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

This is part of the reason I'm hesitant to buy the Blade. The only time I'd be using 4K is on the built-in display. The 27-inch monitor where my Clevo is connected most of the time is 1440p, while the TVs in my house are 1080p, both of which the 1070 handles without issue. The GPU is also capable of handling 4K on older games, and it can even play newer ones. When I had my external 4K monitor, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare with a mix of high and ultra with no AA was consistently over 60 fps. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (a shockingly poor PC port given how good Human Revolution was) was playable at similar settings.

At the same time, as a former Mac user, I love the Razer's design. It's exactly what I would have wanted from a new generation 17-inch MacBook Pro. I would actually use the touchscreen, and I really like the touchpad because on traditional laptops, no matter how much I adjust palm rejection settings, I always have a problem with accidental cursor movement.

I just need to decide if this is something that's worth spending a couple mortgage payments to acquire.

 

if you do decide to get it - buy from HIDevolution or any similar reseller as Razer customer support is just not good and you want to be covered after dropping a new car's worth of cash

 

I would be ordering from HID as I'd want them to nuke the RAID setup, as this apparently is a common point of failure on the Blade Pro. Another thing that's holding me back is the warranty. $350 for only one extra year is a lot - the same money (or less if you know where to look) will get you 3 years on a MacBook Pro, regardless of how much it cost. My credit card offers up to 2 years of additional coverage if you make a large purchase with it. I've asked HID if they would work with the CC company in the event of a failure that occurs outside of the standard warranty. If so, I may just pull the trigger.

 

Be careful on those CC warranties, read the fine print and procedures. I tried to take advantage of the American Express one and they tortured me with paperwork. They wanted to make sure that there were the last resort in terms of warranty options and wanted an official quote from Razer on what the repair/replacement costs would be (which Razer told me would be month or so). Fortunately I had bought my 14 inch Blade from Microsoft, who did replace it for me no questions asked once they looked at it.

 

That's why working with HID would be my preferred option because, if this is something they can do, I'm confident they would try to help in every way they can to resolve any potential issues.

 

The lowest Price one at HID is 4 grand, unless I'm missing something but I suppose the extra few hundred is worth it, from what I'm hearing from everyone apparently. 4 Grand is alot for a laptop especially when you full know the deprecation on the device is going to be heavy within a year.

 

Your statement is irrelevant to me and I am sure many others who have purchased this wonderful machine. Seems like you are just trying to make yourself feel better because you cannot purchase it, just saying.

 

Actually, he is making an objective observation on the lower-than-average performance of the 1080 in the RBP and rightfully pointing out that it should be a 1070 as that would be a far more accurate description of it's capabilities. He's not trying to make himself feel better, friend. You're the salty one.

 

Anyone lose brightness after reboot with the latest driver? Really dim now. Adjusting brightness control has no affect on screen whatsoever. Seems to have happened after installing the latest NVidia driver and rebooting.

Update: went back to 376.33 (with the instuctions I posed on here) and brightness is working again. I need to look at what they did in the inf and see if I can spot the diff.

Wonder if the mods would want to split into two owner's lounge threads. One for technical stuff for RBP and one for pricing, Razer QC, and all other non-technical related material.

 

I did notice in nvrzi.inf that there are two entries for 1080 GTX (I have 6750 and I get scores similar to yours):

NVIDIA_DEV.1BE0.6754.1A58 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080"
NVIDIA_DEV.1BE0.6750.1A58 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080"

 

I just did what I should have done in the first place and checked out the Razer forum for this system and

Yes, I'm well aware that most people will post on a forum to complain, but the frequency and sheer variety of different problems people are having is stunning to behold. I also know that I'd get great service and support from HID if I were to be one of those unfortunate souls, but I think I'll just avoid that risk all together.

 

Maybe Aorus? If you don't mind the noise, they have some pretty nice offerings.

 

I thought about that, but have seen many reports of the PSU being inadequate when the system is under load. I went through something similar with my MacBook Pro. Don't feel much like having that history repeat itself. It seems that reasonably thin and light GTX 1080 notebooks are not quite ready for prime time.

