New ASUS's at best buy...compared to our 7805's..

So I wandered into best buy today just to take a gander at the laptops they have out (not even considering purchasing one of course since I have the 7805u at home) and I saw the ASUS G51 and G71. Now I guess I am wondering how these compare to our 7805's? I mean for the same price tag and actually a little more for the G71, they are still using DDR2 Ram and given on the G71 it comes with 6GB but really Id rather have the 4GB DDR3 in the 7805. Both Asus's also come with a 6 cell battery!! The ONLY selling point for these ASUS setups is that they have the 260M 1GB dedicated DDR3 GPU's. How are these 260M's compared to our 9800M GTS's? I think it is a joke that ASUS puts a 260M in a laptop with a 6 cell battery...What is that 18 minutes max gaming time? They must produce a lot of heat as well! ASUS still made the case pretty "gamer hideous" except the color and look is maybe a fraction step up from the last models. I will say though, the overall feel and build of the G51/G71 was quite nice. The keyboard was very comfortable and gamer friendly and the lid when closing and closed seemed VERY stable and swift (good smooth hinges) and also there were small rubber pads on the palmrests that mated quite nicely with the lcd trim when closed. I was quite impresses with the overall feel of the ASUS build..I almost started to get jealous..but then came back down to reality and realized how much better all around the 7805 is.

SO....any body seen or gamed on these ASUS's? And most importantly, how does the 260M compare to our 9800M GTS?

 

Hope you Gateway guys don't mind an Asus intrusion.

I have the machine, and I love it. I used to have an Asus G50vt-X6, which mounted a 9800m GS (underclocked GTS, yadda yadda yadda) and I can say you'll notice the performance in intense games, like the ever-mentioned Crysis.

However, the G51's GTX 260m is approximately 15% underclocked (500/1250/799) and it still can get crazy hot. Some just-unboxed users are getting 90s for their GPU after intense programs. Some of use are trying to rectify that, (Take a look in the Asus forum and look for my copper'n'drills thread) but it takes a lot of work.

Build-wise, it's very solid.

In my opinion, the G51vx-RX05 is a very fine machine. I have no regrets.

 

The difference between DDR2 and DDR3 memory in a laptop is negligible.

The GTX260m is a slightly higher clocked 9800m GTX built with a smaller fabrication (55nm v. 65 nm).

The battery life is horrible on most Asus gaming machines. Don't expect much battery life (1 hour and 30 minutes), but also remember that you're not going to be gaming or going full throttle on battery power.

A nice touch on the G51 series is a backlit keyboard.

 

Ha ya Forge I was actually on the ASUS forum checking up on the opinions of users, thats pretty nuts about 90+ GPU temps out of the box with a 15% underclocked GTX 260M. So stock clocks are 500/1250/799 for the ASUS's 260, what is the stock clock for our 7805 9800M GTS's?

On paper, the GTX 260M by pure specs outperforms the 9800M GTS in all aspects, but in real time gameplay, do ya really notice?...(thats what I wanna know) Forge it sounds like you said you notice it in GPU tasking games like Crysis on ultra high but im not convinced that the GTX 260M is much of a real-time huge performance boost over the 9800M GTS in just about any other game out there. Am I wrong in saying this?

 

Back... back you deamons of the Asus forums
j/k

They are nice looking machines and pretty decent performers. And the price is right for a decent budget gaming rig. The biggest problem (as has been mentioned) is the cooling system. The problem comes from its single fan cooling system. They cut WAY down on cooling so had to underclock the 260GTX and even then it runs quite hot.

