Jan. 2012 update: This article was originally published a few months ago, in the middle of 2011, and surprisingly little has changed considering the usually rapid development in the tech industry. As of CES 2012, we have seen some progress from Toshiba in the way of glasses-free 3D gaming, but Nvidia’s 3D Vision solution is still dominating and arguably your safest bet.
The other major graphics card manufacturer AMD also has a viable solution, which is similar to Nvidia’s in that it uses active-shutter 3D glasses and a 120Hz display (as opposed to the normal 60Hz) to render an additional dimension in your games.

With a display that has double the standard refresh rate it is able to send every other image to your left and right eye, respectively. Every laptop being sold as a 3D laptop will of course be equipped with this type of display, but it’s important to know that for a laptop to run games in 3D, it must be equipped with a special panel right from the start. The only option for getting 3D on another laptop would be to use an external display or compatible 3D television.

We have taken a look at what’s available as of early 2012 with an emphasis on gaming–i.e., if it doesn’t have a decent graphics card it won’t be listed here. This is even more important in 3D gaming laptop, since there’s a certain amount of overhead (and performance loss) when the laptop has to calculate the 3D visuals. A figure that has been floating around is somewhere around 30%, so the faster the GPU, the better.

1. Alienware M17x 3D Edition

This is currently the king of 3D gaming laptops as far as we’re concerned, and that’s only because the Alienware M18x has no 3D option. The reason is that it offers the option for the fastest NVIDIA graphics card, the GTX 580M, along with a 3D Vision kit from the same manufacturer. Consequently, when fully loaded with the top GPU, the M17x R3 is compatible with most current games and will turn out excellent frame rates even in 3D mode at high resolution.

Alienware M17x 3D Prices:
	$1999.00

2. ASUS G74SX-3DE

The ASUS Republic of Gamers G74SX 3D Edition (3DE) offers the very same 3D solution as the Alienware M17x R3 3D, with the drawback that it can’t be upgraded to the much faster GTX 580M GPU from NVIDIA. It comes pre-configured with an NVIDIA GTX 560M (same as the base model of the M17x), which is nevertheless quite a powerful graphics card. On top of that, it comes with a quad-core CPU, backlit keyboard, Blu-ray burner and an attractive design. If you are planning on getting a 3D laptop with a GTX 560M anyway, the G74SX is just as good a choice as the M17x.

ASUS G74SX-3DE Prices:
	$1849.99
	$2535.00

3. Toshiba Qosmio X775 3D

This laptop is not to be confused with the new Toshiba F755, which is the glasses-free 3D laptop from Toshiba and unfortunately only equipped with a GT 540M GPU. The 3D version of the Qosmio X755 is instead a “conventional” 3D laptop with more or less the same hardware as the aforementioned machines. This one also comes with a GTX 560M graphics card, an optional quad-core CPU and of course the necessary 120Hz display plus active shutter glasses.

Toshiba X775 3D Prices:
	$1699.99
	$1899.99

4. Dell XPS 17 3D

Now we are past the top-tier 3D gaming laptops with the most powerful hardware and move on to the slightly less expensive alternatives (relatively speaking), but ones that still have enough muscle to produce playable frame rates in three dimensions. One of them is the 3D version of the Dell XPS 17. This one can be configured with an NVIDIA GT 555M, which is not quite as fast as the GTX 560M but fast enough for inclusion in the Alienware M14x, so it is by no means a slow graphics card. The 3D solution is again the one from Nvidia; a 120Hz display coupled with active shutter glasses, which is the most competent and versatile alternative at the moment.

Dell XPS 17 3D Prices:
	$1299.99
	$1799.00

5. HP Envy 17 3D

HP has opted for a slightly different approach by using an AMD graphics card, but still with the same tried-and-tested active shutter technology even if it does not come with the same 3D Vision kit as the other laptops  on this page. The GPU is a speedy Radeon HD 6850M, so it is quite capable of playing the latest games in 3D, but the implementation is arguably not as sharp as NVIDIA’s version. What puts the Envy 17 3D apart from the rest, however, is its stunning design and comparatively slim dimensions for a 17-inch desktop replacement.

HP Envy 17 3D Prices:
	$1599.99
	$1799.99

There’s no doubt that the top 3 on this list are the laptops that are configurable with the fastest hardware, but the other two are certainly not slow either. 3D gaming laptops have been around since NVIDIA launched its 3D Vision concept at CES 2009, and although the 3D technology itself hasn’t changed much in the last couple of years, the hardware that is powers it has become much more capable in general–something that is particularly noticeable in laptops. The result is an improved gaming experience when playing in 3D, but on the whole we will probably have to wait a few more years before the extra spacial dimension is included as a standard feature in mainstream laptops.

Top 10 Gaming Laptops – February 2012

This list is based on actual or estimated gaming performance, factoring in the hardware specification (particularly the graphics card) relative to the laptop’s size.

Feb Update: Although AMD has released very promising 28nm products for the desktop, all of the dedicated laptop graphics cards are still using the old 40nm process, so regardless of Nvidia’s and AMD’s inventive naming schemes there are very little changes in the current 600M and 7000M-series GPUs. The GTX 580M and Radeon HD 6990M will remain on top for a while longer, since their 28nm successors have not yet been given release dates.

