HELP! Big dilemma! Sager np8278s vs asus rog G750JS-RS71

Hi guys, I have a problem. I don't know which one i should keep. I recently received two laptops sager np8278s for $1430 and Asus ROG G750JS RS71 for $1290:

Sager np8278s specs: CPU 4810MQ, GPU GTX870m 6GB ram, 8gb ram, glossy screen (paid $100 extra from xoticpc)

ASUS ROG G750JS RS71 specs: CPU 4700HQ, GPU GTX870m~3GB ram, 12gb ram, matte screen (not as vibrant as the glossy one from sager)


I received the asus after the sager and I have to say that the sound on the asus is better than the sager (maybe I installed the drivers wrong on the sager? In that case, any tips on how to install correctly?) the sound is clearly louder and deeper.

Pros With the asus- better sound so far, good gaming, aesthetic looking, super durable feel, the whole laptop just looks sexy and durable as ,
Cons for the asus would be: crappier screen, lower gpu ram, weaker CPU, soldered on CPU and gpu

Pros for the sager: the monitor, good gaming, better CPU and GPU, replaceable CPU and GPU if needed in the future, fan turn on option.
Cons: I do notice a 2-4 drop in FPS on league when compared to asus rog (which is weird because isn't it suppose to have better specs?), the Bigfoot killer n1202 dropped network a few times on me during a game of league (i dont know why, anyone got fix?), keyboard ghosting. Sound system is not good compared to asus (I expected better than asus from Onkyo)

I bought from xotic so if I return the sager I would lose let's say $100 for shipping back and forth; which then would make me pay pretty much the same amount for the asus.

If given the same amount of care how long would these laptop last?
Is the ASUS rog quality clearly better than the sager?
I heard the asus sound isn't that good on the G750 series, but that would make the sager have the crappiest sound when compared to every other laptop.
Any tips you guys can give me to improve the quality of my sager? I'm keeping both for another week to determine which one I should keep.

 

It's hard to say.

First, I'd play with the XF-i3 settings. Seriously. On the SBX Pro Studio tab, enable all those little options. Crystalizer, Bass, blah blah blah. Crank bass to about 80% to actually make the subwoofer work some.

That should make the Sager sound is ok, but you could also (if the above doesn't work) update:

1. The realtek drivers
2. Uninstall and reinstall the latest hotkey drivers.(hotkey must be uninstalled first before installing a new one)

If you have older drivers (which may not be the case as you just got your laptop) that has been known to muffle the sound some.

Build quality they're honestly about the same. Long as you treat them with the respect they deserve (and not drop themor throw things on the closed lids) they should last you a while.

The big issue that you should be aware? Maintenance.

The sager is a joy to maintain. You can remove the screws on the bottom and blow out the fans easily as they're easily accessable. The components are also user-replaceable.

For the Asus? Not so much. In fact, to clean out the fans, you have to disassemble the entire laptop to get to them.

Repasting the CPU/GPU also voids the warranty, which isn't the case on the Sager.

the killer network driver, just update the net driver. Killer and the intel AC wifi drivers had issues on older drivers of dropping connection and high latency issues. It was fixed in recent drivers, so likely that's your issue.


So, in closing, unless the better sound on the Asus is the killer which makes you want it, and unless you are big on high-scifi looks, for longevity and long-term caring via maintenance, Sager clearly wins.

 

Hey thanks for replying. I'm going to take your tips and see if they help and report back.
Im worried that the power button is slightly too flimsy and break or stop working. lol.
anymore tips on the sager np8278s is welcome. I'm willing to give this laptop a chance to show me what its got.

 

also run some benchmarks and see which each one scores. all software can be found in link below.

 

Considering the state of the 880m cards, if you're not going with that, get sager. If not, Asus seems to have better cooling with the 880ms.

 

Eh, I'd say honestly the cooling is about the same give or take.

Plus, with the fact you can easily maintain the cooling on the Sager, where you can not with the Asus without tearing it apart, the long term cooling is a big concern with me with Asus.

Asus are notorious for absolutely abysmal cooling over a period of time because of dust, lint, failing thermals and inferior thermal paste.

Sager doesn't tend to have those issues.

And for cooling, my single 880M stays pretty darn cooled.

2+ hours Mass Effect 2 (maxed out) 68c
6+ hours Fallout NV (maxed out) 72c
6+ hours of Skyrim (maxed out) 76c
6+ hours of Borderland 2 (maxed out) 82c

Couldn't be happier with it.

