Razer blade 15 2021 Rtx 3000

Preorder opened for shipping in March
https://www.razer.com/gaming-laptops/razer-blade
3080 can run flight simulator apparently great see on last minute videos.

Unfortunately no amd option still oldies CPU Fingers cross on next update.

 

I'm pretty hype - Strong chance I'll buy one of these, but not 100% sold. Was seriously hoping to get a fatty AMD CPU. Gonna wait to see what other brands are offering. As much as I dislike ASUS, their current lineup is looking most preem for amd + High end GPU.

I am guessing Intel Subsidizes razers use of their chips and their engineers are just kinda stuck with it. Might see some AMD offerings in 2022 but I'll also not be shocked if we just don't see anything on that front any time soon (Like next several years)

Have had such an amazing experience with my 2018 base though so ... I may wind up getting one.

 

Me too damn AMD brought a great CPU LoL. Heck even 3060 it’ll be huge upgrade over my 1070maxq that serves me well this 2,5 years. Still confused about the configuration since I’ve stealth pairing with 3070 Egpu and don’t want it goes earlier on pension if 3080 outperform it which I think would be.

 

So who's gonna try the first 1440P panel swap on their 2019/2020

 

Got my eye on the 3070 QHD unit. 3080 might out perform a TB3 attached desktop 3070 - It'll DEFINITELY have more Vram though! LOL (I cannot believe nvidia jebaited again so hard with that ****, again. can't wait for middle of year and them to announce 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti) (EDIT: never mind, I thought the website said 16GB of VRAM initially, but it seems to have been changed to 8 ... odd.)

*weeps in 2018 Base unit*

For real. I look forward to hearing about whether or not this works. Good luck pal!

 

I saw one, it was out of my league, difficulty level is ultra nightmare. Though I was using 1440p 165Hz predator back then, kind nice can have it internal.

 

If you're not seeing an AMD version of the Blade this time around, I'd say it's all but certain one will never exist. Pretty disappointing that Razer had to be right here, right now and not wait for proper 6/8-core Tiger Lake H CPUs to become available.

 

RIght that's kinda my take too. I am sure there are internal reasons for it. This year if they noticeably lose sales to AMD and can prove it, maybe next year, but I agree. If we ever seen one, it won't be any time soon.

I am kinda shocked they are shipping with last years CPUs too though.

 

It’s because lazy intel and unfortunate Razer for sticking with them, not all their fault, if they wait till intel put out tigerlake H it’ll be like waiting forever and loose competition, considering in 2019 there was early and mid model 15 probably this year as well. Other brands like MSI still using comet lakes aren’t they I think only Lenovo and Asus cleaned AMD CPUs. Forget about the cpu but hey we’ve unique 1440p 240Hz with apparently adaptive sync that can enable kind g sync and optimus on advanced model, I think I’m not seeing this screen option on other brands, I might pass it though.

 

The new Lenovo Legion 7 is 16-inch, 2560x1600 with adaptive sync at 165 Hz.

 

Yes I saw a bit that one, unique 16inch as well, nice from Lenovo doing such effort, was hoping some design changes on Razer, or at least mercury option, maybe would be instant buy. However not sure what gpu has the legion, 1440p 240hz is sweet spot probably for ampere gpu especially 3080.

 

I'm not buying. Reason - got the 8 core advanced with 2080mq and 4k oled for like $1300, refurb but like new, couple of weeks ago. What I like about the new one - 2 x m2 slots and fast QHD panel. But since I've got 8TB Sabrent in mine it is not that critical. Other than that not much difference, faster GPU - but we'll see by how much, the desktop Amperes are faster, but you need like 3 power plugs for most of them.

I bought Asus G14, and I'm taking it back. I tried it for a month, and I did not know how much I need Thunderbolt. Plus the build quality and design choices, keyboard has 'cloaking' mode, you can't see the letters when backlight is on (on the white one). Out of 4 usb-c hubs one worked without crashing the machine, the oldest I had, very simple, one HDMI, Ethernet and two USB-A only, and without attaching power cable to it. So I could forget about having multiple high resolution displays working at the same time. Plugging USB-c with PD causes it to go into power saving mode, even if the big charger is connected, or some really weird things are starting to happen. Oh - it can also literally catch fire in such scenario, which is a problem if you happen to have big USB-C hub that requires own power adapter or USB-c monitor. So - it is fast, but pretty much unusable for me at home. I will not try another Ryzen machine until they implement TB.

