***Gigabyte P35X owner's lounge***

I was wondering if it was the CPU throttling on the laptop instead, or maybe a too young driver, which would mean the 980m has room for improvement.
It would be nice to have more feedback about these stutterings from the 980m owners

 

It's possible that the 9 second hitches are caused by the throttling CPU, notebookcheck.net found that the CPU throttled to about 2.6GHz when gaming with regular but very short moments where individual CPU cores would throttle even lower to like 800Mhz, so it could be at those points that the sound stutters occur, but I reckon it's the DPC latency given that it's happening every 9 seconds (DPC latency spikes often appear at regular intervals).

 

Found someone on ebay that can sell me a 220w AC power adapter. Gonna find out more info and report back. I'll probably buy one to check it out. If all goes well and she has more for sale, I'll ask for a posting so any that is interested can get one.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

 

Told you I was getting DPC latency

No, CPU clock never dropped below 2.6GHz.

So do you think I should reinstall windows?

 

Do a clean install. Make sure to download latest drivers, manufacturers not always provide latest drivers, so try to find latest drivers before you reinstall. Station driver is good place to find latest versions.

 

Anyone else with P35X have this DPC latency audio popping issue or is it just me? This definitely is a software issue that can be fixed by reinstalling windows, right?

Edit: I realise that seeing as these frame drops/audio pops don't occur when I'm not using both ShadowPlay and MSI Afterburner/FRAPs at the same time, maybe it's due to that? Seeing as the game is very CPU heavy, maybe it's simply overloading the CPU. Like I say, GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner and XTU cause massive DPC latency spikes.

 

What would be an quick way to test for it? I've spent all night replacing drives and getting everything updated and copying data. I've only played a but of Alien Isolation so far and didn't notice and popping.

My single biggest gripe is why did they choose to put the power plug on the right side? I know lefties probably appreciate that but why not either the left side or the back?

 

I prefer it on the side to the back. Righties or lefties... can't please both!

dpclat.exe & latencymon can measure DPC latency. I think it's to do with all the frame/temp/etc. monitoring software I'm running.

@LunaP - saw your question, will answer soon.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

So a bit if an overview since Im actually awake:


Idle temperatures for my laptop is quite high for CPU (51C; no repaste. or cooler), but the chassis for it reads 30C.

Drivers were preinstalled and I updated the rest. AC7260 is still a beast when downloading at 22MB/s. No latency issues after installing everything. Only noticed spikes when running monitering software. Otherwise, no issues with programs.

I have several games installed, BF4 is still currently downloading. However, I wont have the time to try it until I leave work at 6PM PST (-8GMT). I have ICDiamond and Liquid Ultra, might go for the better solution for longevity.

Havent opened the backplate yet, but have noticed warmth above the keyboard area when doing menial tasks. I wonder if the heatsink is sitting flat or not...

I dont have my tools readily accessible here unless I get some downtime in factory.

Created several power profiles for testing: Turboboost(without forced max clocks), no Turboboost, forced max clocks and power.

For the fans, I have yet to hear them, even after trying out Payday 2 yesterday night on a whim. (turboboost off of course; no monitering software sadly)


So my current experiments will follow:

-Noise dampening (for when fans get too loud)
-Attempt to eliminate CPU overheat via repaste of - TIM material, repositioning/reseating heatsink/pipes, airflow, or attempt to make my own heatsink that can possibly dissipate the heat faster.
-Monitor throttling of both GPU and CPU when running games on max settings using BF4, Metro Last Light, Crysis 3.
-May request some sort of BIOS mod that can remove throttle issues and possibly melt the PC when running at full capacity.

 

Sounds exciting Lone Syndal, if a little ambitious making your own heatsink! I'd be interested to hear how you get on with your testing - it's useful to have tests from different people, because there's always variation from unit to unit in terms of things like cooling capability.

 

How did you guys remove the two cables once un screw the bottom plate? i have bad eye so its hard to see and remove the cables that are connected to the speakers i believe.

 

Read the first few pages. I think Cakefish had same issue at first. I cant remember where though.

 

YEa, I'm trying to find it now but hoping i can get an answer without me having to go through every page on two threads to find the answer. Call me being lazy. =)

 

I'm almost certain the frame drops I was having in Crysis 3 is due to the monitoring software. I realise I haven't run it without all the GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner & XTU software in the background. Those programs must be hogging some of the CPU time. I'll try running it without all that nonsense in the background, see how that fares.

Also, I've finally snapped into my senses and decided to salvage my Samsung 840 Pro 512GB from my Clevo. I was going to sell it along with the whole laptop but I realise that that would not be as profitable as putting the Kingston Hyper-X Fury 240GB in there instead. The GTX 780M will undermine the value of the machine, regardless of what SSD is inside. Out of interest, what do you think I could get for a Clevo P170SM, in great condition, with an i7-4800MQ, GTX 780M, 8GB Kingston Hyper-X 1600MHz RAM and the aforementioned Kingston SSD?

