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

Because windows 7 (while it was great back in the time) is laggy and 6 years old and it won't support DirectX 12 (as far as I know). Just install 8.1 to get rid of aero for the sake of mankind...

 

Alright, time for my initial thoughts about P35X v3 vs P651SG, as some of you have requested

- Didn't get the same initial 'wow factor' from the P651SG as I did the P35X v3. I think that's partly because by that time I'd already seen a high-res IPS display and played around with the 980M. But it's also due to the design of the P35X v3 being more eye catching in my opinion; it's a lot sleeker and the aluminium finish is more fancy with the way it subtly changes colour from deep purplish, to brownish, to black, depending on the angle you look at it - it's really quite lovely. Both weigh the same amount (not quite if you want to get specific but it's not noticeable in the hand - the difference in thickness definitely is though).

- While I prefer the pure aesthetics of the P35X v3's keyboard, the P651SG has the upper hand here in terms of the tactile feel while typing. Same with the touchpad, the P651SG easily wins that battle. Touchpad having dedicated buttons means it's much more pleasant to use than the P35X v3's one, though both are very generously sized.

- In terms of the display, it's a draw; specifically talking about the Panasonic 3K for the P35X v3 and the Sharp 4K for the P651SG. Both are very high quality, it's mostly down to personal preference here with matte vs glossy. The main disadvantage with the P35X v3's display is the noticeable shift in brightness and colours while viewing from a vertical angle above the display; this does not occur on the P651SG. The main disadvantage of the P651SG is the fact that however good your eyesight is, you will need to set the scaling settings in Windows at a higher level than with the P35X v3 which exacerbates the scaling issues you get with Windows (something which Windows 10 will help resolve, I'm sure). Games look great on both displays running at 1080p, though the Windows desktop not so much.

- It's a victory for the P651SG in terms of the quality of the speakers. Despite lacking a subwoofer, they produce slightly better sound than the P35X v3, with no distortion in music playback at full volume - something which the P35X v3 can suffer from a little, depending on the song.

- The convenience of a hot swappable bay with the P35X v3 is clear, but then again, I haven't felt inconvenienced in any way with having to resort to an external optical disk drive with the P651SG.

- Preloaded software is where the P35X v3 shines. The P35X v3 has Smart Update, which is infinitely more convenient, faster and simpler than having to download the infrequently updated drivers that download at a snail's pace from servers only currently hosted in Asia for the P651SG. Also, the BIOS upgrade procedure is considerably easier, quicker and much less risky than performing the same task with the P651SG.

- Battery life is another easy win for the P35X v3. It's noticeably better than the P651SG. There is no contest here, the P35X v3 lasts longer on battery power. I never timed exactly how long the P35X v3 lasted, so unfortunately cannot give exact details here.

- The fan noise of the P651SG is slightly less loud at maximum speeds. Additionally, the fans produce a lower-pitched sound than the P35X v3, which is slightly more pleasant to the ears. Both are relatively noisy at full load though.

- Accessing the internals is easier on the P651SG, with the back plate having no subwoofer cable attached to it, unlike with the P35X v3. Also, there are only two types of screws vs the 3 or 4 differently sized ones of the P35X v3 to keep track of. However, once inside, the P35X v3 has the advantage of easier maintenance in terms of repasting (heatsinks attached to fans with P651SG, not so with P35X v3) and not having to deal with very fiddly M.2. slots.

- I have had to endure major issues relating to the wireless functionality on both laptops. Intel 7260 for the P35X v3 and Killer 1525 for the P651SG. It was so bad on the P35X v3 that I decided to return the entire laptop, though the experience with the P651SG has actually been even worse so far, though I'm in no mood yet to tolerate dealing with yet another return. The Bluetooth was inconsistent on the P35X v3, with Bluetooth mice lagging constantly and the WiFi speeds slowing to an absolute crawl when connected to Bluetooth speakers. Additionally, the WiFi would sometimes completely fail to activate after logging in to Windows, unless I manually forced it to do so in device manager. With the P651SG, the Bluetooth keeps disappearing entirely, with persistent Code 45 errors in device manager concerning the Bluetooth hardware - despite the WiFi working flawlessly. Waiting on a replacement wireless card from the reseller to see if that will solve the issue.

