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

The screws around the CPU and GPU are spring loaded as you know to increase the mounting pressure. So you should be fine if you tightened them down okay. I just went as far as I felt I could take it without worrying about the springs to cause hairline fractures when the machine is thrown around in my backpack. You might also have been a bit conservative with the amount of thermal paste you put on the GPU die. If you can create enough mounting pressure, you can put quite a bit more paste on the GPU die, as it will be squashed out from the sides and maybe help the PCB that the die is sitting on to conduct a little bit of heat away from it. That's mostly the reason GPUs get quite a bit more thermal paste from the factory.

 

I have tighten them until my screwdriver can take it, so may be open again and put some more, first try was on X patern on the GPU and line on the CPU. May be spread it ?

 

I'd guess that it spread just fine on its own. Maybe go with an X and a vertical line on the GPU next time ( https://vgy.me/9SoXgv.png). Depending on how thick the lines of your cross are, it might have left out a bit. But everyone's got their own perfect recipe to apply thermal paste. I mean, just make sure that you cover the thing properly.

After testing a bit with actual games I found that my results from before were quite a bit optimistic. When stressing each component one at a time the temperatures decreased, but when both are stressed at the same time, I'm still seeing a large reduction in CPU temperatures, but the GPU temperatures have actually risen about 6-7°C compared to before.
My guess is that even though my repaste wasn't garbage, the added heat which the CPU is dumping into the same heatsink that the GPU is dissipating its heat into is raising overall component temperatures. Yay for heat dissipation, nay for GPU clocks.

 

KIZARU

 

So a few posts ago I wrote about my high temps / repaste / firestrike score. Fully stock and in gaming mode, my Blade 15 (1070) was hitting 14,400-14,500 consistently. I was very happy w/ the performance. My only issue was and still is the temps.

GPU would rarely break 80c in gaming mode. It actually runs cooler in gaming mode because the fans seem to kick on earlier. My CPU in gaming mode, even AFTER a -.140 undervolt and repaste with Noctua is still peaking 100c on most cores. The spikes are instantaneous and I don't lose performance or throttle - the CPU always averages in the low 80s then will have a instant spike and drop right back down. Nonetheless my logs show a max temp of 100c.

GPU runs at acceptable temps, average being 72-80c under load. It's just the CPU that worries me, especially after a repaste and undervolt. I'm seeing others with the same setup getting much lower temps. Even on balanced mode, the GPU will hit low 80s and the CPU will stay around 85c and creep up to 90s. It seems that after the latest Synapse update the fans are taking their sweet ass time to ramp up. In Rivatuner I see the CPU / GPU hover in the 80c-90c range and the fans still sound like they're at 2k rpm. Even if I set them manually to 4600rpm+ before a game, I will still eventually hit high 90s.

Bear in mind these temps are mainly achieved in gaming mode, in the most demanding new titles - SOTR, PUBG super ultra with 120% res scale, etc.

At this point I think I'm going to return it and get the Mercury white edition. Fortunately I bought it through Amazon and they have a 30 day return policy. The Mercury edition literally came out the day after I got mine lol, and although I really like the sleekness of the black, I equally like the white and my mindset is the white edition is the newest of the bunch - just recently produced. Hopefully the white editions have all the issues ironed out from the early models.

 

USB boot from cloned NVMe - See HOW!
Lots of reason to do this,
Peace of mind just in case you have issues.
Keep your internal NVMe and use it as fast storage
No need to open you Razer Blade.

 

I have a question for Base model owners. I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on one and while the Advanced version is nice (especially the cooling), I am thinking of going with the base for the Ethernet and 2 drive slots. I already have a 970 1TB nvme that I can swap in for the main drive (m.2), but was thinking on whether the chassis 2.5" slot was deep enough to hold a 2.5" 5TB hard drive (15mm seagate), which I know is slightly thicker than normal 2.5" drives.

This would be for my boatload of work files (files that don't need to be very fast).

Can anybody with the base model measure the depth for me next time they have their machine apart? Thanks in advance

 

I highly doubt it would hold a 15mm thick drive?
You can try calling Razer support and asking.

