TONGFANG GK5CN5Z / GK5CN6Z / GK5CQ7Z / GK5CP0Z

Not yet but I ran looped Cinebench multi-cores. Only goes down by a bit and sustains 1050CB (running at about 3.3Ghz), unlike the GS65 (and to a lesser extent, the Aero).

No full Turbo Boost but no throttling to under base clocks either (which looking at the 700CB scores it gets, might be happening to the GS65).

Sure it's not a torture test per se but I'll say it's pretty representative.

If you want me to bench AIDA anyway, I'll do it later today. Any specific parts of the data you're interested in, besides throttling?

 

Nice Review!
Pretty interested in this laptop, Shame about the lack of TB3.

Also since the keyboard is mechanical, does it look like it would be easy enough to take the keys off and add dampeners underneath or o-rings to reduce the click noise from the keyboard.
I would need it in quiet areas and the noise from your sound test did make it seem like it would get annoying.

 

Unfortunately the mech parts below is more of a scissors type then your typical pole so while the mod CAN be done with adjustments, it's probably not gonna be as easy as putting o-rings on a pole TBH.

Dampening with stickers might work however.

That said, it's fine for me as it is now as I already have a quieter Bluetooth KB for research and the like, and though if it ever gets to the point of being an issue, I'll probably look into quietening it up further.

But yeah, thanks for your suggestions!

 

another name and manufacture from china is mechrevo z model
unboxing and disaseemnbly & comprehensive reviews are in following linkuse translator) :

https://post.smzdm.com/p/683749/

http://zhongce.sina.com.cn/article/view/8457

http://www.sohu.com/a/227607842_404443

http://www.ccidnet.com/2018/0409/10374733.shtml

for those who are interested in buying this model,these review are very valuable . make sure to check them all and get pros and cons from translated reviews

 

I have just received my PCSpecialist Recoil II (this same Tongfang model) and my first observations are (please excuse the lack of formatting):
- I like how the keyboard feels, per key lighting is also very neat. On the minus side, typing on it is quite loud and the shape of the keys makes me hit extra / wrong keys too often. Will need to get used to it methinks.
- Precision touchpad is also a mixed bag -, on the plus side its nice and accurate with no percieved lag; on the downside we cant configure 2 finger scroll speed or palm rejection, so it becomes a bit of a pain whilst typing.
- Default screen is quite nice, might swap for a 144Hz model if current EDP cable allows it.
- CPU undervolts really well, runs super stable with -125mv on both cache and core, can push it to -140mv, but it started showing errors on Throttlestop bench. Temps remain around 68c whilst benching with normal fan profile, 63c if I max out the fans (have already repasted, but I think stock paste was pretty decent as well). It will run at nearly solid 3.8Ghz with all 6 cores maxed, generating just under 45w TDP. The bad bit is if GPU is active CPU is throttled to stay at 2.9Ghz max, despite plenty of thermal headroom remaining, this means that CPU scores just around the same mark as my OCd 6820HK at 4.1Ghz.
- 1060 GPU runs nice and cool as well, have scored 4048 points on Timespy with a +200Mhz Core / +600Mhz Mem OC. Temps sit around 63c.
- Speakers are ok, slightly better than my previous Clevos.
- Battery has some potential despite small size, can get it to display 9hours remaining when doing very basic word processing - this is with undervolt and wifi disconnected. If plane mode is enabled it seems to massively increase power consumption which doesnt drop until rebooted, so dont enable plane mode, just disconnect from wifi AP. I am using throttlestop to undervolt + limit max CPU to 2.2Ghz + screen brightness down to 20%. Another note on this is that gaming mode keeps GPU in P0 mode so bad for battery, also ticking "Discrete GPU" option keeps GPU in P5 state which is also bad for the battery. Without those options dGPU stays in P8 state, but I am not sure its completely turned off as I can see it continuously running at 139Mhz. If these bits can be addressed I am sure that battery life should go up considerably. This is with the 44wh battery, cant wait for the 63wh to be released - with a few tweaks that should give us another few solid hours on top of this.

Overall its a very solid laptop, its only slightly larger than my Aero 14, whilst being much more powerful; definitely the best bang for your buck right now imho.

