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

Yes indeed, I can't recall ever being happier about a laptop purchase. This really does seem like a dream machine lol. Went through with purchasing a 3 year warranty, and hopefully I see every day of it.

 

Yeah, liquid metal CAN give some huge gains of up to 20C. It's all up to what the vapor chamber and fans can do. Also partly up to the binning of the CPU itself. Not everyone will see the exact same results. I'd love to see a before and after if someone can do a baseline on this unit before they apply liquid metal.

 

Here's another temp source.
https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments/8m3jhv/blade_15_3dmark_thermal_testing/

 

Well, you've seen my Overwatch temps. . I don't do synthetic benchmarks anymore because they project an unrealistic load.

Edit 1:

Ok, after letting it soak in Overwatch for a bit, Core 0 went from 87c to 83c hottest core, 81c on core 2, 77-79c rest of cores. GPU temps are identical, they creep up to about 82c.

This is with stock voltage, same settings, same 74f room, same location.

Gaming mode to follow, but honestly You'd probably see close to same results with good thermal paste.

Edit 2: Gaming mode sees MUCH more of a temp improvement. before it was spiking to 92c on several cores, now it doesn't go over 84 on cores 0 and 2, all things being equal. GPU temps still end up around 82c, and you see between 7 to 20 FPS improvement. Not much, but not bad either.

The Auto fan profile is different for Gaming mode. . it kicks up harder and sooner, so not overly shocking on the temp front.

I think I'm gonna call it good and enjoy the heck out of this thing

 

Nice, sounds like a winner. I just ordered some grizzly conductonaut, conformal coating, and a delid device so I can switch out all the TIM on my EVOC. I'm seeing some crazy temps right now and I'm pretty sure it's due to the TIM as this thing shouldn't be seeing the GPU at 90C with games at 4K, it's got a pretty beefy cooling solution. I turn everything down to 1080p and it's pretty cool and quiet at that point. My main goal for applying LM is just to get those fans rotating as slow as possible. The cooler the CPU and GPU are, the slower the fans need to rotate. I really don't care about overlclocking, I just want my games to run fast with the thing being as quiet as possible. I think LM might be my only answer here.

My second best answer would be to just switch out to a 1080p panel. I REALLY don't want to do that as I love using general desktop apps at 4K. I've just grown way too accustomed to seeing nice fonts. But if I'm going to run everything at 1080p just to keep the fans quiet I'd rather not see the scaling interpolation all the time... ugh.

How's your temps if you lock everything down to 60fps? I always assumed 120-144Hz gaming was just making the GPU work harder for a potentially unnoticeable gain. I suppose you could have the opinion that 1080p -> 4K is doing the same thing depending on what's important to you.

 

I could almost write a book on the difference between 4k 60Hz and 2k/1080 144-165Hz. I used to prioritize resolution over refresh rate almost religiously, while my son [who is a huge FPS player] extolled the virtues of refresh rate over all.

Then I got the ROG Swift, and I can't go back. Having the screen refresh at double the rate keeps all movement on screen nice and sharp at all times, and once you experience it, it can be VERY hard to go back. It's not a waste, but it *IS* more beneficial for FPS games as opposed to anything else.

I highly suggest checking out Linus' past videos on the comparison for a better explanation than I can provide.

 

Interesting that the gpu on your 1060 version runs as hot as the 1070 version!

 

Judging from several comments here in the last few days, I don't think folks are aware that the 1070 version of the Blade is slightly thicker and heavier than the 1060. I'd guess there are differences in the heatsink and fan assembly.

 

I did know and almost added that in there, but I was thinking it wouldn’t offset it by much. I could be wrong :0

 

Yes I was aware and was surprised even more because of it, I didn't expect the 1060 to run hotter, period. Just pulled some Overwatch numbers again, clocked down to 3.6ghz and my CPU is hovering in and out of high 70s and low 80s, and the GPU never cracked over 78c. Tested in AUTO fan mode on Performance profile. Just an FYI, Auto speeds up to a max of 4500 fan speed, which is the lowest option under Performance Manual mode.

