Razer Blade Pro 17" (1080 GPU/late 2016) Owner's Lounge

Would y'all get over it already? Nobody PROMISED GTX 1080 desktop class performance in EVERY GTX 1080 equipped notebook in the entire country. It gets really tedious when every post says "crippled" [it isn't] instead of "not quite up to par" [more accurate]

When I think crippled, I think HD520 integrated GPUs or maybe any mobile fermi card ever created [dang things were portable space heaters] I think buying a Blade Pro and getting Blade stealth no core performance. This ain't it.

The sad part is I suspect the tone would be a lot different if people could actually AFFORD the thing, and I suspect in a few generations, like the 14", it will.

Normally I wouldn't bother wasting my proverbial breath as it's the internet, and everyone is going to bawl and complain equally [It's everyone's right to do so] but it gets to the point where it's no longer PRODUCTIVE discussion or speculation.

Ok, you can't afford it, so it's crippled. You're ENTITLED to GTX 1080 performance and 120 FPS at maximum settings on [insert random newly released FPS game here]

I'm not saying you don't have a point: Razer products are now, and have ALWAYS been a compromise between performance and portability. There are ALWAYS going to be other manufacturers that can build higher performance hardware in a larger form factor for cheaper with trade-offs [Aorus no 4k, MSI [also = Clevo/Sager] plastic build quality, janky trackpads, etc.

I've been around long enough to have used laptops that got AT BEST an hour of battery life. I've used 10lb 15" dinosaurs as company machines, and I've spent enough in "performance laptops" to probably buy a nicely equipped lower end BMW if I wanted to. The Blade Pro is, hands down, the best machine I have ever used. I heavily prefer it to my desktop for EVERYTHING except VR [because I play Elite Dangerous, and have a HOTAS Warthog setup with pedals that's just not practical to swap out]

Exempting our VFX heavy A/V Photoshop crowd [professional use case is always a different story] nobody is going to really notice a difference of a few hundred Mhz in this day and age. If it was still so prevalent, we'd all still be using Pentium 4s MOST other GTX 1080 notebooks are still stuck on 1080 panels, and the few that come in 4k aren't going to run your AAA random title all THAT much better in real world performance [though I partially blame lazy console ports for that one] At least not enough to call the Blade Pro "Crippled"

At best I'd say "slightly nerfed".

Instead of whining and complaining about what's wrong, can't we instead embark upon a discussion of how to offset or otherwise CORRECT OR IMPROVE performance? That's what us old fogies USED to use forums for: collaborating IMPROVEMENTS! Or did everyone just move over here from macrumors or something?

Now, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[get it, b/c I'm old. . and grumpy. . . and complaining. . like an old guy ]

 

You can improve cooling but you can't improve power draw restriction the vBIOS.

The GTX1070 is around 150w TDP stock, the Blade Pro's 1080 is 160w stock. The lower power draw limitation doesn't help at all when temperatures also make the card throttle, pascal DOES THROTTLE on temperatures above 50c (in 5c steps). In the end you're only getting slightly better than a stock 1070 performance at a much bigger cost (to your wallet). Also keep in mind that the 1070 in other decently sized laptops run at full 150w (ones with power connector can be unlocked) and desktop ones can go well beyond that with some trick or even come with factory higher power limit.

 

IMPROVE performance? Have you all forgot that 6700hq is fully locked at 3.1GHz and the graphics card in this laptop will probably never perform like a thoroughbred GTX1080. It's hard when Razer use flawed/underpowered hardware and firmware.

 

If I had access to a reflow station I can probably swap that 6700HQ for a 6820HK, provided I can find a donor board or even an intact silicon.

 

First the mod of TRIPOD heatsink on the AW models and now swap that 6700HQ for a 6820HK in Razer. Maybe people should refrain from buying flawed laptop models and use their har earned money on something else?

 

The CEO did at the release event.
And even went so far as to say that no one has ever done this before them and this beats small form factor PCs.

