Asus G50V 9700M GT Review, Benchmark and games

Asus G50V Gaming Notebook Review

Introduction:
G50 is a new Asus gaming series replacing the G1S Asus’s former king of the hill for the gaming segment in 15” form factor. It is absolutely jam packed from corner to corner with the best new technology and built to a high quality finish.

The biggest change to the core of the system is the upgrade to the Intel’s new Centrino 2 mobile platform. This is such a big deal that Intel and Asus partnered up and held a huge gaming event called RGcon (Republic of Gamers Convention) so if you wonder why the “republic of gamers” thing came from on the laptop, that’s where it came from. Intel and Asus both are very proud of this model since its one of the few that they featured at that event.

G50V Video (720p)
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The new Centrino 2 mobile platform features:
- 1066MHz CPU FSB
- DDR2 800 RAM
- ICH9-M SATA Controller
- Intel WiFi Link 5100








The new processor has lower thermal profile and the better clock for clock power of any mobile CPU to date. They also have a faster front side buss running 1066mhz. The CPU is not the only upgrade, the ram now runs at DDR2 800mhz instead of DDR2 667 like the last generation Santa Rosa platform. The new south bridge is the Intel ICH9-M and it has a very good raid function built into it. Why does raid function really matter for a laptop? Well for most it wont do anything and its impossible to use, that’s why the G50 has two hard drives! It’s a very rare thing to see a 15” laptop with 2 hard drives, this makes the G50 very special. So if you so desire you can use the drives in a Raid 0 setup for speed or Raid 1 for data safety. Also you will have more space than ever before for all your files and games.

Specifications:

Build Quality & Physical Specs

The build quality left nothing out, they did a very good job building the G50, it has no keyboard flex, has adequate cooling, a great screen, the chassis is solid and well built and there is no wobble or other annoyances you can find in other laptops.

Keyboard & Touchpad

Many people will be happy to see that there is a full numeric keypad and that comes in very handy for spreadsheet work. Touchpad very responsive and your finger glides across it with ease.


Direct Console 2.0
-Message: The second LED screen can display multiple messages for CPU/Memory usage/battery life/MSN Message and email notification:


-Overclocking:
2 levels of CPU overclocking Turbo Modes:





RAID Controller
Press F2 to enter BIOS and change SATA mode from Enchance to RAID:


Press F10 to save the settings and when system start to boot up press "CTRL+I" to enter RAID configuration:


The G50V does not comes with RAID pre-configured, users will need to manually create new RAID volume, however, doing so will wipeout the entire hard disk so data backup is required before creating the RAID.


Operating System

The G50 comes with 64bit Vista so you can use all 4Gb of ram in windows. Many other laptops do not come with 64bit so you have to spend maybe $100 or more to buy your own.



The Specs for each model are as follows.

G50V-A1
T9400 2.53Ghz 1066 FSB 6MB
Intel PM45 Chipset
4GB DDR2 800Mhz Ram (2Gx2)
15.4” WSXGA+ 1680x1050 glossy screen
nVidia GeForce 9700M GT 512MB GDDR3
500 GB 5400 rpm SATA ( 250 GB X2)
DVDRW Super Multi
Intel WiFi Link 5100 a/g/n
2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Webcam
6 Cell Battery
Windows Vista Home Premium x64
Bluetooth 2.0


G50V-A2
T9400 2.53Ghz 1066 FSB 6MB
Intel PM45 Chipset
4GB DDR2 800Mhz Ram (2Gx2)
15.4” WSXGA+ 1680x1050 glossy screen
nVidia GeForce 9700M GT 512MB GDDR3
400 GB 7200 rpm SATA ( 200 GB X2)
Blu-Ray Read/DVDRW Super Multi
Intel WiFi Link 5100 a/g/n
2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Webcam
6 Cell Battery
Windows Vista Home Premium x64
Bluetooth 2.0

Interfaces:

1 x HDMI
1 x eSATA
1 x Express card
1 x Microphone-in jack
1 x Headphone/speaker out
1 x S/PDIF
1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor
4 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x IEEE 1394 port
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert

Package contains:


-Targus Backpack (same backpack as in G1S)
-USB Optical Mouse (same mouse as in G1S)
-6 cell battery
-120W AC Adapter
-Phone line
-User guide
-ExpressGate user manual
-S-Video cable
-cable tight
-Vista Home Premium 64 Recovery DVD
-Drivers DVD for both Vista 32/64
-Alone in the Dark Game
-CyberLink Power2Go V5.5

Device Manager



G50V-A2

The A2 version is exactly the same as above with two differences.

