ASUS G74SX Owners' Lounge

@brodyboy you gonna get that g75sx when it comes out? lol

i probably shouldnt discuss that here, but i liked the idea how it only has usb 3.0 ports. anyone whos gonna purchase this should note that, due to ONLY usb 3.0ports, it'll work real well with windows 8, which the main OS wont be out for another couple of months (although win8 test OS are out).

im not entirely sure on how those new usb 3 ports work, but for the most part, if they can't detect usb 2.0 without usb 3.0 drivers (for win7), then there might be some serious issues trying to get external mouse/keyboard to work as well as installing initial drivers while installing win7 like raid drivers etc, or installing window 7 via usb 3 drive.

 

Why would USB3.0 not be backwards compatible? The G74SX has a USB3.0 port, and works perfectly fine with any USB or USB2.0 devices.

 

Just got my G74sx-nh71 from newegg a couple days ago. Compared to the G73JH it definitely feels like an upgrade in every area. Also considering I had the bestbuy model, the jump to a 1920x1080 screen in a 17 inch is really nice. Even having a 1920x1200 23 inch screen, you don't really notice the same clarity and sharpness that you do on a smaller screen having that same resolution. Very cool.

 

Do you have the throttling issue?

 

Nope, none that I can see so far, I need to do a little bit more testing though.

 

Just try and run any recent game, and take a look at your CPU clock. If it's fixed, let me know what BIOS you're running.

 

i dont think u got my point. its not backwards compatible or anything, its the usb 3.0 port itself may or may not detect anything at all before any drivers are installed. i donno if asus is hoping for win8 quick release or they will be releasing a oem window disk with driver included in the win7 installation.

i remembered my g74sx usb 3 port did not work AT ALL when i did a fresh win7 reinstall. i even tried plug in usb external mouse and nothing happened. i had to install usb 3.0 driver for it to work for any usb device.
then again, there had been some issues with g74sx and g73sx usb 3 port though.

 

It's true that USB 3.0 does not have BIOS support at this point, so a 3rd party driver is needed (in the OS) before the port functions. But if we are moving to a 3.0-only universe, I suspect one of two things will happen: (1) The 3.0 hardware will become so standardized that BIOS will simply support it by default, like it currently does with USB 1.0 and 2.0, or (2) the 3.0 hardware will have an alternate capability to run as 2.0 and that will be supported by the BIOS, as it is now.

I would expect the latter, but that's just speculation. In any event, USB support at BIOS level has become such a basic function....it's now routinely used for OS installs and firmware updates, etc., and many machines no longer have ODDs....that it will have to continue in one way or another.

Oh, to answer your earlier question: I don't expect to be getting a G75. The G74SX is mostly for my son's personal use (and I use it as a test platform when he's not around!), so it won't be replaced as long as it serves his needs. When the time comes, I'm not sure we'll opt for another Asus, and if we do, Asus will most certainly be a couple generations past the G75 by that point.

 

Have you tested new BIOS to see if Asus has fixed the throttling issue? I hate having a laptop with a quad-core i7, a GTX560M at 3GB with ANOTHER 1GB of system shared memory, and 16GB of 1866MHz RAM, that can't run Star Wars the Old Republic fluidly, but I don't want to mess around with BIOS updates if they won't do anything.

 

I am running bios 203.

Hwinfo64 reports all 4 cores running at 2800 mhz ~ 2900 mhz, so it appears the 2670qm is running in turbo mode

 

So what are some OC values that work well and are stable? I would rather know a few in advance than mess around on my own looking for some

 

Hey all, first time posting. Want to say thanks for all the info that has been posted in here and thanks in advance for all the info that will be posted in the future.

