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

I understand that this laptop has Optimus technology already, but is it possible to set a profile so that when on battery, the dGPU is disabled? I know you can probably do it by disabling dGPU manually or using Optimus to select the iGPU, but can it be done based on being on batter or not?

 

I have not checked yet but I will later when I get home, but I would imagine if this was at all a possibility it would be a setting within the Nvidia Control Panel.

On a side note I ordered a new PSU, a Razer Sleeve, and a mouse case and a case for the PSU (Razer Ammo Box) and I was surprised to see that all of this stuff is being shipped to me directly form China via Fed-Ex. I realize that I should not be surprised yet here we are and I'm still shocked about that. I mean Shipping was free so why do I care? but still wowza, and if by chance I ordered the wrong PSU and have to do a return/exchange lol.. yea... I live in Southern California and from China somehow this stuff is sent from China to Memphis Tennessee and then to me in California.

The logistics of all of this has me scratching my head.. I'll post a screenshot.

Can't get it all in a screenshot so here: but when you read though it, it just seems really weird...

• SEP 04
  10:05 AM
  Delivered
  Left at front door. Package delivered to recipient address - release authorized
  Irvine,, CA
• SEP 04
  7:49 AM
  On FedEx vehicle for delivery
  Irvine, CA
• SEP 04
  7:36 AM
  At local FedEx facility
  Irvine, CA
• SEP 03
  3:01 AM
  International shipment release - Import
  Memphis, TN
• SEP 01
  5:51 AM
  At destination sort facility
  Los angeles, CA
• SEP 01
  4:03 AM
  Departed FedEx location
  Memphis, TN
• SEP 01
  1:05 AM
  International shipment release - Import
  Memphis, TN
• AUG 31
  11:57 PM
  Arrived at FedEx location
  Memphis, TN
• AUG 31
  9:59 PM
  In transit
  Chek lap kok
• AUG 31
  8:00 PM
  Left FedEx origin facility
  Tsuen wan
• AUG 31
  3:57 AM
  Shipment information sent to FedEx
• AUG 31
  4:54 PM
  Picked up
  Tsuen wan
• = 2" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; width: 244.863px; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; border-top: 1px solid rgb(86, 86, 86); list-style: none; justify-content: flex-start; flex-flow: row wrap;">
  
  Tracking Number
  457547461288

 

When I ordered my Blade from Razer at launch, it also shipped directly from china and was delivered in 2 days. I guess that's how the cookie crumbles!
I literally just finished checkout for a 2nd 230W power adapter, selling my HP OMEN X and going to use the Blade to be my only device for now, desk setup and on-the-go.

These 1070s are pretty powerful, its running my QHD 144hz monitor in Fortnite, nailing 144 fps almost all game. I downclock to 3.0ghz for temp focus too.

 

it doesn't really bother me that it is sent from China though, it was more about it went from China to LA (I think) then to Memphis Tennessee then back to LA (where I live) that's what surprised me. Or if not that China to Tennessee then to LA seems weird....

 

PM me for specifics unless you’re replacing it!

 

To answer some of your concerns, while I cannot speak for all liquid metals my preferred paste, Conductonaut, does not corrode copper but will, instead, sometimes create an alloy that, while possibly annoying to clean, does not negatively impact thermal performance.

If you need more evidence than my word then there is this quote from Der8auer:

"[...] If you have a naked copper surface on the CPU waterblock for example, some of the parts of the liquid metal are building an alloy with the copper, and then it's hardening over time. Indium and tin, which are usually a part of the liquid metal, will form an alloy on top of the cooler. Which is not going to make performance worse, but it will lead the liquid metal to harden [...]"​

You are not degrading the structural integrity of the copper heatsink itself nor will running liquid metal on a copper surface for long periods of time cause issues. If you have a poor application then you might run into problems with hardening but, personally, I have one system that is going on two years without a repaste and has not raised a degree since it was first worked on. And I have seen similar results with delidded CPUs and GPUs.

 

Hello there fellow Blade owners. My friend got this pc a couple months back with liquid metal applied (GTX 1070MQ version). Then he decided to use it with an Aorus Gaming Box GTX 1080 while at home. Yeah I know, the gain is not too much since the bandwidth limitation but the temps were still a bit high for his taste and he tought it could help the situation better. Nevermind...

But we are having a hard time to get it to work. We are getting the infamous "Code 43" and tried a bunch of different things to get past this but to no avail unfortunately. Whenever we plug the eGPU thunderbolt connector, at first, it appears as if it is working. It reads as GTX 1080 in Device manager, and after that the yellow exclamation comes. CODE 43.

