TONGFANG GK5CN5Z / GK5CN6Z / GK5CQ7Z / GK5CP0Z

edit

 

New gaming center from the BTO version of this model, dated 2018-08-30.
GamingCenter_1.2.1.6.zip

BTW OEM Bios seems to be v1.15 now, but nowhere to be found.

 

I would very careful buying from there, each model have subtle changes and this is a very small case. A 0.5mm different in the dimension could mean fit or noncompatible. Does anyone want to try their luck?

 

I don't think the dimension will be a problem.
I was going to buy the battery from here, but they ship from hongkong and i would have to pay 25€ more for tax fees. I prefer to wait few weeks for an european shop

 

Thanks ! So incredible that tongfang did not test this machines for linux before in 2018 ....

 

Great, would you post a impression with some photos once you got it installed? I may get one as well.

 

So does this battery still take up the 2.5 drive slot?

 

Sorry for the late response, I'm all over the place these days. Yours is even "exceptional" when it comes to random read and write, look at mine:

I think we can't expect much higher than what you are getting. Mine had much better results when I freshly installed it. Because of the nature of the drive I think benchmark apps have a hard time giving you a proper idea as you can see the tests are pretty inconsistent when it comes to the exact same drive. Even our storage load is pretty similar. (mine is 1% fragmented atm, so that won't be the issue either)

Also guys, have you experienced a BSOD with structure_data_corruption or something along the lines after using demanding programs like games?

 

Thanks .I went ahead and ordered it . I'll let you guys know in 8-16 days if it works

 

Great, thanks for being the first man to try it. Do tell how it goes, I may order one as well. $80(£60) is about the same price for one extra battery from PCSpecialist.

 

@david04
Thanks for making the leap of faith, hopefully just removing the 2.5 drive housing should allow for installation. If not....well, at least you saved us all $80!

 

Same here. I bought battery, but I need to wait quite a months. I also upgraded the laptop with a Samsung 970 Pro 1tb NMVE and removed the sshd. That ssd is a damn beast, it is 20 times faster than an sshd

 

I'm currently deciding on two laptops, this (Recoil 2 from PC Specialist) and the Clevo N850EK1 (Optimus IX from PC Specialist).
I can get both of them configured the exact same way, 144Hz panel (I think they both used the same screen), i7 8750H, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060. The main differences are the bezel less display, mechanical keyboard and that the Clevo would be around £70 cheaper in total. I do like the removable battery in the Clevo and that the keyboard is more spaced out.

One main deciding factor would be the fan noise, I prefer to play my games with speakers as I don't play games that require any accuracy when detecting sounds. I do have a pair of my own speakers that I would use so the quality of the laptop's speakers is not an issue.

I have found this video which does show game volume against fan noise on the TongFang but I don't think it's respective of normal use as they said the game volume was low.

I am slightly leaning towards the TongFang due to the extra portability but I'm not sure about how quiet I can make the fans before temperatures get too high.

Edit: The MSI GP63 is available for the same price as the Clevo and seems like a good option as well.

 

Hi, the video was taken by me. I Always play games with the inbuilt audio and i can guarantee you that the fans noise doesn't influence your gaming experience. At medium volume you can barely hear the fans spinning.

Fans noise is not a problem on this laptop.
I Always advise to use "low power cpu mode" and use "Office mode" in Fans settings if you just browse, study or watch movies. Fans with these two modes are 90% of times turned off.
Just for saying, i have a laptop with i7 8550U and the tongfang with these two settings is faster and much more quieter than the i7 8550U laptop

 

The fans on this so far are a good deal quieter than my old Clevo 7770zm-g nowhere near that much wind up as it had where it would be a wind tunnel and need headphones.

Also while I was looking over some of the Eluktronics MECH-15-G2 versions on Amazon I came across some other Ultra Light laptops from Asus and MSI The Asus Rog Zephyrus S Ultra and the MSI P65 Creator Edition.