I've been looking for a desktop replacement/gaming rig for awhile. I'm running an old crappy HP DV9000 that I've managed to keep running very well until the last few months, so you can say I'm a little anxious to upgrade. I've been looking at the G74SX for awhile and I'm drawing closer and closer to pulling the trigger. I'm just a little concerned with some of the hardware issues I've read like the mousepad problems, pixel problems, wifi adapter problems, I think that was it. I understand the mousepad is a hardware issue due to some tape or wire being mounted or something and the wifi adapter is easily replaceable. More concerned about the pixel problem.

Something else I noticed is that it is recommended to do a clean install of Win7. How important is this? Is the bloatware really that detrimental? I don't really care that much about having a 3d display but if the price is right I would absolutely spring for it.

I've been looking at the ASUS G74SX-NH71 off of Newegg. It looks like a pretty good deal. In the near future I would put in a SSD and DDR3 1600 ram so I'm not concerned with the stock specs for those. I just wanted to double check a few things alongside with getting some more feedback about the hardware problems.

The G74SX can accept DDR3 1600 ram correct? What is the max speed ram that it would benefit from. I know with Win7 Ultimate you can go up to 32gigs, does Win7 Ultimate have an affect on the type of ram used. 64 bit of course.

I've read that as long as the Nvidia GTX 560 is 3gigs your gonna have the full 192bit, no problems there. So I guess I just need some reiteration and further addressing of the few things I noted above. I really appreciate all your help everyone. Can't wait to get my new rig.

Link to the NH71: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230142

 

I'm in the same spot as matt. But I have a few questions. I heard the g75 was going to come out later this month. What would you guys guess as its price range? Would it cause the current g74's to come down in price? thanks

 

Judging from technology in general one would assume the price of the G74 would drop. I think I'm going to wait for the G75 to come out so it can be compared to the G74 with its hopefully lowered price. Let you really compare spec to spec/price to price. If ASUS corrected the problems with the G74SX such as the mouse pad, the wifi adapter (this one seems to be not quite as common but I could be totally damn wrong), and the pixel burnouts, then I will definitely be getting the G75 even if it is a decent amt more than the G74. Hopefully less bloatware too.

 

What pixel problems? In my experience (mostly on the ROG forum, but here as well), the biggest hardware issues with the G74 are the touchpad and keyboard. The biggest software issues arise on machines running the OEM installation.

A clean install benefits any OEM computer. They are simply more stable and reliable without all that bloatware and the extraneous utilities of questionable quality.

Yes, it'll take 1600MHz RAM, but if you install over 8Gb, expect it to default to 1333MHz. Windows Home Premium recognizes up to 16Gb....Pro, Ultimate, and Enterprise will recognize more. The edition of Windows has no effect whatsoever on the type of RAM, only the amount. (Recognizing RAM types and speed are BIOS-level functions....the BIOS just reports the info to Windows.)

The G73 didn't drop much when the G74 came out....they were just sold side-by-side as different models. There's no "problem," per se, with the wi-fi adapter.....Asus just skimps in this department and uses very basic, low-end units.

It will not have less bloatware...manufacturers always cram as much of that in there as they can....it's marketing bullets points to attract unknowing buyers.

I still don't know what "pixel burnouts" you're talking about. The Full HD G74s actually have a great display panel; it wouldn't surprise me at all if they use the same one in the G75. (The HD+ version is crap. They've used it in a number of models now.....avoid it.)

 

I've read some reviews on NewEgg and a few others about burnt out pixels, but if that has not been a problem documented here than I'll trust your opinion.

Yea I wouldn't dare get the HD+, only Full HD. And good to know about the wifi adapter. I'd still swap it out for something better if its an easy replacement process.

So no matter what if I go over 8gigs it will ONLY run at 1333MHz? Even with the 2nd Gen I7 2670QM? Would a BIOS update increase its capabilities?

I've installed fresh copies of Windows before, but is there any spec or anything that would make a fresh install on the G74 more difficult?

Thanks a ton BrodyBoy, much appreciated.


EDIT: I was also wondering what people recommend for an SSD and what connection these laptops take? I want one that has at least 200gigs. I've heard Intel and Crucial make great ones. Any thoughts? If I do get the G74SX which I'm pretty sure I'm going to, I will be getting the Intel Ultimate N 633ANHMW and possibly wiring in a third antenna.

