Sunny's G51VX-RX05 Review

I think there is no big difference between the graphic cards ClutchX2 because ASUS have already downclocked the Graphic card in the G51 due to heating issues and its performance is almost like the 9800m GS . If you check the 3dmark06 score in both the 9800m GS and the GTX260m you will notice that the difference is only a thousand which is not that a big of a difference in gaming at least thats what I think lol. I think the G50vt is the better deal right now because it has a better CPU and almost the same graphic card and $300 cheaper so do you agree with me?

 

3dmark06 score is only good for games that use DX9 and DX9 Shaders it does not test for DirectX 10 and DX10 Shader performance as well as PhysX over CUDA performance. Note that CPU affects the 06 score in the THOUSANDS my cpu gives me 1000+ 3dmarks over the P7350 with the same gpu and that does NOT affect gpu performance unless the game is CPU bottlenecked. You would want to compare the same resolution score of a G50VT-X5 with the G51VX-RX05 on the same driver to get a close assesment.

Not sure where he was looking for the G50, he said he was going to get one tomorrow. If he is running into one that is still at a bestbuy (shouldnt be any but i know there is a store or two with a X5 within the past couple of weeks) then the price difference wont be more than 150 bucks.

The 260M's 96 shaders give it better performance in DX10 games of which I have a few and the card is better than a 9800M GTX by a bit. If yours isnt one overheating you can easily return it to the correct clocks like one of the G71 owners who just had his bios update done to fix their voltage issue has done.

Its up to preference I guess, the design, the keyboard, the quad support.

 

I was planning to get one online , the G50VT X1 costs $730 Refurbished by ASUS and the G51VX costs $1100+Tax and Shipping from bestbuy .I thought there is a small difference between the 9800 GS and the GTX260 but thank you ClutchX2 for the clarification . + rep

 

Where the heck does it cost 1100? 999.99 (1000) plus tax and shipping. Which do add a bit to the price. The difference isnt as HUGE as it is with say a 280M but its big enough for me and a T9550 + 9800M GS @ GTS clocks with DOX Drivers at 1280x1024 versus a P7350 + GTX 260M on stock drivers at 1280x720 isnt a good comparison.

 

Subtotal: $1,086.03 with shipping and Tax

ClutchX2 you seem a real expert so what is a better deal the G50VT X1 or the G51VX , I will use the laptop for College and some gaming like crysis warhead, NFS , COD modern warfare 2, Assassins creed 2 and Mafia 2 "this game is the reason am buying a gaming laptop lol " I dont care about 3dmark scores or anything I just want something that Will run new games at high settings not Very High just high

 

Small correction, the 260M has 112 shaders.

 

With a little cpu overclock (if needed might not be but i recommend 2.2 like the box says) Crysis Warhead will run fine on either model (X1 is 2.26 stock). On a proper cpu the 260M MIGHT, I stress might be able to run it on HIGH, while it looks good on medium and horrid on anything less the G50 with the gpu pushed as far as it goes can almost make High at playable framerates.

I would assume (to be safe) CPU @ 2.4Ghz return the 260M to stock clocks and using dox drivers it will play Crysis Warhead on High, but thats a guess.

CoD 4 and World at War run good on the G50, but no clue on the new one coming out. NFS Pro Street runs great maxed out, i assume Undercover should play good at mediumish or higher on either unit.

For the price and the fear of the G51 heat the X1 is probably the better "deal".

OOPS lol its the GT/GTX 9800M that has 96, all the better lol.

 

Thanks again ClutchX2 ! I will go with the G50VT because am not a hardcore gamer. Like I said I will be using this laptop mainly for college "Microsoft Office" and some gaming .

why dont you start your own website ClutchX2 because you seem you have alot of experience with Overclocking and everything in general , Am a website designer and If you need to run a website I will do it for free .

 

I am as well, been redoing my site for oh, 6.5 years lol. I will eventually stop everything else and actually commit to a design instead of updating the coding standard and reconfiguring the server and redesigning everytime i get better or have a new idea. Thanks for the offer though.

Oh and this thread has hit page 51!

 

also ok this might be completely impossible idk. but is it possible to change out the HD for a SSD?

 

Please help me out..

I got the G51 from BB yesterday but havent had time to open and set it up. However, I have been following this post diligently and the word HEAT and WORRY kept popping up. My question is if anyone can help me, I did look over every post and the temperature, they are a tad bit high, but from BB web site and user here, I have NOT seen any BSoD or frozen or shut down or even meltdown, so I'm kinda lost as to all the heat problem.

Are the heat problem you guys been talking about just precaution as to what might happen to G51 if this high heat persist? or are there actual problems that has materialized to G51 due to the heat?

just so I know so i can decide to open and try it out or not...heat is hard to reproduce to Geek squad...and they are... hard headed squad sometimes..

Appreciate any response..

 

The heat problem is not within the shutdown range. Personally never had a BSoD on any video card including ones that shutdown due to heat. My 9800M hit 110C and only downclocked no shutdown, no BSoD.

