X7 Pro - Refresh in the future?

Hey all,

The only thing holding me back from purchasing the X7 Pro is that the VRAM is unfortunately just much too low for a laptop that expensive that is purporting to be the most powerful on the market. The previous one, V2, had more VRAM than the newest.

I am hopefuly then that the next version/refresh might fix this issue.

Do you think it likely to have a refresh in the next 12 months?

 

Yes, when the new chips come out that supports stacked vRAM.

With that said, LOL. 4GB, 6, even 8GB of VRAM does nothing for you. The GPU horse power is too little to benefit from high VRAM as you need to turn down graphics settings anyways if you want playable FPS.

 

He's referring to the X7 Pro which has two 970M 3GB in SLI. Doesn't need to turn down graphics settings, but unfortunately, the manufacturer chose to use the 3GB version instead of the 970M 6GB, which results in this model launching with extremely powerful graphics processing power but already but below spec for several games with very high VRAM usage at 1080p, not to mention the upcoming games over the next few years that will use more VRAM.

There are already several laptops using 970M 6GB and 980M 8GB, so I don't think Aorus is likely to refresh this model until they update to the next generation of chips. (Not 970M 6GB, but 1070M or whatever model number is comparable from the next product line)

 

Exactly. Which is why I said, 4, 6, even 8GB.

970M SLI is equivalent to a GTX980. Still does not need more than 3-4GB of VRAM before you start hitting actual limits of the GPU.

Most games do no need more than 3GB of vram at 1440P, at 1080P it would be much less. I always take the "recommended" settings with a grain of salt. I doubt anyone would try to drive a 4K display off the Aorus.

 

Several games already released in 2014 that eat up 3GB or more VRAM at 1080p. With more demanding games coming in the next few years, 970M SLI with only 3GB VRAM is likely to suffer from stuttering and hitching problems.

 

Newer games essentially upsample textures. They are designed to use up all of the available VRAM on the GPU's. It won't stutter on lower end cards, unless you run an unreasonable resolution.

at 1080P 3GB is plenty. Now if you turn up texture resolution to Ultra or let's say 150% scaling on BF4, then yes, of course you will hit the limit.

4GB or 8GB is a waste on a single 980M, would it have been nice for gigabyte to include the 6GB variants? Surely, is it a necessity? Absolutely not.

 

Those numbers above are for 1080p without using SSAA. With SSAA VRAM usage would have been even higher. In the past, 2GB was enough for 1080p, but this is not the case anymore. There are more and more VRAM hogging games, especially those that use id Tech engine (Wolfenstein New Order, upcoming DOOM4), have poorly optimized textures or ultra high res texture mods (most likely GTA V, Fallout 4), VRAM caching or video memory issues (Lords of the Fallen, COD Advanced Warfare, AC Unity), or if you want to run DSR or SSAA for titles that support this, and GTX 970M SLI can certainly handle it.

Only a few titles like this so far in 2014, but with more coming over the next few years, the Aorus X7 Pro with 970M SLI is likely to experience stuttering and hitching problems due to the low VRAM. To be clear, going from 3GB to 6GB VRAM isn't going to improve frame rate, just reduce the hitching/stuttering that can occur in these games when you run out of space in VRAM on these titles that use more than 3GB.

When that happens, the old texture data needs to be switched out to make room and new textures loaded up from your drive and/or system RAM into the VRAM. Hitching or stuttering results from that slight pause when your texture data is getting switched in/out of VRAM, loading up from the drive or system memory, etc. With 6GB or 8GB that is going to happen less often than it will on a 2GB or 3GB card.

3GB is plenty for a middle of the road mobile graphics card like 860M, but for the beastly 970M SLI setup, it seems like someone at Aorus was trying to cut corners or wasn't informed about VRAM usage of new games when they designed this model. For an expensive purchase like this, I'd want it to be able to handle demanding new games for the next several years without these issues, so I'm no longer considering the Aorus X7 Pro.

 

Thanks for the replies and information everyone. I'm in a strange position then - I love the laptop and it's design goals, but the 3gb vram is really holding it back as really, at that price point you would expect better - especially since power is one of the two only real selling points of the laptop (form factor being the other). The extra vram would also be useful outside of ultra-texture gaming for running a high resolution monitor.

I'm having a tough time seeing an alternative in terms of slimness and power, however. Is there anything that comes close to what this laptop aims to achieve? Everything I can find is either similar in power but incredibly bulky or gives up the 17 inch screen. The P35X seems like the closest contender - but honestly, and this is a bit of a weird complaint but the build quality and design of that didn't really appeal. Any suggestions?

At this point I'm considering biting the bullet and just getting the X7 Pro and refreshing it in 2-3 years with the next GPU refresh. But if there's any chance they'll release a version with higher VRAM in the next 12 months.. I suppose I should wait... but whether or not that will happen seems like anyone's guess...

 

Waiting on a laptop refresh is kinda silly IMHO.
There always is something new/better/faster coming.

If you need/want the power avaiable then pull the trigger.

I am looking at either the X7 Pro or The P35x v3.
Last lappy I bought is getting on in years but still plays most of the games I play just fine.
It would not win any Benchmark wars however.

 

Just buy it. I find it unlikely Aorus will refresh until the new chips and GDDR5 in higher densities. Given the shots of the MB, Aorus most likely is out of real estate to fit all of the vRAM chips and properly cool it.