Razer Blade 15.6" (GTX 1060/1070, 2018 edition) Owner's Lounge

I've been searching for MBP15 and XPS 15 sleeves. Does the zipper make any contact with the laptop on that one?

 

I'm pretty sure the zipper is behind a soft protective flap. I'll check in a few. It's really nice and snug.

 

Actually the zipper could touch the laptop, but it's also a really nice fit. I'd have a hard time seeing it get too banged up. That said if you put it in so that the back of the laptop faces outwards at least the part that could potentially get scratched isn't visible when using the laptop.

 

Hey guys,

I'm on a quest to find the best gaming thin and light right now. Already got the Aero 15x and it's a nice laptop but I'm not super convinced, the temps are a bit high, a key literally popped off (fixed by adjusting one of the metal thingy holding the key, if that didn't worked I was ****ed), and bad backlight bleed on corners. So now I just ordered a blade 15, coming in tomorrow.

I never thought I'd ever buy a Razer laptop after seeing the 14" cooling solution but it really seems that Razer worked on matching the premium externals with premium internals this year, so might as well give them a try.

So, as with every laptop I get I try to establish a list of stuff to do right out of the box. For example with the aero, a windows clean install is recommended. First question: Is there anything like that for the Blade, besides undervolting?

Secondary question: I ordered the 250gb version as I have a 500gb 970 evo lying around but I'll only be able to retrieve it a day after getting the blade. You guys know a way to clone the two drives ? It doesn't seem like USB to M.2 NVMe exists.

Third question: does the Razer logo stay green even with the lights off? I'm not sure my clients will share Razer's love for edgy snakes during meetings.

 

Blade 15 has similar Backlight Bleeding, mine as well but very minimum can’t disturb me on usage. Blade comes with less bloatware unlike MSI or Gigabyte as far as I know, I never do clean install having 3 Blades before this 15. CPU could be hot for some AAA titles but you can do software tweak for that by disabling turbo boost and play on balance mode (gaming mode principally overclocking mode 100/300).
For cloning I’ve never do that for Blade but I think there’s also ssd case for doing that. Logo could be turned off by Synapse or do breathing effect, to interrupt your colleges on meeting

 

Thanksfor the reply, yeah I noticed that people reported backlight bleed I just hope it's not as bad as my current Aero where it's not unusable but definitely feels bad considering the thing cost me 2.6k. It's crazy how all laptops have some nowadays.

I just hope I can get close to actual non Max Q 1070 performances through CPU and GPU undervolting. That's not possible on the Aero where the GPU gets hotter than on the Blade.

Could you please tell me, when turned off the logo is black or still green? I suspect green, it seems that the plastic itself is green not the light, but might as well ask. If Dbrand released a skin only for the logo I'd buy it haha.

 

Hey guys, anyone having problems getting rivatuner OSD to work on the RB15, I heard someone say it’s due to the synapse software, I for the life of me can’t get my my RSST to display any OSD

Any help would be appreciated or alternative software to run OSD

 

Ok, when I purchase my blade 15 what should I be changing? I want to optimise my settings as best as possible!

 

That's a new enclosure coming from Taobao that can support NVMe. Just released this month, you may want to look into it..

 

Well, the supply is pretty much the same now, so basically you are entering another round of screen lottery now. If you win, then you'll get a screen with low BLB. If you lose, then, well......

 

It mostly depends on the usage (it's more important for those that use the laptop for other CPU demanding tasks such as rendering for eg.), but you can trigger the power limit even in gaming.

Don't know what benchmarks were those, but 25w is a low power draw if you had max turbo boost of 3.9Ghz. With prime95 your power draw should be way above 45w (you can see that when you are PL2 limited for a few seconds, after that PL1 won't let you go above 45w).

Based on the previous test (from the previous post), the cpu clocks dropped to 3.0 Ghz for a power draw of 45w (with an UV of -130mv), after that 35w power limit was triggered, the clock further dropped to ~2.5Ghz.

Being limited at 45w gives you a higher margin, and if this limit is triggered, the clocks don't drop as low as they would with the 35w limit.

Also, a power draw of 35w can be more frequently attained with gaming loads, you can test that by using the hwinfo+msi ab+rtss overlay while gaming or easier by setting hwinfo to log your gaming sessions.

Just by looking into some saved log files for pugb and cod ww2, I can see some sections where the power draw exceeds 45w (those are from a helios 300 with 8750H and gtx 1060), and an avr. CPU power draw of ~32w for COD WW2 (and if I remember correctly, those values were with a -125mv UV).

