***Gigabyte P37X Owner's Lounge***

Just throwing this out there but in my opinion the X3+ V3 is quiet enough for me

 

I'm impressed by the GPU, I would not OC the 980M though, but stock 980M is still twice what I had with 675MX.

I'm disappointed by CPU. I reach 92 at 4.2ghz on a desktop CPU.

But overall, wish I had known about this laptop as an option, but maybe did alright since the fan noise on this machine is the quietest I've had to date so far, and I did own a G73JH before.

 

The notebook is, so far, very good. It is very fast, throttling has not been an issue in-game yet and I've left the fan on 'Automatic - Low'. That said, the fan is pretty loud, no matter what game you are playing. That is a little annoying, but if you wear headphones or it doesn't bother you, then it is a great laptop. I love the screen, it's hard to find a 17" IPS screen and it is a beauty.

The trackpad stinks, the reviews are right. It is not very big and the actually buttons take up a sizable chunk of it. As you said though, I primarily use a mouse anyway, I have a Glaxay Tab S if I want *truly* mobile computing, this notebook is for when I can sit down at a desk either at work or in the hotel, and work or game.

Edit: Oh, the laptop is dead quiet when you aren't gaming, too.

 

I'm okay with wearing headphones while I game. That said, I live in a small apartment; is the fan annoying from like 5-10 feet away? What I'm getting at is that will it be annoying to another person watching TV or if I wanted to hook the laptop up to a TV for Steam Big Picture mode, would it be annoying?

Thanks! Your input so far has been great

 

A video from GenTech surveying the new P37X:

 

Hi sirixamo,
I am looking for a slim gaming laptop and I cannot find anything better than the p37x, so I was wondering if I can ask you some questions about it.
I intend to use it also for graphics 3dsmax/photoshop, I was wondering how it would fare with some rendering tasks, would it throttle the CPU if you leave it for 3h to render sth.
Also is the loud fan a real issue/deal breaker in your opinion? I mean if you go with the internal speakers does it make a movie illegible due to loud fan noise?
I really want to buy a strong 17" gaming machine that doesnt look like a fisher price toy and can be used comfortably for business and the p37x looks like a real contender..
Thanks,

 

Hi all, I'm also interested by this laptop. I want to know if these high cpu temp (90c) is not a problem for the long term/durability. Also if it's easy or not to repast and to clean the fans.

 

I think it would be perfectly suited for those tasks. The CPU throttling only happens when both the GPU and CPU are maxed out for an extended period of time. I believe rendering tasks are primarily CPU intensive, yes? I doubt you would have any trouble only taxing one of them, you would likley get the full turboboost speed (which i think is something like 3.5ghz?). If you believe you will max out both, then just assume you're going to be somewhere in the 2.3-2.5ghz range for your CPU. This has very little to no effect on gaming, but I can't speak to what the effect would be for rendering.

As far as movies and fan noise go, no, you could watch a movie just fine. When the CPU/GPU aren't being taxed the fans are dead quiet, and a movie would not tax them, you would be fine.

Well no one can say for certain, but I don't think so. I believe the max TDP on this CPU is 105C, which we are forced to stay 10C under by Gigabyte. In theory, according to intel, we could run all the way up to 105C without damaging the chip.

That said, I just repasted my cpu/gpu and will run some tests shortly. I found the stock paste on the P37X though was actually quite good, I really don't expect much of a change.

 

Alright I am back with a few preliminary results...

After repasting: No change. The temperatures, fan, everything stayed about the same. This is after ~30 minutes of prime95/furmark. As I said, the original paste on mine anyway was pretty good, it didn't look nearly as bad as the pictures from the P35X, so I am not surprised to see there was very little change. I know you need to 'burn in' the paste a bit, so I will continue testing, but I do not expect any changes. (Arctic Silver 5)

Here are my 3d Mark Firestrike scores after upgrading my machine to 16gb of memory and throwing in a 1tb EVO 850 instead of the normal HDD:

auto-low fan score: 8405
auto-high fan: 8396
max fan: 8540
stealth fan: 4301

Scores seem very similar, I am sure auto low/high was just a normal fluctuation (ran each 3x and took the highest). The max fan score is marginally above the others, though it is noticeably louder. Don't think that auto-low is quiet though, it is still pretty loud, much louder than the MSI GE70-2PE I had sitting next to it, even though that notebook has a shared GPU/CPU vent.

