Lenovo Y50 Owners and Information Thread

Amazon DOES charge tax to certain states--I know they charge tax to NY because I'm in Buffalo and buy a lot of stuff thru Amazon. If a company has an internet business, say like Microsoft Store, and has an office or storefront in your state, they are required to charge tax. Sometimes you can get around this by going through small businesses or individuals like on ebay, but even ebay wants you to collect tax on sales inside the same state, though they allow you to check or uncheck the tax option in ebay or paypal.

 

Because MS Store gets these at a much less cost .. and of course $1567 is the Ebay price, not the direct price. Selling on Ebay, as much as we want it to be, is far from free!

 

Did they offer a 3-yr warranty not accidental? I don't plan on moving mine around much so accidental warranties don't do me much good. When I bought this ThinkPad, it came standard with a 3-Yr "depot" warranty; if something went wrong, DHL delivered a laptop return box the next day, you put the laptop inside and called DHL to pick it up, and you'd have your laptop back, fixed, 2 days later. Of course, this was in the "IBM" days, and I extended the warranty for a 4th & 5th year, at around $100-$110 per additional year--money well spent! (new IPS 1600x1200 screen, hard drive, keyboard, mainboard, etc.)

 

So how much are the Touch 256GB & 512GB versions "here" instead?

 

There is no 512GB version currently as far as I know. Price inquiries need to be sent to us directly - we aren't allowed to advertise prices on here per forum rules. But I can say that we cannot beat the current MS Store price regardless.

 

Ahh ok. Thanks for the correction. I'm in Michigan and they didn't charge me tax

 

If I remember correctly, they did not. It was only 3 year warranty + ADP. But it was a coupled purchase - the warranty + ADP was purchased through squaretrade (a third party). I believe that if you buy from the lenovo website then you can choose an extended 3 year warranty without ADP. Maybe squaretrade also offers a 3 year warranty without ADP, I'm not quite sure.

 

Looks like the cat's got their tongue. I personally sent an e-mail to this website-less vendor and never got a reply. Oh well, guess I can't afford his prices. I guess they didn't like all my questions, as I tried to buy one and got a message they are blocking my attempt to purchase one!

SIDE NOTE: Many here may have purchased from this place with success in the past, I haven't read every page in this thread yet. But I must say that I asked if they could beat the MS Store price yesterday. They gave basically the same answer as above--that they couldn't compete with a Microsoft Store which has such great buying power. They even said that THEY buy from MS Store sometimes! When I asked what's the best they could do, they said that "the best we can do on that model is the current sale price" even though they had a MAKE OFFER button in the ad.

So I asked, "Then why does it have a MAKE OFFER button if the best you can do is the current price you posted...?" and they replied, "1) In regards to best offer, once the option is on a listing it cannot be removed. We currently have a sale price on the item - when the item is at regular price, we will accept offers."

My daddy raised me right when he said, "If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, that alleged duck ain't gonna lay you golden eggs if you overpay for it!"

 

If online stores have a physical presence in your state, distribution center (in Amazon's case), etc they have to charge tax. I live in Arizona and even though Amazon has a distribution center they didn't start charging tax until recently. I don't buy as many big ticket items anymore on Amazon but my Y50 UHD was only $1,200 on special on Amazon so I snapped it up.

 

Thanks. I bought a Square Trade warranty for another ThinkPad, actually maybe this one; the power jack broke and I contacted Square Trade and they gave me an RMA to send it in, but I bought a $20 docking station and put the laptop into the dock instead--I didn't have a working backup computer and didn't know how long I'd be without the computer if I sent it in. I think that was about 4 years ago, so it's still in use, just as a desktop now.

 

1. 4k isn't ready for prime time yet... very few programs and websites scale properly. Until 4k is mainstream content on a 15.6" screen doesn't look right a lot of times. 4k content on the panel though is outstanding.

2. In my own case I don't see brightness as an issue with this panel.

3. I agree, the glossy surface takes some getting used to coming from a Dell XPS with a FHD matte panel.

4. Going back to my answer to 1. 4k isn't ready yet... It'll be at least a year before 4k becomes more mainstream. I'm on a 3 year upgrade schedule so it made sense for me to buy the UHD model.

