Asus G75VW Ivy Bridge 660M Review! and owners lounge

Sorry about not getting those up. Thanks for running the benchmarks!

 

Non of the ASUS models have Optimus?????!

Mother of god... i hate this.. i love asus design, and im willing to sacrifice some performance, but... no optimus... thats just stupid...

 

What type of screen was it Paul? Matte or glossy?

 

Lol! Yeah makes no sense cause really the HD4000 can game while on the go and give you 2 more hours of battery or just do office type work and get 6-7 hrs

1080p Matte screen

 

Thanks Paul) Did you like it?

 

Exactly, i was about to buy it, despesite the GPU, due to not gaming so heavily lately, and i love ASUS design, and cool and quit type of notebook...
I was deciding between 670m and 660m models... but... no optimus... thats making it hard to buy ASUS...

Dang... when i finally decide about a laptop... something is on the way... always...

I curse you ASUS... why you have to make so stupid mistakes? if you are not packing Optimus, you might at least waited and get the biggest card out there right now(AMD 7xxx) and not just a 660/670...

I wonder how the guy that makes this kind of decisions keeps his job...

PS: Is there a chance, they enable it later on, via BIOS update or something like that?

 

Wasn't there a downside to the optimus technology?

 

Are we sure the G75VW does not support optimus?
I know the High-End 3D Screen Model does but the other versions lack it as well?

This was going to be my laptop of choice, but that is a 100% dealbreaker for me if true...............

 

Not 100% sure, but i dont see it on ASUS wepage, or resellers webpage.
Non of the reviewed models last longer than 2-3 hours on battery, and that makes me think "no optimus" so... idk

I really hope im wrong, and you can get this thing to be alive 4 to 6 hours on battery with IGP.

 

No Intel Graphics available Maybe later on with a firmware update? I checked everywhere tried to install Intel Graphics drivers and still a no go

 

I bought this laptop and love it. The only issue I have with it it the wireless card. I have a Intel 6300 I want to put in it. Does anyone have a picture or video of all the screws that needs removing to access the wireless card?

 

Darn

I'm very glad I caught this ommission since I was very close to pulling the trigger and now I dont have to hassle with a return.

 

How much experience do you have with tearing laptops apart? This laptop can be a real pain to take apart if your not careful with the little spring and ribbons cables. Once you open it up the wireless card is there. Yeah they went cheap on the wireless card in this.

 

All, I found an interesting article from mid-April about Intel's delay on the Thunderbolt: Intel finally shipping 2nd gen Thunderbolt controllers, just in time for new Macs.

Paul (or anyone with experience tearing down the laptop), did you by chance snap a photo or remember the labeling on the chip that the "Thunderbolt" port is connected to? Does it have "DSL2210", "DSL3310", or "DSL3510" on it?

If so, then I think we can be safe in assuming that a future firmware update will enable the Thunderbolt port. If not, then I think we're most likely looking at ASUS releasing a different G75 model that has Thunderbolt.

 

Is there a definitive answer to the question of 670m vs 660m in the G75VW lineup?Is the 670m's 3gb of VRAM superior to the 660m's 2gb?

From reading the reviews posted this thread, it appears that the 660m config bases a consistent 11300 3D Mark Vantage Score; and Paul has managed to hit OC scores of 12000+.

Would it be fair to base a comparison of the 660m vs 670m using the scores of the the base MSI GT70 (~13000+)? - the MSI GT, essentially uses the same components as the 670m version of the G75.

Also, I have noted that Paul has proven that the 660m configuration of the G75 is upgradeable -- how viable will this be in futureproofing this laptop moving forward.

There's been some considerable commentary on NBR, but no definitive conclusion by anyone.

Would very much appreciate your thoughtful analysis.


To provide some context -- I purchased a 670m variant, and am now second guessing my purchase (I am still able to cancel it -- due to delays haha).

