G50VT-X2 Review and Benchmarks

[phunkybpb]

G50VT-X2
Intel Centrino 2, Core 2 Dou P8600 2.4Ghz 3MB Cache
15.4 WSXGA+ 1680x1050
4GB DDR2 RAM
320GB HDD, 7200 RPM
Nvidia GeForce 9800m GS 512 Mb DDR3
DVD Super Multi
Vista 64-bit
WARRANTY: 2 0 2 24 = 2 year global (limited parts, limited labor, 1 year battery), 0 dead pixels for 30 days, 2 way overnight shipping, 24 hour tech support, + 1 year accidental (spill, surge, fire, drop)


I received my G50vt-X2 from New Egg yesterday for $1386 after shipping (overnight). I decided for it over the X1, even with the sale price from BB because it came down to a $200 price dfference ($1182 vs $1386) and the benefits of the X2 are worth more than that- the screen resolution, the processor upgrade, and the warranty. After warranty the BB model would cost over $1400, and still not have the screen or processor upgrade.

*** If you don't feel like reading entire paragraphs I have bullet point summaries at the end of each section***

Build, Keyboard, Touchpad:
For those familiar with the G50 series I doubt there is much different from other models, if anything. It feels significantly more sturdy than most every notebook I have dealt with, especially commercial brands like HP, Gateway, and Dell. The orange racing stripes actually look pretty awesome and the LED light strips are enjoyable, although a bit cheesy (I turned the blinking off immediately). There are small plastic overlaps on the edges of my screen which are not a problem, but I noticed them almost as soon as I opened the screen the first time. The keyboard is very nice and responsive. I have no lag issues that others complain about. There are some weird popping noises, like the windows notifications sounds that come from the "~, 1, 2, 3, Esc, and F1" keys when pressed with normal typing force, not particularly annoying, but not particularly enjoyable either. I'm glad they included a numpad, although its size almost beckons one. It's as large at my 17inch HP! It feels heavier too, at 7 pounds this isn't your grandma's notebook. The touch pad works well and doesn't have someof the response issues I have noticed on some fo my friends laptops, however the left and right mouse buttons are too firm and require a hard press to click. This aside, I'm either getting used to it or they are getting more loose as I use it more.

• Solid and sturdy build
• Responsive keyboard, no lag here!
• Some keys on top left corner make popping noise when pressed with force.
• Attractive design, somewhat cool lights
• Touchpad great, but left and right mouse buttons FAR too rigid
• Some rough edges on perimeter of screen, non-issue
• HUGE for a 15 incher!

Screen: 1680 x 1050 native resolution
I'm glad I went for the extra resolution, because it is extremely noticeable when gaming and makes normal computer functions that much more precise. The viewing angles for the screen are great, about as wide as you can get. I do wish it was 17-inches in retrospect (they could have easily fit it), but I don't think the extra investment in notebooks that have the 17in is worth at the moment. My only complaint is when opening the screen from the closed position you MUST put a finger on the base of the laptop and hold it down. They screens hinge is very tight, which is a good, but I think it is over done as I can't open my screen with one hand with doing really awkard things with my arm.

• Sharp screen, great resolution, great viewing angles
• Seems small for the size of the laptop
• Screen hinges too tight, requires two hands to open

Speakers
Wow. I have to say I am thoroughly impressed with how well they achieve a "surround sound" effect. I have not used this laptop to play music yet (and will update when I do), but the audio on COD4 and Crysis is rich and clear and encompassing. I agree with others that the speakers are quiet in regards to playing audio that itself is quiet. I have had issues watching .flv videos and hearing what was going on in the videos with people simply talking in the background around me. This aside, they are great in the sound quality department. No bass of course.

• Crisp, clear, dynamic, and have certain surround sound effect to them.
• Too quiet for some purposes
• No bass, but its a laptop, what do you expect?

Heat and Noise:
Lowest resting but running GPU temps I had were 38*C, probably soon after booting up, 46-53*C seem to be normal operating, though it hovers closer to 46* on exactly at 46* most of the time. Gaming peaked at 85*C. The fan is quiet and efficient and is one of my favorite parts about the notebook, it really gets the hot air out of this computer way more effectively than any other laptop I have encountered (although my experience with gaming laptops is limited). The intake screen is great and beats the heck out of my HP dv9000s horrible heat dissipation. Haven't felt any heat dissipation through the keyboard, palm rests, or touchpad even after extended gaming sessions (which there has only been one two hour session thus far, so we will see). *All testing done in "Turbo Charge" mode.

