Asus G75VW Ivy Bridge 660M Review! and owners lounge

Hey there guys,

You may remember the quoted post from a few days ago.

I wanted to come back and let everyone know, who may have the same issue, that the cause of my problem was a bad LCD connector. Nothing fried or was defective, just the LCD Cable was loose / bad. That's all.

Take care!

 

Really? Can you link me to a laptop with a 680m that is anywhere near the price of a G75/G55 with 660m in terms of price?

G55 is around $1300
Sager NP9150 with an OS and 680m is what? $1800-$1900 ?

Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Oh, please do show a link where I may buy one?

 

[SARCASM]wowww that will be dang cheepo, come on i still got 2 more days left for bestbuy 30 days return policy, so just send that link to papa, come on baby.[/SARCASM]

 

I feel sorry for you... period...

Stupidiest comment ever..

 

I just bought a G75 with the 660m processor and a 1600x900 screen, I'm still installing games so i can test the performance, but the first thing i noticed was that the screen seems a bit weird, like when the screen is mostly black i see a sort of wavy contrast pattern, if i start tilting it vertically it either gets too bright or too dark before starting to invert colors. Has this happened to anyone else? I got mine from tigerdirect/compusa if it matters.

 

TBH: I think, factory installed Windows could have lead to other issues, others may experiences, either than Drivers.

After a clean-install of Win-ultimate, re-installing Drivers - Sound and video issues went away.

 

Hmm... What makes you think the image problem stems from drivers? I seemed to think it was a faulty/bad quality display. I'm trying to find the drivers, but the nvidia site hasn't been very helpful, they say they have no drivers for the 660m

This screen was me dissapointed, but maybe my expectations were set too high? The blacks at the bottom of the screen are noticeably brighter than those on top, It's like it has no "sweet spot" when it comes to vertical viewing angles. But this is my first laptop, is this a common issue, has anyone encountered anything along the same vein?

 

I don't have an explanation, as to Why - I was having Sound issues; even though my headphones were plugged in, sound would bleed to the external speakers.
As for the video issue; each time I would play DoD - screen would skip. I tried many different Servers, the issue remained.
YMMV.

 

There is nothing wrong with your screen.

Unfortunately, your screen has what is referred to as "bad viewing angles". Basically, the screen is of low quality. When the screen is perfectly perpendicular, and you are sitting dead center in front of it, it will look the best. Any movement up or down, and it's going to change in quality pretty quick.

Asus is notorious for putting crappy screens in their laptops. Their decent screens are usualy only the ones that are 1920x1080, vs the 1600x900 in yours.

 

my game is pretty choppy/laggy even though it stays at 60fps, my friend had the same comp and he had no problems running d3. i dont know why game is so choppy...would love a fix or i might just return my g75 and buy a sager.

the weird part is every other game runs fine on max settings... tera online runs max on 6 with no shadows @ 50fps+, dota2 runs 200% fine with no lag at max settings, and same with every other game i throw at it. this is a puzzle to me.

 

Hey Guys,

how are your CPU Temps while surfing/benchmarks?
Are they floating that much around? I use Core Temp and they jump around from 40-50 every second... 41 - 44 - 47 - 43 - 40 - 45
Other notebooks dont do that. Hehe. Im asking just because I want / have to change the WiFi Card (need dualband) and once I open it, I could also do a repaste on the CPU.

My GPU (660M) runs @60° C on Furmark. What are your Temps?

Thanks.

Try modded inf drivers. 302.59 are fine over here.

 

Ok, so Ill post a short first impression of the G75 (660m) and I want to mention some things that were/are important to me. My comparison: The G73JH.

First thing you will ask: "Why the G75, the G73 is still fast". Yeah. But Im a linux User and I got sick of the Catalyst/ATI drivers. They are just not that far like Nvidia. Playing on Windows is still a charme. But anyway.

The case is compared to the G73 a big step forward. It looks better, the top parts around the keyboard feel better.

The Keyboard is much better!!! The G73 Keyboard feels quite instable, bad quality... The G75 keyboard ist great.