Some users saw up to 97C one had a heatsink mis alignment another didnt both same temp, and the paste seems to be applied wrong but on the user that did it wasnt far enough off to be a real issue.

If you have an issue, ASUS not best buy is where you should be directing it to unless for exchange within the exchange period. But a few new users are reporting 86 which is only 1 degree higher then i saw on my G50VT-X5 stock on stock air after running crysis bench 3 times.

 

yeah the heat isnt a problem, i think when people say high heat they are meaning higher then a standard laptop, but then again this is a higher performance gaming notebook.

and any info on putting a SSD in the G51?

is it possible?

 

110c !!!!!!!!!! what were you doing? playing Crysis In August in Iraq???

And i really appreciate your fast response, my G51 is sitting here looking at me begging for me to open it, and its such a beauty...but have to go work in a little bit and all weekend graveyard shift guess she will just have to wait....thanks again for the reply, as long as no real tangible issue reported I guess I'm ok.

 

AH OPEN IT NOW lol

I cannot wait to open something when i get a new gadget. If I had a laptop especially the G51 sitting in front of me Id open it ASAP.

i truly love this laptop its great and deff worth the money.

i plan on keeping it for awhile. Before I start with school again im gonna buy the 9cell battery and maybe in 2 years or so upgrade the CPU a bit.

 

ha! I get cautious when I get anything that's expensive and may have potential problem (only if) due to new batch of internal hardware.. 15% restocking fee + 9.75 LA COUNTY tax is no joke!

So you have the g51 and runs game for a decent amount of time with no heating problem fine?

 

I forgot to plug the fan back in lol. If its the heatpipe or paste just RMA it asus will fix the problem, it should survive usage until then and if it dies, exchange or RMA it lol.

Remember unless you wish to never own a G51, you dont really have much to deal with with best buy. Exchanges in the exchange period arent very hard either.

 

I have the g51 and LOVE it. play crysis on MAX and get very steady frames not heat problems and I will be playing crysis or fallout 3 for 5-6 hours straight and its fine.

and its not to bad as far as weight considering what you get. the only thing id recommend is looking online to get the 9cell abttery (which will stick out some) unless your fine with 6 cell.

and for some reason you dontlike it you can always exchange within 14 days. but I dont see that happening

 

no fan and 110c? not too bad lol....put a hot pocket beside it, will be done when first round is over lol

And Sam, the other issue is also weight and school lol...17 in swiss army backpack = 3lbs, G51 = 6.5 lbs. charer = 1 lb. school book and notepad = 2 lbs...plus other stuff. easily 14 lbs all day lol...thats one other reason why I havent opened it, i TRUELY AM in love with it just staring at it and look at display ones at BB though. hm.......

 

Well it downclocks at 105C (though i observed 110C at downclock and 106C right after). The laptop idled at the same temperatures as normal with no fan in comparison with the fan operating at 2900-3100 though noticeably took longer to cool down after some load on components.

The fins conduct heat to the air, the heated air moves into the lower pressure cool air outside of the laptop, creating airflow on its on. This is the prinicple purely fanless systems operate on.

 

how is the fan noise when doing routine work? music, video and browsing/ silent?

 

When you have other noise in the room, movie, tv, music you rarely hear the laptop, infact the zalman notebook cooler makes more noise then the laptop at its normal fan speed. I never notice either, until u asked... damn you lol. As far as i know the fan speed on the 50 is 2900-3100 depending but doesnt normally increase under any normal non graphics intensive work.

The fan speed usually doesnt increase until the graphics card hits 75C and it works its way from 4000 to 4600 from there getting louder cant really say how loud because well the gun fire is distracting lol, noticible but not ridiculous.

I hear the G51 is louder but probably just to tame the hotter graphics card and i dont suspect it any louder on the top end then the G50, just sooner and more often with the 51.

 

What is the size of the power brick?

 

Unless it changed on the G51, uh a Brick, quite literally.

 

i meanits about the same as any other laptop imo. maybe a tidbit bigger.

 

haha sorry bro...im very sensitive to noise so quiet is paramount to me, so in a quiet room, i know its audible, but would it disturb you to sleep with it on few feet near you?

 

no its fine, i mean when it goes to sleep its almost silent.

 

The lights are more likley to bother me, I used to have a cell phone with an external display even how dim it got i had to turn the damn thing over on itself. I tape the power button on my desktop so i dont see the huge glowing green light from it etc etc.

Ive got everything off at this moment the room as silent as it can get. I can barely hear it and thats me looking for the sound. I think being on the cooler does quiet it a little as any resonance that would bounce off a hard surface is going back through the coolers open grate (cooler is off).

Would have to ask a G51 owner, the one who showed his fan while the entire assembly is the same and the fan is probably the same spec. It was a different fan manufacturer that made the fan. Its possible even outside of the fact that the fan runs more under load that the fan thats in there is louder or the bios is entirley programmed differently.

If it goes to sleep it should be entirley silent but he might want to keep it on... WHICH REMINDS ME!

The G50 has a Power4Gear mode which the G51 should have, quiet office if the temps are low enough the fan will drop down to 100 rpm.

