Asus ROG G703VI Chimera VS MSI GT75VR

Just my few cents regarding the New Asus Chimera with comparing it to the MSI GT75VR.

Here is a short review of the Chimera I received:

CPU: core i7 7700hq
Ram: 1x Samsung 16 GB 2400 mhz
Storage: 1x Samsung nvme 256 GB SSD+ HGST 1 tb hdd
Screen: 17.3" AUO 144 hz full hd G-Sync
VGA: GTX 1080 8gb gddr5 factory ocerclocked with Rog Gaming center (core boost 1974 MHz, memory 5125 MHz)


BIOS
Chimera has an animated boot logo with Sound and an uefi BIOS with gui. However the BIOS is fully locked. You can only set the most basic things.
For example you can not disable raid mode and set sata to ahci, so if you do a fresh W10 install, dont forget to copy irst driver on the pendrive, because you need to manually browse it. Without it the installer Will not see the Samsung nvme SSD (even if you only have 1x 256 GB SSD in the system).

Display : I like the newer AUO panel in the Chimera. Colors are good, response time is escellent (no noticable afterimage during fast movement like with the previous 120 hz 25 ms AUO IPS panel ).
The production fault which I am taking about for months now is present here too. (1 or more Pixel sized green dot which is visible at certain view angles and black background. I am really interested now what the Hell is this issue. Besides the MSI Chi Mei panel I already seen this issue with LG 75 hz panel and now even this 2017 week 16 manufactured AUO 144 hz panel. Is every panel manufactured affected? No I am not crazy, I showed this to many people in person and first most of them did not see it, but after I pointed it out, everyone confirmed it. I curse the day when I first noticed this issue, ever since I did not find a 17.3 panel which is not affected (no issue with 15.4)



Regarding backlight bleeding I think the Chimera is worse (as you can see from the above picture it is bad...) than my previous laptops. A least unlike with cheaper ips panels, there is no PWM if I lower the brightness.

Performance
My model is equiped with a bga 7700hq. Here is a Firestrike benchmark:


Rottr benchmark(everything max, ssao)



Points are not bad, however regarding gaming performance I am not satisfied if I compare it to an MSI GT75VR 7rf or to my desktop computer.
I tested Rise of the Tomb Raider and Witcher 3.
Out of the box ROTTR run smoothly without any game breaking issues on the GT75VR, however neither the G701VIK and G703VI were able to run this game out of the box, because the game had game breaking stuttering on the Asus laptops. I did not test the G701 further. I clean installed W10 FCU on the Chimera and tested ROTTR dx12 with Asus driver and the latest Nvidia driver. I have a save for a selected spot after Geothermal Valley. Here both the CPU and GPU is much more taxed than earlier parts of the game and it is a small arrea which I can use to benchmark.
Here desktop computer (even if the 6700k is downclocked to 3.4 GHz ) give 84 fps.
MSI GT75VR factory clocked GPU, but oc CPU to 4.2 have here 80 fps.
Chimera gave me here 67 fps. A significant decrease.
There is also some swapping issue here, so desktop and MSI hitch for half a blink at fixed spots, but nothing close to being game breaking. Chimera also had the hitching at these spots but besides this I also noticed microstuttering. It was hard to notice when fps was above 80, but when I got to the above mentioned area where it dropped to 67fps, the microstuttering was so noticable that it looked like if it was running at 45 fps.
Witcher 3 Blood and Wine starting area has some minor microstuttering on my desktop, but it is much more noticable on the Chimera, it looks like frame shipping.
tl:dr: gaming experience was much better with MSI GT75VR and desktop.

Temp
You can see the temp in the above benchmark. Fan was using fan boost, however it was not running at max rpm. GPU temp 70C was escellent for an ocerclocked GTX 1080, however 80C for a 7700HQ is not that great, MSI can keep a 4.2 GHz oc CPU with 80C...however MSI is much louder. CPU side it needs a repaste to reach it's potential, however not counting this the cooling in my opinion is better than the GT75VR. Quieter and much more efficient.

Sound
I like the Chimera's. It's loud, no disturbance and the built in subwoofer is good.

Quality
There is a part at the right side of the keyboard which is brushed alumínium but most of the machine is plastic.
The bezel around the screen is thin and does not really give protection for the screen panel against pressure. Also when I open the lid I hear a strange clicking noise.
Keyboard is plastic, not mechanical and for the first few presses the "a" button gave out sound if it was loose. Asus probably pour all their money into the RGB effect. At least KITT's waving radar effect is cool when I turn off the machine.

I have made a few videos. One where I unbox it and another one with the keyboard. Please excuse this unscripted video with poor editing and stock music, I had a train to catch so I rushed it.

Unboxing



Keyboard

 

Why didn't you test this with 7820HK? That is more fair. 7700HQ is a horrible CPU. It's even more horrible with a GTX 1080, even more so with a 144hz monitor because you can't push 144 FPS in most new games with a 3.4 ghz processor.

Did you get this as a free unit? If you bought it, please return it and get a 7820HK. Trust me. Then you can use Throttlestop and try to overclock and test power limits (after doing a repaste). This is the test people need. Also would help to see just how much the EC is locked down.

