Asus G53SW Owners' Lounge

I got that too. I expected massive speeds over my old laptop and felt like I was on my old one. I was like, "This ain't right", so after verifying that the driver disc wasn't defective. (Had that happen on me once on another computer) I just installed a clean install of w7 using my key on the bottom, installed the drivers from the disc and installed my choice on anti-virus (I prefer Avast) and boom! It was much more responsive. I really don't know what causes it. It seemed more responsive after updating w7, so I think it might be a combination of bloatware and some W7 updates needed to fix the issue. I could be wrong, but that's my 2 cents. Ultimately though, yeah I did have the same starting issue you did. Sluggish startup out of the box.

 

Yep. Same thing here exactly. I was really disappointed at first with my G53SW. It was feeling ''sliggish and bloated''. There was always an annoying delay when opening programs, and slow start-up. Boot-up was too slow, and desktop was taking way too long to be responsive.

But after doing a fresh Win 7 installation, it's now really snappy. Programs are opening instantly. Booting in around 10 seconds. Really happy now.

I don't know why the factory Win 7 installation is so sluggish, but Asus should be more careful about what they put on those laptop. Out of the factory, those laptops are really not optimized. They could do much better.

Everyone should format and install a clean Win 7. The difference is major, sadly.

 

@GarryChow: Thanks mate I reinstalled drivers, everything now works correctly

 

With regards to the sluggish performance out of the box: initially I thought it was because of the problems with uninstalling the (trial) games that come with the Asus image and the messed up registry afterwards.

Anyway, it's really snappy now - so I can wait with that SSD a little bit longer. Who knows, they might drop a little bit in prince

 

^^Agreed, the difference is nearly night and day. Pretty much first thing people should do is run some stress test(a good overnight stress test is best), so they can be assured everything works good. Next step after that is to reformat so they can install all their apps, games, etc. I'm coming from a G73sw, but pretty everything you said above is what I got as well. Though, to be fair, most major companies require you to reformat after buying the laptop. Something about factory installs just don't work. Asus is the most noticeable difference as I've had 9 Asus laptops now, and not a single one could last more than 2days on factory install .

 

at the risk of being bashed for being a reseller and going against the grain i will do it anyways. You honestly believe that this issue would not cause a self service vendor such as my self to raise an eyebrow? the fact is there is nothing wrong with the factory install (other then a few softwares from asus that can easily be uninstalled). yes it is sluggish at first. leave it alone let it do its thing and after a few hours when all updating is finsished it runs exactly as it should. Statements like that cause a new reader to be scared. You are basically contributing to mis-information. kind of like the "lets repaste our gpu threads" which are a dis-service to the comminity when they are not manned/ writted by qualified individual. We sell hundreds of these notebooks monthly many thousands yearly and handle just as many support calls and cases. Why is there so much misinformation here on this forum and why do people not question it? your advice to reinstall windows once received also causes people to come to this forum to seek advice for things that were caused as a result of reinstalling windows. Is it possibly that your particular product has these issues? maybe! do all their skus have these issues? absolutely not! 99% and more of their sold products have no such issues.

 

I have to say I agree with this post. Uninstallation of a few unnecessary pieces of software aside, the factory install is just fine for the vast majority of users.

With that said, do I re-install Windows? Yes I do, but I'm one of the minority of people who enjoy doing such things and have the knowledge to do it- just like a lot of the people you find in this forum's setting. We aren't the norm for laptop consumers, though.

 

if you enjoy it and know what is involved is one thing. claiming that everyone should do it is just wrong (i am not just speaking about reinstalling windows, i am including the lets repaste the gpu thread which hurt more people then it helped)

 

I havent received my laptop yet, but i wont reinstall windows untill i get an ssd upgrade in the future *excited about the laptop*

 

Agreed, i uninstalled the Asus software i didn't want instead of doing a clean install and my G73 runs buttery smooth. It ran smoothly even with the factory stuff installed but since i didn't need it...

As for the repaste, we tend to jump the gun and go straight to the repaste option sometimes, but you're right it should be the last recourse. Most of the time it's clogged up vents or slightly higher temps that aren't dangerous, the former can be fixed in 5 mins with canned air and the latter doesn't need fixing. Besides, i never heard of a SW needing a repaste.