Things we've tried so far;

1) Uninstalling everything with DDU and then install the driver from the Gigabyte site, which is for the Gaming Box.
2) Uninstalling the driver again, and then install the driver(s. We tried a bunch of them notebook / desktop) WHILE the GTX 1070 is disabled from the device manager.
3) Disabling PCIe Express Controller x16 from the device manager under system tab. And doing the same routines mentioned above again. This action completely removed the GTX 1070 MQ from the picture, making it dissappear from the device manager display adapters list.
4) Updating the Gaming Box firmwares.
5) Installing the drivers while the Windows' Signed Driver Enforcement feature disabled.
6) Updated Thunderbolt 3 Drivers.
7) Tried the Razer GPU Switcher, which puts GTX 1080 on its button but it is greyed out.

Installing any driver when both NVIDIA cards are active makes things worse. If we install a desktop driver when both GTX 1080 and 1070MQ are active, GTX1070MQ falls down to yellow mark.

What else there is to do ? What are we missing? This thing is supposed to be plug & play right?

 

Not with Aorus gaming box, there’s a lot compatibility issue with this enclosure, Gigabyte seems try doing the best firmware updates for this but some Blade model doesn’t run well with it, and it’s not only on Blade Laptops.
Did you also try old Nvidia drivers too?

 

We even tried 37x.xx drivers. Gonna try it with my GS65 ASAP.

 

Tell your friend to buy something else and put higher cards on it, to get similar performance with 1070maxq on Blade 15, especially when he play on 1080p. Egpu performance isn’t great to bump gaming laptops performance, only on ultrabook. Yes you’ll get better temperature though, but you’ll have better experience on dgpu...unless he play 4K like me, with minimum 1080ti. Or get Blade 15 with 1060 maxq for better battery life and temperature if he decided to go with eGPU at home, and still have power on go.

 

What are the primary differences between the Razer Core V1 vs Razer Vore V2. OBviuosly the V2 is newer but what are the major differences? It seems like there was an attempt to make the V2 a Better Docking station/port as compared to the V1.

That is what my initial research tells me (via Reddit) but if you're a user such as myself who intends to use the laptop's primary monitor/keyboard and not to port out, are there any major differences?

 

FedEx has a global distribution hub in Memphis where most packages go before being rerouted. At Memphis, the packages are sorted and loaded onto FedEx cargo planes that are destined for specific major airports. Once arriving at the airports, the packages are then received and sent to the local depots. This is the same for almost all mail carriers.

So while it would've been faster for the package to go from Hong Kong to Los Angeles in terms of distance, FedEx has already calculated the logistics of having everything being centralized in Memphis.

 

Razer Core V2 has separate lanes to control i/o ports, it won’t disturbing gpu Data Bandwidth unlike Core v1 that caused plugged pheriperals un/replugging, second it has slightly bigger room to fit some gaming x and strix. If you intend to use internal screen and Blade Keyboard, those are similar performance, also like other TB3 egpu enclosures. Note though, using internal screen will reduce slightly FPS, but if you’re using high end gpu you’ll rock solid over 60fps on 1080p. Other things to notice egpu is lame on high FPS, for example I play Far Cry 5 1080p max 80~FPS on core and internal Display with even 1080ti it’ll around be around 70fps, on external monitor maybe slightly 2 to 3 FPS better. Overwatch maxed on 144Hz, drop only to 110fps on Blade 1070, but on core 1080ti it’ll drop to high 90ish. Personally to me egpu is 4K gaming device, on this areas, vs desktop on some games like Battlefront 2 i am getting similar performance, and any 1070 desktop with OC watercooling etc won’t even closing this 4K performance.

 

Thanks I'm using a 1060 version of the Blade 15 so I really need/want the Core for my games at home and to reduce overall temps I really dislike a hot laptop lol...

 

I realize that to a degree but in my mind I have to think tons of stuff has to end up going from China to the womewhere on the west coast either LA, Seattle, San Fran, San Jose, any of those. And you really want to tell me logistically it's still better to go to Memphis and then to west coast? I'm not an expert but I have decent logic here, and I don't see it unless the airports on the West Coast are just that bad but even a flight from China to Memphis doesn't sound normal to me (Direct Flight)

 

I would recommend Core X it’s only €300, has bigger PSU for high end gpu like Volta or Turing that need more wattage, bigger room than v2 for bigger PSU, normal Fans size if you want to change it to something better. It’s also if you use it only as pure egpu enclosure and don’t need USB ports, Ethernet...and also chroma lightning

 

I definitely need Chroma Lighting though that's among the most important things, I mean you even have it as your Avatar that's how important it is.

