r1 on its last stretches?

I play all my games in 1080p and I have a cooling pad. I've also gotten the thermal paste replaced by Dell in the past (before that, games would make the CPU overheat and the game would become unplayable). AC3 ran "okay" when I turned down the settings (though cutscenes were horribly off-sync and graphically glitchy, though I hear the PC versions are just generally bad). I just installed Tomb Raider, and I got 23 fps on low settings and 16 on medium. The CPU runs at a steady 90 C. I assume BioShock Infinite will be about the same. I'm wondering how the r2 does with these games. Is it time to upgrade my computer? I assume the 2013 Alienware notebooks will be coming out soon, but is there any indication that this is not the case? Alternatively, I've heard that the ASUS G55VW is much better at cooling and is much quieter, and also has a better GPU (and a numpad!), but lacks Optimus for some reason (though the battery seems to be comparable). Alienware laptops are obviously a lot nicer looking though.

tl;dr: My r1 can't play modern games at 1080p. Does the r2 do much better? Is there something like Intel's or nVidia's release schedule to keep the r3 from coming out soon? Are the ASUS ROG laptops better in terms of performance and heat/noise? (My r1 is loud even when on the desktop with no programs open.) I know there are Sager, MSI, and others, but I've never seen someone with one of those and I'm weary of buying unpopular systems. I want a reliable system (which my Alienware hasn't exactly been) that can play modern games well and isn't incredibly hot and loud (again, unlike my Alienware).

Thanks!

 

IMHO if you really want 1080p on a laptop, you should at least get a gaming laptop that has a screen that supports 1080p (sort of an indicator that it can run at that resolution). 1080p resolution with mid-high graphics details would require a higher-end graphics card, e.g. from Nvidia's GTX line. The R2's 650M could give you 1080p, but only with lowered graphics details, you'd need an even more powerful laptop to meet the performance requirements for the high resolution. Perhaps a R3 might be able to boost the performance enough, but I'd guess that the whole 700M series would have to be announced before that happens.

 

Thanks for the reply. Well the G55VW has a GTX 660m so it sounds like that would be much more capable. Those come with 1080p displays so your theory seems to be a good rule of thumb. ASUS isn't very clear about their different models or release dates, though. Any other opinions?

 

Don't get an Asus, I had one for a few months and I'll never own one again. They are so poorly built and just run into heaps of problems, I had a G74.

Look into the M17x range, they will be able to provide the performance you're looking for

 

Loving my m17x personally! had it for 2 years now and it's still going strong. even my aging 6990m plays most modern games on higher settings still.