Vicious's G50V-A1 Review

Hmm, any news on overclocking the GPU? I noticed that with newst drivers, it appears correctlyin RivaTuner (as GT, not GS), but cannot overclock it...

 

How do ya think the 9700m GT will do in Cod5, viciokas?

 

Ken from Gentechpc confirmed that a 9 cells battery from M50V can fit in the G50V.

But, I have noticed on Gentechpc's web site that the G50V can only accept 4Gb of memory. Did someone put 8Gb into his G50V or does someone know if the G50V's motherboard allow to go up to 8Gb anyway (with a new BIOS or something else)?

 

I assume it will play it but nobody can say since its not out. They did a great job with CoD4 making it look good while being easy to run, and it scales down very well.

 

is anyone else excited to get Left 4 Dead running on this machine??? i have been so excited to play that game for about 6 months now....

 

Can somebody help-me? When I use firefox or Internet Explore, the browsers freezes per 3~8, it is irritating.. I have put in RAID 0, Vista Home Premium, update the bios and news versions of drivers and softwares from asus site.. thanks..

 

Rivatuner overclocks it no problem with the latest modded inf drivers from laptopvideo2go (179.13). I have my speeds in my sig. It pretty much eats Grid alive at those settings (gpu gets pretty hot though).

 

As a first thing to try, you could watch your processes list in Task Manager, and see if the CPU usage of any process spikes up during those lag/freeze periods. If so, then you might have identified the culprit. Check what application the process belongs too, and post back (or remove the app if it's not essential).

 

You got it working eh?! You should create a thread on it since I think your the first. I cant wait to try it out!

Did you by any chance see what your new 3dmark06 scores are?

 

I am very slowly, but surely downloading 3dmark06 now to find out. I hadn't run it before all the changes since there were plenty of scores out there, but as soon as I get them I'll post them.

I probably will post an entire overhauling guide soon, once I get all the data together.

edit: 3Dmark06 score added

6392 @ 1280x1024

 

Thanks for the thorough review, Vicious. Thanks to all contributors on this very enlightening thread.

Does the G50V-A1 have a modem/fax? In pictures I see the opening on the back beside the Ethernet port, but it looks either covered or blocked. The manual only says there is a modem/fax on "selected models". Is this one of the "selected"?

EDIT: My question about the modem was answered in another thread; there is no modem in the US/Canadian models. To answer the question asked in the other thread ("who needs a modem"): I live in a remote part of Canada and get Internet through a satellite dish. It doesn't work in bad weather. My backup is a phone line and modem (at 24 Kbps).

It's a tough choice between this and the M50VM-B1. The price difference at one Canadian online shop is $292.49. The extra value is obvious, but it's a big investment.

 

Thats awesome! I knew this baby would break 6k without a sweat once we could overclock it. I guess it was just the video drivers locking it.

 

Hmm I am having trouble finding the drivers. They seem to only have 32-bit posted and they say its an Alienware Driver and they normally only make 32-bit. Did you use the 32bit driver and it worked? (in my past experience it wont work unless you get the specific x64 driver)

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=110

They are supposed to be almost identical to 178.13 so maybe thats what you used? Also there is a 178.15 out now. Both have x64 Vista versions.

Edit: Did not work with 178.13 RivaTuner says it does not support the driver version. I have the newest version of RivaTuner also.
I downloaded 178.15 out of impulse but I have not tried it as if it did not support 178.13 I see no reason why it would support .15 and it just came out.

My only guess is your using a 32bit OS and use the 32bit 179 driver? Most of us are going to be using x64 Vista as thats what comes pre-installed and you need x64 to use all 4gb of ram.

 

hi, just got mine today... just a question though... when will the second display shows that i got msn message or not?? while playing games?? or even when i am surfing??? and does it requires to change any setting in the msn software?? because mine doesn't seems to be working with the msn.....

 

Hey, Vicious, I just checked it and it works with RivaTuner even when it says it does not support the driver. I use 178.15, 64-bit. RivaTuner says it does not support it, you just click OK, and normally overclock it.

They only thing that bothers me is that his frequencies seem to be max what RivaTuner will allow you to set, and the GPU is still stable, even at this max frequencies.

