Asus G75VW Ivy Bridge 660M Review! and owners lounge

damn. all my drivers are up to date and your getting 60fps on ultra?

is there a Overclocking program out there?

 

Big Update! Got a little excited and tore more into her! lol The 660GTX can be replaced and upgraded if you can get one from Asus. Took about 30 minutes to open it up and 10 minutes to close her up.





Go to Guru3D and download MSI After Burner 2.2.0 start with memory oc then set it to start when you boot the system.

 

How is the screen (brightness, colors, contrast etc.)?

Does the machine feel solid, or cheap?

I had a Dell XPS 17 inch with a GT 555m and it pulled ~30 FPS in all main cities in WoW on ultra. Does this ASUS really pull that low, I'm having a hard time believing it only pulls ~30 FPS in SW/IF.

Is the GTX 660m on par with the 670m? I know the 670m is Fermi, which makes it hotter and reduces the battery time. But it's still stronger than the 660m, isn't it? Which one is better for overclocking, 660m or 670m?

If I go with the 670m will I be able to play Diablo 3 and SC2 with a good amount of FPS on ultra?

I know I'm asking a lot, and you're already doing a great job answering our questions, but I'm so close to buying this, and I must knoooooow

MSi Afterburner

 

Right now this is right next to my Samsung 7 laptop in quality besides my Samsung is metal and this is plastic. From all my benchmarks it passes up the 670 in some and stay even with it most the time with a lots less power draw and heat.I need to push the overclock to see how stable it is.

Haven't played with SC2 or Diablo yet is the beta still open?

 

You have the 7 series???? Does it really house the 7970m?
But anyway, you get 60 FPS on average in SW/IF, with the 660m?
I read on these forums that 670m is better for performance, even tho it's Fermi. An OCd 660m beats a stock 670m, but and OCd 670m beats an OCd 660m. Would you suggest the 670m, if I'm not very focused on heat nor power usage?

 

If you can run the 660 past the 670 with a stable overclock very low heat and newer tech?

670 I'm sure will edge it but not by much. Let me push the 660 harder tonight and see where it explodes at

 

Cheers man
Im not sure about the Diablo beta btw! about that samsung 7 series, what specs does it have?

 

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops/NP700Z5A-S09US This one not the ivy bridge on My Sammy screen is much nicer than most laptops I've tried.

 

Alright, cause I heard the new ones will house the 7970m powerhouse
How's the ASUS screen compared to the almighty Samsung screen?

 

I linked the wrong laptop just updated it. Asus screen is nice but not the same ...

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. G75VW score: P2697 3DMarks

Wow that's way past the 570m! My max temp was 57c. Everything is stable no lockups

 

Stock clocks?
Edit: Aww, nevermind

 

What does P2697 3DMarks mean?
Checked the 670m and it got P3450 3DMarks. Is lower better or higher better?

670m: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-16F3 score: P3450 3DMarks

Bear with me, I'm just ignorant

 

Dam 670m! I was comparing it to the 570m

670 notebook check is 3041 2011 3d

 

This is all French to me. What are you saying now?

 

Looks like if I push it any further it throttles down the gpu that is. So this looks like max oc thats stable

670 is faster but not by much if ya ask me. Wait for 7970? amd

 

I'm gonna go with the 660m, most certainly..
How can I OC it with Afterburner, just like you did?

 

I would stick with just OC the memory to about 350mhz more. Messing with the core seem to bug out quick. You could do about 12mhz more on the core and be fine.

 

Cheers!
I would wait for the 7970m, but I'm pretty much desperate for a new machine now, since the one I'm using now is ancient. I have to buy something sometime, or else I'll just end up in an infinite loop where I'm waiting for the next, best thing all the time

 

seppy

the 3dmark11 you have to look at the gpu score or the combined score, it gives you an idea on how the gpu fares

Those are gpu scores, not the P scores.

670m scores around 3k

675m scores around 4k

6990m scores around 3.6k

7970m scores around 5.5k

7970m oc scores around 6k

when you oc these cards add a 10-20% score increase.