 

Those temps are undervolting or default?

 

I mentioned this in a separate thread, but wanted to clarify again - the ODM cancelled the 62Wh battery at the last minute - so we can't offer this at the moment.

Yup, that would be my argument - if you're plugged into a monitor then you'd have a PSU. It's something that's generally done for a couple of reasons on most laptops now - primarily so that they can be classed as VR Ready. If you have the video output going through the iGPU then you can't support VR - only if there's a direct connection from dGPU to HDMI/DP can you run VR.

On the material - you've been looking at the brushed aluminium version rather than the sandblasted aluminium version. AFAIK both have aluminium A (lid), B (screen surround) and C (keyboard surround) cover. The D cover is the underside.

 

Temps are with CPU undervolted by -125mv. One thing I noticed is that undervolt seems to fail to apply sometimes - throttlestop will show it as applied, but when I bench I can see VID values being higher. If i click apply again VID drops and so does TDP.

 

Ah thats a shame. Does this means there are no plans to release it anymore, or is the release just delayed for the time being?

 

Are the temps too high with the default voltges?

 

I dont think so, I just undervolt as it makes the CPU run faster by fitting in more MHZ into 45w TDP. Also as heatpipes are shared with the GPU, cooler CPU = cooler GPU = faster GPU due to higher thermal headroom.
Just to add, cooling on this laptop is very good. It performed better than Clevo P650x laptops for me, probably due to better design of the bottom panel which does not restrict airflow intake unlike on Clevos.

 

It means that the option isn't available now and that there's no news on when it will be available. For the moment, it's probably best to forget that the option was a possibility - at least until there is some affirmative news that it will be available, maybe in the next gen or itteration I expect.

 

@XMG any news regarding an alternative, more silent keyboard as factory option?

 

Basically nope. Our version has different and more confortable key caps, but it's the same mechanics underneath. The chassis is a "mechanical keyboard chassis" so that's where it was born and a USP of the chassis. It's something I would personally be interested in too, but I don't expect to see another keyboard option at any point in this gen.

 

Hello guys,

Anybody knows where can you get up-to-date drivers for this laptop? Mainly looking for the laptop specific stuff like Tongfang Gaming Center, touchpad drivers, etc. Anything that Window's can't find on it's own basically.

Thanks!

 

Thanks I appreciate your review!!

I’m thinking chosing between this and the dell xps 9750.
There are the first review saying the dell has some throttling issues.

I wonderw how the Tongfang manages clocks/temps/throttling

Would you share some info in the clocks/temps/possible throttling ratio in a period of time under load? (Like Aida64 can throw with its system stability test)

 

I have the Tongfang GK5CN6Z, not sure what the difference is, looks exactly the same and the specs are the same as well afaik. I've made a stress test for CPU and GPU alike, hope it helps.

 

Clocks and temps would be great

I’ve read the first xps 9570 (with i7 8750h) posting cinebench multicore BM of 1200 (with throttling issues). Hitting 1050 only could be hidding some clock issues?

 

Pcspecialist said they have drivers for ndownloading in their website but not sure if is onky for their users/customers

Their tongfang rename is recoil II

Good temps but isn’t power limit throttling preventing cpu for higher clock speeds?
Cinebench for 8750h should be around 1200. Have you tried a CB multicore and single core test?

 

Yeah I got it from PC Specialists but I'm not sure their drivers are up to date, at least, the Nvidia driver they have on there is ancient. Power limit throttling went on and off during the test, highest clock speed I saw was around 3.9ghz. I'll do a CB test.

 

Realbench 2.54 would be apreciated too
Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

EDIT: Took the wrong screenshot lmao multi core score was 1036, just behind the 3930k slightly

EDIT 2: You can get another 100 points on multi core if you let it rip without any power limit throttling. I don't have the balls to keep it running like that though lol

 

It's realbench 2.56 even though I downloaded 2.54, no clue how but here it is. Gotta mention though, the OpenCL test put my CPU temp up to 80 celsius. Nothing put it up to 80 so far lol

 

Sorry I meant 2.65 lol
Aprecitae your contribution!

