the new asus g51

You must not know much if you underestimate the role of the CPU in gaming so much. Tell me how great GTA IV performs on BB's watered down G51. Tell me how much better it looks at 1366x768 too.

Yeah, in many situations the BB G51 would do better than the G50VT-X1, but not by much, with a few exceptions.

There's a reason the thing only costs $1000. You'd be extremely naive to think you'd get an amazing deal for anything at Best Buy LOL.

 

Not really trying to argue with you, but in my defense, I can take your comment as saying that Best Buy never has amazing deals. First off, once the BIOS update comes out, I think the G71GX-RX05 that Best Buy is selling is an amazing deal, not only is the hardware configuration very nice for the price (and you get cashback points through their Reward Zone program), but I also perfer the all-black look over the black and red look. Secondly, not long ago, I picked up Soul Calibur IV and Infinite Undiscovery from Best Buy for $10 each (while still earning Reward Zone Gamers Club points) which I would take as an amazing deal. Lastly, a good amount of the time, older games (such as Fable 2) tend to be cheaper at Best Buy then at competitors (GameStop for example) and Best Buy offers you double cashback points via their Reward Zone Gamers Club points program. So while I agree that somethings at Best Buy aren't a very good deal, I hardly consider myself or MOST people naive to think they can get an amazing deal at Best Buy.

 

Best Buy really isn't that bad...honestly.

The lower CPU in the G51 is disappointing.

But dang, the BB G71 is awesome. Now, I'll just do this the easiest way, compare the BB G71's specs to the, I dunno, the G51 X6 (newegg one I was looking into), at the same price of $1,500 after mail-in rebate.

Better GPU, more ram, same CPU, etc. Only problem is this little downclocking thing that I'm sure an update will fix.

I think it's missing out with a slightly lower res screen (1440x900), and no bluetooth, but that's really about it.

That's a pretty dang good deal if you ask me. The best? No. But for BB, I wasn't expecting it.

 

Run Vantage Graphics Test 1 and 2 at the resolution of your choice. Tell me your clocks and I'll run an identical test.

 

I misspoke. I stated in another thread that BB is good for games, movies and music.

The G51 they offer at $1k is a good deal, but for it to outstrip a $1400 machine at that price, coming from BB is extremely unlikely.

Maybe from Newegg or ZipZoomFly but not Best Buy.

My point is not to put down the G51; all I'm saying is that you get what you pay for when you drop $1000 on a gaming laptop.

 

You have DDR3 RAM and a T9800 CPU...

I'll get on that tomorrow though just for s n giggles.

 

Here's a handy way to get some solid GPU numbers: go to <windir>/performance/winSAT/DataStore and open the xml file with "Graphics3D" in the name, see the numbers under WinSAT/Metrics/GamingMetrics. AlphaFPS, TexFPS and ALUFPS are the most useful, and the tests are near cpu independent.

 

u guys can say that the G51 is bad it is cheap it has worse cpu the gpu is downclocked

BUT the BB is still better and it is an amazing bang for the buck...

warranty??? u can get some BB warranty and they are pretty good

and yeah the 260 destroys the 9800

 

the G51 is not bad. Best Buy is.

 

i like BB music instruments ... i play guitar...

sorry coming back to the thread

yeah the g51 is pretty good

 

Any chance of Asus doing a recall on the first batch due to the temps?

 

Guys.....3Dmark '06 can EASILY be compared. Simply minus the CPU score which is available after every run?

Vantage only has one trial run, so watch out.

~Ibrahim~

P.S. Every game will look amazing at native resolution. Amazing. This is, of course, relative to when you play at some other resolution.

 

It's probably not big enough an issue to them to do a whole recall... I don't see that happening. You see it in cars, battery explosions, baby stuff, but I don't think I ever have for "gaming" laptop.

 

it gets that hot?

 

Alright, just run it at uh.. 1280x720, so a G51 owner will be able to more directly compare.

Honestly though, my CPU won't make a difference.

