2014 Asus N550JK -DS71T quick mini review and opinion so far

Received my N550JK yesterday afternoon and been playing with it last night and today and here are my short/quick findings so far.



Model is ASUS N550JK-DS71T and it comes with these spec as default
- Windows 8.1
- FULLHD 1920x1080 IPS Touchscreen model LG Philips LGD0323/LP156WF4-SPB1
- Intel Core i7-4700HQ Haswell
- Geforce GTX 850M DDR3 2GB Maxwell GM107M
- Intel HD Graphics 4600 w/ OPTIMUS
- 8GB DDR3 Hynix brand single stick
- 1TB HDD 5400RPM Seagate ST1000LM024
- Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 AC 2x2 - SURPRISE SURPRISE!!! Comes with the Intel 7260 AC as default instead of that crappy Atheros card that Asus use to put on most of their N and G series machines in the past. About damn time ASUS!!!
- DVD+R DL Optical Drive model MATADVD-RAM UJ8E2 S



OK I haven't tested all benchmarks and some recent games yet since everybody in the house seems to be using the bandwidth for the internet connection but I was able to download my favorite game to benchmark which is the very first Crysis Demo which I've used in the past with other notebooks and 3dmark11. The result will shock you and make your head spin even I couldn't believe it. The Maxwell ddr3 gtx 850m is way way faster than the ddr3 gt 650/750m about 50%-80% faster, about 25% faster than gddr5 750m/755m and about 15% faster than the GTX 760m when I had the Asus N56JR a few months back. The performance is very close to the GTX 765m, maybe the 765m is about 5-10% faster but you have to understand, this is the ddr3 version only of the 850m which is why it's very impressive.


3dmark11 score on two tries was 4,173 and 4,144 - Huge huge performance increased compared to ddr3 750m models which only scored between 2,200-2,600 in 3dmark11. This score is in the gtx 765m territory
- Max CPU temp was 81c and gpu 76c


Now the last one is Crysis Demo. I tested other notebooks in the past with this demo with all settings being the same 1080p/Medium settings standing on the same spot that way the fps is steady and remained there for 20-30 minutes shooting and reloading w/ fraps for frames per sec monitor to check for spiking/dips caused by throttling. I usually do this to check for throttling using gpu-z and msi afterburner graph analyzing the gpu usage, core clock, to see if it is normal or I see some up spike or down spike kinda like an ECG machine for the heart lol and HWinfo32 for temps and cpu clock.


Results
- Avg of 78-83 frames per sec at 1080p/medium settings
- Gpu usage is at 99% for 25 minutes and the graph at 99% gpu usage at a straight line. no spiking. Same with core clock and memory clock
- Max temp of 84c for cpu and 77c for gpu after 25 minutes. Remember the N550JV cpu throttles as soon as it hits 80-82c and goes all the way back down to 800mhz?, this one stayed all four cores at 3.1-3.2ghz and never dipped


Now the reason why I say that the gtx 850m Maxwell (even it's only ddr3) is so much faster than the ddr3 750m and still faster than the gtx 760m and almost close to a gtx 765m is because I tested it with other laptops with the same condition/location.


- Asus G55VW w/ gtx 660m in 2011, 1080p/Med 58-60fps
- Clevo W230ST w/ gddr5 gtx 765m last year, 1080p/Med 80-84fps
- Razer 14 w/ gddr5 gtx 765m last year, 900p/Med 92-94fps (obviously it'll be higher compared to W230ST since Razer 14 is only 900p)
- Asus N550JV-DS71 w/ ddr3 gt 750m last year, 1080p/Med 45-50fps
- Acer V7-482PG w/ ddr3 gt 750m last year, 1080p/Med 44-47 fps (About the same fps as the N550JV but Acer only uses i5-4200u cpu)
- Lenovo Y410p w/ gddr5 gt 755m last year, 900p/Med 75-78fps
- Asus N56JR w/ gddr5 gtx 760m last year, 1080p/Med 75-79fps


I will do some more testing today and will also give you my pros/cons in regards to everything like keyboard, touchpad, audio quality, battery life etc...