Sharing many of the same hardware aspects of the GK5CN6Z except going for 1070 Max Q models over 1060s

So to ask has anyone done comparison on these models or similar versions compared to the GK5CN6Z based models?

I mean from the price point I can get the Eluktronics MECH-15-G2 with better and more memory and storage space for a bit less. How does similar models stack up performance wise outside of the GPU?

 

Thanks for the insight on the fan noise of the TongFang, I think I'll go for it and will report back with my first impressions when it arrives.

Now the wait, thankfully PC Specialist seem to be less busy and it should only take 3-5 days.

Thanks again

 

I have my laptop connected to a Dell U2312HM monitor and when I use second screen only the "Intel Graphics Settings" icon is missing from the system tray. At this point there is no quick way using only the mouse to change which dispplay is in use. I often have two displays connected to my laptop and will again once I get a mini DP to DP cable and often switch between haviong different combinations of displays.

On my previous laptop I could always right click on the desktop or click the settings in the system tray to do this.

 

Touchpad on Linux fixed now ? Maybe this instruction also needs the latest kernel.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/linux-mint-19-tara.820645/page-4#post-10798483

 

Yea link about it a few pages back.

 

I'm not really sure if this is what you're looking for but If you are on W10 in the "expended" notification panel you have the "project" icon for switching screens. It does the same as WIN+P or FN+F3 on our laptop.

 

Hello can anyone tell me where can I find the lastest drivers and the lastest BIOS for GK5CN6Z please? I tryed the http://official.tongfangpc.com/servicelink/driver_download.aspx but I couldnt find the drivers.

 

This what I see when I am using the laptop display but as soon as I switch to "second screen only" the icon disappears.

The expanded notification works because it means I can change screens with the mouse though I'm not sure what will happen when I connect a 2nd monitor as at that point I'm usually extending so the laptop which sits on the left is screen 1 and in the Intel settings you can select exactly the order of the screens.

 

Yes got a working TP with Suse Tumbleweed and a 4.19 Kernel. While patching the Kernel with the bugzilla patches patch 2 and 3 got rejected by the 4.19 src, so I patched only 1 and 4 and after compiling and rebooting I got a working TP. 2 Finger scrolling works, Primary button is 1 Finger Tap, secondary 2 Finger Tap and 3 Finger tap is middle mouse button. (just in case you don´t read the prefs properly (what I didn´t at first) and start messing with some conf files)

How is your Linux Performance ? My singe core results does not match my multi core results, somehow.
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/10034753

 

I read few people have some doubts about how fans work on the TongFang GK5CN6Z and how much are they noisy.
So in this video i'll show how often they turn on during a normal use with and without Low Power CPU Mode and if the noise is tollerable during gaming sessions

Here are the latest driver: http://www.mechrevo.com/plus/search.php?keyword=MR 深海幽灵Z2(1060)&kwtype=0&searchtype=title&typeid=25&exact=1
XMG Bios: https://www.mysn.de/driver/1_XMG/XMG_NEO_15_XNE15M18/BIOS/
PCS Bios: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pBqu1Le3tE5H-__yToV9izoDlQIhBgJw/view?usp=sharing
​

 

The reason of the disappearing intel icon is that all the display ports (hdmi and mini DPs) are hardware connected directly to the nvidia graphic card (maybe for gsync functionality?) so when you connect an external monitor the computer will automatically switch to the nvidia graphic card and use it for every task, also for showing the desktop. You can check it enablyng the nvidia activity monitor in the app bar. To switch to the internal screen you can go in settings->screen or click right button on desktop than screen settings.

 

Thanks for the expanation. I see in Windows settings I can changed the order of the screens although not in nVidia settings.





I'm going to order 2 mini DP to DP cables tomorrow so then I will see what happens with two monitors. These cables are not so easy to find in Chiang Mai or even online in Thailand.

 

Thanks, one more thing wich is the best way to update the BIOS?

 

Anyone know which of those Bios is used by Eluktronics?

