Official Waiting for the ASUS K-Series Thread

This thread is a gathering place for all news, discussion, and collective waiting for these ATI 40nm 4860-sporting lappies. Ever since CEBIT, it's been radio silence on these things, and all we're hearing is a 2nd quarter release.

So let's use this thread to whine about the wait together and gather any news as we find it...

What We Know:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/04/asus-k-series-laptops-hands-on/
Will sport the new ATI 4860 GPU.
Estimated release sometime in 2nd quarter of 2009.
Will come in 14", 15.4" (about 5 lbs) and 17" versions.
German Video of the K-Series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MNp5HCJTUM (thanks Sparkguy)

Some reviews on the new ATI HD4770, a new 40nm desktop GPU which has extremely similar specs to the 4860, have been posted here. This thing looks like a mini-BEAST!!!
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/28/ati-radeon-hd-4770-gpu-review-roundup/

Asus puts up new information on the K-Series on their website, with some preliminary specs.
http://ph.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=15472
Looks like the K70AB and K51AB are the only two models sporting the 4860 GPU. Both will come with either the
AMD Althon64 X2 QL64, Turion64 X2 RM74 or the Ultra Turion64 X2 ZM84 processor. DDR2 Ram. Back-lit LCD's.

 

You're not the only one who can't wait for any more news on these.
When they come out, I'll be one of the first people to get one. Who wouldn't want something more powerful then most 17", on a 15.6"?

 

I was hoping it had 2 HDD bays.
And I still don't know how Puma 2 stacks up against Penryn.

 

Hmm, Im patiently waiting, hoping that the screen is not 1378 by 738 something like that. atleast 1400x920 something like that. 4860 GDDR5. dayuuum. does all 4000HD series come with the ati overdrive on the catalyst?

 

LOL those screen measurements are off buy no harm done

Hm i think alot of us are still waiting arounf for the 4870 DDR5 as well

 

Quarter 2 can be mean April , May, June. HMMM. Hopefully April!! Im actually waiting for 2 laptops. The Msi GT628 With the GTS 160M. And this one K series from Asus. Msi would be available on april tho.

 

wow, you and I are in the exact same boat. I'm also waiting on these two beauties, and if neither blows me away I'll plunk down the extra dough for the NP8662 which is releasing in April.

 

Yeah the 628 looks nice this one is great as well there are so many choices for us gamers these days

 

The Np 8662, You can already pre order that, ETA April 10. the 628msi is april also hopefully 1st week or 2nd week. But that Msi, damm, GTS 160, Its like 9800M GTX on that . Because on my brothers sager with 9800M GTS, it was already reaching 10k in 3dMark. Imagine a lower wattage GTS 160M. Freeking overclock that lil beast. or maybe dont even need to. Im just being patient. I hope they put vista64 on that one this time.

9800M GTS 600/1500/800
GTS 160M 600/1500/800 <--- lower wattage, less heat, more overclockable more points! way Faster!
9800M GS = GTS 150M

 

It's going to be a great year, with all the new and powerful gaming laptops coming out.MSI,ASUS,SAGER are all coming out with great new tech and the race between Nvidia and AMD/ATI is starting to heat up, it's a great time to be a fan of mobile PC's.

 

will there be a blu ray option for this laptop?, will it be easy to replace the optical drive.

 

i found a video preview of the k51ab, the laptop with the 4860

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MNp5HCJTUM language is in german.

if they have fixed the 65nm griffin heating issues, im definitely going to buy this. hopefully it should play crysis on ultra high with a good frame rate

since there is no blu ray, i expect this laptop to hopefully be around £650

 

Ultra High + good framerate? Not a chance.

 

i can't wait!!!

 

I am very excited for the low-power high-performance 40nm GPU's, but I'm wary of the AMD CPU. Will these CPUs be of a different generation than the current Turion X2 Ultra like the ZM-82 being offered in some MSI notebooks? If so, is there any information on them?

I do hope we see these at least by May, because I'm not waiting until mid to late June to buy.

 

K51AB
AMD GRIFFIN Processor
Windows Vista Ultimate or other editions
RS780+SB700
DDR2 800MHZ, Up to 4GB
15.6'' HD (1366x766) LED BACKLIGHT
ATI MOBILITY RADEON HD 4860 W/512 VRAM
SATA HDD 320GB 7200
0.3m/1.3M.PIXELS camera
380x258x35 36m 2.45kg

Hmm if this does not come out til the end of april, im buying the GT628 with GTS 160M. As I observed from the past, it takes 2 months after the initial press release info. Like the G50VT when they first announced it. It took 2 months, same as the Asus N81Vp with the HD 4650.

 

Seen that vid from notebookjournal it looks nice right there where the guy was using it.

65nm? I think Puma 2 is lower then that. I think this could do ultra High it may only be at 1280 res though.

 

i think this is not puma 2, this is puma 1. puma 2 is called the "tigris" platform with the 45nm dual core "caspian" cpu, this is meant to be released this year. whereas k series cpu is the 65nm "griffin" cpu.

 

I fully agree to collective whining, waiting and speculating

Yah, dam... the K-series uses the old Puma platform... what a shame. Again a reason (besides the 128 Bit GPU and the slow AMD Griffin CPU) why the price would be so low. I wonder how many points this system reaches in 3DMark06. I'm afraid it'll only be around 8.500 maximum, but that's just a guess...