Regarding the impact that the CPU clocks have in games, it greatly depends on the game and graphics settings. A drop from 3.9Ghz to 3ghz (or 2.5ghz) could have an insignificant impact in games that are mostly GPU driven, but the impact can be considerable in other titles that have a good FPS/CPU clocks scaling ratio.

In the pics you posted, I see that you have 4.0Ghz max clocks (this doesn't mean that those clocks were maintained), a constant 100% load under max values (which means that those values were attained under a stress test), a max cpu package power of ~45w and a "yes" at the cpu core power limit exceeded, although your PL1 and PL2 limits appear to be raised, which could mean that those changed power limits are ignored.

Under the current values (which are more relevant since all the values under this rubric are linked) you have 2.5Ghz with an avr. cpu usage of ~70%, which results in a CPU package power of ~25w. Do the math for a CPU power draw under similar circumstances, but with 3.9Ghz instead of 2.5Ghz.

 

Thanks for replying. Prime95 same as other users, firstly 45 Watt and then stay at 35 Watt, never change idk how long should I let prime95 running, but it doesn’t seemly good for testing my cpu since thermal is always stay on 70 ish, but on that game, it made cpu seems running hard so I took that games benchmarks. I’ve also pubg but it doesn’t demand cpu like AC Origins, though I’ll try to look at that game.
If it influences rendering, so cinabench r15 will take effects on this? Isn’t it normal score for 8750H?

 

With prime, once you start the test, your power draw values only get lower (as the power limits are triggered) and won't rise again until you stop the test, so it could be possible that prime limited you v fast, before the temps had enough time to rise (or they rose fast at first, but settled down once the power limits were triggered in succession), while in gaming your values oscillate depending on the ratio of clocks/voltage/load.

It's not uncommon for the firmware to have algorithms for detecting power viruses, and to overreact by severely limiting the performance.

It's also very important to factor in the effect that the GPU temps have on the CPU while they are simultaneously used (the heat transferred from the GPU side to the CPU side, means less thermal headroom for the CPU).

I just use those games as examples, because I have the hwinfo log file values for them.

AC Origins and BF1 should stress the hardware even harder.

If you're going to test those games, use the high perf. power plan or use "0" for the speed shift epp value in TS and setup hwinfo to save a log file.

That CB r15 score is relatively average, but it doesn't reflect the performance in the long run.

You would need to setup CB r15 to run in a loop and then draw the conclusions based on the diminishing scores.

 

You can buy the matte black skin without the logo cutout, and it will mute the exterior. There will be a slight dip for the logo in the middle, but that's it. The blade logo off is still green but very dark. Even off it's still more premium then shouting GIGABYTE at people lol.


I finally got my Intel goodie bundle code this morning! And was asked to send my laptop back if I want my speaker grille fixed. It bowed in the middle, very small but very ugly.

 

I meant a skin only for the logo, as in the skin is just a black version of the logo you can put on the green one .

I've never seen a d brand skin in real life so I don't know what I should expect quality wise but I might try one.

 

From Dave2D's video
Mine
Both are Dbrand. Best fit imaginable.

 

Great choice man, even though I'd hide the logo your skin really suits the the very boxy, industrial look by adding a kinda military touch. If I wasn't planning on having this laptop during meetings I might go that way.

Also thanks for sharing your setup, the "issue" with Dave's videos is that the production is so good it makes everything look good, so seeing how a skin looks for an average person helps. I'll just see how I like the laptop when I get it tomorrow, then I'll decide on whether I'll get a skin or not.

 

I don't know about everyone else, but there was a little packet that came with mine and inside was in fact a grey version of the logo instead of green. I'm not at home for a few days or I'd take a picture.

 

Is there any notable difference in temps between the 1060 and 1070? Anybody have any opinion on if its worth the 500 dollar (cad ) price difference?

 

The 1060 on mine runs around 72-75C with 200Mhz O/C 600 Memory. Stock thermal paste. fans on Auto

 

I'm about 75-78C on the 1070. I'm getting great use of the 144hz display with it, it's a good card.

 

Hi,

I just got my unit, is this IPS glow or backlight bleed?

 

If I'm seeing this right, looks like IPS glow but back light bleed on that bottom edge, same as mine.

 

Ok, as for me, it goes back - despite that I had vervly much hickups on rise of the tomb raider and frame drops in pubg, it's the 1060 model btw. it's interesting that in balanced mode I got higher fps than in gaming mode. Also Mei S,Y and X keys were like not flat with the others, like lower leveled or something :/

 

Interesting o_o

My S key is slightly slanted downward. Haven't had a single hickup with it, and I did get an extended warrant just in case. Something else crazy is my right speaker grill is slightly bowed up in the middle right edge, and on Dave2Ds review, his has the same thing, on the direct opposite. Weird little manufacturing quirks.