***These numbers were acheived WITHOUT elevating the back!!!***
Core #1

• Normal load = 35-40*C
• Heavy load(gaming) = 52*C
• Max = 56*c

Core #2

• Normal load = 30-34*C
• Heavy load(gaming) = 46*C
• Max= 52*C

GPU

• Normal load = 46-53*C
• Heavy load(gaming) = 81*C
• Max = 86*C

***With elevated back broguht me bad luck!***

• GPU MAX = 91*C during L4D, started with a lot of choppiness then crashed in driver related error.


• Quiet and effective fan with great intake vent
• No heat leaking through surface you touch

Battery:
I have not done a full run down on the battery, but accidentally gamed unplugged yesterday. I made it 40 minute before I realized my battery indicator was quite low. I would guess less than an hour gaming (which gaming unplugged is bad for you computer I have been told). I surfed the net unplugged for a while and noticed quickly fleeting battery, I would guess one and a half hours normal load on battery mode.

• Battery life sucks.

Doodads and Turbo charging:
So much better than the bullcrap they put on all those "entertainment" laptops out there. The display and touch buttons on top are ACTUALLY USEFUL FOR ONCE! There is a neat little display, that can provide a readout of CPU load, Memory load, MSN messages, email, and special notes you write to yourself. I wonder if there any other programs that utilize it in a more customizable way (if there aren't I'm going to look into whipping something up, but no promises). The touch buttons are useful for a change, they aren't volume control or Quickplay/DVD buttons or email buttons or pause buttons - buttons that don't work well and I never ever use (with the exception of volume control, although it was a pain in the *** to get it just right)! Instead there are four extremely useful buttons. A direct console button, express gate (non boot up specialty button), power mode button, and touchpad on/off button.

• Direct console is a super easy way to OC the CPU on the fly depending on your needs. There is a noticeable difference in performance, at least in 3dmark.
• Express Gate is a way to use media servies without booting up VIsta - blurb coming soon.
• Power mode is a convent way to quickly adjust your notebooks power settings to meet your current needs, I have used it a bit so far, swapping from performance mode to battery saving mode.
• Touchpad on/off is pretty standard these days as I understand it, good when gaming.

G50 experience summary:
Love. I call it love. I come from a long line of disappointing laptops, purchased for their "great value" or "features", but really because they were cheap and convenient. Now I'm that I'm all grown up and out of college I can make big decisions without my daddy holding my hand. I researched this laptop for three freaking weeks and I'm glad I made this choice. I don't think I can go back to another HP or Dell or any of the mainstream bunch ever again. This thing rips games apart, is full of features I can actually use, and is actually an incredible value. The meat that comes with the package can't be beat in price by anything else on the market right now, let alone the perks of the Asus warranty.

I would have to give this laptop overall 5/5 stars

• Performance - 5/5
• Display - 5/5
• Build - 5/5
• Controls - 5/5
• Speakers - 3.5/5
• Portability - 3/5 << but it's a gaming laptop, not a netbook!
• Features - 5/5
• Value - 6/5 << Yeah, I did it, I went that far.

Updated Impressions...
I GOT A BSOD!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!
THEN L4D CRASHED AT THE FRIGGIN FINALE OF ONE OF THE MOVIES!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!
Gave me a driver error on the second one which in my fury I forgot, and the same thing happen with the first, which wasnt fury but simple sadness.
^^^ Update for clarity. Whatever the crashes were related to, updating my driver to a more recent one appears to have resolved any issues. While performance increase is absolutely minute, if it even exists, there has been no more crashing. The first crash was when I "turbo extremed" the CPU, if it happens again I'll let you know. They second must have been driver issues, because that's when the heat peaked at 91* and my L4D crashed. Since then temps running at 86.

• Occasional issues wit volume indicator popup. I just want to turn it off, minimized a game or two, hasn't been much of a problem since
• More portable than I thought, I can fit it in my normal 15inch bag, although it bulges and it's edges are visible through my bag. Seven pounds is not heavy when you sport muscles like mine!
• The screen is incredibly bright and crystal clear, rather visible in sun light
• The lights have grown on me
• Worth the extra money over the X1, the resolution is perfect and the the warranty makes me quiver.

GAMING:

Crysis Demo Benchmark Tool:

***This is what I have been playing around with, and while the results came out low in the benchmark tool it seems to run at a playable mid 20s with these settings and the Crysis experience is full on! It slows down during intense moments or explosions, but the performance hit is worth it for the visual feast. Really what makes the biggest hit is the shaders, but what is Crysis without them shaders? A linear shooter with decent graphics.***


DX10 1280x960
AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 32 bit test, FullScreen
Time Of Day= 9
Custom Quality Values:
Volumetric = VeryHigh
Texture = High
ObjectDetail = VeryHigh
Sound = VeryHigh
Shadows = Medium
Water = High
Physics = VeryHigh
Particles = VeryHigh
Shading = High
PostProcess = VeryHigh
GameEffects = VeryHigh
==============================================================
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
Play Time: 118.10s, Average FPS: 16.94
Min FPS: 10.87 at frame 1031, Max FPS: 22.81 at frame 1752
Average Tri/Sec: 18150648, Tri/Frame: 1071778
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: 0.86


DX9 Has a noticable performance boost, and again, it's a playable mid 20s range that looks amazing!