The DVD Multi drive has been upgraded to a Blu-Ray optical drive and the two 250gb 5400rpm drives have been changed to 200gb 7200rpm drives.

This upgrade should give you better hard drive performance, wich is often times the slowest part of a laptop system and allow you to watch Blu-Ray/DVD movies or burn DVD/CD disks.


Audio
Better audio is starting to become important in high end notebooks and gaming series notebooks should be no exception. Standard speakers have been replaced by Altec Lansing. the speakers are not loud as people would expected, but the sound quality is clear.

The circular grill at the bottom of the laptop is only for decoration and it's not a subwoofer:


Screen
Monitor Properties:
Monitor Name Generic PnP Monitor [NoDB]
Monitor ID AUO1B7B
Manufacturer B154SW01 VB
Manufacture Date Week 1 / 2007
Serial Number None
Max. Visible Display Size 33 cm x 21 cm (15.4")
Picture Aspect Ratio 16:10
Gamma 2.20
DPMS Mode Support None

EVEREST complete hardware report

GPU
The G50 has a 9700M GT, Its comparable to somewhere between the power of a 8800GT and 8800GTS but uses much less power and runs much cooler.



Benchmark
Setup:
G50V-A1
T9400
4GB DDR2 800
9700M GT 512MB GDDR3
Vista Home Premium 64

WEI:


3DMark06:
No overclock:
1024x768: 7033
1280x1024: 5708


1024x768:



1280x1024:



Overclocked by Direct Console 2.0 @ Turbo Extreme mode:
1024x768: 7172
1280x1024: 5795


1024x768:



1280x1024:







Game Videos

Crysis

Video 1: no overclock, 1280x720, all settings high except Shadows/Shadders at medium


Video 2: no overclock, 1280x720, all settings high


Video 3: Overclock using Turbo Extreme Mode, 1280x720, all settings high except Shadows/Shadders at medium



COD4
No overclock



__________________________________________________________________________________________


Windows XP Drivers for both G50V and G50Vt


Everything works under XP except:
-IR Driver
-Direct Console 2.0
-Smart Logon

Setup RAID under XP:
Sliptream RAID controller driver is required, first download nLite:
http://www.nliteos.com/download.html

And here is the XP driver for RAID controller:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16759/eng/f6flpy32_85.zip
the file for driver integration is iaStor.inf and it work for both RAID and SATA Enhance mode.

XP Drivers
Below is the drivers you can find from drivers DVD:

Intel Chipset: Always install chipset first.
D:\Software\ INFupdate\Setup.exe

D:\DRIVER\ ATK0100\VISTA32\2KSETUP.EXE
D:\DRIVER\ KB_FILTER\Vista32\2KSETUP.EXE

D:\SOFTWARE \ATKHOTKEY\SETUP.EXE
D:\SOFTWARE\ ATKMEDIA\SETUP.EXE
D:\SOFTWARE\ ATKOSD2\SETUP.EXE

D:\SOFTWARE\ RICOH\SETUP.EXE (Card Reader)
D:\Software\ BLUETOOTH\WIN32\BRCM\DPINST.EXE
D:\SOFTWARE\ EXPRESSGATE\SETUP.EXE
D:\SOFTWARE\ TOUCHPAD\Setup.exe
D:\SOFTWARE\ WCONSOLE\SETUP.EXE
MODEM: There is no modem in G50V!

Drivers you need to download:

nVidia GeForce Driver:
A: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=20269
1: Download driver from the driver link
2: Extract driver into a folder
3: download Modded INF
4: Copy and paste INF file into the extracted driver folder before run setup.exe
5: Run Setup.exe

B http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winxp_179.28_beta.html
HDMI Audio driver is included in the Geforce driver if the driver is download nVidia's website.