 

Hi everyone,

Here are a few more feedbacks on my use of the GK5CN6Z since the last weeks :

--------
First since today I encounter a weird behavior with Gaming Center and PL 2. I thought it was because of the specific 1.2.1.6 version from BTO, so I switched back to the 1.1.6.1 from Mechrevo and the problem is still here. Basically, since the last BSOD I had, the Gaming Center is limiting the PL2 to 35W (whatever version I use), and that limitation goes back to 45/65W if I exit the gaming center (and loose its features, which I dont want). This was not the case before, and I cannot figure out why this happens now. So now I'm stuck with this 35W PL2 bottleneck... Does anyone has a clue ?
I know tweaking your laptop while it works great is not a good idea but eeh... who dont here ?

EDIT : I finally got my PL1 and PL2 back to normal (45 and 65) by installing the Gaming center given by PCS (1.1.15.3)... which is an old version with lower performances. Still acceptable and better than stuck to 35W, but not optimal, actually worst than what I got before with newer versions of gaming center. After this little success I tried to switch to one of these newer versions of Gaming center, but power limits get back to 35W... until I reinstall the 1.1.15.3 version.... So I'm still looking for a clue about what's going on here
Any idea about how to go back to normal (normal power limits with "up to date" gaming center) ?

EDIT 2 : After a few days PL1 and 2 decided to go back to 35W... I tried to reinstall several versions of the Gaming Center, and the 1.1.15.3 seems to be the only one to unlock PL1/2 to 45/65W, at least temporarily... But it's also the worst version in term of consumption and performance (compared to newer versions when they didnt stuck me at 35W, when everything was fine ).
I tried to reset optimized defaults in BIOS but it had no impact. This behavior is still full of mistery to me...
Do you think updating BIOS and EC with XMG versions might change something ?

EDIT 3: I keep troubleshooting this issue in pages 99 and 100. I get better results with XMG BIOS but the problem is still not fully solved.

EDIT 4: Problem solved, 35W limitation was caused by Office fan mode in Gaming Center and/or by a bad BIOS-EC-GC combination. Now everything works fine.
--------

Before this temporary issue (please help :'( ), here is what I got :

I'm with stock PCS 1.04 BIOS, 1.25.09 EC firware, the Control Center 1.1.16.1 from Mechrevo (tried the 1.2.1.6 from BTO but seems to limit PL 2 at 35W...), and only ThrottleStop (no XTU) with 170mV core and cache undervolt (I tried more and it seemed stable while benchmarking but I finally got BSOD while gaming or using the computer as a DAW... 170mV seemed very solid for me... until today....). For information I repasted with some Noctua NT-H1 and I get around 35-45°C when idle or doing very basic tasks and with fans off (office mode)

With these settings I always hit 1200+ on Cinebench R15.038, BUT :
- I have a lot of "EDP OTHER" throttle but from I read it seems normal. Is it normal for you ?
- I still have some PL2 throttling (around 65W) at the beginning of benchmarks or CPU intensive tasks, for a few seconds (Turbo boost, right ?)
- then I thermal throttle A LOT while benchmarking and a little bit while heavy gaming, hitting up to 96°C. Fan boost doesnt help that much (maybe 1 or 2 degrees in average temps but still a lot of spikes)


That being said,
-The Gaming Center is still full of bugs (it resets my settings each time I change performance mode, so I stay in Equilibrium and never change it. And I got this bug with previous versions too). Speaking about these performance modes, are they only related to specific power profiles you can find into Windows power settings (but with a different name, for example Equilibrium = MyBalanced) ? Or do they have some other background impact on the system regardless of how you tweaked the power profile into Windows power settings ?
- I like more and more the keyboard even I'm very annoyed by "false positives" (key is activated without entirely pressing it nor hearing the click) which happens a lot. Is it also your case ?


