Just got my Octane V, GTX 1080, 4K display - questions...

[Bluepy]

Hello everyone,

so I just got my new laptop and for this I wanted something that would pretty much be a do-everything laptop, from web browsing to gaming, 3D rendering, Photoshop, and more. After months of thinking, I've leant toward this model, with a i7-8700 (non-K because of heard heat issues) and a GTX 1080, for good measure. Here are the full specs:

Chassis & Display
Octane Series : écran large LED 60 Hz 72 % NTSC mat 17,3 pouces 4K (3840 x 2160) (sans G-Sync)
Processor (CPU)
Processeur Six Core Intel® Core™i7 i7-8700 (3,2 GHz) 12 Mo de cache
Memory (RAM)
16 Go Corsair 2400 MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8 Go)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 - 8 Go de RAM vidéo GDDR5 - DirectX® 12.1
1st Hard Disk
NON REQUIS(E)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500 Go SAMSUNG EVO M.2 960, PCIe NVMe (jusqu'à 3200 Mo/R, 1900 Mo/W)
Memory Card Reader
Lecteur de carte intégré 6-en-1 (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 adaptateur C.A. 330 W
Battery
Batterie lithium-ion 8 cellules Octane Series (82 WH)
Power Cable
2 câbles d'alimentation européens, 1 m (C13/C14)
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER PÂTE THERMIQUE
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN ET WI-FI INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867 Mbps, 802.11AC) + BT 4.0


So, what to say first? This is a huge, heavy laptop. Perfect, that's what I wanted. I'll merely bring it to work and back home. The keyboard is very good, the build is solid, materials are good, system is lightning fast, not a lag to be perceived. I also liked how I was informed of every step in my order, and the package was well protected. Unfortunately, I think there's some issues with it, but I'm not sure if that's normal, or if I should call the support about it? That's why I'm posting here first, so I can have your opinion on the matter, and hopefully find some advice about it.

The screen: it's beautiful, colors are absolutely gorgeous. Model seems to be the AUO B173ZAN01.0 (AUO109B reported by Windows), and contrary to what's announced in the configurator, NVIDIA actually reports it to be G-sync compatible, though I'm not sure how this can be checked. But after reinstalling the driver (in hope to solve some issues with the GPU), I was prompted that the monitor is compatible so, that's great. For the good things also, no dead pixel detected as of yet. This is great. But one bad thing about it... backlight bleeding. And it's quite strong to me, even though it's barely noticeable once displaying a web browser, but it's easily noticeable when bringing the brightness up and displaying a dark or black picture, and I'm worried it might disturb me when watching movies or videos.



And another thing that bugs me about it, but again I don't know if it's "normal" or if it might be defective: damn, the gpu gets hot! Even on web browsing and any other light task like Discord, VLC, or even just using the explorer, it easily reaches 50 °C and when it does, the fan kicks in instantly and it gets pretty noisy. I do expect it to get hot and noisy when in games, because it's a top-of-the-line GPU and it has a TDP of 210 watts, but when doing tasks that probably don't require even one percent of gpu power, I would expect it to keep quiet and cooler than 50 degrees. The only time it stays quiet, is when I do... nothing.
I checked the gpu with GPU-Z and especially looked at the clocks and voltage, and it goes all the way up in both even when I just move the cursor or click around. Sometimes it goes up even when doing nothing. it seems to be a power management issue of some sort?




Alright, that's it, as I don't have to complain about anything else for now. The CPU stays very cool even when doing mildly heavy stuff (GIMP, unzipping files), so that's great. Really only the GPU is a bummer on that matter.

Thank you in advance for any kind of help or insight!

 

[Oussebon]

I've had issues with certain driver versions on my 970 when it just refused to downclock.

If you download and run Nvidia Inspector and right-click the Show Overclocking button, it opens a menu with Multi Display Power Saver, which you can use for force-downclock the GPU. You can pick what load thresholds the card should be under before it shakes off the downclock.

That's not really a fix, but it is a potential workaround.

I'd probably try things like using DDU to sweep the drivers and performing a clean install of the latest drivers (potentially trying some older versions too), or seeing if Clevo Control Centre gives you options to customise the fan profiles at all.

