ASUS [email protected] (03/20/10)

Up surfing late again and I came across this...

http://www.jr.com/asus/pe/ASU_G73JHA1/

I added one to the cart to see if it's for real or not. It is... A great deal because it's actually available to order..."Usually ships in 1 - 2 days" so the site says.

I hope someone here is able to snag one.

 

Glad to see some of you were able to order one.

 

Yup, those went quick. Too bad those weren't A2's, or else one of them would be mine next week.

 

Hey, thank you for the reply! It made my day.

I picked up a G73JH-X1 from Newegg the week before last. Otherwise, I would have definitely picked this one up.

 

No problem, glad I could make you happy today and wow, those x1's were expensive! Congratz on getting one. Let us know what you think of it.

 

Call them up and try to get a lower price! One guy went as low as 1,625 when i going to preorder one, if you ship out of the state they won't charge you for shipping or taxes!

 

The laptop is a all I hoped, wished for and dreamed of having in a laptop. For the technology, it's a bargain. (This is coming from a Gateway P-6831FX, 8800GTS M, 1440x900 resolution with a processor upgrade to a T8300, 2.4GHz.)

The specs & styling of the G73 are outstanding. I'm so happy it wasn't gloss black too!

I've tried out BioShock 2, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakenings & Metro 2033. With the exception of Metro 2033 (playing on DX10 - Normal at native resolution, on DX11 the framerate is not acceptable to me@1920x1080 even with DOF - Depth Of Field, Tessellation off)...they all play as well as if it were on a desktop. Framerates range from 27 to 70fps or so on Metro 2033 (fps dips down for a split second or two then goes right back up) and from 40 to 80fps on BioShock 2 & DAO Awakenings on high settings. I monitored using Fraps when playing. (I actually have a XFX 5870 in my desktop.)

I predict the G73 will be hard to beat this year. Look at the amount of preorders. ASUS should keep the same basic design and upgrade the innards as new tech comes out.

What would top it next is a G73 with an 400 series GPU (Fermi) from Nvidia.

Hope that gives you some insight Rhynoxx.

 

Concerning Metro 2033, what about DX11 at 1280 resolution? I think it would be playable.

 

I know Jester I am not the only one, many of us bought the G73 because it does NOT have an Nvidia, so it would be worse

 

My sentiments exactly...

 

Just confirms the fact that pretty much everyone really likes this laptop. At this point I don't need reviews to tell me it's good, I already know that. Now I just need some of this goodness for myself.

 

BTW Metro 2033 is an Nvidia showcase. THQ is hardcore Nvidia, look at all their past games also. There is no real good reason to use PhysX anymore other than to get some free Nvidia cash.

Look up Project Offset which is using a modified Hav0k Physics engine. They have a video of meteors impacting a colliseum of sorts, and the physics in that is more realistic and better than anything I've seen using PhysX by a humongous margin.

Also considering ATi is really pushing for a unified PhysX Open API movement is really awesome, what Nvidia is doing is just garbage, Metro 2033 is perfect example.

Also if you look up some blogs from the best game engine developers, there is pretty much a consensus that Nvidia's hardware PhysX route is stupid and bad for the industry. Considering GPGPU with OpenCL and Hav0k already supporting computation on GPGPU, this is the way to go. Forcing developers to choose between Nvidia or ATi is just bad for game developers and bad for gamers.

 

Same here.. i'm only buying asus G73 because it isn't NVDIA... and i'd be very happy if NVDIA keeps shooting itself in the foot... sooner or later it has to die... and i'm a very patient person.. still waiting 148 days for my G73...

 

ATI price-points are much more fair as well, both for mobile and desktop. Then look at power usage, our 5870's are 60 or 65watts, while gtx280/285 is 75 watts. And from what most people expect Fermi will be a hot core.

However, I do not want Nvidea to die. A monopoly is bad for all of us. No competition would mean that ATI doesn't have to work their a-- off to dominate.

I wonder what will happen once dedicated video cards go to the wayside in 20-30 years(like sound-cards did circa 2000)... ATI/AMD has a more well rounded business model and will probably win out then...

I really hope AMD can crank out something to compete with i7 in the mobile sector...

