Following suit with last month's unveiling of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 and 970 desktop GPUs at Game24, Nvidia has today unveiled the mobile component of its Maxwell architecture with the GeForce GTX 980M and 970M gaming on-the-go GPUs.
Similar to its desktop-bound brethren, expect the new line of GPUs to improve certain aspects of the rendering process – like multi-frame sampling anti-aliasing and dynamic super resolution – by nearly two-fold while keeping the bottom panels cool to the touch.
An Nvidia representative told TechRadar that gamers can also expect smoother performance during ShadowPlay and GameStream using the latest GPUs – a trick the company took from this year's mildly successful Shield Tablet.
Who's got the goods?
If you're looking to upgrade, you won't have to wait long. Maingear has already announced a refresh to its Nomad line of 17-inch slates (seen below), while rumor has it that companies like MSI and Digital Storm aren't far behind in their 980M and 970M-packed rosters, either.
Here are the technical specs of the Maingear Nomad, just so you can get an idea of what manufacturers have planned for Maxwell on mobile:
- Processor: Up to 4th generation Intel Core i7-4980HQ
- Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M (6GB) or 980M (8GB)
- Display: 17.3" Full HD 1920 x 1080 - (1080p) (16:9 Aspect Ratio) Anti-glare LED Backlit Matte Finish
- Webcam: 1080p FHD
- Memory: Up to 32GB Dual Channel DDR3 - 1600Mhz
- Optical Drive: Up to 2X Blu-ray reader/8x Multi Combo (BD-R, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
- Hard Drive: Up to 128GB SSD x 4 RAID 0 + 1TB HDD (7200RPM)
- Network Adapter: Killer N1525 2X2 A/C / Killer E2200 Game Networking
- Audio: Sound Blaster Cinema 2 Audio HD Audio with speakers
- Media Card Reader: Built in 4-in-1 Media Card Reader
- Operating System: Genuine Windows 8 Home or Professional
- Battery: 9-cell Li-Polymer Lithium-Ion
- I/O Ports: 1 HDMI out, 2 mDP, 6 USB 3.0, 1 IEEE-1394 Fire Wire, 1 S/PDIF out, 1 RJ-45 LAN, 1 RJ-11
- Dimensions: 16.85" (L) x 11.57" (W) x 1.88 (H)
- Weight: 8.59 pounds
- MSRP: Starts at $2,099 (about £1,300, AU$2,400)
Still on the fence about a new GPU-infused laptop? Check out our best gaming laptops guide to find out which mobile PC gaming rigs currently make send our hearts aflutter.