 

Didn't you have a cooling pad though? I would consider that auxillary cooling, and maybe cheating haha. I can also safely say, that ASUS does indeed have bad dust build ups. My old computer was an Asus and after a year, CPU temps rose from 70 degrees to a whopping 102 degrees!

 

Is this the updated hotkey?
Also. i just upgraded the nvidia driver. but still get 57fps on league of lengeds still... im not sure if its a glitch where the fps is stuck at 57? because sometimes i see it get to 60fps and 52fps during play time.
Is there a monitor software calibration also?

 

Ahah! But that was just with it elevated without the fans on

The fans would probably drop that another 2-6c depending on the game, good point on that.

I do have a room ambient temperature of 22.5c though and that could account for lower temps than other see.

 

I have a questions. I was playing sims 4 on this laptop. and i noticed that the FPS is around 15-25fps on ultra settings at 1920x1080. on the notebookcheck.com website it said i should be having 73fps, lol. Am i doing something wrong? you guys tested any games yet on the gtx870m or 880m?

 

I've played quite a few games with my setup. The closest I could he to sims 4 is simcity and I think they have around the same graphics. Did you check for any throttling or if you are on battery saving?

 

Guys, I feel like I am clearly doing something wrong here with my NP8278s. I just tested sims 4 on the ASUS ROG ultra settings at 1920x1080 and got double the amount of FPS i got on the SAGER which was around 10-20Fps.

How are these FPS numbers possible for this review?
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

I installed my own OS (windows 8.1 PRO)
I updated the NVIDA for both laptops yesterday, so theyre both updated. IDK what else to do.
Let me know what I should be doing because right now, its performing worse than the ASUS ROG (with slightly weaker specs).

 

What are your load levels/frequencies/temps like?

 

what do you mean load levels and frequencies? (sorry im noob)
Here is the 3dmark test i did on the sager, its temp after


and this is the ASUS ROG 3D mark, and gpuz



Honestly, I'd very like to keep the sager due to better specs. But its not performing like it should...

 

Wow, that's something really wonky there.

I don't know what to tell you. I'd double-check all your devices to make sure they're all identified correctly, then if that's validated, I'd start talking with your distributor. Something doesn't sound right.

It should only be +/- 1% from the Asus on the GPU and blow it out of the water on the CPU.

 

I suggest attaching an external monitor and keeping GPU-Z up or playing a game while GPU-Z is running and
1 - making SURE it's running on your dGPU for the sager
2 - making SURE it's clocking up as intended; if it stays downclocked for whatever reason at all it'll perform like awfulness
3 - being certain whether or not something's wrong with your card itself; because you would definitely be able to RMA if it was. And if you're lucky you might get back a 970M if 870M stocks are out hehe

 

Hey guys, I just noticed on the ASUS GPU Z- is it slightly overclocked on that ASUS? maybe that explains why its performing better? but it wouldnt explain why the CPU is not performing better than the 4700hq

Haha. Would they really give me a gtx 970m? I feel like they would dig through the end of earth to find another 870 before they decide to give me a 970

I'll check my stuff and redo the benchmarks again. I had pretty high hopes from sager which was why I was willing to get the glossy screen from them.

 

Hey guys i was just comparing the two benchmarks again and i noticed some more things
SAGER


ASUS ROG




Is my unit defective? Or am I forgetting something? Why are the numbers look so off?


and here is a benchmark score of the same computer from some one else i found online, but with much better score...
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/3474559?

 

What's interesting is it shows the memory bus clock speed half that of the Asus.

My 880M shows 2500 Ghz for memory speed, not the 1200 it shows for you.

It's almost like your GPU isn't clocking itself up. I'd RMA, looks possibly defective.

Check out your CPU as well, it's showing the base clock speed at 2.8Ghz, but the max turbo at 2.0Ghz.

That is so not right.

For giggles, in your power usage profile on the Sager, specifically specify 'performance'.

I'm wondering if it's defaulting to power savings mode and thus not allowing the GPU to clock up.

Only thing I can think of.

For comparison, this is what Open Hardware Monitor is showing for my CPU:



Granted, I have the 880M to your 870M, but the numbers should be fairly close, and the CPU is the same as yours.

 

That's kinda odd. What are the chances both the CPU and the GPU hardware is down at the same time?

I wanna try all software a solutions before I send it in to repair for hardware defect. Definitely a first bad impression on Sagers part.