On the current Advanced I have only TB cable from eGPU, 100W is plenty when dGPU is not used, all my displays connect with g-sync at 100+ Hz, no issues.

Once Razer releases laptop with Tiger Lake H I will buy it on day one, for full price, for now it is a pass from me. But they go into right direction..

 

Aaaand that didn't take long for me to backpedal.

https://store.asus.com/us/item/2021...aptop-Bundle:-ROG-XG-Mobile+RTX-3080-included

I hope Asus will implement this port in other models, with stronger dGPU, and make it customizable. Supposedly full current PCIe bandwidth, not a quarter of it like TB. Razer is sleeping.

 

I don’t think they’ll do that to other models honestly, MSI made kind of it with gs30 also only bigger dock once for winning Ces purpose I think, it became product though but no market and never hear that since then, it looses same portability role from a laptop, curious how they would put the pricing though since it would probably better buying g14 with 3070, it use also TB3 connection from the looks and other connector probably PCIe express connection that will take quite place on motherboard. With such proprietary connection, it’ll make user have smaller option, that’s why TB3 connection even its bandwidth limitation is better for fulfilling wider user range. Alienware do this right with AGA for their laptops brands.

I understand that, was hoping some design changes (which other at least already done since 2018 blade form factor) more colors option (where is quartz and mercury options hopefully later will come), and for Ces was hoping Razer edge popping every year (I look at gpd win indigogo products every year, they do nicely but I don’t gambling on product LoL) .

 

Damn, I didn't even know about this machine. Looks dead and MSI didn't try it again as far as I can tell, probably demand wasn't there. I guess you're right, got excited for a moment. That Asus uses USB-c connector combined with proprietary plug, to power USB ports on the external enclosure.

AGA is 4 lanes, like TB3, I was never impressed by it.

 

As I said in another thread, doing that kills the portability aspect, which is what makes these laptops more appealing than having to tote around a full-size eGPU enclosure.

 

I'm currently running an early 2019 Blade with 2080 Max Q and 8th gen i7. I've had Blades before and this is the first model where the fans don't have that high pitched whine, just a smooth whoosh which isn't (to me) annoying. I do, however, have the CPU undervolted by 100. I'm very interested in the QHD screen with G-Sync. I think it would pair nicely with the 3080 Max Q. My concern is thermals and noise. Any thoughts on this? I assume noise will be worse with 10th gen i7 + 3000 series GPU?

 

So, I'm seriously contemplating the new Blade 15 Advanced for a couple of the same reasons that you highlight. My current weapon of choice is a late 2019, Blade Pro 17 with 2080 Max-Q (i7-9750h), and two critical features for me were the 2 x M.2 SSD slots, and the SD card reader. I went with the Blade Pro 17 simply because of the two M.2 slots, as I have a pair of 2 TB NVMe drives, and the 4 TB of space is critical as my laptop is both my workspace and my play space (prior to the pandemic I travelled extensively for work). I'll admit I'm very jealous of your 8 TB Sabrent SSD (I was looking at the 4 TB Sabrent a couple of months back...)

However, the battery life on the Blade 17 Pro is poor (90 minutes, maybe, even with the RTX 2080 disabled in Windows). The 240 Hz display has been awesome, but I'm really liking the idea of the 240 Hz QHD display, as I always felt that the FHD on my 17" just didn't quite have the resolution sharpness I wanted, and 4K was too much.

I do have my Core X Chroma with an RTX 3090 in it that I use with the Blade Pro 17 currently....it works extremely well, but I don't play a ton of FPS games at home anymore, and my desktop 4K display (LG) is 60 Hz only. I can also sell the RTX 3090 for the same price I paid for it two months ago, so that's a wash.