 

I concur, I can't believe Asus made 7700HQ models of the Chimera, it was a bad move, how can they think a CPU that can't even sustain 35w+ let alone 45w locked can feed a 144hz display??

If you can get the 7820HK model in your country, I was able to recently get the GT73 Pro-866 up to 45x x 4 cores with power settings to 200w and it held frequency and power without thermal throttling. IDK if I would run it that way as a daily setting, but 4.2ghz with unlocked power is definitely doable (how I left it configured).

I'd try again with another Chimera with a 7820HK.

Or, save your cash and wait for a 6c/12t model sometime early next year, whoever releases it successfully first. I'd wait for benchmarks and reviews from owners. Again, only get the i9 8850HK unlocked CPU model.

But, I don't think you need to wait for it, the 7820HK will do you well too.

 

I will return it, there are just too many issues and quality problems.
It is not easy, but I could manage to get a 7820hk unit, however I will skip it, with the 8950hk announcement at the door, I just wait a little longer.

 

Poor Asus. It seems they couldnt improve anything apart from keyboard if we compare with G701vik.

 

I was cross referencing NVME SSDs in Asus laptops and the inability to switch from raid to ahci in the BIOS as this is a major issue for installing mac os and booting on them. Here is the problem (https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...74k-i7-6820-64gb-ddr4-w-980-dedicated.217739/) reply #13 explains it. However, in your post you mention a solution with an irst and pendrive, which if it does allow the bios to be switched from RAID to AHCI mode then that would be terrific. Could you explain step by step how to go about unlocking the bios so I can change it from RAID to AHCI? Thank you.

 

Hi guys,

First i apologize for my bad english. Pls excuse me.

After my 6 years old laptop unable to run some games (Asus Rog g74sx With 3d)
i decided to buy new laptop and after some investigation there were only 2 options for me. 1 is msi gt75vr and other is asus rog g703VI chimera.

One of my friends got msi gt75vr and he gave me msi for a couple(5) days for test. I played wow,lol,pubg,witcher3 and diablo3 ros.
Msi performans is so solid. Keyboard is mechanic, cooling is good, fps never dropped under 60 in any games. Then i gave a chance to asus. so i decided to buy asus cuz i have return guarantee in 14 days. If i dont like it i can return asus and get msi.

This is 4th day with asus. I am playing the same games that i played with msi.

differences is;
Keyboard msi is a little bit better.
U can hear key press sound with msi.Cuz it is mechanic. But asus has soft keys. Msi has hard plastic on keyboards but asus has soft plastic in keyboard. when u touch keyboards u feel more soft and u will hear less key press sound with asus. But both keyboard performans are same. U feel no difference. Only sound and touching are different

Cooling asus is more better.
With msi when i play some games i can hear cooling fan sound like a airplane take off. But with asus i have not been hearing any cooling fan sound yet. But when i copy some file or download games fan is running a little bit. So u hear sound. But in games i have never heart a airplane take off sound with asus. first i thought my cooling never went in boost mode. Then I gave full performance to fans from rog game center. the sound went too high like an airbus 320 takeoff. At full performance asus cooling is more capable. But in game modes. Asus uses it less. Msi uses more.

Sound system is better at both msi and asus. I felt no difference at games and music. But rog gaming center u have some sound profile. (music gaming and cinema)

LCD both are about the same. Only diffecence i see that asus has some backlight at LDC panel when all screen went black. I didnt see (or i dont remember at all) anything at msi. But both screens are exact same. U feel no difference. Only thing is asus has 144 hz panel. Msi 120. İf u dont play FPS games it is not a difference ( lol,diablo vs.)

Game FPS: I didnt make a deep research for this but when i play games i look fps sometimes. Didnt log every frame and made graphics. Im just a gamer. But i can tell this.
All settigns is on, antialiasing and others al all on Average Fps are both same. U dont feel any difference.

We are all not scientist and we are not laptop detective. But when we want to buy something we need the best of all. And for me both machines are like a german tank. Dont try to seperate them. They are same.

After no problem at my old asus laptop g74sx with 3D, i can say that i keep asus with me. I like it more. Case are good. And 17' rog gamer bag comes with laptop. And price are the same in my country.

Just pick the most u love or u like. They are same.

If u have any questions about laptop i can help u. Feel free to ask anything.

 

That configuration makes me cringe. I would expect a basic user looking at poor /r/buildapc units making these kinds of silly balance issues, but to think this is a supposedly "premium" gaming notebook is terrible. Single stick memory, overpriced NVMe drive and a weak 7700HQ for an overclocked 1080 is just sad to see.

Yeah this.. this is disgusting about the BIOS. Good reason for me to get people to avoid this unit.

As for these gaming issues, I'm completely willing to bet this is single channel memory's fault. It is a definite performance drop when CPU is the limiting factor, and Geothermal Valley is hitting the CPU hard. I'm even willing to bet your desktop does better simply because its RAM is better than the MSI when the MSI is clocked a lot higher. Hence why I made such a big deal above about the specifications.

 

if the bios is that locked why would you even allow the user to open the lid?

better play it safe and solder the lid together with the chassis to prevent any "user inflicted" damages!