Gadgetory

welcome back to hard Ron box today between testing all the current game releases the RT X updates all that sort of thing I've managed to finish testing the gigabyte arrow 15 X 9 the first Nvidia RT X laptop we got sent it's a pretty cool product it's also quite similar to the area 15 X v8 we looked at last year with a few upgrades that will walk you through in this video in terms of hardware a lot of what we're seeing here has carried over from the previous generation the CPU is still Intel's Core i7 8750 H for most models with an i-9 8950 HK option available the display is either a 144 Hertz 1080p IPS or a wide gamut 4k IPS at 60 Hertz and of course it's 15.6 inches in size memory ranges from 8 gigabytes up to 32 gig depending on the configuration though 16 gig models come with single channel memory the battery as well still 94 watt hours in what appears to be the same chassis so what are the changes the big one is the upgrade from an nvidia geforce gtx 1070 max q2 the new r-tx 2070 max-q which we covered previously in a separate video we're also seeing a switch from Toshiba nvme PCIe SSD s2 Intel SSDs which in combination with killer networking that uses Intel chips allows gigabyte to claim this laptop as the world's only all Intel Inside notebook there are a few upgrades on the software side as well there's a new gigabyte command center application plus some unique AI functionality powered by Microsoft's Azur AI cloud services also worth pointing out there's an error of 15y 9 model bumps you up to an RT x 28 Emacs q GP with otherwise the same hardware and just so you know pricing before the end the regular model with the 27 t max q 144 hertz 1080p display 16 gigabytes of ram and one terabyte SSD is 2400 US dollars in australia you're looking at 3,700 bucks however I personally reviewed the mid-tier X 9 which features the 4k display and 32 gig of ram which bumps up the price to 2700 US dollars gigabyte has been using a similar design for the past couple of generations and I think it largely still holds up today this design was one of the first to use slim bezels around the display now that's a much more common feature but it still looks pretty good here the downside is still the webcam placement which sits below the screen providing a look straight up your nostrils newer slim bezel design seems to fix the problem either through a small increase in the top bezel or including a camera bump hopefully gigabyte goes with this approach next time though post is I almost never use the webcast not really a big deal for me the laptop is solidly built using a combination of metal and plastic there's not a lot of gamer Flair which is nice it makes it suitable for uses both a gaming laptop or a workstation and I always prefer more minimalist professional styles there is still a few scenes around the place that make it look less sleek than something like a razor blade or msi gs70 sign well not bad by any means is more of a functional build than one design for pure aesthetics and this is also reflected in the size and weight 18.9 millimeters thick and 2 kilograms heavy puts it in the slim and light gaming notebook category but it's not challenging for any records those who want something that's not chunky will be pretty happy with your a 15 X although tricky laptops tend to be a lot cheaper for the hardware you get portability does always come at a price io is very good as you'd expect to USB C ports one is Thunderbolt 3 type see the other USB 3.1 there's a further 3 USB 3.1 type a ports 2 gen 1 and one Gen 2 and then you get Ethernet HDMI 2.0 a 3.5 you do Jack and an SD card reader so there's no need for dongles with this machine it basically has everything you'd want the keyboard still has a nice reasonably clicky tactile response with perky RGB backlighting control through gigabytes fusion software I also really appreciated the numpad although the truncated right shift to fit in the arrow keys is a bit annoying I'm also very happy to report the crappy eel and trackpad used in previous models has been ditched for a better more responsive high precision moral it's a pretty big upgrade in terms of performance there's no one to say in interview that I haven't covered previously for productivity the crow 78758 with 32 gigabytes of RAM performs exactly as I expected and exactly as the cpu has performed since I first reviewed it in most productivity workloads the new GPU doesn't come into play so you'll get the standard product every performance we've seen from these sorts of laptops for about a year now if you want a full performance breakdown of the kora 78758 it is worth checking out my original review from April last year but we'll go through some performance summaries here comparing the new Aero 15 X 9 to the older era 15 X v8 performance is roughly equivalent there were a few workloads like Cinebench where the new model is a little slower there were a handful of workloads like handbrake where performance is on par and there are a few tasks where the new morale is faster when breaking down these faster workloads we have two factors at play there are 15 X 9 I reviewed has dual channel DVR for 2666 memory which provides higher bandwidth than the single channel configuration in the era of 15 X v8 with 16 gigabytes of RAM so for tasks like 7-zip and MATLAB there's a performance advantage due to this then we also see some improvements in GPU accelerated applications premier doesn't benefit significantly from the faster RT x 2070 max-q because the GPU is basically doing all it can here to accelerate rendering after about gtx 1070 max q level there's not much else to be gained from extra GPU performance in our test blender does see a large improvement notice to the tune of 26% in this workload run entirely on the GPU I guess the good news is depending on your workload you can expect either the same performance as other I 78758 systems or perhaps a little better thanks to the fast cheap you that said the 16 gigabyte Aero 15 X 9 is still single tunnel so in those memory bandwidth limited tasks it won't