It will generally preform about the same as the 78xx series laptop. If the cooling issue was taken care of you would get slight better performance (maybe 10% graphically if everything was relatively even)

Its a good computer though... but i still support gateway
Plus we have the 79xx series coming out with the 260GTX soon

 

Im with Kamin about performing...woah only a single fan..what were they thinking? wait lets cut back on a $8 part and comprimise our expensive hardware, good idea. After looking at the specs, I "believe" our 9800m GTS's come stock clocked at 600/1500/800 but with the 9800 only having 64 shader pixels vs the GTX 260m's 112, thats a decent difference. But I agree with Kamin, it will perform about the same as the 78xx series...(as you can see I am trying to convince myself that the new GTX 260m's perform around the same as our 9800m GTS's)..and plus whos gonna argue with a guy who has 1,944 posts (again, an attempt to convince myself)

 

Just to clarify, Asus has never focused on 17 inch laptops as much as they do on 15 inchers. Usually the 17 inch version (G2, G70, G71) is just a physically larger 15 inch machine.

To be able to place a GTX260m in a 15 inch machine is a remarkable feat, and using a single fan is not "being cheap", it's that more fans require more space - space that's nonexistant in a 15 inch laptop.

My G50 with a 9800m GS easily crosses the 100 C mark when running 3D applications, and my old G1s easily crossed 90 C with its 8600m GT. Asus is definitely not known for making cool laptops.

 

The GTS can overclock wonderfully. Since it has less shaders, a higher overclock will generate less relative heat.

As to performance, I did see a noticeable gain. In Crysis my 9800m G[T]S got about 25-30 FPS on not-too-cluttered areas (1280x768 resolution, no AA) with medium settings sprinkled with a healthy dose of high.

With the G51 I'm able to run at my native (1366x768), with no AA, at all high and very high textures, while still getting the same frame rates. (I think it also helped I have a beastly processor).


I am, of course, going to recommend it. But, honestly, if you'd like to know if it's better to sell your G[T]S-equipped computer for a 260m-equiped one, no, not really. Wait until 300m series come out. The 9800m is a great card.

 

Yeah, that's good advice. I'm not sold on these 200m cards. It's kind of misleading even. They reworked the architecture on the desktop line, but not really for the laptop line.

And since people are talking about how the ASUS's GPU gets hot, don't a lot of people come hear talking about how their 7805's GPU is peaking in the 90s? I've never had problems with my 7811s GPU (stock TIM, modest OC), so I can never tell if those people have faulty cards, or if they just aren't cleaning properly or allowing for good airflow.

 

I can suggest this mod

While drilling out your bottom cover will void warranty, the copper blocks won't. And they're relatively easy to remove. If you look at my tests, I get definite results. Heat's everyone's enemy.


I have to give an obligatory "Go buy a G51!!!" Thank you.

 

Yes those with 90+ GPU temps on the 7805's are either a)in a high room temp and MOST importnat b) not lifting their 7805 to allow air flow to the bottom fans. I have my 7805 lifted on just 4 quarters on the back pads and 2 on the front and my GPU never gets above 73C while gaming Crysis for hours. These laptops cool themselves rather well and if you can get over the annoying surge fan noise design, you should be good. The HD "can" get a but hot due to no heat vents in the case but again, merely lifting the laptop and not gaming on your lap will provide years more to your 7805!
CPU's max 53C..idle 30-35C
GPU max 73C..45-50C
HD max 50C...45-46C

Thank you Forge and everyone for posting your great knowledge, I am still confident that the 9800M GTS is still a solid performer in the gaming world and glad it is overclockable should I grow the cajones ones day to overclock it. Looks like to date the 4870x2 is still the leader by far in the gaming world followed by the GTX 280M. When does the 300 series plan to hit?

 

Well, it doesn't require a lot of courage to overclock. Overclock gets a bad rap from the unintiatied. When you overclock, just make sure your heat doesn't go too high and you're looking at increased performance.

 

I have both the 7805u and the BB G71 but haven't got around to benchmarking them. When I do, I'll post the results here. I have noticed, however, that the G71 runs a little hotter than the 7805. Just a small correction on the G71 battery - it's an 8 cell and I get around an hour & fifty minutes with it.