How will Maxwell affect laptop gaming?

[JarJarBanksy]

As most of us are aware Maxwell puts out good performance and does it while drawing relatively few watts. This leads to a relatively low TDP as well. 

 

I don't know much about how they get laptop gpus to require low power so is it safe to assume that the same tricks will be available for Maxwell?

 

Is it possible that increased performance at low power could help make laptop gaming more popular? 

[Coombzy]

The price of a laptop vs a desktop unless you need that portability is simply not worth it even with this.

[JoshM]

The only time I would game on laptop is when it is impractical to use my PC (mind you i don't have a laptop capable of doing this).

[flibberdipper]

Well, I can say that it might help performance and battery life a bit, and the 880m might be equal to the 860, 860Ti or 870.

[JarJarBanksy]

Well, I guess it wouldn't help high end gaming, but what about gaming for laptops that are meant to be mobile? Like a laptop you might get that has a 765m in it? Laptops that are meant to be all-rounders. Also, what about ultrabooks? Will it ever be possible to see a discreet gpu in one of those, about the level of a 765m?

[flibberdipper]

Well, I guess it wouldn't help high end gaming, but what about gaming for laptops that are meant to be mobile? Like a laptop you might get that has a 765m in it? Laptops that are meant to be all-rounders. Also, what about ultrabooks? Will it ever be possible to see a discreet gpu in one of those, about the level of a 765m?

For all arounders, maybe. Ultrabooks, no. Discrete laptop GPU's aren't really feasable yet (still to big, IMO), and most of the Intel graphics aren't too terrible.

[WoodenMarker]

I don't think laptop gaming will get more popular in respect to other platforms for gaming. However, laptops and other mobile devices will probably just get better with more performance while at the same time using less energy. 

Gaming laptops are notorious for not having a long battery life so improved power consumption can over time bring battery life to reasonable levels. 

[Paralectic]

There will be notebooks with Maxwell GPUs but meh, laptop's aren't suited for gaming ( In my opinion ) unless they are very heavy.

[A/C]

I beg to differ. As a person who travels a lot for work and spends maybe 2-3 nights weekly in hotel rooms with wi-fi it would be nice to own a laptop which is capable of running reasonable framerates whilst staying cool and delivering at least 4 hours of battery life for office work autonomy. Razer blade comes to mind but it's not available worldwide and is too expensive for what it is - a mediocre gaming laptop, but represents a good compromise. It's light so you can accually carry it around with you unlike my old XPS m1730 which was impractical to lug around with you across the country.

[JarJarBanksy]

I don't think laptop gaming will get more popular in respect to other platforms for gaming. However, laptops and other mobile devices will probably just get better with more performance while at the same time using less energy. 

Gaming laptops are notorious for not having a long battery life so improved power consumption can over time bring battery life to reasonable levels. 

Well, don't forget that the discreet GPU can always be turned off if it isn't plugged in. Intel's integrated graphics are more than capable of displaying the desktop screen on windows, so it's perfectly feasible to use the integrated graphics for mobile use, and plug it in for gaming. You aren't going to be using the battery for gaming. The only disadvantage towards battery life would be how you are taking space from the battery by including the GPU.

 

If it were used like that Maxwell's biggest and best feature will be it's low TDP. Less heat to get rid of helps you keep a thinner laptop (as far as I have observed) and a smaller heatsink. Or it would make it feasible to share a heatsink and fan between the CPU and a mid to high end laptop GPU. 

 

 

There will be notebooks with Maxwell GPUs but meh, laptop's aren't suited for gaming ( In my opinion ) unless they are very heavy.

Yeah. They can be heavy. My laptop is easily 15 lbs. I haven't actually weighed it, but moving it around is like moving a Desktop built using one of Silverstone's Sugo series cases. It has the same lack of convenience and bulk. The difference is that mine comes with a monitor attached to it.

 

However, that is because of my dual 670mx's and the very large heatsinks, and two hard drives. Almost any laptop at this size with these specs is meant to be a portable desktop, and a high end desktop at that.

 

A laptop with gaming abilities does not need to be so bulky or have a 4 core processor with a TDP of 45 watts (3630QM).Yes I know that TDP is a measurement of heat and not electricity, but they have a relationship. Anyways there are plenty of laptops that are easily portable and have processors like this. For example, the Lenovo Ideapad Z10 is a 17" laptop that has an i5-4200 or i7-4700MQ (47watt TDP) and is still relatively portable. It also has a 745M on the same heatsink, but I think something like that has negligible power draw and heat output. It isn't an ultrabook by any means, but it isn't the worlds largest behemoth either. Here is my source of NotebookCheck. (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-IdeaPad-Z710-59393211-Notebook.110159.0.html). It is of an appropriate size for a 17" laptop.

 

Now take a laptop like that, throw away the optical drive, and replace it with a discreet midrange laptop gpu and a heatsink + fan. I think that this would be a fair trade that shouldn't require massive amounts of space. Especially since you can get good performance from Maxwell at an acceptable amount of power usage. I'm certain that there are plenty of Maxwell chips that can be undervolted a little bit to improve TDP and power draw, certainly enough for use in this application. Perhaps this wouldn't even be necessary.

 

Also, there are plenty of 15" laptops with optical drives. Why couldn't you do the same thing there?

 

There is a good chance I have some glorious loophole or omission as I did not write this all at once. I got distracted while looking for a good example laptop.

 

Anyways, I think that the ultimate proof that something like this is feasible is the existence of the Razer Laptops. They just need to be upgraded a bit, and not ask for too much.