- Temperature/throttle data will come later in a follow up post. I have been so preoccupied with trying to get Bluetooth to work on the P651SG that I have yet to properly stress test it out with a lengthy session of Crysis 3 and Unigine Valley/Heaven. I'll let you know more about that soon.

That'll do for this post, anything I've forgotten to cover just ask and I'll also post some more if additional things pop into my mind. Hope this may be of interest to some of you

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

I returned my P35x V3 because:

1. Driver issues

I started to get blank screen after login. I would have to unistall video drivers every time. Plus I don't like how I can't download latest drivers.

2. Power problems.

I started to get this popping when booting. And then I checked Event Viewer and found DCOM Power Problems.

3. Fingerprints

At first was not that bad but then it's like a cave man used it and there was oil all over the place.

4. Throttling - Main Reason

Just seems to me that GPU technology is ahead of CPU technology in laptops. Just the idea that the laptop is having to dial down the CPU because it is running to hot is FALSE advertising now with the PC department. I mean if you get a desktop and run it perfectly cool you will get full performance. Here you are not getting full performance.

5. Notice Lag

I notice a lot of lag after playing for a very long time. This might not be the problem with the average user but for I just started to feel it.

...

I don't think u really like the the Temps enough to buy the 8652. If it was super cool I might pull the trigger.

However I have decided to go pack to the GS60 Ghost Pro - 064. To me this is the perfect balance of temps with the best case I have see and keyboard. Call me crazy but I just like the chassis a lot. I think the 970M is the best bet is a slim factor and limit throttling. The 4710 CPU and it to me get along a lot better.

O well my journey continues but installing BF4 over and over again is getting old.

Regards (lol)

 

You're really helpful, as always. Any comment on battery life with 4K screen?

 

Urgent question:
My BIOS cannot detect the 2xSSD drives anymore. It happened once I flashed the new bios from the Gigabyte website.
OUCH
Anyone knows how to manually flash the BIOS here ?

Options:
Delete everything on those drives (intel rapid storage volume) and hope the drives will be recognized
Flash manually (don't know how) some other BIOS

My BIOS now shows a version F007 which is not what I was flashing from the website.
I wonder if it's reversible at all ... ouch ouch ouch.

Update: when choosing "choose win 7 defaults" in the BIOS it does boot/recognize the drives. Weird stuff ...

 

Cake, you are golden as always, thanks bro!

 

That makes me sad . Byebye. Was this on the latest nvidia driver?

Best of luck with your next laptop!

Sounds dumb, but make sure they're setup correctly in bios. Double make sure.

 

Do you happen to know what size the screws are? I'm thinking about getting longer ones, since it's only too tight because the screws are not long enough.

 

I get DCOM errors as well, are they even power related?

 

I found DCOM thread on Nvidia forum and they were saying it's power related. Not enough power.

I ran.

 

Thank you. Just not sure what I am going to do.

I am thinking about giving the gs60 another try.

I just wish I had ran XTU when I had mine but I didnt. Dang.

 

If google serves it is a microsoft related server-client (local) communication problem, doubt it is power related.. That aside, I also think the laptop power throttles big time, though assuming you ordered from newegg, did they accept "throttling" as a full refund RMA reason or they are taking 15% restocking fee?

 

I have premier so no RMA fees. I have returned two so far testing out what I want. Well worth the 40 bucks.

I listed a lot of things. Pretty much what everyone has been saying in this entire thread. It was like 6 to 8 things.

I did experience all of the issues.

I'm done.

To me all gaming laptops today are false advertisements.

There should be an asterisk now on the bottom of the sales description.

"Laptop may not function to maximum specifications under full load"

Sooner or later someone is going to sew someone over this.

I just think you can get a cheaper laptop with nice specs that will not throttle. Might not be as fast but consistent.

This is what I am looking for now.

...

I was looking at the famous 8651/8652 but that thread is full of issues as well and also I have seen videos of hot CPU as well.

My last chance is the GS60 Ghost Pro. Just deal with battery and be content with 970M.

But tell me this.

What is the difference between a throttle 980M and a non throttled 970M?

