GT683 CPU Bottleneck, Keyboard Flex, Boot speed

Hey everyone, just switched over from a G53JW and now I have 3 quick questions:

1. Will the i5 2410m bottleneck the GTX560M in any games? Specifically: Starcraft 2 and Battlefield 3? (my previous i7 740qm + gtx460m could almost max out bf3 at 1920x1080, hope this one can too!)

2. Anyone else have a very cheap feeling keyboard? My top left corner and top right corner isn't even flat with the rest of the keyboard. I can use my nail and just lift up the entire corner of the keyboard.

Thus, pressing any keys near that area will have a loud "tap" noise like plastic smashing against plastic.

Is there any fix for this?

Loved the keyboard and build quality on the ASUS g53jw, the illuminated keyboard + no flex at all.

3. Will updating the BIOS to the latest BIOS increase the BIOS load speed? It's about 9 seconds slower than my ASUS g53jw, what's the deal with that?

Using an Intel X25M G2 160gb SSD, no secondary drive. Boot priority set to SSD as first, and AHCI sata mode is enabled.




On a side note, the display on this MSI is as good as my Dell XPS Studio, which is as good as Alienware/Macbook. Much better contrast than the G53JW and both are at the same resolution.

Battery life is actually usable now, G53JW would last 1.5hrs when on power saving. This MSI GT683 would last 3-5 hours on power saving.

GT683 is loud as heck compared to the G53JW, although the G53JW did run much hotter and overclocking the gtx460m was nearly impossible whereas overclocking the MSI's gtx560m was easy as pie. (930 core/ 1420 memory. Full loads at 79C) GTX460m would be at 90C even with a 5% OC

 

That's a good question topic, I'm going to replace my i5 to an i7-2820qm but is it really worthy in some games lik BF3 or MW3 ? Will the gain be significant ?
An 2820qm QS costs less than 300$ so I can just advise you to go for it tbh

Anyway could you tell me how much you score with your gt683 ? 3dmark06 or 3dmark11 !

 

I'm only speculating, but I think even the i5 would be fine with the 560m or lower. With the speed of the second gen i5/i7 processors, the GPU seems to be the bottleneck more often than not. It might be worth while to see how it is before you decide to upgrade, or go for a 2630qm because they are fairly cheap and efficient.

 

I have only ran 3dmark06, it beats my previous ASUS g53jw i7 740qm, gtx460m by 2k-3k

ASUS g53jw-1:
Overclocked GPU: 13800

GT683:
Stock clocks: 14500

Overclocked gpu to 900/1380: 15800

 

The scores with the GT683 are with an i5-2410M, 8GO 1333Mhz and GTX560M ?
Because I only get 14650 with my GTX460 o/c 880/1680mhz and i5 (see sig actually)
If it is, you dont need any upgrade yet

 

Yes, those are the specs for the 3dmark scores.

Full specs:

i5 2410m (ORB results on 3dmark06 states that i7 2630qm will get you an extra 2k points, how effective would that be in terms of gaming?)
gtx560m
2x4gb DDR3 1333mhz
intel x25m g2 160gb


Although not i7 like the g53jw, I feel that this system is actually much faster in games like starcraft 2 in world of warcraft. For some reason, I had intense FPS drops with the g53jw but on this system, I could max out my settings during raids and still have atleast 30fps (whereas, g53jw would be at 5fps by now, and yes I have done clean driver installations and o/s installations)

Starcraft 2 settings on my previous g53jw were all on high to run it 100% smooth, but now I can even put textures/shaders/post processing all on ultra.

Another day with the gt683r, display still amazes me with the amazing contrasts and brightness. Battery life is amazing compared to my previous g53jw, and even my HP envy 14.

Only cons about this laptop is the build quality and design, too much bling and too many loose plastics -> frame around the screen is not stiff, there are some gaps in between that makes sounds when pressed on. Also, like I said in original post, the keyboard flex is the worst I have ever seen.

 

You already have great scores ! so your laptop is already powerful enough BUT if you play SC2, which is a very CPU-oriented game, by updating your i5 to an i7 lets say 2720qm (6MB Cache) or even 2820qm (8mb cache), you will see really big improvements, especially in games like SC2 or newer FPS games.

I am going for this i7-2820qm (299$) so will post here soon to show how good is that !

Still pretty amazed by your score 15800 with 3dmark06, was it in default ? Cant' believe you perform much more than mine with the same config (except 4go ram+) Coul you run 3dmark11 ?

 

15800 only when I overclock it to 900/1380
All i did when i ran 3dmark06 was install -> run (didnt change any settings)

I plan to upgrade the CPU as well, but it wouldnt be easy to sell the i5 to get back some of the money back.

 

You should really keep your i5-2410m, at leat for the warranty. You could obviously get 120~150$ money back but this is not worthy at all and I don't know who will buy one of those.

 

Hey there, starcraft is very CPU dependant.

Going from a dual to quad and getting a cheap ES seems to make a lot of sense.

 

Yeah, I just realized that SC2 is pretty CPU dependent when it gets to a large battle.

In 2v2s, it will run perfectly fine.

But once the CPU is having trouble in 3v3 large army battles, the GPU usage drops way down to 33% and FPS follows the drop.

I will be upgrading to an i7 soon.

And an answer to my boot speed question, I took out the 750gb drive and use only the SSD and the boot speed is just as fast as my g53jw now (maybe 1-2 seconds slower because BIOS does load that 1-2sec slower.)

 

Both SC2 and BF3 are multithreaded; both will use up to four threads. If you want to relieve your CPU, try turning down CPU dependent settings. SC2 tells you which one the option strains more (CPU vs GPU). Most of the CPU related settings are for extra effects anyway, more 'realism'. What settings are you playing at / want to play at?

