Asus G50V 9700M GT Review, Benchmark and games

There are 4gb so-dimms! but very expensive. Chipset yes should have 64gb of memory address space just like the P45 motherboard for a desktop. Due to how it works it goes from 4gb --> 16gb. As for bios I do not see a reason why they would limit it at the bios level.

 

Actually, the PM45 only supports up to 8GB.

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/320122.pdf [Page 12]

 

Well for me since memory is very important as I will be doing a lot of visualization on this laptop e.g. Windows Server 2003, Exchange, SQL, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Ubuntu, Windows Server 2000, Windows 2000 Professional, Linux and for replication purposes to simulate a real network.

I'm doing all this cause I need the practice for my MCSE.

It would be great to have 8GB of RAM in ASUS G50V not to mention the benefits of better battery life.

 

O'rly?

The document you linked is the same spec as the P45 64gb of address space 4 --> 64 I made a typo when I said 16. Its linear scaling.



Address space does not equal usable memory. The limit for address space in x86 is 4gb but the limit for usable ram is much more near the 3.2gb area. Thats because other devices must register and hold part of that 4gb space. Memory remaping is used to place those devices at a point higher than 4gb to allow all of the ram to be used.

In theory the chipset should support over 60gb of ram, the reaso its probably stated as 8gb is only because the max you can fit in there is 2x4gb so-dimms.

The next time you want to be super tech guy and link .pdf spec sheets do me a favor and learn how to read them first. I very clearly stated address space and not usable ram as you can see from my quote.

 

Thanks for the correction/clarification, although you didn't have to be such a prick about it.

 

Heeey guys~ let's tone down the hostility please no need for name calling

Anyways, Ken, I just saw your updated review with the 3dmark06 score for XP, and it's almost identical to mine...just a 6 point difference However, for vista, I had much lower score than yours. I'm just curious if you had any of the Asus utilities (splendid, smart logon, etc) when you ran 3dmark06 on vista? I'm also assuming you're using the stock drivers too?

 

Hey Ken,

Have you tried using the HDMI output on an HDTV yet. I want to know if the drivers implement the overscan fix corectly to display the picture without cutting off the edges. This has been a large issue for Nvidia since 2006....

Also,

Will you be selling a version with the 1680x1050 screen with lesser processor, ram, or hard drive specs. I am on a budget but the one thing I cant sacrifice is screen resolution.

 

Whats your Vista score Emporium? Stock drivers was 5700 for me (make sure your in extreme turbo mode for the cpu power) with the new drivers it was 5870ish.

I tried Riva Tuner & Ntune and so far nether will let me overclock. Riva tuner runs but reads the wrong clocks and ntune will bsod the system.

 

One thing I haven't been able to see in any photos, Where are the Lid locks?
What holds it closed?

 

I am also curious about this because i just bought a Samsung T260HD to plug this bad boy into and it would be great if it worked.

 

Bestbuy has the x1 for $1099 now.

 

Can the 6-cell battery be upgraded to the 9 cell later on? Are they interchangeable or do you have to order the 9 cell from the start?

Has there been any battery tests on the 9 cell? I have seen that the 6 cell gets around 2hrs.

Thanks.

 

Theoretically, the 9 cell will last 3 hours.

You can buy the 9 cell later. It uses the same battery as the M50Vm

 

I have a G50V-A2 on the way as soon as they arrive at Gentech. My question is where will i get the new drivers for the GPU and will i need a modded INF file. I have had a G2s-A1 for about a year now and drivers were the hardest thing to contend with with this laptop. other than the enormous size and weight of this comp. Hence the reason i have downgraded the screen to the 15.4

 

For new drivers go to http://laptopvideo2go.com

As for how to install them, I'm stumped.

Also, does anyone know when GenTech will get another shipment of G50 A1's? The wait is killing me!