Intel’s final (most likely) Sandy Bridge update before Ivy Bridge is now widely available and all new Intel-based laptops ship with CPUs that have been given an upwards clock frequency adjustment of about 200MHz while retaining the same pricing. The new processor models in the high-end (quad core) segment are the Core i7 2670QM (replaces 2630QM), 2760QM (replaces 2720QM), 2860QM (replaces 2820QM) and finally the Extreme Edition Core i7-2960XM, which replaces the 2920XM.

Current Alienware Coupons:

1. Take an additional $50 off any Alienware laptop configured at $999 or more (that would be pretty much all of them) with the coupon code: BHW1L0MX0D?MCX

Shortcuts

Top 10 17″+ Gaming Laptops
Sub 17″ Gaming Laptops

17-Inch +

1. Clevo X7200

If you are looking for the most powerful laptop in the known universe, there is no doubt that the Clevo X7200 is it. However, you will have to account for the fact that this monster is just barely a laptop–it uses desktop processors, so you can equip it with a hexa-core (12-thread) desktop Core i7 Extreme Edition and up to 24GB of triple-channel full-size DDR3 RAM. On the graphics side you can configure it with dual Radeon HD 6990M’s in CrossFireX or Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M GPUs in SLI. The most powerful mobile GPU solutions on the planet in combination with desktop processors make this laptop’s performance unbeatable, but its battery should mainly be thought of as backup power with a 60 minute life span. Other than that it also has room for three hard drives or SSDs in RAID 0, 1 or 5. It’s a large, heavy, and if you want all the bells and whistles, very expensive machine, but this kind of performance comes at a price.

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2. Alienware M18x

The Alienware M18x is now available with dual Nvidia GTX 580M graphics cards in SLI or dual AMD Radeon HD 6990M GPUs in CrossFireX. Simply put it’s an exceptional gaming laptop that will handily defeat quite a few gaming desktops in terms of frame rates and visual bliss. Either of these solutions will let your games run at the 18-inch display’s native 1080p resolution with most or all of the details maxed out. It can also be equipped with other GPUs in CrossFireX/SLI or a single video card. It comes with a choice of 2nd-generation, quad core Intel Core i7 CPU, the fastest of which is a factory overclocked i7 Extreme Edition that runs at 4GHz in Turbo Boost mode. Other features include USB 3.0, 1600MHz DDR3 memory, the usual AlienFX back-lighting artillery, as well as optional WirelessHD that lets you stream lossless Full HD video and audio to an external HDTV or other setup. The base model starts at $1,999 and includes a 2GHz quad core Core i7 and a single GTX 560M.

Alienware M18x Price Comparison:
	$1999.00
	$2049.00

Note: When ordering from Dell, use the coupon code BHW1L0MX0D?MCX to take an additional $50 off the price tag.

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3. Alienware M17x

The M17x has also been given the GTX 580M treatment, although this smaller (relatively speaking) Alienware gaming machine can only house a single GPU configuration. Pretty much every component in the M17x is configurable. There’s a choice of high-end Nvidia or AMD GPUs, up to 16GB of RAM, various quad-core Core i7 processors, 1600×900 or 1920×1080 panels and dual hard drives or SSDs in RAID 0. It is also available in a 3D version that includes the mandatory 120Hz panel and Nvidia 3D Vision kit. The base model ($1,499) includes a GTX 560M, but from a price/performance perspective, the Radeon 6990M upgrade is very attractive. This GPU is neck-and-neck with the GTX 580M and considerably faster than the GTX 560M. Unfortunately it is not eligible for an Nvidia 3D Vision upgrade.

Alienware M17x Price Comparison:
	$1449.99
	$1499.00
	$1699.00

Same as the above: Use the coupon code BHW1L0MX0D?MCX for an additional $50 off from Dell.

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4. MSI GT783

MSI has updated its 17-inch GT780 twice–once with the Nvidia GTX 570M (GT780DXR/DX) and now an even more powerful version with the GTX 580M is available.  Most of them ship with the new quad-core Core i7-2670QM. The GT780DX. It comes with a multi-color backlit keyboard designed by SteelSeries that resembles those from Alienware. What makes this and other high-end MSI laptops a little more interesting than the rest is the TDE (Turbo Drive Engine) feature that automatically overclocks the laptop by up to 30%. It also ships with 12GB of DDR3 and either plenty of hard drive storage or an SSD/HDD combo.

MSI GT783 Price Comparison:
	$2279.00

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5. Clevo P170HM

The 17-inch Clevo P170HM is sold by several different boutique gaming brands and can be configured with either of the two fastest mobile GPUs ever–the GTX 580M from Nvidia or the HD 6990M from AMD. It can also be equipped with a range of quad-core Intel Core i7 processors. In combination with the fastest single-GPU graphics solution on the market and (in its class comparatively) lightweight chassis (8.6lbs) this is a very desirable laptop. If you don’t want to pay a premium for the fastest of everything, you can also opt for the base configuration, which includes a capable GTX 460M. The EON 17-S has four memory slots with room for up to 32GB of DDR3 1333MHz or 16GB of DDR3 1600MHz. Moreover, it has room for dual hard drives or SSDs that can be configured in RAID 0 mode. Or you could use an ultra-fast Vertex 3 as the boot drive and a secondary 7,200rpm hard drive for storage.