5. I'm not a gamers but I use Photoshop extensively with 3D renderings and it doesn't skip a beat.

6. With Dolby Digital Plus turned on and running Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater...... never heard sound this good from a laptop. Very impressive... still trying to figure out how you work the "manual" EQ...lol

I run an external Dell UP2414Q 4K display and everything scales and looks much better. BUT with no DP only get 30Hz over HDMI. There are USB 3.0 to miniDP adapters but they can only manage 30Hz right now...
Since I'm not a gamer the 48Hz issue doesn't affect me. The only "gaming" I do is RTS games. I've played SimCity going all the way back to beginning of the franchise. Playing SimCity 5 in 3840 x 2160 is impressive and the only time the fan ever kicks on. Only time I ever run the cool pad also.

All in all I'm very happy with my purchase.

 

Any word as if to the 860M not being overclocked to 1100MHz has a work around?

 

Yes, that's how it happened here in NY. I don't recall if it was a warehouse, office, etc, but laws got tougher and Amazon got squeezed and gave in. It may have been 5-7 years ago. I do remember purchasing things on Amazon before they ever charged tax in NY.

I used to own a classic auto parts store for around 15 years and remember buying some parts from a place in Ohio and they charged tax, but it may have been a state law unless they didn't know or tried getting as much as possible out of you... there are some states that don't separate sales from outside state lines. And some states don't tax certain things. I know PA doesn't tax clothing. Don't know if Amazon would separate this if they had an office or distribution center there.

Some states have also passed Bills to tax internet sales to consumers in other states--they want a piece of the pie and look to increase tax revenues--reminds me of all the govts fighting tax free cigarettes from Indian reservations.

 

Yes, i agree with what u have said. I am happy with the laptop but as a gamer i want more than 48 fps.
Also, the brightness is low but definetely not an issue.

 

How long will this MS store exclusive on the 4k touch last? All models are now referenced in Europe but MS stores don't sell computers over here and there's no ref to this model anywhere.

 

I contacted lenovo support and spoke with Sajjad (Rep ID is 2900716281)
He claims the 48hrz issue has been fixed with an Nvidea driver awhile ago...?!
(I thought it was an Intel driver problem?)
He couldn't give me a driver number though... and had no technical detail.
Also had no clue as to the 'yellow' issue...

Just curious if the latest drivers from Lenovo changed/fixed anything?

I'm seriously considering this laptop, or the MSI GS60 Ghost.
the 48hrz wont really make a difference to me as I'm not much of a gamer,
but the rez would be awesome for some CAD work!

P.S. How bad is the yellowing?
Its hard to tell looking at a monitor through a monitor! LOL

 

You hold us to a rather high standard - you sent us an email at 8:43pm last night, and then commented here on the forum at 11:22pm that you never received a reply. Even the largest of businesses would have a bit of trouble responding to every inquiry in less than 3 hours, especially on a Sunday night. As far as the explanation for the Make Offer, it's exactly what you quoted - we were running a 5% off sale on many of our items over the weekend on Ebay, and that was the lowest price we could sell for on Ebay. Now that the listing is back to regular price, we will look at offers, but it won't be below the 5% off price. Ebay does not allow you to remove the Best Offer feature once it is on a listing - you cannot turn it off and on once the listing is up.

We can only rely on our reputation here among those who have purchased from us, as well as our reputation at our online stores via our feedback, to speak for us. We will not always be the lowest price on the internet at all times for every product, but for many we are able to.

 

overclock it yourself? there kinda isn't any "work around" to overclocking besides overclocking by yourself...

 

anyone tied this? downloading the driver or contacting the rep?? anyone solved the 48hz issue ? please some knight come an save everyone

 

you don't even need to, that rep was just bsing like usual.

1. it has nothing to do with nvidia
2. even if it was nvidia, there's no driver that would fix it

 

btw anyone tried putting skins on for A pad?