 

I live in Canada and I've been searching for a gaming laptop at around 1000$ for quite a while now and when I saw this deal on bestbuy united states I tought it couldn't get any better than this. But I'm not really sure if I should wait or go down to the US to get one soon. The nearest bestbuy that has an x1 is within a 2 hours drive from my house so it's not that bad. thanks

 

Hi guys, just a quick question. I'm looking to buy this laptop, but I'm not sure where to buy it. I've looked at XOTICPC.com, and they have great prices, but I didn't know if there was anywhere that might be a little cheaper. Just curious. Thanks.

EDIT: I should mention I would like to buy the A1.

 

In case you haven't realized, they are not the same Laptop. The BB model is stripped down, check the specs so you know what you are getting.

 

I buy all my Laptops from Xotic. They have a knowlagable staff and they always respond in reasonable time to my questions. The first Laptop I bought from them had issues and they were very helpful and willing to make the situation right, even when the manuafacture couldn't.

I am about to purchase my 3rd Asus Laptop from them, the G50S-A2. XoticPCs Tech support and consistant communication is worth a few extra bucks to me.

 

I got 5693 on stock drivers and on extreme turbo. I think Ken got 5795.

Yeah, I tried to OC the GPU and it wouldn't let me. I don't think different drivers will enable OC either like the 9600M GS.

 

Ken also had 5700 I am pretty sure. His XP score was higher but thats for obvious reasons. If you streamline vista it will probably be very close.

You should upgrade the drivers and see what happens the 177.79 work well for me but if you want to try a slightly older and more stable variant like the first few 177's that would be great too, that way we can see if they exibit the same issues like reporting the card as a GS or not allowing ntune to work.

 

Really nice review! Thanks! Its definitely on my wishlist now... waiting for some cashflows... Wish it came in a more sober color scheme as well, though...

 

Does anyone know when Asus will have these in stock again?

 

Anyone know how well the G50V performs at native screen resolution? All the benchmarks I've seen were running significantly below it.

 

Yes, I've done benchmarks on native resolutions as well as in-game videos at the 1680x1050 resolution. 3dmark06 scores about 4900 in vista and 5200 in XP.
For actually in-game videos, please see link here.

 

Anyone think this GPU is affected by the Nvidia fiasco?

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/12/nvidia-g92s-g94-reportedly

 

It's a G96. But if G84,86,92,94 are affected, you might as well consider the G96/98 to be too =/

 

Just placed my order for the G50v with GenTech Computers.

Hope the wait isn't too bad. I'm sure it will be smooth.

Thanks Ken!

 

They're not in stock, though, and no one seems to know when the next shipment is.

 

I hope that is not why Xotic is taking so long, maybe I waited too long to pre-order and now I have wait for the second shipment?

 

The A2 model is in stock at Gentech and Excaliberpc. Newegg briefly had some A1's this morning

 

I'm talking about the A1, though. GenTech is still sold out.

 

I know I preorderd with Gentech and they say they are in stock but my order status still says processing so i dont know what is going on

 

I'm looking to purchase a G50V as my first laptop. I am mainly going to use it for school, but want something that I can do gaming on as well. Currently I play ETQW. (anyone play ETQW and have benchmarks with it?)

Anywho, my question is.....

Will the G50 be a smooth transition to upgrade it with a SSD later on when they are cheaper? Any issues with that?

 

Im sure this laptop should be able to play Witcher just fine. My current laptop does ok, Asus G2s-A1 but for some reason after about 30 min the game crashes. Happens every time i play it on any resolution/setting. Doesn anybody have any idea why this would be happening? I believe im using the 167.25 driver from Laptopvideo2go with a modded inf. And is this something i am going to look forward to when my G50V-A2 gets here, i hope not.

 

Hi All,

One question that hasn't been discussed much is whether this laptop follows the MXM spec and if so which model, I, II, III etc...

I know that finding MXM cards is nearly impossible now but on the off chance that in the future MXM cards become easier to buy, it would be good to know whether or not this laptop has the possibility of an upgrade.

I also read a discussion somewhere else where someone contacted Sager directly to inquire whether they would sell him a MXM GPU directly.

