Asus ROG Strix GL502VT

Hi, thanks for your reply. I have already read all the thread and i did it a second time just to be sure to have read everything. I keep doing researches but can't find too much on the Internet, except for some reviews (notebookcheck, laptopmag etc...) and some video reviews on YouTube (Like Dave2d or the videos linked here). But no one of these focus so much on internal temperatures on long terms or with different games and settings, they just say it gets "hot" but we all know that every gaming laptop gets hot. I read comments about people who get max. 75C both GPU and CPU on the Asus gl502vt (which would be OK for me) and people here who says it reaches 95C. I read also your comments and you saying that it reaches 86-87C both CPU and GPU. Now i don't understand, how can someone get max 75 and someone else 86 or even more? That's a huge difference, so probably some models may have fan issues or maybe bad thermal paste.

Anyway i also wanted to know how are temperatures on long terms, and since we're going into summer and i saw you bought it on April, may i ask you how is it now? Does the temp change after changing settings of the game? And i wanted also to ask you is 100C the temperature limit of the GPU where the PC shuts down with a bsod?

I would not like to downvolt the CPU anyway, but i have a cooling pad which can take - 7C on any laptop, so it would be cool if once i buy it i can take both GPU and CPU on max 75.

Finally, is Amazon(.it) a good reseller for laptops? It's the first time i buy something so expensive on it, but i know it should cover the laptop for first 2 years, right?

(Again, sorry if i did some language mistakes)

 

The temp differences is very simple: Different room temperatures, diff games at diff settings and diff thermal paste. Also diff temps if you undervolt the cpu. You shouldn't worry to undervolt, it doesn't do anything other than lower the cpu temp. Mine has been undervolted for days now and everything is running smoothly!

 

Thanks for answering. So different game settings may really affect temperatures? Or is it the frame rate? 'cause i read that with an higher framerate (over 60) heat is increased. I am not worried about undervolting, but before doing it i just wanna check if everything is fine with the laptop cooling system so i'll do some tests. I assume that undervolting it and using a cooler pad will bring both CPU and GPU on 70, or at least i hope.

Btw i am getting the laptop tomorrow! (Amazon is really fast) Will write my "review" even if i am not a specialist.

 

I wouldn't say game settings specifically, more like different games in general, as each game is coded differently and therefore may use available hardware differently. While most of the games will put a 99% load on the GPU, only rarely does a game put any heavy load on CPU cores (80%+) to fully take advantage of CPU's power. And since higher load = higher power consumption = higher temperatures, you might experience different results with every game depending on the way it's been created.

 

Asus G501VW-FY081T (gtx 980m)
The review you've been waiting for
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Strix-GL502VY-DS71-Notebook-Review.167930.0.html

 

Well I guess now we got the answer to: what is Optimus actually useful for.

 

I'm here since the 30rd of May, and I'm in the Southern Illinois, at 90 miles from St. Louis.

I think that so, i must do some mistake in the plant where i'm working, so i can come back before the 2017 lol

 

Better to find something to fix, than break something to fix.

Sabotage is not acceptable in the US

Yes, I know you are joking, it's just a sensitive time in the world, so it's best not to make such jokes...

 

See if there is a local place you can visit to buy the laptop, check with your friends there and ask around. Check at Asus for their "where to buy" locator - use your zip code to find a closeby place that you can purchase.

 

Optimus is nothing you want, it's a huge pain the ass most of the time, and it's not worth the power savings you can get on battery.

Worse, Optimus powers up the iGPU even when the dGPU is in use - adding 10c+ to the CPU temperature and draining power from the CPU cores performance.

" Power Consumption
With no Optimus to curb the more demanding GTX 980M, the GL502VY SKU draws more power than the GL502VT under all tested conditions. Gaming will demand just over 130 W of power, which is similar to the Aorus X5S v5. Note that our power consumption measurement at maximum load is lower than expected due to the throttling GPU when subjected to simultaneous Prime95 and FurMark loads. Nonetheless, 177 W is awfully close to the 197 W limit of the included AC power adapter."

A larger 230w power supply would be a better choice, not Optimus

You wouldn't want to use the iGPU on AC power, that would defeat the whole purpose of the 980m - you want the better GPU on all the time on AC power... IDK what the reviewer was thinking.

