ASUS ROG G750 Gaming Laptop

• Written by: Will Halstead on Aug. 2, 2013
• 9 Comments
• Download Review in PDF

 

Gaming Benchmarks

Before we get into how the G750 performed in video benchmarks and games I want to take a moment to explain our methodology and why it is important to you. We’ve all experienced it before: you’re playing a game, and for some reason, the animations feel really jerky. You turn on the FPS counter and…it’s hovering at 30fps. Isn’t that a higher framerate than most movies? Why does the game feel jerky? To answer that question, you have to dig a bit deeper. FPS numbers are an average; the game (or in some cases, a benchmark tool like FRAPS) keeps track of how many frames are rendered in a second’s time, and reports that number back. It’s right there in the name: Frames Per Second. The trouble is, that number is only meaningful if every frame takes about the same amount of time to come out. Here’s an example of a short snippet of a game running on two hypothetical systems:

In this first run, the frames are all coming out in ~30ms with no major deviations; this translates to about 32.4 FPS.

In this second run, most of the frames are coming out in ~20ms, which would be about 50 FPS, but there’s a noticeable spike in one of the frames, up to 281ms. That’s about a third of a second just for that one frame to come out. Even if you’re fairly insensitive to animation smoothness, that’s going to be a noticeable hitch. But if we display those same data sets as a FPS average, we get:

Oops. Clearly then, FPS isn’t the whole story when it comes to graphical performance. For this reason, we’ll be reporting performance numbers in terms of frametimes as well as FPS when possible. Here’s a quick chart to give you an idea of what different frametime values will mean in practical terms:

Frametime	FPS Equivalent
50ms	20 FPS
41.666ms	24 FPS (film and TV)
33.333ms	30 FPS (most console games)
16.667ms	60 FPS (upper limit for most PC monitors)
8.333ms	120 FPS (upper limit for most 3D-capable PC monitors)

Unless otherwise noted, all values are measured with FRAPS version 3.5.99.

Battlefield 3

EA’s flagship modern military manshoot game provides a challenge for any system, taking advantage of DirectX 11’s added capabilities to pack in extra detail where it’s most likely to make a difference in image quality. For this run, we used the intro sequence at the beginning of Going Hunting, where you are walking through the carrier up to the flight deck. We used High and Ultra presets, as well as the custom settings suggested by the Geforce Experience software:

Resolution	1920×1080
Ambient Occlusion	off
Anisotropic Filtering	2x
Anti-aliasing Deferred	off
Anti-aliasing Post	High
Effects Quality	Ultra
Fullscreen	on
Graphics Quality	Custom
Mesh Quality	Low
Shadow Quality	Medium
Terrain Decoration	Low
Terrain Quality	Low
Texture Quality	Low

 

With the custom presets, frametime averages hovered around the 16ms mark, which translates to right around 60 FPS. As you can see in the graph, there were occasional momentary hitches, but nothing drastic. Visuals remained fluid throughout. Running on the High preset, performance got a little worse, with frametimes averaging around 22-23ms, which provided an average framerate of 43-45 FPS. Again, minor hitches were detectable, but they were no more than eyeblinks. Though less fluid than on Custom, visuals still remained smooth. Cranking up to the Ultra preset degraded performance further, though frametimes still averaged around 33ms, or 30FPS. As you can see in the graph above, framerates were somewhat more variable moment to moment than on lower settings, which led to mild jerkiness. While this setting is still playable, it does lag noticably during moments of intense action.

Bioshock Infinite

Running on Unreal Engine 3 as it does, Bioshock Infinite serves as a bellwether for many AAA titles on the market. While it might not be cutting-edge technology, it still provides some very pretty visuals with a distinctive stylistic flair. Here we used the internal benchmarking tool, which runs the game through a quick flythrough of the more challenging parts of the game’s early areas. We used the UltraDX11_DDOF and VeryHigh presets, as well as the custom settings suggested by the Geforce Experience software, which are as follows:

Resolution	1920×1080
Anti-aliasing	off
Texture filtering	Ultra
Texture detail	Ultra
Post-processing	Normal
Object LOD	Ultra
Light Shafts	off
Dynamic Shadows	Low
Ambient Occlusion	Low

Though this utility doesn’t report frametimes, it does provide minimum, maximum and average FPS for every 0.5 seconds of the run, which can give us similar information.