 

I've been running a Kingston Hyper X 240 for almost a year now with never a hickup and great performance. I needed the bluetooth capability so swapped out the Atheros wifi/bluetooth combo card for the Intel 6230 combo and it too works great. Best luck with your future purchase.

 

It's entirely BIOS-dependent, so an update would presumably increase its capabilities. There have been some owners who've experimented a lot with this. Apparently there's a certain Corsair PnP module that at least one owner claims he's gotten working for 16Gb (4x4Gb modules), but it's absolutely the exception. Everybody else I've followed seems to be able to run 8Gb at 1600MHz without issue, but not 16Gb.

Nope...it's pretty straightforward. Like any other computer, you install Windows, then the essential 3rd party drivers for the model-specific hardware. In the G74, that's about 8-10 additional drivers.

Bingo....I'm a fan of Crucial and Intel SSDs. If you are getting one as an OS drive (which is pretty much the only way you'd want to use one in a laptop), you really don't need anything over about 120Gb. Some people can even get by with a 60-80Gb SSD.....it depends on whether you tend to run huge programs that will take up a lot of C: drive space. Beyond that, though, you set the computer to save all data over on the data drive, so for most people, they never get close to filling even a 100Gb OS drive.

The 3rd antenna may not be worth the effort. First, it's for receiving three-spatial-stream wireless networks, so if your router doesn't run that type of network (most don't), it's essentially unused. Second, even if you are running a 3-stream network, they tend to be kind of picky and fragile and seldom run close to their theoretical top speeds anyway. Antennae placement is an art, not a science, so it's difficult to find the placement that actually yields optimal results in any given environment. In most cases, using two antennas that get a solid, stable signal at 300Mbps (assuming you have a two-stream router) gives better overall performance. On the Intel 6300, this means you just use the existing G74 antennas on posts 1 & 2.

 

Awesome, thanks a ton Brody.

I guess for now 16gigs at 1333MHz is the way to go, unless somehow 8gigs at 1600MHz is better. Yes I will be getting an SSD for my OS and main programs. The money isn't that big of a problem so I don't mind having a good amount of space on the SSD, who knows what programs I'll need in the future, especially as I make my computer items last as long as possible (I got my HP DV9K when I was a junior in High School, now a Senior in College and has been my primary computing device since I was a Junior in HS). Thanks for the assurance on Crucials and Intels.

I've been looking over your bloatware guide pretty extensively to get a feel for what is to come, really really good resource. I plan on making a list myself of all the recommended software and required drivers beforehand, preloading them, and all that. I also understand that it is better to use the drivers on ASUSTeK for the specific model as opposed to say... going to Nvidia.com and finding the latest driver for the given video card. Unless anyone has any exceptions to this and/or notes, this is what I will be doing.

I have a Linksys E4200 (absolutely love it) that runs at 2.4ghz and 5ghz if that makes any difference. I've looked at your guide on replacing the WiFi adapter maybe 50 times now haha.

Two final questions and I think I'll be in a comfortable spot. First, I noticed on the ASUSTeK website that there is a BIOS version 203. I hear people upgrading to the 202 for various fixes, but have only heard very brief things about the 203. Anyone have good/bad experiences with this BIOS? Here are the bug fixes

BIOS 203
1.Fix the bug that 2D/3D switch function should be implemented on power on button (M key) instead of hotkey Fn + C
2.Optimize Aflash2 tool


Now finally for the final question (For Now!), and before I ask I again want to thank everyone here, especially you Brody, for your help in assuaging essentially all of my concerns about this laptop. Onto the question...
I read somewhere here, can't find the thread now, that discusses how you need to set a certain setting from IDE to something else to optimize your SSD, or perhaps it was something similar to that. Can't remember exactly. Anyone know what I'm referring to?