About Linux :
I installed linux (Pop!_OS 18.04) on my second SSD. I still have some troubles to catch Windows 10 in the GRUB, but the touchpad does work, thanks to the work made on this page (same link as previously seen here). It may not be very clear for everyone so here are the *simple* instructions : just download all the .deb located here, install, reboot and you should be done. I guess this solution works only for Ubuntu and Ubuntu based forks !
For me the next step to get a proper linux on this machine is to make available keyboard brightness control because it's stuck to "on" at full power (but with the color set into Gaming center into Windows !)
Also, I run much more hot on Linux than Windows : between 45 and 55°C when idle and with integrated graphics. Quite sad when you choose Linux to have a lighter system I didnt tried yet to undervolt under Linux though.

 

I'm particularly interested in using linux on this laptop. I don't want to use Windows, so Linux experience is not good? Apart from temperatures, there are also other problems? Can i use Linux on this laptop for video editing with programs like kdenlive? Can I use Linux for screencast with programs like kazam? The temperatures are under control? I won't play games on this laptop.

 

I'm still a noob on Linux, but here's what I know :

- Linux experience is not optimal for the reasons listed below, but not bad either. This laptop has still a lot of power to offer and I'm sure Linux can make good use of it.
- I spoke about higher temps than with Windows but it seems to be a common problem on laptops, apparently because of badly optimized drivers and/or bad support from laptop builders. Temps are higher but still OK, not too hot.
- I spoke about a problem with GRUB and Windows 10 dual boot but I assume it is very specific to my setup and experience and not related to the TF hardware
- It doesnt seems possible to adjust keyboard backlight (you cannot even basically turn it off), that can be a problem
- As on many laptops : no fan control. But the default behavior is pretty OK even with higher temps
- The GTX1060 works under Linux with official NVidia drivers but you have to reboot in order to choose the GPU you want to use. A kind of Optimus is also available (it's called BumbleBee) but I dont know if it works with the GTX1060 and I dont know if it really worth it in terms of power consumption and performance (as it uses unofficial drivers).
- the touchpad is not a problem anymore but depending on your competences you still might have some problems to make it work if you're not on an Ubuntu based distro.

So yes I'm pretty sure you can use video editing programs while screencasting at the same time under Linux with this laptop

 

Regarding Linux: I´ve tried PopOs (nice, really nice but not for our Laptops) and compiled the 4.19-rc5 Kernel as it came from Kernel.org (sadly the 4.19 kernel breaks Pop_os networking features- haha). Touchpad works, Simons hotfixes made it the src. Nice. Thats a bit a point when it comes to Linux and our Tongfang. Most of our hardware was released around Q1 2018 while eg Ubuntus 4.15 Kernel is like last year. You will always have problems with that, its "a bit old".
So when choosing a distro make sure it allows some smoothnes, in the end you may want to use a dev Kernel. So instead of using ubuntu or a ubuntu fork (as far as I understand their release roadmap, they are going to skip Kernel 4.19 and jump direktly to 4,20 or 5 or whatever comes next).
The downside of that: nvidia drivers will not work, no way , not now. kernel 4.19 does not support any nvidia driver so far - too many changes. So if you wanna go Linux gaming you either have no TP, or a TP with a Kernel that does not fully support your hardware, or go dev Kernel and have hardware support but no nvidia gpu. Choices ;-)
I personally would recomend opensuse tumbleweed or fedora, the have dev repos where you can simply download already customized dev kernel srcs (cd /usr/src/ open your kernel folder then: make menuconfig - simply save and exit with evreything default- make bzImage, make modules, make modules_install, make install - done and reboot), since the release of 4.19-rc5 no patching is necessary any longer. Of course you could always choose debian or a direct fork, personally I like Parrot Linux or simply go for Arch, Gentoo, Void and compile the kernel and everything else yourself. Sooner or later there will be a working nvidia drv, probably when kernel 4.19 hits its release candidate.