 

Has anyone tried this guide for their Y50 yet? I just got mine today.
I want to split my OS partition in to two parts, a 200gig partition for my OS and programs and a 689gig~ one for my media, games and files. I want to retain OKR if possible.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ide...hanging-partition-size-y580-maybe-others.html
I'm thinking method 1 as detailed in this thread after shrinking my C drive from 889 to 200 gigs and making a new partition with the 689 gig unallocated space

ALSO

Are people still having the problem with updating their nvidia drivers?
GeForce Experience said 332.5 was the latest driver when I tried to update it. However there was no fuss as I simply downloaded 340.52 from the nvidia site and installed it. As far as I can tell, it installed fine and there is no issue. Should I still do the "disable driver signgnature enforcement" thing that heibk 201 talked about?

 

Short summary of my Y50 experience.

The good:
*Price for GTX860M, i7 quad and OS is unbeatable here in Norway at least. Clevos cost more, MSI cost more and Asus cost a LOT more.
*Feels good, even though it's made of plastic.
*Great speaker system.
*Decent keyboard (a bit flex around enter key only).
*Good battery runtimes, seems to get up to 5hrs on wifi in power saving mode.

*Screen is below average, but not directly bad. (FullHD matte AUO Optronics- AUO36ED). Grainy due to matte layer (general AUO and LG problem), bit light leakage from bottom corners, not very bright and poor viewing angles. But blacks seems ok and contrast average at least.
*Poor cooling system caused Lenovo to lock CPU speed @ 2.5GHz. With unlocked CPU speed (throttlestop) CPU temp reaches 100C in 5 mins.
*Average trackpad, not very smooth surface - causes jumpy movement, and the button clicking sound is very high.
*Fans always runs, even when idle. Spins up noticeably from just minor work (like unzipping a 200Mb file).

Lenovo cut some corners with this model, not sure if I like that.

 

OK – I have had my y50 now for a bit. Here’s my 2 cents:
My specs – i7-4700HQ, 16gb RAM, 256gb SSD, GTX 860M 2gb, UHD display – purchased from amazon.

In short – This machine is awesome.
Pros:
1) Beautiful display. The UHD display is very bright, the colors pop and the lines are super crisp. All the text looks like ink on paper – everything is sharp. (I prefer glossy screens so this great).
I also chose this for the richer blacks when watching movies/videos.
The viewing angles are insanely good – I could almost watch movies from behind laptop.
No backlight bleedthrough whatsoever.
2) The SSD is blazing fast. This laptop restarts in like 7 seconds flat, and boots in like 5 seconds flat. Which for me is huge – I had to get a new laptop because getting to my desktop on my old computer when it was turned off took like 15 minutes. All the programs open essentially instantaneously and I love it.
3) The 860M handles everything. What more can I say here – the graphics card has played everything at the 48Hz limit seamlessly.
4) I really like the physical laptop. It feels solid – I notice zero flex of the keyboard when I’m using it unless I were to get up and stand on it.
5) The processor is fast – just look at the benchmarks online. No problems here. The 4700HQ is even benchmarking above the 4710HQ.
6) The trackpad. I have not had a single gripe about it. It tracks very well – it doesn’t jump for me, the texture feels nice and the multi-touch scrolling gesture is extremely smooth. Some people have not liked it but I honestly don’t know why.
7) The screen can be perfectly scaled back to 1080p due to the 4:1 pixel ratio between 1080p and 4k.
8) Wireless internet has been flawless for me.
9) Very thin and light machine – portable.
10) So far, it has been ice cold. Even during 4hr gaming periods. I am very impressed with this – my old gaming laptop was akin to the surface of the sun.
11) excellent speakers.
12) excellent price.
13) The hinge has good resistance – not loose.
14) many ports – all I need. And this particular one came with an external CD/DVD drive with read/write.
15) 16gb RAM. I feel like a god of RAM.