 

Fair enough Geared2Play, maybe I shouldn't have said everyone then. I see no need to argue, it's just considering I've gone thru 15 laptops in the past 2years, and have tweaked another 10 or so for friends/family, I just feel that a reformat tends to be a lot easier than trying to uninstall the bloatware and tweaking the system. Of course, like adampk17 said, I have to remember I am not in the majority, so most ppl wouldnt notice a difference. I am pretty darn picky with my system performance, so it feels like night and day to me.

After I'm done reformatting my friends and family comps they all tell me it is better as well, so I know I am not completely crazy. But obviously as a retailer you have experience with lots more laptops/computers, so I respect what you said as well.

In the end, props to you for making a well said argument, obviously if it was a big problem, you'd hear a lot of complaints from your customers. So it is fair to say that for the majority of laptop users a factory install will be fine.

 

I am the same way. For the vast majority of people, things will work out, but for me I enjoy doing these things and also am a bit of a perfectionist, so I try to get anything I own as close to perfection as possible. I know nothing is perfect, but I try.

So all in all, future owners, don't be scared off by our remarks of re-installing windows. This laptop is really great and you won't regret buying it.

 

@dkillone is it hard installing a ssd? i mean with the installing windows.. drivers any complications?
also wondering how much does windows take up? in gb of space.. windows.. vlc.. utorrent.. all the needed drivers.. and 3-4 games like sc2 and couple of apps like photoshop?

 

No complications here, installed super quick, and drivers you can install from the website HERE. Only ones you prob want to install not from the site is the Chipset and the VGA as those are better updated from intel/nvidia. You can grab the latest in links below.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?ProductID=3301&DwnldID=20019〈=eng&iid=dc_rss

Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers
(just choose your OS and gpu in link above, it will go to the latest)

I think on a fresh format, windows 7 takes up about 15-20gigs, however after turning off hibernate, lowering the pagefile, and turning off windows restore, you can get it down as little as 9-12gb or less. Most of those tweaks are recommended for SSDs, especially the disabling hibernate since that free's up a lot of space without it really being needed since start up time is just as fast on an SSD. Right now I am sitting at about 14gigs used by the OS after the tweaks and installing my usual programs(firefox, chrome, vlc, java, and windows updates(on sp1).

 

thanks man really great having used only 14 gigs.. Im going to wait a little bit more for the prices i want a 240gb or maybe a 120gb ssd for big sound files and samples/patches for my sound/music application.. but im looking forward to installing a ssd now thanks again!

Do anyone know about the throttling issues? and is it affecting the 2410m cpu aswell? thanks for any answers!

 

Congratulations man! I just ordered mine too... can't wait!

 

Thanks Congratulations to you too hopefully we will get the laptops soon cant wait anymore!!

 

can anyone post their temperatures when gaming? just wondering is mine is high, cpu reaches max 80c and gpu 79c. gpu temps seems find, just wondering if my cpu temps are higher than normal.

 

That's actually good. I'm getting 85C-90C gaming for hours.

 

I figured out what was causing my high temps (mentioned a few pages ago, page 38 or so), I was idling on 60C-63C reaching 85C while playing COD4 and only getting 60fps (COD4 should run higher on this laptop without overheating it too much but I'm perfectly happy with 60fps). I am hooked up to a Samsung 24" external monitor and I realized that I had my laptop screen as well as HDMI outputting onto my external monitor both on at the same time. I shut off my laptop LCD toggling Fn + F7 thinking it doesn't output to the laptop LCD, but the gpu still sources video out to the lcd of the laptop as well, thereby using 2 displays. I then toggled HDMI only to output to only my external monitor (fn+f8) and noticed a huge difference in my idle temps, idling now at 46C ish, highest I've hit idling is 53C while watching a few YT vids and other school work. I still hit 80-85 while playing COD4 and I suspect that may have to do with my video driver not being updated to 270.xx and currently running at driver 267.21 (I'd rather wait for Asus's website to update it). Please correct me if I'm wrong and any suggestions to reduce my in-game temps would be appreciated (I'd prefer to stay under 80).

Also for anyone wondering what I use to monitor my temps, click HWMonitor - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Downloads

 

Thanks Godaemon for the info. Could I please ask you to be more specific, about the bluetooth component, I am having lots of difficulty with it and I wonder what kind of component it is? Is it a mini pci is or what? I have not opened yet mine, to be honest I am scared to do so. I just wantbto make sure about the parts before opening it. If you have some more info on the bluetooth piece I greatly appreciate your help.
Thanks
Artimess

 

Hello Everyone,

Newbie here into the forums but soon will be one of the persons having this laptop.

