Comparable Laptops

So far I love this laptop, but with the gsod issues I am looking into possible replacements that are comparable in price and power to the g73jh from bestbuy. after tax it ended up near 1300.

I would keep this, and still might...but I don't want to get stuck with this and never have the ability to play games it should be able to because of driver updates. I still have a week to return this for a full refund so I owe it to myself to weigh my options.

 

For the price, you won't get the same specs. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that's other than a G73 with the same specs...

 

Is it worth keeping the stock drivers with these specs or going with a little bit lesser computer with drivers I can update. After searching extensively online I have no faith that they will fix this issue at the moment.

 

10.1 will see a performance boost over stock. The difference between 10.1 and 10.7 is inconsequential.

 

Not true when trying to play FFXIV which needs 10.6+ to actually work.
BFBC2 had significant improvements to loading time with 10.5+ as well.

 

Depends on the games then.

 

The difference between the stock or 10.1 and the newest drivers is huge. Go through all the release notes from 10.2 to 10.7a and youll see all the bugfixes and improvements (like wireframe in unigine not crashing, flashlight ingame not causing a grey screen, grass not being rendered randomly, load times fixed, green corruption fixed, hardware video acceleration for VLC and flash added, up to 50% performance increases in some games...).
Kaelang based on what do you say the difference is inconsequential?
But the biggest issue is you cant even play some games and that list will get longer and longer and if you payed 1300$ for a machine you cant use to play your games id say that is completely unacceptible and that money was wasted.

But for a laptop with the same specs youll have to pay a bit more, but you will get a fully working machine if you take for instance a Clevo W860CU/W870CU (reccommend those).

 

Even with an additional 2GB RAM (i.e. A total of 6 GB system RAM), the MSI Gx740 would actually be lower in price than the G73.

You really don't have any idea of what you are talking about do you? I would really like to see some benches about this so called performance boost from the stock 9.12 to the 10.1s.

 

--please delete--

 

The first Benchmark I ran was the DiRT 2 benchmark on stock.
results samples="7640" min_fps="27.576860" av_fps="32.310051" min_fps_ms="36.262287" av_fps_ms="30.950121" /> = From the XML document
The settings were all the same, except the default settings for the game were different with both drivers. On stock, if I recall, PP was Med, Water was High, Crowd was Medium, and Vehicle Reflections was High.
On the 10.1 run, everything was the same except PP was High, and had the same results as stock (but on stock in the Graphics menu, changing PP from medium to high dropped the FPS from 48 ish to 34 ish) results samples="7842" min_fps="28.884933" av_fps="33.101147" min_fps_ms="34.620125" av_fps_ms="30.210434" = 10.1

On the 10.6 run, same results, except Water was Ultra, PP was High, and Vehicle Reflections was Ultra. This was the 10.6 XML=
results samples="8720" min_fps="28.676172" av_fps="36.679382" min_fps_ms="34.872158" av_fps_ms="27.263273" />

Aside from benchmarks, I saw no noticeable difference in game performance between any of them (as long as the game is above 30 FPS, you really won't notice, unless you have REALLY AMAZING eyes).

(On a side note, this was another result results samples="8973" min_fps="31.209455" av_fps="37.546688" min_fps_ms="32.041573" av_fps_ms="26.633507" /> but I'm not sure which driver I was on or the settings)

Also, that MSI looks as bad as the Qosmio. I'd rather use a MBP. And the lowest price I saw for it using Google Products was $1,349.90, which is almost $100 more than what I paid, including taxes.

 

THIS tells the story most accurately. Besides the performance increase the most important are the bugfixes. When you play a game and flashlight gives you a blank grey screen on the old drivers and works fine on the new ones id call that significant.
I dont think we need to discuss whether or not the newer drivers are a significant or important update, becouse youll loose in that argument every time. Its a fact theyre a much needed thing to have, that why they make em every month.

 

I think the gears are just starting to turn for Asus to get some sort of fix going. (and I am hoping for a vBIOS so that we won't have to rely on Asus making OEM driver packs)

If you buy a new one, and a fix comes out in, say, 2 months, you'll be griping over that too. For now, I'd wait.