Again, these are Kryonaut numbers, fans at 4500, and in a room roughly 71F.

 

Was it a big improvement in temps?

 

So does the 1070 version run a bit cooler than the 1060 version?

 

Pheraps it's the die size of the GPU that makes the difference. Like i said before, we don't know much about laptops paired with a "full" vapor champer design and without a larger and organised test, we won't learn much about it anytime soon.

GTX 1070 mq is 80-90W and 320mm2
GTX 1060 mq is 60-70W and 200mm2

The 1060 Max-Q should be a 30% denser GPU in terms of power, if my redneck style calculations make any sense. Pheraps now we can make use of that graphene thermal pad. Maybe it will help generating a higher surface are for the vapor champer to work on.

 

Is the razer logo on the lid RBG or are you only able to control the brightness?

 

Its only green, and has options for On, Off, and 'breathing'

 

I'll be honest, I'm kinda surprised Razer went and made two separate designs for the 1060 and 1070 models. The most prudent thing [and cheaper] would have been to design for the 1070 and then implement the same on the 1060, which would have added more overall cooling. I'm wondering if they did it the way they did to make sure the 1060 didn't end up being the "superior" notebook in terms of overall cooling....

Another thing I was surprised by is that, when you drop the performance level to better battery, it looks like it can actually last 5-6 hours on light usage, which for a performance notebook [even one with optimus] is pretty phenomenal!

Which is kinda assinine given the performance of MY unit, but I could have just won the proverbial silicon lottery, as it were.

After using this thing for several hours last night, I'm about ready to make it my daily driver, and that is REALLY saying something! Someone FINALLY built a machine that's comfortable for me to use in 100% use case scenarios. Anyone wanna buy an MSI Typhon G25 with dual 2 TB M.2s, a 2 TB storage HDD, 32 gig ram, and an Asus 27" ROG Swift IPS 2k 165Hz panel? >.> She's been LM'd as well....

 

So here is a weird thing about the double designs. My 1070 version came with a 1060 sticker above the keyboard. Now I'm wondering if somehow I received the wrong chassis and actually had the 1070 model inside of a 1060 chassis/heatsink.

 

Can you play a game or 2 of fortnite and record your temps? I'm having a hard time keeping mine off mid 80s and 2 cores seem to hit 90.
edit: this is using an undervolt, repaste, and 3.9Ghz, there isnt any throttling and my fans aren't even max, not to mention room temp is nearly 76F... I just like cooler temps over extra performance, i might dial it down a bit more.

 

For everyone who got a Blade 15, did you get your email and code for all the software after delivery? Did it take a while or come right away? thanks ...

 

Could those of you who own the new Blade please do me a favor? I'm trying to determine if mine is defective or not. Specifically, the fans. When they ramp up, they have a distinct high pitched whine to them. Are others seeing this as well or do your fans just make a whooshing noise without the whine?

 

Mine had a bit of whine for sure.

 

I haven't gotten that email yet, didn't they say like 10 days later?

 

Ah, OK. I didn't see that. On the bottom of the campaign page it just says after delivery. I'll ping them to see.

https://www.razer.com/campaigns/intel-vr-bundle#get-started-now

 

Nice find, did you receive a master key? It isn't in my "delivery confirmed" email.

 

Per Razer support, the Master Keys should arrive 14 days after delivery

 

It’s making me second guess my 1060 order here. Hmmn what are your thoughts. Maybe 1070 is the way to go

 

Buy based on whats going to suit you the longest. If you trade out laptops frequently, it'll hold you off til 11 series is out later. If you plan to keep it, get the stronger gpu unless you don't game on it much.

 

If you're a heavy gamer pounding every latest AAA title it's probably worth the extra $200, but the 1060 is an absolute beast for 1080 as it is. I get more than the 144Hz advertised in everything *I* run, so I'm 100% happy with my purchase.