And it is crippled. The core is exactly the same. The memory is exactly the same. It just has been limited.

You are taking things way too personally specially when no one is pointing fingers at you or blaming you for your purchase.

And no not like people can't afford it. I have a 36 Core Xeon workstation + 2 X Titan XP's, a Gaming desktop with a 6850k and GTX 1080s. A Clevo P870DM-G and the first Blade Pro.
You wanted to go there so I went there.

Point being not everyone likes to dump money on a flawed product, just because it is convenient.
For Christ sake I'm thinking of picking one up for my girlfriend.

Stop taking this personally as an attack on your purchase decision. If you are happy with it, then good for you.

And there is no improving the performance. It's locked down hard. And partly power locked by the hardware design. The performance isn't slightly lacking , it's performing like an OCd 1070. Heck it's easily 20-25% slower in benchmarks and at least 10-15 fps slower at 4k in games. Which won't matter at 40-60fps range, but the moment you hit the 30-40fps mark in the titles coming early next year. You will feel it hard. What of it then? Did the $4k notebook just become obsolete after 5 months ?

FYI. I AM a VFX professional.

 

Review Posted:

 

This is the only acceptable way to acquire a Blade Pro 1080 GPU laptop, as a Gift from a Loving Girl Friend

"Dude, it's a Gift from my Wife, it's not my fault!"

 

Man there's a lot of emotion in this thread. I'm used to seeing it in the Razer forums but not here.

I haven't seen this one yet but hopefully I get a review unit next month. Without even handling it though, I can't say I fault Linus's strong opinion. Touch typists are going to hate this keyboard and he zoomed right in on the major flaw that Razer added - the freaking up arrow next to the shift key. Could I get used to it? Sure. But why would I want to?? I use the question mark dozens, if not hundreds of times a day and I switch between computers a lot so why would I want to generate that kind of flawed muscle memory for my daily driver? As far as I know, there are zero US keyboards without the question mark being right next to the shift key.

The noise issue he pointed out is also a flaw. Mechanical keyboards are annoying enough but if the individual key noises are different in tone, that annoyance is amplified. Not much else to say on this. The Razer Blade 14 had this issue with some of the mouse buttons being different sounds and I remember it driving people in the forums crazy. I can't imagine having that problem with keys. I also had a loose "I" key on my GS73VR, which made a different noise - it drove me bonkers.

His third gripe is about the mushiness of the rebound(not the 65g actuation), which is pretty bad for a mechanical key to have but I'd have to actually type on it to see what he means. The whole point of a mechanical key is for it to rebound quickly so you can push it again as quickly as possible and not have a missed actuation. If it's mushy, there's a chance you'll have to lift your finger intentionally in order to activate it again, otherwise possibly have a failed keystroke. A simple test against the competition would be to hit the key as fast as you can on the laptop in a set amount of time and compare it. If you can't hit the key more times than a regular keyboard, there's absolutely no point in having it be a mechanical one. The video kind of shows the mushiness but still it's impossible to tell without using it myself... What I'm surprised at though is he complains about the mushiness of the Pro model but not the 14 and Stealth? Imo those keyboards are just as bad. I got used to typing on them eventually but it was still a far cry from the keys of the old Razer Blade 14(2014 and 2015 models). MSI Steelseries keyboards(except the 14" model) blow those away.

Apples and oranges, yes, but considering Linus tests so many laptops, I wouldn't dismiss his opinions so lightly. I'm surprised that he made such a bold statement considering he's pretty much first in line for the review units. Kudos for him for being brutally honest though - that's what reviewers are SUPPOSED to do. I've seen so many Razer reviews where it's like they don't even crack open the unit and just rewrite the press release.

 

I can afford the system, it's not that I can't afford the system it's about would I receive buyer's remorse and regret the decision soon after. You going off like that only tells me that the only person you're really trying to convince is yourself and not really me or anyone else. I stated super early on that I got an 8 grand bonus check for the year but the thing I keep thinking about is half my check on a computer system? Is their value there? Impulse purchases are the worst types of purchases and given the time period the hype I've pumped the breaks a few times and am slowing reaching my conclusion if or if not I should pull the trigger.