Does anyone have any ideas or comments?

 

I think it's safe to assume that you won't be able to upgrade the GPU on this computer, and make your decision(s) based on that assumption.

See InfoBooth_FAQ, "Can I upgrade my GPU" for details on why this assumption is the best one to make.

 

I would suggest going to the game developer's website or some sort of fansite for game specific inquiries - unless this is happening with pretty much all your games. It might be some sort of incompatibility with the hardware, but do you use a laptop cooler? It could be that your laptop is overheating maybe. I don't know too much about laptops, but I've heard that they overheat like crazy when you game - and overheating definitely leads to crashing.

 

GUYS MY FREAKIN GPU JUST WENT OUT IN MY C90S WHILE WATCHIN THE X-FILES!!!! ***!? ANYONE WANT IT FOR $800 WITHOUT GPU ITS YOURS!

and it aint on ebay anymore

 

G50V's GPU is not upgradable, even the GPU you bought fits but it won't post.
I explained before the upgradable GPU has it's on VGA BIOS built-in on the video card, the G50V's video card BIOS is embed with mainboard BIOS.

 

Hi, Can anyone explain if there is a huge difference between the 9600 GT and the 9700 GT?

For me its down to getting the G50 with the 9700 or an HP with the 9600 ^^

 

Hey kids!

New to the forum and new to asus. I just got my G50 today!

Now to the fun part: How the heck do you install Raid. I changed the bios and created the raid using that control+I bit mentioned (PS: Awesome review). I'm reformatting with an XP pro disc and when I hit F6 to install the third party drivers I have a problem; I don't have a floppy and have no idea on what the next step is, given what asus sent me and with this G50. Is there something I'm missing? I'm hoping someone has tried this already.

As if that wasn't confusing enough for this newb; why was the 9700 GT is labelled a 9700 GS in the device manager?

Cheers!

 

Here's what you need:

http://www.winfuture-forum.de/index.php?showtopic=126900

Worked like a charm for me.

 

For XP with RAID configuration you must use nLite to slipstream the RAID controller driver otherwise it'll never work.

Here is the XP driver for integration:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16759/eng/f6flpy32_85.zip

Unzip into a folder and use nLite to slipstream, choose install single driver and select iaStor.inf, don't choose iaAHCI.inf because it's not gonna work.

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:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18823
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


Intel WiFi Link 5100:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16617/eng/12.0.4.0_X_Drivers.zip
unzip and click dpinst32.exe to install.



Realtek Audio Driver:
Link 1: ftp://202.65.194.212/pc/audio/WDM_R199.exe
Link 2: ftp://202.65.194.211/pc/audio/WDM_R199.exe
Link 3: ftp://66.104.77.130/pc/audio/WDM_R199.exe

nVidia HDMI Audio Driver:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/158097

Realtek Lan Driver (use update driver from Device Manger to install):
ftp://61.56.86.122/cn/nic/Driver_5694_XP_0619.zip

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

 

20~30% difference. Which is not insignificant. This laptop is definitely a better buy than the HP dv5t if you're in the price range.

 

hey guys, just finished reading all 20 pages! i was looking at an xps1730 but realized it was way too expensive once you upgraded everything (to the 8800m GTX in SLI) etc, but i am wondering for $2399 is it worth getting the xps1730 with the 8700m GT in SLI or just get the asus G50V?

i really plan on playing games like warhammer online, WoW the new expansion pack..

figured to ask the experts before wasting money

thanks!

 

Go check out the Sager forums. Specifically the Sager np8660. It's $2k for a decent configuration and beats the living **** out of the xps 1730 (with the 8700m GT SLI). Plus, it's 15".

 

Also take a look at the HP warrantee, every HP Laptop i have owned has died in less than a year, but somehow always just after the warrantee ended. I know the Asus comes with a pretty good warrantee, standard.

 

hmm for the sager i live in canada and personally i have never heard of any place selling them

 

Quite a few american retailers like xoticpc.com will ship to Canada. Check the clevo guide.