ASUS G74SX Owners' Lounge

Naw, he is referring to literally a part of the motherboard. See pic below.

 

so no hope now for us g74 owners to upgrade the gpu then..... So sad. G73 hardware architecture much better to play with than this new model? Was hoping this laptop have upgradeable parts including the gpu but to no avail.....

 

In my experience laptop graphic cards rarely go down in price, by the time you'll want to upgrade your laptop graphics card it might be cheaper to just get a new laptop anyways. It's still pretty lame that the 560m is literally part of the motherboard though in my case I wasn't planning on upgrading the graphics card anyways.

 

I agree.. By the time I need a faster card, it'll be time for a new laptop. Personally could care less whether it's part of the mobo.

 

To all G74SX Owners:

I would just like to ask how satisfied you are with your purchase. I'm planning to get this laptop as the first laptop I will buy out of my own pocket money. I know I have a G73, which I mainly use for school purposes, but this was given by my dad for my 20th birthday. I might be getting at least $5k for a server project I'm working on and I'm really interested in getting the G74SX for my personal laptop, for home use.

 

Can someone please verify that AES-NI is still broken on the G74s and that there's no option in the BIOS to fix it? (see link in my signature) If someone has an upgraded one with a better cpu than the 2630QM, that would be especially helpful.

 

Hi, I plan on buying a G74 in the next 1-3 months... as in I'll most likely buy one in either mid-late August or late September/early October. Is there any benefit to waiting? More/better models, cheaper, kinks worked out, or any clear benefit that may arise? This is more of a from your experience kind of thing as I don't expect anyone to just know lol.

Thanks

 

I think most of the versions of the G74 that are going to be release are out at this point, the only one I can think of that is not is the Newegg XN version. I don't know what your budget is but the Newegg one usually is a pretty good bargain if your trying to save some money.

 

My question is related as I am undecided about whether to purchase the G73SW or go for the pricier but somewhat beefier and redesigned G74SX. I'm thinking perhaps the 3D model with 120Hz matte screen when it's released. Though I will be using the machine for some gaming, it's main purpose will be for working with video and music programs. I'm not sure that the upgraded RAM and GPU would have much of an added effect for these applications. One way or the other I'd like to purchase by the end of next month. So what's the consensus on the upgrade guys or is it too early to tell?

 

Just got my G74sx from Xotic PC. I can't wait to try this bad boy out for some gaming! I'm coming from a 2009 Gateway P7809u.

First thing I noticed was that the colors on this screen are much more true than my Gateway. And the 1080p screen is extremely crisp. I am loving my initial impressions!

 

Has anyone figured out how to turn Num Lock off (if it's even possible)? I've gone all over the manual and keyboard but can't find anything that toggles it and the button you would expect is just a calculator shortcut. Aimed at business people instead of gamers perhaps? lol

Oh yeah, to answer your question Virgil I'm super happy with mine. Can't really make a fair comparison to what you're comming from but it runs everything I've thrown at it and only has a little bit of trouble here and there on the highest settings. Personally I'm not out to replace my desktop, just for a portable gaming system so I can live it some settings on High/Medium instead of Ultra lol. I haven't messed with overclocking or tweaks yet, so should be able to squeeze out some more power too based on what I've been reading.

 

Hey all! I finally had the chance to see the G74SX-A1 and to make a review on it. It's actually a nice gaming rig, although my old G73JW wasn't too bad either.

You can check out my review if you want to see a comparison between this and another competitor!

Hoping to make a written review soon too!

 

before I buy this computer, I need someone to help me test:
1- screen
2- screen opening angle

1- Screen
Can you go to the device manager >> monitor >> last tab >> hardware ID

Please let me know what the hardware ID is. For example if it is an LG panel, it will start with "LG".

I am hesitating between this and the Dell XPS 17 702, and the Dell is supposed to have a higher contrast.

