Asus' New G501 Gaming Laptop Features Nvidia's New 960M GPU

[Guest]

Asus joined the party of companies releasing new gaming laptops that feature Nvidia's latest mobile GPUs.

Asus' New G501 Gaming Laptop Features Nvidia's New 960M GPU : Read more

 

[ohim]

I like how they use the term "Gaming" on laptops. Though i admit for the size factor they have pretty decent GPUs, Gaming on Desktop =/= Gaming on Laptop. But for marketing`s sake it sounds bad ass.

 

[fatboyslimerr]

The GTX 960M is a bit of a joke though, based on the first iteration of Maxwell GM107, with only a slight increase in clock speed over the old GTX 860M. This GPU will totally fail to play games at 4K or 1080p, particularly newer titles like Dragon Age: Inq, Dying Light and FC4.

 

[SylentVyper]

I like how they use the term "Gaming" on laptops. Though i admit for the size factor they have pretty decent GPUs, Gaming on Desktop =/= Gaming on Laptop. But for marketing`s sake it sounds bad ass.

To be fair, I have a desktop with a 4670k and GTX 760 and my laptop with an i7-4710 and 970m (Sager NP8651) gets about 5-10% better performance in 1080p gaming. I play everything, even Far Cry 4, on High/Ultra with AA.

Granted, the laptop costs a fair bit more, but I use it for work as well (needed a laptop with a true quad-core), but I would certainly say gaming on it isn't "gaming", it's regular gaming.

 

[unempit]

Friday the 13th math? "...The G751 will cost even more at $1,399."

 

[pasow]

i have a GTX 860m (the original name for the GTX 960m) and while its good for 1080p, the things going to choke to death at UHD...

 

[TechyInAZ]

That does not make since, why does the GTX 960 in the ROG laptop come with 4GB of vram instead of 2? It will never use all that vram for gaming, I'd rather save my money and get 2GB of vram instead.

 

[masterchi]

Friday the 13th math? "...The G751 will cost even more at $1,399."

$1,399 > $1,999. The author must have learned math using the CORE curriculum they have going on here in California.

 

[game junky]

Looks like a down-spec'd version of the GX500 they teased last year - whenever they actually release that SOB in the US, I will stand in line. If they aborted that product line, this is a legit alternative - it would actually be used as a work laptop that I can play games on while stuck at a hotel so it should fit the bill though the price tag makes me wanna vom a bit. That's what you get when you try to find the mythical unicorn that is a skinny high performance laptop

 

[CybKnox]

That does not make since, why does the GTX 960 in the ROG laptop come with 4GB of vram instead of 2? It will never use all that vram for gaming, I'd rather save my money and get 2GB of vram instead.

Because there are games like Shadow of Mordor that need more than 2GB to run at high/ultra settings. In http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-960M-Review.137893.0.html they specify exactly this, showing that the 860m 4GB performs better in that situation.

 

[PudgyChicken]

I just got a Lenovo Y50 with an i7 4x and a gtx 860m and a 4K screen. I hate it. At face value it should be a great laptop, but simply put, Intel integrated graphics can't really handle 4K. I've installed a 1TB Samsung 840 Evo ssd, and yet it's still not a fast experience. And then add to that the fact that windows is absolutely awful at display scaling, not to mention all the things that don't scale at all like java, and you end up with a user experience that's rather sub par.

Needless to say, I won't be getting another 4K laptop for a long time. 1080p is just fine. 2K works as well. But for 4K? Nope.

 

[alextheblue]

I just got a Lenovo Y50 with an i7 4x and a gtx 860m and a 4K screen. I hate it. At face value it should be a great laptop, but simply put, Intel integrated graphics can't really handle 4K. I've installed a 1TB Samsung 840 Evo ssd, and yet it's still not a fast experience. And then add to that the fact that windows is absolutely awful at display scaling, not to mention all the things that don't scale at all like java, and you end up with a user experience that's rather sub par.

Needless to say, I won't be getting another 4K laptop for a long time. 1080p is just fine. 2K works as well. But for 4K? Nope.

You're the first person I've heard really cry about their 4K display. Individual programs not scaling well is not Windows' fault. Most of this crap was not written to scale well to UHD resolutions, even Chrome took forever to adopt decent scaling (and text rendering). Then you state that the Intel graphics aren't good enough for 4K. Is the device equipped with an Nvidia 860M or not? Finally you stick in a 1TB last-gen budget SSD into a relatively costly device. A higher-end 500GB SSD would have been worlds better, or at least an 850 Evo. Your whole paragraph just comes off as suspicious.

i have a GTX 860m (the original name for the GTX 960m) and while its good for 1080p, the things going to choke to death at UHD...

Thankfully Ye Olde PC Games let you adjust resolution. If you cut it down to 1080p, it scales pixel-perfect up to 2160p. Boom problem solved. Then you still get 4K for web browsing and movie playback etc etc. It's not like like trying to run a game at 768p on a 1080p display, where the scaling is not quite perfect.

 

[game junky]

I just got a Lenovo Y50 with an i7 4x and a gtx 860m and a 4K screen. I hate it. At face value it should be a great laptop, but simply put, Intel integrated graphics can't really handle 4K. I've installed a 1TB Samsung 840 Evo ssd, and yet it's still not a fast experience. And then add to that the fact that windows is absolutely awful at display scaling, not to mention all the things that don't scale at all like java, and you end up with a user experience that's rather sub par.

Needless to say, I won't be getting another 4K laptop for a long time. 1080p is just fine. 2K works as well. But for 4K? Nope.

You're the first person I've heard really cry about their 4K display. Individual programs not scaling well is not Windows' fault. Most of this crap was not written to scale well to UHD resolutions, even Chrome took forever to adopt decent scaling (and text rendering). Then you state that the Intel graphics aren't good enough for 4K. Is the device equipped with an Nvidia 860M or not? Finally you stick in a 1TB last-gen budget SSD into a relatively costly device. A higher-end 500GB SSD would have been worlds better, or at least an 850 Evo. Your whole paragraph just comes off as suspicious.

i have a GTX 860m (the original name for the GTX 960m) and while its good for 1080p, the things going to choke to death at UHD...

Thankfully Ye Olde PC Games let you adjust resolution. If you cut it down to 1080p, it scales pixel-perfect up to 2160p. Boom problem solved. Then you still get 4K for web browsing and movie playback etc etc. It's not like like trying to run a game at 768p on a 1080p display, where the scaling is not quite perfect.

Agreed - we need to treat this new gaming ultrabook subcategory of laptops for the unicorn that they truly are. Size/Weight and Performance are typically in direct conflict with each other. There are some impressive options out there (Lenovo's Y50, Origin's last gen 15-S, Razer's Razer Blade just to name a few top tier options) but I think that number will likely increase based on Nvidia and Intel's architecture making great strides to increase the amount of performance you can get out of a smaller manufacturing process and lower power requirements. Based on these successes, we can only assume they're going to keep shrinking the die.

I am currently using a Yoga 2 Pro for my work laptop because I needed portability, CPU performance and battery life, but the G501 is likely to be my next upgrade if the battery life can stay above 7 hours. I would love to be able to play BF4 & Hardline from my hotel room when I am stuck in a hotel room all week and that hasn't been very feasible without shelling out an impressive amount of cash up until now. I like the GX/NX500 laptops but until I can do a shot for shot comparison at a local brick and mortar I might be stuck dreaming of gaming on the go without breaking my back to carry a beefy laptop or my wallet to get a thin performance model.