 

One point of concern, and this will also include those using eGPU enclosures, what temperature can we all generally agree on is a safe, several-hour-long gaming session temp for the CPU? Is running between 80-90C safe and fine for this system, being that the 8750H is a heat factory? or is downclocking to stay around 80C pretty necessary for lifespan? I'm considering using the Blade docked to my desktop setup, and really want to get as much information out of this discussion as possible.

 

My CPU never goes above 54-60 I'm surprised yours goes that high wow.. I did shutoff turbo which I don't really need in my games or anything that I do in my day to day life.

 

That's exactly why it doesn't get hot, at turbo clocks it can clear 90s.

 

Do you absolutely need turbo? And if so do you need it over a 7-8 hour session?

 

Would you disconnect the Turbo charger in your newly purchased car? Because you don’t need it due restricted speed on the roads? The car can manage 240Km/h but max speed on the road is below the half.

 

No, games like Fortnite run just fine on lower clocks. I'm mainly concerned with longevity purposes, as low to mid 80s seem like it could last a lifetime, but just want the opinion of others in case I'm wrong. Otherwise I have no issues downclocking, my own system is used at 3.0 GHz across all 6 cores for temp control.

 

If it was killing the Longevity of my Car I might, I currently own a Toyota Supra MIKIV Turbo and ended up picking an LC500h to prolong the life of my Supra and her turbos

 

Can’t say 100% save on 80ish cpu temperature since I started looking at cores temperature first on Blade 14 2017, though after 14 months usage in good gaming experience with FFXV, AC Origins, Dishonored 2, Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1, Residents Evil...i think There’s also other titles that I finished on that with avarage temperature 80ish, I could sell it in mint condition. Though before sell it I reset all bios setting (I moded the bios), put back undervolting to 0 and show Razer high temperature on gaming in order to get diagnosis “freely“ They seems change some parts that needed to be changed, idk exactly what it’s but it has something to do with PSU, though I didn’t feel the difference before and after diagnosis and parts change, only noticed that they cleaned it
My old Blade 2015, i think it was also running on that Temperature range since I didn’t monitor the temperature and undervolting at all, because I was Macbook user, unbox and use. I used it for 2 years gaming without hardware issue and after sold it I asked the new owner not a friend but I know him, last time I met him around after a year usage it is still working fine, though he’s not using it for gaming as I did.

 

Not here You can drive as fast as your car can on some areas in Autobahn (freeway) Yes i won’t speed down my Blade , I’ve 2 years guarantee on it so within that time I’ll push it max

 

Ah, so the laws of physics and chemistry are suddenly overriden by Der8auer's opinion. Rejoice, believers, we are saved!

smh

 

i'm so jealous....

 

You asked about the long term effects of liquid metal on copper and received an answer. I trust a professional overclocker who uses liquid metal more than I do some random person the internet who cannot accept when they're possibly wrong (i.e. yourself).

Plus, as I stated, I have personally used Conductonaut on systems long-term without any of the negative consequences you're fearmongering.

Come back when you have more empirical evidence and less unsupported conjecture.

 

I've offered him up plenty of empirical evidence, not sure why he's so hung up over the use of gallium-indium compound, as I've never seen a copper heatsink fail from usage, just some alloying that occurred over time that caused negligible thermal impedance, and would STILL by far surpass thermal performance offered by any "conventional" TIM.

 

^ This.

 

This is our experience as well. We have built thousands of laptops over the years with LM that are in the field being used every day, without incident...other than having cooler temps.

 

Fallacy of authority.

You're obviously emotionally invested in this since you call science fearmongering. I really don't care what anecdotal evidence you have to show me. I can also claim that I LMd for decades and every single time the vapor chamber exploded due to corrosion.

" Indium and tin, which are usually a part of the liquid metal, will form an alloy on top of the cooler."

Yes it will. I only wonder where the gallium will go. Hmm. Evaporates? No. The gallium atoms jumped into the copper matrix.

" Which is not going to make performance worse"

Copper-gallium alloy has lower thermal conductivity than pure copper. So in fact yes, it IS going to make performance worse. You can clean up the tin and indium but you can't clean up the gallium from it.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00339-009-5098-1



OwO what's this?