Thanks again all. I cannot wait to shelf this old HP DV9K with a fan that makes the worst noises ever. Hopefully this milestone for me signifies marks a gaming milestone this summer, anyone say HL3 at E3? We can only hope!

 

Not sure where you got that info, but many of us G74 owners, espeically when we've done clean installs, get our drivers directly from the manufacturers. Almost all the drivers come from Intel, Realtek, and nVidia. In fact, the only ones I get from Asus are the Fresco USB3 drivers and the ATK Package.

Asus "tests" drivers and puts them in their own installers before posting them on the support pages, so they are always way behind in keeping the drivers up-to-date.

If you are going to update the BIOS, you may as well update to the latest version. I use it, like many other owners.....I've seen no complaints. Be sure to only use the EasyFlash method when updating the BIOS...NOT WinFlash or Asus Live Update.

You're very welcome.....this is what the forums are for.

In the BIOS, there's a SATA configuration setting for choosing AHCI or IDE mode for the SATA drives. It's on AHCI by default, and that's what you want it to be. You shouldn't have to change anything there for your SSD. (You may have seen someone trying to troubleshoot an SSD recognition issue....this can sometimes happen with "off-brand" SSDs, and owners try things like running in IDE mode. To be clear, AHCI is the default and the correct SATA mode.)

 

Fannnntastic! And yes I would only use EasyFlash, I read your remarks on it earlier today. It doesn't matter if you go right from stock BIOS to 203 right? Or should you go stock > 202 > 203? I would expect to just go right to the 203. Just want to get all and every base covered.

Guess I must have assumed that info on the ASUSTeK drivers! Very good to know.

 

The BIOS updates are all cumulative, so you can go directly from any earlier version to the the latest.

 

Cool, thanks.

Quick question about SSDs. What controllers do you find to be the best? Marvell? Sandforce? Here are the two SSDs I'm considering. Looks like the Intel is overall better.

Crucial M4
Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD1CCA 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC 7mm Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) with Data Transfer Kit
Intel 520 Series Cherryville
Newegg.com - Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW240A3K5 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Intel Max Sequential Read: Up to 550 MB/s SATAIII
Crucial Max Sequential Read: Up to 500 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s)

Intel Max Sequential Write: Up to 520 MB/s (SATAIII)
Crucial Max Sequential Write: Up to 260 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s)

Intel 4KB Random Read: Up to 50,000 IOPS
Crucial 4KB Random Read: Up to 45,000 IOPS

Intel 4KB Random Write: Up to 60,000 IOPS
Crucial 4KB Random Write: Up to 50,000 IOPS

 

Ignore all those numbers.....you don't get the "theoretical" maximums anyway. The huge (read "noticeable") performance jump is going from an HDD to an SSD. But between SSDs.....despite all those numbers they like to throw around....you would not be able to tell any difference whatsoever. Honest.

So choose the one you feel most comfortable with, based on things like manufacturer reputation and owner feedback. Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with either of those. (And I put my money where my mouth is on this one! I was recently building a new home server and wanted an SSD for the OS drive. As I was getting ready to order a Crucial M4 on Amazon, I noticed down in the "suggestions" section that the Intel 520 happened to be on sale, so I ordered that one instead. They are both excellent, reliable, well-supported brands.)

 

Hello,
What is the best way to install the second SSD?

1 - install it on the empty bay, clone the main HD data and setup it to be the boot HD via Bios.
2 - step 1 but instead of changing in Bios to boot on second HD, physically replace it with the old HD.
3 -other??

The reason I am asking is because I would like to know if there is any performance drop by installing the SSD and system in the "secondary" bay.

Thanks a lot for all the help!
Cheers

 

Thre is no performance difference whatsoever between the two drive bays, so the locations you select for your drives are just a matter of personal preference or convenience.

Because the 2nd drive must be removed anytime you need to remove the 1st drive, it makes sense (to me ) to put the drive you're least likely to be swapping/moving/upgrading in bay #1.