 

Interesting what you say @99-0 !
But I dont get what you said about 4.19 kernel. I have POP!_OS with included 4.15 kernel and I applyed Simon's hotfixes (installed the few .deb) and I have a working touchpad in addition to working nvidia graphics ! The only thing that doesnt work is keyboard backlight (even if I just realized that it seems to keep in a dedicated memory your settings from Windows Gaming Center. So if you turn the brightness to minimum in Gaming Center and save, you should have the same configuration into Linux.
I just noticed another little problem with 4.15 kernel and touchpad: auto-update will automatically want to replace linux-image-unsigned-4.15.0-34-generic for the 4.15.0-34.37 version which breaks the touchpad fix. So after update you need to re-apply linux-image-unsigned-4.15.0-34-generic.deb to get the touchpad working again.

@99-0 what do you think of Manjaro, which is a user friendly rolling-release distro based on Arch ? I tried it a few years ago and seemed very relevant in term of easy-going kernel choices and tweakings.

 

Hi people,

3 things today :
- Gaming center updated
- my PL1/2 35W limitation is still here
- looking for a sleeve


Just got last Gaming Center version 1.2.2.1 from PCS tech guy. They just got it from Tongfang and it will be available on the drivers page soon.
I dont know the changelog however.
Power consumption when idle seems reduced, I easilt go down to 0.5W as PKG power in equilibrium performance mode, AC pluged in and no undervolt.
Interface bugs seems unchanged, as well as the keyboard backlight settings that changes and stay when you switch to gaming mode.
The low power CPU mode switch in the "EZ switch" tab disapeared (maybe it was the case on the last version, didnt checked).

And... I'm still locked at 35W as PL1/2, even with BIOS reset to "optimized defaults" (IDK if it's linked), and no XTU or Throttlestop. However if I quit the Gaming Center (with right click on the icon in the task bar), PL 1 and 2 are back to 45 and 65W. I noticed that when you quit the gaming center, you still have OOBEI2CTpOnOffDetect, OSDTpDetect and TODO:<chinese characters> background processes on. I'm pretty sure these processes are related to the Gaming Center but I don't know what their goals are. I can just say that the GamingCenter.exe process (which seems to be the only one to disapears when you quit the Gaming Center, in addition to GamingCenterTray) seems very related to the faulty PL1/2 35W limitation I'm facing.
Any idea ? I'm struggling...

I'm also looking for a sleeve
I saw that most standard 15,6" sleeves are too big for the tonfgang. And I consider that a sleeve should fit your laptop almost perfect, or rather get a full case...
I saw that the Tongfang hhas almost same dimensions as 15" MacBook pro (35.9 x 23.6 x 2.2cm for TF and 34.93 x 24.07 x 1.55cm for Macbook Pro). Did anyone tried to see if the tongfang fits in a Macbook pro 15" sleeve ? Or do you have any advice ?

 

I bought a sleeve for Macbook Pro 15 2015 model which fits perfect.
Could you be so kind and upload the latest Gaming Center, if you can?

 

Here is the link to Gaming Center 1.2.2.1

EDIT : thanks @steberg for your advice. You're right the 2015 MBP is a bit bigger and its dimensions are closer to the TF : (35.89 x 24.72 x 1.8 cm).

Where did you get that sleeve ? seems that sellers dont necessarily specify for which model are their cases - means that's for the last, thinner, one....

 

Hi everybody; has anyone noticed some sort of fan proximity sensor on the bottom of the laptop? I've noticed that sometimes my fans will randomly shut off, but if I pick up my laptop they turn back on again (very abrupt on/off, sometimes just picking it up and putting it down works and other times it's very picky about how I position it). Even pushing Turbo Mode button won't turn on the fans, it has to get physically removed from the surface it's on and sometimes not get held in a certain way.

Edit: thiis happens under any thermal conditions, both while idling at 38C CPU or when the fans shut off while gaming, so spike from 85--> 100 celsius and then I notice thermal throttling performance, take out earbuds and go "oh the fans are off again" and have to either pick it up or practically wave it around to start them up again. Also on battery or plugged in, turbo on or off.

Edit 2: Opened up laptop, checked connections of fans to MB - seemed fine, tight, not disconnected or anything.