I live in the Philippines and currently this laptop is out of stock here and will only be available by third week of June according to the retailers here. And the price here for the Non-3DE is a skyhigh of $2387 while the non 3DE is $2200 ones (converted through local currency).

Though I have a question about the screen of both versions, since the non 3DE screen (1920x1080) has higher resolution compared to 3DE screen (1366x768 120Hz). Is it significantly better?

Is it also worth to add extra money for the 3D experience? I've heard that when playing 3D is halves the game fps. No idea yet if it is the same experience as of watching 3D movies in cinema.

Lastly any ideas or comments if this gaming laptop can play these games in max resolution settings or in a decent one?

Diablo 3 (One of the main reason why I am buying this laptop)
Dota 2 (Not sure about it yet since no actual game screenshot :/)
Battlefield 3
COD: MW3

Reason I go for this laptop aside from it's superb cooling system, is that there are local Asus service centers here that could be less hassle for me rather than having your unit shipped out of the country and wait for a couple of weeks. I hope that this laptop can plays Diablo 3 at the maximum settings ohh pls!!

Hoping to hear from you guys soon.


Cheers,
Omar

 

is that your gpu or cpu temps?

 

Where is/are the intake airflow system in the Asus G53?

Someone somewhere said that the intake system is from around the keyboard or speaker, that's why cooling pad won't affect. Is it true?

So what are the use of the ventilation below?

 

3D is crap. An over-priced gimmick at this point. Avoid it like the plague. Plus, 1366x768 on a 15" screen is very low; 1920x1080 is beautiful.

It should have no problems playing those games at decent settings; however, you may not be able to max them out (especially Battlefield and COD).

I can't wait for DotA 2 either

 

IF the intakes are located in a similar position to those of the G73, the grill on the bottom is to cool off the HDDs and RAM which don't need a fan. The fan intakes should be right behind the screen.

 

Thanks ElKid for the response . I'll be choosing the 1920x1080 screen then. I believe it is the A1 settings here (because of the bag and mouse freebies).

And yes me too can't wait for the games I've listed above!

Upon browsing the net, I've found the machine specs that runs the Diablo 3 Beta. Seeing the requirements, and I must say it is almost quite the same with regards to specs compared to this laptop. Which puts me in a comfortable place then.

Diablo III System Requirements - Diablo Wiki

* CPU: Intel Core i7 870 (45nm, Soket 1156, 2.93GHz)
* Motherboard: Intel DH55HC (intel H55)
* RAM: EK Memory DDR3 10600 2GBx2EA
* Video Card: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 460 1GB WindForce or ZOTAC
GeForce GTX 460 1GB
* Hard Drive: Seagate Momentus XT 500GB
* Power Supply: Acbel iPower 500
* Case: Bestech Guardian
* Monitor: Orion TopSync 24


Regards,
Omar

 

Diablo III Im also looking forward to that game
I say go for the 1080p screen Omar.. 3d for gaming isnt really good with 460m/560m right now.. a little bit weak.. 485m is in the alienware and sager models.. maybe you can look into the sager models.. if you really want to play D3 and MW 3 etc.. on the ultra high settings.. (6970m) is a good card for its price.. other than that the 460/560m is a great card playing almost every game out in 1080p res.. only metro 2033 and crysis 1 wont play on ultra high.. Good luck

 

Hi Kestner,

Thanks a lot bro, I am now determined for the 1080p screen versus the 3DE screen. Now regarding the two laptop brands that you've mentioned, the Alienware here which I saw only one remaining model at the Dell shop and the price of it is bloody hell! about $3300 for m15x model (Core2duo specs). It seems quite outdated with regards to it's specs.

The Sager models, which I've read it only here, honestly I haven't seen this laptop available locally. And the looks of the G53SW blows this laptop (just my opinion though hehe).

Though I saw some Starcraft 2 played by this laptop on Ultra Settings, which adds to my confidence of purchasing this.

And as far as the "bottleneck" issue with regards to the GPU, well one thing I would say is that the games that I'm will be playing mostly (Diablo 3 and Dota 2) I think these kind of games will last a couple of years in the coming.