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6. ASUS G74Sx Republic of Gamers

The Asus G74Sx is a high quality gaming laptop; reasonably cool and quiet, and not as bulky as many 17-inch desktop replacements tend to be. Moreover, it is relatively inexpensive compared to the closest competitors, but still delivers more than decent gaming performance thanks to the new GTX 560M GPU from Nvidia with higher clock speeds and better power management compared to the GTX 460M that it replaces. The G74Sx is also available in a 3D edition called G74Sx-3DE, which is equipped with an Nvidia 3D Vision kit and a compatible 120Hz panel. Both the 3D and non-3D versions have 1920×1080 resolution screens.

ASUS G74Sx Prices:
	$1399.99

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7. Toshiba Qosmio X775

Qosmio is Toshiba’s premium entertainment brand, so the most surprising aspect of the X775 is the affordable price point for the entry models. For less than $1,200 (at this writing) you get a capable desktop replacement with a Sandy Bridge Core i5 CPU and more importantly for gamers–a GeForce GTX 560M to take care of your gaming needs. There are other and considerably more pricey configurations available though; some with quad-core CPUs and 3D kits, but the base model should hold up pretty well in just about any game thanks to the solid GPU.

Toshiba X775 Price Comparison:
	$1099.99
	$1199.99

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8. HP Envy 17 / Envy 17 3D

HP has updated its premium Envy lineup with an entirely new design and partly new hardware, including a very impressive speaker system with a physical “Beats Audio” volume knob. The result is an exclusive machine with lots of customization options including a 3D version with similar hardware but a 120Hz, 3D-ready display. Both versions ship with the new(ish) AMD Radeon HD 7690M with 1GB of GDDR5 and a range of Core i7 or i5 CPUs. This hardware is quite impressive considering the thin and (for a 17-inch laptop) lightweight chassis that surrounds it.

HP Envy 17 Price Comparison:
	$1249.99
HP ENVY 17 Customizable Notebook PC
	$1449.99
HP ENVY 17 3D edition Customizable Notebook PC

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9. HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition

The quad-core edition of the HP Pavilion dv7t is another interesting option for gamers–not least because of the level of performance it offers for the money. You can order it with a range of 2nd-generation Core i7 CPUs, and the graphics as of 2012 are handled by a still unspecified Mobility Radeon GPU (which is actually an HD 7690M that differs very little from the previous HD 6770M. Nevertheless, this is still enough to give the dv7t and it’s 15.6-inch counterpart the dv6t plenty of gaming power considering the highly affordable (in relative terms) price tag. It’s important to note that the 7690M is an optional upgrade though, and an absolute must-have if you want to call it a gaming laptop.

HP dv7t Quad Price Comparison:
	$899.99
	$999.00

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10. Dell XPS 17

The latest revision of the Dell XPS 17 desktop replacement came with some major upgrades – most importantly the latest Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs. Another nice perk is an included 3D Vision kit from Nvidia (optional), powered by a capableGeForce GT 550M or the faster GeForce GT 555M GPU (same as the M14x). As usual with Dell, there are lots of upgrades available although the base configuration is quite powerful. But if you want a gaming model, the GPU upgrade to a GT 555M is highly recommended.

Dell XPS 17 Price Comparison:
	$799.99
	$1239.00

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Up to 15.6″

1. Clevo P150HM

When it’s fully tricked out in the GPU department, the Clevo P150HM is the fastest 15-inch gaming laptop on the planet at this writing. It is known under different names and built-to-order by Origin PC, Sager, AVADirector a number of other gaming PC specialists. What makes the P150HM special is that it’s configurable with either one of the two fastest GPUs on the market right now–the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M or the AMD Radeon HD 6990M–and also a quad-core Intel CPU all the way up to the Core i7-2920XM Extreme Edition. It can also house up to 32GB of RAM. This hardware puts it a step ahead of all of the competition in the 15-inch segment today, no matter if compared in gaming performance or raw processing power.

Read our full review here.

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2. MSI GT683DXR

The new GT683DXR from MSI is generously equipped with very powerful hardware for its size. It has the new GeForce GTX 570M, which is a big step up from the GTX 560M. It’s also equipped with the standard-issue quad core Intel Core i7-2630QM as well as 12GB of RAM. Just like its bigger brother the MSI GT780 it also comes with MSI’s proprietary overclocking technology TDE that boosts the CPU/GPU clocks by up to 30% with the push of a button.

MSI GT683DXR Price Comparison:
	$1519.00

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3. Alienware M14x

The M15x has been decommissioned in favor of a the more portable M14x, so if you want the Alien head logo and all the extras that come with an Alienware laptop, but prefer a more portable version than the M17x, the M14x is a much more convenient alternative. Like all laptops from Dell it can be customized with a wide range of components, including a number of different 2nd-generation quad-core Core i7 CPUs with eight threads. In the graphics department, there’s an Nvidia GeForce GT 555M with either 1.5GB or 3GB of video RAM. This one isn’t quite as fast as some of the alternatives in the M15x, but it comes in a more portable package. Other options include a 1600×900 WLED panel and a fast 256GB Samsung solid state drive. The M14x also comes with the latest and fastest 1600MHz RAM.