Intel WiFi Link 5100:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/17228/eng/12.2.0.0_X_Drivers.zip
unzip and click dpinst32.exe to install.



Realtek Audio Driver:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

nVidia HDMI Audio Driver: (for both XP32 and XP64)
Link 1: ftp://europe.asrock.com/drivers/nVidia/Audio/HDMI_XP64_XP(1.00.0.17).zip
Link 2: http://download.asrock.com/drivers/nVidia/Audio/HDMI_XP64_XP(1.00.0.17).zip


Realtek Lan Driver (Unzip and click setup.exe to install):
Link1
Link2
Link3

Power4Gear:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/10891/eng/P4G_V1.16_Generic.zip



3DMark06
Windows XP Professional
Forceware 175.80

No overclock:
1024x768: 7487
1280x1024: 6040


1024x768:



1280x1024:

 

Awesome review thanks! I wonder how much better the A2 HD's are on the experience index.

 

I was just wondering should you change the resolution because the g50 is a 16:9 ratio screen and changing the resolution should give you a higher score.

 

Third in on the new review! So you are hands on with the actual real A1 models now.

Can you tell me if it uses the same great screen the C90S has? Also do you know the cpu speed with the turbo extreme mode?

 

No its not actually 1680x1050 16:10

The 16:9 is only for the BB ripoff model.

 

finally its out. looks good. i'm going to get this

 

How's the battery life and how heavy is it? (6.5 pounds?) I just ordered an A2, from Gentech, I'm pretty excited. Haven't had a laptop since the great XPS 1330 disaster of 07.

Seemed like for $200 more it was well worth it for the faster HD and the blue-ray drive. I couldn't find any laptop blue-ray player for under 350, so upgrading later would be dumb, and besides it would be a different color.

 

I noticed the top is all black, doesn't the best buy model have an orange strip on it?

 

OOO so far I am looking and notice a few things.

1.) no orange strip across the top of the lid, its black and I like it better that way.

2.) the hdd's are western digitals my favorite brand, cool & quiet while still quite fast.

3.) the default setup is 2 independent drives, if you want raid 0/1 you will have to do that on your own, for those who care about vista scores the score will go higher in raid 0 for hdd performance.

 

Nice review! Thanks.

 

I like the all black top a lot also. It also has the intel 5100 while I think the BB models have a different wifi chip.

 

Very nice, thank you!!

Just a point of concern -- are those normal GPU temps? I've never had a dedicated GPU in my laptops so I don't know but it seems that 63C-72C is a bit too high. I believe I've seen other GPUs, though less powerful, at about 50C.

Oh and why does XoticPC list the wifi card as Intel 4965 if it comes with the 5100?

 

Cool review Ken

 

hmm you would think 5100 is higher newer and better than the older 4965 right? Well did some research managed to find this page: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3356&p=6

the 5100 looks like a downgrade. The 5300 however would be an upgrade.

 

Will these be widely available on the web and in brick and morter stores? Specifically, sites such as Newegg and/or Best Buy?

 

Best Buy = No they have a totally different model exclusive to them the G50V-X1 we have a ton of information on it within the first 2 pages of the Asus forum section. My opinion on it in the long of short. Its not worth the $300 less for the loss of hardware.

Newegg = They will probably have them and often times get there own exclusive models on things too but I do not see anything that can be changed up on these too much to create any kind of newegg model that would be appealing.

 

Aw man, how do you set up RAID?

 

Oh boy! Thanks for the early review, Ken. This thing looks great, can't wait to hold it in my arms and hug. My only worry is that I will have to wear gloves when handling it so I won't leave my sticky fingerprints all over the cover. lol

 

I'll do a guide on that in my review most likley I will try out a raid 0 setup for awhile since I do edit video's occasion. However for 99.8% of the people out there independent drivers are the way to go.

 

I wanna improve my game loading time

 

GentechPC:

What kind of temps were you getting on the cpu when it was overclocked and running 3dMark 06?

 

That would be the job for a 7200rpm HDD, or a SSD not raid 0.

 

Really? I talked to soemone before running in RAID 0 and he was loving the loading time.

