What's the life-expectancy of 680MX?

[Tanax]

What kind of life-length would you guys theorize that the 680MX would last and still be a viable GPU?

I'm really hesitant of buying an iMac due to the fact that you can't upgrade anything in it(except RAM but I won't need that very much). The GPU is obviously the one thing that is going to get outdated the fastest, at least for me. So having it last fairly long would make me more sure to get the iMac.

 

[Quazimojo]

Realistically if you are playing the newest games on higher settings maybe a couple years at best.

At 2560x1440 it still has a hard time playing even the current stuff maxed out but i guess if you are realistic then yeah a good couple years.

It is always hard to predict these things because some great looking new games do not have such serious requirements then others will just bring all cards to their knees.

 

[karpich1]

Well here's the larger question... how long do you plan on going before replacing this machine? And what do you consider "adequate" for gaming

A bunch of PC users I know are on 2year cycles. They either replace their PC in 2 years, or so many of the components it might as well be another PC (motherboard + cpu + gpu).

I'd say the video card should do alright for 2 years. You won't be maxing out the rez + settings in 1.5 years but you should be able to play games at medium settings on an adequate rez at the 1.5 or 2 year mark.

If you're looking at going further than that... then the drop-off will be much greater.




Then, there's the question. What do you find "adequate" for gaming? Some of my friends NEED to have the game run on high settings and run as smooth as butter. Others are OK toning the settings to medium, while a handful are OK with them on low.

I'd GUESS, that if you're OK with a 2 year cycle AND medium settings then you'll be fine. If you want a 3 year cycle and/or high settings after a long time then you'll probably be disappointed.



Those are the issues with trying to stay current with gaming.

 

[Mac32]

Realistically if you are playing the newest games on higher settings maybe a couple years at best.

At 2560x1440 it still has a hard time playing even the current stuff maxed out but i guess if you are realistic then yeah a good couple years.

It is always hard to predict these things because some great looking new games do not have such serious requirements then others will just bring all cards to their knees.

It's all about tweaking graphics settings in games wisely, as certain features will eat up a lot of fps when maxed. Typically shadows and shader settings should never be maxed out in newer games. You're basically getting a minimal improvement in graphics, but a huge hit in framerates. This is very obvious in Crysis 3 and Far Cry 3. For instance, taking shadows from max to medium is very noticeable performance wise in Far Cry 3, but only makes for a small visual nuance IMO. Another example is going from "very high" to "high" in Crysis 3 in advanced settings. There is almost no difference (except for the shader function which makes shadows darker/more contrast), but the difference again in framerate is huge. Also forget antialiasing in native resolution, it just isn't needed..at least in newer games with very detailed models and geometry.
The fact that 680MX can easily be overclocked quite high, makes it perform very well even with the newest games. I'm playing Bioshock Infinite (amazing game btw.), and I'm getting pretty much 60fps all the time so far (native resolution).

 

[luminouslight]

It's all about tweaking graphics settings in games wisely, as certain features will eat up a lot of fps when maxed. Typically shadows and shader settings should never be maxed out on newer games. You're basically getting a minimal improvement in graphics, but a huge hit in framerate. This is very obvious in Crysis 3 and Far Cry 3. For instance, taking shadows from max to medium makes a huge difference in framerate, but only makes for a small visual nuance IMO. Another example is going from "very high" to "high" in Crysis 3. There is almost no difference (except for the shader function which makes shadows darker/more contrast), but the difference again in framerate is huge. Also forget antialiasing in native resolution, it just isn't needed..at least in newer games with very detailed models and geometry.

I agree with all this.

 

[Mac32]

...

 

[Quazimojo]

That is why i said if you want to play games at higher settings then a couple years .

Obviously the OP knows gaming and settings to some degree since he is concerned about how long the GPU will remain relevant for gaming so i just ballparked the life expectancy.

I could sit here all day going over every setting and every game there is and believe me i have more to count then imaginable, and i know what it takes to make games look and run good but going into every game with every example about shaders/shadows/anti aliasing etc etc etc is just unrealistic plus who knows what genres he even likes ?, so mentioning Bioshock or Crysis 3 when he may not even care about those games/genres seems like waste of energy on anyones part. He was not looking for specific titles so why offer those 2 up as examples ?.

He wanted a basic answer and i certainly did not need to be quoted with a lesson on what to do with a GPU considering if you read my original comment you would understand just saying "higher settings" told you i know what it takes to run games well.

 

[Tanax]

Thanks guys!

Regarding the "larger question", I don't have any real-world experiences with how long I really keep a computer, I think.

I have a MBP late '09 which was great when I got it, really "snappy". But now, it's struggling to even play videos on YouTube and the temperatures reaches 80+(that's in celcius). Seeing how playing videos on YouTube seem like such a trivial thing, I didn't really think it would become an issue for my MBP when I first bought it. So it would be a shame if the iMac, in 3 years or so, will struggle with something that today is a trivial thing.

Although, I think that 3 years is probably what I hope to get out of it. After that I'll probably want to upgrade in any case to get updated design/screen/ports/other features

So you're saying it will probably last for 3 years then?

 

[Quazimojo]

Absolutely 3 years as long as your willing to make some sacrifices along the way on the settings depending on the games you are playing.

 

[Tanax]

Absolutely 3 years as long as your willing to make some sacrifices along the way on the settings depending on the games you are playing.

All I needed to know, cheers!
I'm not a hardcore gamer and won't mind sacrificing higher settings as long as it's playable!

 

[Macsonic]

I think the card is still good for a couple more years. On the other side of the coin, even if a new card, new iMac comes along, if the performance difference is minimal, the 680MX would still be good.