New Laptop

[Kin Hell]

Indeed it is. Doesn't time fly!

Heck fella, indeed it does.

Is there a point to getting the most expensive high-end cards these days unless you have 4k screen and insist on +100Hz? Would think they're overkill on anything else.

I sort of understand where you are, but I feel I have to express my feelings about this too, so please bear with me.

I upgraded from 3 x GTX670's to 2 x GTX780Ti's. @ the time I did this, GTX980 was just out by approx 8 weeks & the 780Ti prices fell through the floor. I got two of them for £600 instead of £1300 when they were in their prime. However, I also ended up with 2880 Stream processors on one card over the 2304 on the GTX780, compared to 1344 Stream processors on each of the 3 x GTX670's.
WOW!! - what a difference on my 120Hz LG W2363D Monitor. 5760 Stream processors on SLI instead of 4032 on Tr-SLI & a 384 Bit Memory bus instead of a 256 Bit bus on the 670's. It meant that Far Cry 4 could be put in ULTRA settings & holds 120FPS @ 1920 x 1080 no matter how busy it all gets. Simply put, it's "Buttery Smooth" & 384 Bit Memory bus is a huge help over 256 Bit, coupled with even more Stream processors.

Quite breathtaking in so many ways, but as far as I am concerned, no way would I want to kill my rig by putting a 4k monitor on it.
For those who might be concerned at this statement, a 4k monitor has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 (exactly 4 x 1920 x 1080 screens) so if I said my average FPS on one resolution of 1920 x 1080 was 120, I'd be in the realms of 30fps per monitor, less any overheads the cards have to deal with by outputting such a high res.
However, if you had a 4k G-Sync monitor in place, the G-Sync would help keep things smooth. This is a technology I have had no personal experience with yet, but the reviews are quite promising. I beleive Acer are now doing a 27" IPS Panel with G-Sync, though it's G2G is still a poor 4ms. Not sure how G-Sync will cope with that & @ nearlly £700, I'm almost tempted to have one if the 4ms G2G is un-noticeable. *cough*

It's perhaps a little unfortunate, but we all have different perspectives and perceptions of what really does look & feel good. In my books, 2 x GTX980's will struggle to run 4k screens because of the lack VRAM & number of Stream processors. You really need to be in the realms of "Titan X" & 12GB of Ram for those screens & then throw at least two of them in SLI for a half decent experience @ this res.

Graphics in Laptop's are no where near as powerful as their Bigger sisters on the PC platform & bang per buck, Laptops are grossly overpriced, but.....

It really depends how much spare money you have in your wallet & can you justify it by seeing & feeling a difference.

[Demon Cleaner]

Graphics in Laptop's are no where near as powerful as their Bigger sisters on the PC platform & bang per buck, Laptops are grossly overpriced, but.....

Also because of the power supply, which in my case would be 180W (150W if you get the GTX965M).

Anyway, the screen is definitely no 4k, it's just a normal Full HD.

[Kin Hell]

Graphics in Laptop's are no where near as powerful as their Bigger sisters on the PC platform & bang per buck, Laptops are grossly overpriced, but.....

Also because of the power supply, which in my case would be 180W (150W if you get the GTX965M).

Anyway, the screen is definitely no 4k, it's just a normal Full HD.

LOL yeah. With the way technology is atm, there is no way of getting 1250 Watts of power into a Laptop for a GTX780Ti SLI experience with a 4.7Ghz CPU pushing em.

Anyhow, your bog standard XMG p705 PRO does 1920 x 1080 on TN Technology. But, for 125 Euro more, there is an option for an IPS panel. Heck, 419 Euro more for GTX980M.....
With technology where it is & current Laptop design, Kudos for for the cash splash on such a rig with a 970M.
But don't go over 1920 x 1080 & be tempted for IPS Status. IPS will have a higher G2G trasition & if it doesn't have G-Sync capabilities to an External Screen or via is't own G-Sync Module & display, forget IPS. The ghosting will look shocking when gaming on laptop system bandwidths. Sure, 2D should look great but forget Gaming on IPS Laptops without G-Sync.

I believe there is no support for G-Sync & nVidia Mobile yet.......

http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/te...supported-gpus

Yet reading this is already sounding a bit like, "Naughty Naughty nVidia"...

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1...-mobile-g-sync

Oh yeah, on the subject of how much do you want to spend, check this gaming station out.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...702&catid=3036

Is "Buttkicker Advance Tactile Feedback System" the next thing over "FTW"!?

[Teho]

I admit I don't pay much attention what's current in PC hardware so had no idea that running 4k is that demanding still. Myself I don't even have a dedicated PC screen, my rig is in the living room hooked up to my HDTV. As such all I need is 1080p @ 60Hz, which you certainly don't need to reach for the top shelf for. I've a GTX670 in it now which still runs just about everything fine. Elite: Dangerous does lag a bit sometimes though, so I've been thinking about upgrading. But really, I should build a new rig as this one is close to six years old and the mobo, CPU and PSU in it has never been changed.

[Kin Hell]

I admit I don't pay much attention what's current in PC hardware so had no idea that running 4k is that demanding still. Myself I don't even have a dedicated PC screen, my rig is in the living room hooked up to my HDTV. As such all I need is 1080p @ 60Hz, which you certainly don't need to reach for the top shelf for. I've a GTX670 in it now which still runs just about everything fine. Elite: Dangerous does lag a bit sometimes though, so I've been thinking about upgrading. But really, I should build a new rig as this one is close to six years old and the mobo, CPU and PSU in it has never been changed.

Yeah, six years of age on a Mobo/CPU/Memory/GPU thing is massive..... really. You should upgrade to at least Z77 with an Air cooled OC @ 4.4/5Ghz with some 780Ti action. You'll be gobsmacked!

& 60Hz @ ANY resolution is not suitable for gaming on. Absolute minimum is 75Hz, 80 is better and anything over 100Hz on CRT or Flat panel, be it TN or IPS is where you need to be for a more absolute definition of what's best for gaming on the PC.

A bit where the "Amiga" was (in the opposite direction) all those years ago.

Look what happened since.

[Harrison]

As you well know, I'm just not bothered about resolutions above 60Hz any more since LCD monitors appeared. With CRT yes, 85Hz was essential for crisp looking graphics but no more. I know some people say they can tell the difference, and I bet Charlie you are one of them because you are always in pursuit of the ultimate setup, but as you know I'm all about the best bang for your buck rather than spending big for only a slight advantage.

With prices of 4k monitors starting to fall I've been very tempted by them but I'm still putting off getting 4k monitors until the GPUs are good enough to power one in gaming at 60fps from a single card. At the moment I'm still running a 27" 2560x1440 resolution Dell U2711 and love it. I would say however that this Dell at this resolution and 27" is about the highest pixel density I would like to use for productivity work and think the pixel density would be way too high on a 4k 27" screen. Although saying that my Samsung 10.1" tablet has a screen resolution of 2560x1600 so it's slightly higher than my 27" monitor and it looks really nice, but it is a different way of using the higher resolution, so is different.

Personally for a laptop any of the GPUs you have mentioned should run all current games at 1080 resolution without any issues so really no point spending a lot more than needed.

[Demon Cleaner]

Personally for a laptop any of the GPUs you have mentioned should run all current games at 1080 resolution without any issues so really no point spending a lot more than needed.

At the moment, definitely yes, but how does it look in 2-3 years? Will then the 980 have a noticeable advantage over the 970?