Cons:
1) the yellows are indeed off – they look brownish. But some people have posted calibration methods which seem to give people good results. I haven’t bothered with this because the yellows aren’t so appalling/distracting that I just haven’t cared to attempt calibration.
2) Battery life is not that great – but I always have my charger with me anyway. Also, I think it could be extended to maybe 3.5 – 4hrs if you make the settings right.
3) Some programs don’t scale well on 4k and appear small – this is obvious and you should know about it already. But I still think things look great even when small. If it’s a big issue for you, just set the display to 1080p.
4) I am concerned about the fan inlet vents. The air filter covering the inlet port for the fans on the bottom of the laptop is very fine – good for keeping particles out, but might be bad when the filter starts accumulating dust and airflow is reduced. Not sure if there is a way to remove/clean/replace the air filter.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier. I had originally ordered the highest end UHD from the Lenovo website, but when the order was pushed back an additional 20 days, I cancelled and went with this model from amazon and I’m glad I did. I saved $220 in the process.

 

Great review.


How much does the 48hz affect daily use? Like mouse pointer having ghosting issues or motion blur? How do movies look on the 48hz? I'm about to pull the trigger on he UHD Model but kind of skeptical on the 48hz.

 

As an owner of a Y50 Touch UHD, it doesn't have any affects on daily web browsing or general productivity use. I think the issue is more apparent when gaming (although I haven't gamed on it much, unfortunately).

 

Thanks for your response. I'm mainly going to be doing programming and movie watching with occasionally league of legends and csgo but mainly for dev work.

Have you noticed any difference between 60 and 48 hz while watching a movie?

 

I'm not 100% positive, but I have read a few times that movies (and things like youtube videos) don't even run at 48Hz, I think the usually have a framerate of like 24 or 30 (you may want to double check this, or maybe someone else here can confirm or deny this). So the 48Hz lock is not an issue if this is true - and if so, the UHD is definitely the way to go for movie watching. As for gaming, I am in the same boat as yourself, I play CS:GO, dota 2, and sometimes LoL. Everything looks seamless to me and the 860m runs them all beautifully. But some hardcore gamers who are used to 120fps, who claim they can tell the difference between 100fps and 60 fps would of course claim that they can notice the 48Hz lock. I see nothing of the sort - I can't tell the difference between 48 and 60 fps and I have found that the game smoothness is more strongly correlated to my settings and whether or not I have vsync enabled. I prefer to disable vsync - I think everything looks smoother that way. There are some useful videos on youtube which compare 30 vs 60 fps (they do this by running the gameplay videos at 2 or 3 or 4 times reduced speed) these may give you some indication of the difference. one example is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DFbNn3YpWM - but keep in mind this is comparing THIRTY fps with 60 fps. It's not even at 48 in this video.

As for normal use - like browsing/word/photos/reading/w.e. - the 48Hz lock is unnoticeable completely in my opinion. It may be different for someone else though of course - it depends on your experience and keenness for framerates.

 

Nice. Thanks for your detailed response. But I do have 1 more question. How is the scaling if you changed the resolution to 1920x1080? I've heard scaling in 1080p is horrid and ive heard that it looks identical to a 1080p native screen. If you can confirm the latter, i'm gonna order one today.

 

I wish I knew more about the details here so I could help. All I know is, when I change the resolution to 1080p, it looks fine except for the following: The desktop icons are huge (which I'm sure can be changed), Internet explorer becomes huge, and the icons in the bottom right of the screen become large as well. But in terms of image quality, in my opinion it just looks like a 1080p screen with incorrectly sized icons. I found this :
"a 4x4 "pixel cluster" that's the exact same size as a 1x1 pixel should not suffer any difference in image quality as it's "streched".

A single pixel does not suffer from degredation from stretching it's still 1 solid color. 4k is an evenly divisible from 1080p so you won't get an unnatural stretch like trying to do something a 1366x768 image on a 1080p display which means image quality should not suffer (versus a comparable 1080p display of the same size).

