Video: ASUS G50Vt gaming laptop gets benchmarked, reviewed
By Darren Murph 
posted February 12th 2009 6:59PM
posted February 12th 2009 6:59PM
posted February 12th 2009 6:59PM
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If this is the same one that's $950 at Best Buy, I'm planning on picking it up with my tax return that happens to be $970. Cause my Pentium 4 machine died for the last time, I've decided.
*posted that while I was at the gym on my phone, so I couldn't see the video that says you can buy it with the same configuration they tested at Best Buy for $949. This just reinforced my curiosity, and I'm totally picking it up whenever my tax return comes back. Can't wait, this is a sweet price for a pretty decent gaming laptop.
I just wish they would have shown more than just Quake Wars. Crysis on medium? (serious question... not a trollish "but can it play Crysis")
Too bad it's around $2600 here in China...
Yes it can play crysis on medium at 720p guaranteed because I can do that on my G1S that ha a 8600mGT
no where in canada have I seen it under $1800 CAD
The Macbook that has a mid-range GPU? Not like the high end 9800M GS in the G50VT? The Macbook that's terrible for gaming? You know, the same gaming this laptop is intended for? Get your head out of your ass...
Seriously? Lol. Yeah, because I am 100% sure that you couldn't just put XP on here, right? Oh btw, have fun with Peggle Extreme...
Oh god, I'm always so worried gaming on a slightly bloated SP1 Vista rig...How will my 9800 gs and 4gb of ram ever be able to handle it, I'm sure that amazingly streamlined Leopard will game much better..../sarcasm
@ Paul A. Chapel
Viruses aren't a problem if you're a resourceful PC user. I'd like to think that most core gamers (between casual and hardcore) like myself are.
@Paul A. Chapel I'll admit right away I am an apple fanboy, but come on, do you really have to act like such a prick? Macbooks are not designed to run games at all, dont go around acting like they are. Even if they were nobody wants to play games on that tiny 13" screen, and dont say "Oh, just attach a monitor" cause not everybody has extra money for that. Yes a macbook pro can play games but those are also a lot more money.
My second problem with your statement is not everybody is stupid enough to get a virus. AVG works perfectly for protecting people, against them, and vista isnt horrible, it has come a long way from original RC. If the person doesnt like vista, then simply downgrade to XP or upgrade to Windows 7 which is absolutely amazing, 7 is on par with Leopard with performance and usability.
So get off your high horse and stop acting like a prick, giving us mac users a bad image.
Paul you don't know a damn thing, bro.
I'm playing Half Life 2: Episode 2 on my girlfriend's $300 Intel Celeron laptop with 2gb of ram, integrated Intel graphics, and *drumroll* Windows Vista. Not playing it on high or anything, but it's good enough to enjoy until I get a new computer for myself.
Vista may have a larger footprint than XP, but it turns out it isn't that bad. I was scared of it, now I think I'm ok. Anyway, you fail at trolling.
ok everyone, instead of downranking paul, just report all his comments. engadget actually has to look at those, and if we flood them with reported comments from one person, hopefully that person will get banned pretty quickly.
MacBooks are more expensive retail..
At first glance, I thought the gov't was gaming.
I am sooooo glad that I'm not the only one who saw gov't...
I saw it, too! Damn you, internets!
Don't feed the trolls.
But, hey wow, a sub $1k gaming laptop. Pretty sweet.
Hey, from the specs in the read link looks like it has a dual hard drive option, that's cool for something in this price/weight range. I may have to look into this.
the 1366x768 screen? Oh that is poor. The 1680x1050 is miles better, though, you pay a fair bit more for it...it's worth it :)
Dunno, I think the resolution is sufficient for a 15" (?) screen, plus this guy has the HDMI, so if it can power games at a higher resolution, it will look fantastic on my 1080p LCD :)
That is the perfect res for me. When I am at home, I will mostly use it on my 720p tv in my bed room. And I wouldn't need any higher if I was on the go. Hopefully I can convince my parents to buy me this tomorrow when we are at Best Buy.
To Paul A Chapel aka ieye aka trolling mctroll:
Please leave. Your kind (stupid trolls) is not welcome here.
And the award for the Most Frequent Use Of The Word "Troll" In A Single Comment goes to...
We have a winner.
Wow. Truckloads of screen bezel on this bad boy.
Yeah, I noticed that too... kinda hard not to notice it...
...but it has a cool blue light on the front that fades in and out!!
Hate to burst your bubble Paul... oh who am I kidding, love it. The 15" Macbook Pro is only 2 pounds lighter, not 5, and costs twice as much has half the ram and a smaller hard drive
Looks good, no need to buy a macbook. Because we can also install Mac OS X Leopard too right?