be as fast as I'm showing here but also worth pointing out that the Aero 15 X 9 has several different profiles that can affect performance aside from manual controls there's quiet normal and gaming fan profiles in addition we have the AI features of which there are two modes the green local mode analyzes what you are doing on your system locally and attempts to find the right performance and fan profiles for the task at hand while the Red Cloud mode moves that AI work to the cloud for potentially better results however for CPU limited workloads whether short or long I found that so long as you even using at least the normal fan mode there really isn't much difference in performance so the i/o modes didn't do much to enhance the performance for gaming the AI modes are an improvement upon the normal fan mode especially the cloud mode however using either the gaming mode or setting fan speeds to maximum provides better performance again for our gaming tests which I'll get to in a moment I use the gaming mode I think the AI morals they do have a bit of promise especially if they can learn over time as to what Moe's deliver the best performance this is still early days for the era of 15 X 9 and this system it'd be cool if it delivered optimal performance while also tuning the fan speeds because the gaming mode is still quite loud in general but at least for now sticking to the gaming mode while in the GPU heavy tasks is the best choice few other quick productivity comparisons here before moving into gaming performance if you're upgrading from a core i7 7700 HQ laptop or another one of Intel's quad-core 45 watt notebook CPUs the six core Core i7 8750 h2 is about 35 percent more performance on average though in heavily multi-threaded tasks gains can be up around 50 percent if you do a lot of rendering work on the go it's definitely worth the upgrade to access those extra to cause and then if you're considering whether it's worth buying a performance-oriented portable laptop over a 15 watt ultra portable he said the eye 78758 stacks up against Intel's latest whiskey lake core i7 85 65 you in CPU workloads we're looking at double the performance for encouraging and when factoring in the significantly more powerful GPU pretty much becomes a bloodbath any serious creative work on the go a configuration like the Aero 15 X 9 with the six core CPU and discrete GPU is definitely the best option for gaming performance I've already done a full breakdown on the new NVIDIA GeForce r-tx 2070 max Q used in this exact system for look at each game and more discussion on the GPU in particular it's well worth watching that in-depth video here though I do want to provide a few summaries the new Aero 15 X 9 is 11 percent faster on average than the era 15 X v8 with the gtx 1070 max Q and this margin is typical when comparing the erofeev gain X 9 to other 1070 max-q laptops do know that this is the margin you'll see when comparing equivalent memory configurations diversión this laptop with 16 gig of ram is only a single channel so there is upgrading from a dual channel laptop will see smaller margins however there's not much to be gained moving from a fully we're jtx 1072 and r-tx 2070 max-q as performance is roughly equivalent it's nice that new laptops include more performance in the same form factor but the increase isn't massive the GTX 1080 max Q is still faster than the RT X 2070 max Q if you are tossing up between those two GPUs on the other hand the art X 2070 max do smokes the GTX 1066 gigabyte to the tune of 35% on average so this new GPU is a worthwhile upgrade and finally please don't think that the ITX 2070 laptop will provide the same performance as a desktop RTX 2070 in videos nutrient GPUs have widened the desktop laptop GPU gap compared to Pascal so the art X 27 Tikal app drops is considerably slower than the desktop equivalent oh and I guess I should mention RT X features here concern you can use those with this new art X between 70 max Q laptop compared to older Pascal laptops unfortunately the ITX performance of invidious laptop GPUs isn't very strong in battlefield 5 you're looking at a experience below 60 FPS at 1080p with the low DXi mode compared to well over 80 FPS with ray-tracing disabled dealer says is also not an effective feature as we've talked about separately some idea is to treat RT X is more of a bonus than a key feature because support for it simply isn't wide enough or good enough right now to make it a must-have inclusion while the gigabyte r15 performs well for its hardware the cooling solution isn't amazing to deliver top-end performance in line with other systems the gaming fan mode should be used which really ramps up the fans to a higher degree this mode is loud at 48 DBA which keeps the area 15 on the bottom of the chart as one of the loudest notebooks I've tested it is an area the AI mode could really help except it simply doesn't perform as well as the loud gaming mode you better news noise levels while using the laptop for productivity tasks is a lot better it's still not a quiet system and a touch under 40 DBA during a hand break in code but this is mid tier among gaming laptops this is using the normal fan mode as the gaming mode so no additional performance increases for CPU limited apps at a louder I guess performance cost thoroughly the laptop also gets quite hot hotter than the previous Eric 15x v8 CPU temperatures are unchanged but high for a gaming laptop around 90 degrees Celsius although if rattling wasn't a big concern for CPU limited applications thicker gaming laptops are more around these 75 to 80 degrees Celsius mark however GPU temperatures with the RT X 2070 max you have increased compared to the gtx 1070 max-q now sitting around a 6 degree Celsius compared to 79 degrees Celsius the shotty of this laptop also gets pretty hot the fans exhaust air through a flap below the display in the sort of hinge area however the position of these vents means the hot air is redirected in front of the display towards the keyboard most of the laptops vent out the sides and