The Dell panel ID is: LGD02C5

2- opening angle
is it more than for the G73? The G73 was impossible to use on a bed without needing to elevate the bottom for proper viewing. Can users post pictures of the maximum opening angle?

Appreciate your help.

 

Anyone have an idea why you cant use nvidia graphics drivers on the g74. the current 275.33 says it cannon find compataible hardware. Will it be stuck with the older drivers?

 

I was wondering the same thing.. Anyone know a trick to forcing the install?

 

I believe the drivers need to be modified. Look here for more info.
Drivers | laptopvideo2go.com
A few reviewers had to go this route to install the lastest drivers.

 

Thank you, the inf worked.

 

I went to the website but im unsure what to do. Do i just download the driver there or do i download the Modified INF. if just the inf what do i do with it and such. I'm a complete novice when it comes to this stuff and dont want to mess things up on my new computer.

Also while playing some games, after exiting ive gotten a message saying my preformance is low and I should change my aero settings. I've downloaded throttle stop and open and shut it off before playing. Any idea about this.

I'm using an Asus g74sx-xt1 playing wow in native 1900/1080 high settings.

One more question, is there a safe program that will moniter my laptops preformance and tell me how its doin. Thanks again for all the great info I've gotten here.

 

So this issue is with the driver itself, and not some problem with ASUS, right? So maybe a future version of the driver might not have this problem? I've read elsewhere others had upgraded to latest beta version (275.50) on the G74SX and didn't mention having to get any modified driver or INF file.

I need to find out because I run Linux as well, and the proprietary NVIDIA drivers provide significantly improved performance over the stock drivers that ship with most Linux distributions. But their Linux installer doesn't use INF files and the above link only has modified drivers for the MS os.

I had planned on ordering a G74SX this weekend, and now I read about this issue. Can anyone provide some details on what the cause of this problem is, and what future remedies might address it?

 

So anyone tried overclocking their G74? Would they be so kind as to post a few results As the 580m is mean to have some nice head room for overclocking on the GPU 850+ Mhz

 

Here's some good reading about modded inf files.
What is a modded INF? What is the Performance and Quality INF? - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

And how to install them.
How to use the modded INF - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

@Hendrickson
have a look here for benchmarks. Also chastity posted some in a new thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/557761-asus-rog-g74-coming-57.html

 

Thanks, wow so that 580m is disappointing. I can get higher than P10500 on my 460m with a nice overclock. Asus should have waited and got that ATI 6990 or even just add the older but powerful 485m.

 

**Bump**
I would also like to know this answer as my plan was to purchase this G74 series and Trucrypt the entire system.

 

Can one of you owners respond to my earlier message?
- What is the panel model?
- How far can open the screen lid? Is it more than on the G73?
- Also, has anyone of you chosen the glare non 3D display and if so, how is it?

 

I have the glare non-3d display is it's beautiful. In fact, it was the one part of this notebook that I was most surprised about. The whites are true and bright while the blacks are rich and dark. It's one of the best displays I've seen with my own eyes. The screen, as far as resolution goes, is extremely crisp. Viewing angles aren't terrible, but they aren't amazing too. I'd say it's about normal, if not above average for viewing angles. Anyone else agree with me?

As for the angle of the lid, it's more than adequate. In fact, I was a little worried when I saw the hinge was going to be as far forward as it was, but I always find my display sitting either right before the hinge or right on it... never causing a problem with the angle. It's quite impressive that they pulled it off as well as they did. I'm also very tall, at 6 and a half feet, so you might not even have to push it back as far as I do, so if you're worried about the hinge being too far forward, you'll be more than satisfied.