As long as this laptop played these games on max settings then I am very much happy.

Thanks,
Omar

 

You will be very happy with the 460m.. but 460 desktop card is not the same as 460m mobile card.. so diablo 3 on max might be stretching it.. but i wont play sc2 on ultra when i get my laptop even if it can do so.. i like to have some headroom for the fps.. also think that this machine is somewhat future proof happy you made your choice Good luck

 

When you open the laptop its in the upper left corner a mini PCI-e card.
You remove the two screws , detach the two antenna connectors, pull out the card, connect the new one to the slot , screws back , connect antennas ready.

The upgradedable parts are peace of cake to replace.. the "difficult" thing is to open the laptop...

 

Ohh is there a difference? I thought the "M" stands for Mobile only and has no difference with it's desktop counterpart. Is there a huge difference in terms of performance in playing games between these two GPU's?

Regards,
Omar

 

Yup theres a big difference. Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech Hope that link helps. Check "desktop cards as well as laptop cards" bubble and compare the GTX460M with its desktop counterpart(s).

 

Yeah, pretty big difference if you ask me. Things in bold being the major differences.

Desktop GTX460

CUDA Cores 336
Graphics Clock (MHz) 675 MHz
Processor Clock (MHz) 1350 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec) 37.8
Memory Clock 1800
Standard Memory Config 1 GB GDDR5
Memory Interface Width 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 115.2

vs

notebook GTX460m

CUDA Cores 192
Graphics Clock (MHz) 675 MHz
Processor Clock (MHz) 1350 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec) 16.1
Memory Clock (MHz) 1250
Standard Memory Config GDDR5
Memory Interface Width 192-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 60.0

 

Omar, I had that dilemma before like yours. But then I prefer the 1080p screen, and until now I've never regret it! 1080p screen is great, I've seen such 1366x768 resolution on 15,6" monitor, err it seems really bad! 3D? I would prefer use external monitor with bigger inch size.
Sometimes some games could come with 1080p resolution, and you'll love it.

Don't think too much! LOL

Can anyone confirm or help me about this? Thanks.

So the conclusion is, we don't need cooling pad at all. Is that right? Jezzzz I have to sell it right now

 

Upon checking the game benchmark comparison. I must say it is really a BIG difference!

It can even played Metro 2033 on Ultra settings with 25 fps! Although I don't know why it is only 768MB, it should be higher right? or it is not related in terms of gaming?

Now I'm thinking two options after seeing this:
First is to hold and wait for some game benchmark reviews with this laptop playing Diablo 3 (this coming beta Q3) and to see if it can handle the maximum settings. Second is why the reason I want to buy this asap is to play other games (e.g. Resident Evil 5, COD Black Ops and BFBC2) maximizing the time before diablo 3 arrives hehe.

Guys, what's your thoughts about it? If you were in my case.

EDIT: Thanks Kaworu I will choose the 1080p one if ASUS will now have a stock here.

 

Hey guys, I just ordered toe g53sw-a1 this morning then later realized that there are pre-orders being taken for the new g53sx, which has the gtx 560m. I couldn't cancel the order because it already shipped. I'm kind of disappointed about this so I'm hoping I'm not gonna be missing out too much without that 560m card.

 

this may be a bit random, but what are people using to clean off the finger prints from the case, I'm afraid to use any random cleaning product and a damp cloth isn't working very well.

 

I think you'll be fine - honestly, nobody really knows to what extent the GTX 560m will be an improvement over the GTX 460m at this point. Word 'round the campfire is that you're likely to get the same performance as the 560m just by overclocking the 460m, although your mileage may vary, of course. nVIDIA has a reputation of basically just increasing clock speeds for their upgraded lines on occasion and releasing what is more or less the same piece of hardware in terms of actual construction, and it's really tough to know whether something is going to be a legitimate upgrade or just *sort of* an upgrade until it actually gets released to the public. Regardless, the 460m can basically play all current games at ultra settings, more or less - barring the really GPU heavy ones like Metro 2033, of course. The 560m would be more of a concern for future-proofing.

Well, I've basically been misting a little bit of non-alcohol LCD screen cleaner onto a big plush microfiber cloth and buffing the outer case lightly with that, and it seems to clean off finger-prints rather nicely. DO NOT use alcohol, no matter what - that could damage the rubberized exterior, potentially.