 

So I sent in a request for Amazon to pick up my Razer Blade 1070 model for return..long story short, temps are too high even with an undervolt and repaste (hitting 100c) after an hour of gaming.

I'm considering the Mercury white edition now, that also comes with Call of Duty for free. Same price, obviously.

Do you guys think the 2017 Razer Blade Pro is even worth considering at this point? It's $300 off each model, so this brings the GTX 1080 / 4k version down to 4k. I've probably read 100 reviews...all mixed. At the end of the day I really like the look and performance of the laptop, but I've read so many issues from battery swelling to power throttling. Anyone know if these issues have been ironed out or should I just stay away completely?

 

Prime doesn’t really stress my cpu (default paste), try some demanding games.

You play cpu demanding game, SoTR and pubg. If I use gaming mode which is overclocking 100/300 it would definitely break 90ish mark. Such games I use balanced mode for better cpu temperature, 2 hours SoTR average cores temperature are mid 80ish with some cores spike to low 90ish, Other games like Overwatch are fine on gaming mode that keep max on 80ish.
Blade Pro gtx1080 is too expensive for 4K bucks, it has still old cpu. I saw issues on that with performance, heat, and with 250 watt ac adapter it won’t deliver a good 1080 performance. I would go for mercury Blade.

 

I am not sure about the thicker 2.5" drive but know a standard 2.5" 4tb ssd drive works very well. I will be ghosting my 2tb m.2 ssd next weekend when the adapter module arrives. So far my 2018 Blade base model is working fine but it is working as a business machine. I may change out the paste some time in the future with Arctic Silver paste if heat is an issue. Not sure it is going to be with how I am using this machine.

 

Likewise - my usecase is mostly work and for playing games once in a blue moon (even then maybe simple things like Pathfinder Kingmaker or XCOM or similar - not FPS), it's mostly going to be my work away from work setup. I was going to go with the XPS 15 - I love the super thin form factor but I've heard there were thermal throttling issues since it's the same chassis for a few generations now (both CPU and GPU wise), so I decided to give the Blade 15 a look.

My m.2 1tb NVME would hold the OS and maybe a game or two but all of my work files (MS office type files) as well as audiobooks and maybe MP3s and MP4s (for travelling) would go on the mechanical drive. I know there are standard size 2.5" HDs but figured if I had to upgrade from stock, I might as well try to get the biggest available (which I believe is a 5TB 15mm 2.5" Seagate drive). So I can "One and Done" it and never have to deal with it again.

 

I am playing Zelda Breath Of The Wild with Cemu, which is quite CPU intensive, temps are CPU bellow 85 degree on 3.4-3.6 GHz, GPU is ~75. But yesterday my second adapter start buzzing... Started to think about returning second one too...

 

As you'd like to return the Razer Blade 15 2018 due to its temp issues, I wouldn't consider the 2017 model with the GTX 1080.
After all, thin and lights are indeed very practical, but in the end the heat has to go somewhere and that's it where they have their issues, if you are not willing to accept a little higher temps.

 

I have xps 15 9570 with 8750H, and after repaste and some thermal pads on mosfets there is no throttle at all, CPU is running on full speed and GPU as MAX-Q, stays high in boost 1700 MHz+ with some undervolt. Problems I have with it are - no fan control, and high latency (which somehow is connected with Nvidia drivers)

 

Is it playable now, I tried before on my previous Blade, it was laggy, anyway I finished the game on switch. Sorry to hear that, about the adapter, fortunately mine, first EU batch works still fine.

 

It is playable at perfect 60 fps on 1080p, mine is second batch EU

 

With 2080 egpu setting do you think could be able to run 4K?

 

It is CPU bound, but when dGPU is nor working it will not produce heat (meaning CPU will work on higher clocks), so it is quite possible.

 

I got to a point where i had to do something I didn't think I would do... I sold my razer blade 15 and I purchased the Asus Zephyrus M GM501

The Razer has been incredible and i really enjoyed my time with it but while before I would have recommended it glowingly the more I used it the more it started to show its imperfections to me. So for anyone who is debating between the 2 laptops I wanted to come here and share my experiences on why I made the switch and why the Razer blade no longer is my gold star anymore.

