Vega GL now up on Spectre x360

It may not be designed for gaming, but with a laptop cooling pad, undervolting (I didn't even push that too far), and perhaps turning down things like short turbo boost or maximum CPU power you can do a good job handling the heat (Low 80's over long periods of gaming). I didn't see a significant performance loss form this (maybe 1 fps out of 40 or less). That being said I am surprised the Mobile Tech Review lady didn't have more thermal issues with it. Maybe the factory reset is the key, but I don't have the time to reload it all up. All drivers are up to date and without those changes the thing gets dangerously hot and painful to the touch on almost the entire surface.

On a side note, HP's customer service will not exchange one of these. They require a full return and new purchase at the now higher price (had a sale at the very start). The Tech people really really wanted me to send it in, even though the manager basically just said don't game on it and it is fine. I think they may have been trying to avoid a return by pushing tech support so hard (they called ME after I turned down sending it in).

 

I am trying to get a feel of battery life. On average how many hours does your 15" HP x360 vega last?

 

Like the Mobile Tech Review states its about 6ish hours of normal productivity work (nothing fancy) with the brightness reasonably high. It almost has to be unless you are in a dark room because of the gloss. I imagine I could eek out more if that wasn't already more than I needed.

 

The screen is much too bright for my eyes to look at when working on the machine constantly over a period of 10-12 hours and minimum brightness is MORE than enough. I was extremely curious to find out just how long I could stretch out of the battery, so fully charged... I proceeded with my normal routine of running around 10 browser tabs, three of which were streaming live 1080p video, and approx 4 other programs running in the background. I started timing at 11am and didn't need to plug into the mains again until 8:30pm, that's 9 hours and 30 minutes of what I would consider to be some HEAVY productivity work, which is absolutely INSANE!!! My Macbook Pro managed 5 hours once, so I was completely blown away with how long the Spectre can last. With that being said, I have also tested with the screen brightness running at about 50% and only managed to get about 6 hours out of it. That doesn't worry me too much though as I will seldom have it so bright.

Been using it for over a week now and have gotten used to being back on a Windows OS relatively quickly. The thermals are non-existent to my mind. I've noticed the fans ramp up when Windows is updating drivers etc, but they are anything but loud, and even over the course of a full day, I can honestly say I've never used a laptop which runs so cool.

Just another thing to mention here... I've noticed a few people mention the glossy screen, and this isn't something which has caused me any issues. I suppose it could just be MY eyes, but with the screen being brighter than I'm used to, even at the minimum setting... it's bright enough to counter any glare. Okay, when the screen is off, the glass is glossy enough to use as a mirror, but when the screen is on, it's never caused me any issues.

I have been non-stop looking for something to complain about with this convertible laptop because I'm naturally quite fussy with EVERYTHING I buy. I have a firm belief that in most cases you get what you pay for, and if I spend a lot of money on something, I want it to be just right. I forked out the extra money for the top of the range Spectre x360 in the UK and thankfully, I have no complaints about it whatsoever... my Macbook Pro now lays in a cupboard and has been completely forgotten about. I've no hesitation at all in recommending this machine to someone who wants a really sexy looking laptop which feels great to type on, allows for easy navigation through apps and web pages in tablet mode, and can power through some very demanding tasks while somehow managing to last all day, well 9.5 hours

 

Using some speakers with this laptop, they not very good so I will replace them soon.
But on my old dell I could use the software to adjust the sound more to my liking.

The software on this only works on the laptop speakers, not the external ones.
Any software you guys could recommend to tame the bass down.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Different question, how you guys finding the backlight bleed on your screens.
I have some that I'm finding distracting while watching films, just wondering if I got a bad one or if they all have this issue to varying degrees.

What's HP like with returns on this issue,

Thanks for any feedback

 

Hello,

last week I also got the new Spectre.

Here someone else made some tests with his laptop.

When I got my Laptop I made some tests and got the same results as in the test above. However after two days my PC got stuck at 0,77Ghz and the Vega at 357Mhz and didn't want to Throttle up because of "PowerLimit".
So I only got about 3000 points in FireStrike instead of the regular 6000.

After reinstalling my PC and making a BIOS update (they released one today, F14) i made some more tests and it solved my the problem.
But apparently they generally throttled down the PC a little bit to avoid heating up to 100degrees like I had it at the beginning of the PC

I ran three tests:
(BIOS set to Performance, PC plugged in in "Higer Performance mode" in windows
1) doing some calculations on 10000photos in Lightroom, no undervolt
2) same as 1) but with 130mV undervolt on CPU and 25mV on GPU
3) same as in 2) but with FurMark on the Vega GPU at the same time

Right now I am not able to upload something, so I will uplod them here:
https://www.notebookchat.com/index.php?topic=85592.0 (post #7)
(If someone wants he can upload the screenshots here for me)


With the new BIOS I think HP could go a little bit more sensible on the fans to keep up the speed of the CPU for longer times, because as you can see, the PC is throttling down, but the fans will also slow down.