 

I don't know why people complain about the CPU since it will feel just as fast as any Intel CPU in real life considering the GPU is still limiting in most games. Personally, I'm not really into benchmarks as an accurate measure of performance. Hopefully the use of the all AMD/ATI system will be better than an Intel/ATI system due to chipset switchable/crossfire graphics.

 

Really the Griffin was confirmed eh? Wow that really sucks i was certain this one was using the 45nm version oh well hte whole year is still left

 

The K series will use AMD's Puma processor AFAIK. It's targeted for the low-budget market, so i wouldn't expect to see the new AMD CPUs in this line.

 

that is disappointing to hear. Are there any other laptops that you are hearing that will use the ATI 4860 GPU anytime in the near future? Is the ATI hype surrounding the 4860 being a low maintenance higher performing versino of the 4850 true?

 

The only only laptop currently known to be getting one is the Asus K series. Also, the 4860 isn't like the 4870-4850 versions, it has ddr5; basically it isn't the same came card with a bit higher clocks like the W90's 4870. From the looks of it, it should be about 10% faster then the 4850.

 

i hear they are heating issues with the "griffin" amd turion ultra cpu above the zm-84(2.3GHz) cpu, but this cpu benchmarks are similar to core 2 range. This laptop will be perfect to show off crysis on "very high" settings. if 4860 truly is 10% faster than 4850 it will run crysis at the current laptop screen resolution (1366x 768).

i found a video of crysis running very high with an old amd x2 cpu and a 4850 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltqEClVjfM0. hopefully this will clarify crysis playability on this k series.

if Asus sorted out cpu heating issues with their "icecool" gimmick this laptop is a winner in my book . Plus asus mentioned this laptops battery life will reach around 5 hours (this may be related with the led backlit screen and better laptops batteries) which is fine by me. im hyped for this notebook, hopefully Asus wont let me down

 

how well do you think will the 160 stackup against the 280? idont think the 160 is even in notebookcheck yet

 

the only downer for the 4860 is the 128-bit bus which could actually be a significant limiting factor
hopefully it wont matter

 

Here's a comparison of the new cards for you:



So the 160 doesn't offer the 280/260 any competition at all.

 

The 128-bit bus won't be a limiting factor since it is gddr5. It is the same as any gddr3 card with a 256-bit bus.

 

gddr5 will allow the card to process greater amounts of graphical data but the 128-bit interface would bottleneck it assuming the card/memory hits this limit and i think it can.
so it will technically limit the potential of this card.
a number of posts have expressed some dismay over this issue with the 4860

 

In theory, but we have yet to see this in practice. Even desktops have yet to see 128-bit cards with GDDR5.

 

haha your right no contest. i think they were meant to replace the current performance cards of nvidia

hopefully the 4860 performs better than the 160

 

because it seems so ironic and almost a waste of potential to have 128-bit and gddr5 together imho

 

If this is true, then the 4860 has 130% more bandwidth then the GTX 280M, so bandwidth shouldn't be an issue. Although, as pointed out, this is only theory.

 

The RV740/HD4750 has already been tested and actually, the Mobility HD4860 is the Desktop HD4750 spec wise.

 

thats what i mean. can a 128bit bus handle 80gb/sec?

 

yep i have found preview benchmarks of the 4750 using beta drivers.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4750-rv740-review-preview-test/1

and you are right about 4750 desktop and 4860 mobility are the same.

 

More like £950

 

Yes, the physical pins can handle 80GB/s.

 

I'm also afraid that it'll bottleneck... It really seems a waste. Why not 256bit && GDDR5???

 

Because then you have the HD 4870

 

haha! i think this is the real reason for the 128-bit bus
but i really respect ati for coming out with real tech and not rebranding o/c'ed versions of old designs.
also they have really shifted the pricing of the gpu industry
too bad their driver support is not as good as nvidias atm

however if the benchies for this turn out real good ill get this instead of a 8662

 

The reason for the 128-bit bus is to save costs. It is cheaper to put gddr5 and put a 128-bit bus in it, then to make it gddr3 and keep it at a 256-bit memory. Gddr5 should actually be called Gqdr5 because it has four times the data rate.

This pretty much sums up what I've been saying.

 

Well 2 x 2 is 4 and 1 x 4 is 4 so can i take both?

 

Maybe if you ask nicely.

 

ok Me happy now

 

I wonder how small of a notebook the 4830 will fit in comfortably. I'm thinking 13".

 

The K series is split into 3 groups im estimating what the pricing will be like:

14inch k40 series( K40IJ Intel GMA 4500M, K40IN Nvidia GeForce G102M 256MB)- between £650 to £750

15.6inch k50 series ( K50AB, K51AB puma HD4860 1GB GDDR5, and K50IJ Intel GMA 4500M)- between £750 to £850

17.3inch k70 series( K70IO with Nvidia GeForce 120M 1024MB)- between £850 to £950

Anything higher than £950 is not reasonable these laptops dont have the luxury of high resolution screens and blu ray. I would rather buy the MSI GT725(around £1100) or the MSI GX733 puma(which should be just under £1000 when released) if the prices go over £950

whichever laptop has the HD4860 1GB GDDR5 will be my first ever laptop

also pricing could be releated with graphics card type rather than screen size where the cheapest may be the useless intel 4500 k series.

 

well i hope the k50 is below £850

 

man i cant wait for the k series to come out
i really hope it performs well
it would give the bigboys (intel, nvidia) a run for their money at least in the gaming notebook segment

amd and ati FTW!!!!