Read our full review here

Alienware M14x Price Comparison:
	$1099.00
	$1219.99

When shopping from Dell, use the coupon code BHW1L0MX0D?MCX for an additional $50 off.

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4. Asus G53SX

We have been listing the G53SW here for quite a while, but now that the updated G53SX is widely available we are simply replacing it with the new model, which by and large is the same laptop but with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M instead of its predecessor the 460M. The newer GTX 560M is not much of an improvement on the 460M–although it has higher clocks and the same power consumption it has also been given a smaller, 128-bit memory bus (this is covered in our review). The Republic of Gamers’ G53SX remains one of the most interesting options in the 15.6-inch segment, not least for its attractive price tag. It is more or less a 15-inch version of the 17-inch G7x series and comes with a 1080p display, a quad-core Intel CPU and a backlit keyboard, but unlike the 17-inch model this one has no dual hard drive option. Yes it does (thanks reader ‘ErrOr’ for pointing this out in the comments).

G53SX/SW Price Comparison:
	$1215.00
	$1218.89
	$1249.99

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5: HP dv6t Quad Edition

HP’s Pavilion dv6t is the more portable version of the dv7t, and just like it’s bigger counterpart, the Quad Edition of the dv6 comes with a choice of the latest quad-core CPUs from Intel as well as a Mobility Radeon HD 7690M GPU from AMD (optional upgrade). This graphics card is not a major upgrade over its predecessor the HD 6770M, but the pricing is unchanged and it all adds up to an affordable yet powerful 15.6-inch laptop, capable of playing all the latest games without breaking the bank. Another plus is that HP has taken the design of their premium Envy lineup and applied it to the Pavilion series. The result is a nice-looking laptop with a lot more performance under the hood than meets the eye.

HP dv6t Quad Price Comparison:
	$823.98
	$849.99

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6. Alienware M11x R3

The Alienware M11x wins the title for smallest and lightest gaming laptop on the planet. Make no mistake – in spite of its size it clearly qualifies as a gaming machine, especially in its 3rd iteration with brand new low-voltage Sandy Bridge CPUs and an Nvidia GeForce GT 540M. In combination with the small screen and comparatively low (1366×768) resolution it can run any recent game on medium or even high detail settings.

M11x R3 Price Comparison:
	$899.00

When shopping from Dell: the latest coupon code for $50 off the M11x R3 is: BHW1L0MX0D?MCX

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There are lots of factors to take into consideration when choosing a good gaming laptop; hardware, build quality, features you value personally, and of course the price tag. As for the hardware, the graphics card plays the key role in a gaming notebook. Sure, the processor is very important for overall performance, as is the hard drive (or preferably: SSD), but at the end of the day the graphics card is what determines the frame rate and whether your games are playable.

To play the latest titles at high resolution with all the detail knobs turned up, you are going to need a powerful GPU. No amount of tweaking or optimizing will substitute better hardware. Both AMD (formerly ATI) and Nvidia have highly capable mobile video cards on the market. In bigger, 17-inch plus laptops, you will also find them in dual GPU configurations–called SLI or CrossFire for Nvidia’s GeForce and AMD’s Mobility Radeon series, respectively. The fastest mobile graphics cards as of October 2011 are the AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6990M and the Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580M, which are practically tied for first place–only what particular game you play seems to decide which one is the fastest. However, Nvidia’s GPU generally fares better in SLI configuration.

MSI has just issued another press release concerning its 17.3-inch GT780DX–the latest model from MSI, which looks very attractive in terms of specifications and pricing. The only news this time, however, seems to be that MSI has doubled the amount of video RAM available to the included NVIDIA GTX 570M from 1.5GB of GDDR5 to 3GB of GDDR5.

Why they do this is something of a mystery, considering that there is currently no laptop graphics card on the market that can take advantage of 3GB, but if it adds nothing to the price tag then so be it. Perhaps it’s to alleviate buyers who are comparing it to the ASUS G74SX, which has 3GB in its less powerful GTX 560M–something that makes even less sense (not to mention the 2GB in the ASUS G53SX).

Make no mistake: Adding more video RAM to your laptop’s graphics card usually has no effect on your games whatsoever. And the less powerful it is, the less memory it can use effectively. By comparison, the desktop version of the GTX 570 (without the ‘M’) is a more powerful card and ships with 1280MB of VRAM.

For example, The Witcher 2–one of the best looking and most demanding games to date–uses less than 900MB of video memory when played on the Clevo P150HM with an even more powerful 2GB GTX 580M. And this is at 1080p resolution with no texture downscaling, the ‘Texture Memory Size’ parameter set to ‘Very Large’, SSAO enabled and level-of-detail distance set to ‘Far’ (among other things). Skyrim (yes, I’m an RPG buff) at 1080p manages to use slightly more than 1GB with all of the eye candy turned on including NVIDIA’s special ambient occlusion add-on. And as far as laptops are concerned, only the GTX 580M and possibly the AMD HD 6990M are capable of running these games at the aforementioned, memory-hogging settings.

A counter-argument would be that it uses more video RAM at higher resolutions, for example when hooking up the laptop to an external monitor with 2560 x 1600 resolution and above, and it does. It’s just that as screen resolutions go up, frame rates go down, so you will have to adjust the visuals accordingly with the result that the amount of required video RAM goes down or evens out.

