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    G73SW BST6 Nvidia question

    Discussion in 'ASUS Gaming Notebook Forum' started by Bona221, Sep 21, 2011.

  1. Bona221

    Bona221 Newbie

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    Hey guys, just about to buy my Asus and was wondering if I should go for a good deal on the BST6 as opposed to coughing up a couple hundred more for an A1.

    Now, I think the only difference between the two is the Nvidia 460m with 1.0GB (on the BST6), whereas the A1 has 1.5GB on its card. Is this a significant difference enough to worry about? And if there are any other major differences could you point me to them? For some reason I'm having a really hard time finding the specs for these different variations of the G73SW...

    But thanks in advance for your help guys.
     
    Bona221, Sep 21, 2011
    #1
  2. Yiddo

    Yiddo Believe, Achieve, Receive

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    Do not confuse Vram with processing power the amount of Vram means very little in temrs of GPU performance. The biggest difference is the bus width being that the 1gb version has 128bit and the 1.5gb has 192bit. This would be fine on ATI due to their architecture but on Nvidia the card suffers by 1/3 of its memory bandwidth 60gb/s to 40gb/s and its Pixel and Texture fillrate also suffer.

    Personally and the majority of other series gamers would not even consider the BB Nvidia models because the GPU becomes a massive bottleneck next to a sandy bridge and will most likely suffer at higher settings with the games being released at the end of this year.
     
    Yiddo, Sep 21, 2011
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  3. Bona221

    Bona221 Newbie

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    Ok so the main fault is the bus width on the card not the VRAM? Is it possible to swap the 1.5GB variant into the laptop down the line or would that be a huge pain in the ?
     
    Bona221, Sep 21, 2011
    #3
  4. FlyingFalcon

    FlyingFalcon Notebook Evangelist

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    It would be a huge pain in the you know where bordering on impossible to swapping the cards out. Get the full fledged non-BB Asus. Period.
     
    FlyingFalcon, Sep 21, 2011
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  5. Yiddo

    Yiddo Believe, Achieve, Receive

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    Doing this would not be cost effective you might as well cough up for the full version now and the XN models with the 1.5gb version are good deals.

    At the end of the day the BST laptop is going to work well and you will be able to game but you must understand that you cannot expect to run it with everything turned up high like the full card.

    You get what you pay for :)
     
    Yiddo, Sep 21, 2011
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  6. Bona221

    Bona221 Newbie

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    My poor wallet... Lol. Ah well it will be worth it in the end. Thanks for your help guys.
     
    Bona221, Sep 21, 2011
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  7. juggar

    juggar Notebook Consultant

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    It will be worth getting the more expensive model in the end... trust me. haha
     
    juggar, Sep 21, 2011
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  8. WarWyrm001

    WarWyrm001 Notebook Consultant

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    Here's something interesting. Best Buy currently has the G74SX-A1 available on their website.
     
    WarWyrm001, Sep 21, 2011
    #8