G73JW and SW, wait until Feb. 2011

Hi all,

I've been puttin' around on a Dell Latitude that is ready to bite it and is severely underpowered. I'm leasing some equipment at work and have decided to through in a monster laptop. I ruled out the Sager as the power supply is bigger than the computer. I have it down to the Asus G73JW-3DE or wait for the M17X R3. I read somewhere that the new chipsets come out in Jan./Feb so I'm debating on just waiting.

However, I have priced out a beast:

- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080)-
- Intel® Core™ i7-940XM Extreme, 2.13-3.33GHz, (45nm, 8MB L3 cache)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU-
- nVidia GeForce GTX 460M 1,536MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- 16,384MB (16GB) DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (4x4GB)-
- 4X Blu-Ray Writer/Reader + 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive-
- 240GB OCZ Vertex 2 Sandforce Solid State Drive (Up to Sequential Read 285MB/s - Write 275MB/s SSD Serial-ATA II)
- 2 X 240GB OCZ Vertex 2 Sandforce Solid State Drive (Up to Sequential Read 285MB/s - Write 275MB/s SSD Serial-ATA II)

Then I see this G73SW? I heard good things about it and could probably wait until Q1 next year for the Dell or ASUS. ANy thoughts?

 

Well with the issues the G73's have had I am hoping the latest revision with sandy bridge irons everything out. But I have to say at what I have seen since Ive been back. I cant recommend ASUS whole heartidly.

Not that the alienware's haven't had their issues either, as a hater its funny that I would probably go with the alienware.

 

If you need it now, go for it.
However, if the wait doesn't matter, I'd say wait for it.
I believe waiting have some positives and negatives attached to it.
If the specs you put up is for g73jw-3de, it a matte 120hz screen.

 

I'd wait for Sandy Bridge-based laptops. Just seems like you've gone this long, go another month-ish, get yourself top of the line for a few months or get a markdown on today's line as they are pushed out of the marketplace by the top of the line.

I also think that mobile GPU's based on AMD's 68xx series should blow the equivalent series from last year (both nV and AMD/ATI) out of the water. The top of the line 5800 mobility series were based on the very middle of the road 5700 desktop series. This year, the 6800 series is the middle of the road and it's within 10% of the desktop's high end from last year. Assuming that these become the new high end for laptops, these are going to be some very capable laptops.

Throw in the fact based on rumors I'm seeing, it appears AMD has worked out auto-switching graphics (ie., nVidia's Optimus). Then throw in the fact that Intel is upgrading to brand new CPU's.

Too much new is literally less than a month away from launch. However, it's worth noting that Asus probably won't launch a new G7x or G5x series right at Sandy Bridge's launch, so you'll probably wind up waiting a couple months or so. Given the givens, I'd still wait. Video cards that run circles around what are currently being offered in laptops, CPU's that are faster AND cooler, and the pressure on what's out now to go down in price all seem like incredibly great reasons to wait.

 

I appreciate the feedback! I've had the same thoughts. By the looks of things we could be at the M17X well before the ASUS. I agree with the sentiment "need it get it", but if your dropping $5K it probably doesn't hurt to start at the latest, greatest if it's only a couple months away.

Thanks again

 

Okay, before I even ask this I know it's a dumb question that probably can't even be answered at this point, but... what's the possibility that the new cards could be installed in the older G73s? I know some aspects of the computer are upgradable, but when it comes to upgrading laptop graphics cards I'm pretty much clueless.

 

If I am not mistaken, this new chipset is completely different, and is supposed to have ABOVE-PAR onboard gfx support. If you are gonna upgrade, then get the current version and in 6 months buy you a 940xm

 

Definitely planning on that barring some kind of unforeseen circumstance, I was just wondering if a graphics card update was possible as well or if this is going to require more than the G73's motherboard can handle (or if the graphics card is soldered to the motherboard already... like I said, I know very little about this model).

 

You cannot upgrade the GFX card in the current g73s

 

Disappointing but expected. Thanks!

 

You are of course assuming that the graphics card is your bottleneck. I know for a fact that when I play Dragon Age, the CPU is my bottleneck. You may want to consider upgrading your CPU to an Extreme Mobile chip.

 

As I said, I'm already going to be upgrading the CPU, I just wanted to know if the GPU could also be upgraded.

 

I would upgrade the CPU first, and if it is not enough, I would wait for the upcoming next generation in GPU's.

 

That's what I wanted to do, my initial question was whether the upcoming next gen GPUs can be put into a current gen G73. Sorry for any confusion, and it seems like it's not possible.

 

No, they cannot, tho I'd like to see how Sandy Bridge does against a 940XM.

 

You do mean Dragon Age Origins, right? I've been out of gaming for a while - been trying to find something that actually taxes the G73.

 

Metro 2033 max settings, Bad Company 2 max settings, Crysis and Crysis Warhead max settings, etc. There are a bunch of games you have to crank down in order to get 60FPS at native res, and even if you're okay with 30FPS I find that Metro 2033 and Bad Company 2 have terrible input lag at that framerate.