G74 is at Best Buy

So today i wen't to best buy just cause and i noticed they have the G74 on display. I cant remember the exact price but it was cheap like $1100 or something like that. So it was a watered down version. I played around with it, it's quite heavy and the track pad was very bad. But the build quality was nice.

 

its also listed for $1200 on their website..
Asus - Laptop / Intel® Core™ i7 Processor / 17.3" Display / 8GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - G74SX-BBK7

 

this is 17" laptop so must be heavy

 

I think we have all learnt to stay away from best buy when it comes to the G series. The JH owners got lucky by only being robbed of a 1080p screen, they seem to be robbing you of the ability to display a 1080p screen these days with a smaller than small bus.

SX without the BB people dont waste your money with the ''what seems ok now'' phase because it wont last.

 

Anyone ordered the G74SX-A1 from newegg yet?

 

1. Newegg is 12GB RAM vs 8GB RAM for BB
2. Newegg is 1.5 TB hard drive vs 1.0 TB hard drive for BB
3. Newegg display is 1920 x 1080 vs no mention of dislplay on BB
4. Newegg GPU is Dedicated 3GB GDDR5 vs no mention of GPU on BB
5. Newegg is BD Combo vs Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive on BB
6. Newegg webcam is 2.0MP vs 1.0MP webcam on BB

Best regards,

KOR!

 

I almost confident someone mentioned in another thread how the BB version of the g74 has 1600 x 900 res and 1GB vram

 

i am really trying to figure out if i should exchange my g73 for a g74 at best buy. i am within my exchange period but i don't know if it is worth it or not.

any advice?

 

return and get real 460 with 192 bus from newegg
Newegg.com - ASUS G Series G73SW-XN2 Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 17.3" 8GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M

 

gam, the new KB design and slightly beefier GPU is worth the exchange, specially if the price remains the same.

 

Good info, KOR. Thanks.

It appears newegg's G74SX-A1 went 'out of stock' right after I ordered it. What, did they only have one on the shelf? I got a tracking number so I know it left the building. Will be a first experience with ASUS following my old E1705, so hope I like it. Also picked up a SSD to try out with it.

 

after finding out the difference in mobo and heatsink/cooling system design i think i will stand pat.

i do like the new keyboard, but i can o/c my 460 to meet what they did with that new 560.

tempting. but not that big a deal to me. my games are running fine. i convert my blurays to .mkv on my main rig and 1080p on a 17 in is not that big deal to me.

but i see your point.

and i really don't feel like doing another clean install. :laugh:

 

I saw the BB G74 @ BB yesterday. Oddly, the WEI for graphics and aero were only 7.1. 7.4, 7.6, & 5.6 were the rest of the WEI scores, if it matters.

The new layout has to be seen though! It is beautiful! The area above the keyboard is just the right color and matches the rubberized palmrest and won't collect dust and stuff like the last few from the G71 on up. Screen was bright & clear and keyboard had zero flex, keys firm. Clicks were felt but not heard from them and the track pad.

I know envy, but my G71 is still putting out what I need from it.

Still, tempting... I'd probably go with the Micromachines version which keeps the resolution and the full 3GB 560m.

 

Of course the BB model is going to have less stuff, it's $600 cheaper than the full speced one.

If someone has a budget, the BB model might be the best they could afford. Also, BB has 12-18 month no-interest payment plan through their CC. I did that with the G73 cause I couldn't afford to drop $1200 on the laptop at the time. Being able to pay it off is a lot easier on my income.

 

I have the original JH from Best Buy and I think that 1600x900 was actually sort of a bonus as the resolution is better suited to the GPU. I still max most everything or close to it. I can actually see me keeping this laptop until the AMD 8000m series [7000m series is too close] and for $1200 it has been the best money I ever spent on any PC gaming equipment.

As for the G74 series in general, I think the 560m is a refresh that is still only par with the original G73's 5870m... so anyone getting it is paying full price to a party that's half over. People would be better off to find an original G73 refurbished or spend a bit extra for a 6970m equipped Sager.

 

I couldn't agree more especially with the part about the 1600x900 being better suited for the g73. The 1080 screens look great without a doubt, but since the 1600x900 already looks fantastic and not sacrificing performance, I say why bother? Obviously personal preference plays a big part so to each his own.

And I dont think the g74 is a worthwhile upgrade in terms of overall performance if you already own a g73 laptop.

 

Yes, a Toyota Camry is much better than Toyota Yaris. But Lexus is something else.

No doubt 1600x900 looks fantastic, but the 1080 ........

 

I checked out the BB model.

The GPU has 2GB, so it's less than the Newegg model, but still better than the G73 version they had.

From the looks of it, the G74 blows the G73 out of the water

which kinda sucks for me because I bought the G73 in November.

 

the 2gb model is not better than the 1.5gb model

 

Yes, that's $100 less than when they first got them in stock and right now you get a $100 gift card when you buy any laptop over $699 so the actual cost of a Bestbuy G74 is $1099 which is not a bad deal at all.

Cheers,

 

Hi and Greetings from Colombia,

sorry for my english.

I have a 1300 budget,but I can not decide between the following laptops.

the g74 from bb, the g73 from newegg, and the g53sw-xa1 from amazon

I really appreciate your help.

Salu2

 

Can you elaborate a bit on this?
Is it related to the memory interface?

I've heard there are 128bits and 192bits of GTX560M. from my understanding 128bits GPU only support up to 1GB VRAM so if the BB model G74 has 2GB VRAM shouldn't it be a 192bits GPU?

 

No. The memory controller works in banks, so to have 192bit, you need to have 3 banks of memory. 128bit is 2 banks of memory.

In this case, 2GB = 2 x 1GB memory modules = 128bit.

1.5GB = 3 x 512MB modules = 192bit

 

ah, yes. thanks for that information.

So any idea how much performance difference in gaming will this reduced memory bandwidth incur? I saw a review on BB G74 page saying about 20% loss. Considering BB model is running at 900p instead of 1080p, does that mean the actual performance of 128bit vs 192bit will be even larger like 30% or sth? then it'll be horrible...

 

I'd recommend the 17' ones if portability is not much of a concern.

Here's my experience:
I've had a 15' laptop with 1080p screen. It's basically a waste of money and GPU power because 15' is so small that I can't really notice all that detail. I end up scale up my windows7 system font to 125% so my eyes don't hurt when programming or reading webpages. Then I wonder why do I need 1080p on this 15' in the first place, a 900p is sufficient and costs much less. Eventually I get rid of the 15' (ASUS G53 actually), and go back to my old G71 (I changed the screen from default 1440x900 to 1920x1200 by myself) which I still feel the screen is too small for the resolution, but better than 15'.

IMO, for 15' laptop, 900p is the best resolution. 1080p is for 17'-18' and in fact the best size to fully enjoy the 1080p is at least 24'. that's just my eyes' preference.

btw, when I had my G53, it's smaller than his 17' brothers, but you won't have much better portability because it's just as thick and heavy.

 

Not necessarily, the desktop GTX550TI comes with 1GB of memory and 192 bit bus.

Based on the GTX560M specs on paper, its the same as the desktop GTX550TI, so if you double the memory density you'll get a 2GB card with 192bit memory bus.