Asus G73JW at GenTech for 1645$

Thanks for the bench run! Looks like 460m is quite more powerful in DX11 in this game

HD5870m stock Cat 10.8 vs Nvidia GeForce 460m (stock clocks I guess) Beta 260 drivers (DX11 comparison).

Scene 1
14.6 fps vs 22.5fps

Scene 2
13.1 vs 21.9

Scene 3
19.7 vs 27.6

So it is between 7.9 and 8.8 fps difference in all high. About 54% faster out of the box thanks to the Fermi extra tessalation performance. Not too shaby

Let's see if the supposed Cat 11 can help leverage things out in DX11


EDIT:

Comparing Battlefield Bad Company 2 on the same settings and same part of the campaign, we basically got the same performance on stock. Didn't notice any difference that was worth mentioning. Performance is rather low for such settings but disabling HBAO, AA and putting shadows on medium really bumps the performance up.


Forgot to mention that my max temp during both tests was 73°C heh.

 

yeah, i dont think so....anything tessellation involved and ati is going to fail...until they come out with the next card..which will be amd.
this should be interesting....

will amd make the difference or will it pick up ati's outlook on tessellation....

 

Yeah everything i have read and peoples hopes of ATI fixing Tessellation on the current gen cards has not been good ...

Since i own 2 5870s in my desktop dont think i was not looking forward to them addressing it lol...

Ill upgrade when needed but right now im not hurting for performance even at 2560x1600...

 

That's not happening. The idea of using Stream processors to boost Tessellation when people figured out Nvidia's Tessellation engine seem to be dedicated stream processors for Tessellation, was just a rumor. Pretty sure, CatalystMaker on Twitter said that would not be happening.

It seems reason being they boosted Tessellation a different way. They did show the desktop Hd6870 having playable DX11 with Extreme Tessellion on Heaven, something close to 40 FPS or so. Better than GTX 480 by a good margin.

But IMO, Tessellation is not the way of the future, kinda of going backwards actually. Future should be ray tracing/voxel, not more polygons.
- And for laptop gaming, I don't think tessellation will be viable for minimum of 2-3 years of game industry wants to continue stepping backwards instead of forward.
- Hopefully ID with their new innovations will give everyone a serious boot in the butt to realize Tessellation is just a fad.

 

As a small additional comment, with my standard gaming OC (840/1040) I basically match the 460m DX11 performance within 5% or so. I wish I could up the clocks as much as Ken did with his massive OC, but sadly I can't up the memory right now haha.

 

Yeah i would be interested to see how well the DX11 stuff turns out overclocked on the 460m ..

Either way DX11 as Ziddy mentioned is not much of a reality on laptops for the moment... Sure Lost Planet 2 runs better then the 5870m when both at stock but i dont consider 24-30fps playable most of the time and if i ever play that title(bad reviews) it would be in DX9 im sure ... This is all just fun because of all the 460m haters ...

As i said before none of these cards are truly AMAZING from a performance standpoint and all of them are closer to one another then people like might to admit...

I am looking forward to getting the machine tomorrow and throwing my stable of games at it to see how it runs in comparison to the 5870m laptops i have owned.. I run FRAPs all the time so i will know in a heartbeat what runs good/better/worse instantly just from memory ... There were a couple games i thought should have run better on the 5870m ala GTA4 that i know run well on the Nvidia hardware that im very anxious to try ...

I do all this for fun and not to measure my ego lol.. They are games after all ? ..

 

Alright!
Can't wait for the official Quadzilla smack down

 

Yeah, but they will continue to hate no matter what they see or read. ^^

They are truly amazing compared to the buggy 8700m sli in my xps m1730. =)

 

This card (and system) is looking like a pretty good alternative to the ATi variant. Can't help but wonder if they used the GTX 470M instead, which looks like the spiritual successor to the ever-so-popular 8800M GTX/9800M GT.

 

This reminds me of the upcoming G73JW-3D, and a quote I read.....

“a new 17.3″ Asus ROG G73Jw 3D-ready laptop that may come with the recently announced GTX 480M GPU combined with a 1080p 120Hz LCD panel.”

..... what if Asus opts the less power hungry 470M in November?

 

If that happens count me in, 17.3" be damned.
I really would prefer a smaller laptop.G53

 

GTX470 will be properly faster by 10% than gtx460 and run hotter maybe
Which translate to something like

20->22Frame
30->33Frame
40->44Frame

Not worth switching from 15 to 17 for that little performance boost if you really prefer "15" laptop

 

Yeah i wont be waiting till November or whenever... By CES there will be other stuff ill be more interested in im sure and the cycle will continue...