 

Ether

> Placebo effect

> Total Moron

> Rare situation where loading time increases.

Most games are composed of several small files and in this situation raid 0 offers you no benifit, and depending on if the files are too small they can actually load slower, but if the game has some really big files raid will speed those up. I find that most games I play these days have a good combination of both so the net loading time stays about the same. I suppose there are going to be situations tho where a game has more of one or the other making loading faster or slower.

 

Does the G50 has the same keyboard like the M50 and M51 have?

So I can replace the G50 keyboard with an M50/51 one, right? Will it fit into the notebook?

 

I dont' know how WoW works, but its data files are huge. Googling shows that there are slight improvements in loading time.

 

WoW loads pretty much instantly on my single 250gb 540rpm drive on my C90S, I cant see point in it loading any faster.

Make sure you have the basics covered. WoW is more sensitive to RAM than anything else when it comes to zoning into areas, you need a good cpu to keep up with everything, and keep your hard drive defragmented.

That alone would solve probably over half the people's issues that have slow or bad loading in Wow.

 

Probably all my addons then.

 

what's the battery life like?? also www.agearnotebooks.com is the only retailer that have's vista ultimate as the first option within the price.

 

Thats odd, that website says it comes with a 8 cell smart battery, on the config page, but on the previous page it says 6 cell.

 

I don't exactly trust a website that sells "Gamming laptops"

 

It comes with 6 cell battery, and you know what, it's the same battery they use on M50 series, I can use M50's 9 cell battery on G50V.

GPU temperature is around 80~82*C while running 3DMark06.

60~61*C overclocked with Direct Console 2.0 Turbo Extreme mode:

 

Isn't that insanely hot?

 

Does that 9 cell stick out? Also how much battery time/weight does it add?

 

Press F2 to enter BIOS and change SATA mode from Enchance to RAID:


Press F10 to save the settings and when system start to boot up press "CTRL+I" to enter RAID configuration:


Make sure backup all the data before doing this, create new RAID volume will wipeout entire hard drive.

 

there are perfectly trustworthy site. and they just updated there site with that look so there would probably be some mistakes
here's a link to there rating
http://shopping.yahoo.com/merchrating/user_rv.html?merchant_id=1004054
there also here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91510 5/5 stars

 

One thousand thank you's for the temperature update.

I believe an X9100 should do fine then. Someone had said earlier that the heat sinks were weak but they look pretty efficient to me.

 

hmmm,serious wanting this..but gud chance my country wont have this

 

No, I'd even call it cool.

 

hi

does it have intel turbo memory, is it the new one robson 2

and can we upgrade the wifi card 5100 with the 5300 one and whre we can find it

 

This thing is so hawt.

My only gripe is the Intel 5100 chipset, being lousier than the 4965 chipset, as pointed out by someone very clever.

How much does the A1/A2 model cost guys?

 

I still don't understand why no reseller lists the A1/A2 models as actually having the 5100 wifi card...all of the sites say they have the 4965 card.

 

Copy paste and forgot to edit perhaps?

 

is the visible screen measured to 15" or does the 15" include the thick black rim around it?

 

Can't get the video to play in the review. Another tab opens but nothing happens. Can anyone help?

Also any pictures with the 9 cell battery?

 

You have to right click and "save file as" to download the video.

 

Thanks it worked. "save link as"

 

The 9700M GT is not really comparable with any 8800 series...
According to this it is much closer to the 8700M GT when overclocked.

Note, a 5700 score at 1280x1024 in 3dmark06 is not impressive considering the T9400 behind it and 3dmark06's bias towards processors.

With my year-old 8700m GT with a 1.8GHz T7100 getting a 5500+ at 1280x1024 and other 8700m GT users who have upgraded to T9300s (2.5 GHz) getting well over 6000 I think perhaps the notion of the 9700m GT being closer to the 8800 series to be a bit optimistic.

This is still a nice laptop and the 9700m GT is still a nice card... indeed probably about 15-20% faster than a stock 8700m.

 

Yea kind of expecting somewhere around 6000-7000. I'm really disappointed too.

 

Eish, 1850$ and we only get Intel Wifi 5100 instead of 5300 ?
Nothing to do about this ?