This thread is about g73's isn't it. ADD pills will kick in soon ...

 

Hey Spit2099, yes, a lower resolution does increase the framerate. But, to me, playing at a lower resolution is the last resort after I turn off or lower features like AA, AF, texture detail, shadows, etc... I feel cheated if a gaming laptop's gpu cannot handle a game at its' native resolution. The G73 is actually the first laptop that I feel can handle such a resolution due to the CPU/GPU combo. It's pretty stout right out of the box.

1920x1080 is probably too high a resolution for a majority of mobile GPUs (excluding 280, 285GTX) other than the 5870 right now. The mobile quad-core makes a huge difference on CPU based games as well.

I've actually owned both ATI & Nvidia in desktops/laptops. They are both good brands but Nvidia has recycled the G92 series way too much in desktops/laptops. I think it's been the last three generations now with the 8800 GTS M, 9800 GTS M and the 260 GTS M plus other variations.

ATI came out with the next generation first so it's natural they'll dominate for now. Nvidia has been riding on their reputation for a little too long now with really nothing new for the past few years. I'll be watching Fermi but have no need for another GPU right now.

I believe Nvidia killled PhysX by trying to make it proprietary software. They kind of killed development for it by making it function only with Nvidia GPUs.

 

Same here, NVIDIA cards have taken one too many dumps on my chest right out of the box.

 

Anyways , official ATI TDP for 5870 is 50W and for GTX285M official TDP from NDVIA 75W... i don't want to know how much more the GTX285M uses... also i doubt AMD is going to come out with something great in mobile sector... they're just too behind and by the time they come out with anything , intel has something 10 times better lined up...

Good to know we got more and more members...

 

Metro 2033 brings my 5870 desktop to the ground, cant blame the G73 much.

Again as some said its sponsored by Nvidia and I swear they do underhanded stuff with games they are tied close too and make it hard for ATI cards.

It took years for ATI to get up to Nvidia in Crysis and it was the same scenario.

But that said ATI did catch up at some point, so Metro 2033 may get better with some driver updates, also the game itself could use a ton of optimization so maybe some updates/patches will help out.

Im not too impressed with the game myself, but I was never a Stalker fan and that seems to be where it got its roots from.

Some of the bigger fans of Metro 2033 are waiting for AI patches, apparently the human AI in the game needs major work.

Oh dont forget to overclock your gpu if you need, should give you a good boost in Metro 2033 if you can get from like 25 to 30fps average that will make the game pretty playable.

__________

ATI vs Nvidia? I prefer ATI always have. Right now they offer better and cheaper products. I love the fact my laptop can do DX11 and performs great and runs cool. On my desktop having Eyefinity and 3x24" screens has absolutely completely changed the way I look at games. When I buy a new game if it supports ultra wide is my first priority. (Metro 2033 is working in eyefinity but has some kind of mouse issue I hope they fix)

But I hope Nvidia stays alive, we need the competition. This is what brings forth cheaper prices and better products.

The G73 is so nice but when you go home to this:




<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7bWkmyD1bfQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width='640'>

Its hard to not like that more than the laptop

 

I wonder if J&R Electronics is my best chance of getting one of these laptops before I deploy to the middle east in May...I mean, if they're taking preorders that get priority, and still are receiving enough stock to sell it straight up on their website (if only for a short time) then I think my chances of getting one of the next shipping batch would be pretty good...right?

 

BTW Guys hope you know JR has 5% cashback with bing.com shopping.

Id get mine via a dedicated Asus reseller like Gentech though if possible. If you ever had any issues or needed help they are going to be able to take care of you a lot better. Also the price on the Gentech site is lower than JR's.

 

Daggah, I would just preorder now and take the chance. Restocking dates seems to keep getting pushed farther and farther back for all retailers. The earlier you preorder, the better chance you'll score one before you leave.

You could always have it sent to someone you trust and have them send it to you when it arrives. I would recommend double packing the shipping box though. Chances of this model reaching a PX/BX anytime soon are close to nil.

Oh, I just beat Metro 2033. I'm kind of disappointed it ended so quickly. It was one great ride though.