All of this will be different in the future with more advanced games that eat more video RAM, but by then your current GPU will be obsolete anyway.

Another interesting comparison is to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, both of which are rather old by now and not comparable to a modern gaming laptop, but they still produce good visuals at reasonably high resolutions (often downsampled though). Nevertheless, the ATI chip in the Xbox 360 can use up to 512MB of GDDR3 RAM in total (shared with system RAM) and the custom NVIDIA chip in the PlayStation 3 gets by with 256MB.

I ran a poll a while back, asking the readers at what price they considered an “affordable gaming laptop” to actually be affordable? I set the lowest option to “below $800″ thinking that this would be ridiculously cheap if it we were talking about a full-featured gaming laptop and not some mainstream machine with a GeForce GT card. After almost 600 votes, 73% of the respondents thought that less than $800 would be a suitable number. Well, here you go! 

Newegg is selling the ASUS Republic of Gamers G53SW-XN1 for $899.99 [EXPIRED. Please check out our other gaming laptop deals instead. Most of them are updated on a regular basis, so some scrolling might be worth your while] which is down from $1,199.99. In addition, there’s a $100 mail-in rebate and free shipping so there’s your bona fide gaming laptop for less than $800. This is a brand new laptop with a full 1-year warranty and a very tough deal to beat.

ASUS’ 15.6-inch G53SW is predecessor to the G53SX that we just reviewed. The design is identical (and also the processor) but the laptop’s graphics card–in this case an Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M–has been replaced by a GTX 560M. The newer GPU has higher clocks, but we are still undecided on which card is the faster one since the 2GB 560M has been given a 128-bit memory bus.

Nevertheless, this is one of those gaming laptops that is deserving of the title. This particular version of the G53SW ships with 6GB of RAM, a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive, a DVD-RW optical drive and last but not least: a combination of a quad-core, 2nd-gen Intel 2630QM and the DX11-capable GTX 460M from Nvidia with 1.5GB of dedicated GDDR5 and a 192-bit memory bus.

The display is “Full HD” (1920 x 1080) and it has the same excellent cooling solution that we remarked on in out G53SX review as well as a gorgeous illuminated keyboard. The short version is that this is a great deal on a great laptop–probably the best one we’ve seen on a new Republic of Gamers laptop.

The ASUS Republic of Gamers G53SX is the sequel to the G53SW and very little (if anything) has changed compared to the previous model except for the GPU, which has been upgraded from an Nvidia GTX 460M to its replacement the GTX 560M. Although “upgraded” is a relative term here, since ASUS has opted for the version with 2GB of GDDR5 and a 128-bit memory bus instead of the 1.5GB or 3GB version with a 192-bit memory bus. The smaller memory bus width almost certainly has an impact on performance, but on the other hand the GTX 560M has been given higher clock speeds that will even out the differences.

G53SX/SW Price Comparison:
	$1215.00
	$1218.89
	$1249.99

In terms of design, the G53SX is the 15.6-inch counterpart of the 17-inch G74SX, and the feature set is largely the same, but the 17-inch model’s GTX 560M has the full 192-bit memory bus. The G53SX is available in a number of different configurations, including the G53SX-A1, XR1, XN1, and quite possibly a few others, but most of them share the same Core i7-2630QM CPU and GTX 560M CPU. The only difference is the amount of RAM and hard drive capacity, so the difference in actual gaming performance between the different models will be practically negligible. For the record, our unit came with a 640GB hard drive and 8GB of RAM.

Design and Features

It has the same “Stealth Bomber” design as the other laptops in the series, in matte, rubberized black with two large rear exhausts – one for the CPU and one for the GPU. This is an excellent cooling solution that keeps both the temperature and noise level in check. The laptop stays fairly silent even under heavy load, which is more than you can say for most laptops. On the downside, the backside is a bit bulky and the laptop as a whole is quite large and heavy even for a 15-inch model (7.9 lbs).

Otherwise the design and build quality feels exceptionally robust. There are no loose parts or joints and the laptop is very comfortable to work with since it tapers off from the bulky back part with the fans to the much slimmer front with the rubbery palm rest and large, comfortable track pad. The latter supports multi-touch gestures and two-finger scrolling, which is great, but the buttons give off a rather loud clicking sound when depressed.

There is a small amount of flex in the illuminated keyboard, but not to a disturbing degree. Writing this review on the G53SX is quite a comfortable experience even though ASUS has crammed in a small numpad on the side – a somewhat questionable design choice in a 15-inch laptop, but it works on the ASUS, possibly because it’s slightly wider than the average 15-inch model. Speaking of which, a large bezel around the screen is an annoyance that hopefully disappears in a near future. This is not specific to ASUS, but a 16-inch or slightly larger panel would easily have fitted within the confines of this frame.

While we are on the topic of the display, the manufacturer has been kind enough to use a matte variant instead of the glossy screens that are commonplace in laptops with low-end TN panels. The panel is almost certainly a TN, but it is very bright and the colors and contrast are almost as good as those on my desktop VA monitor when viewing the screen from the front. Its viewing angles are decent, but colors get washed out from sharper angles.

