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

The one thing that went above 90 is the gaming mode with auto fans. I did it real fast I was trying to complete my work while I was running tests. With a repaste it will be a very hard laptop to beat.

 

Yes this is the standard answer from MSI, ALIENWARE and ASUS. In fact in Europe the warranty void sticker is illegal. So repaste if you know what you're doing, if your liquid metal spilled on a transistor or static electricity fried a component your warranty won't cover it.

Thank you for your feedback it's important when you're buying a 2000+ $/£/Euro laptop . The undervolt seems to really reduce the temperatures. I wonder how it would manage with a LM repaste.

 

No prob! i bet LM will allow this sucker to reaaaally come alive. As far as I'm aware, the SSD is partly covered by the heat sink right? Meaning when i swap the 256 for a 1tb, I'll be forced to repaste. Debating using kryonaut or that fancy lil Innovative Cooling Graphite thermal pad.

 

Very interesting results here. But this is just 3D Mark. I want to see those temps when playing some high end games!

 

Me too, coming soon. The meanest game I have (temp-wise) is Vermintide 2. It hates hardware for some reason (cooks my laptops). Ill have it going soon.

 

Just cracked 15000 on Firestrike

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/15600571

 

Heard some disappointing feedbacks regarding graphite pads at least for laptops : the heatsink-cpu die pressure is not high enough and it can't correctly connect (thermally speaking) both correctly, plus if your copper/cpu core surface has a lot of micro-gaps it might increase even more temps with graphite pads .

 

Hey one thing I just noticed. Look at both your voltages and clock speeds vs mine. They are different for some reason.

This was done in non-gaming mode.

 

what this Fire Strike measures ? Sorry I am not into this stuff.
Is it about performance or thermal ?

 

Firestrike seems great, but I've yet to see some real gaming. Don't keep us waiting!

 

Playing vermintide 2. high 80s. low low 90s. still raising the undervolt bit by bit

 

There we go, thanks! The max temperatures are very high with mid 90s. Does it stay there for long?

 

the area above the keyboard gets super super hot, its warm around keyboard and palm rests.

It would if i wasn't undervolting and reducing to 3.7ghz. I AINT DONE THO

 

That’s phenomenal!! i want that physical score!! It’s only a time matter my 1080ti Core setting with Blade 14 would be surpassed by this machine
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/26298494

 

I don't mind undervolting but I wouldn't want to limit the max turbo.

 

How does the fan noise compare with your MSI GS65?

 

Rainbow Six Siege.

Maxed everything except T-AA. Max CPU temp was 82C after 15 minutes of benchmark looping.

-145mv UV, +185mhz core, +600mhz memory

 

Very nice! Though I'm not sure it's the most intensive game though, but I might be wrong!

 

Probably not, but that's the most intensive game I personally play. Super happy with how the thermals in this thing worked out

 

Then good for you of course!

 

Quieter. The fans pitch is less obnoxious so its easy to dismiss it

 

Thanks! Let me know if you like it more than the MSI

 

At this point in time, I wouldn't go back to the msi at all. The razer is more set to my taste. nicer touchpad, much better screen, more rigid body, more premium feel. The fans are much more obnoxious on the msi. we'll see how I like this thing in a month, but so far I'm far happier!

 

I need only 144Hz display and 8750H CPU, 1060 maxq is fine for me, base on specs there’s also 1060 options with 144 hz monitor, but I can’t find it anywhere, including amazon seems options are for US, not available in EU.

 

Ah snap. US store has the 1060 144hz model for $2,199. Is it not worth $200 to get the 1070?

 

Sweet! I ended up ordering the 1060 144hz one on amazon. Thanks for your input. You helped make my decision so much easier. Hoping the 1060 runs quieter, cooler, and has better battery life. Who knows? Lolol

 

Some results do seem promising, I just wish there were some more results with games like Far Cry 5, Origins, Rise of the Tomb Raider, etc.

 

I'll try to do some Witcher tonight.

 

Battery is going down pretty fast, Im installing and downloading left and right though, including windows 1803 update. I'll be on and off the wall tomorrow to test it out more!

 

Nice you're gonna like it haha. Are you going to get a squaretrade warranty?

 

I’m so excited for it!! I actually didn’t get any additional warranty on it because I used my amazon prime visa which gives me 5 percent back on the purchase and an additional year warranty on any prime product 2 years should be good I hope. I definitely would’ve gone with squartrade if I hadn’t

 

No, I’ve Core with 1080ti. On go I don’t play max setting for better battery life, for 1080p 1060 is enough. I play 4K 60fps on external monitor it’ll be nice if I have 144Hz screen for shooting games.

 

You could get the 1070 and downclock normally to shave off heat. That way the juice would be there if you wanted.

 

I'm getting more interested the more I hear these fans are less annoying that other notebooks on this class. I hear those zephrus fans aren't bad but I dislike the design of the track pad. Having had a blade 14 for three years it's the best chassis, keyboard, and track pad in Windows land. By far.

Going to be tough to give up this 18K fire strike though...

 

Yes I think I’ll get it, good idea, and worth €250 for more 30% performance, and seems amazon.de has only that 1070 options for 144hz.

