ASUS GL502VT-DS74 Gaming Laptop Review

ASUS GL502VT-DS74 surely is an expensive laptop, but there is (a good?) reason for that: it’s a gaming notebook! You should expect wonderful frame rates and eye candy from such a machine; indeed there are things like GeForce GTX970M powering the system up. Without further ado, let’s examine the computer a bit more…

So, it’s great for gaming?

ASUS GL502VT-DS74 has a dedicated, high-end GeForce GTX 970M (the 6GB VRAM version!) as the graphics card. It’s one of the best cards for laptops, so yes, the Asus is a gamer-friendly unit. What you can expect is high settings and decent/great FPS on every game. Here are some examples:

– Fallout 4, high and 1080p, +50FPS
– GTA 5, high and 1080p, +60FPS
– The Witcher 3, high and 1080p, +40FPS

So yes, games will run very fine, that’s all I can say!

How about other components under the hood?

This Asus enjoys a strong processor performance as well. It’s the Intel Core i7-6700HQ that is running the show, a 6th generation processor sporting a quad-core setup and 2.6GHz clock speed that increases to 3.5GHz with turbo. It reaches excellent score in CPU Mark, around 8000, meaning you can use the system for things like video editing – there is no question about that.

The 16GB DDR4 memory is great for heavyweight stuff, too. Half of it is installed on a stick, and another 8GB on-board.

There are two storage drives inside, a traditional 1TB 7200RPM SATA hard drive plus a 128GB solid-state drive attached to M.2 SATA interface. With such a set-up, the computer will be both fast and have great storage for larger files, like games and movies.

Ports and connections

You’ll be able to plug in a secondary monitor to ASUS GL502VT-DS74, there are many video ports to choose from: HDMI, mini Displayport and USB 3.1 Type-C are at your disposal. There are also three regular USB 3.0 ports for plugging in peripherals.

Networking is handled by two adapters: the wired one with Gigabit RJ-45 port and wireless with AC standard and Bluetooth 4.1 support.

Remember this: the laptop does not have an optical drive. So you must use an external one that works with USB if discs are your priority. Card reader however is available, it supports SD, MMC and MS cards.

Other interesting things

ASUS GL502VT-DS74 has a proper gaming display, with 15.6″ diagonal and Full HD support. The panel type is IPS and it features anti-glare coating. The screen does not support touch.

There’s a 4-cell 64Whr battery giving power to the laptop. It’s beefy, yes, but the components inside are rather power hungry. Thus, expect only 1-2 hours battery life under gameplay (3 hours if web surfing).

The keyboard has a backlight feature.

Summary

ASUS GL502VT-DS74 is not that different from other gaming notebooks: it costs an arm and a leg, and is powerful enough to satisfy a hardcore player’s needs. Getting 60FPS will happen regardless of the game, especially if you can lower the settings a bit on the heaviest ones. The solid-state drive is a nice addition, making the unit faster to boot and games shall load quicker. My advice is to get this laptop if you’re serious enough about your hobby.