Also, I've finally received confirmation that my 850 Pro will be delivered on Thursday 13th! If I don't get a refund on the delivery at least, I'll be livid after how long it will have taken to get to me.

Funny, I was just thinking how far I've come in the past few days. I took it apart today like it was child's play and had it back together again in under half an hour. I took the whole evening before! Once I learn something, I'm fine. It's just new things in laptops that scare me! All that panicking in the early days of this thread was unnecessary!

In any case, to remove the speaker cable, you must gently prise the black bit away from the white bit (it'll slide out, but is fairly stiff, which is a good thing if you think about it!). I use my screwdriver with a flat, small line-shaped bit to help with this (I don't know the official term for it). Remember to slide it back in when you are about to screw the base panel back on! Any more questions, ask away

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Flathead. Philip is the plus sign bit.

Edit: Just noticed the keyboard bumps. Being a perfectionist... I must remove and fix it, once I get my Samsung EVO 840 1TB anyway.



You can see it clearly...

 

Could it be the way it has been designed? To reduce keyboard flex. Gigabyte rep said that they had improved it in this regard. Maybe the very slight unevenness is a side effect of that? Take a look at any video of the P35 v2 and you can instantly see that the P35 v3 has vastly improved in this regard, on mine, keyboard flex is virtually nonexistent.

Mine has it too. I hadn't even noticed until you guys pointed it out. Doesn't bother me in the slightest. Can't tell unless I look at the machine sideways and squint with my eyes.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

GPUz uses exactly 0.00% (Resource Monitor can't measure below that) of my CPU time when I've monitored it's usage in the past, so you'll be fine leaving that one running. What might be happening is that all the monitoring software could be causing DPC Latency spikes, so I don't know why you're talking about 'frame drops', you said yourself that you were having DPC Latency issues caused by all your monitoring software, so I'm a bit confused about your terminology. I think you mean the sound stutter (at 9sec intervals in your video) is caused by DPC Latency not 'frame drops' - you're a little loose in your terminology unless you're talking about something new. 'Frame Drops' to me mean reductions in fps, not DPC latency spikes.

EDIT: (pedantic) terminology aside, it'll be interesting to see if when running no monitoring software if you have DPC latency spikes, and also if the sound stutter disappears from Crysis 3 too.

 

My Samsung 850 Pro arrived today!!!

What a pleasant surprise! Gonna clone windows over to it instead of the RAID and do a OS reset.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

I know for a fact that Intel XTU does make those DPC latency spikes. How badly it affects sound? I'm not sure yet.

 

Does overclockers UK offer BD writer for the swappable drive? Or can you order one from Gigabyte directly?

 

OCUK has no customization. May have to get it direct from GB.

 

I think Cakefish had a quote from a Gigabyte rep in one of the other threads where they said it was just a standard slimline. I think they said they use Panasonic.

- Went and searched and found a link to where he said it: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gigabyte/762761-p35w-v3-p35x-v3-10.html#post9808133

 

Just buy any standard laptop internal ODD and replace the face panel.

Regards.

 

The keyboard is the one thing that is keeping me from pulling the (pre-order) trigger on this laptop vs MSI Ghost - LoneSyndal's photo is the second photo in this thread alone with keyboard issues.How would you go about fixing the keyboard?

 

Thanks! BD writer is a lot more useful than DVD.

 

my keyboard is a little lumpy too haha. It's very very subtle though, and I noticed the exact same thing on the aorus x3 plus actually when i had it. As long as there isn't any flex, i honestly don't care i will forget in a few days.

 

I noticed the keyboard variation only from reading this thread. Those that value a completely flat/inflexible keyboard may be unimpressed. However I never noticed any keyboard "issues" from my $800 Lenovo for comparison. It's just not something I notice or value. I value form factor and performance above build quality.

 

Only issue I have so far is not find Gigabyte Smart Technology utility programs after doing a fresh install. I emailed GB support and hopefully they will be able to provide the install programs.

On the KB, I can see a slight curve where you pointed but it doesn't bother me and I really like typing on the KB.

 

Thanks for the reply.
Thing is without applying thermal paste, undervolting (which I can't do) the CPU and gpu will throttle under heavy load and it will reduce performance. Problem is I don't want to pay so much money if I have to modify it to make it cool, quiet and not have it throttling as I'm not a techy so to speak.

 

My goals are a bit of a stretch. I personally dont like undervolting and such. However, achieving 85C and below CPU temps under extreme load will be hard without it. Since previously owning a Clevo W230ST, its not hard, but finding the sweet spot takes a lot of time. This is why I am opting for the hardware fix approach.

 

I doubt there is any laptop yet that can run demanding games quietly, and the fans in slim form factor laptops are always going to be louder than bulky desktop replacements.

As for undervolting and thermal paste, the P35x in-game frame rates and benchmark scores even without these modifications are quite amazing.