I'm a little concerned about thermals on the new Blade 15 Advanced. Two SSDs stacked on top of each other could be a thermal problem (ie, can we thermally insulate them at all?), and I'm concerned about the thermals on the RTX-3080 in a laptop (My Blade Pro 17 gets hot, even if I'm just running OBS when streaming games that are far from AAA titles....even chess in a web browser!). Obviously with the Core X heat isn't a real problem anymore (which is why I bought it), but it could be a concern with the new 15 (and always has been for every generation).


Patrick

 

Is there already pictures from internal parts? I’m curious also how they can manage extra m2 slot on advanced motherboard since it’s fulfilled by vapor chamber unlike the base model which doesn’t have that giant heat sink, I don’t think also it would be replaced on top main ssd I think I never see such ssd placement.
SSD doesn’t share heat with heat sink so it won’t be too much give an effect, on some model it comes even with thermal pad that dissipate ssd heat to cassis and we can do DIY as well if it doesn’t come with any by using thermal pad with appropriate thickness to touch the cassis, on my Evo it gave like 30 degrees ssd improvement on Evo 970 that runs hot like hitting 90ish max reading/writing on default. The blade cassis as heat dissipation can be avoided for being hot, using thermal cooling pad may help to cool it sooner. Maybe it’s important if you live in hot country, fortunately I live where summer isn’t hot at all and barely hitting 40 degrees with ambient maybe max 30 degrees.

 

The thermal pad they included in my razerblade 15 sinked the heat of the nvme to the chassis and it is phenomenal. Drive never gets hot. Not even close. 2TB HP ex950.

 

There are pictures posted by Razer that show the two SSDs stacked on top of each other.

https://images.anandtech.com/doci/16404/CES 2021 Briefing Deck_16.jpg

From Anandtech: "Which brings us to storage: the Blade 15 Advanced ships with a 1TB NVMe M.2 drive, and for the first time for the Advanced Model, also includes a second empty M.2 slot for another drive. To accomplish this, Razer has opted to stack the second SSD on top of the first one, owing to the space constraints of the laptop."


Patrick

 

From 3000 series desktop GPUs I see thermal improvement compared to previous gen Turing and pascal with similar tdp GPUs, had experience with Zotac 1080ti and Evga xc2080, they can easily hits 70ish on Zotac even 80ish. Since on blade laptops fans will kicking on around 50ish degrees, and noticeable loud when hitting 80ish plus cpu temperature, since heat sinks sharing both cpu and gpu lower temperatures might reduce annoying noises like high pitching on some models. However nvidia on their mobile gpu announcement said there will be new second gen wishper mode technology with Ai blablabla that would reduce noise according the parts temperature best possible without reducing much performance , let’s see if it’s true with intel 14nm chip inside

Wow, that’s world first LoL. Correct me if I’m wrong, I think I didn’t see it yet on other brands.

 

I'm curious myself where they crammed the 2nd slot. Are they sandwiched? It's hard to tell, they have a CGI render of the internals somewhat, all I could tell was that they shifted the original nvme slot closer to the edge and they have some new shielding on the screw portion. Maybe the 2nd mirrors that drive and slides under the RAM?

https://ibb.co/3zVD56z


Edit, nevermind GR8-Ride knew the corrected answer

 

They could produce two versions, a mobile like this one and customizable desktop. They have interface ready. I was bouncing around with different laptop sizes, recently I was travelling with 13 inch stealth, plus a 15 inch monitor, external keyboard etc. Only doable when travelling by car and you don't care about your precious carry-on space. 13 inch + portable eGPU still would take considerable space and weight. Small/thin 15 incher with mid-range dGPU and powerful CPU that can connect using full speed link to eGPU at home would be my ideal laptop.

I noticed if I disable dGPU in Windows Device Manager it still gets hot, even though it doesn't show sensors in HWINfo. If you mod the Bios you can disable it over there and then it is truly off.

So, looks like you'll be limited to single sided SSDs, which AFAIK max out at 2TB each. If this is the case you'll be more limited on storage than with the current model which can host 8TB double sided SSD.

