Gigabyte P34G

You'd have to do it over a external usb audio card or hdmi

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I'm sorry, but I don't quite agree with what people are saying re: fan ramping. In my experience with both the p34g and the w230st (which both supposedly have horrible fan ramping), there are a few variables which cause annoying fan ramping and they are easy enough to avoid:

• programs using your dGPU for no good reason, this will definitely start your fans. You select which gpu each program uses, and by default I think several are set to use the nVidia gpu. Change these settings in nvidia control panel. there is also a toggle for a gpu-activity icon under 'Desktop', which will tell you when programs are using your dgpu.
• blocking the fan in/out vents, and keeping the laptop on your hot lap.

Then again, it might be I just don't notice the ramping, I live in a noisy apt..

 

Run through Calibrater on Win 8 and make sure all the hues are gray and you'll lose the yellow.

 

I've had it under volted 100mV for around a week now, until I had a random restart. I left it running on the desktop for a few minutes on battery power and it restarted automatically, I opened Intel XTU and it said the watchdog feature reset it due to stability. Anyone know what's up with that? I've been running games such as Civ 5 for the past week fine.

 

fixed the mystery ram issue. It turned out that the ram stick was ever so slightly out of its clips.

 

I keep getting blue screen while trying to update intel proset drivers (video_dxgkrnl_fatal_error). anybody knows what's up? running windows 8.1

 

Jus ran it.. it looks better now. Thank you.

 

Are you using the windows 8.1 beta drivers?

 

If anyone's looking for a slim, lightweight charger, I can confirm that this one works:
Amazon.com: Innergie mCube Lite 65 Watt Ultra Slim Universal AC Adapter with USB Port for Notebooks and Portable Devices: Computers & Accessories

It only goes up to 65W, so it won't charge at full speed, but it's light and plenty for lighter work. Use Tip "A."

They go for pretty cheap used!

 

I first tried updating via the Smart Update tool, then I tried uninstalling the drivers completely and downloading the beta drivers from gigabyte. Same error, I'm guessing it was the same driver.. now I tried updating driver via the Device Manager, and that seemed to work, somehow.. Driver version says 16.5.1.6, which is even higher than the beta..? Wondering if I'll run into some connection issues..

Edit: It doesn't reconnect me automatically after restarts, so that's mildly annoying...

 

I've been using the Intel® Driver Update Utility directly as I manually upgraded my WiFi card to an Intel 7260ac.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations on cooling pads? I'll be in Thailand for 6 months and I'm worried that the heat coupled with some heavy gaming/encoding might not be good.

 

Will charging with the lower power damage the battery long-term?

 

Not as far as I know. As long as the voltage matches, any amount of current should be fine...

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Lower wattage should not be a problem, just charges slower. Dell for example sells different wattage chargers at different prices based on the need of size or charging speed.

I would say that this may not be the best to use when gaming.

 

I know specifics have probably already been discussed in the threat, sorry guys:

I'm deciding between the P34G and the Asus N550JV as my next system (I've ruled out the P35K). My main concerns are the fan noise both idle and at load and the overall build quality of the machine. Size is also a concern, but the P34G is obviously the winner here. From what I understand the 550's fans are always on, but inaudible at idle time - how does the P34G compare? What's the ramping like as it comes under heavier load? One reason I'm not considering Clevo/Sager notebooks is their lackluster fan profiles. Has anyone else looked at the NV550 as an alternative before buying, what were your thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

N550jv has an infamous problem with "error 43". Too many people already reported it... Just look at the N550jv topic here.

The second problem is that fans can stop working. Only reboots help.

 

I've read most of the recent N550JV thread, and haven't noticed that. The biggest recurring issues I noticed were high temps and headphone background noise, along with the machine being larger than other 15" ones. Could you link to some posts?

And the problem with non-working fans, do you mean that's an issue with the N550JV, or with the P34G?

 

You can look here:

Google Translate

Just search for "error 43" or "fans". Many people reported this.

Also here (error 43):

https://www.google.com/search?q=err....1.1.0....0...1c.1.29.serp..1.0.0.2wa6hf94TSc

Or here (fans):

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...user-review-owners-lounge-40.html#post9341044

Also did I mention that it throtlles like hell under load (when both CPU and GPU are active)?

I also owned N56vz. Returned it. Asus quality was much better several years ago...

 

To think I was originally going to buy that exact asus model over the summer, but didn't because Gigabyte announced their new laptops is crazy.