 

I ran 3dmark06 default got 58XX and 76c max temp

I maxed out rivatuner to the 600/450 it allows and ran it again.

Same Temp, Same Score, Same GPU Clocks.

Are you SURE it works? I think its just fooling you

Also verified with GPU-Z its not working for me.

 

My apologies to all that got their hopes up. Vicious is right, I have been fooled.

I just ran GPU-Z to find out that nothing was being changed, though rivatuner appeared to be OC'ing the GPU it was not at all. And even if it had affected it, the clock speeds it offers (as was pointed out to me by another member of the forum in a pm) are all lower than the actual stock clock speeds.

So, I guess we'll still have to wait for that one.

I guess it's time to change my sig.

 

So how did you manage the 6300 score in 3dmark? Thats still about 600 points higher than stock.

 

Hello all,

Ken from Gentechpc told me that the BIOS of the asus G50V does NOT allow 8Gb of memory.

One question. Under XP, the Direct Console does not work. But is it still possible to overclock the cpu by modifying the FSB in the BIOS?

 

Not in bios trentmil, but with a program like setfsb or clockgen it should be possible.

 

how much heat are you guys producing when oc'ing your cpu's?

 

Im not producing any heat, I think the cpu is tho

It stays very very cool for me but I also use a cooling pad.

 

I don't know where the big boost comes from, other than the cpu boost. But it does also show increased performance over the stock gpu as well.

I'm using Vista/XP both in 32bit and running the modded Alienware 179.13 drivers.



The OC'ed cpu temps that I get are as follows:

T9400 @ 2.93ghz and undervolted to 1.0275v
--------------------------------------------
40°C @ idle
70°C @ full load

X9100 @ 3.54 (No thermal paste applied yet)
------------------------------------------
60°C @ idle
87°C @ full load

 

You could always get a USB modem. I think they're like $30

 

About the laptopvideo2go's drivers:

Can i install them after fresh install withot needing the v.card driver on the disk?

*The 9700 support PhysX? and if so, where i find those drivers?

thnx

 

Yes. You can just install the laptopvideo2go drivers as the first drivers of the GPU.

 

Just found this review, awesome. Picking mine up on Monday. Been looking for a replacement for a while after the XPS died.

 

I am currently thinking about buying a G50 =) I have had a MSI GX600 which i've recently got my money back for as it kept overheating. Now i wonder, are there any known bugs with the G50? I dont want to make the same mistake as last time i bought a laptop Grateful for answers

 

Just the keyboard issue is the only bug I know of, it has not effected me since I do not use the few key combo's that do not work but its still a bug that has not been really resolved.

Also no way to overclock the gpu currently, not that thats a flaw but still sucks for an enthusiast like me.

 

Hello, i just purchased this computer, and i am pretty new to all this, but i want to upgrade my driver and i am confused... when i go to laptopvideo2go, there are no new mobile drivers.... so how do i do this, u said u used 177.28 or something, and that is a desktop driver? do i need to download the .INF, and that makes any driver work? i also cant find any links to the .inf downloads, any help would be appreciated, thanks, Mick

 

Read theFAQ on laptopvideo2go, that should clear up things.

 

Thanks for review I decided to buy it after reading.
It was long time for waiting of delivering it to Russia. But now I have it
I bought ASUS G50V-A2 I'm not sure that I need blue-ray (we don't have to much disks in Russia now), but 7200 rpm hdd is more interesting for me.

Is anybody was successful with overclocking the CPU and GPU under Windows XP? (rivatuner and setfsb does not work)
Is anybody have a driver for LCDHype?


ps sorry for my English.... it's my first post in foreign forum

 

Your English is much better than my Russian

I think Set FSB should work in XP, maybe you did not have a new enough version or select the right PLL code. Clockgen is also a good alternative.

As for the GPU we have no overclocking solution that I know of yet.

LCDHype is in the works, there are id guess half done with having it all setup.

