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

To all those who still have the laptop, have you encountered any of the issues that the people who returned did after the last time you reported? Also, did gigabyte fix any issues?

 

Well, cakefish did an unboxing near the start of this thread, and he also did some gaming benchmarks, both with and without cooler, repaste and undervolt. Go check that out

 

I know epicninja I've been on this thread from the beginning. All I'm saying is that the repeated obsession with graphs, while I respect the need to know and max-out the laptop, sometimes says different things on the end user experience going forward and after we analysed CF1 to death.

 

I am confused as well. Seems like some people had problems with this laptop and some people did not.

Something about wifi drivers and such I think.

I just bought the laptop from newegg and should have it Tuesday.

I think you just have to update the drivers one at a time and do not mass update them through smart manager and everyone should be fine.

As far as throttling goes I have researches every laptop and the they all throttle unless they are huge.

Everyone has to make a decision. Do you want a big huge laptop with nice cooling or slim laptop with some heat and throttling.

I bought the msi ghost pro and absolutely loved it. I had the m.2 raid 0 though and had tons of problems like memory fault and page corruption BSOD. So I returned it. If I could have reseated the ram I probably might have kept it. But since you have to remove the motherboard I said forget it and returned it. Plus the battery life is horrible at 2.5 hours. Otherwise it's a gorgeous laptop and the keyboard is amazing.

However I choose the P35x V3 CF4 because I heat the 1080p gaming is awesome. The screen is gorgeous. The battery life is 6 hours and has the best graphics card today.

Ofcourse it will run hot. But that is why I will undervolt my CPU. And it should still be plenty powerful enough for games and stay cool.

This way I can take notes in a 2.5 hour class without worrying about battery life and game between classes. Perfect laptop.

Unless I missed something this should sum everything up.

Oh ya I almost got the X7 Pro but I needed more that 2.5 hour battery life and a little better carry ability. Plus they disabled optimus so you can run 3 screens. I could care less about that. If I want to run 3 screens I will build a desktop. The x7 has no phone support and a 1 year warranty. I guess they don't think their laptops will be running string after two yeatsyears. The P35x has 2 year warranty.

Let me know if I left anything out.

 

Great summary GarbageMan. Finally a voice of reason among all the panic stricken notes of newcomers to the thread (oh my god oh my god type messages)

please write us back and let us know how it went

 

I agree as well, nice summary. Many here are looking for the ultimate gaming laptop that runs flawlessly when stressed to the max but that'll rarely happen. My current Alienware is so bugged and freezes all the time that anything would be an upgrade.

 

Some people are getting BSODs over in the Clevo threads. It may not be an issue exclusive to Gigabyte after all.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

What BSOD is everyone talking about with the P35x?

I got BSOD all over the place with GS60 raid 0 m.2

Page fault
Master Configuration
3 or 4 I can't remember

A lot occurred after 96 window updates.

I called msi tech support and they recommend doing about 10 updates at a time.

Also fully update and then turn windows update off because if you keep updating windows after you install a lot it does not sync well in the registry. Updates are only tested on brand new systems with nothing installed.

...

When my P35x gets here I will ...

1. Install all updates 10 at a time.
2. Undervolt my CPU the 3rd and 4th cores because I only need 2 for gaming.
3. Hope and pray.

This setup should give me everything I need. If not I'll return it.

 

Driver Power State Failure BSODs

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Well I never got that bsod with the gs60 but I did get a lot of application closers left and right as well.

When I I had the single ssd msi gs60 I had absolutely no problems but I returned it for the raid 0 one. I should had never done that.

I wonder if some units are just bad because manufacturers are trying to rush these out to make some cash before Christmas.

I guess you just have to hope not to get a lemon when you buy one.

I guess that is why most resellers give you 30 days to return.

I have newegg premier so no hassle for me.

 

Are you sure you can disable cores & undervolt only selected cores, I don't think I've ever heard of that? I wouldn't recommend disabling cores for gaming, the best strength of that CPU for gaming is that it can run 8 threads at once (4 physical CPUs, each one having in addition a 'simulated' core (hyperthreading)). I agree with the undervolting, but I reckon you'd get best results from keeping all cores active, (and that's assuming it's possible to disable cores, which I don't think you can do anyway).

 

I use XTU from Intel.

You can undervolt core 3 and 4 and reduce CPU heat dramatically and still maintain fabulous gameplay.

