Asus ROG Laptops, why do underpowered GPU wise?

[Boshtastic]

No I am a Samsung Series 7 Gamer owner, but when I was looking at machines a few months ago I was very tempted by the exceptional styling and build quality of the ROG laptops but for one gripe I had for such an expensive machine, the GPU options.

Now I know every other part of the laptops the CPU, RAM, possibly not the Storage(could do with an SSD in all configs) are all up to scratch but why are the GPU offerings limited to Nvidia GTX 660m, 670m and 670mx?

While these would be fine for WoW or Cod. There is no chance of playing GW2 at native res at a decent FPS or Arkham 1 and 2 for example.

So why the skimp on graphics? Is it cooling? profit margins? compatibility or driver issues (I doubt it).

To make things worse if your in the UK like me your pretty much limited to the 660m because the other models are like gold dust!

So here's me hoping for a GTX780 in the next gen ROG 17 incher!

[sherman9800]

Buying the GPUs in bulk, minimizing expenses and keeping margins higher than if they had a wide selection of stock laying around. Also making sure your price for the consumer is competitive and not astronomical compared to the competition when you are using higher quality components overall.

If you want something with more options next time with good build quality, I suggest a Clevo made laptop.

[Tehterokkar]

670M will run any game you throw at it. Laptops aren't meant to be power houses like Desktops are.

[Void666]

If you want the absolute best in gaming laptops id point you to Origin Systems http://www.originpc.com/gaming/laptops/eon17-slx/ Id never use a laptop to game personally but each to there own

[Saithes]

For the 660M, Notebook check shows it can run games at reasonable framerates with fairly decent settings.

Here's Arkham City's benchmark on a 660M and i7 3630QM at 1080p.



And here is Arkham Asylum on Very High settings:




You really have false information about the 660M, 670M and the 670MX.

Here's Mafia II at max settings:



Also, here is Diablo 3 on max settings:





Overall my Asus G75VW is a fairly decent laptop even with a GTX 660M. The GPU never gets above 65C and the CPU doesn't even break 70C. It has 2 drive bays and you have the option for a 3rd party ODD to HDD Caddy to add a 3rd drive.Right now I have 2 256GB SSD's in RAID 0 and a 1TB Storage drive. The fans are quiet, it has a palm rest and since the heat is dispersed efficiently the keyboard never feels hot. The standard screen on the G75VW also has a higher color gamut than the Apple Retina Display.

[Boshtastic]

For the 660M, Notebook check shows it can run games at reasonable framerates with fairly decent settings.

Here's Arkham City's benchmark on a 660M and i7 3630QM at 1080p.



And here is Arkham Asylum on Very High settings:




You really have false information about the 660M, 670M and the 670MX.

Here's Mafia II at max settings:



Also, here is Diablo 3 on max settings:





Overall my Asus G75VW is a fairly decent laptop even with a GTX 660M. The GPU never gets above 65C and the CPU doesn't even break 70C. It has 2 drive bays and you have the option for a 3rd party ODD to HDD Caddy to add a 3rd drive.Right now I have 2 256GB SSD's in RAID 0 and a 1TB Storage drive. The fans are quiet, it has a palm rest and since the heat is dispersed efficiently the keyboard never feels hot. The standard screen on the G75VW also has a higher color gamut than the Apple Retina Display.

Did you have DX11, Physx and any AA enabled on Arkham? It doesn't get difficult to run until you switch those on. Diablo is fine my mate plays that on a 5770 desktop card with everything maxed.
I don't doubt its a great laptop, I'm not ragging on your choice of machine. I was pointing the finger at Asus for not offering an extreme performance option. Your probably right I would love the edition with the 670mx but they aren't available in the UK.
Every Asus ROG laptop I have seen has been quite a thing to behold it is just a shame we dont have more options here in the UK.

[Tehterokkar]

Did you have DX11, Physx and any AA enabled on Arkham? It doesn't get difficult to run until you switch those on. Diablo is fine my mate plays that on a 5770 desktop card with everything maxed.
I don't doubt its a great laptop, I'm not ragging on your choice of machine. I was pointing the finger at Asus for not offering an extreme performance option. Your probably right I would love the edition with the 670mx but they aren't available in the UK.
Every Asus ROG laptop I have seen has been quite a thing to behold it is just a shame we dont have more options here in the UK.

Isn't Arkham a native DX11 game? Also don't expect laptops to run games at full settings, PhysX is an "Ultra" setting, takes a heavy toll on the system(especially weak Laptop CPU/GPU).

[n0cturnal]

If I was going to get a desktop replacement like the ROG laptops then I would just go all out and get a Clevo or another custom made laptop.
When you are going to spend that much money on a laptop I want to be able to chose what parts come with it.