The 683 will be louder, it uses one fan to cool both CPU and GPU, while the G53 uses 1 fan for each component.

I agree with Meaker, getting a cheap i7 ES off Ebay will probably be the smartest idea, if you plan on upgrading.

 

This may or may not happen with you, but I found the driver for the touchpad to cause a 5 second or so delay between the time the Windows 7 logo disappears, and the time the Welcome screen shows up. It would just sit there with a blank screen.

After uninstalling the driver for the touchpad, the hand off between the Windows 7 screen and the Welcome screen is almost instantaneous. This is with a SSD by the way.

I've reloaded my laptop a few times, and it's happened every time, so not sure what to make of that in my case.

 

Anyone with the GT683R playing BF3?

How is the performance for you guys?

I believe my CPU is bottlenecking from time to time (ie, when lots of effects are happening, swinging my mouse 180 degrees really fast during a large battle, and etc. GPU usage would drop to about 80% for a second or two)

But during the other 90% of the time, this would run @ 40-45fps at the following settings:
*Using the latest nVIDIA official drivers*

Resolution: 1920x1080 (lowering to 1600x900 gives 10-15fps on average, feels a lot smoother. IQ is a little bit less detailed. Since imo, 1920x1080 is way too big for a 15", I made a custom resolution right in between 1600x900 and 1920x1080 and IQ looks 99% the same but I get an extra 5-10fps which is quite a bit at this level of performance.)
Texture - ultra
Enviro -ultra
Enviro decolouration - ultra
Shadows - medium
Mesh - medium (can't tell the dfiference between high and medium, but i gain atleast 5fps from lowering this.)
Effects - medium
HBAO/SSAO Off (Feels like crap even on my new gaming desktop)
AA Post - high
AA - off
AF - 16x
Motion Blur - on
FOV - 80 (does this affect performance?)

 

@wonton17
I got a i7-2720qm on ebay for 150$ and that is nice, especially with BF3 which is really cpu dependant!. Get some nice benchmark results too

 

Did you get a QS or ES?

 

a fairly good ES on par with the 2720 oem and BF3 is running very fluently with my cfg but the temps are really high (85° CPU peak and 82° GPU). Might need to re-paste but all fine otherwise

 

Nice what settings are you running on and how much fps you get?

 

I am using my external monitor so native resolution is 1440x900
Running everything ultra, and AA off (and the other settings off too)

50fps is the lowest FPS i have seen, otherwise 60+ up to 90, but 60~70 constantly I would say

 

Damn, makes me want to buy one.

Was it easy to install? I've installed countless cpu's on a desktop, but never on a laptop.

 

It's very similar.

It goes like this:

1. Disconnect cables & battery.
2. Unscrew 6 screws on back panel, take off back panel.
3. Unscrew 1 screw holding the fan, take out fan.
4. Unscrew 3 screws securing the CPU heatsink, then remove heatsink.
5. Use a flathead screwdriver and turn the screw to 'unlocked' position (liken this to closing/opening your CPU with the lever on the side of the socket).
6. Take out old CPU, put in new CPU. Wipe out any existing pastes on CPU's and heatsinks.
7. Using the flathead turn the screw to close the socket now.
8. Apply thermal paste, put heatsink back with 3 screws.
9. Put fan back and back cover and battery back.

It's easy if you've built a desktop. The only difference is locking the socket requires a flathead rather than pushing down a lever. Other than that, monitor your temps to make sure they are in line and enjoy.

 

Thanks xonar, im going to order one sometime this week

Although i am still deciding because I seem to be running BF3 pretty well but not perfect.

My 2410m is like right at the same level as the gtx 560m in this game, 90% of the time the gpu usage would be at 99%.

Maybe i should just withstand that tiny fps drop for now and use this till i actually have to get another laptop.

 

BF3 is optimized for 4 threads as is SC2. It doesn't surprise me that your i5 struggles in these games, my i7 @ 2.8 ghz vs 3.1 ghz makes a 15 FPS difference at ultra, that's 2.8ghz on all four cores.

I would recommend a cheap ES off ebay. An i7-2720 ES goes around ~$180 and you could try to sell your i5 offsetting a lot of the cost of the upgrade.

 

its worth getting a quad core now since many games coming out are taking advantage of it.

 

Would you guys choose a $170 ES 2720qm or a $230 refurbished OEM 2720qm?

 

es because it will have 8MB cache instead of 6

 

That and it's simply cheaper. Plus, if it means anything to you, the ES is most likely new, versus used.

 

But I heard I might get a bad ES and it will have lower clocks and lower performance?

 

Where did you hear this? Define 'bad'. All CPU of the same model have the same frequencies. Are you saying the frequencies are variable, some higher others lower? If so, that's not at all the case.

 

Been reading from this post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...es/586663-difference-between-es-2720qm-2.html

 

Oh and what if the refurbished one is only $20 more than the ES?

Then would it be better to get the refurbished?

So what you guys are saying is that, ES will perform exactly the same if not better than the refurbished?

 

I think mine score literally within 1% of what the retail version was for Passmark and it performs just fine everyday I've had it.

You will not notice a difference between an es and oem CPU. I forget mine is an ES half the time. . . because I become too immersed game, which the CPU happens to be running just fine.

I would still go with the ES, it's a better chip in the end. It has 2mb more cache than the OEM version.

 

ES all the way and maybe you can ask the seller to lower down the price somewhat with a link to th OEM version.

 

I have my 2720qm ES 8MB and it performs just really fine, I never think it is an ES actually and it is on par with a 2720qm OEM on 4cores since it can only reach 3.2ghz instead of 3.3ghz on 1 core. Otherwise, the 8MB I think help a bit.