However, if were using odd scaling methods with interpolation, filters, or other methods outside of pixel doubling then there will be a reduction in quality. This is reliant on the monitor/computer setup of the specific person though"

This approach makes more sense to me. A 4k screen is just essentially taking a 1080p screen but fitting 4 pixels into each one pixel. Since it is a perfect ratio, there should be no change when transitioning in terms of image stretching and whatnot. Imagine just asking your screen to use every cluster of 4 pixels as if it were one single pixel (so that each 4 pixel cluster shows the same color).
This is just my opinion - I really don't have a lot of knowledge on this particular subject and I'm not confident enough to tell you that the scaling back to 1080p is identical to a 1080p native screen (although, logically, this SHOULD be the case). But it looks fine to me aside from the incorrectly sized icons. Sorry, wish I could give you a better answer but I don't wanna give you the wrong info

 

I watched the Desolation of Smaug; I had no issues.

 

After changing the resolution right click on your desktop > screen resolution > make text and other items larger or smaller > change it to smaller or something that looks usable

 

Has anyone tried to install OSX 10.9 yet on their Y50?

 

I'm sorry to push this question again, but I really need to know if shrinking my C drive to make a seperate partition solely for my media and games will break OKR.
I'm holding off on transferring my data onto my Y50 till I know, and if the OKR can be fixed after partitioning. I really don't want several hundred gigabytes of movies, shows and music sitting in Windows' Videos and Music folders.

 

Another problem, the hd4600 is not working at 1200mhz as normal. Tested it under high performance and balanced. Under high performance once in idle it goes to 1200 MHz, the moment I start bioshock benchmark it goes to 500 - 550mhz. This is absolutely crap.

 

of course, that should be expected already because you know turbo boost turns off after 65C, which applies to iGP as well. my question is, why would you ever bother with hd4600 when you have an 860M? I don't think there's ever a need to worry about the performance benchmark of iGP when you have dedicated GPU. it's like worrying about how fast a civic can go when you have nissan GT-R ready to go

 

Just taking a second to post some quick thoughts and questions, maybe even hear some opinions.

It came down for me to the Toshiba X75 vs Lenovo Y50-70 UHD TOUCH. I prefer 17" laptops but in the end I went with the lenovo due to specs and a serious concern about overheating with the x75. I am eligible for the education discount and took advantage through microsoft. Both laptops were optioned to me @ 1199.99 plus tax. His was by far the lowest price I had ever seen on either of them. I feel for that price both had amazing value but since it will be windows 8.1 I am glad I got the touch screen one.

Anyways, in terms of day to day performance this thing rocks. It's speedy, the screen is by far the best I've ever seen on a laptop, and it stays cool and quiet. I did experience the drop keystrokes issue but found that being more thorough with my typing eliminates the issue. If you type overly aggressive or passive it's easy to drop 1 letter per sentence. Now that I am used to it, I drop maybe 1 letter a page, easily spotted by spellcheck anyway.

I've played WOW, plants vs zombies, Starcraft, skyrim, and battlefield and all performed beyond expectations as far as I was concerned. I again can't speak enough to how great the screen is. I personally noticed no realistic difference at 60fps vs 48fps. I think 48 is great for now. I'm sure a medium will come out where the difference is more noticeable. Blu-ray and d also play flawlessly for me. Someone mentioned smaug and I thought it played amazingly.

But, alas I too have noticed the yellow problem. It was simple to see. I tried to not go out of my way to find it, but it did pop up pretty quick, I was checking for info on the "master cleanse"(a diet jump starter) and one of the key ingredients is lemons. So when you see the photos online of lemons they are no where close to real yellow. I check multiple other devices just to compare and it really is bad. All of the other colors are great and overall the clarity, viewing angles, and touch are great but I feel over time the yellow will get to me.

So that's how I feel, I'd like to hear opinions from those who purchased early and have had it for a couple weeks at least by now. Good bad and otherwise plz.

On a side note, if you are familiar with both, which would you have chosen between the toshiba x75 and the lenovo y50-70 uhd touch?

Do you think eventually that lenovo will "fix" or adjust the color profiles so that they become more accurate? Is it a software problem easily fixed or a hardware issue I'd have to send in for when a fixed is released? Same question with the 48fps issue?

And last but not least, am I crazy for considering returning this laptop for a few small caveats? I mean $1199 for a 4k touch windows 8.1 laptop with ssd!

Thanks in advance!