[Wries]

No I am a Samsung Series 7 Gamer owner, but when I was looking at machines a few months ago I was very tempted by the exceptional styling and build quality of the ROG laptops but for one gripe I had for such an expensive machine, the GPU options.

Now I know every other part of the laptops the CPU, RAM, possibly not the Storage(could do with an SSD in all configs) are all up to scratch but why are the GPU offerings limited to Nvidia GTX 660m, 670m and 670mx?

While these would be fine for WoW or Cod. There is no chance of playing GW2 at native res at a decent FPS or Arkham 1 and 2 for example.

So why the skimp on graphics? Is it cooling? profit margins? compatibility or driver issues (I doubt it).

To make things worse if your in the UK like me your pretty much limited to the 660m because the other models are like gold dust!

So here's me hoping for a GTX780 in the next gen ROG 17 incher!

My MacBook's intel hd 4000 can play gw2 on native res and on OpenGL no less.. Just lower other settings and frame rate becomes acceptable. I think you are underestimating 660/670m's gaming capabilities. Somewhere there they have made a choice on mobility vs power and in my opinion they've done it right. Want to max out absolutely everything on a high res? I'm sure there still are niche monster laptops available.

[mafao]

While these would be fine for WoW or Cod. There is no chance of playing GW2 at native res at a decent FPS or Arkham 1 and 2 for example.

My Mac Book plays GW2 at 1920x1200 at high settings and still averages at around 40fps. This is a 650M. I am sure that a 670MX would be significantly faster?

[inux94]

Did you have DX11, Physx and any AA enabled on Arkham? It doesn't get difficult to run until you switch those on. Diablo is fine my mate plays that on a 5770 desktop card with everything maxed.
I don't doubt its a great laptop, I'm not ragging on your choice of machine. I was pointing the finger at Asus for not offering an extreme performance option. Your probably right I would love the edition with the 670mx but they aren't available in the UK.
Every Asus ROG laptop I have seen has been quite a thing to behold it is just a shame we dont have more options here in the UK.

You don't need AA on a 15-17" screen.

[Boshtastic]

Isn't Arkham a native DX11 game? Also don't expect laptops to run games at full settings, PhysX is an "Ultra" setting, takes a heavy toll on the system(especially weak Laptop CPU/GPU).

In Arkham You can disable The DX11 features like tessellation and the like and Physx options can be tuned separately. I have owned a total of seven gaming laptops all of which have played the latest games on maxed settings, until now Arkham being the exception and i am told to expect far cry 3 to be the same.

---------- Post added 2013-02-01 at 08:24 PM ----------

If I was going to get a desktop replacement like the ROG laptops then I would just go all out and get a Clevo or another custom made laptop.
When you are going to spend that much money on a laptop I want to be able to chose what parts come with it.

I Did think about it but I heard from alot of sources that the clevo rigs have piss poor build quality especially around the keyboard.

---------- Post added 2013-02-01 at 08:27 PM ----------

My Mac Book plays GW2 at 1920x1200 at high settings and still averages at around 40fps. This is a 650M. I am sure that a 670MX would be significantly faster?

I don't mean this in a scornful way or anything like that but you can't compare a game running on OSX to Windows, no matter what the hardware is.

[Sarevoc]

If you want something with more options next time with good build quality, I suggest a Clevo made laptop.

Apparently there's no way to get a good looking Notebook with a top of the line GPU (680MX or 7970M). I understand that thickness is something you have to accept with powerful notebooks, but I don't understand the material choice and neither do I understand their design (which in the case of clevo is none).

How hard is it to design something as clean as a MacBook Pro? Make it twice as thick, but keep it clean and limit the plastic amount. There are a few non-apple ultrabooks that look nice, but that's it. If you leave the ultrabook market in order to have the option of more powerful GPUs, you're done... you're in the realm of ugly plastic monsters (e.g. clevo). Maybe Alienware is almost an exception here.

I don't own a notebook atm, maybe I'll get some sooner or later, though it will be tough to find something with aesthetics and power in one product. I even look at the bottom of laptops, and if I see five different stickers with five different sizes there, it's almost a no go. It's just a proof that they don't care much about aesthetics.

This may sound like a pro apple post, but I just have to give them credit for what they do. Even the bottom of their notebooks is clean.


(apart from an iPhone I don't own any Apple products)

[Masterec]

Haha, its funny cus when you started ranting about how ugly notebooks are I was like "yeah he even has a pic as an example, my god that is one ugly son of a b..."
Iv got an msi ge series book, i find it quite ok looking.

[mafao]

I don't mean this in a scornful way or anything like that but you can't compare a game running on OSX to Windows, no matter what the hardware is.

