptops than being tied to one place.

      As a side note I've spent 1/4 of this year in a hotel.

    19. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd be curious to see if this does even better in a similar form factor.

      Please outline a scenario where it could do better in a small form factor?

      Congratulations, you can theoretically game on your notebook. For 10 minutes on a fully charged battery. While suffering third-degree burns to your crotch and hands.

      Angry much? GP was wondering if the new 980 would be better than his 970m in the same size chassi, not a smaller one.

      Besides, people don't play "gamer" games with the laptop running off the battery in their lap. They put it in a bag, go to a different place, open it up, plug it in and put it on a desk or table to play. They'll use a mouse too.

      That's why they call it a NOTEBOOK, not a LAPTOP.

    20. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Call of Duty Advanced Modern Black Ghost Ops

      That game sounds awesome.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    21. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2008 called. They want their old-man [get off my lawn] rant back.

      Seriously, have you even used a modern core i7 laptop? I have 4 processors, 16 GB of RAM, 2 SSDs. I have almost the exact same specs on my workstation at work. I don't do graphics design but I do play the occassional game.

      So, which is faster? Neither. Both are fast enough that any sort of waiting I'm doing is nil. Zero. Zip. 150GB Mongo DB file to load up and query? No problem. Parsing 25GB XML files? Yep. Close enough to the same.

      Could I have said that 3 years ago? Yep. 5 years ago? Maybe if I had a $3000 laptop. 10 years ago? Absolutely not, no matter how much money you pay.

      Enjoy your old man shit, stop posting on new hardware threads.

    22. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually I game quite a bit on it, sitting on my couch, no burns, no heat discomfort, for long periods of time. Admittedly, battery sucks, but the desktop fanboys out there seem to miss the point: I can take my system with me. Also, easy scenario: same laptop, this GPU, with the double capacity heatsink listed in the article, along with the decreased voltages, also mentioned in the article.

      O_o

    23. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, not tools - pioneers.

      I can guarantee a large percentage of the devices you have today owe at least a nod to the PC, if not they owe their entire existence to the PC. The PC was the mantle that created the entire GPU industry, incubated it, funded it, and got it to the point we have today. If 3DFX and Voodoo hadn't existed we might not even have the nVidia we have today. Just because the culture, heritage and origins are diluted doesn't make the PC irrelevant anymore than you wouldn't tell your parents they were tools for conceiving you.

      Or maybe they would have done us a favor if they hadn't?

    24. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 1

      I've yet to see a Laptop be even close to a desktop in price. I've always seen that a laptop is at least twice the cost of a desktop that's 2 or 3 times the power.

      Case in point: My wife has used several sites to try to design her dream gaming laptop. Every time she's come up with a system that's no less than $4,000 and usually closer to $5,000 in price. For ~$4,000 on NewEgg I can build a Dual Xenon (12-Cores total) server with 64GB of RAM (expandable to 512GB), Quad Gigabit Ethernet Ports, and Quad SLI Full Factor GTX 980's pushing High Definition Game Streaming two different games, one to my current laptop and one to my wife's while keeping all the high end graphics eye-candy that can be mustered. With that much beef, I could probably run several Linux servers on it at the same time I'm running the two separate Windows VM's that are pushing the games down the line to the laptops.

      How do I know this is do-able? Using my 3 year old Desktop with Intel Quad Core, 16 Gigs of Ram and Dual GTX980's(very recent upgrade from dual GTX 760's) that cost me less than $2k I can stream Batman: Arkham Knight (pc glitches and all...though it's been much improved with last month's patch) at the highest video options to my Laptop that's connected to my 1080p TV and Dolby 7.1 and get the full home theater experience with all the stupid PhysX effects that Rocksteady could fit. The laptops that my wife and I have? They're both 4 year old Acer Aspire 7552 Laptops, Quad Core with an AMD M6650 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and Gigabit Ethernet each.

      Not just for gaming, but many times I'd be working on a cpu/gpu intensive project from the comfort of my bed while remoted into the desktop using the laptop as nothing more than a thick-client; especially if I were setting a project up for an overnight compile/compute job. Anyone who does serious work/play with a computer, I'd highly recommend pouring all your money into putting together a beefed up Desktop/Server system to run all the compute tasks in the household, and just get each member of the household that needs one a cheap laptop for the day to day tasks of email and web-browsing. If they need the compute power or want to play a high end game, stream it. Put the money into something that can easily be upgraded and repaired as needed...instead of the unit that's designed to be disposed of and replaced when the new shiney comes out.