 

I've gone for the P35W rather than the MSI GS60/70 on the thought that I'm getting the same performance (along with 6GB GPU rather than 3GB) in a chassis that is designed to take a higher GPU (I.e. 980M vs the 970M in the P35W). So in theory the cooling should be better. Also it's cheaper .

 

What do you suggest I do, I keep jumping from one laptop to the next. I just can't make a decision.
I feel envious of the people who have undervolted and applied thermal paste to the laptop and not only have brought temps down but don't get throttled under heavy load. Whereas if I bought the laptop today I won't be in the same boat as such people due to the problems without such modifications. I really am in quite a dilemma.

 

That could actually be a feature of the keyboard. The fact that the keys with different height includes wasd maybe so that you can find these keys without looking at the kb.

Regards.

 

I don't quite understand, you are getting the same performance with 970m compared to laptops with 980m?

 

Only get a super thin laptop like the P35 if you really need or want that extra portability or look factor, otherwise get a larger and/or thicker laptop which will generally be able to keep the components cooler with less throttling. Check notebookcheck.net for reviews on different laptops, read these forums, and then draw your conclusions.

 

I'll be getting the same performance as the msi gs60/70 which as far as I know max out with the 970m...

 

I am in the same boat as you. I am stuck between the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro-044 and the GIGABYTE P35W v3-CF2. Can you or anyone else here please hep me decide? I know that you posted earlier about the 970 vs the 980 and chassis but is there anything else that influenced your choice?

 

Came close to buying the GS60 last year, but decided against it as that large, tacky "gaming series" coat of arms logo on the lid is just not a good fit when I need to use the laptop in business meetings with clients.

Among laptops with 970m, the Clevo P650SE is the least expensive option at $1200. The P35W and GS60 are almost the same price as laptops with 980m including Clevo P650SG and P35x. If I'm already spending that much, I'd want a laptop with 980m that will last another 4-5 years.

 

I was in the same boat as a number of people where I wanted the p35x cf1, however the heat and the prospect of throttle made my decision for me and I am going to purchase the gs70 red edition which, went down in price by.£200 today and actually come with total of 512gb sad in raid0. Granted graphics aren't as good but should be fine to run games at 1080p.

 

Throttling shouldnt be an issue later on if its a cap placed by BIOS. Just gotta disable it...

Temperatures is normal for a thin chassis. Thus why its preferred for modifications.

 

Undervolting is a software thing, that you could probably figure out with some time.

If you can wait, you can have the repasting done by a reseller like XoticPC.

 

Beyond the chassis/cooling+neat features (swappable DVD/HDD etc.) It came down to two things, price (I can get the P35W and a 500gb ssd for less than a gs70 let alone a gs60) and screen gs70 is TN and the gs60 owner thread seems to have quite a few complaints of screen back light bleed.

Cause there aren't any reviews of the P35W v3 as yet so this is a little bit of a shot in the dark, but from what's been said on this thread and in reviews of the P35X and the v2 I think this is the best choice.

 

Im in the same boat.
After reading through here for the few days i think the P35W v3 is the one for me.
Just waiting to see some reviews and for it be available here in Australia (retailers saying early December)

 

You are right. I meant DPC latency spikes when I was referring to frame drops - I think the cause of both audio popping and the frame drops is the same thing (all that monitoring software) is what I was trying to say. Sorry about that!

 

My keyboard is also the same - must be the design.

Just replaced my hd with Samsung 850 1TB (£360 offer on ebay) and put the hd in the hot swap bay. Awaiting Pioneer external blu Ray and I am done ( apart from a re paste). Very happy so far

 

I've just done the same! Got a 850 Pro 1TB as the C: drive, salvaged my 840 Pro from my old Clevo to use as the D: drive (in the hot swappable bay) and re-configured up the Lite-On MSATAs to RAID for the E: drive. I'm gonna put the Kingston Hyper-X Fury 240GB I bought a few days ago (that turned out to have slow write speeds with incompressible data because of the SandForce controller) into my Clevo instead so that it's ready to be sold on and then use a new SanDisk Extreme II 240GB I bought today as a super fast external SSD backup storage drive

So many SSD's - it's like I'm in glorious data speed master race heaven!

 

was looking forward but decided to buy something else.... bye small form factor; maybe another day ...

 

Cakefish, what is your experience with the 3k screen vs the 1080p screen on your clevo? Which do you prefer? Do you need to scale so high on the 3k that it's basically worthless?

Just to explain my question, I could buy the cf2 almost imedietly, and add more ram and ssd myself when I have the money, or I could wait a couple months for the cf 4 to be in reach. The only benefit to the cf4 as far as I know is the 3k screen, so if that's not that much of a benefit I'll just get the cf2.

 

Thing is I I don't take the laptop out that much so not to concerned about portability. But it looks great which is something important. I'm still considering this laptop but with learning how to undervolt and applying thermal paste I'm not sure how I will fair in terms of modifications.
I think notebookcheck is arguably the best review site for laptops. Some of the latest gaming laptops haven't been reviewed on there. Do you know when they will review the P35X V3?