G-sync requires the Nvidia GPU to be directly connected to the display, internal or external, to be enabled on the active display. Optimus uses the Intel iGPU as the direct connection to the internal display so you couldn't have G-sync.

Optimus is a waste of time for High Performance gaming notebooks.

Better is to use a matrix switch that can switch the display connections between the Nvidia GPU and use the Intel iGPU while on battery so you can extend run time - iGPU draws less power from battery.

I didn't see this review mention whether you can switch between Nvidia discrete GPU and Intel iGPU via BIOS or application... does anyone know?

 

I beg to differ. I have had exactly 0 issues with Optimus for year. Keep your drivers up to date and you have never to add a game to the "run on Nvidia GPU" list. Also it is proven that it benefits a lot of laptops in terms of battery life. All modern non Optimus laptops have quite the poor battery life even though they often have a single GPU. ALso what is wrong with the Intel iGPU for normal productivity? Why constantly stressing the 980M? It doesnt add anything unless you are doing 3D rendering or play video games.

 

The 980m can take the stress of managing Windows graphics.

Allow me to mention a few more drawbacks of Optimus.

With Optimus all Windows OS/GUI graphics are locked to the iGPU, and many other MS software only runs on the iGPU, which leads to slow sluggish performance. You can't switch to the dGPU for Windows / MS apps.

The iGPU is a waste of silicon - literally. That silicon that could have been used to improve CPU performance more than a few percent between generations.

Instead Intel wastes more and more silicon real estate, wastes total package power - TDP headroom - on worthless graphics processing - stealing it away from our CPU performance.

I helped many very disappointed people through how to live with Optimus when Asus switched the G750JM/JS/JZ to use Optimus.

Everyone was disappointed with the CPU performance, the additional 10c+ CPU temperature increase due to enabling the iGPU- even when the iGPU is idle.

These laptops were directly comparable to the previous generation with the same CPU's that didn't have Optimus. Much was learned of the evils of Optimus and an enabled iGPU from these directly comparable CPU configurations.

Users that upgraded to the 880m found that their CPU's were throttling when trying to use the 880m performance.

Asus made a big deal about upgrading the G750JZ cooling hardware for the new 880m GPU to Copper. But, Asus didn't upgrade the CPU cooling to Copper.

Asus didn't realize that enabling the iGPU would add 10c to the CPU temps, putting the CPU past the throttling point under load.

G750JS/JZ owners couldn't get good Windows app graphics performance because they were locked to the iGPU, and they couldn't use their 880m/870m GPU to get better Windows OS and MS app performance.

Owners that had been doing GPU rendering couldn't render on the dGPU on the new Optimus laptops because their apps were locked to the iGPU.

Users that did rendering on their CPU's couldn't continue doing the same rendering on the same or better CPU's because the iGPU was stealing power and TDP headroom from the CPU - 10c-20c higher under full load when rendering - Optimus made the laptop worthless to them.

It was such a disaster that Asus removed Optimus from the next generation high end gaming laptops.

Any laptop with a dGPU should not use Optimus, it should have a matrix switch to use the iGPU when on battery, and when switched to the dGPU with the iGPU powered off and made invisible to the OS. Or, it should not have the iGPU available at all.

Friends don't let friends buy laptops with Optimus

 

I do realize that Optimus could've no doubt been created in a better way, improved, allowing the user to completely disable it if they wish. To make it in a way that it's either Optimus or GSYNC was just stupid and they should've come up with a better design. So Optimus is not perfect, but with the GL502 not having it, with the VY model, it basically cut the battery life in half. And that's a huge difference just to be able to say "hey I don't have the evil Optimus".

And apps that decide to switch to the iGPU instead (which is rather rare) can be set to run on dGPU in the matter of 10 seconds, whereas for OS/GUI it doesn't really matter since the iGPU is powerful enough to handle that just fine. I haven't noticed anything wrong with it, no slowdowns, no laggy GUI whatsoever, just an occasional switch to dGPU was necessary with like 1 process out of 20, as it was set to run with iGPU by default.

So by design, Optimus is quite good at what it does, what it was meant to do, although it definitely has a few quirks and could be better.

 

The idea of Optimus is deceptively good. I was sucked in initially too.