    25. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have used the newer laptops. And nothing to do with an old man rant.

      Has to do with the fact that at the same price points, the desktop is both more powerful and more durable. I have no intentions of paying extra cash just for a laptop. And I have no intentions of paying more for, what is to me, no justifiably reason.

      And if I am on the move and not around my desktop, a laptop would still never leave its case as I would rather use a tablet to do those tasks. As, just like the laptop in your example, it is good enough and cheap enough to do exactly what I want without resorting to a desktop or a laptop.

      I am not doing business away from the house, then I could just justify the laptop for tasks like you mentioned, but for most of us, that isn't an issue.

      Desktop for home, Tablet for away. Laptop isn't even in that equation for most of us who don't require it for work.

      So, now, for the obligatory, Goodbye and get off my lawn.

    26. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you probably wouldn't want that, because it's too hot. But it'd still be nice to have some discrete GPU instead of integrated crap. Being a couple years behind the curve is better than being a decade behind the curve.

    27. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Never gonna happen. In the corporate world, physical desktop machines will stick around for a long time.

      In the workstation market perhaps, otherwise I think laptops for portability and thin clients for on-site work is taking over. That way they can just provision you more resources in a data center somewhere and if it breaks just grab a different thin client.

      And as long as you pay a significant premium for a laptop which isn't as easily upgraded, a lot of home users will continue to buy a desktop.

      For the premium? Sure. But my impression is relatively few people do anything but the simplest of upgrades, the kind you potentially could do on a laptop too unless it's soldered in except maybe a few gamers.

      You can pretty much have a desktop machine built to spec, whereas a laptop is always going to be a much more limited menu.

      It's easier to go a little overkill these days. It's not like ten, twenty years ago when it would be half the price in a few years.

      Yes, there will be tablets. Yes, a lot of people find a laptop covers their needs. But I don't see the desktop going away any time soon.

      If you don't believe the desktop is marginalized, you should realize that the latest Skylake processors topping out at 65W except for the K-model is basically slightly higher clocked laptop chips. The desktop models are just a spin-off, just like the high-end desktop is a spin-off of servers. Nobody puts effort into the desktop anymore.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    28. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Laptops include a HD/4K display so add monitor in you calculation for desktops...

    29. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Toshito · · Score: 1

      I don't know why people buy something like this as it's clearly not for me.

      There, you said it. Different users have different needs.

      Personnaly I would never go back to a desktop. It takes too much space, and I love that I can do gaming, and browsing, and anytime I want I just pick up my laptop and bring it with me anywhere in the house.

      I could have a gaming desktop AND a cheap laptop, but then I'd have 2 machines to maintain, (on top of the 5 other laptops in my household).

      And to be sure I can acces my data on both computers, I'd have to either duplicate it or put it on a network drive or (god forbid) The Cloud(TM), and it would not be seemless.

      The fact is I work in IT, been a programmer for 25 years, and I don't know anyone (friends, family or close colleague) who still has a desktop.

      Of course I'm not a passionnate gamer, as long as I have more than 30fps on most games I play I'm happy.

      --
      Try it! Library of Babel
    30. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      Most people in the corporate world use laptops not towers.

      My job (UHC) and my last job (KCI) only assigned laptops to mobile personal and people that might need to work from home. Most of the other hundred thousand employees use desktops. There just isn't a need for laptops

    31. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by marcomarrero · · Score: 1

      Sadly, most people want their laptops, cars with auto transmissions, and 1GB data plans (not even enough for a 90's 56K modem).

      I think it's significant that if the Oculus Rift succeed, these GTX 980 laptops will probably be the only ones that meet recommended specs. Also, current nVidias won't take advantage of important DX12 features, so they've been doing things like not overpricing new cards, GameWorks, etc.

    32. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1

      It is not a patch on "Gratuitous Violence 4 - the death-match orgy".

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    33. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      Not all of us use it for gaming. Some use the the GPU for heterogeneous computing R&D.