The screen resolution is 1920 x 1080 (“Full HD”), which is a very high resolution on a 15.6-inch laptop. It is a good idea to right-click on the screen and select “screen resolution” and then click on the blue link that says “make text and other items larger or smaller” and go with one of the larger options. Games look fantastic in Full HD though.

In terms of connectivity, the G53SX comes with Bluetooth and one USB 3.0 port (along with three additional USB 2.0 ports), HDMI, VGA, Gigabit LAN and headphone/mic jacks. Naturally, wireless N is also supported.

The G53SX actually has two hard drive bays just like its larger 17-inch counterpart, but it is mainly sold in single-drive configurations. You can of course insert drive number 2 yourself if you have a small screwdriver and some time to spare – the second SATA port is enabled and runs at SATA 3.0 (6GBps) speeds, so you can boot from an ultra-fast SSD and use the hard drive for secondary storage.

Performance – Synthetic

Now to find out how the 128-bit GTX 560M performs in the real world and have look at overall performance. As usual, the first and foremost way to get some good comparison numbers is to run Futuremark’s 3DMark and PCMark benchmarks.

These numbers are interesting. As expected, the smaller memory bus has some effect on 3D performance, but primarily in 3DMark06 (DirectX 9). The 3DMark Vantage (DX10) score, 8362, is also below average for a GTX 560M, while the 3DMark 11 (DX11) result, P2165, is actually markedly better than any GTX 560M review score that we’ve been able to locate. The only thing we can think of is that the latest NVIDIA drivers have been tweaked for 3DMark 11. The lower average scores notwithstanding, the 128-bit 560M is still a capable GPU and noticeably faster than the GT 555M for example. On a side note, it is possible to take the 3DMark Vantage score above 10,000 points with some overclocking, but that’s a story for another time.

Gaming Performance

Just like we did last time with the Alienware M14x review, we’re focusing on the optimal settings that provide playable frame rates at the best possible quality settings, i.e., around 30 frames per second (FPS) or better. It’s safe to say that the G53SX and its GTX 560M can play any game currently available at good quality settings at the very least. The main question is whether it can run them at the display’s native Full HD resolution without sacrificing too much on the visuals. The short answer is that among the games we’ve tested, DX11 Crysis 2 stands out as on of the two games where we had to tune down the screen resolution to get reasonable frame rates, which is hardly surprising considering that not even two GTX 580M’s in SLI can handle Crysis 2 in DirectX 11 with high-res textures. Running it in DX9 on the “very high” (actually medium) setting in 1080p native resolution is nevertheless a gratifying experience. The other game was the infamous GPU-killing Metro 2033, which wouldn’t run at playable frame rates in DX11 mode at all, but the “normal” or medium setting and DX10 was fine and produced a convenient 30 FPS.

FRAPS is a great tool, but benchmarks produced with it are not as accurate as standardized tests; Since you basically have to pick a scene or level and go with it the results are somewhat arbitrary, but still give you a fairly good reading of what to expect from different games. All frame rates in the chart have of course been measured with the GTX 560M’s stock clock speeds. Aside from Metro 2033 and Crysis 2, there was no reason to overclock anyway to run the remaining five games at high settings.

Resident Evil 5, HAWX 2 and STALKER posed no challenge at all to the G53SX–producing 50+ frames per second at high-detail settings. Even the brand new Dead Island produced a 50 FPS average at the display’s native 1920×1080 resolution with all the details maxed out. Another positive surprise was Deus Ex: Human Revolution, where we could tweak the already relatively high settings and add improved texture filtering as well as some other tweaks from the “advanced” graphics menu without any relevant loss in FPS.

By and large, it doesn’t look like the 128-bit GTX 560M is all that “crippled” after all, although exchanging half a GB of video RAM for the wider memory bus would probably have been preferable. 2GB or more video memory is still overkill for most if not all laptop graphics cards.

Temperature and Noise

This is one of the best parts–even when gaming or running benchmarks that forces the system to work at its full potential, the G53SX remains comparatively silent. The double-barrel cooling solution on this laptop is possibly the best one on the market. Where a single fan would have to work twice as hard and twice as loud, the twin exhausts on this “Stealth Bomber” keeps it at acceptable temperatures at all times, whilst keeping the noise level to a minimum. Sure, the fans (particularly the GPU fan) go into a louder mode from time to time, but never reach a disturbing level.

Battery Life

Even though it should theoretically be able to support it, ASUS passed on NVIDIA’s Optimus technology, which automatically switches between the high-end GPU and Intel’s power-saving but otherwise largely useless IGP. Therefore it will have to run with the GTX 560M at all times, and even though the GPU clocks go down to the bare minimum when the laptop is in power-saver mode, it sill won’t be able to compete with gaming laptop that come with Optimus or AMD’s switchable graphics.

The result is a battery life of about 3 hours with Wi-Fi on, medium brightness and the battery-saving power plan in effect (i.e. useful settings). This is still a fairly decent result for a laptop running only a high-end graphics card and it also saves you the hassle of having to wait for graphics driver updates from the manufacturer, which have a tendency to never show up. Depending on how important this is for you, it may still be a drawback seeing as there are now gaming laptops that can actually last for quite a few hours on battery power. On the other hand, playing games on battery power will use up all the battery juice in roughly half an hour in any decent gaming laptop, Optimus or no Optimus.

