ASUS G73JH-A1 with ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5

ordered an Asus G71GX-RX05 for $999.99 & Q9200
guess ill have 3 laptops

128bit just absolutely killed it...

it's officially a 4870 mobility with 1gb 128bit gddr5 -_-

 

I wholeheartedly agree

 

The Xotic site always showed 6gb mem on main page, but 8gb on configuration page

 

so let me ask this... what else is there on the market that compares to this laptop, even at 128 bit, especially at this price?

i haven't found anything... not in this price range... if i could find something with a 280m gtx and an i7 for relatively the same price then count me in... till that happens i still think this thing is a great bang for the buck...

 

When you put it like that i would have to agree, although I dont really like the design of the laptop but i suppose ill just suck it up

 

i didn't know the 280m was near a 33% increase over 260m.. nice I guess that will be a future upgrade for me =) bummer this new ATI card is only on par with the 280m

 

What about the Clevo W860CU and W870CU?

 

a W870CU starts at nearly 300$ more with 1/4th of the ram, no blu-ray, 1/4th the HDD space, and No OS. A similarly equipped W870CU is 1,200$ more than a stock G73JH-A1. A similarly equipped W860CU (starting price is only 50$ more than the G73 in this case) is 700$ more than a stock G73.

 

Believe me I'm not trying to argue for the Clevo but what I look at is maxed GPU and CPU options and that puts it in the same ballpark. Other parts are normally upgraded separately anyway.

 

Okay, so I am totally bummed now. Sad to see that it is only a 128-bit bus. I wonder if we can get any secondary confirmation on that spec. That royally sucks, and will certainly affect the presales.

 

if you think about it that way, then you could just take the G73, remove one of the HDDs, remove the OS, remove the blu-ray drive, and 4GB of the ram and have yourself a laptop that is still about 800$ less than a W870.

 

The G73 is a great deal for what it offers based on specs alone. Whether the actual system lives up to expectations is a whole other matter. I'm taking a wait and see approach with this system since I don't have much faith in Asus to produce a top quality product. Not that it matters much to me, I'm not a potential customer but it's always interesting to see new notebooks and more competition.

 

this is very dissapointing to me as I was going to put a 5770 in my desktop. But it like having the same thing. soo the 5870 will be equal to one of my 280m gtx.

 

lol @128bit 5870

Looks like they will be releasing 256bit 5870 as a refresh whenever Nvidia Decide to release the mobile Fermi "Properly July-August for mobile "

 

Every time we hear ATI and GDDR5 some type of disappointing news gets released.

 

yeah, until we hear something different you would be downgrading.

 

Hmmm somehow i get the feeling that everytime ATI is in a position to make a revolution they opt to go with the evolution strategy, f$%k that. Ofcourse it's always up to some technical shortcommings from the related parties:
Shift to 40nm - TSMC,
gddr5 problems in 48xx with manufacturers instability at low clocks (or smt).
Now a notebook that could probably accomodate the extra heat is not getting a part it would be comfortable with...
On the other hand maybe it's not all bad (as i always wanted a 15 inch lappie)
I mean since the card is 128bit it basicly translates to 800SPS otherwise the bandwith would be a limitting factor to more sps (1440 or 1600), meaning that the powerdraw and TDW should be the same if not even less than the 4850, ok maybe ramping up voltages and clocks will increase it, but the smaller process has to account for something as well.
I hope that it will actually show up in less bulky models. Common let's be ohnest - g73 is huge, and i think the indicated 18.9-22.1mm in height was a mistake.

On the up part it did score the same +P7200 as the gtx280 in a combined score but the processor part is the ATI was +8600 whereas the gtx280 system scored +11000. So probably the GPU itself is more powerful....

 

Our sources at ASUS have told us the 128/256-bit is not confirmed so we can hope for the best.

 

Mavis,

I think you know how I feel about this, but don't get discouraged. The fact that Ati could possibly release a 128 bit part and be on par or slightly better than a 280m gtx is just awesome. With the amount of cooling power in this laptop, we will be able to over clock this thing. The bottom line is that it is still the most powerful single card solution right now. If Ati releases a refresh later on with 256 bit and more muscle, I am the type to let my laptop go for a loss on ebay and get the newest version. That's just my opinion though. I consider all of my laptops more of a "lease".

 

Until proven otherwise I believe the ATI 4870 1GB 256bit GDDR3 card would be considered the most "powerful".

 

And how about the Q2 ? is that confirmed or not ? I dont think its fair to drop these possible expectations in front of people to save a few pre-sales.

 

atleast this gives some kind of re-assurance... I went from the highest high last night when it all started going down, to probably the lowest of lows reading this thread when I woke up this afternoon.... ugh if its NOT 256bit.... then ATI is stealing a page from NVIDIA with its rebranding BS.

 

What's the deal on the website photos that everyone has been showing of the G73? Has The CES show confirmed a totaly new design away from the G71/G72 or just a better bottom panel for cooling? Do we know yet if the keyboard keys will light up like the current G72.. Or if the A1 series is still going to retain the ground effect lighting?

 

All the new pics that have popped up in this thread are the real design and the old ones were just placeholders like i figured from the beginning...

 

And yes keyboard does light up.

 

lol i know how you feel

ati deserves a punch to the face

 

I agree that Ati deserves a massive slap on the hand if that turns out to be true. They would be just as guilty as Nvidia.

 

I think many of us knew all along there was strong chance it was going to be 128bit... For the price it always sounded to good to be true for such amazing hardware and something had to give in which this case it was the card .... Best to always remain skeptical until the final word comes through though...