 

LOL 3 years back we purchased a Dell precision with a really high end Quadro card and the nvidia drivers which made rendering much more efficient and accurate couldn't be used until dell released them 3 months later. >.<

 

Agree with Chastity, I dont believe that the main GSOD problem is a hardware problem but a hardware compatibilty problem. I think that they will fix it with a software update but it might take some time. As with any software that goes out to a computer you would rather have proper testing so that it doesnt brick more laptops than it fixes.

 

The temps are ridiculous. I've made my own vbios with lower voltages but that increased temps but i have no idea why :|

 

ambient temps the same too?

 

That wasn't something I was fully aware of, since I don't play hardcore.
Pardon my ignorance.

You should show a bit less hostility in your posts though. Sheesh.

 

HellCry is a little... shall we say... passionate about the shortcomings of his G73. I'm awaiting the youtube video where he pours gasoline in it and sets it on fire.

It would be a deal breaker for a lot of people if you can't upgrade your video driver. Games come out all the time that have little problems or big problems with a particular card.

 

Havent thought of gasoline yet...
Was thinking more simple - some old school baseball bat love... But lets not leave anything out, id imagine it would burn better after ive already smashed it up...
But seriously, im really frustrated with all the issues this laptop has as youve already noticed.

 

Just wondering but if they came out with a fix that either consisted of updating the vBios or updated drivers every month would that make you feel better about this laptop or would you still sell it or smash it with a basebal bat.

 

i'm using catalyst 10.6, not the mobility one...the regular for desktops.. and i haven't seen a gsod yet..

i've been playing a few games such as just cause 2( played for about 20 hrs now )... cod5, 6... left 4 dead 2...blur.... streetfighter ,, call of juarez...

i've got a bestbuy version

 

Come to think of it, I think I am too. I just went to the AMD site, clicked on the ATI logo on the right (in the Download Drivers section), hit ATI Radeon™ Video Card Drivers, and on the drop-down list, Windows 7 64 Bit, then Previous drivers, then installed 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 and so on.

Maybe that has something to do with it?

 

who knows huh

we might just have found the FIX for all g73s Problems lol

 

Too easy.

I'm waiting for HellCry to come over here and drop a bomb on us.

 

ROFL!

i've still got the no backlight problem...
i just bought a new keyboard, from a chinese website...can't wait to get my lights back on :S

 

Shameless bump. Has anyone with the GSOD problem tried the desktop drivers other than me and Mania?

 

Yes it Gsod just like mobility ones.

 

So you're saying you tested it and received the same results?

 

I have tested desktop verison of 10.7, 10.7a and 10.7, 107a on clean Windows Pro install on different HDD, all GSOD FFXIV half way through first run almost at the same point every time.

 

Yes i would be pretty happy with that, but its been months since these problems started and we still got nothing.

 

The desktop drivers also GSOD just the same. Weve posted that several times.

 

This problem will only get bigger when people go to update drivers that have been running 9.12 or 10.1. SO it would be smart for them to fix it before this happens or they will have a ton of rma's in a year or two. Especially because they are still selling this laptop and will probally keep selling it untill the JW.

 

I also have an RBBX05 running 10.7a drivers. This unit has not GSOD'd on me once and I've ran FurMark for up to 50 min (would have gone longer, but I wanted to play SC2). Previous two BestBuy G73s I had GSOD'd regularly.

Mania, there should be a number on your box starting with J0X. Mine is a very new J0X-061113, and even shipped with the v209 BIOS. This is very clearly a hardware issue, but it seems some of us lucked out.

 

J0x - 054127 on mine

 

mine is J0X-0565753, but shipped with v206 BIOS...
the only downside is that my backlight is dead since i tried to flash to 209 =/.
bought a new keyboard , just waiting to try it out.

 

Mine shipped with 209. Strange.

 

Hopefully we hear something in regards to the GSOD and Driver update issue from ASUS soon. I have till Friday to decide if I return my g73jh. Still yet to find anything that matches up to it in the price range.