Looks like I saved me self a headache.

 

I was seriously considering that as well I felt like the DDR3 750m would have been too weak. The throttling would have also been a problem.

 

Doesn't throttling only come into effect when on battery, when you likely won't be doing anything terrible resource intensive? I'll likely have my machine plugged in except in a few instanced - which is another reason I'm leaning P34G as the N550JV has an internal battery (it's removed easily enough if you have the correct Torx bit, but still). I also thought it was a near equal detriment on all notebooks with similar CPUs, the variables being their cooling systems.

Can someone give me a better idea on what kind of noise the fans on the P34G make? Could you compare it to something that makes similar wind style noise like blowing out a candle, a hairdryer, a car air conditioner on various settings, etc?

 

Car air conditioner on the first or second notch, and it's not there all the time. As someone else in this thread has pointed out, you can control which programs use the GPU via the NVIDIA control and ratcheting most everything down to the integrated graphics does make quite a bit of difference.

 

I'll say first off is that the fans can be erratic. For me, the 'idle' fan speed is near inaudible, and this goes for about 70% of my light usage i.e. browsing internet, MS office, file management in windows explorer, even music and non 720p video in media players. However, the fans can ramp up randomly for short bursts in light usage, such as when opening new tabs. The ramped up 'idle' speed is not too bad, certainly noticeable if you're in a silent room, but I'd say in a room with a lot of ambient sounds such as open windows or other people typing and writing like a library/classroom, it's not too noticeable.

Of course the fans are loud during heavy tasks like games, and setting the fans to 'turbo' manually in the fan control is like a mini jet engine.

 

There are at least 4 steps in the fan speed (maybe 5, not sure). The first one is inaudible for me, I mean I have to lean to get close to the notebook. The notebook stays in that level only on iddle.
The second one is already audible, like a fridge or a regular computer fan I'd say. You can get used to it. The others are quite noticeable, but don't bother while gaming with headphones. Also, I don't think it goes to the last step unless you select turbo something on the smartmanager (it doesn't really need it).
I think there was a video somewhere, someone playing BF4 and another one of an australian guy showing Lightroom and NFS.

 

Thanks a lot for the info guys. You've made this a pretty tough decision, as I really liked the N550JV.

Based on this thread and other research-
Noise and heat seem to be similar (with the P34G being a small bit louder), as do the screens. The P34G has a slight edge in build quality, size and the benefit of having an msata drive and a one notch higher end GPU (I imagine the GDDR5 will me more of a factor than the GPU clock speed), while the N550JV is a less expensive, has an optical drive and better speakers. The N550JV also has some fan and driver bugs reported by forum members.

Hmm.

Am I missing any notable comparison points?


edit: Forgot to mention I'm only looking at the non-touch N550JV.

 

Oh I was talking about the N550 throttling, sorry. Users said the CPU throttles significantly at ~80C without any modifications(throttlestop).

 

Here's a video with some fan action:

P34G Sound BF3 - YouTube

 

The P34G has a GDDR5 760m while the N550 has a GDDR3 750m. So it's a bit more than one notch, as there is a 755m in between

 

It is much more than one notch - gtx760m has twice as many cores than gt750m.
There is indeed 755m, but it is still a slight upgrade of 750m. Moreover, gt750m is usually weaker than gtx660m and gtx660m is weaker than gtx760m.
Just for comparison, Company of Heroes 2 benchmark:
750m/fps
low 29, med 23, high 15
760m/fps
low 35, med 29, high 21
Metro: Last Light benchmark:
750m/fps
low 42, med 35, high 21
760m/fps
low 63, med 43, high 30
So, if you are planning hard gaming on a small laptop you should consider no less than gtx760m.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

 

Many owners have reported cpu throttling on battery, I was wondering if the Intel gpu, the 4600 I mean throttles on battery aswell, on the w230st the Intel gpu is capped to 400mhz on battery, and whilst the cpu can be unlocked using throttlestop, it is still just as laggy as the gpu is throttling so badly, if any owners can report on trottling and to what extent it would be highly appreciated, thanks. Also we found that disabling clevo control centre from starting on boot stopped both gpu and cpu throttling on battery, perhaps disabling the gigabyte manager would help?

 

So I have this machine coming next week, debating snagging Arkham Origins for PC and plugging the p34g into my living room setup, instead of grabbing it for the 360 or the PS3. Thought on how it will run on the Gigabyte vs. a console?