      I use my desktop i7 + a discrete GTX 980Ti for (game) dev.

      I _also_ use a MacBook Pro with a "decent" mobile 750M for WebGL (shader) testing.

      Since I can't lug around my desktop, having a portable laptop that doesn't have a complete crap GPU is extremely convenient.

      Different strokes for different folks.

    34. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      Why have 4K at 17", though? Or even 18"? I have a 28" 4K desktop monitor and it's gorgeous, but I can't even make out the pixels when I'm at a reasonable using distance. What benefit is 4K over 1440 on a laptop, other than requiring beefier gaming components?

      --
      My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
    35. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      Simple: These cards are not targeted at ultralights. What's different is that this is the desktop 980 chip in a laptop format. Normally, nvidia disables a few cores, underclocks, and adds an 'm' to the model. They didn't do that this time. Instead, they left the chip intact, binned for good ones, and modified the power regulation. Like the other high end 'm' gtx models, you'll find these in gaming machines which are way bigger and heavier than ultralights.

    36. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      I think he meant gaming/workstation laptops.. not the garden variety macbook pro with intel video and slow cpu. The more accurate term for these is 'portables' because while they have batteries, they don't last more than an hour usually.

    37. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is what passes for an argument nowadays?

    38. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I concur! I only own 1 desktop and it's a server in my basement. The rest of my family's computers are laptops, and my kids like to game. That means I can't buy "student" laptops but mid-range laptops, like a Macbook Pro or a similarly equipped PC laptop. I'll never go back to a desktop for regular use, though.

    39. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 1

      Yeah, right ... Try putting my desktop (dual GTX980, an SSD and two hard drives and a Core i7-4930K with 16GB RAM) in the body of a laptop. Every year appears an idiot saying that the desktop is dead.

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    40. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      Yeah, right ...

      So you disagree with the sales data from computer OEMs?

      Every year appears an idiot saying that the desktop is dead.

      Good for them. I stated no such thing.

    41. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but the person they responded to was obviously talking about the market as a whole.

    42. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no. because of modifiability and upgradeability. desktops are going nowhere, not to mention mobile cpus lag.

      while mobile graphics cards may have a spec, mxm, it usually means electrical/mechanical connections, and at least asus in some of their notebooks reversed the spec. add to that heatsinks, mounting, bios support, etc. good luck dropping in an mxm upgrade card from vendor xyz for notebook from vendor pqr.

      and this is the hardest upgrade, next is cpu which mechanically is not so worrisome, but again bios, more pieces to disassemble, etc plus as mentioned a hot mobile cpu still means lower batt runtime, on ac for max power, and even then still not as good as better desktop parts.

      also while it may be the same as desktop part, right now it won't touch the real world desktop gpu perf.

    43. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      4k resolution laptops START at about $1,400 so wasn't including them at the lower price point and regular old 1080p monitors you can get for around $100-200 that do 3D and all.

      Either way, the desktop, monitor included, still ends up being cheaper and more durable than a laptop of equivalent specs, so, if I am not taking it from my house, I would rather have the faster, more durable and cheaper desktop to use that also has the benefits of being much easier and cheaper to replace anything should it break.

      And, if I am traveling, I am not going to be gaming and will not need a laptop unless it is for business purposes and an extended leave and beyond that, a tablet would fulfill my purposes nicely while being more durable than the laptop and much smaller and easier to manage. All the bigger stuff, I am not going to be doing while I am out and about.

    44. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Again, that may be relevant to you (a very specific subset of people) but most people end up buying their laptop at WalMart/BestBuy and there it's:
      Here's a desktop, Core i3, 4GB RAM, 1TB hard drive: $399
      Here's a laptop, Core i3, 6GB RAM, 500GB hard drive: $399

      The fact that the Core i3's both have different model names or even from entirely different platforms is largely irrelevant, as long as the MHz is close and the GB matches, they're on par to most people. And some people will do the research and find out that for a laptop as powerful as the $399 desktop, they'll need to pay $499. And laptops are more convenient ergo, they buy the $499 or whatever the salesman has sold them up to, they'll also get the protection plan, just in case.

      That IS how people choose these products, even a lot of semi-casual gamers will choose on a fairly similar thing. They'll match the specs of their desktop with the specs on their laptops and the price difference is again a little more, but an nVidia 980M == a regular 980 right? And the laptop is only $200 more (on a $1500 buy, not that much difference).