Lastly, I'm on my other laptop right now, (for work only, can't wait to ween off of this thing) but I can look up the monitor label for you tonight or tomorrow. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

Hi! New on this forum and have been a g74 owner for about 1 week now. Im having a couple of issues that I would like to share with you guys

1. When im browsing around in MyComputer (C just randomly it crashes and explorer gets restarted. Doesent matter WHAT I do. happends everytime after a little while. EXTREMELY annoying. I dont know when it started or what causes this. Rebooting doesent help. Anyone have any ideas about this?
*FIXED* (used recovery disk, reset to another state)

2. Gamefast crashes every time after its been enabled or disabled leaving some processes still running or still turned off.
*Got rid of gamefast haha*

2. In-game Bad Company 2. SMOKE.. this computer or the 560m (or the drivers) Dont like smoke at all.. The game runs good until im IN smoke. It doesent matter what changes I do. Ive tried turning off bloom. HBAO. everything to low. AA / Aniso. all off.. still. in smoke frames drop to around20-25 (seen 18 as the lowest) Also going in and out of scope causes lag. THis is in native Resolution. have just briefly tried different resolutions wich make everything lookes absolutely crap. so im not interested in lowering the res.
I have not tried any other game yet.

*update: After a little while of gaming the right side of the laptop gets really hot. and the right exhaust blows out really hot air. the right side of the keyboard gets really hot. The rig runs very quiet, i was expecting more fan noise under stress (gaming).. is this normal?


I got the G74 with 6gb ram, 560m with 3gbvram (192).

The only thing ive installed that did not come with the machine is STEAM and via steam - Bad company 2.

Other than these issues seen above I do love the thing and Im not a hater.. BUT i was kinda planing this rig would run future games for me. like BF3! Getting worried its not up for it considering the bad company 2 fps drops and scope lag. Im hoping its a driver issue.

Cheers guys and I hope you have any suggestions on the above!

 

Try a fresh windows install to fix the freezing issues. There are guides here in the Asus section. Also it could be your disk drive is powering down so check your power settings.

As for the FPS, if your running in 1080p and its dropping the frame what somewhat you have two options the way I see it.

A) Lower settings in the game video advanced menu/ For example texture quality. Don't use AA either.
B) Overclock your 580m using MSI Afterburner.

Hope this help and enjoy your G74!

 

Guna give MSI afterburner a go! Cheers!

*Edit - Is anyone already running MSI afterburner with the G74 and what settings can you recommend? Dont wanna fry anything

 

Ok, go up in small o/c steps say 25Mhz to begin with and let us know if that helps with the smoke.

 

Ken posted a video of a g74 running with 940/1880/1500, though I can't imagine that being too frosty. That being said, if you scaled it down by like 50 mhz, you'd be fine on everything short of fur-mark.

 

Nice.. any Voltage tweak on that or just the clock speeds turned up?

 

Thank you so much for responding. It looks like what you have is the same as in the Dell XPS 17, namely the very bight LG screen. Please let me know when you have a chance.

When you use your laptop on your bed, is the opening angle a problem or is it fine? I found that on the G73 I had to put a book underneath the base and it was too ridiculous so I sent it back.

I am currently on a Sony Vaio AW21 Z/B. This laptop has made it very hard for me to find a replacement:

• It is 18 inches
• It is light and quiet in spite of being 18 inches
• It has an SSD drive in the standard configuration
• It has a contrast of 1070:1 when the best laptops right now reach 700-800:1 !!!!
• It has the best sound, only the Dell XPS 15's sound is better (and I have tested many laptops)

I looked at the Alienware M18X in Shanghai at their flagship store and i wasn't impressed. The touchpad required quite a bit of pressure, the screen wasn't that bright, the colors and the sound, while OK, weren't nothing to be amazed about when you come from a high end multimedia Sony laptop.

It looks like the Asus is the best choice for me right now. Sound may not be as good as on the Dell XPS 17 but then the XPS 17 doesn't have a high end graphic card. After using gamer laptops in the past and not having a real need for it (I only play Guild Wars and soon Guild Wars 2), I had sworn that I wouldn't put up with the bulkiness and fan noise of a gaming laptop anymore.

But there comes Asus with their G74. I returned the G73 last year because of the average sound, good but not great display, average touchpad and worst of all: the lid opening angle (a major design flaw). Now it looks like Asus has improved in most areas and I am in for another try...