No idea what you are trying to say. I am gaming using Windows on my MacBook of course. It is well known that OS X graphics drivers are miles behind Window ones.

[inux94]

Apparently there's no way to get a good looking Notebook with a top of the line GPU (680MX or 7970M). I understand that thickness is something you have to accept with powerful notebooks, but I don't understand the material choice and neither do I understand their design (which in the case of clevo is none).

How hard is it to design something as clean as a MacBook Pro? Make it twice as thick, but keep it clean and limit the plastic amount. There are a few non-apple ultrabooks that look nice, but that's it. If you leave the ultrabook market in order to have the option of more powerful GPUs, you're done... you're in the realm of ugly plastic monsters (e.g. clevo). Maybe Alienware is almost an exception here.

I don't own a notebook atm, maybe I'll get some sooner or later, though it will be tough to find something with aesthetics and power in one product. I even look at the bottom of laptops, and if I see five different stickers with five different sizes there, it's almost a no go. It's just a proof that they don't care much about aesthetics.

This may sound like a pro apple post, but I just have to give them credit for what they do. Even the bottom of their notebooks is clean.


(apart from an iPhone I don't own any Apple products)

Go ahead play something intensive on a MBP, without any bottom grills for the fans
Hint: It sounds like jet engine

The unibody helps at low temperatures, but it isn't effective enough for load temperates for prolonged amount of time

[Wries]

I don't mean this in a scornful way or anything like that but you can't compare a game running on OSX to Windows, no matter what the hardware is.

Most games usually runs worse in their OSX ports so if it runs ok there it's an indication that the hardware can really handle the title. What got stuck as a thorn in my and possibly other's eyes is your claim of "not being able to run game x at native res" with decent fps. There's a lot of things you can sacrifice in most games before having to move down the resolution-slider. Of course you don't want to sacrifice that much in a gaming-notebook, though. But the GPU's listed really aren't that bad, just need a little less beefy cooling and a tinier power brick.

Go ahead play something intensive on a MBP, without any bottom grills for the fans
Hint: It sounds like jet engine

The unibody helps at low temperatures, but it isn't effective enough for load temperates for prolonged amount of time

Fans making noise means they're doing their job. Don't think a grill will help much anyway due to where the vent is placed (the hinge, you usually don't cover it up).

The body of the macbook isn't made as an extension of the heatsink. It's separated.

[Jargan]

I got my Asus G71 4 years ago before I started college. It was just cheap enough ~$1100 to convince my parents to for it, otherwise I would've been stuck gaming on integrated graphics (unplayable back then). Yeah, a x60M GPU isn't the best, but not everyone can justify spending $2k on a x70/x80M laptop because its even more of a niche thing.

And about the macbook pro, I ended up picking one of those a few years ago, since the G71 is a little heavy to carry around. That tiny chasis and clean look has major engineering flaws when it comes to doing anything more than surfing the web. Netflix, any 3D game, etc and you are looking at 90C with fans screaming. I would love to replace the thermal paste, as this would probably help a little bit, but you have to remove the logic board to get to the CPU heatsink. They went light, thin, and pretty with the MBP and it does those well.

Long story short, both products are good examples of niche products. The ROG series is a relatively cheap alternative to something from Clevo/Alienware where as the MBP is light and has good battery life (and that oh so important aesthetic). Of course, with hardware advances like Haswell's GT3 graphics being rumored almost as good as a 650M and the Ultrabook revolution pushing out more affordable MBP alternatives, both products are quickly becoming outdated.

[Blazin Monkey]

No offense, but the standards for what is called "Gaming" laptops is too low. The bar needs to be 45+ FPS minimum. I hear those stories about how you cant see over 60 fps etc... yadda yadda... Bull. I see a better smoothness in wow alone at 85FPS vs 60FPS. These gaming companies and the hardware creators need to look at MAX settings on games getting 85fps minimum. This isn't 2003. This is 2013. It's crap we aren't there yet.

[Zulandia]

No offense, but the standards for what is called "Gaming" laptops is too low. The bar needs to be 45+ FPS minimum. I hear those stories about how you cant see over 60 fps etc... yadda yadda... Bull. I see a better smoothness in wow alone at 85FPS vs 60FPS. These gaming companies and the hardware creators need to look at MAX settings on games getting 85fps minimum. This isn't 2003. This is 2013. It's crap we aren't there yet.

No offense but that saying is due to a regular screen (60Hz) only refreshing 60 times a second which means 60 FPS is the max it can display hence you can't notice anything over that since they're not drawn to the screen.

This of course all changes if you use a 120Hz screen since they can display twice that FPS, but the fact remains most people don't use a 120Hz display so most people tailor their answers around a 60Hz one.