Max CPU cores for intense hyperthreading is for extreme cad scenarios and not need for basic 60 FPS gameplay with today's games.

 

GarbageMan don't know if you'll remember but when you get the laptop would you please list the exact SSD model & description ? I want to order another one for raid1 when I order the laptop

Thanks !

 

Oh, ok, cheers, didn't realise you could pick which cores you wanted to undervolt (although did a quick google & couldn't find any evidence of this & never heard of it, I'll believe it when I see it I guess). But anyway, why not just undervolt all of them though? Also, plenty of games can use up to 8 threads (judging by me looking in Task Manager & seeing all 8 threads being used heavily), but you definitely want to have at least 4. You said in your earlier post that you only need 2 cores for gaming - I think if you're playing modern games from the last 2 years you'll find that not to be the case - research game benchmark results with different CPUs if you want to find out more about it.

 

Not a problem. Just remind me on Tuesday and I will.

 

In my experience I have not seen to many games use all the cores of a CPU. Or at least the games that I play.

The reason I only undervolt the 3rd and 4th core with XTU is to reduce heat and have enough power to play the games that I am interested in.

All of these people that are having heat problems are usually because they are running benchmarks that push their CPU to the limits for long period of time.
It's like this.

Do you really need all the cores running at max to play CIV 4?

No.

And with the 980M it runs newer games like CIV 4 with ease.

I think people are trying to push the card as far as possible and get as many fps as possible which is all nice but if you just need 60 FPS with vsync you will have plenty enough power with undervolted CPU and a 980M.

I just hope that mine is not buggy and gives me a lot BSOD. If it does I do not know what I am going to do.

It does comes with a free downgrade to windows 7. For this reason eactly probably. I will downgrade first and see if that fixes crashes if they occur and if it is still there I'll return it.

I do not really care about 8.1

 

That is really true. But I think the most annoying thing for people was to have to tinker that much to make a 2000+ laptop go smooth. I think like you though, and do not mind adjusting my laptop (love it in fact!)

 

Ive had my p35 for several days now and not had a BSOD only issue i had was that it stopped recognizing my 2.5 SSD but i think that was just a loose connector or something because after I opened up the back and messed with it a bit it started working again and hasnt happened again since. Other than that the msi has a slightly better keyboard but this is a better laptop overall imho darn near perfect if u ask me. If cpu would stay at 89c no matter what it would be perfect. However as said above this is the case with all laptops in this class.

 

Windows 7 or 8.1? No problems with drivers updates using the included manager, or did you do them individually?

 

Never had any more BSoD afyer updating Intel Chipset driver. Going to repaste in next two days. Still can't get MDP to work.

Regards

 

Im using windows 8, and yes i used the smart manager to update my drivers, the only one i didnt use on smart manager is the nvidia driver, which i used the geforce experience to update. Havent done any undervolting or overclocking either. Seems to me, the cpu is pretty good at running at very low voltages as it is right now mine is running at 0.73 volts I guess undervolting it would prevent it from hitting higher voltages when it is gaming tho.

 

Fair enough. For accuracy sake though, the bit I highlighted in bold - people are having high temperatures & throttling of their CPU when playing games & non-CPU-taxing benchmarks (like Unigine Heaven).

 

for some reason now when i try to use smart update, i cant download drivers. It smart update opens, and displays all the driver versions, but when i click on the driver i want to download smart update closes and a small box pops up that says check net connections. Not sure if its a setting i need to change or if its an issue with gigabytes website, but my internet is working fine. Anyone else encountered this and know a fix? Or know why its happening?

 

I do not see the chart.

Well let me do this. What program are you using to measure throttle and heat exactly.

I will use the same program on Tuesday with unique heaven.

Also I will use the rest of the benchmarks and see if I can duplicate throttle under light load plus I will undervolt and see if that solves the issue.

Are these throttles for every P35x or just a select few?

 

I'm just going by the information people have listed in this thread, search the thread by all means. People have used all sorts of monitoring programs to monitor the CPU frequency, that's not really the important part, so don't know why you brought that up. You're welcome to test your own machine when you get it, any way you see fit, to see if you get any CPU throttling - some people's machines have been better or worse in this respect, which is to be expected (affected by room temperature & variability from unit to unit).

 

Search the thread for posts from MrNajsman and sparkle999, they did post such chart. By repasting and undervolting, sparkle minimized the throttling, making it only appear on unigine heaven.