One thing Razer gets right is the Battery. It has one of the bigger batteries in this class and with the most recent update i was getting 6-7.5 hours f batter on better battery and balanced setting thats world breaking for this catagory and it was awesome being able to go through an entire workday on one charge and not have to pack my charger is awesome. With the Zephyrus 48 hours later after all updates and firmware updates im getting 5-6 hours on optimus mode with better battery on balanced setting. not bad but that 7.5 peak battery life compared to the 6 is a pretty big deal so if battery life is your selling point the Razer wins there pretty easily

2. The biggest thing for me and what ultimately lead to my switching is Optimus..... Optimus needs to die or be able to be turned off. I have been a Laptop gamer for 12 years now and not once in the 17 machines I have purchased has Optimus ever been helpful when it comes to gaming. Yes this contradicts my previous post regarding battery life. Thats why I wanted the option to turn it off. When it comes to Optimus it just gimps the experience way to much if you are using this machine mostly for gaming. Nvidia Control Panel tweaks are overrided by the iGPU even if its running on Nvidia cards and there is no way around this. Considering the fact that 90% of games in game V-Sync is broken you are stuck with broken games that offer less performance than what this machine is actually capable of. The Zephyrus M allows you to not only have Optimus for battery saving but allows you to completely disable it and us G-sync which is a complete game changer after using G-Sync its really hard to go back to anything else.

3. And this is a even bigger deal than the previous 2 is CPU performance. on the Razer the CPU is severely gimped by firmware and has been beaten to death in this forum. On balanced mode even in Max Performance mode the CPU power throttles even with a 230w brick in pretty uch every game you play that has good multi core performance. How bad does it drop in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Destiny 2, Doom and Woldenstein 2 my CPU was dropping to 2.5ghz and was only at 81-85c thats a huge performance loss in games that are CPU dependent. You can get around that by enabling gaming mode ut that turns your system into a turbo jet engine for no reason... Even if you down-clock the CPU force higher voltage and even under volt it does nothing to circumvent this issue. On the Zephyrus this is not an issue the 8750h runs full power I use a down-clock of 3.5ghz on all 6 cores and it runs at 78-81c (cooler than the Razer) and i dont need to activate a jet engine mode.

TL R the Razer was a great machine and it was nice to use but the Zephyrus M provides better all around performance its $300 cheaper has a switchable G-Sync / Optimus mode. Has some of the best speakers on a laptop they are almost macbook pro good, doesnt CPU power throttle and runs cooler. So anyone on the fence between the 2 I hope this helped you come to a decision. The Razer is a great machine but for its price I dont think its worth it like I once did,

 

one of the first things i did after 72 hours I used my computer like i normally would plugged on but on battery until it died completely then i charged it when into the settings went over to battery and there is a link to "see what apps are affecting your battery" windows 10 gives you alot of control over what runs in the back ground what allows notifications and you can even limit how much the app runs in the back ground. This is a must after tweaking around with that i have been able to get an average if 7 hours of battery life with 0 loss in performance

 

My adapter just exploded in my hands .... I am out of the game

 

From Zephyrus m I like g sync panel with its response time and switchable optimus, that’s all.
Keyboard, Battery life, laptop and cooling design I prefer Blade 15.

 

Between exploding RB15 chargers and selling RB14/RBP batteries, it’s a miracle razer hasn’t been sued yet. This is literally the only notebook manufacturer with this kind of widespread problem. No other manufacturer subforum has as widespread a problem as razer. I’m considering dumping my RBP purely out of safety concern

 

ye I think about it every time I leave the house with the system plugged in.

 

I literally rarely plugged off ac adapter on any my main laptops since my Vaio age, 2006, Qosmio 2010, MacBook Pro 2012, Razer Blade 2015 and now Blade 15 mid 2018, I believe since my first laptop back then, battery will stop charging before reaching 100%. I think it’s kind standardization on manufactur process, so as consumer I’m not too worried about that actually.