 

Yay, it's listed on BB's website!


along with the new alienware, but its specs are just...wow

 

where is BB's website ???

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9366651&type=product&id=1218092150636

along with

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9366615&type=product&id=1218092150740

and

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9382553&type=product&id=1218095770874

There you go!!

 

A lot of this thread has been discussing the temps,

97C after 10 minutes of Crysis is a tad hot

 

Doing only a GPU only test is far from an accurate reflection of game performance. If your CPU can't keep up with your GPU, the framerate will have to be lowered for things to run in sync, otherwise the game wouldn't even run.

Yeah, if you just watch your computer process visuals, the G51 will be much faster, but if you actually want to play a game, in most cases you won't see much of an improvement, if at all.

And after getting used to gaming at 1680x1050, its going to be hard to do it at 68% lower resolution.

Patience guys. Newegg will satisfy your hunger for ness in a few weeks, don't give into Best Buy! By the time the good G51 hits Newegg, the G50VT-X6 will be selling for like $1000 if that's your limit.

The need for CPU as time goes by is growing faster than the need for GPU. That's why now you can get a video card for $250, whereas 5 years ago it was $600. CPU prices haven't changed much though because you still need a very very potent CPU to keep up with the rest of the hardware.

 

I'd take one of those G71s in a heartbeat if they had 1200p LCDs.

 

I JUST BOUGHT A G51!!!!

WOOHOOOOOO

3 YEARS OF RESEARCH HAS PAID OFF!!

So yeah, I will be writing a review soon for this laptop and the laptop cooler.

 

lol, gigantic upgrade man, congrats

 

Well, you're pretty wrong, but I can't argue the point anymore. If you run something like the DMC4 or SFIV benchmark against this G51, you'll understand that the GPU matters more at this time, with a few exceptions (GTA IV).

 

Different games stress different parts of the computer. GTA4 is very hard on the cpu, whereas a game like crysis stresses the gpu a lot.

CPU prices have dropped dramatically as well, btw. Intel isn't able to sell their upper tier for over $1k anymore(except maybe the EE of the fastest model out, and even then it's barely over 1k).

 

This all makes me sad...I was really hoping to be able to buy one of these laptops online at somewhere other then Best Buy today...But I guess I have to wait

 

I highly doubt they will be out anywhere else (online) until mid-July, like originally planned.

 

Every day hurts! haha...I need a computer so bad...I am just afraid that the models online will be too exspensive for me. We will see...Also, I am worried about the heating issue...I am thinking about actually buying the more portable n81vp notebook...They are becoming a rare bread online...But I think I am going to get it for its mobility.

 

okadam11 did you look at the u80?

 

I know what you mean, man. I'm getting antsy about waiting for a new computer too, but it's all for the best.

I know the online G71 is pretty high up there (so far), at $2000+, and seeing how Newegg has raised the G50's price, I bet the G51 will be around $1,500.

But that's just a guess, don't hold me to it.

 

cool story bro

 

Might just go ahead and get this laptop, only concern is the CPU but my computer right now is 5 - 6 years old so the G51 is much better than what I have. Noob question, but do RTS games need a better CPU? I ask this because I love RTS games and am worried that after all these years of looking for an upgrade the laptop will have trouble with the newer stuff coming out such as Starcraft 2 >.<

 

Ok so when I lower the fps rates in game, the heat decreases as well. Works well for steam games.

 

Even enabling Vsync will help keep the temps down since it wont go over 60fps and in games like crysis well you wont be hitting 60fps so you could just lower some of the bells and whistles IE shaders , physics , object quality to keep the temps under control abit.

 

so thats what vsync does.... i never knew what it did. I always enabled it cause i thought it made the gameplay smoother....

 

If you experience tearing (when the vertical lines get out of sync usually over 60 fps) vsync fixes that problem, as well as framecaps 60 fps or very close. Some people claim performance degredation, but ive never experienced it.

I prefer to force it through nvidia control panel rather then use it in a particular game that way I know its getting done right, and not relying on the games method. World in Conflict allows you to frame limit to 30 fps etc.