What were the temps on your I7 gaming?

 

I had like 77 degrees or so, with clocks averaging at 2,7, in gaming mode it was like 82is in average with 3.7 or so on average

 

The worst was the SSD, it had like 91 degrees averaging at 87, had very much hickups when loading webpages or using explorer

 

That's running cold. Are you using Throttlestop? Make sure BDPROCHOT is unchecked

 

It was completely stock

 

How were you testing temps? Games or benchmarks?

 

You will drop nearly 30c with thermal pads added to the SSD. Easy and super helpful mod.

 

I was running pubg and ride of the tomb raider

 

Actually I already set up RMA, I had all the fun with repasting AWs, I simply wanted something I don't need to adjust to run as it should many thanks for the advice though

Also, I was thinking like - I still got that XPS 13 (which is at Dell for the ghosting for 2 weeks now) and a 2016 mbp13 and an actually freshly rebuilt PC with an 8700k 32gb and 1080ti - nah, that's enough

 

The easiest way to lower down temps a few degrees is to lift up your laptop. Allowing more air flow. I got the Razer laptop stand, it works well. Perhaps a laptop cooler can lower more.

 

This is like finding a unicorn.

 

Why would you buy a computer and NOT tweak it. That's weird.

 

Hey sometimes I wish I was ignorant and could just use a computer without worrying how damn hot the CPU is lol

 

90-92 is not outside the operating bounds of the CPU. If games are working fine and you're happy you can just ignore all that stuff.

It seems worth it to try to get the fans to spin slower though, IMO.

 

That I can agree with. I'm running 3.1ghz while gaming and can keep fans around 4500 and stay in the 80s, and that's probably where I'd draw the line.

 

I agree when everything works fine, actually I just downloaded my games, played for testing, then I got these framedrops and hickups and then I checked the temps. But the screen... I mean...for 1400-1500€ fine, ok, but for 2250€...nope

 

Are you getting fps drops in every game? Define hickups?

 

E.g. in pubg, standing around, doing nothing, fps dropped from 70ish to 50 something, the Blade then ramped up it's fans, in Rise of the Tomb Raider it dropped from 60ish to 40s in the same way. Also, every task in windows, stuff that wasnt loaded into RAM took long, freezing the whole machine, this happened also ingame while loading textures a.s.o

 

Guys, what do you think about the display cable running over the vapour chamber? My concerns are that the heat levels at the structure must be doing something to that display cable, and despite insulation materials that thing must be prone to damage placed the way it is. Reason is I have a very dear friend who wants to buy this, despite my best efforts has his heart set for this unit, I wanted to give home an unbiased answer to this question (which incidentally I raised )


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I know that if you don't set up nvidia control panel to always use the dedicated gpu.. you CAN get some hiccups due do switching back and forth from integrated gpu. However it seems like your problem may step a little deeper, as I don't have that issue on my Blade. Maybe try a fresh OS install first/fresh drivers etc and see how that fairs. I assure you that it's not supposed to run that way.

 

I totally believe you but the whole screen issue and the hickups made me send it back, as for now I will stay with my current devices

 

Hey guys, great topic!
Simple question: Can you force this laptop to be very quiet or even ALWAYS run TOTALLY silent, without the fans kicking in randomly.
And if yes, how gimped will it be?
I want to use it for audio recording/ editing so silence is a big must. Switching to the onboard GPU during recording sessions is no problem, but I do need some RAM and processor power.
And do all the power bricks make noise or is that just bad luck for some?
Noise production is preventing me from buying this laptop instead of the Aero15x
Many thanks!

 

Disabling nvidia gpu through device manager? Mine is actually dead silent when watching movies or other light tasks. Maybe because I disable turbo boost?
No ac adapter buzzing isn’t normal, mine doesn’t buzz.

 

Mine actually has minimum backlight bleed a bit on bottom and a bit on top I’ve to change it to black background to really see it, though on normal usage I don’t see that. Did anyone get perfect one? also including MSI gs65 and Aero 15x with 144Hz Panel, tell me if you have one, i saw even worse on those brands. Could be display manufacturer issue. The performance and other features just keep me closing my eyes on that issue, and it’s €2450...well got a bit 5% tricky price

 

If you happened to watch my review, you know that I had concerns about this too. So I asked Razer and they asked their systems engineers. Here's the answer I received:

"Regarding the cable across the heatsink on the Blade 15” – we are aware that this may be concerning to some, given both the heat and delicacy in removal should a user want to perform a memory upgrade. The systems engineering team did get back to me with 'the cable is designed to withstand temps well above 100c, so no concerns short term or long term with the way it is routed over the vapor chamber.'"