It wasn't until I had to live with it, work with it, and help others make it work for them that I learned to despise it, and eventually banish it from my laptops, and any laptops I recommend to clients and friends.

I optimistically believed Intel/Nvidia/MS/etc would work together to make it better, and software developers would make their software Optimus aware.

You can wish all you want, imagine how it could be wonderful, but it still isn't. All the good imagined hasn't happened.

I am glad that Asus didn't put Optimus on the GL502VY, and sad that Asus did put Optimus on the GL502VT.

Asus should have had G-sync on the GL502VT as well, the 970m performance could use the benefits of G-sync even more than the 980m GL502VY.

If you want a high performance gaming laptop, why would you want to add the lodestone of Optimus restricting performance??

Wanting long battery life on a high performance laptop is like wanting a Ferrari to get good gas mileage

In a 970m/980m laptop, battery life shouldn't be important, but if it is important then don't use Optimus, use a Matrix Switch to enable the iGPU when running on battery.

 

Hi again, i just got the GL502VT and i am still doing some tests, but overall it looks pretty good. I just wanted to ask how can i check if my screen is the IPS one or the NT? I am searching everything and everywhere but no clue. I am asking this cause sometimes when i am watching videos i see some "blurry" effect, i don't know how to call it, but it's like the borders of the image are not much defined. This happens only on videos, photos are ok (i have to test on gaming yet).

 

It might be that the video service is streaming lower than 1080p HD video.

When on Youtube, Hulu, Amazon, etc the default might be SD video. You can click the Gear Icon / settings to increase the quality to HD, that's most likely what is causing the blurry effect.

If you have the TN panel, you can twist the laptop from side to side, increasing the horizontal viewing angle, and see fading of color. If you have the IPS the color should maintain the same intensity. Same goes for vertical viewing, like standing up and not changing the display angle.

 

I always set Youtube on 1080p quality through the gear icon so i think it's not that the problem. I can also see a bit of this blurry effect on texts, like on the Devices Setting window. Seems like it's a IPS panel, colors have same intensity from all points of view. I detected also some little backlight bleeding in the bottom part of the screen, but i guess it's normal. Anyway my model it's the GL502VT-FY044T and since i bought it from Amazon i think it should definitely be the IPS one.

 

Well, neither my CPU nor my GPU throttles under full load, so I can't really say that Optimus is causing any performance impact by raising the temps on the CPU. All my games and demanding software (e.g Vegas) are set to run with the dGPU so I can't say that Optimus is limiting me in the graphics performance area either. I have been robbed of the option of a GSYNC display, that's true and I wish they've designed it differently. But the only thing I imagined that Optimus would do, was improve the battery life when I need this gaming beast to change to a long-lasting work laptop for when I'm at the uni. And it seems to have done just that and better than I expected. I mean, it seems to have increased the battery life by twice the amount. I may not have bought the laptop at all, had it had a battery life of just 3 hours during normal use. So it did what I expected it to do, it doesn't bother me in any way, it doesn't decrease the performance of any of my components and in the end, it did give me a "Ferrari with good gas mileage". Although you're right that an option to switch between the two GPUs would've been an even better way to go about it.

 

Check to make sure you are at 100% display scaling. I think the default is 100% on Windows 10, but not sure, here is where to look:

Spoiler

And, disable or uninstall Asus Splendid, that can mess with clarity as well.

Did you enable and tune ClearType yet?
http://www.isunshare.com/windows-10/turn-off-or-on-clear-type-text-in-windows-10.html

I tried to search for your model GL502VT-FY044T, but didn't find any confirmation of IPS or TN.

 

I am glad you are able to make it work for you, and I hope that continues.

Have fun

 

Thanks for your help! The display scaling was setted at 125% by default (Recommended), i tried to put it at 100% and it solved the blurry effect on some Windows texts, but now all texts and icons are really small. That's really odd. I can see still the blur effect when watching videos on full screen at 1080p (not when the video is small).

Yes, Cleartype was already activated.

 

I want to ask. How long do you guys think the ASUS GL502VY-DS74 will last from now? I'm considering buying it.