They didn't have the 1070 available when I ordered, and I'll grant you: you can't miss what you never had, but I have no regrets.

 

Forgot to tag you Assualt. I do game a lot!

That’s exactly what I was thinking. Now I’m thinking 1070 would be worth the extra $200

 

I'd say it is. You can always run it at a lower clock if you want to try to keep the laptop quieter, but really who's going to do that.

I've been waiting for that panel to become available to purchase separately somewhere. It's in 2 laptops already. Looks like it has really good color accuracy and contrast.

 

Sounds like you know what to do then lol
@hfm It's the most impressive 1080p matte panel I've ever seen on a laptop, I can't believe the clarity. it's plenty bright, too.

 

This is often the case with PWM controlled fans. Also called PWM whine.

Dont worry about that.

 

Well, if the CPU is bottlenecking, or if you're just hitting the rate of diminishing returns....

For example: I had an 8700k 5Ghz O/C'd desktop build with a closed loop watercooled GTX 1080ti paired to my RoG Swift. at 2k medium settings it pushed close to 300 FPS in training, but in matches would drop down to 150-200.

Originally the machine was built with 2 GTX 1080s, which got almost EXACTLY the same frame rates. I added a 2nd 1080ti, and got: Exactly the same frame rates. I think that's the point at which I gave up on Desktops and started selling everything off.

The bottom line is: Anything over 144Hz [in this case] is effectively hitting a massive wall of diminishing returns. As such, there's a good argument for downlclocking past a certain point.

The REALLY sad part is: You probably wouldn't even NEED the 1070 on the 1080 Blade if companies would:

A) Stop being lazy and turn out horrible console ports [For all I care they can quit making consoles completely]
B) Shut down Ubisoft and have their CEO, board of directors, and entire management group drawn, quartered, set on fire, put out with the municipal water supply of Flint, Michigan, and then force them to drink the water until lead poisoning causes the to die. There are a couple other studios I'd like to see this happen to as well, but it's late, and Ubisoft is the first one that popped into my head.

As an afterthought, we can shut down and obliterate all traces of CoD, Battlefield, Counterstrike, and all those other games. They were boring with the original Doom, and they peaked at the original Quake. With the POSSIBLE exceptions of the Crysis franchise and Overwatch, they really haven't evolved since then anyway [more like the opposite, as the coders have dropped to single digit IQs and are now coding in crayon]

I could go on, but if I did we'd be left with a player friendly pre-Activision buyout of Blizzard, a smattering of Pokemon RPG titles, and full VR Elite: Dangerous.

I know most of that is totally pointless, irrelevant, and subjective. I should just delete it, but I'm not going to, because it felt SO GOOD to write it down!

 

Hi,
I'm tossing up this and the XPS 15. Basically i'm very sceptical of the XPS due to heaps of complaints on previous generations (not much difference from razer lol) so i'm looking at other options.

Is anyone able to tell me what temps and the speed at which the CPU runs after a 10+ minute stress test? Any stress test software is fine coz they all tend to be a higher load than any normal task is. Clock speed from task manager is fine as well.

Additionally, does the thunderbolt 3 port run off the iGPU only, or does it switch between it and the dedicated nvidia chip depending on the task? Wondering because ideally, id connect 2 external displays via the TB3 port, meaning I would only need to connect 2 cables to the laptop.

Thanks

 

FWIW, aren't the 1070 and 1060 both the same GP104 die and thereby the same area? I know some shaders are lasered off but the actual die should be the same size.

 

Nah, 1060 is it's own die, 1070 is cut down 1080 (not 1080 Ti, that's another die). I was surprised when I found out, but I guess the yields are pretty good.

 

It either runs off both, or dedicated only. It DEFINTELY uses dedicated under gaming.

 

Got my new blade. So nice! I swapped out the Samsung 960 256gb for a 2tb 860EVO M.2. I think it's a better value among 2tb compatible drives.