Anytime you think of the word 'value' you gotta make a comparison to determine what it means for yourself. Some people have different definitions of value, and everyone has different needs in terms of what they actually do with their systems. For instance a Graphic Designer or someone in Adobe 24.7 is going to be totally different from a gamer. I appreciate and respect everyones opinion and what their own unique definition of value is. When I've accessed those ideas/thoughts I then come up with my own conclusions perhaps heavily favored on the opinions of others whom I trust or side with but isn't that what a forum is for? I embrace different ideas and opinions but most importantly of all I respect them.

No reason to get upset or take it personally, if you're happy stay happy and don't let side chatter tilt you. At the end of the day the only person's opinion that really matters is your own, and please don't ever forget that. If you use the system use the hell out of it, and enjoy the hell out of it try to get as much value as you can out of it and have fun. That's really the most important thing at the end of the day.

 

Downloaded Throttlestop 8.30, disabled BD PRoCHOT.

Firestrike Ultra Score: No OC.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/16806093

4535.

thats +100 increase from normal run. im not sure if i should try oc it. please advice.

 

[email protected] is fully locked!!

 

Well, you're HALF right. I *AM* passionate... but you'd be wrong thinking I'm trying to "defend my purchase". I'm not defending the the Blade Pro as a flawless machine [because it DOES have some huge gaping holes in it, and yea, I include the GPU performance in it] but there are ALWAYS ways to increase performance. Sometimes they're risky [modded vBios, etc] and sometimes it just takes the right software and some patience. Hoofhearted is a perfect example of this: showing how to bypass driver signature enforcement and update to the latest drivers with the latest profiles. Constructive, helpful, intelligent.

As a side note, I don't know why everyone is harping on the 6700hq vs 6820hk. . . . you're talking seconds to a minute on a transcode. . . it's not like moving from dual core to quad! I'm not saying the 6820hk wouldn't have been a nice choice, but let's face it here: It's not the massive paradigm shift everyone seems to make it out to be. Mhz/Ghz is no longer the measure of performance it used to be in the old days of the Pentium 4. Low latency and muti-thread processing are the name of the game now, and [possibly] aside from the few MASSIVELY CPU intensive games out there [total war Warhammer anyone?] the 6700hq is going to perform JUST AS WELL as the 6820HK, or even the 6700k. . because you're never using all your processor ANYWAY.

By the same token, that's why synthetic GPU benchmarks are garbage as well: They don't tell the whole story because they're not indicative of REAL WORLD PERFORMANCE. I'm treading lightly here, because I'm not ENTIRELY disagreeing with anyone regarding the Pro's GTX 1080 performance. I seriously don't think it's as bad as to call it "crippled", but I'm withholding judgement until I see what happens with driver signature in the next month or two. I ALSO don't think the difference in price between the 1070 and the 1080 is as great as you think it is in volume purchase, and let's be brutally honest: You could have a GTX 1070 in the Blade Pro or a GTX 1080. Even if they both perform virtually identically but the GTX 1070 were half the price, Razer would've charged the same price ANYWAY. Let's face it: it's what they do!

My ultimate point, however, was that sitting here just complaining "it's broken, it's crippled, it's garbage, Razer marketing lied [No, REALLY?! MARKETING LIED?????] LOL.... it's pointless and unproductive. The machine is what it is, and it runs just fine. If your argument is "it doesn't run just fine for the price" well. . . price, like performance, is subjective.

