This Tech Could INCREASE FPS for Gaming Notebooks...But Does It?
This Tech Could INCREASE FPS for Gaming Notebooks...But Does It?
2019-07-14
so I'm pretty sure you're familiar with
this it's the Aero 15 from gigabyte
it's actually one of my favorite
notebooks to date but back at CES and
Computex gigabyte I was actually talking
about a ton of ways that they've been
working on improving the performance on
this line up with some pretty unexpected
tech now I won't be covering every bit
of this notebook because if you're
interested in the full review you can
actually check it out right over here
but there is a particular feature that I
really wanted to try out and that is
specifically with gigabyte using
artificial intelligence to optimize or
give these notebooks the best possible
performance as well as give users you
know better battery life considering
that these laptops feature some really
high end specs now I know that sounds
like something out of Terminator 3 but
here it's not like these machines are
gonna rise up and take over the world
through these lower books because that's
not what we're dealing with here
honestly we all know how artificial
intelligence is being incorporated in
pretty much every area that we're aware
of so everything you know from the
automotive world where car manufacturers
are implementing some sort of AI to
enhance self-driving techniques to
Windows with image searching heck even
the new processors from AMD and GPUs
from Nvidia have some basic form of AI
that can optimize clock speeds by
predicting upcoming system workloads so
why not incorporate something like that
in a notebook to improve the overall
experience let's talk about that right
after this let me ask you what is more
satisfying than a good peel whoo that
hits the spot but you gotta love easy to
sync a RGB components for a beautiful
light show Thermal takes extensive
support with 5-volt a RGB motherboard
sync gives you lighting control of fans
memory lighting kits all the one coolers
power supplies and more by using the 5
volt header on your motherboard
you can also daisy chain a bunch of
products to light from a single 5 volt
header or with their own controller for
individual customization but now with a
RGB sync it's all made incredibly easy
to match check it out below now I do
want to take this time to thank gigabyte
for partnering up in this video now I
also do want to mention that our
opinions and performance metrics are
solely ours but gigabyte did provide us
with some technical information so that
I could easily understand how a AI
algorithms work specifically on the
Aero lineup so the artificial
intelligence gigabyte is using for their
Aero 15 is called azure for Microsoft
and that's actually a name that includes
all sorts of cloud-based technologies
but the way it works on this notebook is
pretty interesting let's see if I can
explain this well you see on a laptop
you usually have to constantly switch
between performance modes in Windows or
a secondary utility like control center
from gigabyte if you want to get the
most out of the system one longer
battery life you would select battery
saver if you need the best overall
performance
you'd go with the high power setting and
in some gaming notebooks they have their
own gaming mode too which emphasizes GP
performance now sure you can create a
custom power plan in Windows but the
options there are pretty limited the
same goes for technologies like
invidious Optimus which can switch on
the fly between a discrete GPU and more
efficient IGP depending on system
demands but none of these technologies
are able to do it all they're either on
or off and they don't have the ability
to control things like fan speeds not to
mention the whole process of switching
back and forth between these modes can
be a little bit tiring and complicated
for novices who just want to operate
these notebooks properly that's where
Microsoft's Azure AI on the Aero 15
comes in think of it as you know a fully
automatic car transmission versus manual
transmission on other notebooks
well actually okay think of it as Azure
is more of an automatic with paddle
shifters but more on that later so
whatÃs or does is that it monitors power
consumption in real-time and when it
detects an application requesting for
more power if it's cited from the CPU or
GPU it'll automatically switch system
resources to accommodate that the Aero
15 then sends information about every
programs requests to the cloud where as
or AI then stores it as more of that
information is sent to the cloud the AI
learned more about the optimization
needed to get the best results in every
scenario more importantly all the
information for applications you use is
actually stored locally and new
optimizations are sent to and received
from the azure cloud on a regular basis
so that means your system
could get even better over time and he
won't lose the benefits from AI even if
you're offline the benefit is that all
of this is done automatically
but for enthusiasts who really like to
tweak and tune with certain settings
within their notebook gigabyte certainly
gives you the option to adjust those
settings within their own control panel
so it's not like they're taking that
feature away from you it's just that for
those users who are looking for the best
overall performance without having to
fiddle around with settings Azure in this
case can come in super handy now
obviously we're concerned about giving
you the information but gigabyte is
actually pretty transparent about that
so for instance if you set up this
notebook from scratch say for example
you're setting up windows and when you
get into the desktop screen there will
be a little pop-up window that alasc you
for your consent to collect data related
to system specs like CPU mode operating
system version MAC address memory etc
and if you're not comfortable doing that
you can obviously decline the option to
upload data metrics to the cloud okay so
essentially what Azure does is that it
detects what's primarily on your display
so for instance if you're gaming it will
equally distribute the power to the GPU
and the CPU most likely the GPU in this
case that would be its priority because
it is the key component when it comes to
gaming but say for instance you switch
to something a little bit more creative