 

I'm about to pull the trigger on this. Just three more questions:

1. Linux: anyone running any flavors on it? Does it work with the new Intel WiFi (7260) card?
2. Is there any reason to buy "better" RAM if it's still 1600? I'm going to go 16 GB and I can spend considerably more on Kingston, etc. but is there any advantage?
3. It's down to GentechPC and XoticPC with Xotic holding a slim margin owing to offering an extended warranty...worth it?

Thanks.

 

The integrated graphics doesn't throttle on battery as far as I know, just the cpu.

The game's definitely going to look better running on the p34g. For reference, the 360 runs most games on low at 720p.

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2. Performance difference is negligible. No real advantage for the cost.
3. XoticPC FTW

 

If I buy a stock unit from Amazon as opposed to a customized reseller like Xotic what's the msata SSD inside? An unboxing/brief review posted by Gentech on YouTube showed it was made by Lite-On (didn't know they even made SSDs), but the only info I can find on Lite-On's msata drives are based on a 256gb one with two 128mb subunits in RAID from some Acer ultrabooks - I don't think the P34G has something similar, does it?

I've also noticed on some resellers' configuration pages they offer the option to use the msata drive as a system cache, is this a new feature in Windows 8? Is the drive still used as a system drive in this instance? What are the pros and cons vs. a normal system + frequent program install and then using the mechanical drive for storage?

Thanks in advance guys. Pretty sure I'll grab this over the N550JV now.

 

The drive is phenomenally quick.

 

Wow, that's great news. I was thinking I'd need to swap it out for a better drive or go with a custom reseller and switch things around.

What kind of controller does the drive use? Marvell?
Any word on how many p/e cycles it's rated for?

 

Pulled the trigger today.
W764-Pro, 16 GB, 240 GB Crucial 500 mSATA SSD + 500 GB Samsung 840 EVO.
Crossing my fingers it plays nicely with Linux but mainly interested in the gaming upgrade in W7 from my old MBP and the added RAM for VMs.

 

Thanks. I know 360 games tend to run at 720p, just didn't know if the other graphics options on the p34 would be scaled down to end up looking worse than the consoles. I have a pretty beastly gaming rig in my office, but nothing beats sitting on the couch with a controller for a beat-em-up like Batman.

 

If you have a game pad for the PC then yeah go ahead. Also a con about what you want to do is you have to setup always...
Not sure if that's an issue.

 

You can prevent the random fan ramp ups using a program called Notebook Fan Control. The program lets you set the fan thresholds and speed. I used it for my Gigabyte U2442N and set the first fan level (50% fan speed) to turn on at 60 °C up from 50°C. There were no more fan ramp ups and no more fan turning on for 2 seconds and off again. The program is very small and automatically boots with windows.
Unfortunately it needs a configuration file and I haven't found one yet. There is a guide how to create the configuration file but I am not very good in such things. Maybe someone is interested in creating the configuration file. I think this program could help everyone who is annoyed by the random fan ramp ups.

 

Generating a config file should be really easy for the P34G because of the fan control built in to Smart Manager. I'll give it a go later today to see if I can figure out which regs are which.

 

This would be amazing! Thank you

 

After poking around a bit, I wasn't really able to figure anything out. Turning on Stealth Mode seems to set 0x0008 to x80, but turbo mode doesn't seem to affect any registers (whereas I'd assumed that it would set the target fan rate to 100%). Furthermore, I couldn't pick up any patterns using stress testing either. I had originally thought that regs 0x6000 - 0x6002 had something to do with it, but upon further investigation, I believe they are temperature readings. I can't seem to find any registers that have anything to do with the fan...

 

How did you figure this out? I wonder if keyboard backlight level can be adjusted by setting 0x{???} to 0x{???}...

 

Got my replacement from GentechPC. They were just awesome exchanging the first unit with a dead pixel. They shipped the new unit the next day after they received my laptop.

But here are new troubles. "Q" key just came apart when I started typing. "Space" key doesn't register key presses (only the center of the key works).

Now, I'm really disappointed in Gigabyte. Will try to RMA the laptop...

 

Bummer

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I want to under clock my processor because I currently do not have anything that is really that demanding and I feel like the cpu boosting up to 3.4ghz is unecessary when all my games get well over 60fps on high/max settings. So what do you guys recommend for under clocking the cpu or turbo boost or even possibly turning off turbo boost until i actually need it.

 

Intel Extreme Tuning Utility.