"But the T2 Copper-Alloy is inappropriate to be used as structural material of a liquid metal cooling system for the dynamic corrosion process will cause great damage to its surface."?

I'll tell you what it is. It is the material science telling you and your dear Der8auer person to stop spreading false information.

 

This!
Do you offer after purchase LM? There’s some reseller here in Germany like Arlt that offers LM and repasting Service after purchase, but they don’t sell Blade, only MSI and Asus laptops so i don’t quite feel comfortable giving my Blade to them.

i don’t have much knowledge about this, but you know over 50% information that you find in internet isn’t right. Experience is the best thing about this (me) like on U2 Song

 

Sorry, what? I am showing you an academic research from actual scientists in academia who conducted an experiment under strict controlled conditions and you will claim that you prefer anecdotal evidence instead?

I think we found the problem here.

 

Yes I found the problem already since you shared it first time, it’s next year a decade old article, and it seems a thesis or student article to me, it has similar links with mine or my wife thesis, that uploaded by university, my wife thesis could be even bought on Amazon.de, but it’s already 8 years since she graduated and no income

 

Ah, I've forgotten that the laws of physics and chemistry change every 10 years.

Feel free to find another research into the effects of gallium on copper. I will be waiting here.

Ever heard of the concept of peer review? Yeah, Springer apparently does it.

 

Just put in an order for my third system from @hidevolution: a Razer Blade 15, and I selected repasting with Conductonaut. I order with confidence due to my personal experience ordering from them over many years. First, I respect their experience in the laptop field, regarding actual laptops, over time. Secondly, as they stand behind their systems. As a physician, I have seen many scientific articles, some even published by the Springer group, that end up not being supported over time.

 

"As a physician, I have seen many scientific articles, some even published by the Springer group, that end up not being supported over time."

Yea, we've also seen ciggarettes being supported by physicians for being healthy for you. So?

My proposition: How about @hidevolution conduct their own experiment in a controlled environment, do a write up and publish it in a journal? Don't you think it would be more reasonable than kvetching about a study which remained unchallenged for 9 years (most likely for a good reason)?

 

Hi all sorry to jump in on this, its hard to find a place on the internet where you can actually ask real questions about Razer products(!), specifically this laptop - and my search results keep bringing me back to this topic.

I've got a Razer Blade 15 GTX 1070 and am wondering if I should return it.

I saw a lot of threads earlier about 3dmark and stress test etc so have tried to do my best to get an understanding if my machine is performing properly, and wondering if I should return it.

At this stage, I don't want to mess with the internals, repasting etc, I'm not confident enough to do that and not sure about warranty - I'm in the UK and I think the US has better regulations in place in regards to being able to tinker with your product.

So, I've run 3dmark stress tests on my out of the box razer (not set to gaming mode), and its failed both the Firestrike and Timespy (again, regular, not ultra, or extreme).

Looking at the results, I can see the GPU getting as hot as 99 deg C (more than a few points at this temp), and the CPU generally being around 82 - 86, with one peak up at 99 deg C...

Is this normal, I'm quite concerned it failed the tests out of the box (I got 95.5% and 96.5%), and I don't think things should be running as hot as 99? I'll add, the scores are marked as valid scores and I've updated my graphics drivers.

Thanks for any help/feedback in advance (if I should have posted this somewhere else let me know!)

 

Unchallenged or no one cares about it as much as you do?

If you don't like LM, don't use it. Many people will continue to use it with good results, some may get bad results. Personally I won't ever use it. I think there is no point trying to police people about LM here as truly none of us are experts and becoming a Google Sheikh and finding articles to support our arguments is silly for many reasons.

 

Well, we(physicians) used to use mercury and blood letting too. Learn more, experience more, it changes all the time actually. I am trained as a scientist, and know that I am not a material, nor chemical expert, so I depend on experienced people (with skin in the game) to help with decision making.

@rmorse while I can't tell you what to do, these laptops (and all the very thin laptops like this one) are known to be hot under load. A lot of heat being formed, and limited area/volume for dissipation. I ordered mine for 80% business work (websites, Word/PowerPoint, accessing a VPN to my business software) and 20% for gaming while traveling. These sessions are rarely more than a couple of hours. I will be using a stand to increase the air flow, and am getting the laptop repasted by the vendor @hidevolution during the sale. I really value the small size for carrying about at work and traveling. I have a larger gaming laptop at my beach house for longer sessions, and use desktop at home.