 

Is there an actual owners lounge thread for the G75VW ? I bought one today till I order an m17x R4, and was just wondering where i can find all the pertinent information and discussion about our model..

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...g-g55-g75-april-gtx-670m-137.html#post8493233

 

Yeah, I'm not going for the ASUS anyway.. I'm going for Clevo/Sager with a 7970m

 

Gah! I want so bad the 7970. When does it come out?

 

End of May/beginning of June
At least in Norway... probably before in the US and UK
Can't wait, it's said to have the same performance as the desktop GTX 570 and could possibly be OCd close to a desktop GTX 580

 

Anyone here considering waiting on the GTX680m? That is the mobile version of the GTX680 right and it should be Kepler? From what I've seen that card does very well. I'm sure it will be pricey. I would think Asus would have that in the G75 when Nvidia releases it.

 

It's being delayed even more, because they didn't expect the 7970m to be the beast it is.
GTX 680 will be Kepler, but it will still be on par with the 7970m, only it will cost a leg and an arm compared to it.

Probably.

 

Are there any potential issues with the g75 power connector or the charging brick?

Confused here ... at one point I thought that some people were experiencing problems with connectors or connector pins on some models.

Is this anything to worry about?

Any comments/opinions/clarifications appreciated ... considering pulling the trigger and buying one of these g75's!

 

The Bluetooth in the Asus depends on which wireless card you get in it, correct? For example, depending on the reseller, I think you can get it with the Centrino Wireless-N 2230, which has Bluetooth 4.0, the Centrino Advanced-N 6230, which has Bluetooth 3.0, the Centrino Advanced-N 6235, which has Bluetooth 4.0, or the Centrino Ultimate-N 6300, which doesn't have Bluetooth, among many other options.

I emailed Xotic PC with some questions about the Asus, including whether it had Optimus, and their representative's reply to that one was "As of now, the new ASUS models are not utilizing Optimus technology".

 

Thanks for the info Rokopt, bad news for me then :S...

Ill keep looking around... but seems the only option is Alienware, i belive MSI doesnt pack optimus either.
But.. i like ASUS design... i really looks much much better.
Alienware is to flashy... and i intent to take my laptop to work also...
and MSI ... idk.. im not convinced.

 

Really... Is that so much a deal breaker? I mean this is a desktop replacement dude, it's not like you are going to sit under a tree at a park to play call of duty is it? They are called desktop replacements for a reason.. I like to look at the battery as an over the top UPS that works for an hour IDK. You are even saying that taking it to work is a main concern, so I suppose you have power plugs over there right?

Well to each his own I guess

 

Doesn't it? I didn't see it mentioned on MSI's own page (I may have missed it), but a couple of resellers do list it -- for example, both Gentech and Xotic PC show the MSI GT60/GT70 as using Optimus. On the other hand, some, such as Powernotebooks, don't appear to mention it. I haven't tried to confirm who's right.

 

I think I saw some information in news. That's might be right. One of major msi upgrades can be optimus.

 

We should ask the resellers, as the optimus information may be just a copy past of the card information.
I believe someone noticed the same on Asus ones...

 

It looks like people in this forum who already own the GT60 or GT70 are saying that they do have Optimus -- for example, this post asks how to disable it, and the first reply to it shows it in the nVidia control panel.

 

I completely agree. I would use this as a desktop replacement myself that I use for work as well. I don't use it without being plugged in and I look at the battery as a UPS. I have a Gateway P7811FX that I'm looking to replace with possibly the G75. I'm just not sure if I want to wait on the GTX680m.

 

For the price of this laptop you could build a much faster desktop for gaming.

Could do Dual amd hd 7700 x fire and a intel 2500k oc to 4.2 etc...

