GTA5 PC laptop to buy? (£1,780 Asus GL702: i7-7700HQ; 16GB RAM; GTX 1060 6GB; 512GB NVMe)

[BenMillard]

Deadline to transfer to PC is 6 March 2017. That includes PS4 and Xbox 1 to PC!

I'm targeting rock-solid 1080p 60fps online with many players at medium to visual effects. I'd like good shadows and no pop-in. (Fibre optic broadband via PlusNet, 40mbps down 2mbps up, South-East London in the UK.)

Spoiler: Laptop Shortlist by Review

Asus GL702 (various specs)
i5-6300HQ (is this enough? Game Debate members rate it below acceptable.)
i7-6700HQ
16GB RAM
GTX 1060 6GB
128GB SSD (is this enough for just Windows 10 and GTA5+DLC and saved status?)
256GB SSD (not NVMe but SATA 3)

Asus GL702 (Kaby Lake)
i7-7700HQ
16GB RAM
GTX 1060 3GB (is this enough?)

Asus G753D
Same footprint as G702 slightly thicker. (Much smaller footprint than G752 series.)
i7-7700HQ
GTX 1050 (is this enough? Game Debate says so. Not officially 'VR certified' but GTX 1060 is...)

HP Omen 17 (various specs)
i5-6300HQ version (Is this enough? Desktop i5-6600K overclocked "hits 90-100%" online.)
GTX 1060 version

Spoiler: Laptops in Online Shops

• Scan UK £1,350: Asus GL702 i7-6700HQ; 16GB RAM; GTX 1060 6GB; only 128GB SSD +1TB HDD
• Amazon UK: Asus GL702 every configuration, fairly priced.
• Amazon UK: Wishlist of laptops I'm considering
• eBay UK: Another wishlist of laptops I'm considering (might rule out overseas sellers)

Spoiler: Background

I'm transferring from PS3 (with SATA 2 SSD) as there's nothing left to buy with my GTA£30m+ legit cash.

My 2010 business laptop (Dell 17R N7010, i5-420m ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5470 1GB upgraded with SATA 2 SSD) was good enough for medium details GTA: San Andreas. 4k looks beyond laptops due to heat, noise, size, weight, money. I would get a tower for that in 2018 or when wireless VR arrives.

Spoiler: Ruled Out but open to new information

15" screens (1080p text will be too small in Windows)
8GB RAM
3GB GTX 1060 (no G-SYNC in GL702!)
Omen 17 (GTX 1060 has i5-6300HQ)
GTX 1070 (heat, noise, money)
MSI GE72 (TN, no G-SYNC, 41-49dB and throttling even for GTX 1050 Ti)
MSI GS73 (TN, no G-SYNC, noisy, money even for GTX 1050 Ti)
MSI GT72 (over 4kg)
MSI GT73 (over 4kg)
Brushed aluminium case, big footprint:
4.2+0.8kg ASUS G751 (up to i7-4720HQ GTX 980M)
With two-tone:
4.1+0.7kg ASUS G752VT (i7-6700HQ GTX 970M) 33dB 37-46dB
4.5+0.8kg ASUS G752VS (i7-6820HQ GTX 1070) 32dB 40-47dB
4.5+0.8kg ASUS G752VY (i7-6700HQ GTX 980M vapour cooling) 33dB 37-47dB
3.8+?.?kg ASUS G701 series (only GTX 1080 double the money)
Not two-tone, GL702 footprint:
3.0+?.?kg ASUS GL753VD (no G-SYNC i7-7700HQ GTX 1050) 34-37dB 43-47dB
- Smaller footprint, 4 hours WiFi v1.3, ports near front left

 

[BenMillard]

Just found a beautiful GL702 "Titanium Gold" version with a silver case. "Be still, my beating heart!" The two-tone G752 was the prettiest I found but it's heavy with a big footprint. This is about £200 more for the same spec but i7-7700HQ and PCIe SSD instead of the standard SATA 3 SKUs. Very tempted...

£1,600 Asus [ROG Strix] GL702VM (Kaby Lake): i7-7700HQ; 16GB RAM (2400Mhz because HM175 chipset); GTX 1060 6GB; 256GB PCIe SSD; still just 2.7kg. (512GB is just over £1,700.)