      And you quote Arkham Knight which is specifically a very bad port which runs just fine on most "gaming" laptops/desktops unless you have specced out your rig to be SLI+ and want to run it on 2180p120 which it doesn't. It runs just fine on 720p24 (or whatever PS4's run at) and most people won't even know the difference.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    45. Re:The only Gaming Notebooks are P&P by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 1

      If a customer is looking at computers on that low of the spectrum, they wouldn't give a flying fuck about anything in this article. If a person is looking for something to do email and facebook and maybe a few flash games, they wouldn't need a desktop; and they sure as hell wouldn't need a bloody nVidia 980 in whatever the hell piece of crap device they buy. This article is about nVidia putting their newest gaming graphics card into a laptop form factor. This is an article targeting the gaming and performance market, where the desktop will be king for as long as laptops remain a replaceable unit only. Laptops designed with gaming in mind are notoriously expensive... which was the whole point of my posting. A laptop with a single 980? Where's that gonna be in 5 years? The fucking trash can while the buyer lays down another $4k on a decent gaming laptop with the brand spankin new nVidia z60 (because marketing sez the numbers can't go above 1000 [disclaimer: no, I have no idea what the versioning numbers are going to be 10 generations - 5 yrs - from now]). Meanwhile I'll still have my performance server chugging along on quad SLI versions of that same nVidia z60 for about half that price, while delivering 1080p HD gaming to the 2 laptops I bought back in 2011.

      You tout the death of the desktop. It isn't going to happen; not in the next 5 years...probably not even in 10. Sure, you'll have more households that will give up control and use cloud providers for their stuff, but there's too many of us that need that control over our data - and with every data breach that goes public our numbers grow. What's more likely to happen is those of us with true privacy and data security in mind will make sure the high end desktop and low to midrange server market will stay alive and well as we build "household mainframes" to manage our compute and data storage needs while we only offload the least security critical information out into the cloud for remote access to those files from work or school. We'll then hook into the mainframe to stream movies and Super HD games to our TVs; other Super HD games or graphics arts projects to our laptops; and download recipes, books, schematics, etc to our tablets on demand.

      On a side note to this, a while ago I did an Ask Slashdot about tying my household to my parent's household to perform remote management tasks on all their systems. The solution that had the best value for that situation was each of our households having a "household mainframe" that each have their own LDAP tree but will work together over ssh using private key authentication, allowing me to cross trees and manage their roving profiles as needed. If the link goes down (rare but it does happen), each tree can handle their own networks independently as needed. It has greatly reduced the number of trips I need to make each month to ensure that their systems are working properly, and they don't hire 3rd parties anymore that screw up their systems.

  7. QuadSLI GTX Titan Netbook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know you want one.

  8. NVIDIA is for cows. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are all cows. Cows say moo. MOOOOO! MOOOOO! Moo cows MOOOO! Moo say the cows. YOU GAMER COWS!!

  9. Battery life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Battery life: What battery life? :D

    (That's the one thing you can't find from NV PR related to this part...)

    1. Re:Battery life by ledow · · Score: 1

      Don't think of it as a laptop that you just game on.

      Think of it as a small gaming computer you can have on your lap, with built-in UPS, that you can also take to work or on holiday.

      Seriously, gaming notebooks are the best combination of things - powerful, off-grid, mobile, small, portable. I've taken to buying a better laptop and not bothering with a desktop at all. With all your games, all your work, all your VM's, and you can take it anywhere and game anywhere that there's a plug socket - LAN parties, on holiday, and still do all your work on the same PC on the train if you want.

  10. "High-End Gaming Notebook" by NotDrWho · · Score: 2

    I know those words, but in that context they make no sense.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:"High-End Gaming Notebook" by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, it will have zero battery life, need to be thicker to hold the cooling gear and huge video card, and need an external monitor to save weight.

      They'll also remove the keyboard and touchpad to prevent overheating.