Very interesting about the screen and gsync. I remember aaages ago someone posted a similar thing once, and there was much excitement on the forum. But it seemed to only be a one-off and may only be due to variations in the stock PCS can source.

You could contact PCS about the bleed. It could be that the frame is pinching the screen a bit too much and causing it. Perhaps get their opinion on that.

 

[Bluepy]

Hello,

I did use DDU and disabled internet completely before reinstalling the latest WHQL driver.
I also tried using this tool for downclocking the gpu, it does work fairly well as it will now never reach 50 °C in web browsing etc, but I failed at finding a threshold that would do so without having 4K60 videos lagging. Also setting VPU usage threshold at anything below 100% makes the screen go black, and I have to pause the video to have the screen back at normal.

Another thing, but it's most probably the game, Space Engine seems to crash a lot. More than on my previous laptop, at least. Curiously though, I've ran both Superposition and Heaven benchmarks, without any crash, G-sync active, and at native 4K. (also crazily enough, my GPU actually reaches a score in Superposition that positions him among 1080Tis!)

I will contact them on monday about the screen, because I tried a few things on the screen, but couldn't get rid of the bleeding at all.

 

[Bluepy]

Hello,

is there any tool I can use to check whether the GPU isn't defective? Something that would use a lot of vram?

Thanks!

 

[Bluepy]

Hello,

alright so right now I'm not very happy with this laptop.
On top of the screen issues (backlight bleeding), there's obvious overheating issues with the gpu going up to 91 °C then throttling. Also I'm getting various crashes in games (with black screen and unresponsive system for about a minute) and blinking glitches on some videos. Space Engine crashes very easily, and some games will crash only once a while, but I'm certain it should never crash.
I'm calling Monday for an RMA as obviously it's defective and seemingly those issues weren't found during the testing phase. I'm just confused right now.

 

[ubuysa]

Did you order this with Windows pre-installed, or did you install your own copy of Windows?

Crashing games and what seems to be a hot GPU could well be related. It's not impossible that the GPU pasting wasn't well done, though the Q&A should have picked that up.

I would certainly call PCS and talk through the bleeding and GPU issues with them.

 

[Bluepy]

Windows was pre installed.

And I think I've nailed down the issue: vram. Once reaching ~7700 MB of used vram, Windows will completely freeze, screen goes black, and game will crash. From the readings in GPU-Z, the GPU itself seems to stop "existing" for several seconds, indicating that it basically failed. Benchmarks would run fine because it's not due to GPU instability, but games like Space Engine will fill the vram with anything they need until it gets full, and only then they'll start flushing old data.
I got several crashes on a game called "WildStar" as well. I assume it also ended up using more than 7700 MB of vram and it crashed. Black screen etc.
Installing an older driver version after uninstalling it with DDU didn't seem to do anything.
I wonder what are their testing procedures, that makes them unable to pick up some vram issue.

I will call them on Monday and make it clear that they either solve the issue completely, or else I'd rather get a full refund.

 

[Oussebon]

I'm not familiar with Wildstar, but I seriously doubt it should be using anywhere near that much VRAM.

 

[Bluepy]

I'm not familiar with Wildstar, but I seriously doubt it should be using anywhere near that much VRAM.

The symptoms are very similar, though. Black screen, game crashes instantly, and system hangs up for 20-30 seconds. Sometimes it gets back to normal, sometimes it returns at 640x480 resolution, and once the GPU wasn't detected at all and I had to reboot.
At least that's the only explanation I can find, since benchmarks never crashed, but they mostly stress the gpu and do not fully test the vram.

 

[Oussebon]

I'm not saying the system isn't faulty, just that I can't think of any game I've seen use that much VRAM. It could be some kind of memory leak or some other issue with the GPU allocating too much VRAM. Or misreporting how much is allocated. But it sounds off to me, whatever the cause. Unless people want to tell me it's entirely normal for Wildstar I guess.

 

[Bluepy]

I'm not saying the system isn't faulty, just that I can't think of any game I've seen use that much VRAM. It could be some kind of memory leak or some other issue with the GPU allocating too much VRAM. Or misreporting how much is allocated. But it sounds off to me, whatever the cause. Unless people want to tell me it's entirely normal for Wildstar I guess.