That's how you pronounce Asus? I thought it was more like Aw-suss.
aaa-suss
More expensive and typically less powerful than the same pc.
Nice bang for those who want a sub-1000 gaming laptop...
But I'd like to pay once and play Far Cry 2 smoothly on high...
I don't see why Engadget is making it sound like it was hard to get their hands on this notebook. I've had it since right before Christmas, and it is a beast for the price when it comes to gaming, or any other intense applications. It comes with Vista 64-bit, and the "speaker" on the bottom isn't a speaker at all, it's an air intake vent to cool the GPU/CPU, which are right under it, as long as a fan shooting the heat out the side. It does have dual hard drive bays, and is really user friendly to open up and switch anything out on it, from the wifi card, to even the video card. I seriously recommend this to anyone wanting to get in on some of the latest PC games on the go.
Review was cool and everything (nothing really knew for me as I have a G50V) except for one slight problem. I just want this to be clear for anyone who seeks to buy this laptop. That port he showed on the underside of the machine is NOT a speaker. It actually is a vent - or should I say, was a vent, till what I can only assume was the decision of the designer to instead place a sticker on the underside. Anyone who knows a G50V laptop can prop off the bottom panel to see this for themselves.
So, when will this be out? All my searches for g50vt turned up older models at much higher prices. This might be the machine I am looking for.
The G50VT-X1 as reviewed is available at Best Buy. It is in the process of being discontinued in favor of the G50VT-X5, which is essentially the same with the exception of a slightly different CPU, a larger 9-cell battery, and a different paint scheme. Most stores should still have X1s, though.
There are also several G50VT variants on Newegg, with a range of different configs and prices.
I've owned this system for a few months now, and it is fantastic value. Especially at the new price, which is $300 less than what I paid for it in November.
Also, ASUS notebooks have fairly good cooling, and the 9800M GS card is an undervolted, downclocked version of the 9800M GTS. A quick vBIOS flash, and you've got a free GPU upgrade and the GPU temp still stays within reason for a 15" notebook. I am probably getting MX-2 thermal compound though, just for peace of mind.
There is also room for overclocking the CPU beyond the factory option. Some owners have managed to overclock as high as 2.9GHz using setFSB.
The 1366x768 screen resolution sounds low, but is really perfect for a 15" 16:9 screen. Desktop space is more than adequate, and the 9800M will have no problem gaming at native resolution for some time.
One correction on the video, however: the standard hard drive is a 320GB 7200rpm drive, not a 250GB 5400rpm one.
Thanks for your help. I only hope my refund shows up soon enough. I wonder how compatible this is with OSx?
i have this too, and i love it. I can play pretty much any game on max in CoD:WaW, CoH, Battlefield 2 & 2142, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Mirror's Edge, and UT3. High settings on Crysis and Far Cry 2. DX10 performance, if available, in these games are much worse than their DX9 counter parts, so I recommend playing games like Crysis and Assassin's Creed in DX9 mode.
This laptop also has excellent thermal management with a robust yet quiet fan. I can game for hours having the laptop sitting flat on the desk without overclocking.
And why would anyone use MacOS on a gaming laptop? It makes no sense. First you violate Apple's EULA, then you get a bulky gaming laptop that cost almost $1000 with MacOS using Mac Games...sorry, i hate mac.
For some reason, every floor model G50Vt-X1 I've seen at Best Buy reports as having a 9800GT as opposed to the 9800 GS. I've seen this both on the report page and in GPU-Z.
Ive had the G50V (its looks exactly like the VT) for 4 months and I love it. After deleting some crap I didnt want it perfectly replaced my custom build pc. It plays all my games ( stalker, crysis warhead, ghost recon, id super pack from steam, sims 2, and left 4 dead) on highest settings and 1366x768 looks just fine for 15in screen. Since it has partitioned harddrive I can have vista on one and windows7 on the other. Being able to change to turbo mode in 1 press and 1 click is awesome and does help on Crysis. 1 press to turn off the touchpad is also nice cause I use a wireless mouse. Well worth the price if your on the fence.
some just put benchmarks up for FAR CRY 2, which plays all MAX SETTINGS.
He even plays crysis with 30+ framerate at all high.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=311122&page=78
It's the same one from BestBuy =D
You know a company is Japanese when they put "heart touching" on a laptop.
It's actually Taiwanese.
Probably one of the worst slogans ever. Along the lines of smartphone giant "HTC": High. Tech. Computer. Corp.
is it that hard to design a good-looking laptop
Did anyone else notice that in the video, he called it the V50Gt, not a G50Vt?
That picture has some crazy perspectiveness going on. The screen looks way too tall for the base.
Someone else noticed it, too.
Looks like it'll tip over and would have a serious overbite when it's closed...