Update: Redid 3dmark11 again and guess what? The points increased by 400 lol. All I did was uninstalled P4Ghybrid and restarted but I don't think it had anything to do with it. You be the judge. Here's a screenshot

 

Thanks for this mini review! It's hard to find any other reviews right now.

I was wondering, how does the front edge feel? Like if you rest your wrists while typing on the front edge, is it comfortable?

Currently I have a MacBook Pro from 2009 and it's edges are really sharp and always leave deep indents in my arm when I rest my wrists on the edge. Thanks!

Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk

 

this is an outstanding machine.

can you try to overclock it?

 

Hello,

I am looking to buy the model with the new GTX 850M but after reading this forum, I am really afraid of not being able to play more than 30min without cpu and gpu throttling and overheating in general. Plus, there seems to be lots of driver problems.

What can you tell me about that? Has this new version been patched a bit?

 

If gaming for an extended period you could prop up the back of the machine to improve airflow.

 

This may be a stupid question, but I could not tell from the sparse specs on Amazon.
Does this exact model have a Blueray / DVD player?
I am asking about the exact model reviewed: ASUS N550JK-DS71T 15.6-Inch Laptop
And available here on Amazon: Amazon.com: ASUS N550JK-DS71T 15.6-Inch Laptop: Computers & Accessories

Thanks!

 

Can you please check latest gaming on it like BF3/4, NFS rivals etc on 1080p?
I'm soo eager to check the quality of 850m
Also display seams to same one as on N550JV, hows it quality at first glance?

 

Found some videos on youtube of BF4, Rivals, and Crysis 3 gameplay
Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtvGSXlgf6k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6rgGZVA3uo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kimSqaC01zA

 

how is fan on the idle? loud? silent complitly?

 

Hello there! Ok, so I got today my N550JK-CM174H. This one comes with a fullHD touchscreen, the GTX850m with 4gb vram, 8gb ram in one stick, and a 1tb 5400rpm HDD.

I can't say much about it because right now I'm still trying to get a clean installation of W8.1, which is proving to be way more cumbersome than expected, but here is some info:

- I'm quite disappointed with the underside case. Once I took it apart with extreme care (watch out, I cut my fingers deep and too easily with the aluminium!) to replace the HDD with an SSD and put it back, I noticed that the touchpad all of a sudden protruded a bit on the buttons area. This also makes the buttons extremely stiff, almost non usable. So I had to loosen the T5 screws on that side of the underside a bit. This sucks because now the case won't go right up to the edge of the underside which looks bad and lets the dust in, and while the screws are not loose, they might become so with some use. So I have to make a compromise between the two issues. Anyway, since I'll be upgrading the RAM as well, I'll try and take a better look next time I open it up. Maybe it's because of the battery pushing up the touchpad, maybe I just didn't fit the case well enough.

- The touchpad itself is a bit sucky. I still didn't have the time to tinker with it much, but many times as I was trying to left click, the cursor moved at the same time. I think this was one of the criticisms the n550jv got? Well, here it is again. Not too bad for me though since I always use a mouse.

- The spacebar seems a bit fiddly as well, it definitely doesn't have the same feel as the rest of the keys, which are comfortable enough. I'll have to try it thoroughly, it could be problematic.

- My wlan+bt card is not an intel as Benchmade reported! Instead it's an AzureWave AW-NB126H which sells for 6€ at eBay and looks like it features an Atheros 9485 chip. I'm attaching a photo proof. I don't know if this is good or bad as with the n550jv. If I see that it doesn't work well, I'll get an intel one... a quick google search brings up some results of users with that chip having problems.




As for the rest... well, I just booted to Windows once and the overall feel was great. But right now I'm not too amused due to all those small things. Hope they stay small. Will try and update soon with more thoughts! I'm sure it'll only get better from here.