But I also have to mention that my display-cover was not applied well. I had to attach it correctly. And my touchpad was deformed on the bottom left corner. Yes. Deformed hehe. I had to push the corner down and it felt like forming some kind of metal. Now its like new. I can accept this things, but for 1429€... hm.

Next thing, the display. Nobody reviewed the non-3D display. I can tell you: Its fine! It is much brighter than my display on the G73. A side by side comparison makes you think the G73 is set to low brightness.
The only negative thing is, that it seems a little bit "blurry". But i think that it is a matter of getting used to matte displays.

The fans are as quiet as the G73 ones. They have another sound. Its a bit deeper.

I made a clean Windows 7 insatall! ATTENTION: You have to integrate the USB 3.0 Drivers with e.g. RT7Lite or another tool because otherwise the installation via USB-stick wont work!!!! Took me 2-3 hours of research. The error message from the installer says that there is aproblem with your CD/DVD drivers. So it is not clear that there is a problem with missing USB3 drivers.
(And just to mention that too: Even if you integrate all the drivers and remove drivers you dont need via RT7lite.... some things wont work. You need e.g. the Windows-audio HD drivers because the VIA HD drivers somehow need them to run correctly).

The drivers for the G75 are a bit tricky. If someone has questions, just ask. You dont need any driver from the asus page, sometimes there are newer drivers. You can even use modded inf for running the latest nvidia >30X.XX drivers.

The sound-solutions is crap. On my G73 there was no problem, i could set the volume via the system tool. Now you have to run the VIA tool in the background, otherwise you can only set the volume of the speakers but not the subwoofer. It stay on its volumelevel until you get to the point of mute (muting possible, but the synchronized volume-setting not possible without the via tool).
After installing the VIA drivers i could hear crap yout of the speakers. This choppy noises you get sometimes out of notebooks while accessing the hdd e.g. I dont know, maybe i have to fix some settings.

For the younger people: The processor (?) or some related hardware (I think its the old problem with the sleep-settings) makes "beep" noises. High frequency, louder than on other processors but not very annoying.

So.. what will I do? I think I will keep it. I paid 1100€ for my G73 when it was worth 1699€ because I was lucky (bought it from amazon on christmas at 4:00 am. It was a special offer that was online for 2 hours hehe), so I think i wont loose that much money. Lets see what will be released next.

 

Anyone with the 3D screen can comment on 3D performance of the laptop ? Is there a lot of visible crosstalk ? how is the overall 3D effect ?

 

I am playing Diablo three and having no problems with it. I bought a Best Buy G75 and had not one problem, it ran perfectly on the games I play. After I realized it had less ram and slower hard drive I returned it and bought the Amazon version. Even though it's a faster drive with double the ram, it has performance problems on Batman and my flight sim software Realflight. I erased batman and re installed, it is fine so far, just did that yesterday. The flight sim just opens slow, then is fine. Diablo has been perfect on both machines. I don't know why the Amazon version is giving me problems that the BB didn't. Maybe reinstall Diblo as it should run easily.

I'm new to this BB and hope I am posting this question in the right area/ thread.

Is there a way to have the volume control work the subwoofer volume also? My volume control only turns down the l/r speakers and not the sub, so even at volume level 1 it's still loud. I have to go into the control panel to turn the sub down.
Thanks,
Guy

 

as i mentioned in my short review: you have to install VIA Audio drivers and let them run/autostart. They do automatically, except if you remove them from autostart. the thing is called VIA HD Audio Deck that needs tu run.

 

can someone please let me know if the 3D model could run 120hz for 2D? thank you

 

OlMightyGreek, thanks. I've been thru this thread a lot, but it's a big one and I must have missed it. I appreciate your help very much.
Thanks,
Guy

 

Is there a Thunderbolt port on the Best Buy model so you can run eGPU's later?

 

No, it is only a Display Port.

 

Yes it can

 

Hello guys,

I just got a new G75 (G75VW-RS72-CA) from ( Canada Computers).