 

Do you have the 3K version or the 1080p version?

Are you going to keep the P35x or end up returning it?

After everyone's comments in this thread and what you have experienced with your P35x what is your final overall impression?

 

Before getting paranoid over CPU throttling it might be beneficial to know if the games you intend to pay even need that amount of CPU power in the first place.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

I think i have to send mine back... im getting absolutely abysmal performance. Its about half of what other users and reviews report. Hell, its worse worse than my Asus G750JH with a 780M.

Shadow of Mordor ran at about 35 FPS ( Full HD , Ultra settings)
Uniengine Heaven reports 47 FPS, which is also absolutely terrible.

Intels XTU claims the GPU Stays at 1197 Mhz during load and after a few rounds of Heaven 4.0 you can see thermal throttling of up to 38% for a short while , but i didn't notice any difference in the already terrible framerate.

Power plan was set to high performance, i made sure the Nvidia GPU was selected in the nvidia controll panel and every possible driver is updated to the newest possible version.

 

I remove the "Smart" Update from my system weeks ago. It was never that useful, and I can find and download the latest driver from Gigabyte's website just fine.

1080p version. Yeah I'm gonna keep it, it takes some effort to make it run just as I like it, but there's no alternative on the market with the same size, specs, and battery life.

I don't see myself return it unless of hardware failure, it suits my needs quite perfectly: it can handle everything I thrown at, and stays very quiet when use in lecture hall/library on battery.

It will be better if it had larger fans, slimmer bezel, less srickers, and better out-of-the-box experience, but apart from all the minor quirks, it's an wonderful gaming machine that doesn't make your teacher/boss think "is he/she listening to me, or is he/she playing video games".

Regards

 

Maybe your cpu is down clocking to 1.6 ghz like whoever else had that? What's the cpu frequencey?

Edit

Was this on battery? If so, this is normal and good result. You can't expect good performance from battery.

 

So is the 1080p screen IPS? Is it gorgeous?

I cancelled my order for the 3K version.

I might try the 1080p if you say it's workable.

 

Also are you not experiencing the problems other people are experiencing?

What problems have you had and how did you fix them?

 

Seems the EC in my device is really weird... If i shutdown/restart the Laptop while its connected to the PSU it keeps getting stuck in "battery mode" - both my cpu and gpu go in to this low power state and cant seem to get out... I have to unplug and then reconnect the psu to get them unstuck. I dont think you can reset the EC on this laptop ( usually you disconnect the battery and psu and you hold the power button for a few seconds) as it has an internal battery. Maybe its some button combo like on a macbook?

Anyway:

Shadow of mordror 1080p, Ultra is now at around 63 Fps average, which is good / on par with what review sites are getting.
But my Heaven benchmark is at 78-79 FPS although it should be around 110, anyone have any ideas as to why?

Also the throttling is really destroying the gaming experience in shadow of mordor, you basically have to run the laptop on the "max fan" setting in smart manager for smooth gameplay. It's loud, but not unbearably so. I've logged the throthling dunring an hour in SoM and on "Auto" i throttles all the way down to about 1,5 Ghz, on "Max Fans" its at about 2,4-2,7 Ghz all the time.

Still considering returning it... i can fix the heat throttle with a repaste and undervolt, but i cant fix a screwed-up EC.

 

You have a 4710 cpu right? Previous user mentioned the throttling in SoM but it wasn't affecting that much their gameplay

 

I just had this issue again this afternoon CPU stuck at max 1.6, I'd been on battery then plugged in, I found same as u unplug power lead and plug back in and it sorts it out. I think I'll report it to gigabyte via online ticket hopefully it can be fixed with an update. Also anyone updated to bios 08 that's shown up?

 

I've already contacted gigabyte about this issue, I've got the answer that they couldn't replicate the issue ( even got a screenshot from a chinese version of CPU-Z with the cpu runing at 3,4 Ghz ) they asked me for more details about this so they can investigate, which i provided. I'm waiting for their second reply.


Played a few missions in COD: Advanced Warfare and benchmarked each mission with fraps, the results were a very smooth 70-75 Fps depending on the mission ( 1080p, everything maxed , Smaa 1x) . Cpu didn't throttle as bad as in SoM - Stayed around 2,2-2,3 Ghz, although there was one part where it went down to 1,7 Ghz for a minute or two. Didn't notice a change ingame though - gameplay remained very smooth. Oh and i played with the fans on "Auto", the laptop remained much quieter than i expected.