That said, one other interesting thing is the 'Stealth Fan' option. I ran 3d Mark again with Stealth on and the fans barely even spun up, they were nearly dead-quiet during the entire test. The scores, obviously, suffer, because the GPU and CPU both throttle in this instance, but I think Stealth may be a viable option for games that are not extremely demanding (like League of Legends, or SCII, or DOTA, etc.) or where you are already well-exceeding 60FPS.

 

Sirixamo,

Thank you kindly for your reply.
I am really dead set on this machine as I love the design and I need it primarily for 3dmax/photoshop as well as some occasional hobby gaming (I will never give this up! )
This is gonna be quite a strain on my budget though, and as you are the only person I have talked to that has one, could I ask you to run one test for me please?

Using any soft like Geekbench 3 (primatelabs.com/geekbench) or some online CPU stress test ( http://silver.urih.com/ - raytracing stress test) could you check thermals at 20-30+ min?

You had a great point that if its only CPU there could be no throttling, but I would like to be as sure as possible, because this will be my work machine and the budget is quite high for me.
If its truly under 89degrees for long term CPU only @100% load, I can live with the fan noise and what the heck, I'll import that p37x ))

Again thank you very much for your help, its much appreciated
Kind regards,
Peter

 

Hello Sirixamo! hello everyone!

I recently bought the P37X (after originally buying the P35X and returning it because I found the 15" screen to be way too small and squinty for good gaming).

Issue #1 - Just as you found in your temp testing, when setting the fan to stealth mode, the GPU instantly gets locked down to 850mhz memory (checked with nvidia inspector), which cuts the performance and 3dmark tests by half, knocking them down to the 4000 range.

This I assume is intended, running the fans on stealth wouldn't provide enough cooling for the GPU to go all out, hence the throttling.

Now I've run into some rather frustrating problems with this laptop, which I am trying to trouble shoot/solve at the moment, I don't know if you've noticed these problems or are able to re-produce them?

Problem #1 - when playing SMITE (v.good game btw), this laptop stutters all to hell!, you can litterally see/feel your mouse jumping, your character warps around the place, when using skills or being hit by other players, it stutters like crazy.

Problem #2 - whenever launching -any- 3d program, or program that initialises the nvidia GPU, I get a "nvidia driver has stopped responding and recovered" crash message.
this problem might be related to problem #1? or could be completely separate I dunno.

-----
I've done some preliminary testing, and I've made a bit of progress on Problem #1.

The 'culprit' is the Gigabyte Smart Manager software! - if you uninstall this software, SMITE runs perfectly buttery smooth, HOWEVER if you uninstall this software, you no longer have any sound what so ever you also lose the ability to change your fan profile, set the keyboard backlight, disable the mouse touchpad, etc.

So now I need to find out what exactly is the Smart Manager doing that's causing this issue!?

I've been attempting to read through the P35X owners thread to see if they've noticed any stuttering issues like this, but at 170+ pages long it's going to be a loooooooong read :/
-----

Turns out all my problems were a hardware fault! - I RMA'd the laptop, and the new one is running sweet! none of the problems above experienced.

On a more upbeat note however, I LOVE THIS LAPTOP, it's very slim and light, it's fast and powerful, it's gorgeous to use and behold. - I just need to get this stuttering issue resolved and it will be perfect!

 

Hello Drazek,
This is a rather weird issue with the nvidia drivers it might be connected with optimus gpu switching from what I've read before. Anyways please write if you resolved this. I assume it stuttered with the gigabyte fan set to automatic, with power cord and on high performance, right?
Anyways did you test the p37x on how it fares during cpu only load? So not a firestrike 3d mark benchmark but sth more like geekbench3? It's still my main concern that it will throttle during CPU only at 100% for longer periods thats holding me back from this model.
Best regards,

 

Hi Pineanas,

I ran that stress test for you, had to use the SilverBench website as you can't run a stresstest on geekbench3 with a trial version



Max CPU temperature hit 94c - No throttling according to HWinfo

It's worth noting that this was run with the [Auto - Low Speed] fan setting, and the back of the chassis/exhaust never felt very hot at all, the fans were consistent and not particularly loud.

 

Just ran a quick test with FurMark to test for throttling with the GPU..