 

I've been reading this thread for a while and reading about the problems etc. I've had the laptop for over two weeks myself (3K version with i7-4860HQ) and haven't experienced any problems except for the WiFi card (which I want to replace when something better comes along). I've been reading this thread for ages (as well as MSI and Clevo) and it's time I gave my thoughts too, it's only fair.

I know you guys have talked about throttling and extreme temperatures, and using XTU I've seen them, up to 91 for CPU and I think 84 was the highest I ever saw the GPU go (in Furmark w/ prime95 running). Honestly, though, I haven't seen anything during game play (Dragon Age: Inquisition, start to finish, Tomb Raider start to finish) that made me feel like it was throttling. If I hadn't been running XTU I would never have known. Maybe everyone else has different experiences, but this seems fine to me. As to fan noise, eh, I came from an old Clevo clone (Boss Monster) that was louder, ran hotter and was noisier in idle. Now I can do my work (Photoshop, Eagle, Word, net browsing etc) and not hear any fan noise. During games, I wear headphones (bluetooth headphones and they work fine despite windows 8.1 being pretty bad with BT in general). Yes, there is fan noise during games but heck even my old desktop GTX460 is noisy under load. Games are like 10% of what I use the laptop for, so it doesn't bother me at all. I saw the MSI and the body is nicer. It's hard to beat thinner and lighter. However, with the MSI we can't upgrade nearly as easily (unless you hate having a warranty). It also has louder fans in idle that seem to always be on, which is a problem for using it at work. That, and a big bright dragon on the lid.

I guess it's a personal choice. Some people will like the Gigabyte, some people will like the MSI and some will like the Clevo. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. None of them are perfect otherwise this'd all be a lot easier.
I can't afford to buy a new laptop every time one comes out, so I went with the 980M. Haven't had driver related BSODs. Haven't tried undervolting. Haven't tried to repaste. And so far, no problems. The laptop's great for work and it's great for games.
Hope this helps someone who, like me, was struggling to decide between the MSI GS60 and the P35X.

 

Not all gaming laptops are false advertising though - the MSI GT72 and ASUS G75X series can run at 100% pretty much always.

The 980m of the P35X doesn't throttle and even with some CPU throttling, it's performance still trumps that of the GS60 with 970m - HOWEVER, looking at HTwingnuts review of the GS60 with 970m has me very interested - he overclocked the GPU and the performance was very, very close to that of the GT72 with 980m at very good temperatures and no throttling:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/765829-msi-gs60-ghost-pro-gtx-970m-6gb-review-htwingnut.html

 

Oh the premium, wonder if I can add the premium to my account right now and RMA without restocking fee then (didn't know they offered a service like this) Well, my test period will continue until new year, though my problem is not that gs60 will offer better value, I am wondering if AW or Razer will release their new lineup sooner or later, we'll see Good luck with gs60, I think it is an amazing machine overall a nice balance of power and portability!

 

So you are not getting the fullscreen bug in DA:I? (only able to play windowed fullscreen, fullscreen becomes windowed)

 

anyone having an issue with brightness after unplugging, hibernating, and coming back with power? It gets stuck at the lower brightness and doesn't want to change for me.

 

I am getting that bug and it's annoying but from what I've seen that isn't limited to the P35X at all, many people have it. I think it must either be game code or nvidia driver related.

 

I think it is related to high resolution, same happens at Company of Heroes 2

 

They're not false advertisements if you buy a laptop with good cooling - generally the larger notebooks. There's the MSI GT72, Asus G751 (think that's the right part number), Alienware 17, they all have excellent cooling abilities & allow the components to run to their maximum (& beyond if you flash a modified vBIOS to the graphics card which enables extreme overclocking with reasonable temperatures due to excellent cooling abilities). Those thin & light laptops are always a compromise, it's a choice you have to weigh up.

 

I agree. If you want to cram the latest tech into a thin and light chassis then you've (sadly) got to compromise. At least for now.

 

I think it's a shame the highest end GPU out there that offers desktop performance is in this thing and has 10 °C of thermal headroom to be overclocked and a mid-high range, not extreme CPU, that isn't much faster than a 2012/3 quad mobile is the component having difficulties being cooled.