Spoiler: personal story

Ok, so at 4 grand price isn't SO subjective. My wife almost removed certain parts of my anatomy, and SHE'S A GAMER! If VW weren't ultimately paying for the machine via dieselgate, I PROBABLY wouldn't have bought the thing...but I'm really glad I did. I enjoy USING it, it's comfortable for me, and ultimately THAT Is all that matters in the long run: That it does what I need and I'm COMFORTABLE using it. The 14" blade almost killed my neck, and I have similar issues if I try to do any serious work on the stealth. Add that to living out of hotels for weeks at a time where the majority of my work is "hurry up and wait" [translation: lots of downtime in hotels], and the relative portability becomes a life saver and a boredom killer. It suits my use case, so if you call "works for me" justification for a purchase...that's how I'd probably do it.

 

The whole point is Razer CEO promised desktop performance from the 1080, and now they can't even get certification from Nvidia as the card is not running at the % lose nvidia finds acceptable.
If this problem is not addressed there will be law suits against Razer for false claims and false advertisement.
Either they unlock the gtx through firmware or bios updates. Or face returns and refunds........

 

its not working, please advice. i had downloaded, i changed the things on the file and tried running the setup.exe, installer running but fails to install.

 

Are you installing it with Driver Signature Enforment turned off ?

 

My Big Thing is that in the Video where the System was announced the Audience Cheered about everything, and gasped when Ming Announced the Price. This tells me that I'm not alone on my initial thoughts. I haven't seen enough to justify the 3600-4000 price tags and my current needs do not put myself into a situation where I could get 'Value' from the system especially at that price point.

Me? I'm trying and I'm trying hard to find value somewhere in there or a reason to pull the trigger on picking up the system beyond YOLO

 

You are not alone. Right there with you.

 

again, pretty useless to read the posts of people incessantly saying its not a worthy purchase. great, thanks for that. not taking it personally, its just annoying as maybe half of the posts have been about the GFX card performance. Asked and answered, move on. As drivers or VBIOS updates pop up we will be happy to share results. i do appreciate tips on installing the modified drivers and stuff like that, and letting owners in the owners lounge answer questions about the laptop.

if you want to save about $500 and want a laptop that scores better but still has a light and thin footprint, then by all means get the Aorus, and then go into the Aorus Owners lounge and help answer questions about it. I had it, it was OK, minus the screen and keyboard. Really liked the extra HDD in there as well. But even though it scores better, the Blade Pro was my pick for the 4k IGZO display, mechanical KB, better build quality, and just pure aesthetics, all those things matter too.

Seriously, maybe someone can create a "Debate the Blade Pro" thread and people can migrate over there, and I can stay in the owners lounge and discuss more helpful topics with other owners or potential future owners?

 

I'll just throw in few facts and observations after using my RBP 512GB for about a week:

- CPU temperatures out of the box were pretty high: Fire Strike ~91C, in games (e.g. Witcher 3 etc) ~94C, CPU tests (i.e. Prime95) around 98C. GPU temps were within an acceptable 70 - 75C. No thermal throttling though.
- Expectedly, the fans were loud during peak loads. It was annoying at first but after a few days I pretty much got used to it so that I was actually able to enjoy playing games.
- Observed temperature differences among CPU cores of 10 - 15C.
- 3DMark's Fire Strike scores are mostly in the 13800s but occasionally, with the same settings, they would get over 14k, my maximum so far being 14128. Not sure yet what's causing the score jump
- When the fans are at their highest, I can feel some kind of pulsating vibration throughout the keyboard. A slight fan defect probably.
- When booting, most of the times there are some "cricket" like sounds. Not sure what they are.
- Screen is just fantastic, Witcher 3 looks incredible in 4k at ultra settings. The screen was one of the main selling points for me.
- Keyboard is clicky and creates a good first impression. However, I feel like I'm more prone to typos with this keyboard compared to all the others I'm using at the moment. I'm sure this is just a matter of fully getting used to the new typing experience.
- I'm not sure what brand the 2x256GB SSDs are as Device Manager displays something like: Intel RAID 0. The seq read rates are around the 2200MB/s mark while writing is ~660MB/s.
I've read that the 1TB version (i.e. 2x512GB RAID0) comes with Samsung OEM PM961 Nvme M.2-2280 SSDs with write rates in the ~3000MB/s mark! So I don't know what to believe about mine.