      Essentially it will ship as a big black box about 18"x18"x8". ;-)

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:"High-End Gaming Notebook" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More like 16" x 11" x 1". I have an HP one. A few years old now, but high end graphics when I first got it. It has good fans & a strong air flow. No problems there unless you put it on blanket and block the vents. Battery lasts for a surprisingly long time. Which is annoying when I forget to plug it in and it eventually does run down. But it will play anything. It's handy in that I can take it with me when I travel, or just to the other room while I keep the baby company as she tries to fall asleep. Very convenient!

  11. Really implausible use-case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clevo notebook at an event in New York, connected to a trio of 1080P monitors, running GTA V at smooth framerates...

    I understand that some people want to play games, but only have room in their life for a notebook. But if your desk is big enough for three 1080p monitors, you have no excuse for powering it all with a laptop. It's not like you're gonna take those extra monitors with you when you play GTA V on the train or whatever. You only need a graphics card for a single monitor.

    I could put together an entire computer that can smoothly play GTA V for $400. I bet that the premium for buying a laptop with a GTX 980 is not going to be less. And with my solution, you have an entire extra computer, which is useful for more than just games.

    It's one thing to have a laptop that can run games on the screen. I mean, I don't have any urge to get one, but I can imagine a traveling salesman who goes from hotel to hotel, and wants to play in his downtime. But the equivalent of the GTX 750Ti can play GTA V or whatever, and it's much nicer to your battery. You're not gonna bring extra monitors with you, right? So who is the intended audience of the demo?

    1. Re:Really implausible use-case by ledow · · Score: 1

      It's not about playing GTA V on three monitors. It's showing you that it can handle three times what GTA V needs in a demo.

      And you might be able to buy something cheaper but it's not going to be small enough or light enough to lug around, come with a built-in UPS (laptop battery), etc.

      Don't forget - if it can do three GTA V screens simultaneously, that means it can do one GTA V screen at 1/3rd power. And still scale for a good time after you've bought it (which makes that investment more worthwhile).

      Personally, Googling for their MSI model, I'm actually disappointed that it's not powerful enough. It's only 4-core with 8Gb. My old gaming laptop bought several years ago beats that in its stock configuration, and came with the same 8/8.1/10 upgrades as options to its supplied 7 licence. And it can play GTA V. In fact, I played the entire game through on that laptop. While Alt-Tabbing to work, VM's, browsing, and 1000 other games on my Steam account.

      A gaming laptop isn't just for gaming. It's a laptop that - when pushed and plugged in - can game competitively with a desktop. You'd have to buy a laptop AND a gaming PC to compete and then you'd have two machine with two different purposes that you have to switch between and lug around. Not to mention the screen.

      Or one laptop that you can take to work, play on the train, game seriously at home or a LAN party, and do whatever you want on it without having to suffer any major "disadvantage". PC's can't be moved. Laptops with non-gaming graphics are shit at games. Gaming laptops are the happy medium.

  12. Thanks, nVidia... by pushing-robot · · Score: 1

    Now please stick in in an external Thunderbolt 3 box, so I don't have to buy a $2500 gaming laptop that weighs a stone and will be obsolete in six months when the next GPU comes out.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    1. Re:Thanks, nVidia... by ledow · · Score: 1

      In the UK, it's 14 pounds (lb) of weight. In the imperial system that pre-dates anything metric and even gets the symbols it uses from the Latin (lb = libra).

      Come back when your measurement system is several thousand years old.

    2. Re:Thanks, nVidia... by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      Stone as a unit of measure does not exist in the US, it's UK and Ireland thing. Ignoramuses like you seem to think anything non metric is the US but allow me to educated you that the former British colonies still use plenty of imperial measurements. In the UK and Ireland if you ask someone what they weigh they are more likely to answer in stone than kilos and they still buy their beer in pints.

  13. can they mass produce this thing? by serbanp · · Score: 1

    Normal part, just binned for high speed so that it still operates at the desired clock rate while powered from a lower voltage supply.

    Essentially just the best of the best will make the cut; this makes very uncertain the actual number of viable dies out of any given wafer batch.

    1. Re:can they mass produce this thing? by mattventura · · Score: 1

      They don't have to mass produce it because it's a niche product to begin with. It's probably going to be prohibitively expensive, not to mention the cooling required means you won't be seeing them in Macbooks and the like.

    2. Re:can they mass produce this thing? by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      If they have been producing the part for any length of time they should be able to predict within a couple percent the number of parts per wafer run they will get.