Now you see why the 7970m is the best all around gpu with a good price to boot.

cloudfire can correct me if Im wrong on the values.

 

Poor Cloud.

 

Hrm I'm trying to upgrade the one that Asus sent to me to review (I think our site is the only other one with review up right now), but I can't seem to figure out how the hell to get the full back panel off to access the other two RAM slots. I have 16 GB of 1866 Vengeance RAM to drop in from Corsair, and they make it a pain to get to lol.

I took out all the screws labeled "A", but where do you go after that?

It would be nice to see how this RAM affects it

 

I love your site! It ranked up with Google really fast.

Take all the A screws and B screw out. 4 I think Behind the battery and pull up on the front of the keyboard very gently then slide the dvd burner out and take the 2 screws out short threaded ones right below the dvd burner. I also pulled the 4 short threaded ones out of the heatsink. Let me know if that helps.

Set the laptop in your lap with the lid open about half way when you lift on the keyboard reach in there and carefully un-due the ribbons!

Shawn top left will be some weird metal flat spring thing will most likely will fall out the silver part of it goes under the clear tape the other side makes contact with the top of the keyboard. I would just pull it out and set it in when you go to reassemble. It will stay in place with the sticky tape.

Something else I noticed is they went cheap with the wifi card I would get a better one in there while you have the keyboard open. I would want to have to do it again.

 

Thanks much - I never thought to pull out the burner and take out the screws from there. Also thanks for the compliment on the site - yeah I had been writing that review for about the past two weeks - changing this and that depending on moods. I've had this in my hands for close to a month now and it was REALLY hard not to say things to people. Do you like the Force GT SSD btw? along with the ram Corsair sent me a 480 Gb model that I just haven't gotten around to installing yet - been working on reviewing a few other systems and then I figured I'd get to it.

So much to do, so little time in the day

 

I've owned every SSD 3 that's come to market they all seem the same to me lol The Samsung was nice but a little slower. I have also owned 9 Android Tablets then sold them on Craigslist now I'm very bored of them. They need to up the screen resolution so I will wait for the new Prime to come out

 

I hear you! Being press I get all sorts of new stuff - everyone in my family has a new tablet because of that lol. MSI is supposed to be sending me something to run a comparison against the G75, so that should be fun. I'm also supposed to be getting in a new prototype GTX card.....

I'll be sure to post when I get this ram installed as to how much better it runs - it should be able to be overclocked all to hell as well like most of Corsair's top end RAM

 

hey Shawn do you have any idea how the battery life/power consumption of the 660m compares to the 650M GDDR5?

 

wish I did, but I wasn't privy to that model for testing

 

how come your same laptop dont say full hd ? on the bestbuy site or store ? i been looking at specs to get it and it just say high def which means 1900x900

 

My power supply just stop working I plugged in my old Gateway Gaming power supply and it came back on. I guess the laptop is going back to Best Buy for a new one lol.

1920X1080 is what I have

 

i had that problem. i just disconnected it and waited 10 minutes and plugged it back in and it worked. I got my laptop at best buy for the same reason if anything goes wrong i get a new one.

 

A definitive-looking answer to my question has appeared in an article on Asus's ROG site:

===
Intel Thunderbolt equipped G5s are slightly delayed from this launch time however, due to the requirement of Intel Thunderbolt hardware certification for each device that uses it. This is required by Intel to guarantee a quality user experience, so while this certainly benefits the consumer in the long-run and is a necessary formality, it has also slightly delayed our Thunderbolt equipped G5 as it completes this process. For customers specifically requiring these models, after certification we will announce their availability.
===

 

Still doesn't work this morning

 

That sucks.

 

Nice find rokopt.