like you're editing a video or running
an application that's more CPU intensive
it'll make sure that little channel as
much as power as it can to the CPU to
get the best performance as they'll also
make sure that the fan speeds are well
under controlled so if you're doing
something a little bit more you know
system intense then the fan speeds are
obviously a little bit higher so that
the laptop can breathe properly it can
make sure the temperature is under
control but if you do something a little
bit more productive it'll automatically
you know tone down those fan speeds so
it's a relatively quiet operation when
you're just doing casual tasks like
perhaps watching a video or you know
working on a word document or something
like that basically it takes care of
things without having the easier to
fiddle around with different settings
now I also do want to mention that azure
is not meant to push the notebook to its
extreme ends but rather offer users a
more balanced experience does that mean
that they won't have any control over AI
not really because you can simply
right-click on the icon and disable it
and you can go back to control center
and
change different settings to your desire
this kind of refers back to that
previous statement that I mentioned how
Azure is basically an automatic
transmission but it has paddle shifters
as well so that it gives users you know
the best of both worlds now
interestingly if you tweak and tune a
profile within control center and if
you're comfortable using that for your
day-to-day tasks you can actually share
that information with Azure by simply
uploading it to the cloud now I do want
to add a few more things before getting
into the performance segments as I
mentioned earlier Azure primarily
detects what's on your screen so if you
decide to connect an external display it
might actually not work as you'd like it
to because for instance if I have
premiere or After Effects running on my
secondary monitor and if I have like a
word processor running on my primary
display it would still detect what's on
this display or wouldn't run as
efficiently as you'd like it to on your
secondary display or that particular
application so in a multi monitor
scenario a sewer might not work as it's
supposed to so that is something to keep
note of the other thing is that as I was
monitoring clock speeds while gaming
when I had AI enabled and gaming mode
which is the highest performance percent
on control center for this notebook I
notice that there was a little bit of a
difference between the core frequencies
on the rtx 2070 Max-q which is probably
why the results or the frame rates with
a I enabled was a little bit higher
compared to gaming mode so that's
another thing that I did notice lastly
if you decide to unplug the notebook
while doing something intensive it'll
switch automatically to battery saver
mode which sure seemed obvious you're
not gonna be getting the best optimal
performance for that certain application
you're more likely gonna get the best
possible battery life because the
hardware's more optimized for that
setting all right so with that out of
the way let's get into the performance
numbers so this Aero 15 classic
features a core i7 97 50 H with 16 gigs
of ram and dual channel mode a 512 gig
nvme SSD and an RTX 2070 max-q GPU and
let's start with some synthetic tests so
starting with set image r15 there isn't
a huge improvement but if you look at
blender running the BMW benchmark it
actually completes that render 30
seconds faster compared to when AI is
disabled and mind you this was in gaming
mode because I did want to give as
aresome competition
so seeing that a channels as much as
power as it can to the CPU in this case
to render that scene is quite impressive
moving on to the Adobe Media encoder
test I took this 30 minute 4k project
and I exported it to the to 4k preset
using Intel Quick Sync and as you can
see there is a pretty big difference
between you know AI enabled and when you
have that disabled by just using game
mode within control center and I was
actually monitoring the clock speeds
within you know Hardware monitor to see
what the speeds were when I was running
the video and I noticed with AI all six
cores were constantly reaching 4
gigahertz here and there whereas with AI
disabled the speeds were hovering around
3.3 to 3.5 gigahertz so the fact that AI
or Azure is actually channeling all that
power to the CPU in this case makes a
lot more sense because it actually
renders the video a lot faster so that's
that's pretty awesome switching gears to
gaming and the performance Delta here is
very incremental as you can see you're
only getting a few frames per second
hand there with titles like overwatch
apex legends battlefield 1 doom
certainly does take a little bit of a
hit but I think that's more of an
optimization issue so the results really
do speak for themselves
I mean the performance improvement was
very incremental but keep in mind that
this was all done automatically without
the user having to fiddle around with
certain settings all I did was I just
turned this or a I button on and it
started taking care of its thing now we
all have concerns in terms of privacy
and what we're giving away and Microsoft
and gigabyte they are they have done
what they can to minimize concerns which
is why they have that a little pop-up
window that asks for your consent so you
can either agree or disagree it's
totally up to the user but I feel like
as or AI is a step in the right
direction
it's constantly evolving over time and I
can't wait to see what gigabyte and
Microsoft can come out with in the next
few years I also have a question for you
guys
if you own an Aero 15 notebook have you
tried out Microsoft Azure ai and what
has your experience been like
definitely China in the comments down
below let me know what you guys think
about the performance differences
between ai ai and of course gaming mode
with the whole Mac stop setting what are
you guys impressed or yeah I just would
love to know your thoughts about that in
the comments I'm Eber with hurricane axe
thank you so much for watching make sure
to check out some relevant content over
here
I'm signing off and I'll see you guys in
the next one
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