 

If the turbo boost goes from 3.5 to 2.5. The igp goes from 1.2 to 0.5. It's not about the boost. And if I have a less demanding 3d application why can't I use the igp at the full power and consume much less battery than the big maxwell core. Any way you look at it stinks. Take your two cars for example...if your civic can go technically 120mph and it only goes practically 50....what would you do ?

 

I don't comprehend what you are saying. 2.5 would be the base clock for your CPU and the base clock for iGP is like 200mhz. because turbo boost turns off prematurely your iGP simply doesn't clock that high under load.

what I don't understand is that if you are rendering 3D regardless, why not just use the dGPU? the only times iGP would be more efficient than dGPU would be 2D applications or at idle, for 3D it's not gonna be anywhere close if you compare efficiency.
and since you are running benchmarks, which is more usual daily calculations, you are better off just using your maxwell cores.

if you think about it, who's better at making graphics cards here, nvidia or intel? the answer is pretty obvious, if intel can have more efficient architectures than nvidia than why don't see intel bringing out higher products?

back to the car example. why do you need a civic at 50mph when there's a tesla? iGP isn't as efficient as you think it is.

 

I just pulled the trigger on a $1300 Y50 UHD with 256 SSD. Hopefully once I get it I don't regret my purchase, 1300 is the most I've ever dropped on a computer.

 

More interesting is the fact that under load both the iGP and processor don't pass 50 degrees. I was playing DmC for 20 minutes and everything was cool. The iGP remained between 400 and 550 MHz...mostly 400. Imagine how powerful is the iGP if at 400 MHz it was able to maintain 20-25 fps at 1080 in DmC at details high. I really don't understand this throttling under load of the iGP, especially when is mostly under 50 degrees C.
BTW: gpuZ shows a maximum consumption of the iGP at 5W. Never above 5w, that's 1W less than a snapdragon 600 on a smartphone or a tablet.

 

The 48Hz I think I can live with, although I'm still trying to find a workaround to Intel's driver. I called Intel about it and they said it's Lenovo's responsibility to unlock the driver. I called Lenovo and they said it was Intel. Another time I called, they disconnected the call because they had no clue what I was talking about. So it's pretty much a dead end there. I've tried installing Windows 7 to see if I can manually change things there but had no luck. Now I'm reinstalling an earlier version of Windows 8 to see if that helps. We'll see, but I'm not too hopeful. The goal is to find a version of custommodeapp.exe by Intel that isn't software locked. So far, any combination used doesn't work, so I'm trying older versions to rule that out.

As I use the UHD version more, I'm becoming more and more frustrated. There are a number of small things that bother me like minor missing keystrokes and the temperature cap. One thing that really stands out is the weird panel they are using. On another thread, it was determined that the screen carries RGBW pixels instead of the standard RGB with a white backlight. I think there is still a white backlight but there is a point in brightness where things MASSIVELY change and I think it turns the backlight off or just stops increasing the brightness. I didn't really notice it until I installed Windows 7(which is impossible to see on a UHD screen) and adjusted the brightness on the default Windows 7 wallpaper. W8.1 UHD owners can see this too - just google "Windows 7 default wallpaper" and save the file, open it in full screen and adjust your brightness. There is a point halfway where the colors and contrast ratio completely change. You can see it most in the design in the lower left quadrant. What this means is there is no way to have a consistent viewing experience in light or dark rooms. If you're the type to always keep your screen at full brightness, this won't affect you at all. But if you like to use a dim screen in a dark room or if you want to save battery, you will notice a huge difference in image quality when going under 50% brightness. I think I got my screen to a point where I like the yellows but when decreasing the brightness below that threshold, the yellows turn into a brownish color. I don't know enough about the screen to explain what is going on but either way, I don't care for it at all.

Another thing that I find weird about the UHD panel is it's ability to handle the brightness when turned all the way up. Merely changing Windows, you'll see a slight change in overall brightness(it kind of goes dim for a split second and returns to full brightness). I tested this repeatedly when I found something that caused it and it's as if the pixels are all refreshing and turning back on when I switch between windows. I tried disabling some performance settings and that improved the symptoms some but it still happens. I think I could deal with it in the day to day use, but it's really irritating to see it happen in games. I was playing Mass Effect yesterday and the screen flickered in brightness at least a dozen times. I don't even know what caused it either - it appeared to be random. I wonder if it's the CPU power draw causing it somehow, but there's no foolproof way to test that in a game.

