Asus G2S

Feature

Asus G2S is the current top of the line gaming laptop from AsusTek with a 17� glare type screen and the relatively new GeForce8600M GT graphics card.

December 19th, 2007 by Varg

Good performance
3DMark is intended to provide normalized mean scores to help compare different visual processing units. The following are the rather impressive results for our test unit:

3DMark Test Results for Asus G2S
3DMark Score 4349 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 1769 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 1624 Marks
CPU Score 2030 Marks

Cinebench R10 is based on MAXON�s award-winning animation software and assesses computer�s performance by running several tests on the graphics card and the processor.

CINEBENCH R10 results for Asus G2S
Rendering (Single CPU): 2437 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 4453 CB-CPU
Multiprocessor Speedup: 1.83
Shading (OpenGL Standard): 3160 CB-GFX

HDTune 2.54 assesses the performance of the hard drive. The test unit had a Fujitsu MHY2250BH (250GB) hard drive and the results were the following:

Transfer rate 6.3 MB/sec minimum, 54.4 MB/sec maximum with 37.5 MB/sec average. The access time was 20.5ms, the burst rate 69.1 MB/sec while the CPU usage was 5%. All in all, pretty good results if you ask us.

The last and the least, the Windows System Performance Rating, available in Windows Vista, provided the following results:

Processor 5.3
Memory 4.8
Graphics 5.9
Game Graphics 5.5
Primary HD 5.1

All in all the performance is mainly held back by the memory, since the main score, 4.8, is directly based on the lowest score.

Gaming Experiences

We tested the computer with some relatively recent games that demand a lot from the computer, such as Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Crysis (the demo) and Civilization 4. With the native resolution of the monitor, it was clear that the set-up could not run the games at highest settings, but when you dropped the settings to medium, Oblivion ran like a dream. Rather expectedly, the Crysis demo proved rather unplayable even at the lowest settings (1 or 2 frames per second at the native resolution reminded me of the days of Commodore 64). The weakness of Asus G2S as it comes to games like Crysis is mainly the small memory of the graphics card. Unfortunately, Vista still seems to have some problems with vanilla Civ4, but we managed to make it run once we installed the Beyond the Sword add-on. Since Civilization IV is a year older game than Oblivion, it almost goes without saying that it ran without a fault even at the highest display settings, with a huge map and in the end-game conditions (the most demanding part of the game).

Given that this is a laptop computer, you will probably want to occasionally play games away from any source of electricity. Unfortunately, a laptop with a 17� screen and a good graphics card will eat power like Varg drinks Pepsi Max and thus you cannot expect too much from the battery life. We tested the Asus G2S by playing Oblivion continuously under battery power and reached the disappointing result of about 56 minutes before the computer shut itself down. The battery will most likely last a bit longer while doing some less demanding tasks, but this is a gaming computer so the gaming performance is what we are interested in.

Conclusion
Asus G2S proved to be a great gaming laptop, if you are not expecting to play Crysis or similarly demanding games on it. The best aspects were definitely the screen and the keyboard. The sounds aren�t that bad either, considering our average experience with laptops. The obvious downside, veritable Achilles' heel, in fact, of the system is the relatively weak graphics card � even 512MB dedicated graphics memory would probably have helped the system performance tremendously. As it is, Asus G2S is a good gaming laptop, but not something you can expect to play the latest and the greatest games on at maximum graphics settings.