 

Im certainly no expert, but CPU dependency varies per game. Games that have a large scale and a ton going on at once (such as Supreme Commander) will tend to have a lot more CPU dependency than smaller-scale games. Starcraft 1 (and probably 2 based off of how it looks) can be quite small OR massive in scale depending on the map and whatnot, so I honestly have no idea. I would guess GPU is more critical than CPU here, as with most games.

The good news is that Blizzard always does a great job in optimizing and providing scaling options so that their games can run well on older hardware - you will almost certainly have no trouble running SC2 on the G51. I wouldn't think that you could max it out or anything, but then again this is a gaming LAPTOP.

The only other thing I'd say is to perhaps wait until mid-July when other versions get released on newegg. That way you can get a higher-end processor and the purchase will be more future-friendly.

 

@etb513
Thanks for the response, I will just wait till mid-July then and see what newegg has

 

@hidavi









Magic number is 2.2GHz for a Core 2 Duo! And the G51 can be decently OC'd as Sunny has proved.

This was run on this machine, which amazingly, is nearly the same as the G51 GPU-wise. It has 12 fewer shaders, but half the memory:

* CPU: E6700 Intel Core 2 Duo
* Motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
* Memory: 2 gigabytes of OCZ Flex XLC PC2-9200 DDR2 RAM (4-4-4-12 timings)
* Video Card: XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 512 Alpha Dog XXX Edition
* Power Supply: OCZ 850W GXS
* Hard Drive: 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA, w/16 MB cache
* CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U 12

So: 2.0GHz is a bit on the slow side, but not nearly as slow as you think. An slight OC is all that is needed.

I'm waiting for my 6MB cache, though: it's almost useless, but it makes me warm and fuzzy inside. I'll definitely pay for it, but, hey, my decision.

~Ibrahim~

 

clutch I'm reading your signature and I'm just curious

You said you upgraded your cpu on your g50

I have a g50vt a1, I was wondering does the upgrading the cpu help with game performance? and does it void the warranty?

 

I'm thinking of picking the G51 up next weekend but am still hesitant due to the heat issues.

I'd really appreciate it if the people who just picked it up this weekend would post their temps like sunny did.

 

you guys out there with the g51 do u have quick button volume control. i have i g71 in doesnt have any volume control besides the ones on the keyboard, thinking about trading it in.

 

Its actually not that bad, 2.0 ghz.. I'm using the 1.6 Ghz mode and its perfect!

Playing CSS in 1.6 ghz mode and I get 120-150 fps on full...

used FPS_MAX 60 to limit the fps, and have a targus cooler. The result: The heat coming out of the side vent is not hot at all, its quite remarkable. I guess I must have received a correctly made machine, or am just playing less gpu intensive games, either way my qualitative temps are awesome. Which program do those guys use to monitor temps?

 

HWMonitor looks like the main program here, but there are others like GPU-Z, Precision, etc.

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

Best to use same tools so we can be consistent.

~Ibrahim~

 

Best just to configure all of the tools to read the CPU temperatures properly, as all of them will read the same GPU temperature and 50 to 80% of them will real the wrong CPU temp, varies by the exact processor in question.

 

Really? There is no variance between tools reading GPU temperatures? I knew it was with CPUs, so I just assumed it was with GPUs, too. What do you know, then.

~Ibrahim~

 

Of all the common tools they all report the same, and there is a reason.

The CPU does NOT, report its actual temperature, the GPU DOES report its actual temperature. The CPU basically (not sure how to better explain this) reports how close it is to its thermal max and the program has to leverage this against what the thermal max is, the cpu does NOT report the thermal max and this is why programs are all over the place.

P7350/P7450 is 90C. Most high end T series T9400, T9600 is 105C. hwmonitor doesnt provide the ability to change it but if u edit the ini file it creates after the first run you can.

 

Can somebody tell me if the g51 has volume controls, besides the on the keyboard?

 

In windows, the answer your looking for is no.

 

Thankyou clutch, its just that i never seen a laptop with out one till now.