Should I buy the G73JH even with throttling issue?

I was pretty much set to go to Frys today and purchase the $1600 unit. But last night I decided to take a quick look around forums to get final reviews on the unit and that's when I came upon this forum and the i7 throttling issues. My jaw dropped as I read page after page of issues with this.

You see, I plan to use my new laptop 60-70% of the time ON BATTERY as I travel. I won't be doing so much gaming on battery but a lot of 3D design work, and intensive Photoshop and Vegas Video work. I will be testing some of my work on Microsoft Flight Simulator though but not really for extended periods of time.

So I put all plans on hold... I am a bit nervous plunking down 18 "Bennies" for a laptop that could cause issues right out of the box. I was looking at the top-of-the-line Sony but it had its own set of issues.

So what do think guys... should I look elsewhere? Should I take a wait and see? Should I go for it? I do need something now as my 3 year old HP is about to die on me.

Any input would be helpful.

Clutch

 

... The throttling issue can be solved by using a third party program (throttle stop)

Throttling is common in all laptops, as it is a method to preserve battery.....
My opinion if you are doing 3d work on this laptop you NEED to be on power

3d applications are very intensive and i do not see you getting more than an hour out of this laptops battery while using these apps....

I do not think this throttle is an issue because i do not intend to use high rescource programs away from power...... just my opinion

 

The i7 throttling is actually not rare. Hell, it's not even uncommon. the quads take up so much battery that to get anywhere near "advertisement numbers" for their battery tests the companies build in throttling via bios. Pretty much every quad core i7 do this.

the G73 is easily the best laptop I have ever bought and that really does say alot about the quality of this guy. But it sounds like this one isn't for you.

Even if there wasn't throttling on battery you would have to deal with a lackluster 2 hour battery life and huge bulk and weight (I'm assuming the battery is for on the go?)

You will want to stick to the 13"-14" laptops for your needs I think. 5+ battery life and a mid range i5 paired with a decent GPU should do the job I think.

Vaio E, Vaio Z , TimelineX and UL30xx series comes to mind.

 

So the i7 in G73 is deliberately slowed by ASUS? is it just when using battery, or is it always slow even when AC is plugged in?

 

Mangos, It is not that the G73 is slow. It is still one of the fastest laptops on the market even on battery. Part of the problem is that Clutch is looking for the magic combination of a good screen, good battery life, and good GPU all in one. It really doesnt exist. Either you go for battery life and wait for your 3D render to take twice as long, or you go for power and live with half the battery life. Or one needs to start looking at workstation laptops which start at $2000, and are usually end up much higher in price than even that.

Given all that info, the G73 is the best bang-for-your-buck laptop for power if you are willing to work with it geek style (removing programs and drivers, using throttlestop, ect.) And in addtion it is currently the only laptop that can upgrade to 16GB of ram if you need it. But it only has USB 2.0 (no SATA, no Firewire, no express card slot). So yes it does have its faults. In the end you are going to have to measure your needs to the products.

I hope I helped somehow. My personall advise is to keep shoping until you know you have found the right laptop. Maybe a 3D artist or programmer here can give better advise.

 

It's only on battery. And some weird problem where sometimes if you boot off battery power then plug in the AC Adapter.

 

Read this thread here.

 

... If you want a powerhouse notebook with amazing battery life and no throttling, get a MBP i7. OH WAIT, those have both throttling AND heat issues.

Seriously, your needs are incompatible with the current reality of "laptops". I'm sure if you get a large enough 3rd party battery (or commission one, or make one), you'll be able to have everything you want. But if you're traveling on a plane and pull out a 17 inch laptop ... you better be in 1st class, because I'd accidentally spill my sprite on it if you tried to fit it in economy.

 

Honestly Clutch, you're not going to get a laptop in the current generation that can handle what you're asking. Photoshop and 3D design are going to eat up the battery like nobody's business, throttling or not. The G73 out of the box has about an hour and 45 minutes of battery life, give or take. Some tweaking (which means throttling the hell out of the GPU) can get it up a lot further than that, but then it can't run the apps you're asking it to.

3d rendering on a battery is going to actually cut that battery life down a bit, is my guess. Good luck in your search, but I'd be looking more at power / plug-in options to your problem.

 

renegadegh0st, could you direct me to any such apps, please.

Maybe a link if possible.

Thank you.

 

even if you get over the throttling in the g73, with the programs you want to run, you are looking at maybe an hour of battery life at most

 

I understand that.

But I'd rather have an hour's battery life with NO throttling, than 2 hours battery life WITH throttling.

With my current usage, I really don't see myself needing to be on battery power for anything more than an hour, before being able to plug her back in.

 

Stubbornswiss here is a link to it http://forum.notebookreview.com/6109042-post164.html ... there may be a newer one later in the thread

 

Thank you. Appreciated.

Any problems related to using this that you know of?

Thanks.

EDIT: Ok. Found the other extensive thread on this topic, and reading thruogh it now. Many thanks.

 

I do not know of any problems; however, I do not use it..... planning on getting a g73 in a month or two.... As such I have read just about every thread releated to the g73

 

Wow!, I wake up to find lots of responses so fast... thx guys.

Let me clarify a little better on my needs. Now I understand that I can't have it all - long battery life and high speed endless processing while being mobile. I would die of happiness if I could get 1 &3/4 hours of battery life from the unit! Right now I am getting only around an hour on my Hp so I have three Xtra large batteries I rotate. So I was planning on buying two additional heavy duty batteries no matter what laptop I end up with.

What I don't want is to have the thing slow down to a crawl when my battery drops below 50% (as what I have read), and then the only work-around is to re-boot!?!

Yea, I know it's really meant to be a desk top replacement but I want the 17" screen as I like a lot of real estate when designing. And it's the only 17" I've seen without all the shiny chrome and "fingerprint" attracting designs out there. And it seems to run the coolest on the units I have tested out there.

So will this 'Throttle Stop' work for my needs? Do they make 12cell batteries for this or only the 8 cell?

And don't worry, I promise never to take on a plane in Economy!

Clutch

 

Only 8 cell that I know of. And yes, Throttle Stop will take care of the issues you're worried about.

 

See my post, number 7, above for the link.

 

@aramis109

So Is it safe to assume I can now push through w/ my purchase of this G73 then? I hope Asus would release a fix for this and not just rely on the stop gap applications.

 

Envy15 has 4 DIMM slots, so also has 16GB of DDR3 RAM.

 

G73 seems like your best bet since it probably gets more battery life than any other laptop in it's class. Maybe just have a couple of extra spare batteries on the side for those long plane trips.