 

any whine in the power brick during use?

 

Also worked on CPU undervolting, I'm planning on using throttlestop. What program do you recommend for stress testing the CPU?

 

Not that I can tell. Although I haven't been listening closely. I've been more focused on the fans. I know it's subjective, but fans are much less annoying than my previous MSI GS60. I'll check later and let you know... How close do you have to be to hear the power brick whine?

 

Not sure if It just happens when playing a game or not. I have a perfectly working GS65 now and i'm debating making the switch to this blade... hoping I get a good model with no issues

 

GS65 looks pretty good, but WOW does it look hard to open up to service... Saw a YouTube video on it last night for LM repasting.

 

Hp is releasing their newer 15" Omen end of July, they used more design features from their Omen X laptop this time, it looks great and is cheap. Lenovo needs to get their heads out of their asses now, they've hardly been competitors in the gaming laptop space lately.

 

Is anyone having problem with their mics? I cant get the built in mic working at all.

 

You have to enable "shared use" instead of "exclusive use", otherwise the NSA / CIA / FBI hogs the Microphone...

 

Hey guys - got my Blade 15 earlier this week and am really enjoying it. I use it for productivity a decent amount, but do play a good bit of MMO's like WoW and FFXIV. With Throttlestop, Syapse Fan Controls and a cooling pad, I'm able to maintain temps in the low to mid 70's at max. Again not the most demanding games, but the build quality and professional look sealed the deal for me, considering I don't really play AAA titles on the go. I believe someone else mentioned this on here, but even at those lower temps, the wrist rests still get toasty, especially my left side one. Wish that was a bit better and am looking into a re-pasting to help out.

One question I have - has anyone encountered odd cursor lag when using the trackpad? When I'm on the windows desktop screen and am opening/closing apps, there is a constant 2-3 second delay on the cursor moving. Doesn't happen when IN an app, or game - nor does it happen if I have a mouse connected. Can't identify where this issue might be stemming from and Google didn't turn up any good insights. If anyone has an idea, I'm all ears!

 

How long does it take to get that way and does it become unplayable at that point?

 

I'm curious, could someone with a eGPU (any model) provide temperature values of the CPU during gaming/benching and compare them with the dGPU? Want to know how the vapor chamber might profit if the dGPU is off.

 

After calling customer service three times over the last week/being told it would be in stock June 4th. I emailed Jeff Bezos aka the CEO of Amazon about “Amazon”not even having a delivery date on the laptop! I just got this response. Keep in mind they never had it in stock to begin with. The message starts below.

“My name is Rachel and I'm with Amazon.com Executive Customer Relations. Jeff Bezos received your recent email, and I'm responding on his behalf.

I’m so sorry it's taking longer than normal for you to receive the Razor Blade gaming laptop you ordered from our site. As someone who enjoys electronics, I definitely understand the frustration something like this can cause. I’m happy to jump in and take ownership of this issue for you.

Upon reviewing your account, I see the item was out of stock when the order was placed. When an item is out of stock but we allow customers to place the order it means we’re fully expecting the item to return to stock within a short period of time.

With that being said, I’ve partnered with our vendor team to see if they can provide any additional information on when we’re expecting to get the laptop in stock. Partnering with other teams takes some time. I’m currently in the office from Friday-Monday but I’ll be sure to email you as soon as I have an update.

I understand how important it is for you to receive your laptop as quickly as possible. I’ve upgraded the shipping method to One-Day Shipping, meaning the laptop will ship out one day after we receive the item in stock.

Sean, thank you for your patience and understanding while I continue to work on this issue for you.

I’ll be in touch soon!”

I told them it was never in stock to begin with. I just completed my order off Razer. I’m very disappointed with Amazon. They’re usually on top of things. They offered free one day shipping when I already had that. I don’t know what’s going on over there. I’ve been a loyal customer for 9 years and have easily spent over $100,000 with them