The up-side is at the end of that article (assuming this is will remain true and will apply to Thunderbolt):

"Check your local retailer!
Globally, hardware requirements can vary significantly and ASUS respects that its local retail partners know their customers’ needs more precisely, so please be sure to check the spec list before you buy. This means that specific memory sizes, HDD spec, display resolution and eventually Thunderbolt inclusion varies depending on what your local retailer chooses to stock. However, even if you buy a model with a basic spec though, you can still upgrade at a later date and we’ll have an guide to show you exactly how to drop in new hardware soon."

If no announcement is made about the Thunderbolt status in 28 days, I might be bringing mine back to Best Buy until the announcement is made...

 

i got a feeling its just a driver update to make the thunderbolt port work.

 

I can only hope that it's as simple as that.

 

I agree. I can't see them thinking the average consumer is going to take apart their shiny new laptop and install a new "card". Most consumer don't open their desktops and opening a laptop is unheard of to most.

 

There isnt a socketed version of the thunderbolt controller, I dont know if the new controllers that are going to be launched this year will have it, however this is still a difficult job, which is not the aim of the ROG series notebooks, the idea behind the notebook ROG line and the desktop ROG line is quite different, if it werent the laptop would pack more guts and would be more user friendly not that stupid inverted mxm that they use.

Thus I can only think that it would be a firmware update that you can simply install it and get it to work.

however I dont think that if a part of a notebook aint supposed to be released, due to whatever is holding them up, the notebook could be sold with it

So in conclusion I would hold a little bit on buying this notebook to get the things straight.

 

How is the sound quality??

 

Just picked up the new Samsung NP700Z7C-S01US at Best Buy and all I can say is WOW vs the Asus!

Samsung - 17.3" Series 7 Laptop - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Silver - NP700Z7C-S01US

The graphics card is only a 650 but I want to see if I can push it to match the 660. The laptop is only 1" thick and has Optimus! Screen puts the Asus to shame

Time to tear this apart and test!

Holy cow the 650 can take a OC!

Sound isn't bad need to tweak it a bit.

 

I'll be interested to see the 650M base and OC benchmarks. Since a 660M is just an upclocked 650M, if it can match or go beyond the 660 clocks then what is the point of paying extra for a 660?

 

if it stays in the range of what we know, i.e. middle ground between the 460m and 560m, there is a fair 20% increase in performance.

650m is supposed to be 45w according to what people say, I dont have the real deal info, but the 660m is 75w the 670m 80w. If you are going to oc that much I can only think that at least a 120w adapter should be necessary a 180w should be even better.

 

BTW I read in the Best Buy site that their model comes with 1TB 5400 Hard Drive, is this in one drive or 2x 500MB? And they list the G75 as not bluetooth enabled is this true? seems weird for this price range..

 

Samsung has a Sammy 1TB 5400 rpm drive must be a Best Buy thing lol

The Asus has Bluetooth 3.0 and the Samsung has Bluetooth 4.0 which sips power.

I just installed a Samsung 830 ssd in the sammy loading it now

 

I just want to know if I have a free slot to throw an SSD into the Asus G75. And the bluetooth thing shows that the info on their site is wrong.

Anyway, any G75 owner have a PS3? You guys could try if the bluetooth adapter is compatible with the PS3-PC drive motioninjoy? That would be AWESOME:

MotioninJoy | Playstation 3|Xbox 360|Dualshock 3|Sixaxis|Game|Driver|

 

Yes two drive bays

 

Cloudfire (and anyone else looking for the information): Here are the benchmarks I ran today on the Best Buy G75 reflecting the stock configuration, meaning no tinkering or overclocking or anything like that to the system, I only updated the BIOS and available drivers to the most current ones on ASUS' website as of yesterday:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M video card 3DMark 11 benchmark test score - ASUS G75VW-BBK5 Stock

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M video card 3DMark Vantage benchmark test score - ASUS G75VW-BBK5 Stock

 

Just to confirm, one bay has a 1TB 5400 Hard Drive, and the other one is free correct?

 

Thanks man. Someone else did those two yesterday in the official G75 thread so you are a little late to the party but nice to see it confirmed by someone else as well.
Confirmed GTX 570M performance. +rep

 

yup second bay is free