 

I'm highly reluctant to mod my BIOS, for the usual fears of bricking my system. And I still need my laptop for travel / work, so having to reconfigure the BIOS anytime I want to use the dGPU is rather inconvenient.

As to single sided SSDs, that's another factor that I'm concerned about with the Blade 15. As you said, an 8TB M.2 drive technically takes up less space than 2 x 2TB singled sided SSDs.


Patrick

 

There’s other m2 slot so you still can add 8TB like before

Sandwich SSD not potatoes

 

There are different heights of the m.2 slot. The one in current Advanced is high enough to accommodate two sided SSD (with chips at the bottom). The new one with stacked SSD almost certainly has a bare minimum height to only clear the flat PCB side of the bottom SSD.

EDIT - now that I'm looking at this, there should be a way to remove the heatsink between SSDs, and jerry rig some mounting mechanism to keep the upper one in place. This should provide enough clearance for double sided at the top. Or maybe there is enough space already, that washer looks like may be thick enough.

 

Anybody have any idea on how long it takes them to put out the silver version of their advanced model after the black ones go on sale?

 

No clue, Razer has been very inconsistent on how they offer the Mercury trim on their blades.

 

Blah ... I hate that.

 

Other color options come usually later on and some are limited quantity, 2018 which’s around mid of year comes all black then followed by mercury advanced later around end of year, 2019 mercury advanced and quartz base 1660ti, 2020 mercury base and quartz base with 2060 renewal gpu. That’s also not all regions. Mercury is always available on studio edition maybe if nvidia update Quadro studio will also come with mercury. Quartz system usually on valentin day.

 

Does anyone know if the secondary function keys finally light up on the uk keyboard version of these new RTX 3000 laptops?

 

They are creating upgrade temptation for me. I'm still rocking the 2017 version with the 1060+7700HQ, undervolted, modified BIOS with the fans just how I want them... and it's still running great, but there are a lot of perks now in the advanced 3070 QHD Optimus + GSync version, always wanted that.

If anyone can answer who has a newer laptop than me... my current Blade 14 has never recognized my monitor with USB-C to Display Port cable as GSync, even though the monitor's 100% GSync. Would this work properly now with the new Razer Blade with the same DP1.4 to USB-C cable?

I don't think the HDMI2.0b port is going to be of use... Pretty sure my monitor which is 2 years old is not going to have 2.0b anyway.

Last comment: I still feel like I need to hold out until Intel gets their 11th gen 8core processor out, but that might require waiting until the end of this year. I can't find an announcement for anything other than the 4/8 one yet, and I'm not sure Razer would put it in this machine anyway. Any of your thoughts here are appreciated too.

 

Pretty sure the TB3 port on the Blade 14 is not wired to the NVIDIA GPU, which is why G-Sync won't work. That shouldn't be an issue on the 2021 - it wasn't on the 2020.

 

Yes there’s no way to pull out h sync from 1060, i had that model and can only use g sync monitor with Razer core setting. But it doesn’t matter anymore now since 2018 advanced they have mini DP or usb c that can act as DP.
And about update times, I’m totally understand there’s also something that bugging me clicking purchase button. Maybe because 2018 15 advanced black that I saw every day this almost 3 years make me want to get other color or build (was hoping design changes), if there’s mercury like previous Oled mercury base 2020 I might be weak. CPU isn’t really matter to me 10gent 8 cores is already an upgrade from current 8750H and I don’t think ryzen would perform better day and night on my use case gaming.

 

Ryzen 5000 parts should out perform intels 10th gen, since their 4000 parts were already doing that.

Battery life will be much better too with minimal tweaking.

I'm also super on the fence myself, between black and mercury. Want a mercury really bad, but also ... don't want to wait lmao

 

Thanks guys. That's what I was hoping, that something had changed with the USBC/TB3 port. So that's one thing out of the way.

Yes @Joikansai -- exactly. I hate buying the last thing before the new 10nm process comes out, but you're right, how much is this going to translate into tangible gaming performance, battery life, thermals, etc. in the real world for our use cases? The RTX3070 is going to crush my1060. Even if it happens to be the maxQ variant. (I haven't looked in the past couple days. We figure this out yet or not?)