 

Did some gaming tests, happy to see that it can handle every game on Very High / Ultra settings with pretty good frame rate (The Witcher 3 45fps, Hitman 60fps, R6 Siege 60fps). Speakers are really bad and feels like the sound is "boxed", i guess i will use more my headphones. But i don't really like these temperatures. GPU is always between 70 and 80C and CPU goes even over 85. I undervolted it at -100 (i tried even 120 but it freezed and shut down) and now my CPU stays between 70 and 80 too, often 75 and only rarely 79-80. Temp in my room is 18C. Coming from a laptop with 69-74C on both CPU and GPU i feel kinda disappointed.

Can i do something else to lower my temps?

I wanted also to know if i can replace my SSD (Liteon CV1-128gb) with a new one with 250 or 512 (maybe a Samsung Evo).

Good question if you mean for how long it will handle games at good quality and frame-rate. Since it has the gtx980m, i think it will last for 4 years at High/Ultra quality and good framerate (over 30fps). After that you probably will need to switch settings to Medium or Low to get a decent framerate. Imho, even if it can't handle 4K gaming it's a very good solution for a laptop, considering that new laptops with new mobile GPUs will cost much, expecially if you want a Nvidia graphic card. It depends also how much are you going to buy it. For example i bought my gl502vt at 1300€ when the retail recommended price here in Italy is 1649€. I would never bought it at 1649€ and considering the fact that here at 1300 you can find only laptops with gtx960m i think it was a pretty good deal afterall.

 

Despite the gaudy styling, I decided to jump on this and wanted to give my 2 cents on the Best Buy's GL502VT-BSI7N27 version. Picked it up today since it's down to $1100 which seems like a heckuva steal to me.

Despite all the slander, the TN screen really isn't bad. It's MUCH better than my Y50 had when it arrived. Noticeably bad when you're off-angle vertically, but straight is obviously fine and side viewing is good enough that I was wondering if it really was a TN until I tried vertical.

The HDD it ships with is horrifyingly bad. Coming from an SSD, it's like I dropped from a Porsche to a horse-drawn carriage. Replace it immediately. I gave away my external SATA connector so I have to wait to clone the drive. Fortunately, there wasn't much junk installed so cleanup was quick.

All in all, my initial impressions are quite good. For $200 more than the Y50, it's got significantly better performance, a better screen, better connectivity and better build quality. Shame how bad the styling is. I'm going to have to paint over a lot of it before I take it with me to a meeting.

 

Thank you for your reply. I was planning to wait for Pascal laptops but i think they will exceed my budget.

 

I got my gl502vy yesterday. So far, I'm liking it. I haven't undervolted my cpu yet but the center area above the keyboard does get warm during gaming. I can feel the hot air coming from the vents at the back. But I'm quite used to the heat thing from my previous laptop. I'm not playing anything demanding yet, just tf2. Also, there was some bloatware which I uninstalled. I kept the asus gaming center and the splendid utility along with the audio wizard. The rest I uninstalled. Anything else which I should have kept and not deleted?
I like the build quality and the keyboard. I'm going to use this thing for the next 3-4 years. I haven't measured battery life yet because I just keep it plugged in.
This is my first 1080p screen and everything on screen seems really small. I don't know if I should try to remedy this and make things bigger or should I try to get used to it. Any advice will be appreciated. Also, I was wondering if it was possbile to overclock the refresh rate of the display? I think I read that these g-sync displays are overclockable.

 

8

Do you remove the battery when you plug the laptop in ?

 

No

 

I got some problems with Windows 10 today. I can't access Windows Store or any other Windows App. That's really annoying. I tried everything, included command lines on powershell, but didn't work. Now i am thinking to reinstall Windows 10 but how can i keep all the Asus software?

I am used to make recovery disks but since this laptop doesn't have an optical drive i can't do anything. Alternatives?

 

Just make a clean Windows 10 install using Microsoft's Media Creation tool ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/software-download/windows10) and a USB stick. Then just download and install all the drivers and some additional ASUS software of your choice from the laptop's official website.

 

I solved it restoring Windows 10 in Settings and now Windows apps are working. It also contains all the Asus softwares. I'll make a copy of Windows 10 on a USB then. Thanks!

 

Is there a big difference about performance/longevity between GTX980M 4GB (GL502VY-DS71) and 8GB (GL502VY-DS74) ?