Even with my method though, there's some stuff that just won't come off. I'd like some guidance as well, if anyone knows something that I do not.

 

Both. My CPU temperatures are now averaging 80C-84C, and the GPU seems to be hovering around 85C-87C.

We will not be able to tell for sure if the G53SX would be worth waiting for until ASUS clarifies the specifications of that particular GTX 560M they put in it. Some places that are offering it for pre-order has the GPU listed with 2048 MB GDDR5, which makes some of us believe it may come with a 128 bit memory bus instead of the 192 bit that the GTX 460M has.

Either way, I'm not worry about it. Worse case scenario, G53SW owners can get nVidia System Tools or MSI Afterburner and bump up the GPU clock by an extra 100 MHz, which will virtually match the GTX 560M performance-wise.

 

Hey TailGunner, you mentioned you've been getting some fairly high temps lately, right? Forgive me if this comes across as ignorant or not, but could it have anything to do with the combination of utilizing a power source with a higher wattage than most of us, combined with running TS? I'm still a little unclear on the effects of that, and whether running TS on its own can dramatically increase temps. Honestly, I'd feel better if Asus properly put out a BIOS fix to lower the amount of throttling going on, or something. Is there any new indications that they might do that?

 

I've been still trying to get a hold of someone at asus, but I've also messaged Ken at Gentechpc about it and he said he would start bugging them to release a fix as well. So certainly hope we see a bios update for it soon. HP fixed their throttling problem, so Asus has no excuse now.

 

My temperatures has stayed about the same, even before using ThrottleStop. In theory, using ThrottleStop should increase the temperatures of the CPU and GPU, since the components are not throttling/slowing down.

I definitely do hope ASUS releases a BIOS for the G53SW/G73SW to alleviate or fix this as well, as it is really the only qualm I have with this notebook.

 

Yeah, I'm really, really hoping a fix comes out soon. I'm tired of telling other prospective buyers on the other forum I frequent about the fix, although it hasn't turned anyone off of it, to be honest. The Asus is just such a pretty machine, in terms of aesthetics...

And about the temps, it's more of a relief to me that TS doesn't seem to change anything that much in terms of internal temperature, although to be honest I don't seem to get temps quite as hot as you. Ah well, it's probably because you live in Texas, and I live in Maine, amirite? xD After all, everything is colder up here, even in the summer! 50 degrees and we're breaking out the t-shirts and shorts, no kidding. It was consistently 70-75 degrees F over Memorial Day Weekend - hottest it's been since, oh, September 2010. Everyone was cruisin' around shirtless, and me? I was playing some SC2 without my pants on First time I've had a chance to do that all year - the good thing is that I have very nice legs

 

Perhaps I'm just late to the party but new Nvidia v275.33 Windows 7 x64 drivers were released yesterday. LINK

 

TailGunner did you use any cooling pad? Where is/are the intake airflow system in the Asus G53?
Someone somewhere said that the intake system is from around the keyboard or speaker, that's why cooling pad won't affect. Is it true?
So what are the use of the ventilation below?

I forgot that room temperature has some effect too

Oh great, I just upgrade it 3 days ago with the previous version! Working time (again)! Thanks

 

Hi, it's here!!! my computer.. i just got it.. im using it right now.. writing this.. so far its a really great experience.. just installing regular stuff.. fill me in if there is something i need too know..? but so far all is working great.. gg

 

the express gate/turbo boost button, is there a turbo boost function in the g53sw? because if i press the button, it only cycle between pwer4gear profiles.

 

@kaworu876 do you know if the throttleing issue is with my cpu too? core i5 2410m.. thanks

 

Hey all, I just used msi afterburner to overclock my 460m to what notebookcheck.net says it the 560M's specs: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

I'm wondering why gpu-z (I have the newest version which is april 8th release) reporting my memory at 625MHZ, yet msi afterburner says it's at 1250. Which do I believe? I'm confused. Maybe someone can help me out here. Thanks

Edit: I just used cpu-z and selected my graphics card tab and selected "unknown" for the level (probably used to be the gaming level?) and it reports all clocks correctly. So msi afterburner and cpu-z are reporting the same. Is gpu-z messed up then? or just outdated and due for an update or is it correct? Thanks again.