 

I`m waiting for 680M. According to rumors and speculations, if 680M is a downclocked GTX 670, the 680M could be 30% faster than 7970M

My own calculations. Could be dead wrong, could have some truth to it. Wait and see

 

The fact that im not playing COD under a tree in the park, doesnt mean i dont like to browse, brick free, sitting in a coffe shop.
Or go into a meeting room, without taking the brick with me... and be able to take notes etc...
If the idea is to have something just to go to work, i would get a XenBook or something like that...
I wanted a Desktop Improvement, not a desktop replacement. IE: Trade in some GPU power for portability, 3+ battery hours on the road.

Idk... i might get it anyway... but without optimus... its not as good as i expected...
To be honest, i much rather get a Sager/Clevo 15"(cuz i dont like the 17" model) with a better VGA and Enduro if they confirm it works... probably around the same price.
Whats all the Kepler point if 660m OC really bad, and doesnt perform really high...
670/675 are just re brands, which would be OK due to Nvidia adding optimus to them, but no one decides to use it... then its pointless...

Maybe MSI is another option, and the design is no that bad, but the exaust design on ASUS is just awesome... i would really like to get ASUS barebones
I dont know... im kind of disappointed, and dont know what to do now...

 

Yeah but you would have to plug and unplug a bunch of cables everytime you travel (I work in consulting bussiness and I travel a lot), carry your monitor in bags through airports, praying nothing gets broken. I could go on but I think you get the picture. Even if you don't travel, if you like to attend to lan parties = same story.

Of course that if I would have the laptop in my home all the time I would get a desktop, it's a given fact you are trading power for mobility (and even that is relative).

I think your concerns are valid but technology right now can't give you serious gaming power AND full portability. It is utopic with current technology, I would get a light cheaper laptop for work and a desktop for gaming if I were you. But if you are like me and travel a lot and need a more powerful laptop without going broke this is the one to get.

 

Can you confirm that there is indeed no Optimus?

 

I know and I've built many a machine. I can't have a full blown desktop in my kitchen. If I had a desktop I would be forced to buy a Dell 27" monitor with a 2560 x 1440 resolution and my wife would yeah uhm that wouldn't go over well.

 

It is cool to see where technology has come from lets say a few years ago. I'm excited to see which direction it goes with Ultra Books and Tablets when it comes to gaming.

I remember those days back when I played WarCraft 3 lol

 

Well, I didn't get a response to my email I sent in to ASUS, but I did get a response from one of the ASUS employees on the official ASUS ROG forums via PM:

"The current models are not shipping with TB hardware inside so they cannot be retroactively upgraded. Only TB advertized models ship with TB installed. This is because those who don't need TB at all (still quite a significant %age due this early in TB rollout) won't have to pay for the TB chip inside."

So there we have it, the Best Buy model doesn't have TB and never will (at least until a new model is announced).

 

I have a question. Did u open up the keyboard? are there separate leds for each key or just one long illumination strip? how is the birghtness of the keyboard overall?

thank you.

 

Hey Paul, you said you got more ram for the computer, do you have a link for what you got.

 

I did not open it up Brightness is good

FRYS.com|SAMSUNG

 

The computer is pretty decent, wishwe had a real G75vw lounge but this may have to suffice :"( Should be receiving my Samsung 830 256Gb SSD today, so needa figure out how to properly install windows on it, and then the order of the drivers etc that I'll need to install presumably from the Asus website (hate having no driver disks/Windows Cd..). Also wanna wipe the standard 1tb free of everything including the windows install. Also needa figure out if it can hold more than 906Gb, since my external can hold 945 or so, so any help of unformatting it or getting rid of hidden recovery files would be greatly appreciated guys

 

SlickDragon, you will probably only need to get a thumbdrive with disk drivers(ACHI/RAID/SATA) were the SSD is connected, and just to be sure, i would download network drivers(WLAN and LAN).
Also, keep in mind you will need the Windows License, and i dont know if its on the backside of the computer or where it is, as i never had a ASUS laptop.
Then once inside the system you can download the resto.
I would download gpu, chipset, etc drivers, from it own vendor webpage
IE: GPU from nvidia, chipset from Intel, etc etc
Then go to ASUS website and download the ASUS tools you need, like idk, any multitouch control or something like that.