    3. Re:can they mass produce this thing? by serbanp · · Score: 1

      Wafer yield is an imperfect science, you can't predict it within a couple percent what it will be except if it's very high (90% and more).

      Moreover, they're talking about binning the rare part that somehow hits the target speed at much lower VDD. I don't think one can estimate the chance of this occurring in a batch.

    4. Re:can they mass produce this thing? by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      There is a reason I said wafer run, not per wafer. A run of 5000 wafers is going to generate roughly the same number of "good" parts on mature processes. Nvidia has been producing these parts for almost a year, they have the process down, they should and probably are predicting their numbers to within a few percent on a 5000 wafer batch.

  14. LEFTOVERS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So the desktop GTX 980 will be the ones that weren't the best of the bunch and less likely to take to overclocking or running cool. Interesting to know before I don't buy one.

  15. Not the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This may be the same silicon, but it's not the same device. Nvidia's spec sheet for the notebook part is largely incomplete, but the specs that are there are different - with a clock speed about 100MHZ slower.

    Compare
    Desktop: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-980/specifications
    Notebook: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/notebook-gpus/geforce-gtx-980/specifications

    Still impressive, but this isn't really anything above and beyond the Radeon Fury vs Fury Nano release where AMD intentionally de-clocked their top part to fit a smaller cooling and power profile.

    It does seem like a lot of the newer chip specs are being left to the system OEMs; which is going to make system spec based shopping really hard. Clevo, Asus, Alienware et. all will each be able to claim that they offer the "GTX980" while likely having significantly different TDP limiting real delivery. This is already true with many card makers on the desktop side, but at least there it's still possible to point at the reference clocks and TDP and show how your design varies.

    Nvidia's notebook spec page says "1 - Varies by model. Please check manufacturer for details." - so does this mean that a system maker can run the card at 600MHZ because they're too cheap to put in the large batteries and power management components for the full deal?

  16. Branding, branding, and more branding. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nvidia is dropping the M moniker because buyers hate it. Nvidia has had a nasty habit of the past of taking lower tier GPUs and giving them the same model number as a higher tier desktop counterpart, then slapping an 'M' on them and hoping you'd swallow that bullshit because it's a 'mobile' part. (You could fully expect a 980M to be basically an under-clocked 960)

    They were really indiscriminate about it too. Sometimes you'd get a chip from a completely previous generation that was nothing like it's like-numbered desktop counterpart, missing features and all.

    Maybe they're cleaning up their act. Probably not. Gaming notebooks are a premium sector that they can really milk for extra cash because there's no interchangeable parts.

  17. Makes perfect sense to me by hogger · · Score: 1

    I've got a Sager Clevo gaming notebook with an 860M, and there's nothing to hate about it. It lasts a long time on a charge. It plays most games at their highest res. It runs Linux great. It's light, with an SSD for the OS drive. It runs two external monitors when I'm using it for work. It has no DVD, so it's lightweight. It doesn't run the Nvidia card when I'm not playing 3d games (uses the onboard Intel graphics). This GTX980 on a Clevo would likely have all those same benefits. You folks trash talking gaming notebooks are nuts.

    1. Re:Makes perfect sense to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...It has no DVD, so it's lightweight...You folks trash talking gaming notebooks are nuts

      Lightweight because it has no DVD, eh? You sound a little nutty yourself.

  18. Use Case? by SpankiMonki · · Score: 1

    Can someone point out to this tired old man what the point of this is supposed to be? Serious question. Is it for something other than "enthusiast" market e-peen?

    Look, I get why some folks want to game on a notebook. But pretty much every single notebook with a nVidia GTX980M will play pretty much every single game at high framerates on it's screen's native res. But they've got a notebook pushing 3x1920x1080 at this NY event...is this what it's supposed to be used for? Is it really "mobile" when I need to lug 3 1080p monitors around with me in order to take advantage of this GPU?

  19. The reality: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Nvidia has created a new way for you to make toast and cook pancakes on your lap!
    Just load Crysis, pour the batter and BAM! instant pancake.
    We highly recommend cleaning your keyboard before attempting this process.
    Nvidia is not liable for gpu burnt genitalia.