I also wonder what would happen to performance if they a) used triple heatpipes or b) used a 37W TDP i7 (leaving 10W of power and some heat for a GPU overclock) or c) raised the thermal cpu limit to 94C, which is within the safe operating of a haswell chip if I'm not mistaken.

 

Maybe it is but of all the games I've tested only DA: I does it (and it sucks). I have to change the resolution to 1920x1080 manually and then run in borderless.
Meanwhile, older games like Tomb Raider and Skyrim run in fullscreen just fine. I still think it's a driver/game issue.

 

Yeah I can't understand why they didn't have better cooling. Maybe more cooling vents or better fans or as you say triple heat pipes. I also wonder if they'd had a different CPU.
I thought about the thermal limit quite a bit but I think what'd happen if they raised it to 94 is it'd constantly be hitting 94 instead of stopping at 90/91
The cooling system just isn't good enough for the CPU and GPU to be under full load together.

However, like I say, I'm not having any issues in games at all and it's still a great laptop for gaming and doing work. At least they got the battery life right

 

Anyone who bought from Newegg got the Nvidia "pick your path" addon ? I got the useless Intel games package (games I don't care for) but I saw the previous posts on this thread showing that Newegg is one of the retailers in the Nvidia promotions, and I also see this in Newegg:
NVIDIA Pick 1 of 3 GAMES: Assassin’s Creed Unity, Far Cry 4 and The Crew (Up to $59.99 Retail Value) - Newegg.com

I wrote them asking about it. Since I already have the laptop it won't let me buy this item.

As a side note: this laptop is great. As long as I don't feel in-game issues I don't care about any Throtteling detection software.
Having said that if I feel games stutter on me I'll be pissed

 

And you haven't even repasted or undervolted yet .

If I can sell my current laptop for enough I think I'll buy the p35X. Even though my current, pretty high-end laptop model is only 2 years old, I'll have twice the ram, 5 times the storage capacity (4 drives instead of 1 = awesome when having plenty of 1TB 2,5" drives in the house), twice the resolution, 4 times the vram and most importantly 3-4 times the graphics performance, while only downgrading on the battery life and bezel size.

I've been doubting between this and the p651sg but compared to the p35x it looks far less serious, sleek and beautiful imho. The clevo's battery life also is unacceptable to me.

 

Yeah having so much storage space really is awesome. My laptop has more storage space than my old desktop did haha. I also like the look and it's really nice and thin. The battery life is great
(especially compared to the MSI).

Good luck but like I say, the P35X isn't for everyone (neither is the MSI or the Clevo though). As long as you know what you're getting into and what problems people have, I think you'll be fine.
Good luck selling your laptop

 

Thanks man, it's only one year old with one year warranty left so it should be ok.

I know that I'll need to tweak it to maximize performance while never reaching 100% of its potential but I'm fine with that. I actually like tinkering around and had to do plenty of that with my current laptop (on the software side of things though).

 

First time in my life (I have been a gaming laptop user for 9 years) I am worried about the health of CPU rather than GPU I think GPU temps are rock solid on this machine, but CPU feels like it already started to degrade They should have put a 37W on this laptop, so stupid to put a 47W... Gigabyte is really looking into advertising hard.. If we had a 37W in this laptop it would have been dream machine..

 

Do you think over time they will realize their mistake and allow users to "downgrade" to a 37W cpu? The only thing holding me back is the thought that another company will get the right combination of looks and hardware in the coming months and have better cooling and I will have felt bad for not waiting for improvements on still quite young technology.

 

Problem is that there is no other chassis that can hold a 980m inside 0.8inch form factor at the moment. Razer will release their new product in a few months that will also be 37W Haswell + 970m. AW will I think keep it safe with their current lineup and won't offer anything different at least for another year. Rest is already known / out in the market. So don't hold your breath for a thin 980m laptop, that being said, I don't think 970m is a bad card to begin with and gs60 seems like a good choice at the power / portability department! And lastly, for Gigabyte offering a downgrade, these are HQ chips, so thats out the window

 

Now that I'm thinking about it, does intel do special optimizations to their 37W CPU's so that a 47W cpu downclocked to limit its TDP to 37W is a lot slower? If the difference isn't that big I'm okay with limithing the multipliers etc. a bit after undervolting and repasting.