Everything's great except for the screen: it's VERY grainy and distracting. I remember a similar post in this thread, but I believe that mine is an extreme case. It looks like tonnes of tiny colourful dots (red, blue, green) all over the screen.

Does anybody else have a similar issue? I'm aware that matte screens are more grainy, but it's somewhat hard to read text on a light background on mine.

Also, would it be possible to ask for a replacement in store (I'm still within the 7 day return period)? I understand that it depends on the store, but since the screen is usable just really bad I'm afraid it would be hard to convince them that it's a defect.
In the worst case scenario, do you think ASUS will replace it as an RMA?

Sorry for the vagueness in the description, taking a picture of a bright screen doesn't work.

Thanks,
Dmitry

 

Ive got the non-3D display. Matte.
Thought the same because I was used to glossy displays for years now. But it is normal.
It also could be an extreme case. I can not compare without seeing it.
Compared to a glossy display it seems a bit like you described it and I was disappointed at the first moment but now I love the non-reflecting screen because Im sitting beside a window and i can leave the blinds open.

I think a good compromise would be a screen between glossy and matte. Philips named it "moth-eye" technology i think. It is used in their TVs. Ive got one and it seems crisp clear, a little bit glossy but also matte..
But i think we have to get through some time of matte displays now until the people get rid of the dusty-like appearance...

 

Can you check what Hardware Id you have for the display?

To check: Device Manager -> Monitors -> right click on "Generic PNP Monitor" (or similar) -> Properties. Then open details tab and select Hardware Ids.

Mine is CMO 1720. I want to gather some data to see if there's any correlation between grainyness and display HW id.



Also, this is probably the worst case of grainyness I've seen. I have a matte monitor at work and if I look closely I can notice a bit of grainyness, but it's not distracting in everyday tasks.

I'll try to ask ASUS for a replacement screen or RMA the laptop.

 

and where are the temps?

 

In my case it is: Administration -> NVIDIA X Server Settings -> X Server Display Configuration

It is a Chi Mei Optoelectronics corp. panel. Never heard of it. But suddenly i have the need to eat some crispy duck with szechuan sauce...

 

I bought the g75 a few weeks ago for gaming and am happy with it. My problem is that everything else I have in my business and personal hardware is Mac. Now apple came out with the retina MacBook pro and I am wondering if it will play my games well enough. If it would, it would also get me all the other stuff that I normally use that I can't on the windows machine. My question is will the 2.6 ghz with 16 gigs of ram and the 520 gig SS hd run games at a similar frame rate and performance as the g75? I would really appreciate the advice from some of you guys that know so much about hardware. . I did order the apple laptop which won't be here for a few weeks, and I'll have to send the asus back before it arrives. Will the MacBook pro with 2.6 ghz processor and 16 gigs of ram and SS drive perform about the same as the g75. I plan to use boot amp and run windows 7 for my gaming. It's not a Mac verses windows question, or a money/value question, just a performance question. Typical games for me ate batman & skyrim played thru steam, diabo 3, and im looking forward to prototype 2 in july. Again, i would boot up in windows 7 to play these. I really appreciate your advice.
Thanks,
Guy

 

I saw the same thing when I looked at one at Best Buy. The Chi Mei matte panels they use in this unit are notorious for this. I've seen other brands of matte displays that don't have this sparkly grain.

 

so you say that they use different panels? is there any list?
it would be interesting if other people with the 2D display have got the same grainy effect.
We are talking about 2D panels, are we?

 

Yeah 2D panels. I compared it to a Samsung 17" matte laptop at the store, and that one had no graininess at all. I guess some people aren't bothered by it, and it does have good color/contrast, so you could do a lot worse with some of the really bad screens floating around out there. The MSI GT70's use the exact same panel BTW, as have some other brands.

I have no idea what kind of screens the G55's use or if they have a grainy effect...

 

you can not compare 15" with 17" displays, even if they come from the same manufacturer.