Final Thoughts – Pros and Cons

One aspect that we haven’t mentioned yet is the price tag, and the G53SX offers extremely good value for money–the entry-level configurations (which are still equipped with a quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM and the same GTX 560M) sell for less than $1,100 from some retailers. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen on a laptop with the GTX 560M. As for the drawbacks, we have already covered most of them, the 128-bit memory bus in the GPU being our main complaint. It is also surprising that the G53SW nearly always ships with a single hard drive although it’s equipped with two full-featured SATA III 6Gbps hard drive bays (no need to replace the optical drive either). Although there’s no RAID 0 support, using an SSD as the primary drive sounds like a great idea.

We have no complaints about the build quality in general, which is rock solid if a bit on the heavy side. A backlit keyboard is also nice to have even if you can’t customize this one in all the colors of the rainbow like the Alienware ones. The crowning achievement though, is the superb cooling solution. The “Strike in Silence” slogan used by ASUS for its Republic of Gamers lineup is definitely not without merit.

G53SX/SW Price Comparison:
	$1215.00
	$1218.89
	$1249.99

These kinds of video clips should be marked “not safe for work” because 99% of your colleagues will probably consider you a complete nutjob for watching stuff coming out of boxes. At any rate, we stay true to geek traditions and bring you this video straight from our so-called “test lab”. I can assure you that quite a few gadget test labs look like this one. Don’t miss the action-packed moment when the Drivers & Utilities DVD elegantly flies out of the box, to graciously land on the keyboard.

The gadget in question, if you haven’t guessed it yet from the rather obvious headline, is an ASUS Republic of Gamers G53SX–the follow-up of the G53SW and one that looks exactly the same (pretty funky if you ask me). The difference is on the inside, where the NVIDIA GTX 460M has made way for the GTX 560M. Again a small change and one that might turn out to have little to no significance, which we are in the process of finding out.

The GTX 560M comes with higher stock clock speeds  (and probably overclocks better due to some power optimizations), but unfortunately its memory bus has been strangled from 192-bit to 128-bit in favor of more memory–2GB of GDDR5. We will surely find out in the upcoming review if this is an improvement or not.

Toshiba is one of the first two laptop manufacturers to bring glasses-free 3D technology to the market–the other one being ASUS with their G53Sx. The new creation is part of Toshiba’s premium desktop replacement series Qosmio and is more specifically called Qosmio F750 3D.  Just like the G53Sx, it is equipped with a high-resolution 15.6-inch screen that requires no glasses to watch 3D content and a quad-core Core i7 CPU. However, unlike the G53Sx, the F750 comes with a GeForce GT540M graphics card, which is considerably slower than the GTX 560M in the ASUS 3D laptop. It appears that Toshiba is not targeting gamers with the new Qosmio, which is somewhat disappointing.

Instead, the Toshiba Qosmio F750 3D pushes this one to movie buffs; other than the aforementioned CPU and GPU, it comes with 6GB of RAM, a 640GB hard drive and a Blu-ray burner that supports the BD-XL format that is good for storing up to 100GB. Other features include a speaker system from Herman Kardon, multi-card reader, HD webcam, USB 3.0, Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi 802.11n, and – as usual – a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. On the plus side compared to the G53Sx, the F750 is relatively lightweight in its class: 2.9kg/6.3lbs–almost a kilo / two pounds lighter than the competing ASUS laptop.

Toshiba was early on the market with the world’s first glasses-free 3D TV, the Regza GL1, so that the company is now releasing a similar solution for laptops shouldn’t be surprising. Autostereoscopic 3D is definitely an exciting technology in many ways. The main disadvantage with this type of 3D technology (and a frequent issue mentioned with the Nintendo 3DS) is that you can only see the 3D effect from a specific angle. But apparently the computer’s webcam can follow the user’s motion to adapt the 3D angle to your current position. The problem remains if you want to show off the 3D effects to your friends, but on the whole this sounds like a sensible adaptation to the shortcomings of glasses-free 3D.

Toshiba has also added a feature that allows the laptop to display 2D and 3D content on the screen simultaneously, such as having one window active with a 3D movie while browsing the web on the side in regular 2D. It can also convert regular movies into 3D somehow. How well this works remains to be seen. Here’s Toshiba’s promo video for the F750 3D, it’s too bad that you can’t see the 3D effects…

Both the 3D and non-3D versions of the brand new 17-inch Asus Republic of Gamers G74SX is now available from several retailers. None of the laptops are exactly cheap, but they come with a fair amount of capable hardware to match the price tag.At this writing you can find a G74SX-A1 for slightly less than $1,700 while the 3D-enabled G74SX-3DE costs at least $200 more. The G73SW will be phased out and discontinued, but will still be available for a while longer. And longer still in refurbished/used condition of course.

It is quite difficult to tell the new G74SX apart from the current G73SW at first glance, but there are some cosmetic differences between the two. While the overall “stealth bomber”-inspired design is still there, the keyboard in the new laptop is now flush with the chassis and the numpad has been separated from the rest of the keys. The buttons and LEDs have also moved around a bit and the single-bar mouse button on the G73 is now divided into two parts for the G74.