 

Don't forget p35w is a great option for 970m based system, wouldn't swap mine for the other 970 options, still loving it

 

clock on 4710hq (47W):
Base: 2500, turbo: 3500 / 3400 / 3300 / 3300
Multiplier 25

Turbo clock on 4712hq (37W):
Base: 2300, turbo: 3300 / 3200 / 3000 / 3000
Multiplier 23

Everything other in terms of specs seems Identical: http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/1/...4710HQ_vs_Intel_Core_i7_Mobile_i7-4712HQ.html

 

I don't have a dog in this fight, but... I have been comparing vs. the Sager NP8652 (i7-4720 w/ gtx 980m) does it have that "right combination" or potentially the same throttling/cooling problems? (It's about the same thickness and size as the Gigabyte, just slightly thicker by a fraction of an inch.)
On the other thread someone compared the Gigabyte vs another Clevo, but still haven't heard a direct comparison of the latest 980m offerings)

 

Nah it is much more than turbo clocks, also if memory serves base clocks are associated with the rated TDP. And one thing with XTU is every single time I used it always caused a trouble (unexpected shutdown) with all my computers before, I just don't wanna keep grinding it after this laptop also gave me a shutdown with it..

 

Soo does anyone have any experience with hidevolution?

Sent from my GT-I9300

 

Just get it from newegg, they ship next day no hassle.

 

I don't have too much. This is my first time dealing with them. I just ordered the Clevo P650SE. Ted was fairly friendly and a good guy to deal with. My order is in pre-production phase right now. Ask for the $15 discount too ��

 

So I've pretty much read this entire thread and still a little confused with the throttling issue. Is this throttling issue happening through actual gameplay? or only during some software test? I'm more concerned with throttling during real world gameplay. I'm really interested in this laptop due to the size and the specs.

I'm also a little uncertain about the wifi issues. Is there something wrong with the wifi card? I'll be ordering from newegg so I will have to replace it myself if there are any issues.

For those of you who own the laptop, how does it perform with high end games? Does the machine get super hot and under perform during certain times?

I really want to order this laptop soon, but a little concerned with all these issues and people returning it, but wondering if they are just little nit picking issues and not a big deal.

Thanks!

 

So far, even if I record thermal throttling in benchmarks (like heaven) or sometimes in gaming, every AAA game has been smooth (crysis 3, far cry 3 etc) and no stutter occurred. Of course the laptop get loud because of fan noise (non unbearable in my opinion) hot in the rear and under.

No wifi or Bluetooth related issue so far, I am with the stock card.

 

Hot and loud (not as hot as Razer Blade though), not the perfect laptop, has its flaws (cpu throttle & keyboard FLEX) but 980m 0.8inch thick laptop doesn't exist except for p35x. Choose wisely

 

Yes, but you can greatly improve cpu throttle by repasting and undervolting if you are interested. Keyboard flex... Some people on this thread did suggest modifying it with washers of tweaking the screws

 

Throttle only start in real world gaming when gaming at 3k with ultra settings, does not stutter otherwise (least I didn't encountered any).

As for the WiFi card, if you have doubts, change it to Killer card, they are suppose to improving gaming experience anyway.

Regards

 

DelFang did you try to fix the keyboard flex? any suggestions? Except for the keyboard flex (that is driving me nuts) I am really enjoying the laptop (knock the wood )

 

What bugs me the most is the trackpad unevenness, I can live with keyboard flex. It appears that I am quite alone on this one though

 

Any ideas where to buy the P35X V3 Bluray/DVD burner ?

 

Gentech pc offers this upgrade for $100 I think. I was going to go for this.. But I realized, when was the last time I ever touched a dvd or Blu-ray?

I wish I could see this pc in person before buying. I'm concerned about build issues hearing about keyboard flex and such.

 

Is that really a throttling problem though? I think the GTX980M was designed to play games at 1080p with ultra/max settings. I don't think it's powerful enough to handle AAA games at 3k (except older ones).
It is after all double the pixels.

And yeah Intel WiFi has sucked for many many years. I don't know why they can't get it together.