This is starting to be a love-hate relationship - sometime the laptop infuriates me with the EC issue, and sometimes its just awesome.

 

I don't think the resolution effects laptop quality, it's just that the scaling on Windows is still quite bad, and the fact that 1080p version is cheaper than 3k version.

Some, most frequently Driver Power State Failure (I think that's the order of words) BSoD, which has been eliminated by installing latest driver from components' website instead of using Smart Update; never check the CPU throttle since I care more about the real life usability; Intel AC wifi works fine for me (connect via smartphone hotspot); most of the components worked as expected, except touchpad and mDP: touchpad is usable but too sensitive, and I still cannot connect to my monitor through mDP port.

Regards

 

Unigine benchmarks seem to be mess. Everybody is running them with different settings (resolution / shader quality / tessellation / antialiasing / DirectX 11 vs DirectX 9 vs OpenGL / windowed vs fullscreen). Hence they are not comparable unless you use exactly the same settings (also some use benchmark version 3.0, others 4.0).

I have MSI GS60 with GTX 970M and when I compare my Unigine Heaven / Valley results with what I could find on the web for other GTX 970M machines, my results are either same, a bit better or horrifyingly worse. I think this can come from using different settings (and not just ones accessible via benchmark menus, there are also Nvidia Control Panel global and local overrides that could eventually mess with results).

 

Nevermind about the smart update, its now working even tho i didnt change anything, so i think it must have been something going on with where ever the drivers are downloaded from. anyway its working perfectly again.

 

Yep, you're right, it's important to run the same settings, but it is a good benchmark. I'd recommend running everything on maximum & full screen, but lower the AA until you get an average fps of less than 60, that way it's more representative of how you would game in a real world scenario in terms of how much it stresses the GPU versus CPU.

 

Apologises for the late response, just received the laptop then. Ordered it at 4pm on Thursday, received it today, quite impressed with that. Ordered the laptop from affordablelaptops.com.au. Initially ordered with Scorptec, but they didn't have any left and had no firm ETA available. So I cancelled and gave Affordable a call, turns out they had 15 of the 2 x 128gig + 2tb HDD configs available with 1080p screen. So I ordered one. Ordered my last Clevo laptop off them, good to deal with.

Just turned the laptop on, initial impressions, I'm impressed with the slim for factor of the laptop?! Crazy to think theres a 980M hiding in the slim chassis... I'll try taking some pics of the p35 next to my Clevo P150 later tonight.

Now for some questions, I was under the impression it came from the laptop with RAID0 already setup? It appears this is not the case. I popped in the Windows 8.1 pro CD that came with the laptop, its asking me which drive I'd like to install too, and I have no idea..?

 

How is everyone on the planet have all the 1080p versions except for the USA. I thought USA got everything first? Seems like Japan is already tired of this laptop and is moving onto GTX 1080.

 

Ok, so the default factory RAID0 setup is stupid. Had me very confused as to why there are three separate drives showing in windows. Turns out after looking at the manual that RAID0 is factory enabled, and the two SSD's are arranged to show as two drives, one SYSTEM, one DRIVE. Why not just had it show up as one drive with the storage drive the 2tb HDD?

 

My raid drives only show up as one drive are you sure you set it up right?

 

Yeah that's why I'm confused. Gone into the Intel rapid storage program, apparently RAID0 is setup, just not like I would expect it?

 

Here's a screenshot of my computer:


And here's a screenshot of the Intel Rapid storage tech program:

 

That looks ok to me, Intel Rapid Storage Technology is showing 2 drives setup in RAID 0 + your storage drive, and then your Windows Explorer screenshot is showing the volumes. I think if you go into Disk Management in Windows you'll see how the volumes/partitions are divided up between the physical drives.

 

Pommie & Robbo99999:

This is weird. I would expect to see one volume (C drive) with all the combined size of the 2 physical drives. Perhaps someone else can confirm what they see "out of the box" ?

If Robbo is right then they created 2 volums and intended them to be faster but I think it's a waste and instead you should delete the D drive and allocate all the space to one drive C.

If you read my previous comments you'd also know that I suggest breaking the RAID0 and creating a mirror (RAID1) instead for protection + read speed.

 

(I'd leave it in RAID 0, running RAID 1 decreases usable disk space by half - SSD's are quite reliable & if you do back images regularly then you don't have much to lose anyway)