 

Too many italians here! Where you found the 980m version at 1300€? Im in the States atm, i was considering to buy the 980m 4gb version for 1700$ or try to wait Pascal.

Btw, there is no possibility to send a PM in this forum? Or is me? I cant find how from the phone

 

HI Guys can you guys help me. I got my laptop yesterday, the VY71 version and my problems is that the battery on lasted for about 2 hrs when fully charged (may be some opened app?) and i tried playing the Rollercoaster Tycoon for 3 mins the temp already gets hot and the fan was loud already. (sorry for my bad english and im just a newbie in this things) Hope you can help me TIA!

 

What power plan was your laptop on? What screen brightness did you set? How did you use your laptop during those 2 hours? To achieve 3 - 4 hours of battery life the laptop should be set to Balanced or Power Saver mode. Also, I would normally set my screen brightness to 50% or less depending on the situation, as the screen seems brighter than those of my previous laptops.

For the temperature, you can try undervolting your laptop CPU using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, download it and pull the voltage bar. I set mine to -150mV and the overall temperature while gaming is around 5oC cooler. Btw, the laptop temperature and fan noise also depend on the surrounding temperature and your table set up.

 

Ohhhhh bella! fossi in te rimarrei negli States!!
It was the GTX970m version at 1.300€ (on Amazon) and you must consider that 240€ are taxes. Now they incresead the price to 1.500€. I don't know how are taxes in USA but i think they're probably lower, so 1700$ for a GTX980m it's still a good price, assuming that it has also the i7 6700hq and 16gb ddr4. For me the gtx970m is enough cause i can play every game on ultra even at 60/70 frames. Overclocking it a bit should reach the 980m performance. But you should also check the warranty when you buy it if you think to come back in Italy.

As i was saying before, the laptop gets very hot, but i have found something interesting while doing some tests. I undervolted the CPU a bit (-109), but couldn't go further 'cause the laptop freeze and shuts down. Plus atm here in Italy temps are pretty hot, 30C almost all the day. Anyway i found out that GPU load and temperatures depends not from the graphic settings but from the amount of fps you get. On 30fps GPU (load 70%) and CPU (load 30-40%) runs at 65-70C which is pretty cool. On 60fps GPU (load 99%) goes between 73-78C and CPU too (load 30-50%), while getting 70fps both GPU and CPU goes to 80/82C (rarely CPU goes up to 85) and that's really hot.

Now am trying to do everything to get those 60fps temperatures lower at 70C and i tried to use a cooling pad (this one: http://www.coolermaster.com/mobile/notepal-series/notepal-u2-plus/) which on my old laptop could bring -7C, sometimes even more. Well, i put the Asus on it and i saw that there wasn't any difference with or without the coolingpad, or maybe it was probably 1-2C. It's weird cause the laptop has also grills under it and it should cool better with the Coolermaster pad.

Is someone here using other coolingpads on the Asus? If so what are you results?
Do you know other ways to lower down temps on GPU or CPU?

 

To be honest, all the temps you mentioned are perfectly fine, especially for such a slim laptop with such power. You shouldn't be worried as long as they don't exceed 90° on either GPU/CPU. As long as they stay around the 70-80° range, it won't affect the components in any bad way.

Also, to be entirely correct, it doesn't matter what fps you get in a game. There's no such thing as "60fps temperatures". The GPU load, that you mentioned, is the part that matters, as higher load on the GPU will cause it to draw more power, and therefore produce more heat. The amount of fps produced during any GPU load is entirely dependent on the game you're running, how demanding it is and how it's been created.

And to your cooling pad question, I'm using the CoolerMaster ErgoStand III and on full GPU and CPU load, it does help to reduce the temps by about 5° on average.

 

thanks for responding! Im used the balance mode for the power plan, for the brightness I set it to the lowest. For the 2 hrs, i am downloading that time in STEAM, browsing the net, and when i opened the Rollercoaster Tycoon i just played for only 5-10m and the Fan was already noisy, the unit was already hot at that time.

 

But i don't think they will be fine on long terms, don't wanna see the laptop melt in just 2 years. If 70-80C (158-176F) were a good range then reviewers wouldn't bother to say that it runs pretty "hot" when gaming. I don't see any malfunction on the cooling system 'cause temps are always at 33-40 on idle, but still when GPU loads at 99%, 80C or something more is way too much when the GPU temp limit is 99C (just 15-20C below).