The CPU temperatures in this stress test hit 95c and some fairly agressive throttling started happening.. CPU multipliers went down as low as x20 on core #3

you could feel the heat coming out of the laptop during this test, the fans were at the same speed/volume as the CPU stress test - again this is on the [Auto - Low Speed] fan setting.

However it's worth noting that the FPS in FurMark was a consistent 87-88fps with no lag/stutters/fps-drops.

 

Thanks Drazek!
It looks quite promissing if it doesn't throttle under 94!
By the way did you undervolt the processor?
I'm quite interested in the min temps this laptop can get at full cpu stress with auto-high fans
and maybe a small undervolt
Thanks for your help!

 

I've not undervolted the CPU no... I don't actually know how to yet! ;D - I wonder how low it'll go without crashing?

 

Haven't done it myself yet, but i found a handy guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-undervolting-guide.235824/
It would be really sweet ifthe temps could go down by 5degrees with undervolting.
It's a sealed deal then!
By the way what is your subjective opinion on the noise levels of the fans at auto-high?
I'm not very noise sensitive, so I don't think it will be a problem

 

I spotted on the P35X thread that they were undervolting the CPU using Intel Etreme Tweak Utility.

So I've undervolted my CPU by -70mV (same as what they were testing in the P35X thread) - seems to work! temps are a tad lower.. I hit 90c max during a stress test on all 4 cores.

 

That sounds promising! is the -70mV the lowest you could go, or did you just take it as a rule of thumb according to the p35x results? 90max is almost perfect i think 89 is the safest (as throttling seems to geenrally kick in over 90)

 

One last thought, I wonder how the same benchmarks look like in auto-high fans
How are your subjective feelings about using this laptop after a week or so in gaming/work/surfing?
Totally happy or considering a thicker form factor next time around?
Best regards,
P

 

Absolutely love this laptop, I love the thinness and lightness of it.

I bought this laptop as my "work laptop", so I couldn't really get a full fat gaming laptop as they're too large, heavy and loud to pass as a "work laptop", my colleagues went with an apple macbook pro, but I dislike apple so I wanted a highly spec windows laptop instead. - the P37X fits the bill perfectly and looks very sleek which passes well for a "work laptop"

Gaming wise it's brilliant, the only issue I have is this crazy stuttering when playing SMITE, which I'm trying my best to resolve, but at the moment it looks like it's related to the Gigabyte Smart Manager which is integral to the running of the laptop, so I think Gigabyte need to investigate this issue in their software and fix it with a patch :/

 

Sorry, I only visit the thread every week or so. Problem #1 sounds exactly like what happens when it doesn't automatically switch to the dedicated GPU, sounds like it's using the integrated card. I've had that happen before. There is a program called Nvidia Inspector you can get that can absolutely force it to use a certain card (sometimes doing it in the Nvidia Control Panel doesn't actually work), you could try that.

I have had no issues with the GPU or the drivers (never gotten the 'stopped responding' message). I haven't played a lot of games (and I haven't played Smite in a long time), but it sounds like maybe some corrupted driver behavior between the gigabyte software and nvidia. I get my drivers straight from nvidia, so if you are still using the gigabyte drivers try that.

That's awesome! I should definitely try that. Did you notice any performance impact?

Other than the noise this is a fantastic laptop. Yes, it throttles if you can get the internal temperature to 95C, but even then it only throttles into the ~2.5ghz range and that is more than enough for gaming. For everything else, it is dead quiet and super fast. For older games you can keep it in 'stealth' mode and that removes the noise issue. On stealth it seems to perform somewhere between an 860m-870m in speed (comparing to my 860m laptop and friends 870m asus).

I'm on the fence whether I'd go with a bigger laptop to cut down on the noise, or a 15.6" or smaller for work. I use this for everything... but I'm past my return window so I'm sticking with what I got. It's a very nice machine.

 

Hi guys, just wanted say what I thought about this laptop. I was shopping for a new laptop coming from a 5 year old Sager/Clevo. Loved the Sager, how easy it was to access the GPU and that thing was built like a tank. I repaseted that thing alot.