 

This is a pic from a new Dell XPS 9570 user. Weird to see the difference in Image Editing and Encoding with the same CPU even when they are complaining about serious Throttling issues

 

Does it support Intel® HAXM? I think there needs to be a switch in the BIOS? My current PCSpecialist laptop (Clevo) doesn't even though the CPU does, it's useful for Android development.

 

No mate, the bios is unfortunately disappointingly standard. You can only set some very basic, like AHCI/RAID, boot priorities, secureboot and some other basic stuff.

 

Edit : Didn't see that the link for the review was already published.

I have one question for owners : what about the sturdiness of this machine, how it can be compared with other clevo's laptop ?
And for xmg, I cant see any differences between the sandblasted finish and the odm one . Your pictures are too dark.. Can you show us some picture of the keyboard and the chassis with more light ? Plz ( I really want to buy the neo 15 but as a frenchman, the likelihood that I will test this device before buying it is zero)

 

With CPU undervolt + GPU OC:

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/15550699

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/3792652


let me know if you want me to run any others.
l

 

Is it to much to ask for a capture from the Aida64 stress test would be fine. One showing clocks graph, one of the temps graph and one of the load/throttling?


Trial version is free

 

No worries, result attached. If I run with GPU test disabled CPU temps come in a fair bit lower.
Edit: also, this was run with fans on max.

 

Hit the graph icon in the menu.
This would be better so you can see how the cpu performs in time:





And the same for clocks instead of temps.

Results may be different when stressing CPU only and CPU+GPU. Both test are ideal to see.

 

For the guy asking why it didn't hit 1200CB, that 1050CB was from a looped test BTW.

Normal single pass score is more like 1180CB or something like that.

Also, sorry for the lack of updates and tests folks. A bit busy at the moment with my brand new GPD Win 2 so the GK5CN hasn't seen much love for a bit heh. Sorry folks.

RE: Battery, even our local guys can only offer the big batt with the 1050/ti config, not the 1060. There are some stuff going in the background, no doubt, but for now it seems the 60wh batt is off the table for the 1060 version of the GK5CN, unfortunately, for reasons unknown.

Maybe they're waiting for the 1160 cards so they can launch a facelift with a bigger battery. Who knows.

@XMG thanks for the correction RE: the covers. I wasn't sure which was A, B, C and D covers myself lol.

 

That's a wicked score! May I ask what software you used for tuning? Also, do you mind giving some details about the values you used? I have no real problems with the games I'm running, performance-wise, but it's nice to know that there is a step up if I ever do. Have you only done it for the sake of the test or are you using your laptop like this? If you are, is it stable?

Also, have you guys noticed anything with the latest Nvidia drivers for the 1060? Mine seems broken, I have to install an older driver to use my dedicated GPU.

 

I am using throttlestop for undervolting (running -130mv on both core and cache), nvidia inspector for GPU OC (+200Mhz on GPU, +650Mhz on memory). Other than that I have repasted both GPU and CPU with Gelid GC Xtreme.
CPU runs like this all the time, GPU only whilst gaming - it has been completely stable so far.

 

I've re-ran the test this morning with CPU + GPU:

 

Thanks for sharing! You got really good temps, I ordered my laptop with arctic mx2 thermal compound but the realbench managed to push my temps to 80.

 

no worries. I generally find stock paste (even "upgraded" by the reseller ones) to underperform and will always repaste both CPU and GPU with Gelid GC Xtreme as its the one that seems to work the best without being electrically conductive. That generally gives me -10c reduction, though I did not bench anything before repasting so I cant say how much better it was with this laptop. Also, I use the button that makes fans go at full speed whilst gaming / benching. Combine above with an undervolt and it should significantly increase your thermal headroom and allow both CPU and GPU to run faster.

 

I've just ordered this machine how are you finding it?

 

I can't really say. I'm having write speed issues with the Seagate Firecuda I ordered it with, which I escalated to PC Specialists. CPU performance seems great, I couldn't really test the GTX 1060 yet as the latest nvidia driver is giving me a black screen with Destiny 2, but the driver PC Specialists provided, which is rather old, works fine, though I don't think it gives you the best performance possible. Other than that, one cons for me are:

1. This thing is a fingerprint magnet, the laptop looks absolutely disgusting once you start touching it.
2. BIOS is really standard, not much you can set up there, which is disappointing considering this is supposed to be a gaming laptop.
3. Battery life isn't great but that's to be expected with such small battery

I just found something, not sure what to make of it but it seems like my Speed Shift is disabled for some reason:


Anyone else experienced this?