 

Of course they run hot, they're high performance electrical components. They're built to take that kind of heat and protect themselves from overheating damage by throttling, if needed. It's like saying a car is faulty because it's engine runs "quite hot". Hot doesn't mean too hot. The reviewers said what they said probably because they were comparing the laptop to some heavy gaming tank that's twice the size and weight, which naturally has better cooling capabilities and runs less hot.

And a 20°C temp ceiling on the GPU is still a huge reserve. For example, my desktop EVGA 970 SSC constantly runs at ~75° as well.
Like I said, I'd only be a little worried if any component continuously exceeded 90°, because that's really the point at which it gets too hot.

 

a good point for asus, 1yr worldwide warranty. I found this offer, http://www.excaliberpc.com/643151/asus-rog-strix-gl502vy-ds71-15.6.html . i think is taxes included

 

Yeah, seems a really good deal and you also get some stuff for free if i am not wrong. Good point for the warranty, even if from what i have read Asus support is not so helpfull.

I was thinking to get a replacement unit anyway, since the screen has this blacklight bleed in the bottom, which is not much but still noticeable and seems like i am the only one in this thread who has it.

Do you know if there is a way to set the throttle? I know it throttle at 90C but i would prefer to set it at 85.

 

As far as I know, the temp limit at which the CPU throttles is hardcoded in the CPU/motherboard, so you can't do much about it. The limit is 93°C to be specific.

 

---double post---

 

I found out there are some softwares that allow you to change the temp limit and throttling but it seems very risky. Anyway i can't undervolt the CPU more than 112, i tried to play The Witcher 3 without undervolting and 2 cores of the CPU reached 93 - 95°C after a while ( the others 2 on 87). I hope it's just cause my room temperature is 30°C, really hot.

 

I guess the software you found would have to mess with BIOS is some way, which can always be dangerous. Also, 30°C room temperature? Holy cow, I literally melt at 25°C already. But undervolting should still help you even with like -110mV.

 

Yeah, summer in Italy is always hot and sadly i don't have air conditioner in my room. Undervolting it at -112 saved 6-7°C from the CPU temps. May i ask you something else? (btw thanks again for all your help)

- I saw you have bought the laptop on April, did you see any Cpu/Gpu temps increase since then? (due also to summer-warm weather)

- Is it normal that the battery stays at 99% (plugged in, not charging)? When i unplug the AC cable and let the battery go down to 90%, then plug, it charges until 99% and then takes like 15 minutes to go 100%. Then usually when i shut down the laptop and open it is back to 99%.

 

Yeah there's been a little increase in the temps, compared to when I initially got the laptop, but nothing drastic. They're about 2-3° higher than they used to be a couple of weeks back, when it was significantly colder here.

The battery most likely does that to save itself from continuously overcharging. Some time ago I briefly explained how the batteries work nowadays compared to how they used to.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/asus-rog-strix-gl502vt.790987/page-30#post-10271740
But I believe that's nothing to be worried about.

 

Hi guys can u help me out. i cant install intel XTU. tried some research and they said probably some compatibility issues but i tried it with win 7 and still i cant install it, i also tried running it as and admin.

 

Today i started using the laptop cooling and played demanding games at max settings (Dark Souls 3, The Witcher 3, MGSV The Phantom Pain, Rainbow Six Siege) and got the GPU max.76°C (full load) and the CPU from 70 to 79°C (room temperature 28°C), load 30-50%. Without the cooling pad temps go slowly at 80-82°C for GPU and 80-86°C for CPU, but i guess it's for the hot temperature in my room. Older games runs at max with just 40% - 70% of GPU load and definitely better temps, like 62-68°C for the GPU and 58-65°C for the CPU (with the cooler pad). I have to do some other tests at night probably, when it's just 18-20°C, so considering this i should get better temps when summer ends, or at least i hope. CPU still undervolted at -113, otherwise i think it would go easily over 80°C, damn it.

Yeah, i forgot to check back. It's quite good then, now my battery is on 97% plugged in, not charging.

Btw do u have some backlight bleeding on screen? Assuming that you have the IPS one.