 

Yea the battery life takes a hit because its a smaller batter but having the 2.5 drive is a big sell for me, I like having y games separate from my OS drives and 1-2tb SSds are dirt cheap these days so its worth the trade off and as far as design yea thats 100% personal preference the razer was cleaner but the asus is flashier so pure preference as for keyboard another preference the number pad is essential to me and I didnt realize how much i missed it intil i got it back and the bigger keys make it much easier to type on for me (again pure preference) One this for sure is the Zephyrus runs cooler than the Razer by 5-8c

in Shadow of the tomb raider
Razer 88c CPU 85c GPU
Asus 79c CPU 80GU

Destiny 2
Razer: 78c CPU 80 GPU
Asus: 74c CPU 82GPU

Overwatch
Razer 89c CPU 80c GPU
Asus 82c CPU 8 82c GPU

Those are the only games i have extensively tested and compared between the 2 and the fact that the Zephyrus has a full gtx 1070 and it runs almost identical in temperature is huge. Also considering the CPU never power throttles and remains cool to the touch is also huge. The Razer is a great machine no doubt though It has its strengths and weaknesses.

 

It’s great temperature, I believe it’s because open bottom area cooling system, that I don’t like from it due dust, durability etc as portable machine.
I’ve questions though and about Zephyrus, can you detect internal monitor as an independent monitor for nvidia surrounds mode, since it has hybrid optimus. This’s also downgrade from optimus laptop so I’ve to have 3 external monitor on my tiny desk to do that. I’m trying PLP (Portrait landscape portrait) mode to do that with 3 external.
Can you upload the best 3Dmark, Firestrike or timespy score you have with that, I didn’t see that on Zephyrus m owner lounge.

 

I'm not sure and I can't test this because I don't have any monitors to try it. I use it primarily on gsync mode and switch to Optimus when I have to do work and go to a coffee shop.

For testing I use the balance mode in Asus control panel and high performance power setting. My best scores are:

Firestrike :1080p 14158
(gpu oc +150/+400)

Cinebench: 1103 multi-core
169 single-core

 

Looks to be under performing, maybe something is throttling, Physic score should be 16500+ for a 8750H and GPU score shouldn't go lower than 17000 for a non-MaxQ GTX1070. could you post the Fire Strike link also?

 

I think it’s because he use balanced mode, once he use gpu boost, manually OC or something like that, I believe it’ll be plus 500 easily like Blade 15 difference between balanced mode and gaming mode. From gaming temperatures there’s seemly no thermal throttle at all, despite there’s some limitation on balanced mode like power limit throttling things on Blade 15, it’s expected on that mode on this laptop category against the big enemy heats.

 

I asked because I want to do this at home.

Since I don’t have big enough desk for 3 big external monitor setting, and on Optimus laptops since monitor controlled by igpu it won’t show as independent monitor on nvidia surrounds setting. Switchable g sync and optimus may show the laptop monitor as independent monitor on nvidia surrounds setting that make it could be paired with two portable monitor to do surrounds view. Atm the best portable switchable gpu laptop is Zephyrus I believe, other weight over 3Kg. So if they keep this feature on Zephyrus that I like they may get my money in the future.

 

Yeah something was funky I did a power cycle and got 17162 strange but some things have been glitchy since my computer force updated the garbage October Windows update .....

 

In gsync mode you get full control of the Nvidia control panel and Nvidia surround is available to set up in Optimus mode Nvidia control panel is the same as the Razer and takes a back seat to intel

 

Got my Mercury White Razer Blade 15 today (1070 GTX / 144hz 1080p). This was the same model as my black one, but I returned that due to high cpu temps, even after a repaste / undervolt.

Getting the Mercury edition forces you to order through the Razer store. I must say, the experience wasn't bad at all. Besides the ordering having a semi unusual verification process, everything went smoothly, they answered my calls / live chats asap, and with the $10 dollar shipping option, I got the new blade in literally A DAY. I ordered it Monday night and received it Wednesday morning. From Hong Kong, to New York. Just over a day.