Among all the issues I encountered so far, the high temperature was the most unsettling for me. In order to get around it I decided to go the CPU undervolting path after reading about on various resources (alienware reddit being the most useful I guess). I used Intel XTU to reduce the core voltage offset by 155mV. Temps reduced by 10 - 15C which is much better. I ran many hours of CPU stress tests (including XTU, Prime95, OCCT etc.) and all tests passed. I saw however some minor glitches which may be related to the undervolting (such as invalid 3DMark scores due to "clock discrepancies" and XTU explicitly saying it (don't remember the exact message) and resetting the core offset back to zero). No unexpected shutdowns or BSODs so far.

Before getting the RBP I was (obviously) looking at other similar systems including ASUS g701vi, Aorus x7 dt, Alienware 17, MSI GT80.
Two were the finalists: RBP and MSI GT80. I chose craftsmanship over performance.
This machine definitely values more than the sum of its parts.

From what I read/watched so far, nobody's complaining about the thermal issues (GameTechie's seems to peak at 81C which I'm not able to even with the undervolting).

So RBP owners, are you facing any of the issues that I do? Or is my unit flawed (in which case I'll go for a replacement)?

P.S. forgot to mention that I switched to Windows 10 Enterprise and that I'm using the latest nvidia driver using hoofhearted's instructions (thank you hoofhearted)

 

The cricket noises are from the CPU most likely. That's pretty much a constant across all the Skylake quad cores.

Also, your write speeds are probably accurate. They use PM951 drives in the other blades, so that's probably the case here too. Those are the budget SSDs most manufacturers are going with.

 

My cpu stays in the low to mid 80s in gaming sessions, only had it in the 90s when I had it sitting on my bed or had a fan covered up by my jeans or something. Playing on a flat surface or on my lap with fans free and clear never see cpu or gpu temps go crazy high. And I use the XTU app as well, haven't tried hard to find the max undervolt or anything, just have it at -95 or so. You want a beautiful 4k game, try forza horizon 3. Gorgeous game. I'm gonna be playing final Fantasy xv streaming via the Xbox app over the weekend as my kids will be hogging the tvs.

 

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/10913817/fs/11152523#

heres my results, i tried to BDPROCHOT thing someone recommended, didnt really see much improvement on firestrike.

 

btw linus is an idiot, go watch dave2d for a better review. linus just complains aobut how his keyboard doesnt sound the same. irrelevant review. i used a MBP retina for quite somtime before i switched over and the other day when i was typing on the MBP it felt weird as hell.

 

10-15 C difference is just weird; I'm experiencing the same on my 2015 RB14 which made me consider RMAing again, but as it took them two months to send me a decent unit I gave up...

These temperatures will kill your unit in the long term; I'd suggest returning it to be honest, as they don't allow repasting under warranty and as anyone is experiencing much lower temperatures than you are.

 

Rather say used to... OEM and most resellers doesn't use PM951 much anymore. Maybe some of them, but most part have moved on to the newer one. Put in old tech and maximize profits. Oh" well.

So Linus is an idiot? Because he has different opinions than you?

 

Yes he's an idiot; which is my opinion.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I just got off of Witcher 3 and the CPU temps got to 92C with a 155mv undervolt. I find it unacceptable and will return this (most probably flawed) unit.

I'll give it another try though as I love the machine.

Others are reporting much lower temps (as Makyura also pointed out) so I keep the optimism.

Meanwhile any data points (temps, performance, tweaks etc.) should be kept rolling. Loving this thread so far.

 

Oh" well. I expect you can manage the reviews much better
Maybe start up your own website and do the same. When idiots can do it, probably all can

 

if you look back in this threads pages, youll see i did a review.
was actually probably the first/second to make a review video, i just dont have a huge following.
i dont spend 2 -3 minutes *****ing about a keyboard. hes actually one of the first to complain about "inconsistency" and "mushiness".

 

hey flaz, i sent you a PM!