If it were 30% faster i might have thought differently but its not ..


If the 480m is 8-18% faster then ATI's Offering and the 460m is faster approaching a stock 5870 that will leave the 470m somewhere in between those 2... The 470m might be a great Overclocker though but yeah ill live with the 460...

 

Will it also have a better Screen ?
then its worth waiting

 

It might ... It will come with the 120hz 3d screen ... Whether the screen itself looks better is another story but i hope so for all the people on the fence ...

 

Thanks Quad!

I'll bet someone is ready to chase down a UPS or FedEx truck today, huh?

 

Yeah its always exciting getting a new toy ...

Let me know how that 3d machine works out for you though ..

 

No prob...... will do!

 

There i fixed that up for you ...

 

So today's the big day
I hope it's everything you expect Quad.
Will be looking forward to some initial response and if you can post some temps(I know the G73 runs cool I want to see how cool the 460 GTX runs) and comment on the fan loudness(if any).
Good luck bro!

 

@ Ken, First of all, thanks for providing benchmarks and OC results so quickly. Even though I'm not in the market for a G73JW, it'll be a significant reassurance when I do get a laptop (18.4" Qosmio, yum )

@ Quadzilla, thanks for fighting the good fight against the AMD hordes. Can't wait to see your opinions on the 460m. Though I gotta ask...how the hell do you keep financing these cutting-edge performance rigs?!

 

No problem lol...

As for how do i do it ? Alot of creative thinking and planning ..

Machine arrived and im just going through the motions so i wont have much to post till later today when i get all the stuff i want on the HDs etc etc...

Currently making recovery DVDs which will take abit in itself...

 

Cool, well be here waiting for you to tell us how great it is

 

Well so far its great lol but burning these dvds will take hours lol.. On the clock it says 2 hours so far but i want to get that out of the way and have them for any future owner down the road ....

GPU has been idling at 43 and the CPU temps are essentially the same temp..

Its going to be a long day because i still have to throw in my SSD and then reinstall windows and all junk to go along with it ...

 

so this thing doesn't come with a restore partition???

why you guys always burning dvds for? copy the install partition to a high speed flash drive or just leave the install partition alone?

 

It does comes with restore partition but it doesn't comes with restore DVD anymore, since Quad going to install SSD so he will need to burn recovery DVD to restore the OS to his SSD.

 

not entirely true...
he only needs to run acronis disk server from a cd
and copy the restore partition first then the os partition
then boot the ssd in ide mode

it's what i do with all my new laptops to get the current os on the ssd. im still running the factory os with all the bloatware and all on m ssd.

 

Gotta agree with John on this one...... just 'clone' the HDD to SSD.

 

this is my benching setup from the original factory image from asus.
the one i got all my records with.

 

I am doing this all for the future owner LOL.... Of course i can use Acronis like i do on all my other computers.... Its something i am getting out of the way because im hosing the extra 500gig HD and using it for something else...

Amazing how quickly this thread spun out of control with what i should be doing like i have never used a computer before or imaging software ...

This is something i do with every new laptop i get and its automatic for the just incase scenarios of the .TIB backup going bad or a HD failing and people that buy machines love to have all the factory junk ..

I would never run the factory image nor move it over to the SSD since its filled with junk and its a waste of time uninstalling it all and cleaning the registry...

 

LOL! Look at YOU! Geez......Ya got yourself a new JW, and now all the sudden you're talking about the thread spinning out of control.

 

I know you mean well John as always so no biggie i just looked at the thread and went WTH ? lol...

Anyhoo as you see my reasons for everything ill just leave it at that but what i meant by the .TIB going bad as in the HD i have it on dying then losing the original factory image thats why in some instances its good to have some things on Optical media for those just incase situations and i have had them before so have learned my lesson the hard way ....

Last few machines i sold the first thing someone asked me is do you have the recovery discs etc so i know some people love that junk and i dont want that to be an issue ...

If i were keeping this machine forever i would have just hosed the whole thing and moved on but i dont seem to hold onto things long now adays so i play it safe ...

It is that and nothing more .. Now i could have backed it up to Dual Layers or a Bluray but ill keep it simple and use 5 dvds lol...

 

we are good quad.
ok, so this dvd thing..i haven't made one in a very long time. . guess ill have to give it a go to see what is what.


i hear you on holding on for too long...this one might be up for sale soon...haha
but i just give it to the new owner as i got it out of the box. let them fill in their stuff. only one thing slowing this machine down from out of the box..and that was the norton and office 2010 starter. once those got ditched...all was fine.

