ram1009 :
Kraszmyl :
Why? He has pretty reasonable expectations from the class of machine he picked and both machines have fairly good reviews.
Maybe you should read the horror stories also. Nearly everybody wishing for a "gaming laptop" believes (whether knowingly or unknowingly) that laptops are portable desktops and consequently expect to be able to do everything with them that they can do with a desktop. Laptops are valuable for performing tasks that REQUIRE portability which certainly doesn't include games. For the same budget one can build a desktop that is more powerful, serviceable, upgradable and won't overheat. Laptops will never match the performance of a desktop. My suggestion was intended to inform the OP of the problems others are having.
Considering I own an m11x r1 , m11x r2, m14x r2, m17x r3, m6600, several older asus laptops with 9600gt, 5730s, and so on. Pretty sure im aware of how well they work and their limitations.
If you read what the original guy wrote, he has completely realistic expectations for what this laptop will do. He lists settings that the laptop should be happy to play at the resolution the laptop has. The Horror stories are from people who don't research and have unrealistic expectations.
For OP.
My recommendation still stands. The laptop with the 730 is the better choice. For reference my m14xR2 comes with a gt650 which at stock is kinda close to that. Same shader amount and same clocks but mine has gddr5. So I run about 10-25% faster at stock depending on the situation. My laptop will play the games you suggested at the settings you listed and sometimes better just fine. So again your expectations are perfectly realistic assuming this isn't a 64bit card then well return it.
However assuming msi hasn't locked the laptop down and youre okay with a little tweaking you can easily boost your core clock 50-150 points depending on how hot it gets and what youre willing to give on battery and youll see a marked improvement on that. Since its gddr3 im going to guess you will still be limited there.
Ran some quick tests on my old Asus that has an i7 1.6, hd5730, 8 gigs of ram, and 1366x786. The hd5730 is perhaps 10-30% slower than the 730m youre looking at depending on the situation.
dow2 on ultra has low 11fps, median 33fps, high 60fps
bioshock 3 on high dx11 is 21fps average, 6fps low, 51fps high
shogun 2 only gives the average which is 29fps on average.