 

Asus did the same thing with my W90... Called it the 4870x2 when it was really a 4850... Alienware did the same thing recently with there 4870 since it was supposed to have DDR5 up until the first machine was in a users hands and then confirmed no DDR5 so again its NOT a 4870 other then by name.. Huge arguements ensued back in the W90 hayday over what the cards should have been called and both Nvidia and ATI are guilty of this... but hey thats marketing for you and calling something by its real name is just not going to move product...

 

Up until yesterday some of our contacts were still stating end of January/early February. Once they provide a concrete date we will be sure to update you all. We are trying multiple contacts at ASUS to confirm ETA. As we have seen in the past ASUS ETA's are not always the most accurate.

 

Heya Quad.....yea I remember the W90....ug.

 

I am so glad I didn't buy any of the older asus G series yet, this laptop is the hottest piece of machinery i've even seen, its like a lamborghini Oo
If the cooling will work fine and the backside drawing will be decent, or less blitzy, i'm gonna buy that thing as soon as possible. After waiting for a enw laptop since xmas 2008, this is the best possible reward for my patience I can imagine.

ps: lil question: whats with the weird backside thing, the screen is not using any cilinder for opening; Its like those new dell bussines notebooks. Any idea what they are for?

 

So basically, at this point there is nothing to contradict the Q2 in that wired article.

 

*Crosses fingers* As long as the card is on par with the 280m, I can't see myself being too disappointed with all this new information - sure, it didn't meet (admittedly very high) expectations but with everything under the hood for that price, I'd likely not find a better bargain.

Still, if it was delayed until Q2... that would be a real kicker considering how long I've already been waiting for an upgrade for my rather dated old laptop.

 

Q2 seems very distant for a product they are showing off now but since they just launched the G72 and want to move those units first i imagine its tough to say what is going on at this point...

 

That said, did you guys seriously expect GDDR5 with 256bit + 700mhz core + 1600 SPs? As they say, when something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

If they managed to pack all those, then they must have somehow magically - shrinked those massive desktop 58X0 cards into a tiny MXM module, all in space of a few month.

One way or another at least its GDDR5, right? Could be worse, for all we know if it was 256-bit, then GDDR3 fiasco could repeat once again.

 

lol... i think 128-bit gddr5 performs worse than 256-bit gddr3 (not 100% sure)

 

Yeah i have been saying that all along about the reality of the Die Shrink that quickly after the launch of the desktop part was not happening .. Never has in the past and is not going to anytime soon..

It is still a great machine for the $$ even with the possible and more then likely 128bit card...

These machines are going to sell like hotcakes based on specs and the 5870 name alone... Im sure some of the enthusiast crowd though will jump ship based on the 128bit info but that was to be expected all along...

 

Honestly they are about equal in most regards because of the faster memory...

 

With all things considered, I am still happy to be getting this laptop over my current G51j-A1. Will be a significant upgrade regardless.

 

see this V

exactly

see this V

exactly


i went through this thought process already... and while the sager/clevo options look great they are missing some of the details like the G73 has... take away those details and do without on the Asus like I would do on the Sager/Clevo and I still save a lot more by going with Asus...

its still the best bang for the buck gaming laptop on the market...

 

True, but at the same time, if they launched now and their claims of 30% performance boost of the 260m was true, they would pretty much have a choke hold on the market until Nvidia made their next move with the 300 series.

Argh, this and a price increase was what I was fearing the most - been waiting 2 years for a new laptop and I don't really want to wait any longer

 

I think everyone is a bit disappointed, I know I am. We hyped this up so much because we are tired of the same chipset being released from NVIDIA for ages now, and we all saw this as a brand new, ground breaking move ATI was making. In hindsight, we all set ourselves up for the greatest letdown in modern gaming I think.

However, ASUS has yet to officially release there build of this machine 100% yet, thus holding out some hope for us. The Q2 shipping seems troublesome, and may be in part to the issues with recent system released. If so, I believe ASUS wants more time to run the systems through the gauntlet to make sure they deliver us a rock solid gaming laptop that performs as advertised!

 

Forgetting all of the other tech details, I'm more interested to see how this one handles heat compared to it's predecessors.......would be most unfortunate to see all this hype build up and then explode in a flurry of technical/troubleshooting-related posts.....

 

Thanks for reposting, missed it the first time.

Best bang for the buck will not be enough if quality is sub-standard and the 5870s prove to be under powered. We have to wait and see.

With that said it doesn't mean don't put in pre-orders. As long as you can cancel them prior to delivery it doesn't hurt to stand in line.

 

Awwwww.... Sweeeeet.. How could i have missed these photos! Those rear cooling slots look sick! A more mature look for sure.. Nice, they kept the lighted keyboard. Thanks.

 

Yep i know ill be waiting till everything is official and all the numbers have been released before i make the final call... No reason to rush to cancel at this point...

 

That depends.....if you pay by CC, do they pre authorize your card, which, while youre not charged untill it ships, that cash is esentially locked...so yea standing in the line can make a differenfce.

 

I'm worried about the 128bit bus.
think of it like a car.
bit bus = cylinders
memory speed is how much gas you can put in each cylinder.
128bit bus = 4 cylinder car.
256bit bus = 8 cylinder car.
gddr5 is a high fuel rail
gddr3 is a normal fuel rail.

now with the 128 and the gddr5 it will be fine for p-runs in vantage 1280*1024.(just like try to do @-60mph in each of these cars.)

but do a x-run with the 128 and gddr5 with it at 1920*1200 with 16aa and watch the card crumble. (like doing a max speed run in a car.)Compared to a 256but bus and gddr3...

unless we can find someone with a 250 oor a 260 gts vs a 260m or a 280m to prove me wrong?

 

Nope its not like that all... All you do by pre ordering is getting a place in line and no money is locked etc...