It's just so pretty...but it might not get here until 4 March 2017.

 

[20832]

Generally the wrong section for it mate.

I personally really would recommend looking up Dave2D on YouTube, he does fantastic laptop reviews and gives some very good recommendations on gaming laptops!

 

[BenMillard]

Hey, that's a fantastic recommendation. Dave2D reviews GL702 i7-6700HQ with GTX 1060:



As the purchase is specifically for GTA, I figured the GTA area was the most relevant place to ask. (Maybe other people recently switched to PC with the 6 March 2017 transfer deadline.)

 

[Suzumiya]

Is there any reason that it has to be a laptop? I might have missed it in the background... you can continue to use the old laptop for work and the desktop for play.

Ah, I see now, sorry. But I would just like to know exactly why besides wireless VR.

 

[BenMillard]

Fair question. My current laptop is from 2010 and is almost dead. Motherboard replaced last year. One too many spilt drinks fried the keyboard so I had to remove it. A mechanical USB keyboard is now sat on the chassis. >_<

6 years of long use, every day, is a very hard life for any laptop. It has served me extremely well. In total I've spent way under £1,000 during the past 6 years on computers thanks to this Dell 17R N7010.

If I get the PC gaming bug with this 1080p target laptop, in 2018 I'd move to a tower for 4k and 2nd generation VR. AMD's future should be clear by then. It could be another golden era for PC gaming - just like the 1990s when I had my last tower. ^_^

 

[Tornado]

Mine has a 5700HQ and 970m and I can set everything to high or better (grass being the main FPS hog you have to cut) and it stays pretty much at 60. A 6700HQ and 1060 (which is a substantially more powerful card), no matter the manufacturer, should be more than enough; especially now that DDR4 has taken hold.

 

[BenMillard]

That's good to know. The shiny silver "Titanium Pro" uses the i7-7700HQ which bumps the DDR4 from 2133MHz to 2400MHz as well. Might help with processing busy online sessions, with physics and AI plus menus, audio and whatnot all at once.

Would you say Steam is the best way to get GTA5? Half price to £20 at the moment! Should I start downloading it on the old laptop as it's 65GB + many GB of DLC? (40Mbps fibre broadband as measured.)

You're right, all of these will pwn the experience on original gen consoles. That's a worthwhile reminder; perhaps I'm getting a bit bogged down in details which don't matter.

But then I see GTA5 dropping to 40fps in a review on Asus's website:

Without seeing the settings they used I can't tell how relevant this is. The sudden drop about 6 ticks from the left looks like something started running in the background.

HIDevolution have great customer support: Customising a GL702 "Titanium Pro" with a Samsung 960 Evo 500GB NVMe SSD would have to be done in their USA centre. There's a queue and then shipping time, express options would get it here in time. But the big hit is taxes: it would end up about £1,900! But I got straight answers from relaxed staff when I called their UK proxy number.

£1,711 (+£80 express delivery) GL702 "Titanium Pro" from Amazon UK as above but with 512GB "HIDevolution approved" NVMe could be in my possession next week. There's just a slight lottery about which drive it would have:

We use various SSD models from major OEM manufacturers like Samsung, Toshiba, Kingston, etc. Unfortunately we would not be able to confirm publicly which specific model of SSD is being used. You can be assured that the SSD is a M.2 NVMe PCIe x4 type SSD and will be very fast.

Compared to my SATA2 SSD in the Dell 17R N7010 and the upgraded PS3, it's going to be on another level. And it will get here in time, from an honest seller with a UK support number.

Sold!

 

[BenMillard]

My new laptop arrived today! Plugged it in, started the system, see normal activity on the status lights...but...screen stays blank.

Saw one or two people report this for Asus systems but can't believe this is the state of my system. HIDevolution customise the spec of this and their automated e-mails tell me the system underwent full testing before it is sent out.

Their support line opens about an hour from now. I'll keep you informed what they say. Will keep searching to see how other cases got resolved. With the deadline just 2 weeks away I'm really worried I'll miss the transfer and will explain that on the call.

There's no point having a gaming laptop if I can't transfer my years of PS3 progress.

 

[BenMillard]

After a couple of calls with the competent technical staff at HIDevolution, we spent an hour taking it apart and re-seating components. No change. Always black screen, it just glows.

