Under the hood lurks a quad-core 2630QM processor that has a base clock frequency of 2GHz but can push to 2.93GHz in Turbo Boost mode. Toss in 8GB of fast DDR3-1333 RAM plus an GeForce GTX 460M discrete GPU with a dedicated 1.5GB frame buffer, and you have the guts of a dandy gaming system. The unit also benefits from a 17.3-inch, LED-backlit LCD offering 1920-by-1080-pixel HD resolution.

All that CPU and GPU horsepower won't be too much of a burden on already tight budgets. Our model, with a Blu-ray drive and a pair of Seagate 7200-rpm, 500GB hard drives, costs around $1650 (as of March 25, 2011). On the other hand, while your wallet may not feel the strain, your back and shoulders might if you lug this laptop around regularly. Without the 150W power brick, the G73SW weighs 8 pounds, 11 ounces--not terrible for a laptop in this class. That 150W power supply, however, adds a full 2 pounds to the load. Sure, the battery life is decent for this laptop category at nearly 3.5 hours; but if you plan on extended gaming sessions, you'll want to keep the power brick handy.

Overall gaming performance was a pleasant surprise. I was worried that the GTX 460M might be a little underpowered. Instead, the system chewed through our most demanding Far Cry 2 test, reaching over 56 frames per second. At the "high" setting, F1 2010 ran at 65 fps. Just Cause 2 took the system down a notch at ultrahigh settings, as the laptop eked out only 16 fps, but that game has a large number of settings that you can gradually dial down without causing a substantial reduction in visual quality. The G73SW also performed well on standard desktop applications, powering through our WorldBench 6 benchmark with a superb score of 128.

We found a few niggling shortcomings, however. The G73SW ships with a Blu-ray player, but the Roxio CinePlayer BD application's image quality seemed a little on the soft side; the program would occasionally crash on exit, too. Audio quality is good, provided you ensure that the included Creative THX TruStudio processing software is enabled. If you leave it disabled, the overall audio volume and sound quality are pretty weak. With TruStudio on, the sound quality and volume levels are much more pleasing.

The G73SW ships with plenty of ports, including four USB (two on each side; one of the right side ports is capable). You'll also find HDMI and VGA video outputs, plus an SD Card slot. The Blu-ray disc-loading tray pops out on the left side, but two USB ports straddle the optical-drive bay. Ethernet and audio jacks also live on the left side.