A8JS VS G1 Performance

Hello,

I have been reading a lot about the Asus G1 and A8JS notebooks. I currently have my Acer 8204WLMi up on ebay and plan to purchase a core 2 duo notebook in its place. I think I am leaning towards the A8JS because of its smaller size and the fact that most of the hardware is identical to the G1. The price difference is significant as well with the A8JS being at least $200 cheaper.

They have the same chipset, same CPU, and Graphics card. I would like to have the G1, but it looks way too flashy and since I will be using the notebook at work and home, I need a serious looking notebook. (My Acer 8204WLMi looks better than any other notebook I have ever seen, but thats besides the point.)

My question is, since most of the hardware is similar on the A8JS and the G1, do they perform comparibly? I will be using the laptop to play some games, and do a lot of pro-audio intensive stuff, so I do care a lot about performance. I realize that the A8JS comes with a gig of RAM, but I plan on upgrading that to 2GB first thing after purchase.

So, performance wise, with both the laptops containing 2GB of RAM, is there any reason why the G1 would perform better than the A8JS in any scenario?

Also, to the retailers who post on this board - when would the first shipment of the A8JS or the G1 arrive with Vista preinstalled? At this time, it doesn't make sense to buy one before the Vista preloaded ones are availible. So, I would like to buy first thing when they are availible.

I appreciate your help!
RA

 

When comparing the A8js and G1 you've basicaly said it all, but a stock G1 will perform somewhat better all round because of the 2GB of ram. But as soon as you have a total of 2GB of ram int othe A8js your overall performance will be essentially the same.

There is one major difference that I see time and time again, the A8js and its Go 7700 512mb gets roughly 2700 points in 3DMark06. Whereas the G1 seems to get 2300-2400 in 3DMark06, and this is all stock drivers and specs.
So you will see a bit of a difference, and as soon as you put a total of 2GB into the A8js your games should be running very smoothly, not stuttering or anything of like.

 

Thanks MilestonePC, that is what I thought. Although I was a bit suprised that at stock, the A8JS gets a higher 3dMark06 score than the G1. I wonder why that is?

Also, you didn't comment on the first shipment of the A8JS that would have Vista preinstalled. Do you have any idea when that will happen?

Thanks,
RA

 

Well, the extra ram isn't going to help much in the performance area until you get past a certain point anyway....... but if you're using more than 1gb now, the difference will be apparent right away.

In terms of the drivers, the G1 has plenty of room to tweak as it has a much larger gpu heatpipe than the A8js can have - due to it's physical size. When all tweaked out, you can punch the G1 up well over the numbers of the A8 without any issue what so ever.

In terms of when any models will be coming in with vista pre-installed - you're looking at 3 weeks at the very best. Asus isn't shipping any systems with vista from Taiwan until after they get back from their new year, which is the first couple days of February... and Vista gets released at the end of January. Asus hasn't given any indication of what models will come in first, but all models certainly won't be updated right away, at least with a factory image... We don't expect all of the systems to be updated with a factory image until probably sometime in March. Models like the G1/W2 that are already sold out will come in with vista pre-installed for their next shipment in a few weeks. Models that are still "in inventory" will simple get vista installed at the Fremont office and the XP COA sticker removed for a Vista COA sticker...... Fremont doesn't put the recovery partition on the drive, so I tend not to like it when they do that. Plus, it's really no different than the customer doing it at some point, you just don't get a copy of xp AND vista at that point. So there are some seriousl pluses to getting xp, and then the free vista upgrade...... at least until the next chipset models start coming out in April.

 

You know that G1 has a screen with better resolution than A8js. 3Dmark06 throws a bigger resolution to G1 than to A8js ---> A8js get a bigger score.

 

Keep in mind of the different 3DMark'06 revisions. Scores will change depending which one you use.

 

I was pretty sure that 3dmark06's standard test would run at the same resolution on every computer. It wouldn't make sense to compare benchmark results if they were taken at different resolutions. I could be wrong though.

 

Very true.... 3DMark 05 is seems a bit more stable, but it of course can't fully take advantage of the 7700.....

What revision of 06 are they on now.... x.3?

.. and yeah, 3dmark should be testing everything at 1024x768 still..

 

dont even worry about 3d mark 06 anymore.

This confusion is just an example. 3d mark 06 is entirely worthless data because they actually changed the test in the middle of the year.

So any data from november is not comparable with data from december.

So you think, how can these two notebooks with exactly the same hardware have different scores?

Well they cant really. Other than software installed they are exactly the same ( if youre asking is the gpu different, its not its exactly the same part)

Its that actual test thats worthless.

 

As far as I know the standard resolution for 3DMark06 is 1280x1024 which can't be achieved by A8Js. 3DMark06 just don't make sense

Although it's necessary for Futuremark to make the default resolutions higher some time. And all of the new monitors can show 1280x1024 unless it's a widescreen one. Well, maybe they could've made the pixel count match at least..

 

Theres no purpose to a benchmark that is not the same for all machines.

It provides no data worth considering.

Im hoping that a new gpu benchmark comes up very soon and I actually think there will.

 

Hopefully we see some changes coming this year in terms of how some of this software benchmarks. One of the keys is not only to compare one new gpu to another, but also against previous ones.. and there lays the problem.

3DMark 05 is solid, but it'll benchmark the Nvidia 7700 and the ATI x1700 almost identically. Now, the ram will have a decent effect on a benchmark, but in the real world, you're not always maxing it out like that... some many never. Now when comparing the G1 w/ the 512mb 7700 and the G2 w/ the 512mb x1700... I think a lot of people will be surprised how well the G2 does compared to other x1700 machines w/ 256mb vram..... not only because of the memory, but also because the G2's gpu is clocked higher than other versions.... Evening up the the two systems a bit more...

But benchmarks are and never should be the end all of anyone's computer buying decisions... We get people day in and day out that say they require a computer that we will guarantee gets a certain number..... not something we'll ever do, but that's almost pointless anyway because the difference of 500 points in say a 3DMark 06 score (when you're looking at 2,500 and 2,000) really doesn't mean that much to the real world player..... or at least I'd like to see anyone play the same thing on both machines and describe what better on one over the other.

ahh... I hate 3DMark... as much as it's useful for giving people an idea of how say an old 64mb x600 compared to a 512mb x1700 or 256mb x1600.... it's not really helpful when comparing the x1700 to the 7700..... Yes, whatever scores better (7700) is what people are going to want. Therefore, it'll be better for that over the other (x1700). However, it then gives a bad rap to what I think is the better card for a lot more applications.... the x1700

 

Part of the problem is graphics drivers optimizing specifically for benchmarks. This is partially why the 3DMARK benchmarks are updated all the time and scores change. NVidia and ATI have both been caught doing this in the past.

 

Lol the G1 has lower 3d mark because it has a higher resolution. Games can play really fast with a really small resolution. Fps wise anyway.

 

Will nvidia ever provide drivers for the 7700GO on their website or are we always going to be dependant on Asus for the latest driver?

 

go to laptopvideo2go.com and download theirs.

make sure to use the modded inf. The only thing that is not in the nvidia drivers is the inf that includes the 7700

laptopvideo2go.com has the only vista drivers for the 7700

 

Thanks.

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