On the recommended custom settings, framerates varied wildly from moment to moment, as the graph shows. Though framerates stayed mostly at or above 40FPS, the variance from moment to moment caused a distressingly jerky feel overall. Getting truly smooth visuals would entail dropping texture detail and object LoD down. Moving to the Very High preset, average framerates hovered around 30 FPS. While the overall framerate was lower, this setting actually felt smoother overall, due to steadier framerates. On the Ultra setting with Diffusion Depth of Field enabled, average framerates stayed near 25 FPS, with frequent dips down into the teens. At this level, only the most patient would consider it playable.

Serious Sam 3: BFE

In addition to being a love letter to old-school, you-vs-the-world style shooters, Serious Sam 3 manages to be a fairly strenuous test of a system’s OpenGL capabilities. For this run, we loaded up the Death Canyon level in Survival mode. As the name implies, this is a wide canyon filled to the brim with things that want you very dead, and the arsenal you’ll need to shovel back the tide.

On the High CPU and GPU presets, frametimes averaged near 20 ms, which gives us a sustained framerate of 50 FPS. While there was some jitter, animations remained mostly smooth throughout. Cranking up to Ultra/Ultra, the frametime average climbed to 31 ms, which gives us a still quite playable 33 FPS. Aside from a couple of frames that took over a quarter-second to come out, framerates were fairly steady throughout. Motion was fast and fluid, even on this detail setting, which is essential in a fast action game like this.

Metro 2033

If post-apocalyptic survival horror with a Slavic twist sounds like your idea of a good time, then Metro 2033 will deliver. Running on the 4A engine, this game will tax a system to its limits in delivering a visually rich experience.

For this benchmark run, we ran the game at 1920×1080 with adaptive anti-aliasing, 16x anisotropic filtering, and medium quality presets. The main difference here is between DX9 and DX11 modes, with DX11 mode enabling tesselation for enhanced detail on near objects. Instead of FRAPS, the internal benchmark utility was used.

On the DX9 run, frametimes stayed in the mid-to-low 20’s for most of the run, dropping down to the mid teens near the end. This translates to a framerate range of 45-60FPS. There was some minor jerkiness during intense firefights, but overall the motion remained smooth.

On the DX11 run, frametime averages were again mid-20’s for most of the run, with a drop down to the low teens near the end. As the graph shows, however, there was a great deal more variance between fast and slow frames from moment to moment. This translated into jerkier, less fluid animations throughout, despite the relatively high framerates.

Guild Wars 2

As far as MMOs go, Guild Wars 2 is unusual in a couple of respects. First, that it eschews the subscription model of other AAA games in favor of a cash shop for cosmetic items and experience boosters, and second for embracing a detailed, graphically lush visual style.

For this run, we ran through the Kessex Hills, a low-to-mid level area to the south of Divinity’s Reach, starting from the fortess at Kessex Haven and running across the hills and down into the fishing village of Triskell Quay, before diving into the lake and swimming to the Krait’s Larder near the bottom. The following settings were used:

Resolution	1920×1080
Animation	High
Anti-aliasing	FXAA
Environment	High
LOD Distance	High
Reflections	All
Textures	High
Render Sampling	Native
Shadows	High
Shaders	High
Post-processing	High
WvW Character Limit	High
WvW Character Quality	High
Best Texture Filtering	enabled
Depth Blur	enabled
High-Res Character Textures	Enabled

With an average frametime of 19 ms, framerates were generally high throughout, though occasional hitches and a generally jittery frame output kept the animation from being perfectly smooth.

 

Related

  Previous Page         1. Introduction to Budget Gaming2. A Closer Look, Continued3. Banchmarks: 3DMark 2013 and Sandra4. Benchmarks: AIDA64, Crystalmark5. Benchmarks: Gameplay Testing6. Thoughts and Conclusion7. View All         Next Page