 

Digging a bit deeper in Gaming Center by exploring installation folder and running processes (of last 1.2.2.1 version):

- Found two .mp3, one of those is a 13mb random remix of a Paul Kalkbrunner track. If Tongfang dudes see this thread I would like some explanation please why add useless weight to this already heavy and buggy program ?

Gaming center also runs its own Intel Xtreme Tuning Utility session. You can see the xtu process in the task manager, and it's linked to some .exe and .dll you find in the gaming center installation folder, the same files you can find into the XTU installation folder minus a few ones.
The way this xtu process interacts with a "true" XTU session (with XTU installed and running) is not clear. If you install XTU by yourself, the xtu process launched at startup is the one from the XTU installation folder, not the one from Gaming center installations folder. But if you run XTU GUI it and apply some tuning, how to know if they're actually applied and not overridden by Gaming Center XTU settings ?
For example, I see in XTU GUI (from official XTU installation) that my power limits are 45 and 78W and shoe power boost enabled. But if I stress test, it power throttles at 35W the same way it does since I have this problem with any Gaming center version (except 1.1.15.4...)

Something else is strange: I did the following steps :
-Uninstalling Gaming center, erase the installation folder that may stay with some files in it, reboot
- uninstalling XTU after (also tried without) having applied default settings, reboot
- erase Throttlestop installation folder after turning it off, then reboot
- load optimized defaults settings by pressing F3 while in BIOS menu, reboot
- power limits are fine (monitored with a clean Throttlestop in monitoring mode)
- then I tried 3 different scenarios : installing Gaming center only, or installing Gaming center then XTU, or installing XTU then Gaming Center
- in each case power limits are stuck back to 35W
- also at some time (can't precisely tell when because it's unclear), XTU defines default profil with some undevolt already applied, and it's not clear if it's because it found (where the f*** ?!??) my old settings I had before uninstalling and reinstalling everything, or if it takes as default the profile applied by Gaming Center xtu process (if so, It means that Tongfang applies an undervolt with Gaming center installation o_o)

So I'm still stuck with the 35W limitation, and Gaming center is still and even more, at least for me, a big piece of garbage, but that kind of garbage you absolutely need to get your computer fonctionnal (not act as a nightclub light (maybe Kalkbrunner is related to this ?) and being able to control fans).

Please tell me if my explanations are clear or not, and if you have further explanations/suggestions/answers/similar cases/ways to dig in

Sorry to hear that.... sounds like a hardware problem, I don't know what you can do more except contact your reseller

 

Are you saying that originally you could change PL1/PL2 but something has happened and now you are stuck at 35W? Somebody else had problems being stuck on 35W with a PCS Recoil ii but it seemed that it was either a hardware problem or BIOS fault but I don't think they ever had the laptop working properly.

When you un-installed did you check the registry?

 

I didn't tried to change PL1/2 before something happened, as they behaved as expected or at least in an convenient way (PL1 at 45W and PL2 at 65W), and it's still the case today if I quite the Gaming Center (or uninstall it completely). So yes, something happened and from that moment I'm stuck to 35W as long as I keep the gaming center on (and I want to, as it is very useful to me).

I think I saw the thread you're talking about, it's on the PCS forum but it has been closed because OP didn't respect forum rules (being rude about PCS). But I still believe this person was right on many points. I plan to create a topic on this forum in order to see if I can get further informations. Anyway I'm pretty sure for me it is a software problem (Gaming center's fault), so maybe the issue is not exactly the same. And I'm still wondering if a bios flash could solve it.

Thanks for the registry clue. I didn't checked it after uninstalling. Do you recommand any walkthrough or utility to clean the registry (Glary utility, or maybe CCleaner) ?

 

Sorry but I never had something like this and under load I never had the fan off. If the act to lift it really works I think you have an hardware issue.
Have you tried to just wait for the fan to turn on again to see if it's not just a coincidence?

 

There is a new BIOS version out on BAIDU, BIOS（1.1.16）EC（1.33.09)

Discussion
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/5897561318?pid=122219940669&cid=#122219940669
Link to Bios
https://pan.baidu.com/s/1YboulLlyHre8kLgvyUXnpA

 

Hi @Blebleuh
Sry for the late reply. No time.