To be more specific for those who think of buying the G75: For now I can say that the display is very good concerning contrast and brightness! Sitting beside a window without blinds down... possible! With my glossy G73 Display (which was a very good display compared to my older notebookdisplays) it wasnt possible.
You notice the grainy effect on bright areas. E.g. the white background of the forum. But you have to focus on it. When you read something or watching a movie etc. it does not bother me. I noticed it in the beginning but i got used to it and since the display is very good in every other aspect (no edge-bleeding, dead pixels, etc.) i would only change it when there is a panel that is as good as this one but without the grainy effect.
I hoped this description helped a bit.
When I have more time, i will post some comparisons/review about some aspects.

 

I've went to the store where I bought my G75 with the intention to replace it with another piece with a less grainy display. However, out of the two more G75 I've seen in the store (one on display, one open box) both had visually the same screen as mine. The one on display was a Chi Mei screen as well, don't know for sure about the other one.

That made a replacement pointless, so I just decided to stick with my G75 for now, especially since it's great in all other aspects. I might try to change the screen through Asus if/when I know that they do have less grainy screens.

@OlMightyGreek
You're right, the screen is very good on dark backgrounds. Works well for games (Diablo3, for example). I was just concerned about coding on it, but worst case I can try using a dark background

 

There a faint beeping sound coming from my G75 power adaptor, is it common?

 

nVidia Gefore 660M GTX beta driver (Verde 304.48) download avialable from nVidia now, does anyone know about the improvements for 660m using the previous driver???

 

ive checked it for you. my brick makes also high frequency beep noises. but i can only hear it when i put my ear right on it.

my G73 power adapter also makes beep-noises. but much more decent. also only hearable when you put your ear right on the thing...

should be normal.
more annoying are the powerstate-beep-noises from the processor hehe

 

Thanks for checking it out. good to know that.

The G75 been pretty amazing for me, very very silent machine, even when i am running diablo 3 on it, just hope they fix the sound driver bug asap to make it perfect.

 

Hi Paul, well I started reading this thread religiously but lost track of it. Are you still enjoying your g75? Any problems? I've heard people complain about the audio, where all sound comes out of the subwoofer, have you had this problem? Thanks!

 

Would love to hear how this laptop is treating you. I'm between this model as well as the G55 and a few SAGER models with the 7970m...

 

I'm loving it to death!!

 

Right now it's the graphics card that's making me stray away...

 

Looks like you opened the top of the latop. Can you provide a guide as to how to properly open the keyboard to gain access to the wireless module? I want to replace the Athero module with an Intel one that supports dual band.

Thanks.

 

So, is the grainy display present on all models or just some?

 

If you're going to stare at white backgrounds all day long, then perhaps the display will bother you. If you don't plan on staring at white all day, then the display looks great.

 

Anyone figure out how to unlock higher overclock settings? I am maxed out at +135 core clock and I know shes got more in her.

 

do you get freezes or is it just locked?

 

I mean the slider wont let me go beyond 135mhz core clock increase.

 

There were three options of via hd drivers. I screenshot them but am on a pad right now and can't post pics. I can if needed once I get to my computer. Do you know which of the three to use, or how I find out? I foolishly tried one of them that covered a lot of chipsets, and it caused a conflict so I uninstalled it.

Also, I was using ctrl R to see my frame speeds, worked perfectly, now it shows 0. I unchecked some startup items as this machine is dedicated to gaming only. Could it be something there? If not, what would cause this?
Thanks again,
Guy

 

Im not using windows right now and I have some work to do. but i want to repaste, re-ram, re-wifi and make a dualboot for win7 / linux on my g75 this weekend/next week, so i can try to help you then with your problem.

ctrl +R might be because you disabled nvidia stuff on startup.

for now: if you use the original ASUS driver for the audio, you do not need to choose...!?

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll look at my start up items tonight. I think your correct. Sound is fine right now, just no subwoofer. I'll post the picture of driver options that I had tonight. After the install I had no sound and iTunes would open but not play. Really appreciate your time and expertise.

Heres the options I got on the VIA HD Audio Deck. I don't know which one works with the G75.

 

I couldnt figure that out either.
I would use the Asus driver from the asus supportpage.