  20. Rocky mountain oysters... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    under an open fire...

  21. To everybody bashing gaming laptops... by c.r.o.c.o · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Until very recently I was traveling for work every week, and the gaming laptop on which I am typing this post saved my sanity and liver in plenty of hotel rooms. It is a Clevo P150SM-A, weighing in at about 12lbs including AC adapter. It was not fun lugging it around airports twice a week while waiting for connecting flights. But it did the job, and I could play Fallout, Skyrim, Bioshock, Dying Light and many other games at very respectable frame rates. Even now that my traveling days are done, I am sitting on my balcony with a cup of tea, enjoying the end of the Canadian summer. I can also set it up in my living room while my significant other is watching TV.

    I had gaming desktops for about a decade, and I just got tired of being stuck at the same desk in the evenings, while spending my mornings at a different desk in the office.

    I am aware that a laptop's performance will never come close to that of a desktop. But if you cannot understand why someone will make that trade-off, don't click reply.

    All that said, I am surprised nobody mentioned the significant issue that Nvidia has with the Windows 10 upgrade. NBR is full of reports of black screens after upgrading, and the cause seems to be the Nvidia driver overwriting the LCD EEPROM. It seems Alienwares are particularly affected, with a few Clevos as well.

    1. Re:To everybody bashing gaming laptops... by crazy+blade · · Score: 1

      I myself can't even stand lugging one from the living room to the bedroom! Can't wait till there's a decent one of these:

      http://www.kitguru.net/compone...

      http://hexus.net/tech/news/per...

      I'd love to have it connected to the monitor of my desk and connect my slim-and-light laptop to it for gaming. Even more awesome would be the fact that one could have an enclosure and be able to even swap out the graphics card!

      --
      To err is human, but to forgive is beyond the scope of the Operating System...
    2. Re:To everybody bashing gaming laptops... by PPalmgren · · Score: 1

      As long as you're fine having your desktop on all the time, the steam gamestream mode actually works extremely well. I built a HTPC and stuck a high end graphics card in it for couch gaming, but soon after, they made their gamestream service respectable. I moved the graphics card into the desktop and SLI'd it and instead used on-chip graphics for the HTPC. The HTPC played games as flawless as before using the streaming with better quality b/c of more power on the desktop. I'm looking forward to the steam link boxes coming out, and recently sold that HTPC for a pretty penny.

    3. Re:To everybody bashing gaming laptops... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry to break it to you but Thunderbolt is destined for the same fate as FireWire. It's never gonna become a mass market item.

      So you can wait for a solution that will never appear (or it might appear and have a production run of, say, 20). Or you can get something which exists and is known to work:

      http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/alienwares-graphics-amplifier-external-gpu-is-here-but-do-we-need-it/

      Which has limitations to be sure, but they are known limitations and can be measured as implemented. As opposed to your hypothetical Thunderbolt solution which is vapourware.

  22. I once did it, Alienware Laptop mx17R3 never again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The base for my post is very simply; gaming laptops just don't cut it and its about cooling/design.

    I have always gamed on Desktop but 3 years ago I was moving around ALOT and so decided to try a gaming laptop. The reviews were good, honestly at the time money was not much of an issue hence I got an Alienware Mx17R3 with the Nvidia M680 (think this is the correct one) it was nearer the top level spec that anything else. The laptop on paper should have been playing games for years but it just could not.

    First year most games were bad, I called up support over and over and finally turns out there was an over heating issue and they needed to replace the gfx card (more of a dell complaint but they really did try and stall me till it was out of warranty, cocks) This change did help but the problem was that the graphics card would throttle the gfx if it was getting hot. which happened about every 30-40 seconds in heavy games this is even with a special laptop calling table. I gave up gaming around this time because my Top end machine could not actually run many things (got a nice desktop rig about a year ago, witcher 2 FINALLY I CAN FINISH YOU). Interestingly a year ago the Nvidea gfx went pop, this in fact has given the laptop a new lease of life. Its faster to boot, so much quieter, I can play games that would have the above shuddering issue (example: diabilo3), I get that the design of the R3 might have caused all these issues but I do not believe you will ever fully utilize its power and the drawbacks just are not worth it

    End of the story is I would never get another gaming laptop, if i was traveling again, I would just get a lower powered machine and leave the gfx intense gaming to the home PC.