5 dvd you say
and two hours huh....might give it a go in a do or so to see what it looks like.

 

Yeah its a no brainer, just time consuming but can come in handy and like i say people want that stuff even if you tell them they can do it themselves lol... So i just cut to the chase and get it over with...

Oh and before i forget a BIG shout to Ken@Gentech for getting me the machine in a timely fashion as usual and hassle free... This guy is the absolute best person to deal with period ...

 

Any keyboard problems on this model?

 

Have not got that far yet just installing Windows now etc...

I never had any issues with the last keyboard but im not a super fast typing guy ... I can do ok but nothing crazy and i do most of my hardcore typing on my desktop anyhoo so that may be why i never noticed on the other G73s i had ...

 

Hey Quad, I also ordered the G73jw-A1 and will probably receive next week. I'm sure you're gonna doing some test that I do not know about on it, so if you have any advice regarding software or driver updates or maybe OC settings (I've never OCed a card and not sure how), please let us know. Hopefully, we avoided any video card issues but I hear, for example, of a lot of issues with the sound software from the jh model. Any recommendations would help a lot.

 

Yeah if i see anything out of the ordinary ill let ya know..

For now i just installed a fresh Windows 7 professional along with only the basic drivers off the disc.. Keep it simple and clean .

 

You using the 260.00 beta drivers from nvidia?

 

Yep.. Just running some games and benchmarks .. From what i see so far the ATI card is no doubt faster for all the lovers and haters in some games ... Not by a massive amount but its faster .. The image quality on the Nvidia cards is NO doubt much nicer and i forgot since its been awhile just how nice the Nv cards look in games..

Not going to discourage anyone here but i tell it like i see it and no fluff lol...

Still have a lot of stuff to do though... Ran furmark for 18 minutes and my max temp was 83 so a few degrees higher then Kens and Justins but that might be the ambient temp as well ... In games the max i have seen is 74.. Vantage temp was 70..

Ran Crysis benchmark all high and from my old scores i had saved this is a just for instance on high with ATI was 30.6 fps and on the Nvidia card its 25.5...

Resident Evil 5 bench on the ATI card it was 62 and on the Nvidia it was 54 ... Just another example ..

Now the question i think most people have to ask them selves is a few frames more per second from the ATI card important ? Well yes it is when your dealing with some games that have already lowish framerates to begin with.. Now the Nvidia card seems to suffer from less dips in the FPS which is a nice thing and ATI is known for having bad minimum frames compared to Nvidia so i was not shocked to see that..

I am keeping this machine though and i am certainly digging it regardless... So theres some first impressions ...

 

Sounds pretty good. What driver are you using? I'm going to be ordering soon from ken and was wondering how long your order took from start to finish. Thanks for posting and for all your much appreciated work

 

I am on a fresh Windows install with the new 260.63 drivers ..

I never even tested the stock drivers though but i cant imagine them being better then these new ones...

Oh i ordered a stock machine so it went out rather quickly ... I have ordered a few things from Ken@Gentech and he always come through fast ...

 

I ordered mine at 11:30 am yesterday with a wifi card upgrade being the only customization with 2-day shipping. The laptop shipped before COB yesterday and I am happy to say I will have it by tomorrow morning!

Gentech is nothing short of awesome!

 

Yup, indeed they are. I love how they ship extremely fast. My last order was pasted and shipped within 24hrs!

...meanwhile, you have resellers (won't mention who) that take 5 business days but for a 35$ charge, they will mail it in 2-3 business days ...what a rip off lol.

GenTech FTW!

 

Thanks ericeq75...I will have my finances in order next week and hope to place an order then. Post some of your thoughts if you can when you get your machine tomorrow

 

you know me quad....does it have cpu over cocking?

 

Gotta love Ken, he replied to all my emails most of the time within minutes.

You must be his best customer, you change laptops like it was underwear. lol.

 

Yes Quad, you KNOW John enjoys his CPU over cocking! (over cocking? KINKY!)

Oh, now this is just WRONG.... bad mental imagery here! Quad, PLEASE don't tell us how often you change your underwear!

 

Well, I'm pretty sure he doesn't go around researching the next-generation underwear.

@Quadzilla, It's interesting that you say the Nvidia 460m imagery 'looks nicer' than the 5870. What exactly does that mean? I've never used an ATi card to game before. Would you say the visual improvement is worth the meager performance difference over the 5870? Are there any screenshots to compare the two?