 

I got my G74 with the HDD+SSD hybrid drives. Not the performance of a true SSD but a noticeable difference in boot-up times over a regular HDD. Worth taking a look in my opinion unless you really need to squeeze performance.

 

I just picked up one of these hogs from Best Buy yesterday. So far, it's surpassed my expectations, but I think I'm going to have to take it back to the store for an exchange.

I left it on all night downloading a bunch of games, and when I checked it this morning to see if the downloads were done, I noticed a bunch of little blue squares all over the screen at random. They don't seem to be in my browser window, but rather they're all over the desktop. I read somewhere else that the cause was the latest NVIDIA driver, which I installed last night, so I downgraded the driver, but the squares are still here. Any suggestions? Should I just exchange it for another laptop?

 

actually, i donno if its my own issue with issues with the machine. bios fail to boot up/recognize the ssd drive if it was in 2nd slot. i had to put ssd in 1st slot, and hdd on 2nd slot for it to work.

then again thats just me.

also, i tested installing window 7 and windows 8 from usb 3.0 to ssd, BLAZING FAST =DDD takes about 5 mins with my slow SSD solid 3 =(, will get a vertex 3 max iops or samsung 830 soon =D

 

poopy numbers, and note they say UP TO, means max, doesnt show average which usually tends to be quite a bit lower and disapointing. and note these are for marketing purposes so there are quite alot of things to know before getting a good SSD.

1. expensive SSDs = usually good speed, even if they are overly priced. it only make sense they sell good product which cost a lot. vice versa cheap SSDs reflect lower performance, only being about 10-20% cheaper, lowers performance by 30-50%.

2. sequential read and write arent everything. crystal disk is probably by far the best to accurately measure a SSD imo, although it sort of harms SSD if done too many times. search up on google, intel 520 240 crystal disk, or crucial m4 256 crystal disk

3. 240-256 gb SSD almost has 50% better in performance than 120-128 gb range ssds. in crystal disk mark you'll see sequential writes are much higher, same goes for 512k, which arent THAT important. probably as important as the sequential reads/writes is 4k32QD and 4k read/write, these two are just recently raised up as the late 2nd gen and 3rd gen ssd come out.

4. numbers u'll be looking for for 4k32QD is at least 250mb/s read/write, 28-30+ mb/s for 4k read, and hopefully u can get one thats 100mb/s 4k write. obviously sequential read/write gets above 450mb/sec

5. knowing the type of your SSD. intel 520 uses SANDFORCE controller, while i believe crucial M4 does not, even if it does, its inferior to 520, period.

Sandforce, fast on compressible files writing (text, picture, music, all other window files), slow on incompressible files writing (video, movies, RAR files, gaming pak files

non sandforce, same speed for read/write for both compressible/incompressible files. if you are transfering files such as backup files including movie musics and thats hundreds of GB transfering, go for non sandforce such as the new vertex 4 or plextor M3, or samsung 830.

6. top notch ssds for most everyday used programs probably sandforce controller. ranked best performance on top.
- vertex 3 max iops 240gb
- kingston hyperx 240gb
- intel 520 240 gb

all of the three above are sandforce control and are VERY close in performance, intel 520 being the latest drive however vertex 3 max iops still out performs it by a little bit.

as for non sandforce, theres quite a bit if you're into large file transfer including files that are less compressible or incompressible.
- vertex 4 256 and 512 gb
- samsung 830 256 gb
- plextor M3

value wise for sandforce, intel and kingston are a lot better than max iops, for non sandforce, i donno how much plextor m3 cost but samsung probably is the best as of now for as low as 325. vertex 4 definitly out performs for large writes than samsung 830, but the reads loses out, and you need to purchase 512gb for vertex 4 and thats about 750-800 dollars..

