ASUS G75VW: Performance

Performance

 Our ASUS G75VW review unit has the following specifications:

• 17.3-inch anti-glare 1080p display (1920x1080 resolution)
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core i7-3610QM quad-core processor (2.3GHz, up to 3.3GHz Turbo Boost, 6MB cache, 45W TDP)
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M w/ 2GB GDDR5 dedicated memory
• 12GB DDR3-1600 (3x 4GB; 16GB max - 4x 4GB)
• 2x 750GB 7200RPM Seagate hard drives (ST9750420AS; non-RAID setup)
• 802.11n wireless (Atheros AR9485WB-EG)
• Integrated Bluetooth v4.0
• Integrated HD webcam
• Internal tray-load 6X Blu-ray reader/DVD burner
• 2-year limited warranty w/ 1-year accidental damage protection
• 8-cell li-ion battery (74Wh; 5200mAh)
• Weight: 10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 16.4 x 12.6 x 0.7~2.1 inches
• Price: $1,739

These are specifications we'd expect to see in a high-end gaming notebook. Our G75VW has a whopping 1.5TB of total drive space. It also includes a Blu-ray drive and 12GB of RAM. Lesser-priced configurations - which still include the Intel Core i7-3610QM quad-core processor and Nvidia GTX 660M graphics card - are available with reduced memory, hard drive space, and a DVD burner in place of the Blu-ray drive. Overall $1,739 is a decent price for this configuration though it doesn't jump out as a fantastic deal.

Performance and Benchmarks

Overall performance - specifically gaming performance - is the top reason to buy this notebook. The G75VW comes in many different configurations; ours is more of a base level model with the entry-level (albeit more than powerful) Intel Core i7 quad-core processor and the lesser of the two graphics cards offered in this notebook, the GTX 660M. Pricier models come with a GTX 670M which is about 15-25% faster but runs hotter (that shouldn't be an issue for the G75VW thanks to its excellent cooling system but we can't say for sure since we haven't tested it). The GTX 660M is able to play all modern games at full HD (1080p) resolution with medium to high visual settings - so it's fast enough for almost everyone.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark Vantage measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

PCMark 7 is a newer benchmark which measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 mesures overall graphics card performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark Vantage measures overall graphics performace for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark11 measures graphics performance in DirectX 11 games (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Gaming Performance

We ran two of the latest games on our G75VW test unit: Mass Effect 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. We used maximum visual quality settings for benchmarking. All games were run at the notebook's native screen resolution (1920x1080).

Mass Effect 3:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3:

30 frames per second (FPS) is the accepted minimum for smooth gameplay; the G75VW and its Nvidia GTX 660M didn't have any trouble maintaining above this number at all times (notice the minimum FPS). It's an impressive performer. Those wanting more performance can opt for a slightly more expensive G75VW with a GTX 670M graphics card, which is about 15-25% faster as we noted above (according to Nvidia, anyway).