Still I am scared of the sound test. When you have played a game with a truly amazing sound, you are used to hearing certain details and expect the sound richness, and playing on something inferior is really disappointing.

I am so unlucky that I have such high expectations in terms of display and sound quality, I wish more manufacturers would put an emphasis on both!

I still don't understand why my Samsung SII phone has a 0.0 cd/m² black level and brightness over 280 cd/m² (making the contrast better than on the best plasma/LED LCD TV's), most pads have also great contrast ratios, but on the laptop side, 95% of the market have abysmal displays. I refuse to promote this.

I think Samsung would do well to use their OLED technology for laptops, not just mobile phones and just obliterate competation like they are now doing in the mobile world. If they can make Apple totally unsecure like they are doing now with smartphones, then why not in the laptop arena. They should totally enter the gamer segment.

Of course, such displays are still expensive, and if people don't care enough to pay the price, then the calculation is quickly done...

But Apple is testament that people will pay for well packaged quality. So get your marketing teams together and flood the market with qualitative displays please!

I am a person with nostalgia for the future.

 

Hello,

Thanks to toxic_society for the screen quality feedback. I am hesitating between the G74SX-A1 and the msi GT780R model. The screen quality is very important to me as I will use the laptop during daytime in a very clear environment with plenty of windows and also night time as a tv screen.

So reflection and viewing angle are crucial. Any more feedback about these?

 

If you want good sound quality, get a combined headphone amp with dac that uses USB, and some expensive headphones. Not only will that get you superior sound quality that no on-board sound can match, but it's also completely independent of your current computer and can be used on any you switch to or upgrade to at a later point.

 

Thanks for the advice, but I already have a very expensive surround sound system. As far as laptop is concerned, I am an all-in-one guy, I hate to have cables attached to my computer or have to use external devices.

For example all my files are stored on a 4TB network attached storage accessible through WLAN n.

Also a headset prevents you from hearing pizza delivery, and as a gamer this is not an option...

 

Asus G74 or Dell XPS 17 is the way to go. Alienware screen reflects too much and is not bright enough.

MSI's is a nice notebook but because of the inferior visual appeal, screen and average sound quality, I would only consider this laptop if you want to upgrade the graphic card and performance is more important to you than looks and screen quality.

 

@puremid, I hear you. I'm a Galaxy S II owner too and love this display. If only they would make SAMOLED's for notebooks. But apparently they can't. At least not yet. Tech level isn't there and the expensive to make a notebook size display is too high.

MY old Asus eee PC 1008HA had a very nice matt display the likes of which I've never seen again. My G53 1080p screen is nice. However its not anti glare and its black levels are too bright. Its a lot better than my old Gateway 68xx FX screen ws anyway.

Come on Samsung, bring us a 17' SAMOLED

 

They already have 17' AMOLED, been presented for the last 2 years, just not able to produce it cost effectively just yet.

 

My monitor ID is CMO1726. Anyone know anything about these?

 

I posted the monitor ID in my previous post, but as for the angle of the lid while in bed, it's perfectly fine. Again, I'm pretty tall, so you probably will have a bit more room for the angle. I don't see it being a problem for anyone shorter than I.

If you are spoiled on an amazing set of speakers, I'm not sure the Asus will impress you, but it's definitely "good enough." I like it, personally. Sounds so much better than my old Gateway. The sound has a feeling of depth to it... like it's coming from deep within the laptop, rather than these puny little speakers smashed up against the bottom of the keyboard. The lows are reached, not too impressively, but they're apparent nonetheless. They aren't as loud as my gateway. Also, I haven't had a chance to play with an equalizer, since I haven't loaded any of my music to the laptop yet. That might just make all the difference in the world to truly push the sound capabilities of the G74.