 

Was really hyped for this until I saw the temps. Might hold off and see if someone orders from HIDevolution with the repaste options and see how they fare.

 

Got it home and running vermintide 2 again, its getting quite warm even with a big undervolt (bouncing 90c with a -.155 undervolt) This thing is going to need a repaste.

edit: balanced mode really shaves almost 10c off the temps but it reduces the clock speeds to 3100 mhz
edit2: balance and performance modes both show no FPS difference in game. Im going to download Overwatch and test temps there, vermintide 2 is just too angry.

 

Wow, Razer support strikes again. Then can't even process an online order. I am being told that they need to verify my identity, which is ridiculous enough, but they want to know my employer which I've refused to give since that in no way verifies my identity (I'm on linkedin) or has anything to do with this purchase. Rep was extremely useless. Payment was successful, this is just extremely poor. They said I should wait 2 days for a rep to contact me - I declined. Will wait for Amazon or MS Store, assuming I still want one. Really irritating ...

Edit: Paypal to the rescue ...hope it's worth it.

 

I upgraded to the paid version of 3dmark. Score isn't shown, but it was 14008. See the chart below. It's really just when the CPU gets really taxed that the temperatures really kick up. Max temp before physics test is 73c. There has to either be an inability to cool the CPU or just a really bad paste job. Haven't had a chance to game too heavily on it yet.

 

Received my 15 today...really underwhelmed. Running very hot in game even with a -.135 under volt (lowest stable offset I can get).

I’m seeing temps of 95-100 in Far Cry 5, and 87-93 in Fortnite. Both experience throttle.

I can maintain 73-77 in Fornite with my stock GS65 with a stable -.165 under volt and maintain 3.9 all day.

I’m going back to the MSI

 

Ok. So I tried to lower the turbo setting with multiple cores in Throttlestop. Fairly pleased with this result in a benchmark environment. All relevant settings shown in the screenshot I think. Not sure how this will perform in real life testing of course.

 

I'm starting to believe there are no OEMs that make a stock thin&light 6 core gamer that cools well at high clock speeds out the box. Theoretically, my 7820HK clocked up to 4.0ghz is already hot, adding 2 cores on a far thinner notebook? Sounds obsurd. I did expect this when I knew 6 core was coming, now I feel like I'm expecting too much. I'm going to do a repast once I get my 1tb drive, but after kryonaut is in, I'm just going to deal with the results.

Bottom line for me, the Razer hardware and quality of device is what I love the most, and I'm happy to keep it for that. I'm going to make the power as comfortable as possible, but ultimately I have an Omen X for gaming hard at home.

 

Truly think this is the case. I'm not sure that I'm experiencing any sort of real world loss of speed by lowering the turbo multipliers. The laptop is much, much happier though. Maybe it's just too much to handle. The build quality of this Razer is really amazing.

When are you doing your repaste? Mines arrives on Sunday.

 

Not sure, I need to secure the new SSD first so sometime next week, unless some store has a 1TB in stock. I'll start researching that now.

 

Lowering the voltage is good for reducing temps but will ONLY help with Thermal Throttling. There is often still Power Limit Throttling which triggers when too many Watts are pulled. On my AW 15 I counter this by lowering the 4-core Turbo Multiplier by 2x (3 cores and below don't draw nearly as much power as 4-core)

I like to monitor all 4 core temps as well as CPU speed in XTU (and of course, all 3 types of throttling) while benching, once I lowered the multi to eliminate Power Limit Throttling the CPU speed stabilized where it was bouncing all over before. I have to monitor all 4 cores because sadly on this laptop core differential is a big issue - I am extremely excited to see that both the CPU and GPU get balanced 4 screw mounting for the heatsinks in this new blade design.

Here is my view I use (note you can customize the colors, I set all the throttling types to red so they are easy to see if one spikes up - they are binary in that they are "on" or "off")

 

@dgreen9 @Assault
Could you please keep us updated about your thermal repasting work? Really eager to know the structure amd material composition of the "vapor chamber". Plan to do LM repasting, so I'm wondering whether the heat pipe (or chamber) still has aluminium around copper like last-gen Razer Blade that requires extra protection from LM. Thx in advance!

 

Ok so playing Overwatch on ultra settings is totally reasonable with an undervolt and slight clock drop. You may say 'WELL ASSAULT I WANT M4XIMUMS PERFORMS" but realistically, look at the fps. 150s (windowed) and about 110 fullscreen, making good use of the 144hz screen on ultra. Stock paste, smooth sailing at around 80 the whole time. Still going to kryonaut, but this is really good considering the heavy hardware inside.
.

 

A few posts ago you said you felt the MSI has a better screen. How so? Colors? brightness? I have the MSI now with Razer on order, so super curious. The MSI screen isnt bad, but I wish it were just a bit brighter. I'm expecting a lot to be equal between the 2, but the Razer build will make the difference I suspect. I'm also a little annoyed that the MSI has the CPU throttling limit at 91 and not higher like it should be by default.

 

no no no, the razer has a better screen. Its more clear (less "frost"), brighter, more color accurate too i believe. I think the msi has faster response time though, but i like a better looking panel.

 

Oops - yes, I meant you said Razer Thanks for the insight, appreciated!