 

Yea, total bummer. Sadly having a bad Sager is a fairly rare duck, and unfortunately the duck appears to have bitten you.

I'm hoping it's just a setting or something to unlock the performance, and I honestly haven't played with Windows 8 enough to know other than 'I can't stand this OS'

Quick browsing though it appears Windows 8 is a lot more aggressive on the power usage and underclocking the CPU and GPU if you do not have 'performance' mode enabled.

So make sure you have performance mode enabled on your Sager http://tutznet.com/1943-windows-8-performance-mode/

 

thanks for trying to help me. But my computer was already set on high performance setting from the OS power control panel. I'm starting to think maybe it was the way i installed the drivers? did you install your own OS if so what were the step lists that you did?

 

Nope, sorry. I actually had it all pre-installed.

You could try uninstalling the nvidia drivers in the entirety, uninstall geforce experience, then install geforce experience and use geforce experience to install the latest nvidia drivers.

 

I would've installed Windows 7 too, except I actually have a 'legal' copy of Windows 8, so I didn't want to go to waste. I think there's a problem with your onboard bios maybe? Try reflashing, if it refuses to clock up.

 

how do you recommend I re-flash my GPU?Not sure what the safest way is.
This is what i found on the first search: How to flash your GPU Bios using nvflash? - GPUs - Graphics & Displays

 

If you don't want to make a DOS disk, it's possible to do it directly on the desktop, which is what I did. If you don't have temperature issues, try grabbing svl7's vBIOS if you have enough posts on techinferno. OR, if you have the right card, I could give you the stock vBIOS.

 

WEll. i have the gtx 870m.. idk if you know already

tried playing watch dogs on ultra. barely hitting 30fps. then played high setting for about 10 minutes, then the gpu got pretty dam hot at 83C.

 

Ultra at 1920x1080 in Watch Dogs is benched on the 870M at 27fps. So if that was the case for you, that's about right for numbers.

The GPU at 83c isn't that hot actually, as it's rated to 93c before throttling. And Watch Dogs is fairly heavy GPU utilizing.

When you play, make sure the back of your laptop is elevated, see if that keeps it cooler.

Watch Dogs Benchmarked - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

Watch dogs is a poorly coded mess to be fair, it's very hard to get much higher fps.

 

Yeah some games where GPU usage should be taken with a grain of salt and should only be used in apples-to-apples performance comparisons are Watch Dogs, Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4, Crysis 1 and Warhead, Dead Rising 3, and apparently CS:GO.

I'm also inclined to say every single Ubisoft title post watch dogs release. Because Ubisoft coding for PC is lel.

 

Some cards have different throttling points as well. Just keep that in mind.

 

Even the same card between makes too, msi, clevo and alienware usually all have them at different points (Alienware have a tendency to set it a bit too low for instance giving users some headaches)

 

I see, i just dont understand why its only accessing only at half MHz when compared to the asus.
Also I keep on having trouble with the bigfoot killer N1202 wireless card; I am not exaggerating, but my internet has dropped me at least once on every single game of league of legends that I have played so far (10 games total, happened everytime). I found the new driver for that card off of their qualcom website and its still persist... idk, but its starting to really annoy me. I should have stuck with an intel card.
The power button itself feel pretty flimsy, i fould feel my skin meat going into the power button crevasse in order to turn on the computer. lol.
I honestly dont know if they have limited my resource on the CPU and GPU, but the wireless bigfoot killer card itself is a problem. I just think i got a bad egg as of now.\

What a shame, because everything else about this laptop is like a brick!

 

Have you tried manually selecting the channel number? Or swapping between 5ghz and 2.4ghz if your router supports it?

 

No, But i will give it a shot

 

Bigfoot wireless killer cards have been notorious, both on this forum and elsewhere, for having bad models. I ALWAYS tell people to avoid them because for some reason they seem to have a far higher than normal rate of being duds; a rate that's enough of a trend to clearly see by just googling "should I get bigfoot networks killer" etc.

So if you keep getting problems and changing settings does not fix it, I suggest either asking for a warranty exchange on a intel 7260ac wireless or simply buying one of those for yourself (they're like $30) and installing it manually if you can. I have had the stance that they're not worth the trouble for ages and your problems are only reinforcing my stance XD

 

yeah, i saw your post regarding the bigfoot before i got this laptop. But i was hard headed you know? maybe i wont get a dud card. But nope, it caught me. Should have heeded our warnings.

Also, anyone know that if i buy warranty from squaretrade, would it work for this laptop?