Don't worry, I was just a little upset earlier.
And well, Space Engine does use as much vram as it can:

I've got to take a screenshot of GPU-Z right after the game crashed, it crashed when the allocate vram was 7554 MB exactly. It happens every time and exactly the same amount allocated, and GPU temps don't impact anything. So that must have been the case for Wildstar too? I was playing it at 4K with every setting maxed up.
I'm not sure if that's the GPU, or the drivers?

I used to run this game and many others on my former laptop, and I never had such crashes, and especially not that often. That's why i'm worried

 

[ubuysa]

Windows was pre installed.

And I think I've nailed down the issue: vram. Once reaching ~7700 MB of used vram, Windows will completely freeze, screen goes black, and game will crash. From the readings in GPU-Z, the GPU itself seems to stop "existing" for several seconds, indicating that it basically failed. Benchmarks would run fine because it's not due to GPU instability, but games like Space Engine will fill the vram with anything they need until it gets full, and only then they'll start flushing old data.
I got several crashes on a game called "WildStar" as well. I assume it also ended up using more than 7700 MB of vram and it crashed. Black screen etc.
Installing an older driver version after uninstalling it with DDU didn't seem to do anything.
I wonder what are their testing procedures, that makes them unable to pick up some vram issue.

I will call them on Monday and make it clear that they either solve the issue completely, or else I'd rather get a full refund.

The VRAM issue is further evidence I think that all in not well with your GPU. A call to PCS is certainly your best option.

 

[Bluepy]

Hello,

I'm really confused.
I've found this vram test: http://www.programming4beginners.com/gpumemtest
And I've ran two instances of it to make sure the whole vram is filled up completely.

While running the tests, obviously the system becomes completely sluggish as it saturates the memory bus completely, but no crash, no artifact, no weird behavior throughout the test.
It says everything is ok, too. And it does fill all the vram, more than any game does before crashing.

Here the logs if it might help:
====================================================
GpuMemTest v1.2
Platform name :NVIDIA CUDA
Platform version:OpenCL 1.2 CUDA 9.2.81
Device name :GeForce GTX 1080
Device version :OpenCL 1.2 CUDA
Driver version :397.64
Platform selected #: 1
Device selected #: 1
Time: 2018-06-03 13:23:58 +0200
Initializing
Memory chunks count: 4
Chunk 0 size: 1073741824
Chunk 1 size: 1073741824
Chunk 2 size: 1073741824
Chunk 3 size: 486539264
Allocated 3536 MiB total, in 4 chunks
Seed: 1528049383
[test 1/8 pass 1/4] Random data, sequential
Test time: 896 ms
[test 1/8 pass 2/4] Random data, sequential
Test time: 1121 ms
[test 1/8 pass 3/4] Random data, sequential
Test time: 1540 ms
[test 1/8 pass 4/4] Random data, sequential
Test time: 1473 ms
[test 2/8 pass 1/2] Block copy
Test time: 1736 ms
[test 2/8 pass 2/2] Block copy
Test time: 1471 ms
[test 3/8 pass 1/6] Walking inversions, stride 5 bits
Test time: 1102 ms
[test 3/8 pass 2/6] Walking inversions, stride 5 bits
Test time: 1177 ms
[test 3/8 pass 3/6] Walking inversions, stride 5 bits
Test time: 1239 ms
[test 3/8 pass 4/6] Walking inversions, stride 5 bits
Test time: 876 ms
[test 3/8 pass 5/6] Walking inversions, stride 5 bits
Test time: 945 ms
[test 3/8 pass 6/6] Walking inversions, stride 5 bits
Test time: 1164 ms
[test 4/8 pass 1/5] Random access, random data - write, read/write, read
Test time: 1376 ms
[test 4/8 pass 2/5] Random access, random data - write, read/write, read
Test time: 1263 ms
[test 4/8 pass 3/5] Random access, random data - write, read/write, read
Test time: 1325 ms
[test 4/8 pass 4/5] Random access, random data - write, read/write, read
Test time: 1965 ms
[test 4/8 pass 5/5] Random access, random data - write, read/write, read
Test time: 3406 ms
[test 5/8 pass 1/4] Block copy, sparse inversions, overlapping
Test time: 2865 ms
[test 5/8 pass 2/4] Block copy, sparse inversions, overlapping
Test time: 2858 ms
[test 5/8 pass 3/4] Block copy, sparse inversions, overlapping
Test time: 2572 ms
[test 5/8 pass 4/4] Block copy, sparse inversions, overlapping
Test time: 2755 ms
[test 6/8 pass 1/4] Block copy, random data, overlapping
Test time: 2288 ms
[test 6/8 pass 2/4] Block copy, random data, overlapping
Test time: 2076 ms
[test 6/8 pass 3/4] Block copy, random data, overlapping
Test time: 1781 ms
[test 6/8 pass 4/4] Block copy, random data, overlapping
Test time: 1730 ms
[test 7/8 pass 1/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1070 ms
[test 7/8 pass 2/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1140 ms
[test 7/8 pass 3/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1212 ms
[test 7/8 pass 4/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1069 ms
[test 7/8 pass 5/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1140 ms
[test 7/8 pass 6/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1183 ms
[test 7/8 pass 7/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1143 ms
[test 7/8 pass 8/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1143 ms
[test 7/8 pass 9/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1211 ms
[test 7/8 pass 10/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1139 ms
[test 7/8 pass 11/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1069 ms
[test 7/8 pass 12/12] Walking inversions, stride 11 bits, backwards
Test time: 1140 ms
[test 8/8 pass 1/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1140 ms
[test 8/8 pass 2/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1137 ms
[test 8/8 pass 3/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1138 ms
[test 8/8 pass 4/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1140 ms
[test 8/8 pass 5/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1210 ms
[test 8/8 pass 6/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1130 ms
[test 8/8 pass 7/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1149 ms
[test 8/8 pass 8/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 956 ms
[test 8/8 pass 9/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1103 ms
[test 8/8 pass 10/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1128 ms
[test 8/8 pass 11/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1113 ms
[test 8/8 pass 12/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 1096 ms
[test 8/8 pass 13/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 571 ms
[test 8/8 pass 14/14] Walking inversions, stride 13 bits
Test time: 568 ms
End execution
Total time: 71239 ms
All tests OK.