First things first: the Kernel: as an example - We have a Intel UHD 630 gpu. The standard i915 Linux driver does not support this gpu. It works somehow, but thats it. This should be fixed with, if it's true what I read, with Kernel 4.19. Just as an example. Those things may be kind of like fixed with firmware updates but for an optimal performance a proper driver would be a better solution.

Second Manjaro: Tried it and the hardware detection caused hangups. I really like Manjaro, but Manjaro without the formidable hardware detection is just a green Arch Linux. Arch itself caused cpu hard and soft lockups when I tried it. I simply wasn't in the mood to have look why and whether there is a fix or not.

I returned to Kernel 4.18.10 stable, because quite a few libs didnt't seem to work properly. But I still use Opensuse Tumbleweed. A new installation takes about 20 minutes and don't forget, when reviewing the install overview, click on software and check "Kernel development tools", this saves you a lot of time finding which one of the damned oppenssl-dev packages is the right one- Greetings to debian. Oh, when the bar marks install on the installer menu, hit "e" and put right before quiet splash acpi_osi=! acpi_osi='Windows 2009' and congratz, you have enabled optimus on Linux. Tumbleweed advantage to Fedora is that this boot parameter does not result in 5k of error messages every 3 minutes.
Basically I had Bumblebee working, but bbswitch ruined the show, because it refused to load - might be some Sellinux apparmour thing, but I couldn't fix it yet. I could optirun something but the gtx refused to switch off, had to reboot then. Not what I wanted. i mean you could just install any driver and blacklist one of them in boot param, if I wanted something like that.
But basically this guide works:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_Bumblebee
To run Bumblebee the system will switch to i915 drv alone and by God that driver is ****, it starts flickering when you watch at a terminal window compile something or it gives a fastly used slider quite a colourful tail.

So I am back using i915 with Mesa libs and it is giving me that


I am not exactly a linux gamer and I will probably nerver be one so don't no whether this is good or not. I am quite happy with my Linux install. Spotify works, Netflix works, Steam works - sadly the only game that shows up in my library for Linux is Total War Medieval 2 and that doesn't load, so no idea about gaming performance and I am refusing to buy something just to try it out.
I tried the gtx 1060 with the driver from the link and glxgears gave me something with 150- I think it was 150000 or 15000... can't remember but def something starting with 150 and fps,
still haven't tried this:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_the_hard_way
but according to the suse community the way to go.
I basically want to use Linux for work purposes and entertainment. I'm fine with Windows gaming, but that is all I want to use Windows for.

To do:
System idle is like 44°C, that is too much, so undervolting is the call for the coming weeks. Once this is done write a proper fancontrol conf.
and to finish with a lot of ifs:
if Kernel 4.19 fixes, as promised, the i915 driver and if I manage to get bbswitch to work properly and if I finish my to-do list:
Habemus Linux-Gaming Laptop!

well, at least I'm optimistic regarding Team Fortress 2 https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Team_Fortress_2

 

Downloaded the new Bios with jdownloader. Just paste the link https://pan.baidu.com/s/1YboulLlyHre8kLgvyUXnpA
and it will parse the page and download the BIOS file without BAIDU promts.
Updates;
vbios from 86.06.60.00.29 to 86.06.6F.00.24
Fan boost button function can now be change in bios to two modes, either FANBOOST or change between OFFICE and GAME Mode.
Still have the three OTP levels.

Will do more testings later.

 

Hello @steberg can I use this BIOS with MY CK5CNZ (1050Ti) ?

 

I believe it's only for the 1060 models.

 

Thanks for the reply if anyone have the last bios for the 1050Ti, I am interested

 

Supernice! In your testings, could you please check what are PL 1 and PL 2 values as well as benchmark perfs for each ODP setting (low, mid and high) ?