7. large writes to MLC ssds = lose your ssds in a year and half to two years. where as SLC ssds gets about 5x-10x write cycle more than MLC but it costs about 10-25x more in cost.

edit: firmware updates also boost up/slow down ssd speeds, although not by much 5% ish to 10%

edit2: answer for you is, get the intel 520 ssd, its about 20-25% in performance better than crucial m4.

 

Update: I ended up removing all of my Nvidia drivers, and installing some new ones, but that didn't help, so I returned it to the store and had them exchange it for a new one. It already seems better, almost as though the other one had some other underlying issues. Now that I've gotten this one up and running to my liking, it's frozen twice. Once it was just sitting there, and I think it had turned off it's monitor and hard drive for sleeping, but it wouldn't come out of that state. The second time, I was playing some Civ V and, mid move, it just froze up. Soooo....that's a huge bummer. I'm a little gun shy to update the Nvidia drivers, even though, I'm 99% sure it was a hardware issue.

 

Well, I'm on about my third or fourth forced reboot in probably an hour. Not because of anything like Windows updates, or any other driver updates, no, this is because the computer just decides to stop working altogether. Considering this is my second G74SX, it's taking all I have to not throw this through the wall right now. So far this is the worst $1300 I have ever spent. Yes, I got the "gimped" Best Buy model, but I really feel that the problems I've faced so far has nothing to do with the fact that this has a 128-bit graphics memory bus. FYI, it's a G74SX-BBK11. I did stick another 8GB of RAM in it, and it was whatever I could get at Best Buy at the time, so maybe that's the problem, so I guess I'll be running some memory tests.

 

Ran the memory tests. When I had installed the new memory, I put it in the "lower" two slots, where the existing memory had been, and then moved that memory to the "upper" two slots. Anyway, during one of the memory tests, Memtest86 completely froze, like what I had seen in Windows. This was early on in the test, and it was on the lower 8G of RAM, so I shut the machine down, pulled out that memory, put the OEM RAM in the bottom two slots and re-ran Memtest86. No problems. So, I guess PNY memory was the culprit. Only time will tell I guess.

 

i think you're going around in circle too much, first comes first, leave only 1 memory stick in your laptop 4gb one or 8gb which ever it is, and make sure after you took off the bottom plate its the upper slot thats closest to you, left or right does not matter.

test 1 stick at a time, bad memory will prevent computer from starting up. 2nd check your harddrive, reinstall windows. 3rd if you have had any loud beeps from your computer, memorize how many beeps it is cause they indicates issues with the computer, motherboard/memory/screen/graphics etc.

and lastly, i hope you didnt get a bestbuy warranty, cause they freaking suck lol. the geeksquad people donno sh*t period, and their repair center is just like every other computer manufacturer etc the problem you're experiencing, when it gets to their end if happens to work at that point of time, you're screwed. they will send it back to you and tell you theres no issues and obviously you'll experience the same thing over and over again.

i feel for you man, when you get one that works, the laptop is just brilliant, if not then everything is crap.

 

I had to return my first G74SX as it would freeze at random and re-boot at random but the replacement is working fine and I am very happy with it.

 

Yup. It's always risky to mix different brands of memory. Return the BB stuff, obviously. If you really need 16Gb RAM (very few people need anything close to that), try to find modules identical to the ones already in there.. Asus sources their RAM from a lot of manufacturers, and some are kind of "no-name" here in the States. But if you got the Samsung or Abit RAM, you might be able to find some on Newegg or similar sites.

I'm glad to hear the 2nd unit seems to be a better machine than the one you returned.

 

eh guys would like to ask on the g74sx motherboard.... where is the cmos battery located?

 

Looking down at the top cover, it's just to the keyboard side of the card reader. Why do you ask?

EDIT: Nevermind.....I saw (and responded to) your post over on the ROG forum. Popping the battery doesn't work the same way in these models (as it does with desktop boards). Your better bet it to access BIOS setup and reset it to optimized defaults.