Should I also address that to the support when I call them?

 

[Oussebon]

As above, I think your bets option is to call PCS tomorrow. You can always point them at this topic when you do.

 

[liljom]

I had 2 Alienware (17 R3 and R4) with 4K panels. It was even changed once in the R3. All of them had light bleed. It's kinda inevitable.
I loved the R3, but got an R4 after some issues with the R3.
This new R4 had G-Sync. AFAIK if it supports G-Sync, then you can't use iGPU (Intel), but constantly the dGPU (Nvidia). Because of this fact, even with a bigger battery I got less, than half the battery life of the used R3.
That's why I just ordered my next laptop without G-Sync. I don't use it primarily for gaming, but often times I need long battery life.
If you don't need it primarily for gaming, I recommend to get it changed, especially if you ordered it without G-Sync.

 

[Bluepy]

I had 2 Alienware (17 R3 and R4) with 4K panels. It was even changed once in the R3. All of them had light bleed. It's kinda inevitable.
I loved the R3, but got an R4 after some issues with the R3.
This new R4 had G-Sync. AFAIK if it supports G-Sync, then you can't use iGPU (Intel), but constantly the dGPU (Nvidia). Because of this fact, even with a bigger battery I got less, than half the battery life of the used R3.
That's why I just ordered my next laptop without G-Sync. I don't use it primarily for gaming, but often times I need long battery life.
If you don't need it primarily for gaming, I recommend to get it changed, especially if you ordered it without G-Sync.

Yes I understand IPS panels will suffer from backlight bleed and glow - I used to have that on my previous Asus laptop. But it was subtle, and not that strong, that's why I was worried.
The 4K panel is advertised as non G-sync in the configurator, but surely that must depend on the available stocks. if you're lucky like me, you'll get the B173ZAN01.0, the G-sync compatible, brighter one. I wish I was as lucky when it comes to backlight bleed though, as it's quite strong really, and it's impossible not to notice it when watching movies or even pictures that are even mildly dark.
I wouldn't mind if I got a non G-sync one to be honest, so long as I get identical color reproduction, ideally as much brightness, and acceptable backlight bleed.

 

[liljom]

There definitely exists unbearable light bleed. In case of that, ask for a fix.
If I get a G-Sync panel, I'll send it back I need battery life. I do software development, and I barely game