Which layout you prefer is a matter of personal taste; arguably the G74SX is a bit more sophisticated than its predecessor. Having the keys more distinctly separated also appears to be a usability advantage compared to the tightly spaced keys on the G73, but that’s just a guess based on the looks of it. On the whole, though, the design is mostly similar, which is fine–the 17-inch Republic of Gamers laptop stands out from other gaming laptops by NOT being adorned with LED lights and fancy design choices all over. One exception is the LED-backlit keyboard that is a standard feature on both models.

The difference on the inside is not that large either, actually, although Asus have made a couple of noteworthy changes. The main difference is that the Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M has been replaced by a GTX 560M. These two GPUs have a lot in common: 192 CUDA cores, DX11 capability, a 192-bit memory bus and 40nm silicon, but the core and shader clocks are higher in the GTX 560M–775MHz/1550MHz vs. 675MHz/1350MHz in the 460M. There’s also more video RAM in the newer GPU–3GB vs. 1.5GB of GDDR5. Interestingly, there is no mention of Nvidia’s Optimus technology anywhere, so it is apparently absent.

Very little has changed for the core hardware platform compared to the previous model. The processor is a 2nd-generation Core (Sandy Bridge) variant from Intel running at 2GHz (2.9Ghz with Turbo Boost) on the HM65 chipset. This part is identical between the G74 and G73 laptops. The G73SW-A1 was/is equipped with 8GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, while the G74SX-A1 ships with 12GB of the same RAM variety (maximum RAM for both models is 16GB/4 slots).

Both laptops also come with dual hard drives, but not in RAID 0. The G74SX is equipped with two 750GB 7,200rpm drives for a total 1.5TB of storage space, while the setup in the G73SW-A1 is two 500GB hybrid drives (Seagate Momentus), so although the amount of storage space has grown, the speed is likely reduced in some situations with the larger drive.

In conclusion, it is very hard for existing owners of a G73SW to justify an upgrade to the new G74SX unless you want a 3D version in the form of the G74SX-3DE. First-time buyers of a 17-inch Republic of Gamers laptop can however enjoy a decent boost in gaming performance thanks to the higher stock clock speeds in the GTX 560M GPU. A tempting alternative to both the G74 and the G73 laptops is the new EON 17-S from Origin PC, which is roughly the same size but has an option for the considerably faster GTX 485M graphics card.

Comparison Table

Asus G73SW Prices:
	$1378.71
	$1599.99

ASUS G74Sx Prices:
	$1399.99

Asus has just revealed a brand new version of its 15-inch Republic of Gamers laptop, and this one comes with a feature called ‘Naked Eye 3D’–a 3D solution that lets go the need for battery-powered active shutter glasses, or rather the need for glasses altogether.

Some rumors about it has circulated since CeBit a few months ago, but at this week’s Computex trade show in Taiwan, Asus’ latest 15-inch Republic of Gamers G53SX “Naked Eye 3D” was officially unveiled. It is powered by a 2nd-generation Intel Core i7 CPU, as much as 16GB of DDR3 internal memory as well as the brand new GeForce GTX 560M GPU with 2GB of fast GDDR5 video RAM. Moreover, the laptop comes with a Full HD 1920×1080 panel–something that previous 3D laptops from Asus have lacked–as well as a hybrid drive with both mechanical storage and an SSD component (sounds like a Seagate Momentus XT).

How Asus has approached the autostereoscopic 3D feature is more of a mystery. It is said to be a proprietary software-based solution capable of converting regular 2D imagery into 3D. It will apparently also be possible to show 3D and 2D graphics simultaneously in separate windows without sacrificing too much performance. There’s no doubt that some modifications must have been made to the screen though; something like the parallax screen on the Nintendo 3DS only a lot bigger.

It will be very interesting to see this one in action and whether the 3D effect live up to the promised hype. Regardless of the added visual dimension, the G53SX is clearly a very capable gaming laptop thanks to the powerful graphics card and Sandy Bridge CPU. The design looks much like the other new laptops in the RoG series, with a back-lit keyboard, large and efficient vents at the back, and a discreet yet cool-looking matte black finish. We will follow up on this as more details including release date and pricing become available.

This is the best deal we’ve seen so far on the Sandy Bridge revision of Asus’ Republic of Gamers G73SW. It’s an updated version of the G73 that passed our review with flying colors a while back.

Right now the improved G73SW-XA1 is sold by Amazon for $1,399 with free shipping.

The G73SW is sold in a range of different configurations with some small differences between them. The XA1 variation includes a quad core Intel Core i7-2630QM that runs at 2GHz (Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz), 8GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM (it has four slots that can be filled with up to 16GB), a 750GB 7,200rpm hard drive and one USB 3 port in addition to the three regular USB 2 ports.

Your games are kept running at fluid frame rates thanks to an Nvidia GTX 460M (DX11) with 1.5GB of GDDR5 (the fastest video RAM). This is a high-end GPU based on Nvidia’s Fermi architecture with 192 shaders (or CUDA cores if you insist). It’s clocked at 675MHz (core), 1250MHz (memory) and 1350MHz (shader domain). In short, it runs any game currently on the market in native resolution.

Otherwise, the standard features from the G73 series are all there, including a nice-looking back-lit keyboard and a LED back-lit 17.3-inch panel with Full HD (1920×1080) resolution.  Webcam, multi card reader and Gigabit LAN are also part of this Stealth Bomber package. This is a good deal on a great gaming laptop.