Was looking for something similar a 17/15 inch laptop with a great Gpu at a decent pricing. Looked at the Msi GT72/Gs72 and the Sager/Clevo was looking for a laptop with an upgradeable gpu. Then eventually considered Gigabyte. At first was not so sure about the brand, then I saw a Gigabyte laptop in person, I think it was a P35. Was impressed with the very under-toned "gaming Mac" look and the quality feel of it. So decided to pick the P37X when it came out. I knew about the noise issue from forum complaints and other reviews, and tbh it does get very loud when stressed. The keyboad and track pad does also fall short a little at this price point, the screen I have no complaints. But from this pricing point of view you are getting a premium spec'ed gaming laptop for a discounted price when compared to other brands (except Sager).Only thing I have against it is that the Gpu is bga not a mxm.

So I'm very happy with it so far, have not being running benchmarks though, just playing games on it-Battlefield 4 and Dying Light.
Temps I'm getting are 92 cpu and 87 gpu very surprised at the gpu temps my old 5870m goes to up 95'. Maybe the cpu is abit high. Not planning to repaste any time soon though.

 

Post Deleted.

 

Hello all!

That's what I want to avoid, as I intend to do rendering, which is 100% CPU load, 0% GPU. But with undervolting or even without (as Drazek tests show) it could be ok!
For gaming I have no doubts about this one.

Is the fan noise so high that you have to wear headphones while gaming? Or loud but can get used to it on speakers?

Drazek, have you tried Nvidia Inspector to force the gfx card to the 980m?

 

Hello,

I can't see anywhere in Nvidia Inspector that allows you to force a gfx card? - but I can garuntee you that it is definitely using the GTX980 when launching a game.

The fan noise is bearable, most of the time I run the fans on 'Normal' and they sound perfectly fine without headphones on.
In 'High/Full' mode they aren't all that loud to be honest, you can hear them yeah.. but they're not high pitched at all and they're not overly loud either, I can quite comfortably play a game without headphones with the fans on Max.
- saying that, if you vsync your game so the GPU isn't going all out, the Fans stay pretty tame and quiet.

 

Okay I figured I would put anything qwerky I find RE: Windows 10 in here.

Windows 10 testing:

3DMark - Benchmarks crash out when running in full screen mode, if you run a custom benchmark in window mode, it works perfectly fine. - hopefully this is a 3DMark software error. - This was resolved with an RMA, faulty hardware.

 

It's great to hear you solved the problem!
Windows 10 is near so I might also jump ship to that, so good to hear it performs better there
If you find any other stuff on the WIN10 front it's gonna be interesting to hear!

Also good news on the noise levels, I'm not very picky noise wise, only a blowdrier noise level would annoy me!
Probably going to buy this one at caseking, cannot find any resellers in my country...GIGABYTE doesnt distribute laptops here only motherboards/gfx cards etc.
Just my luck

 

You should have no issues. When I run Prime95 and max ONLY the CPU the temperature never gets to the cap (95C). In fact it doesn't even get above 72C now that I've undervolted. Unfortunately my undervolt was... underwhelming, only got -50mv, but it still helped.

 

Anybody having high PCH temps? I'm getting 91 ave and highest 97, under about 3 hrs of gaming. Is this normal ?

Also who has updated their Bios to FB04/F00C, is that necessary ?

 

I have received my new P37X today and I was wondering how I access the 2 SSDs in order to install games onto them? I don't believe I can locate them on the "This PC" screen or am I missing something? I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to using SSDs so please forgive me!

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

EDIT - Ok, might have figured this stupid question out for myself! I'm presuming the D:/ drive is my 1TB HDD and the C:/ drive where Windows is installed is the 2 SSDs combined, am I right?

If I am correct will my gaming performance benefit from installing games to the C:/ drive or will it not make any difference?

 

The C: drive will load games 10x faster than if you install them onto the D: drive, yes the SSD's make a difference but your space is limited, so watch out.

What I do is I move my Downloads, Music, Movies folders all over to my D: drive.

 

Thanks for the reply!

Does anyone else have any more advice for squeezing every last drop of performance out of this laptop?

I must admit the fans can be quite loud when gaming. I have the Fan Speed set to 'Normal' and I'm hoping that doesn't restrict frame rate at all.

 

New Review: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/content/reviews/laptops/54699/gigabyte-p37x-review

 

Ok, being playing some Atilla, GPU is doing fine game runs smooth with ultra setting getting max temps of 88 degrees. Its the Cpu thats concerning its running to 96-97 degrees. Its on stock paste though so maybe thinking of opening it up and doing a repaste?