 

A 1070 maybe? Or 1060? I mean, at 1080p, both are more than adequate.

 

Check my signature.

 

Icy cold after hours of gaming, stable undervolt at -.123. Max temp 74c.

 

How can you tell which one you have out of the 6754/6750? I looked at the info file but couldn't find it.

 

Win-X,Device Manager,Display adapters,right-click NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080,Properties,Details tab,Hardware Ids

Mine has:
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1BE0&SUBSYS_67501A58

 

SHOESPC-
So you under-volt your CPU? I haven't messed with any settings like that so far and my max temps have been 83C for CPU heavy gaming and 76C GPU. When you under-volt your CPU it obviously runs cooler based on your numbers but does it perform slower as well? I haven't messed with overclocking or underclocking so I am not familiar with the process. Did you do this just to maintain the lower CPU temperatures? From what I have read my max GPU temps of 76 are easily within the limits of the GPU. I am not sure if the 83C is within the reasonable temps for the CPU though. Is under-volting something you recommend? Thanks for any info!

 

Your temps are fine but can be lowered without affecting performance by undervolting. Best place to start is with the Intel XTU app, from there you will undervolt the processor and processor cache to the same level. Here is a video with more detail

Personally I prefer throttlestop as it seems more stable but intel xtu is a good starting point.

 

Despite my nervousness over QC and customer support issues, I ordered myself a 2TB version today. Hopefully I get a good unit and don't have to talk to customer support for anything.

 

Had exactly the same worries over QC, but couldn't resist the 1TB........so hedged and went via HIDevolution

 

Did you get it yet? It would have been another $450 on the 2TB version to get it from HID and I didn't know that I really wanted to spend that much more on an already expensive laptop. Is their warranty any different than Razer's?

Maybe if I get mine and it's a dud, I'll just return it and consider getting another from HID.

 

No, i'm still waiting for it to arrive. I traded the extra space (which I probably wouldn't use) for some extra QC and peace of mind. They do their own support and, by other posts I've seen, seem to be good.

 

As I understand it, the warranty is the same, but instead of contacting Razer if you need technical support, you would contact HID. Since Razer's support is generally regarded as terrible, spending the extra money may be worth the peace of mind of purchasing it from somewhere that will stand behind it and go to bat for you should the worst happen.

 

450$ is definitely worth it when you are spending 4000$ on a laptop. If it breaks and you don't have HID behind you, you may end up with a 4000$ paperweight.

 

Just a heads up that support from a 3rd party isn't all unicorn's and rainbow's

If your vendor is being a PIA at fixing things, or even at responding, the 3rd party vendor isn't going to be able to make things go much faster, in fact their involvement can slow things down.

Unless the 3rd party vendor offers like for like replacement - offering a new laptop to replace the one that's taking weeks or months to fix, there isn't any advantage they can offer, except being the ones wasting the time to get your laptop serviced by the primary vendor.

There are some things where they can speed things up. Simple fixes that don't require unique parts - like memory, disk, ssd, and parts that can be bought from other 3rd parties - but those will often be refurbished "pull's" from dead laptops.

Just be aware that things can take as long via the 3rd party service as it does via the primary, hopefully the relationship the 3rd party has is good with the primary - or it can end up taking longer - or they might recommend you send it to the primary yourself.

All things are possible.

If you are buying a problematic laptop that doesn't get quick service from the primary, things are going to be the same with the 3rd party service, you may have a nicer experience interacting with the 3rd party, but don't expect magical results - be realistic.

 

FYI, I ordered my RBP from HID and I've been thrilled with it; just wish Razer would get their act together and make spare AC adapters available....

 

i agree about needing a spare AC adapter. Any news on this?

 

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-accessories/razer-250w-power-adapter

 

Agreed. The price disparity is huge when you can buy from Amazon or direct, and save such huge amounts of money. Now if someone can say exactly what I am paying for then maybe we are both wrong.

 

I saw a review for the first 15 inch laptop with a GTX 1080, the Eurocom Tornado F5. Its 1.6 inches thick and in the review they reported CPU temps as high as 100 C and GPU temps as high as 91 C. That is super hot right? My RBP only gets to 84 C CPU and 76 C max GPU, but usually hovers around 74 C.

