GTX 660M Benchmarks (G55VW Vs G53SX)

We’ve just unpacked a brand new ASUS Republic of Gamers G55VW and run some Futuremark benchmarks on it, comparing it to its predecessor, the G53SX. The results weren’t revolutionary but clearly a step forward. Even more impressive was that the G55VW barely made a sound while running Futuremark’s demanding benchmark suite. The same is undoubtedly true for its big brother the 17-inch G75VW as well. Here’s that mandatory unboxing video by the way:

After playing with the G55VW for a while, the first impression is that it feels like yet another rock solid gaming laptop from Asus. The design has been kept largely intact including the superb cooling solution, but the keyboard is now recessed in a brushed aluminum area of the casing that extends down the sides of the laptop. It looks better than its predecessor and feels even more sturdy.

But on to the all-important numbers. The new G55VW comes with a Core i7-3610QM (Ivy Bridge) processor, but as we’ve already stated, the improvement in Ivy Bridge lies mostly in the integrated graphics part, which is entirely irrelevant for a gaming laptop. On the plus side, Intel has managed to increase the clock speeds without increasing power consumption. The 3610QM is therefore a bit faster than the 2630QM in the G53SX, but probably not enough to have a noticeable effect on gaming frame rates.

What’s more interesting is of course Nvidia’s new 28nm Kepler-based GeForce GTX 660M and how it compares to its 40nm predecessor. This is how:

GTX 660M (G55VW) Vs. GTX 550M (G53SX):

As it turns out, the difference isn’t huge, but big enough to provide a visible boost in frame rates. The GTX 660M might also be a better candidate for overclocking considering its more power efficient design, particularly in combination with the powerful cooling system in the G55VW (or G75VW), but that’s a question for later.  In the CPU-heavy 3DMark 06, the score is increased by about 17%. In 3DMark Vantage, the improvement is more than twice as large at 36%, but in 3DMark 11 it jumps back to 16%. It will be interesting to see how this translates to frame rates in actual games, and we will soon find out.