 

I’m agree with battery life since it’s using half smaller 7nm chip, lazy intel here. But about performance, it depends on use cases and have to wait benchmark, I didn’t pay attention on Renoir performance on gaming but synthetic benchmarks yes I saw dozens videos from YouTubers. Talking about YouTubers jarrodtech has apparently asking manufacturer and tell gaming performance might be different, intel support PCIe3x 16 and Amd only up to x8, if that’s true it’s huge, especially on cpu demanding titles which’s nowadays titles are.
Check this video on 4:00

There’s other brand user that already accepted 3070maxq laptop equipped with similar 8 cores Intel cpu and form factor, he might do some benchmarks today. So keep your horses Can’t wait also it.

 

Didn't know that about the pcie lanes. That is huge.

You pre-ordered one, how you feel about razer care elite? read mixed reviews.

 

No still enjoying 2018 one, if they’ve mercury option like base 2020 Oled, it might be easier to push purchase. Took whole night to press button, and ended up with finding that over €1700 purchase can’t be done through PayPal LoL.
Not sure about Razer care since here it comes with two years guarantee I never need extra guarantee but a year (on some regions) for 2k plus lappy is definitely not to go regardless Razer laptops. Yes I saw also mix reviews but maybe they’re only who had problems, not sure though.

Edit: for 3070maxq and similar 8 cores 10870 on gs66 timespy overall score 8890, almost 9000 gpu score and 8600ish cpu score.
Source
for 3070 maxq with new h35 4 cores cpu on Asus dash F15 here’s the screenshot, it’s apparently already delivered here from caseking Germany.

Note there’s no optimized nvidia driver yet so probably it’s not the best performance, dynamic boost and resizable bar capability to bump 3000 mobile performance needs to be set on bios probably on driver update.

 

How do Razer's QC, reliability and support look like these days?

 

Their support sucks but their laptops are well built.

 

Yes, if laptop last more than a.month without problems it is good one and will serve for years until battery swell

 

Okay time to measure your rigs compared to 3000 series, well there’s no proper driver I think but this Spanish guy has a a champ I think it’s also legit cause Ubisoft software can’t be fooled off on hardware recognition can it. There’re also other titles that he showed like flight simulator, cyberpunk, watchdogs legion both with ray tracing on.

 

Hmm - Do the new 1440p 165hz panels have G-Sync? Can't find any confirmation of that any where.

 

Apparently only advanced Qhd 240Hz has adaptive (g sync) panel according press specification. However I don’t think that’s really important I had g sync Predator xb1 wqhd 144Hz monitor and can’t tell the difference with blade 144Hz, both same smooth no tearing whatsoever, then so I sold it. Apparently color accuracy won’t as good as 165Hz on base one sRgb is up to 95% vs 100 on 165Hz.

 

lol that link brings up a login screen for me. How Funny.

At 165hz i think you are right. Not a whole lot of games will be able to easily achieve 165hz at 1440p and if they do, you can just hard cap it there in control panel.

I didn't see anything on the product page for the advanced qhd that suggests it has adaptive sync. But maybe none of them specify it any more. Not really sure.

 

At least here in Germany store it’s.

 

Actually, I had some good experience with Razer's tech support months ago. There was a physical bent near the left display hinge on my Razer Blade 15 Advanced 2020. The turnaround time for my repair was about two weeks and the total charge for the repair was about $150 (replacing the palmrest panel), including the two way shipping.

 

Razer has the best build quality of all windows laptops IMO. But their support is horrible. After being used to Alienware next business day on site service, it was horrible to work with Razer customer service when a BIOS update bricked mine. Eventually I had to order a programmer and flash it myself when waiting for them to provide me with a solution. Besides the battery they use is low quality I guess ? I see way too many complaints regarding bulging battery on the internet. I sold mine recently since they don’t sell extended warranty in my country and I didn’t want to risk using the machine with no warranty. But they are absolutely sleek and beautiful machines that maintain cooler temperatures than similarly specced competitors.