 

I heard that CPU Turbo Boost feature is disabled after the temperatures reach above 65 C.
Is it possible maybe using throttle stop to set this temperature higher (80 C) thus getting little more out of the CPU.

I see no point in the Turbo Boos feature if it is turned off at such low temp. Usually when you need more power temperatures tend to go higher and higher temperatures throttle the CPU. This is some weird loop I don't understand especially at 65 C. It is ok to throttle the TB on something like 80 C and CPU on 95 C.

 

Unfortunately this is how it is. Turbo boobs:laugh: are non existent on y50. You can say you have a boost while working light or just idling ....but that defies the purpose of boost. You also loose any performance from the iGP no matter how hot or cold your CPU is. It will not go over 550mhz under load.

 

Well congrats! I think you made the right choice. And don't stress too much about it - if you don't like it you can always return it. Before I had this laptop, I purchased a new surface pro 3 - used it for a few days and realized I was paying a premium for the portability aspect which I don't really need. So I returned it for a refund and got this powerhouse instead.

 

DMC is never a demanding game in the first place. you can run it with a desktop gtx 460, which is way worse than an 860M, at 100 fps on max details. so if your iGP is running 25fps on 1080p that seems normal, though it should go higher if needed, which means graphics is not the limiting factor but something else such as CPU
and yes to 5W because your iGP is at 400mhz, run a stress test on 4600 and you can see how the TDP jacks up to over 25W
your iGP shares TDP with your CPU, so if your CPU is under some heavy load that would break the TDP limit, your iGP will throttle to leave up more room for power

for iGP there still needs some more digging, but my point still stands, why not just use the 860M when iGP is less efficient at 3D rendering? that 5W you measure is only because you are running at 400mhz

 

I never said DmC is a demanding game, heck it uses DX9, but the fact that you can use a underpowered iGP at 1080 resolution and still be playable is quite interesting.
i did a stress test with furmark on the 4600...guess what...400-450Mhz and a power consumption of 5W and not a mW more. I got your point from the beginning, but you have to get mine also....if you want to use a light 3d aplication and leave the Maxwell to sleep...you can get more hours on battery than using the maxwell even a little bit(The dedicated GPU card uses at least 5W just to power up all the subsystems and electronics needed to run). An iGP is always going to use less power than a dedicated chip in light workloads.

 

Did you get the BIoS dump I sent you?

My monitor doesn't do a pixel refresh when switching windows, and honestly, it's only a very specific shade of yellow that seems to be effected. 99% of yellows show just fine I've noticed, its really just the Google shade of yellow that is acting weird. If you go to newegg, that yellow looks normal to me, but my chrome and drive icons look muddy. I've already gotten used to it. I also don't miss keystrokes, but I am used to mechanical keyboards and I lift weights twice a day so I type very hard. I did miss an H once though lol.

I've been looking into hacking the BIOS and was able to open it up with an EFI version of MMedit, but once inside I really didn't have time to look through all the hex and find where the hidden menus are. I saw some python scrypt that is specifically made to unlock insyde BIOS pages and it may be worth checking out if you have the time, I didn't feel like doing it the other day and am too busy now lol. Here's the link: Jakob Heinemann: j-bios

 

sorry to repeat question but i'm still having the same stuttering issues with my games. i'm wondering if it has to do with my wifi card (7260). league of legends shows ping spikes from time to time and i can't check for cs go because the stutter is too severe to even press tab to check my ping. does anyone have any idea on how to fix this issue?

**seems to be fps problem as it drops from ~130 to ~70 when it stutters

 

again, not true, for lighter 3D work loads, nvidia battery boosts kicks in and keeps the power use down. like I said, for 3D rendering iGP isn't as efficient as dGPU, you can run a test yourself and see