 

Did you undervolt your CPU? The CPU in that F5 is a 95w CPU - 2x your 45w - so it's putting out a lot more heat.

Generally Reviewers haven't caught on to undervolting during their reviews

I saw the review notice in email, but haven't read it yet...

The LGA Kabylake is suffering from bad IHS paste in general and has been dropping 20c from load temps after delidding and re-pasting.

That's not something we worry about with BGA CPU's, they already are delidded.

 

oh I didn't know that man, thanks for bring it up

 

Not only delided, they are bare die @hmscott

 

That's the problem with the word "delidded", it says the lid has been removed, it doesn't say anything about the lid being put back on.

The bare die BGA is that way from the start, it never had a lid in the first place.

 

Here is a part of the reason for the Razer Blades problems -

Spoiler

@D2 Ultima

 

ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

 

Ah yeah, that. Still waiting for the people who tell me how good Razer is to counter the arguements made.

 

What arguments? That you have complaints about a machine that you either have never used or used complaints by those who got a bad machine or don't happen to like the cool keyboard?

 

I bought one for someone as a gift and it went back for a refund after about 5 days of use. Because of constant SSD/heating issues.

 

5 days? I have had mine for 45 days and not faced those issues. Possibly either a bad machine or the environment it was use din, I would surmise.

 

Did you even watch that video ? Heck the Apple books have better and more durable heatsinks. Case in point, check out the video. ( 4:45 onwards)

Either ways, the machine was used in San Francisco, in early January , always indoors, max ambient temps at about 70 degrees. And yes it was a bad machine. Heck i would go as far as to call it the worst machine i have used and should have never even bought it for someone else after all the red flags. Be it any notebook/laptop , if im spending $4000+ on something it better work or its going back and i am never trusting that brand again. More so if the support is the worst one i have dealt with. I still have not received my refund from Razer. They barely reply to my emails , i would call my self lucky if i get 1 reply in 7 days.
Either ways, i dont have to sit here and listen to people defending POS hardware with stupid excuses , that is retailing at ridiculous costs.

LOL even going as far ahead as calling people out assuming they cant afford it? Jesus

 

good news everyone!! nvidia has signed the the razer blade pro for driver updates through them. geforce experience just notified me that a new driver update is available!

 

Nope, not when it is 20 minutes, are you kidding. From what I have heard the majority of people who have purchased the RBP are loving it. Sorry for the "lemon" you purchased. I have heard horror stories from others about the Del/Alienware they have purchased or the ASUS, ACER etc.. Unfortunately this sort of thing happens in this industry from time to time. After reading your rant awhile back I was tempted to sell my RBP and get another AW laptop which I have had such great experiences with. However this RBP I purchased has performed so amazingly and is so beautiful to behold that I cannot part with it . Oh and I have also read people ranting about how horrid Dell's support is and yet I have worked with them for over a dozen years and found them so very supportive and good to interact with. So while you have unfortunately had this awful experience that does not equate to all RBP are POS as you so eloquently blathered on about .

 

This!!! Tell yooo everything "For macbooks,(and some razer laptops) we do stock a lot of parts and components" http://www.techworksrepair.com/about-us.html
And I'm sure the tech know what he talk about in the video.

 

So let me get this straight. You are arguing WITHOUT even reading or looking at the other side's arguments? In that case, @bloodhawk and @D2 Ultima are basically talking to a brick wall.

 

Nah, a brick wall doesn't talk back about a product it's fanboying. It's actually less infuriating to talk to a brick wall.

 

So, my friends brother bought a brand new RBP 17 maxed out this December for Christmas.

He has been plauged by BSOD since the first week he got it (he games hardcore) - told him to undervolt, he did, SSD went potato.

After that he returned it ultimo December, received a new one week later, it just failed this week too - he called them yesterday and will send it back and get a refund tomorrow

Told him to buy a Clevo or MSI not worth the headache.. I surely didn't want to mess with it.


With all issues aside, the machine is very beautiful and the idea is nice tho... kinda makes me question how the hell Razer is going to build the Valerie machine ........