 

Hahaha thanks Sam and Clutch.. I'm pretty sure Sam means when HE goes to sleep the G51 is silent

 

yeah lol. but the computer honestly isnt that loud. occassionally the fan will kick on to be pretty loud understress.

and I was thinking of swapping my HDD for a SSD. is that possible with the G51? and I know SSD are faster and all but do they run cooler?

 

SSD runs cooler cause there is no moving part, thus no friction...still kinda expensive though....

 

well im not to worried about the $$ i was just wondering can it be done with this laptop? like change out HDD for a SSD? and if so, how?

 

SSDs are essentially what flash drives want to be when they grow up. They get to be inserted into the sweey inner parts of a lovely computer.

 

Well the chips on them can get hot, not sure how hot they get but seen ram get pretty hot.

 

yeah thats what I heard, that they can actually get hotter then a HDD which is hard to believe. but I was thinking if its a decent amount cooler, and I know they are or can be about twice as fast when loading and opening apps I think it will be worth it in the long run, I just am not sure how to do a swap of that sort.

 

Yes it can be done, notebook HDD is 2.5 .. most of the SSD are 2.5.. just make sure thats what you get and there are two kind one is multi layer one is single layer.. I forgot which one is better but check into it, look at review......

PS: if you get it, don't defrag SSD...

 

ahaha.
i feel like the last 3 months have gone by slow enough and that ive found out enough that im ready to buy now

going to BB today to pick it up, with a mouse and headset, and prolly prototype or crysis right away. by wed. i should have temps up (gotta download, install, figure out furmark/hwmoniter/stress tests cuz im a noob), provided im not hacing too much fun just playing with it !

thanks for all the posting guys, you keep the threads interesting and informative

 

Did new G51 bios come out? I can't find it.

 

nope :/

idk what asus is doing they said the 3rd. but now its the 4th almost the 5th..

 

The only download available for the G51 is the 3DMark2006 patch. Lets hope they fix the heating issues...

 

Fro what other member have tried out...there are no heating problems.. only concern that temperature can get a tad bit high.. but no freezing and meltdown kinda problem, perhaps thats why asus is taking their time on the G51 to make sure they dun mess up

 

so i get 87c max when playing cod4, but when i alt-tab to the HW Monitor, i never currently have more than 80c. I don't think there's like a time graph that could show how the temperatures change over time, but would it be safe to say that it's mainly running at ~80c? Maybe it hits 87c when it first starts up, and then the fans kick in to full blast and bring it back down. Assuming that's true, is it safe to be having the laptop run at these temperatures for a fair amount of the time? Or should I get that laptop cooler right away? I'm just worried about how long this laptop will last running at those temperatures is all. I'll probably get the cooler eventually... but I kinda just wanna settle down. I just want to know if its imperative that I get the cooler soon.

 

Personally, I always use a cooler, and if I don't have access to one--traveling, in class--I don't do anything intensive on the unit.

But 80-87 degrees for your laptop? That seems fine. Be wary of anything going over 90C for any length of time.

 

80s is fine...if u dont have cooler, just prop the end of laptop up w/ a hard cover book, I bet you will see at least 5c drop.

But 80s is alright, my desktop GTX 260 when gaming crysis, COD 5 always in the 80's.. half year still going strong!

 

alright, that's good to know. i'll most likely get a cooler eventually.. i just wanted to make sure that i can safely play games at these temps for at least a couple months.

 

run furmark, stress test mode at 1024x768 res..it will show u the temp issue!

 

Hello, this is my first post, so please don't throw me on a stake if I ask a question that has been asked... I tired to read all of the previous post

Well I just bought the G51 online on bb (have not received it yet) and I am trying to get prepared before I use it. What I mean by that is I am currently deployed in Baghdad Iraq, and obviously, its hot. I have been looking over suggestions of cooler, for ex. Rosewill 15.4"~17" Notebook Cooler Model RNA-7000W, but if someone could tell me in their opinion what is the best cooler for this computer that would be great (I want to buy one in the next few days). Money isn't an issue, but I'm not gonna buy something ridiculously expensive.

I plan on using it for a month, with it overclocked in the 2.25 area, and see if there is really a need to upgrade CPU. I see that some have suggested some like a T9400 or Q9100, but once again what do you think would be the optimal upgrade (with a price range up to 400, but would like cheaper )

I am going to be here for quite a while, Feb - April time frame if we don't get extended like last time :X, so I need a cooler good enough to keep my Computer alive.. thx

 

If you want the most future-proof thing out there, try a QX9300... which has a retail price of, oh at least a thousand. Obviously, you can buy them cheaper on eBay, but they're either used or Engineering Samples.

Q9000 or Q9100 would seem like safe, solid choices. I'm trying a QX9300 because I'm an ignorant mofo and I don't know any better.

 

Well if I do I'm pretty sure i'll go with a Q9100, I found at a price of 200$, or a T9400 at 170$. (Unless someone has a better CPU suggestion)

But I still need a good laptop cooler

 

And does anyone know if I buy a Q9100 will I need new BIOS or is it good out of box?