Since I've been having issues since I received the laptop last week, I can't really tell you how great it is for gaming as I've been only testing it and trying to solve my problems.

 

That's strange about the drivers? Mine's coming tomorrow if there is any issues it will be returned immediately. Have you installed nvidia geforce experience? I found that software to cause issues with my gpu on my pcspecialist machine. Maybe rollback one driver or so and test that?

Slightly worried now as pcspecialist weren't great with my octane when the heatsink was warped. What do you mean by basic bios? Not many options? Pcspecialist never seem to offer bios/ec updates which is weird as they usually include needed additions/ fixes

 

See that's the thing, only Nvidia Experience is able to install drivers other than the stock one PC Specialists give you. When I try to install any previous drivers manually (downloading the package from nvidia website), the installation gives me an error message saying that I have no compatible hardware. I googled both the black screen and the incompatibility issues online and people seem to be having both, regardless of the machine.

About BIOS, you can only set really basic stuff like boot priority, AHCI/RAID options, secure boot, HDD password and that's about it. I'm not sure what to make of the lack of BIOS updates, it could be either a poor customer service where PC Specialists don't upload the bios updates provided by the motherboard manufacturers, like Clevo and Tongfang, or the mentioned companies just don't bother rolling out bios updates, so PC Specs have nothing to forward to us.

 

Ah that's not good. Yeah their driver packages for my P775DM3-G weren't great and very out of date.

Can't figure out why the Nvidia installer isn't detecting your gfx card. Mines here tomorrow. I'll be requesting bios updates from PCS though. I've heard on this forum that the bios from mechrevo and other sellers are compatible with all the machines. Not had anyone confirm this yet though.

 

Hardware on this machine is pretty good (great thermals and good performance, feels very sturdy), however bios / software side needs a few tweaks / optimizations:
- Pressing the FN hotkey for Airplane mode causes huge increase in power consumption until you reboot the laptop - so pretty bad for battery life.
- It doesnt look like nvidia optimus is fully working as my 1060 appears to be powered on. If "Dedicated GPU" option is selected (requires reboot for the option to take place) GPU will sit in P0 power state and will eat up battery very quickly. If disabled it sits in P8 power state, where it drains battery much slower. I have managed to squeeze out over 5 hours out of the battery during some basic browsing.
- Battery charging stops at 93%, no bios option to remove this.
- CPU turbo appears to be limited to 3Ghz when GPU is also active, even if temps are low on both.
- Some sort of palm detection option for the touchpad would be great as at the moment I have to disable it via FN key before typing.

 

I've undervolted by 125 mV and set the

That would be great if it was true, keep us updated Tony. I've just tried undervolting to see if I get any heat reduction, but didn't really. System is stable though and my CPU performance has a drastic increase in performance.

 

Hi Phoenix,
did you undervolt both CPU and Cache? Not sure if its the same as previous 6th gen intel, but on those CPUs it wouldn't take the value if both cache and core undervolt values were different.

 

Yes I did undervolt both. I just tested the 3ghz while GPU is active problem and it really bottlenecks the CPU. This is well annoying.

 

yep, without GPU being active I've seen it sit near constantly at 3.8Ghz for throttlestop bench run (seems to take like 5 seconds to build up speed to 3.8ghz, previous gen would get straight into max turbo when demand was there).

 

You're gonna need the latest BIOS/EC to unlock that limitation TBH, so yeah, press your System Integrators to pick up the pace in releasing the latest BIOS/EC update.

Not that my local guys have been any better in that respect TBH lol.

 

See even those few things will put me off immediately. Limiting the cpu when the gpu is active?

How are you undervolting? A bios option would be nice but I'm guessing that's not available.

I've no problem with battery life it will be mainly transported between work and home and live on a cooling pad.

The battery not charging to 100% is just plain annoying.

Did you get yours from PCS ?

Notice people from other sellers not having these issues