I'm not sure about the way to go for the update, as the google translation of the page is not very accurate. Is it the following steps ?
- launch F file into afuWin64 folder
- follow instructions on screen
- launch file into afuWin64cap folder
- follow instructions on screen
- after last reboot enter BIOS then hit F3 in order to load optimized defaults from the EC upgrade
- we're done ?

Before doing any of this I will check registry after uninstalling Gaming center and XTU as @damole suggested (in order to solve the problem that sticks my PL1 and 2 at 35W when using Gaming Center). And I would be happy to have a look on your futur tests

Thanks @99-0 for these informations about kernel and driver. So from my understanding, staying with 4.15 kernel makes you have working Nvidia graphics but bad performances with the intel chipset, 4.19 kernel does the opposite (good intel graphic support but bad/no nvidia driver), and 4.18 seems to be the good balance for now ?
I will definitely have a look at OpenSuse Thumbleweed !
And also maybe try later to hackintoshize this GK5CN6Z "just for fun"

*****EDIT: I checked the registry manually and by using Glary Utility after uninstalling Gaming center and XTU but I found nothing.
I also tried last BIOS, seems like it keeps PL1 and PL2 to 35W whatever ODP setting you use and regardless weither or not you have Gaming center or XTU installed. So not for me for now.
However I tried last XMG BIOS which looks much more friendly in term of power limits. I'm now able to get normal PL1 and PL2 (45 and 65W) by doing the following (with XMG BIOS + EC and gaming center 1.2.2.1) :
- Run XTU, set desired settings and disable Turbo Boost Short Power Max (lets say TBSPM). Apply settings, then turn TBSPM on again, then apply, then disable once again and apply settings, and you're done. This is a very strange behavior and I believe more and more that Gaming Center have a weird relationship with XTU, as it resets SOME of its settings at each startup. That mean that I need to do the described steps every time I turn my computer on. Moreover, during the succession of turning on/off TBSPM, voltage offset paramaters (and only these ones, ICC and not PL1 and 2 are not concerned) are automatically set to 0 in the tuning tab when you press Apply (so they are not applied as 0 but you have to move the cursor again in the tuning tab to apply next settings)...
I tried to isolate (put in an archive) all XTU related files into Gaming Center installation folder but it changes absolutely nothing. So Gaming center seems to be able to detect either or not XTU is installed on the computer. If it is, Gaming center service will launch XTU service process from the XTU installation folder (and not the one from Gaming center installation folder) and will reset PL1 and 2 again as usual. But if you launch XTU GUI it will tell you that PL1 and 2 are still set to 45 and 65W. So you still have to enable, disable, enable then disable TBSPM to get them work properly. As if disabling TBSPM into XTU actually disables Gaming center PL limits but not the default behavior of the proc (normal power limits with TBSPM turned on).
About Gaming center related processes : OOBEI2CTpOnOffDetect seems to allow turning on and off the touchpad when double tapping the upper left corner. OSDTpDetect is still a mystery to me. Disabling Gaming center service (through the service manager of WIndows) and/or OEM launch at startup (using the task manager) doesnt help, as the Gaming center icon will not appear at startup.

 

Well guys,
I played around with undervolting in Linux and found this on github.
https://github.com/georgewhewell/undervolt
pip install undervolt and apllied
sudo undervolt --core -120 --cache -120
which resulted in https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/10156554
and this time I didn't turn the fan boost on, just with the premade fan settings. Idle Temp dropped to 33-35 °C which is ok.

 

Were you able to downgrade the EC from 1.33 to XMG 1.29?
I'm also seeing very crippling CPU performance from Mechrevo 1.16 bios. Would love to go back to XMG. But the new VBIOS is better than the old one. Need someone like Prema to merge the VBIOS from 1.16 to XMG 1.03.

EDIT:
I just downgrade booth EC and BIOS to XMG, all good! There used to be a brick warning if one downgrade the EC, turns out it was not true! Thanks for the heads up!
I also use XMG gamecenter 1.15.12 and I'm back to 1225 CB15 points!
In HWINFO I have PL1 45W and PL2 56W, in Mechrevo bios it was at 35W for booth of them.