A lot of IPS glow and definite region backlight bleed in lower right corner. Disappointing. Hopefully this one got dropped or mis-handled during their upgrade, to explain the fact it doesn't work. The replacement shouldn't have this bleed.

While I had it open I saw the 512GB SSD they upgraded to was the Samsung SM951. AWESOME! Hopefully I will 'win' again in their SSD supply situation, getting an SM951 in the replacement. That would remove the only reservation I had ordering this particular spec.

They've told me to order another one, which is now done, with the same express shipping. That should arrive between Wednesday and Friday this week so still plenty of time before the GTA5 transfer deadline. If it works!

The first one is being collected by DHL tomorrow. Return label is paid for by HIDevolution and printed out. I get the refund for the first one when they receive it. (We've confirmed it's a serious fault after all the steps taken over the phone.)

The chassis is darker than I expected, much darker than MacBook and much heavier pattern. After the initial surprise it really grew on me. After opening it up several times and seeing how neat and compact the internals are, really loving this. Sure beats a generic black plastic chassis. (For £150-200 more than same spec, though.)

 

[BenMillard]

The replacement arrived last Thursday and works great. GTA Online with 20 players, Freemode Events, combat, dogfights, it just walks through everything.

Only 2 or 3 times in 10+ hours of gaming I've seen FPS drop for a couple of seconds, probably a background process starting up. My old N7010 had years of tweaking; I got the free Windows 10 upgrade this time last year. It passive cools with 100 tabs open, until a web page with bloated rotating adverts or embedded video starts up.

The GL702 fans shift massive amounts of air when gaming and the screen is locked to 75Hz. Internal temperatures barely get over 50°C and I'm playing with nearly default PC settings. I can probably turn down some of the visual effects and retain the amazing texture clarity. The user is shielded from much of the noise, like a driver shielded from engine noise. If you move your head behind the screen it's about twice as noisy! Great chassis design.

The upward facing speakers work brilliantly for music. You really get a stereo effect since the sound isn't bounced off the table, below your arms, like so many laptops. Left side can be covered by typing hand, if you start hunching too much.

Text looks amazing, I was so worried 1920x1080 would be hard even on 17" with correct sitting position. The contrast and fidelity between neighbouring pixels is sublime. 1600x900 on my N7010 looks big but the edges aren't as good. (ClearType defaults or sub-pixel grid or 1st gen i5 integrated graphics versus nVidia GTX I guess? Different DirectX version, maybe.)

BenMillard on Steam is me. Loving the new content in GTA5! Simple Freemode Events like longest wheelie are surprisingly fun. Did a couple of Import/Export as an Associate for a laid-back player I met by chance. Did all the Special Vehicle missions as Associate, too. Joined a couple of Lamar Lowrider DLC missions. Most of these were hard enough to be exciting but don't suffer to weirdly strict completion criteria of Heists. My screenshots from GTA5 on Steam.

Combat was something I hated on PS3 and mouse aiming is the biggest difference I wanted to try. It works great! Really, really happy to skip the pointless x86 console generation and get my twitch aiming back like Unreal Tournament from 1999.

Using earphones for now so the sound can be heard clearly over the fans. It's the air movement, not so much the motors, which my mind soon filters out like natural wind or rain noise. Letting the temperatures go higher and bringing some graphics features down is OK to make it quieter.

 

[BenMillard]

In GTA5 I've changed V-Sync to Half which, as you'd expect, gives 37fps or 38fps instead of 75fps. About half the noise and still smoother than any console. 👍

Not quite as buttery dreamy smooth as 75fps but about half the noise! Can use the speakers and it's all quite civilised in the study.

Would raise some eyebrows in a library but I'd not expecting 1080p gaming to passive cool.

 

[qureshimarwat]

I would highly recommend PC instead of Laptop as I did the mistake and bought Laptop in start it was working fine but after few months it would heat up a lot.

I have a custom built pc now, Core i5 with 32 gb of Ram, SSD 256 GB, Over Clocked Graphic Card and work as a charm.

 

[BenMillard]

You'll only get 2 modern games on that SSD. I don't think you'll use 32GB of RAM, it's wasted money. I never even fill 16GB with GTA Online and a browser with 100 tabs open on another screen!

GTA5 really needs i7 so I couldn't save money on the processor.