 

thanks for the reply BrodBoy... but the screen is black. i cant get into the bios just to revert back what i enabled in the advance settings... so how to

 

@dseriewow

would like to ask since you're a technician guru... Is it possible for an asus g74sx bbk7/8/9 with 128bit be modded to a 192bit version? I have an image of a bbk7 and it seems that its lacking 2 memories in it. Care to help if you can? tnx


G74SX BBK 7/8/9 motherboard

 

@dseriewow

would like to ask since you're a technician guru... Is it possible for an asus g74sx bbk7/8/9 with 128bit be modded to a 192bit version? I have an image of a bbk series and it seems that its lacking 2 memories in it. Care to help if you can? tnx


G74SX BBK 7/8/9 motherboard

 

I bought the G74SX-BBK11 from Best Buy last week (went in looking for the new G75, but couldn't pass this up at $900). It's replacing my 3 year old monster W90VP.

First thing I did was to upgrade it to 16gb, it's such a cheap mod theres no reason not to (and yes, I will use it, I render 3D graphics and often need multiple Ps and Ai files open at other times).

Not that it ever sees much use, but I'm also going to swap in my BluRay tray from my W90 as soon as I figure out how to get it out of there...
Also want to swap in a 320gb 7200rpm HDD from my W90 (then eventually an SSD) and move the 1tb HDD to the second bay for storage, but need to order the cable for the second HDD bay...

I would also like to know what is the best GPU that is compatible with our chipset... the 660M in the G75 is a completely different generation right?
Is the 192 bit 560M the best we have available to us?

 

no theres no way to modd it, if you dont know this i'll tell you right now. since its the cheaper version of g74sx (bbk), Asus calls it the GPU is integrated but they actually use reverse MXM socket, which the original gtx 560m with 192 buswidth does not fit into. there is 0% chance in any way that you can upgrade the graphics card. stick to it and enjoy it as the way it is, oh and also btw, its good to have higher bit card but most important is shader/core and memory clock, and also the bandwidth so 128 bit will do just fine.

look at window 7 wei score for example, wei score of original with 192 scores 7.2, and the 128 version scores 7.1

nvidia would like you to think 660m is complete different generation, but sadly no, and especially NOT this year. nvidia cheaped out and rename bunch of their older card as their newer ones, perhaps a bit faster but its generally the same. take example for 675m is the same as 580m, exact same core, shader, memory, bandwidth buswidth, everything is the same just different name.

and like i was saying above, 560m is the only GPU you'll get in the g74sx

 

Thanks for the info unityole This is a little bit off topic for g74 series... I would like to know if the G75series is an mxm based gpu card? Cos i saw in the pics that its' got an mxm slot. If it is then can this new laptop be upgraded to another mxm gpu card like nvdia 680m?

 

donno not sure, i havent made my purchase on the g75vw yet will probably within next couple of months but as of now i'd have to wait. you should be able to find some answers if you look up at the GPU and its spec information on websites like notebookcheck etc

 

It is not likely unless Asus releases the 680m in that laptop due to the unique shape of the GPU already in it. MSI, Alienware, and Sager have a similar GPU to each other but Asus has made a unique card for theirs.

 

Quick question for any of the g74 owners around here. I'm in the stores for a new laptop and been looking for some cheaper older models since the new IB laptops are cming out.
What do you think about this model : Asus G74SX-TZ279D FULL HD i7-2670QM 8GB 750GB nVIDIA GTX 560M 3GB, pret Asus G74SX-TZ279D FULL HD (site is in romanian). Is it worth it's price - aprox. 1000 eur? Would I be better of waiting for the g55/g75 models (which i doubt will be in that price range).
Thank you.

 

1K euro is around 1500-1600 canadian/US dollars, i got mine for 1100 US dollars which is about one year ago. so that is not a very good price to pay for.

 

In Europe these gaming laptops cost more but 1k Euro is too much for a G74 now that the G75 is out.

 

They cost around 1500-1600 @ release date. But meh, that low price product is out of stock now. Gonna have to keep hunting some more.