There are some things you can do software wise to lower temps - undervolting and fan managament and the like. There are examples and tutorials here. (XTU and Throttlestop are a couple of examples) I will be trying some of these, depending on temps.

You will have to decide what is most important to you - portability or gaming or heat thresholds. I have read some here, and those temps are high, and some say it will shorten the lifespan of the processors. I don't actually have knowledge along that line.

If gaming and lower temperatures under full load are important to you, I would choose a bigger laptop with better cooling capacity.

 

@Bones13, exactly this. I want to use the laptop 80% for work, some music production, and a little gaming.

Due to the fact I'm coming up to my period of not being able to return it for a full refund, I thought I would put it through its paces.

After running what (perceived to me at least) are some basic tests, and getting a "fail" score at the end, I'm quite alarmed and thinking this might affect the longevity of the laptop, and it generally has just thrown some warning signs to me that maybe all is not well underneath the hood.

I saw some temps floating about on here, but I couldn't find any relating to non gaming mode, and not modding the laptop. I was hoping some bright spark might be able to say - "that really doesn't look right"...

But at the end of all that, I'm thinking, I should surely hope a hot off the press laptop like this should not be failing the stress tests?

Anyway, thanks for your feedback, hoping also others can weigh in...

My position at the moment is, I love everything this laptop stands for, butmaybe I should return for a full refund, and wait for another iteration / manufacturing process and purchase again later on.

But, it would all be a bit silly if those temps are are to be expected for the stress tests.

As a side note, I have slight bleed on my screen, and had originally thought about returning it anyway, so I decided to go down the path and put the laptop through its paces to get a bigger picture of the system and any other potential issues.

Thanks again

 

Well clearly you people care about it plenty. Yet there's nothing. Do you want to actually discuss this issue or do you just want to entertain yourself with silly pyrrhonism?

I'm not trying to police people about using LM. I'm trying to police people about making unfounded claims with utmost certainty which might make other people do something permanent and potentially destructive.

Yea, and those people with their skin in the game and academic records out in the public came to a different conclusion than some anonymous posters with anecdotal evidence. Whom should we believe? Hmmm Ever heard of Occam's razor?

 

Firstly, I don't care as can be seen by my lack of involvement in this, so as a result, no I don't want to discuss the issue.

Secondly, you aren't qualified to police people about unfounded claims. Linking to random articles/thesis (a dime a dozen) is meaningless. In any field of study, you can find contradictive thesis/studies if you look hard enough, peer review is by no means gives anything the stamp of "it is 100% correct".

You're on a notebook review, let's leave out all this rambling on this thread - take it up via PM. I want to read about the Razer Blade, not about your opinion (or "fact" if we take your word/article at face value) about liquid metal.

 

Then go on, find a contradictory study, my dear Pyrrho. That's what I would like to see, I would as well love to LM my laptop. If it was safe.

I already explain to you what's the reason behind my arguments.

 

Here is the thing, I really don't care for LM (will never use it) nor care to win any internet argument about LM. I would however like the derailing of this thread about LM to stop.

 

You should return that, GPU on that areas isn’t right, there’s something wrong with your Blade and nothing to do with software I believe, it’s hardware matter. I posted before even with my own profile OC, gpu won’t even go above 80 degrees on Far Cry 5 long gaming session, only cpu Spike for seconds to low 90ish but overall low 80ish average temperatures after 2 or 3 hours gaming. It’s with fan 4800 Profil and Blade is default without repasting things.

 

New power brick just arrived, it's a big more wiggly than the one that came with the Blade.

Anyway, question to everyone, Who is using the blade as a desktop replacement? I.e. using this machine with a monitor and peripherals? I've been getting several quirks doing this, one being that I have to restart the blade after connecting Mini Displayport cable or Windows will lag its ass off. 2nd is that I've gotten 2 blue screens in the 2 days I've docked, which never ever happens. I'd love some more of you to experiment with this and see what happens, otherwise the machine is loud but games great at QHD.

 

My Core comes in today and I don't know what type of setup I'm going to do right away. I'm the weird kid who enjoys using laptop keyboards over traditional keyboard and sometimes I prefer 1080p over 4k or whatever high resolution. As crazy as it sounds I enjoy RTS games and i can't exactly handle RTS games outside of the standard resolution because things just seem slightly off for me.

But when I get up and running I'll post on my experience, I can't wait for when my 2080 RTX TI comes in though that'll be interesting to see...