back either behind the display on to or on to the desk inventing forwards the top edge of the laptop gets very hot up over 50 degrees Celsius during gaming in the center near the power button directly below this the keyboard can be over 40 degrees Celsius luckily the WASD Keys are cooled well around the 30 degrees Celsius mark but that isn't true for the entire keyboard the thermal performance here surprises me a bit considering what the error 15 looks like internally I guess there are just some inefficiencies in the design with that said the laptop is quite upgradeable when removing the bottom cover revealing easy access to the memory slots and a second free M not to slot for storage upgrades my arrow 15 X 9 review unit came with the 4k 60 Hertz IPS display option rather than the 144 Hertz 1080p option I reviewed in the older model the 4k option is the route you'd take if you want to use this laptop for creative workloads or content creation has really 4k is too intensive for the art X 2070 max Q for gaming instead gamers would be better off with the high refresh 1080p screen especially as the GPU can handle many games around the 100 FPS mark on Ultra settings at this resolution while this display is supposedly x-rite Pantone certified unfortunately I have a few issues with the 4k panel in its calibration this is a wide gamut monitor targeting 100% of Derby RGB and it comes with what is supposed to be factory calibration through a profile that's been installed however the profile has been generated incorrectly it looks like gigabyte has mapped the displays wide color primaries as the sRGB color primaries which leads to over saturation other weird behavior I know this oversaturation straight away everything is extremely vibrant on this panel proper calibration should allow both srgb and wide gamut content to be mapped properly with just a single profile this is disappointing for those that might have wanted to use the display straight out of the box however it could be an issue with my earlier review sample that said as the display is more than capable of 100% Adobe RGB coverage calibrating it properly will lead to good results I also recorded a near 1400 to 1 contrast ratio which is strong for an IPS panel along with peak brightness of 360 nits and very good viewing angles the panel quality is there it's just the calibration that's letting it down and again for gamers I don't see much benefit in having the 4k 60 Hertz panel over the 1080p 144 Hertz model final two bits of performance the intel SSD 760 P used in the area 15 X 9 is extremely fast one of the fastest SSDs available in modern gaming laptops so that's nice then for battery life there's a huge 94 watt hour battery in this particular model I did some brief testing not anything extensive here but I did find that the model performed slightly less than the previous generation arrow 15 and in line with similar thin and light laptops like this in our video playback workload overall the gigabyte arrow 15 X 9 isn't a huge improvement over last year's model but it does pack some nice upgrades while in videos our text features don't provide much in this GPU design the ITX 2070 max Q is providing around 10% more performance in games at 1080p which you take every time considering there's no change to the form factor the improved trackpad is a long-overdue addition as well and some of the new software tools aren't game changes but could become promising over time these changes have been made without sacrificing the other elements that already made this laptop great is still a well-built portable design with a huge battery the core 78758 performs the same making the laptop great for productivity there's still a 1080p 144 Hertz display option for gamers and when calibrated properly the 4k screen option is great for creators there's plenty of i/o and easy internal upgrade ability for both the RAM and storage the poky RGB backlit keyboard is also still one of the best in its class with that said two of my primary concerns with this laptop design haven't been rest the cooler is still loud and it runs hot to deliver performance equivalent to other systems the webcam position is also not great a byproduct of this early bezel free design whether the arrow 15 X 9 is a good purchase comes down to what price you can get one out right now for a decent hardware loadout you're looking at twenty four hundred US dollars I don't think it's worth paying this price while gtx 1070 max few laptops are still around yeah the 1070 max-q is a bit slower but you can get a slimming light system such as the soos ROG Zephyrus s for under $2,000 right now I'd happily sacrifice the extra ten percent of in terms of performance to save $500 or even more in some cases but of course gtx 1070 max your tops won't be around for much longer so what about when the market is just r-tx 20 70 devices but right now there's only a few thin unlike gaming machines that use the ITX 20 70 max cube the main options are the msi gio 65 stealth and the razor blade 15 ems option is the same price and while i haven't tested the ITX version yet last year i did have a slight preference for it over the arrow 15 although both are great choices the new blade 15 from razor is $200 more expensive in packs a small SSD and while raises current gen design is very nice i don't think it's worth the price premium but as is always the case with these portable gaming machines you'd really want to have the portability because there are better fast options available in thicker heavier Sassy's both the souza and gigabyte often the full r-tx 2070 model in their thicker Sassy's for $2000 that's a better value option if you don't see yourself moving the laptop around very much so that's it for this review of a gigabyte arrow 15 X 9 I'm still trying to get in a range of other r-tx laptops so we can have a look at the full lineup in the coming months again a bit of a slow process doing these products in you can subscribe for more laptop content if you like consider supporting us on patreon I'll see you in the next one you