There is a cheap Kingston SSD you can grab online that's 100gb for 100 bucks after mail in rebate. Best I've ever seen it. And I've been thrilled with it thus far. I've been really pleased so far. My only gripe isn't really a gripe at all... and that's I wish I could play Crysis 2 at a bit higher settings, but it's still a fantastic looking game without the graphics on Ultra... which I'm sure many desktops would have a problem running also.

As for the S-AMOLED screens... I would kill for one. haha, I have a Galaxy S I and I am thrilled with it's low darks and bright whites. If we could get one in a computer... I would never ask for anything ever again.

Good luck with your purchase. I can tell you are very... picky?... enthusiastic about your hardware when it comes to a new laptop, haha. But as for my opinion, I would recommend this to anyone. For the price, it can't be beat. Unless it's an MSI... and even then it's merely on par. I prefer having a larger name behind my notebook like Asus.

And I know this doesn't matter, but in the back of my head, I can't help but think the MSI is just aesthetically boring. Just like every other gaming laptop you can image. The G74sx is simply beautiful. It looks like nothing I have seen before. Plus, this thing stays cool, always. I used to have to sit with a pillow under my laptop so it wouldn't burn my legs... a terrible idea, since it cuts off the circulation... but it was just so damn hot. lol this thing never even gets warm on my lap and receives constant proper ventilation. Asus for the win, when it comes to notebook cooling. This set up is genius.

 

Everything you need to know, Chimei Innolux Corporation - 17.3\"FHD(N173HGE-L11/L21)

 

So that's how the non 3D screen is. It is not bad but the 3D screen is better by a fair margin. It is the LG. Check this out:
Review Asus G74SX-3DE Gaming Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

It is 100 nits brighter and also has a superior contrast as a result.

 

I've heard the 3d screen is absolutely amazing. They say it's one of the best on the market, apparently. Most early reviews indicated this anyways, and it seems like Asus only sent out the 3d model for everyone to review.

 

And thanks dkillone for the info!

 

Well, thanks for the links. I get what they're doing there, but still don't understand why others trying to use the NVIDIA installer get the message that the hardware can't be found. As I mentioned, I need to run Linux as well as Windows, and LV2GO only have MS files. If the NVIDIA driver can't see the hardware I'm stuck with the poor performance of the distro's driver.

So no one knows why the NVIDIA installer can't find the hardware?

 

I'm not sure, but I know it accepts the beta update. I installed it on mine. I wonder if it's just tweaked to start running on the new updates or something? It's a brand new card. I assume it will have it's shortcomings at points.

 

been using MSI afterburner now and im running it clocked to 890 (with the shader syncd) and memory timings up aswell (cant remember the number, @ work now).

The FPS drops in BC2 are now gone! atleast from what ive been able to test. 32 Players, heavy smoke, and explosions + house falling down on my face = "drops" to 35-40FPS . havent seen it go under 35fps yet. Stoked!

During the gamesession i kept a look at GPU temp and it crept up to 65 and stayed there. Is that an OK gpu temp?

 

HI ALL my monitor ID is SEC544B and i swaped out this g74 with another cause the first one did not have the recovery partiion and both are the same. what is this anyone know? i have the BB version of it. Just a fyi best buys version on display i checked and had the LG

also i had the g73 and the speakers on this thing sucks compaired to it. any good speakers you guys can recommend?

 

thanks for the response.

I didn't know that MSI has an inferior screen quality. There is not a lot of review available of the g74sx or the GT780R. Just to be sure, you are speaking about the AUS FHD non 3D screen right?
The only advantage (for me) of the MSI upon ASUS was the matte screen. So the asus has changed the screen since the g73? Because in the notebook review ( Review Asus G73SW Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews ) the reflection was still an issue.

 

If you look under programs and go to the creative folder you will find a THX TRUstudio application where you can adjust the max volume. I raised mine to 85.. i've heard of someone who maxed the settings and blew out his speakers, so be careful when adjusting the settings. The overall sound quality of the g74 isn't all the great, but the program does help a bit.