DX9 1280x960
AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 32 bit test, FullScreen
Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: High << ALL SETTINGS HIGH
==============================================================
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
Play Time: 86.32s, Average FPS: 23.17
Min FPS: 15.65 at frame 139, Max FPS: 28.55 at frame 1002
Average Tri/Sec: 23646268, Tri/Frame: 1020558
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: 0.90

***Been playing with custom settings suggested though incrysis -dot- com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=11614, tweaked a couple things lower and ran in DX9, ran 1024x768 at about 25fps avg, 28-40 at high fps moments, 18-22 at low fps moments. It is essentially the equivalent of Very High in DX10 and looks gorgeous. Reduced textures to medium and gained about 3 fps.

***^^^ Update to those stats/info. Low 20s fps is a joke and not worth it for shaders on super high. Playing at 1360x768, all high except for shaders and shadows at medium. 30 fps average and looks nearly as beautiful as DX10 at 20 FPS or my custom settings because the resolution is so much better.

DX9 1400x960,
AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 32 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=1, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: Custom
Custom Quality Values:
VolumetricEffects=Medium
Texture=High
ObjectDetail=Medium
Sound=Medium
Shadows=Medium
Water=High
Physics=Medium
Particles=High
Shading=Medium
PostProcessing=High
GameEffects=High
====================================================
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 59.33s, Average FPS: 33.71
Min FPS: 22.65 at frame 160, Max FPS: 40.97 at frame 1728
Average Tri/Sec: 26053702, Tri/Frame: 772920
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: 1.19
TimeDemo Play Ended, (1 Runs Performed)




Call of Duty 4

1680x1050
All settings Max/On/Normal/Extra
4xAA

Fraps average:
Vacant = 55
Killhouse = 45

Left 4 Dead

So L4D runs amazingly fast and beautifully with max settings, but I have yet to benchmark it. Expect some Fraps info coming soon. It runs fine now after I updated the nvidia driver, but it actually crashed twice now. The first time gave me a BSOD and I think it was related to OCing the CPU. Hasn't happened since and it better not or I will be very sad. Second time was because of an nvidia driver crashing, which simply stopped the game from working and when I checked the max temp it gave me 91*C!!!! I blame it on stock drivers needing an update, the temp soaring, and the GPU crahing because of this. Before updated the drivers there were also a lot of hichups that plagued th game after 20 minutes of playtime.

-Update the driver to something recent from LV2G if you want to make sure nothing "weird" goes down.


For more detailed benchmarking of this GPU I strongly suggest reading Flbroker's very complete review of the G50VT-A2 @ forum.notebookreview -dot- com/showthread.php?t=321013
^^While the processor is faster, they share the same GPU, RAM speed, and HDD speed.


*** WILL ADD MORE GAMING BENCHS & FOLLOWUP ON SOME SECTIONS SOON! ***

[Zato One]

Great review so far. This is the laptop im going to get as well, prob in two weeks from newegg.

[Delta_CT]

Thanks for the review, keep the info coming. Is the warranty on the X2 the same as for the A1 and A2? Also, is it true that it doesn't come with the backpack and the mouse (not that I need/want them)? One more question, it looks like there only a single 320GB HDD, is there an open slot to add in another one?

[phunkybpb]

Updated info up!

Delta-

Warranty details at top of review, though it should be the same warranty as the A-1 and A-2 because it is Asus' manufacturers warranty.

NO BACKPACK OR MOUSE! Kind of a letdown, but NE is not providing them with the notebook. I thought about complaining to Asus and seeing if they would be so kind as to help me out, but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

Single HDD totaling 287 gigs not including Vista's large install space. Comes pre-partitioned. Not a big deal to me as I store all my music data on an external HDD for ease of use and safe keeping, everything else is easily replaceable and expendable to me. I wouldn't have minded more space, but I really don't care.

[E.B.E.]

Thanks for the review, will be added to the stickies on the next edit.

[KingDude]

nice review...i am shortlisting this one for my shopping at NE..

Can you post some pics and the dimensions of the laptop?

[KingDude]

ohh and just wondering if there is any other place i can buy this and save on tax and/or shipping..?

[phunkybpb]

New Egg is only retailer currently. Pics and dimensions coming soon, but I know it's about 15 inches long.

[jd3005]

Well NCIX has the G50vt X3 in stock.

[Osprey88]

Great review, I hope to buy this laptop within the month! Keep the stats and gaming benchmarks coming!