Windows 7 is really smart latelly, so once you have a internet connection it should be able to download most of the drivers. (like the touchpad etc) but i would update them from their vendor or ASUS webpage.

About how to clean the other drive, you can probably use diskpart to do it, or the disk manager on windows.
IE:
open a cmd as administrator
diskpart
list disk
sel disk 0 (where 0 is the disk number of the 1TB disk)
clean
create par
format fs=ntfs quick

and you should be done.
Check online for each command if you want, as this is a generic instruction set, and as it might work for your configuration, is not "made for" your configuration, as the drive might have another number, or you might face any unknown issue.

 

Hmm thanks for the tips Wee, i just got the Samsung 830 now, but will deal with the installation later after i do alot of research to not screw it up. Only have 1 usb thumbdrive now which is 4 Gb, that i have windows formatted on and will use it to install windows on my ssd. Getting a 16gb usb 3.0 tomorrow, since i may need it to install drivers from, although im not sure. Also i don't really understand what you mean by

since i have no idea what disk drivers i need for the ssd. Also not sure if i should remove the 1tb from one of the 2 slots and only then install windows on the ssd. Another thing im not sure about is what option under the bios i chose for the ssd, but i believe its ACHI.. Perhaps there are other settings i need to tamper with as well, and i can swear i've read about needing to have Intel SRT somehow in conjuction with the windows install on the ssd, but don't know how best to go about implementing that. Always a bit annoying dealing with new technology, but hopefully the payoff will be as promised and as I expect. I guess if somehow i screw things up its no biggie cause i can keep trying till i get it right without a risk of losing any valuable files hehe..

I'll check on using diskpart to wipe the harddrive and then reformat it to ntfs, but sorta hoping i will have the "full" 945Gb or whatever, since every bit of storage matters..

 

I just bought the G75VW from Amazon a couple of hours ago and was hoping to find a thread here on this machine...

Is it here but I am missing it? I am pretty excited about the purchase.

 

I have cut this thread by 2 full pages by merging consecutive posts. If anyone in this thread doesn't know how to use multi-quote to reply to multiple messages in one reply, please read this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sit...y-posts-using-multi-quote-inline-replies.html

Also if you want to add something to your post a few minutes later, please use the edit button instead of making a new reply and stacking your posts on top of each other. Thanks in advance for less future cleanup I need to do on this thread!

michaelws I moved your post here and renamed the thread to add 'owners lounge' at the end.

There is also a gigantic (older, pre-sale, speculation, etc) thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...m/638159-asus-rog-g55-g75-april-gtx-670m.html

 

Well, i cant advice you any further, as i never had Intel SRT neither an SSD.
For SSD, is recomended to set the BIOS to ACHI, so you can take advantage of all the features.
And what i mean with the drivers is, that if you set your BIOS to ACHI, and for some reason, the drives are not recognized (which is normal for some chipsets) you will need to put those in the thumbdrive (you can use the same thumdrive were you have the windows install thing) and load them when the installation requires them.
Altough, i just browsed the ASUS support downloads webpage, and i cant find those drivers :S
Maybe im missing something, someone who already owns the laptop, or other laptops might guide you better.
They might be on the ASUS CD(if its there)

 

I just bought a G75 on Saturday. Started to overclock the GPU a little and here are my results so far:





Have not have any crashes in BF3 yet.

I'm playing at 1080 but on all low settings, I don't understand how people are getting 60fps on ultra.

What other stuff do I have to do to get a better framerate?

Edit: I only put MSI afterburner up to show how much i overclocked. Core was Oc'd by 65 and memory by 500

 

Try and back your overclock on the core to about 20 and do a heavy overclock on the memory. I know this gpu will throttle if it gets warm. Did you do the bios update and new graphics driver?