 

I had to RMA my laptop in the end, all those gpu crashes when gaming, and the stutters inside SMITE? - yeah, apparently it was a hardware fault after all!

after RMAing my laptop, it's working smooth as butter now! couldn't be happier

 

notebookcheck review just out: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Gigabyte-P37X-Notebook-Review.139381.0.html

Someone can confirm me about the screen quality (1080p FHD)? Is it good (black level...etc)? And how about CPU temp after a repast and using a cooling pad?

 

Hi , the screen I have is this :

P37X MONITOR INFO by kdmaka posted Apr 4, 2015 at 11:31 AM

As for the temps on cpu, I was getting max 97 degrees on stock paste. I did a repaste with PK-1 but Max temp result is indifferent so thinking about trying other paste. Idle temps went down a bit to 51-53 degrees. Gpu temps stays at 85-88 max.

 

Thank you. 97 C° is so hot! Do you use a cooling pad?

And what about your screen evaluation, are you satisfied (color, contrast, brightness...)?

 

Overall I'm happy its such a slim form factor for the power. Temp wise it is high, I am using an old cooler stand (no fans though) , does not make a difference. So maybe repate with something else later on.

Some little gripes I have, the back cover is plastic and is quite delicate (when opening up). Keyboard and touchpad is so so (i'm using a mouse and keyboard normally). Fan is very loud when gaming (I have no problem with this)

TBH My first choice was a MSI GT72, but price wise/performance led me to this one and I'm pretty happy with the choice.

Display I have no problems, just found out this is the same model panel as the "newer" MSI GT72 models and there is a driver that enable G-Sync so trying that out...

 

I am almost a complete newbie when it comes to overclocking but I thought I would post my results so far here while also asking those with more knowhow for any advice they might have.

I have been using MSI Afterburner and have the Core Clock set as high as it will go (+135) and the Memory Clock set to +496 (max is 1000). I started to experience crashing above +500 on the Memory Clock so I am leaving it there for now.

With these settings I am getting slight increases in FPS with about +5 frames in Star Citizen (very high graphics setting) and it seems to have completely wiped out any drops below 60 in the new Unreal Tournament (epic settings) where it would sometimes dip to 57 in moments of intense action.

I am aware these improvements may seem small but they are significant to me Any advice on what else I could be doing better?

 

Maybe you can use the modded vbios? Ask for compatibility before you try. Also can you tell me your temps under full load (intense gaming) with these improvements?

 

Driver that enables G-Sync on this monitor!? - WHERE!?

 

It was in the MSI GT72 Owners thread- saying if their ISP panel was a Laptop with LG Phillips LP173WF4-SPD1 (LGD046C)-( same one on the P37X , with a 980m you can enable G-sync with software with an hacked driver...

I tried and...did not work on my PC.
Its actually quite hard to find the driver I think it caused quite a ruckus as G-sync is touted as a hardware solution ?
Here is the link that was from that thread
http://1pcent.com/?p=564

 

This is actually both true and false. G-sync for desktops requires a hardware scalar component like the guys at nvidia have been saying. For laptops however, there is a more direct route of communication and the screens are known to the manufacturers etc compared to the desktops that have a variety of configurations as well as not having a direct connection to the gpu (lvds or otherwise). This direct connection allows for flexible adaptive vsync abilities. This is also the reason why AMD first demonstrated freesync on a laptop, because laptops already have a feature similar to it built in. This laptop gsync "hack" is just taking advantage of the fact that there is this form of pseudo-gsync/freesync ability native to laptops.

 

having completely underwhelmed by graphics of dragon age inquisition on the "next gen" console, after a few days of research I've gone and ordered a P37X! so very much looking forward to it, paid a little extra for saturday delivery as well

p.s. completely forgot I had this account many years ago, last active on the forum was 2008 lol. full circle and back to pc gaming after all these years.

 

Pc gaming is where it's at. And where it will always be!

 

I have a feeling we can't get it to work in our laptop because the nvidia card is secondary and doesn't directly control the lcd. (Can't change resolution or hz in nvidia drivers) so the Intel drivers would have to allow it through somehow. :/

 

Hi guys just want to know, are any of you undervolting the cpu using XTU. How much are you lowering your Voltages ?

 

Sorry for the delay, the highest temps whilst playing Assassin's Creed Unity under these overclocking settings is 84 degrees.

With regards to undervolting I have not tried this at all as I have no idea of the potential benefits / risks. I am pretty happy with the performance of my laptop where it is currently