 

Kotaku.com review is up. High marks.

 

Ran GTAV with afterburner on for you guys.
Most of the settings are maxed out; not sure if throttle stop helped or not but just an example of just tinkering with settings and you'll get smooth gameplay. Don't think AA is really needed at 4K so that's why it's off . If you guys want me to run others let me know and if I have it I will. Note that I was also recording so it had a slight effect on gpu

 

Guys, on Saturday I am going to install my 2 Samsung 950 pros in my blade pro, and I said oh screw it I will remove the heat sinks and apply artic silver to both CPU and
GPU I will report back!

 

Hey, I really wouldn't recommend you do this. Check out the razer blade repaste thread. You might do more harm than good. I have one of these and temps really are not a problem.

If you are repasting I think Xi-3 HDT might be more suitable. Do some research first, you'll void your warranty and might end up with high temps anyway. Good luck though.

 

Use something better than Artic Silver if you really have to.
For chips like these, you need IC Diamond / Kryonaut / GeLid GC Extreme

 

I got the system, it fell off the back of a Razer truck. /s

 

You mean Santa Dropped it off for you? Ohhhhhhhh My Gawdddd please review report back and I'll purchase if everything seems good :X

 

There's a ton of reviews now lol

 

None that are truly technical.

 

mhmm

 

You cannot tell anything by looking at his video, as I just received mine today and I love the keyboard. I am blown away by the entire laptop. I have owned many an Alienware along with the Razer Blade 14 and I know it is early but this is the most amazing piece of kit that i have ever owned!

 

I pulled this from a review by Engadget
At a glance, the Blade Pro’s keys looks like any other laptop keyboard, but touch them and you’ll find something completely different. Each key falls with a satisfying click and releases with a nearly identical pop — the hallmark tactility of a mechanical switch. It’s weird and slightly wonderful, at least for keyboard snobs like myself who extol the merits of mechanical keyboards. The Razer Blade Pro is the first laptop to ship with the company’s new ultra-low-profile mechanical key switches, a new typing technology that crams the feeling of full-sized mechanical actuation and reset into a laptop form factor.

If that sounds like a lot of buzzwords, don’t worry: All you need to know is that the Blade Pro’s new keyboard is excellent. After a firm click and a soft landing, its keys spring back with a delightful push. It was an odd sensation at first, and clashed with the muscle memory I’d built up from years of typing on traditional keys. Still, the longer I used the keyboard, the more I came love it. Its 1.6mm of key travel is still a little shallow compared to the cherry-mx switches I’m used to on my desktop machine, but the Blade Pro’s keys nonetheless feel like a minor revolution in mobile typing.
Engadget:
Perhaps Linus's cold affected his tactile sensation

 

i dont understand why they didnt add i7-6820hq.. thats my only disappointment. that would easily boost 5k + fire strike ultra score on par with desktop setup.

 

Power and heat.

 

lol, was freaking out for a few minutes as i started up Rise of the Tomb Raider and couldn't get the benchmarks to go past 30fps at 4k. till i realized after running it twice my Blade Pro was unplugged

 

I'm going to be getting one of these once I have saved up the money

 

hey, hope you enjoy it

 

They have the best build quality of any windows notebook. If you want performance at all costs you go buy something with a desktop cpu. I'm personally considering the Eurocom Tornado F5 as my next just to get quieter fans with as little weight gain as possible. But my 2014 blade had served me well for going on 3 years come May. I've beat the snot out of it thermally with thousands of hours gaming and it's still going strong. Razer truly does have the best overall build quality. They aren't #1 from a raw performance or price standpoint, but they aren't going to be either. But depending on what you're looking for you aren't going to find it anywhere else either. There's room for all kinds of notebooks for all tastes and requirements. Razer stands by themselves for what they do. It's not wrong or right for everyone, just another choice and that's a good thing for everyone.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

I don't believe they're the best build quality of any Windows Notebook, I mean if you actually say that and truly believe that then what does that make Apple?