 

Yeah we already have picture ...YAYYYY...though a bit scrambled, but I'm working on it

 

Yes!!! I found that right PLL code is ICS9LPR363DGLF
3GHz without any problems - almost the same temperature and same fan-speed.
3dmark from 6101 to 6837

 

Happy I could help! sort of

 

Can anyone confirm that it is stable för longer periods @ 3 GHz?
Won't the RAM need additional cooling at some point?

What is the best CPU temp monitoring program for Vista 64?

 

Hi Gollan, Firefishe here.

Just a blurb I thought you might find interesting. The G50VM-X1 I bought from Best Buy has a modem. I bought it near St. Louis, Missouri. Just thought I'd mention that at least one us model has the modem built in, even though it's one of the 'retail tier' models.

Thought you might find it interesting.

Warm Regards,
Firefishe

 

Firefishe, that is interesting. Perhaps Asus recognized that "gamers" do want a modem/fax in a notebook and fixed their error in the X1. Or they intended to put it in the A1 and A2 but had a problem getting the required government approvals.

I ordered a small US Robotics USB modem. It should get here next week.

 

Confirmed. Stable and temp is not more then 60C
But one small problem - Integrated NIC doesn't work on 3GHz.

Sorry, I'm not using Vista.

 

ViciousXUSMC,

I installed my own slipstreamed WinXPwSP3, Windows 7 Beta, VistaUltimate64bit.
In all of them i can't get to work wireless Nokia Headset BH-604
I add EpoxERD-USB, but even with this software no good result.
When i power on Nokia Headset Epox asks for key.
I enter 0000, or left blank - no result.
Epox adds connection to this device in some list deep in settings, but normally there is no connection to device, like mouse.
Another problem is with sound in WinXP: there seems like everything is working OK, but no sound to speakers or headphones (wired).

Is there some Asus driver or IO problem with A2DP?
Will Bluesoleil solve this problem, i downloaded trial, but this soft didn't found my Headset, it searched long period.

Please help!
I exhausted all my versions how to solve this one

 

Do you have the right realtek drivers?
There's a thread listing the right ones. The ones on the drivers disc won't work for sound in XP.

 

I solved problem, for this moment i'm happy...
In Windows 7 Beta everything works fine.
I'm using Epox ERD USB module and Bluesoleil 6222711.
In VistaUltimate64bitSP1 this doesn't works.
And Bluesoleil 6222711 is not starting with Asus bluetooth.
Drivers are from Asus downloads - they where younger than in DVD.
I even played WildEarth game with everything high settings.

 

guys, mine hibernation stop working after i have finished my windows update recently..... when i close the lip, it only goes to sleep not hibernation, i have check the settings in power option all showed hibernation... any idea what's going on????

 

Have you checked what enegy-mode you are in.

 

power4gear-high performance... but even that it is set to hibernation when lid is closed....

 

now the hibernation function just came back on his own... but can't sleep, however can lock.... what the heck is going on!!!!

 

Looks like problems with power management, possibly due to buggy updates. You could try reinstalling the ATK drivers but that's a long shot.

 

Hi to everyone. I'm italian and I bought G50V-A1 almost 2 months ago after I've read this amazing review!!!

What do you mean with "Integrated NIC doesn't work on 3GHz"?
Do you mean ethernet card?

 

I have the same problem but only in XP(32).
In Vista 64 its totally stable, I've had the bus up to around 1250.
When it happens in XP, the NIC disappears, and if I search for hardware it finds some unnamed SM-bus controller. And after a while when I've reset the bus the NIC comes back.
Maybe they tweaked some driver in Vista to work with faster bus-speed?

It should be able to be done in XP as well.

Edit:
Nic is not entirebly stable in Vista 64 either it seems. But the wireless keeps on going. However in XP I can't get the wireless to connect at all. It tries to recieve an IP but never does. Driverproblem?

In Vista the Direct Console button has stopped working. It blinks but the program doesn't appear. Instead the Direct Console is always on screen when I enter windows. I can get it up again by using the icon though. Weird.

Also, has anyone noticed that the Expressgate button is always on as long as there is power? When the computer is off, mine draws like 3-4% of battery every day if the AC plug isn't connected. That's just stupid. I had it off for a couple of days and it was down to 86%. Can it be turned off?