 

I just bought the Spectre with a Vega after seeing how nice the screen and keyboard were (keyboard quality is better than the Dell 15 2in1 IMO). Mine had the same thermal throttling issues and games would go from 60 fps to unplayable really quickly. After updating the BIOS to 14a, the computer doesnt get as hot and I can play Fortnite comfortably at medium to high settings @ 1080p. The fans are also running much less when doing non intensive tasks. I'm really happy with it, so I hope the pre-update issues don't deter too many people as it is a really nice 4k laptop

 

I miss mine. I kind of wish I had kept it but I'll just wait for the next big thing. Maybe a 15" with 8k display and a GTX 2080 the size of a quarter and AIO water cooling all in a 1/4" thick chassis.

 

I have a problem with my Spectre:

After I got it, two days later the PC kept stuck at 0.8Ghz and 3xxMhz for the CPU / Vega GPU.
The only thing which helped was to reboot the PC and then it was ok for about 10minutes.

To be sure it's not some crap or bloatware running in background I made a clean install of windows and only installed all necessary drivers. For about a half week all went great until yesterday, where all of sudden the problem came back again.

Does anyone has the same problem or has any idea how I could fix it?

 

Hey man -- can you please (pretty please) post your settings for ThrottleStop and please show your voltage output in HWinfo?

Thanks!

 

Sorry, I can't. I don't have the laptop anymore. I didn't do anything fancy with Throttlestop. I just followed the first part of this guide.

 

OK thanks -- why did you get rid of it?

 

It was running too hot, which I may have eventually been able to control to an extent, but it was mainly too big/heavy for the way I used it. It is a beautiful laptop with a great display though and I kind of miss it.

 

Well I've got it so it stays under 100 C now and now stops throttling (with AC power) -- only problem left to solve is how to get it to stop shuttering in games while I'm on battery. Something is dropping the gpu / power down on battery just haven't found what it is yet....

 

I just got mine finally and was pleased to see a Samsung PM961 inside instead of the slower Toshiba SSD.

However, I noticed that the system seems to occasionally freeze up for a few seconds at time. This can happen several times a minute so it is really annoying. I tried doing all updates including the new Vega drivers but it still occurs. Has anyone had this problem?

 

I've read online about this problem for older spectres but I'm having personally having this issue -- only problem I'm having is some kind of throttling / performance dips while on battery in games vs on power despite having power management set to performance everywhere I can see to do it.

 

For those who ordered the Spectre with the 8705G did HP ship on the estimated date? I ordered mine about a week ago and I still have about 5 days to go before it ships but I'm seeing that HP often lists ship dates slip by weeks.

Edit: And on the note of all these overheating problems, does HP allow repasting under warranty? It seems likely they're just using some garbage TIM seeing as how some people have big problems with heat while others aren't.

 

Mine was shipped 3 days later than the specified ship date due to "extremely high demand". It was shipped directly from China but only took less than a week to get here.

 

Hmm that's not good. Did you elect for the express 2-4 day shipping or regular shipping?

 

Regular(free) shipping. Express probably not worth it considering they're taking so long to ship in the first place.

 

Can you tell me how the pen is? I actually bought it to use as an art tablet. It's pretty much the same price as a wacom cintiq of similar size but with much better specs. I expected it to be similar to a surface pro or surface book 2 but wasn't able to try the pen out in stores

 

I haven't tested the pen much, but it my initial impression is that it's adequate for the job but not spectacular. strokes are accurate and responsive without much parallax. It does have a hard plastic nib which is unfortunate because I much rather prefer a felt-like nib(like the surface pro 4+) to give more friction and control of your drawing stroke. I'm sure there are or will be third-party alternatives though. I have the non-tilt pen. The tilt pen may be different.

 

I must be lucky because it shipped sooner and arrived today. Literally a day ahead of the day it was supposed to even leave China. It's pretty nice as a machine but has anyone noticed their pen skipping? It happens somewhat rarely but it's annoying since I bought this for drawing. The screen is also a little dimmer than I would have liked

 

Might be the screen refresh thing. Try turn off Panel Self Refresh in the Intel graphics settings(both on and off battery).

 

Apparently updating Windows to the fall creator update should help. But more importantly the screen is really strangely dim. Can't be more than 200 nits at the most at max compared to my monitors. Measuring it on a spyder4 says 130 nits, but the spyder isn't the most accurate... How is yours, bright enough?

Edit: nevermind. Compared it against a zbook g3 and it seems to be similar. So I reckon it must be at least 250 nits

 

Sorry for the double post but need a bump. Do you know where in the settings this is? Because I don't see it under Intel's graphics settings or Windows power options.

 

In the Intel settings

 

The Panel is much dimmed when Battery Saver in Windows Energy Options is active, so I use only "Better Battery". Same for the settings in Intel Graphics settings, when active, the display is dimmed automaticly - go to right-click on desktop -> Intel graphics settings -> Energy -> On-Battery -> Display-Energy-Savings to "off".. Mine has estimated around 300 nits in comparison with my older asus n56vz notebook, which has 290 nits. Tested in new review with 315 nits --> https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Sp...eForce-MX150-Convertible-Review.310720.0.html)..

 

With the latest updates would the HP be recommended for general laptop use (videos, productivity, light gaming) for someone looking for a larger screened mobile PC? I prefer the convertible format for use in different situations. Buying in the UK. Thanks.

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