I made some other notes in this video about my experience / my unboxing:

 

Just ran my first firestrike test on the Mercury White blade and got the same results, with much better temps. Totally stock and in gaming mode I hit 14,400 with a max cpu temp of 92c, average around 70c.

My black blade was maxing out at 100c when I ran firestrike in gaming mode. After the repaste and undervolt I'd still hit a max of 93c. Weird, I wonder what exactly could have been causing that.

 

the mercury white system is not the same as the black one if i read correctly it drops the vapor chamber and uses a 1060 max Q which is cooler. There may be somthing else funky going on with your black Razer though I have never seen temps like that on mine.

 

It's the exact same specs, both of mine had / have the 1070. It's weird how they set up the mercury edition. You can get it with the 1070 OR 1060, but not with the 4k screen, and you have to get it with the 512SSD. I don't think the cooling is different, but maybe my black one was early production and it had something botched with the cooling system.

I also noticed that my black one had very minimal backlight bleed, but if I looked hard I saw maybe a tiny spot or two on the bottom, and only with a black background. On this model there is literally none. The screen even seems a few nits brighter. It's either luck of the draw, or since these are the latest models, they ironed all the issues out and actually fixed what people complained about and updated the little things in production.

Razer customer service has also been pretty good, I think it's come a long way. Each online chat I've commenced they replied within a minute. When calling they answered right away, and when I ordered this they had to call me, which they did the very next morning. I think they're finally getting their **** together.

 

you are mixing something up, the Blade Base model, drops the Vapor chamber, and only comes in a 60hz variant the mercury is the same like the other blades just in silver , and with only a 1060 but with a 144hz screen

 

They make it in a 1070 version too, only with the 144hz screen. Check out their site. It also is only avail in the 512SSD config with this setup.

You can't get a mercury 1070 / 144hz / 256ssd or 1070 4k

 

Nope.

 

What's the panel type LG or BOE?

 

If I got in display properties, monitor, details - hardware IDs I see LGD05C0. So, looks like LG.

Another thing I noticed is on my black blade (same exact specs) I never hit in the 30s (c) during idle. Even after the repaste and undervolt with nothing running. Today, during boot up the new blade idled in the low 30s. Almost hit high 20s.

 

Probably because the manufacturing process gets better over time, or new batches of motherboard, heat sink and chips.

Can you open up your blade and take a picture of it. I am kinda curious about how does it look inside, or anything different from black version?

 

2019 Razer Blade should be interesting.

The 9th gen CPU’s will mean the laptops will have an integrated WiFi controller with wave 2 radio.

It will also come with the new RTX GPU’s.

Hope they manage to improve the key backlighting to secondary keys - and perhaps find a way to use larger fans to reduce noise.

Perhaps a brighter HDR 1080p version of the 144hz screen on the horizon?

And please, Windows Hello!

 

Can you upload some 3Dmark from your new Blade? Did you also run cinebench r15 the cpu?

Yes and don’t be too rush releasing it like nvidia, I don’t want to see space invader on hdr Monitor

 

I'll upload more soon. I ran Fire Strike so far and the score was almost identical to my black blade - 14,500 in gaming mode, both physics / graphics above 16,100.

The main difference was my temps were much lower, stock for stock, with the white one. My first Firestrike run on the black one yielded 100c cpu peak temps in gaming mode + throttling. My white one never broke 90c, same settings

 

That's strange as both have comparable results. Normally, you should see the throttling.

 

That’s great to hear, means they improved it.

Do you mean power limit throttling? There should no thermal throttling on firestrike even on gaming mode or max OC via afterburner, that power Limit keep the cpu going hotter on non bad unit. Got similar 14,5K gaming mode no thermal throttling max 80ish, with afterburner 210/700 15,3K overall also no thermal throttling only some core jumping to low 90ish. First batch with limited edition black vapor chamber

 

Well to specify, the black blade hit 100c on my first firestrike test and throttled. Because of this my physics score dipped to low 15k instead of 16k+. So my overall score was in the 13xxxs. After this I undervolted and I achieved 14,400 - 14,500, but still high 90 temps.