Gaming laptops: Asus ROG G752VT vs Medion Erazer X7843

Question

I am considering purchasing a new gaming laptop. After some initial research, I have narrowed the field down to two candidates.

The Asus ROG G752VT

• i7 6700HQ Processor
• 16 GB DDR4 MHz SDRAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
• 1TB 7200RPM HDD + 128GB SSD

The Medion Erazer X7843

• i7 6700HQ Processor
• 16GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
• 1TB HDD + 128GB SSD

In spite of the fact that, on paper, the Medion is the more powerful of the two, they are roughly equivalent in price. This immediately makes me suspicious. Medion is a German brand which is sometimes sold in discount supermarkets. It's based on MSI "Barebones", about which I know nothing. Being German, it's hard to find reliable reports in English of its reliability.

I was originally going to go for the Asus, but looking at the "recommended" specifications for some recent games it seemed that the desktop GTX 770 is a common fixture. Checking benchmark lists, it appears that the GTX 970M rates about 10% less power than the GTX 770, whereas the GTX 980M rates about 10% more. That made me feel it might be a worthwhile upgrade and I went looking for a system I could afford with the 980M, and the Medion is the only one I found.

To lay out my concerns in plain language, I'm hoping someone can advise me on:

• Whether I need to care about being 10% under the "recommended" specs for games (i.e. does "recommended" mean good-to-average, or does it mean all settings cranked up to max?)
• Whether Medion is a reliable brand?
• Whether there are any signs or information available on whether cheaper build components in the Medion might hold back performance (i.e. poor motherboard etc making overall performance more in line with the Asus in spite of the better graphics card. Also, note that the Medion doesn't break down the quality of its RAM or HDD like Asus does)?
• Similarly, whether there are "soft" components in the Medion like sound, screen and connectivity that might lead to a comparatively poor user experience?

In short, do I really need a 980M, and is the Medion really as good value as it seems to be?

Answer 1

There's a test of the Medion on this site:

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Medion-Erazer-X7843-Notebook.154482.0.html

Just use Google Translate or similar and you'll see that it is even tested against the G752VT. Nobody can tell you whether one thing is worth it or not, but the test gives you pretty much all the information you need to make your own decision (screen, noise, temperatures etc. are all in the test)

Edit: The site says that the screen is good, the performance is very high, the input devices are "proper" (my German isn't great, so that is the best translation I can give) and the negatives are that the CPU and GPU are soldered on and that the laptop throttles (turns down clocks/performance) on battery power.