Optimus X

[llama]

Hello everyone!

I just ordered an Optimus X laptop (configuration below at the bottom of the post). I was looking for a quick laptop which would also allow me to play games.
On my actual laptop I still got a spinning mechanical hard drive which I really look forward to get rid of. I got a very fast M.2 drive + I wanted some extra space (1TB ssd).

I play just a few hours per week so I was not looking for a particularly powerful gpu (I like games like the Total war series - with Shogun II being my favorite and looking forward to new chapters - but I am willing to lower details if required). I got linux mint on the laptop I am writing from, but I decided to buy Windows 10. Maybe I will dual boot at a later stage if linux recognizes my hardware. I ordered a Windows Recovery Media (USB). I do not know if the laptop has some kind of recovery partition in case I want to roll back/ reinstall Windows or if in that case I have to manually reinstall all drivers. Anyway I think it should come all up and running maybe I will just need to update the Nvidia drivers from time to time and let the windows update going on).

My big doubt was the cpu which seems really powerful for a laptop. I expect it to get hot and noisy (fans spinning), but hopefully it will not go extremely hot (like close to 100 °C under load). I see the Optimus X is a little bit thicker than the Recoil, which was the other laptop I was looking at. Hopefully this will help together with the Cooler Master Thermal Paste to tame the intel 9750H! Especially when just browsing or watching films hopefully the cpu will downclock and the fans will be be quiet. Worst case scenario I wonder if it can be slightly clocked down/down volted from the bios just so that in a normal use scenario the fans will not make too much of a noise.

I have not checked on the 120W AC adapter, but I think it should be fine provided the GPU should not be absorb many watts. (I will leave it to the PCSpecialists tests).

Really curious how it will perform. I will definitely post my opinions/review when I get it, to let you know how it goes. On the meanwhile any commes would be appreciated. Many thanks.

Chassis & Display	Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 60Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)	Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)	16GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card	NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 - 4.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Storage Drive	1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive	500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Memory Card Reader	Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor	1 x 120W AC Adaptor
Battery	Optimus X Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste	COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card	2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Bluetooth & Wireless	GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9260 M.2 (1.73Gbps, 802.11AC) +BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options	1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language	MULTI COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System	Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]

 

[Oussebon]

Just to note, the Optimus IX has a GTX 1060 for only £30 more than the X with its much weaker 1650.

Considering how demanding newer TW titles are, and that the only way to upgrade a laptop GPU is actually to buy a new laptop, there'd have been a compelling argument for the Optimus IX.

 

[llama]

Just to note, the Optimus IX has a GTX 1060 for only £30 more than the X with its much weaker 1650.

Considering how demanding newer TW titles are, and that the only way to upgrade a laptop GPU is actually to buy a new laptop, there'd have been a compelling argument for the Optimus IX.

Thanks for the feedback OUSSEBON

From the link below I see a confrontantion between the 2 (unfortunately it is the desktop version of the gpus they compare) it looks like in full HD there is a 17% difference for the 1060 in average (and it also has extra 2GB of memory which is always a bonus). I guess the only downside (besides the slight difference in cost) is that probably the 1060 would draw more watts/heat.

GTX 1650 vs GTX 1060 6GB Game Performance Benchmarks (i7-8700K vs i7-6700K) - GPUCheck United States / USA

GTX 1650 versus GTX 1060 6GB performance comparison. Compare graphics card gaming performance in 64 games and in 1080p, 1440p, and 4K at Ultra, High, Medium, and Low quality settings. Compare specifications, price, power, temperature, and CPU bottlenecks.

www.gpucheck.com

I read some not very good reviews regarding the 1650. The only reason I went for a this low end gpu is I am just spending a few hours playing games so I just wanted something basic, but I understand your point.

Thanks again.

 

[Oussebon]

Sites like GPUboss, CPUboss, userbenchmark, gamedebate, and gpucheck show all be avoided as they 'compare' garbage data and therefore provide garbage answers. It's best to rely only on articles that use 'real' data rather than automated comparisons and, importantly, shows you how they got it.
For the desktop GPUs the difference is more like 25%

MSI GeForce GTX 1650 Gaming X 4 GB Review

The GeForce GTX 1650 is NVIDIA's latest Turing release, going head-to-head with AMD's Radeon RX 570. MSI's Gaming X is a premium rendition of this chip with a much improved cooler, idle-fan stop, and large overclock out of the box. Noise levels are amazing and make the card whisper quiet.

www.techpowerup.com

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 review

Nvidia's new $150 GPU will please small PC builders and brings a modest generational boost in performance.

www.pcgamer.com

Similar performance difference between the laptop versions apparently.

Granted you only do light gaming, but if you can amend / cancel and resubmit the order for a 1060-equipped Optimus IX, I'd say it's still worth doing. £30 now will save you money when the 1650 would struggle to provide an acceptable experience.

A 1650 would play Total War Three Kingdoms on around medium settings (bearing in mind that the choices are something like Low, Medium, High, Very High, and Extreme - maybe with Ultra between the last two as well). So you're buying a laptop that already is struggling with today's titles. A 1060 might at least let you push for high. And by the same token could likely manage 'Low' in a future iteration where the 1650's performance would be unplayable.

I can appreciate the line of thought that gaming is only a light use of the laptop, and therefore spending as little as possible on that seems proportionate, but in reality either laptop will be fine for very many years for general workloads and it's the gaming aspect of it that will force you to upgrade long before work needs.

 

[llama]

Sites like GPUboss, CPUboss, userbenchmark, gamedebate, and gpucheck show all be avoided as they 'compare' garbage data and therefore provide garbage answers. It's best to rely only on articles that use 'real' data rather than automated comparisons and, importantly, shows you how they got it.
For the desktop GPUs the difference is more like 25%

MSI GeForce GTX 1650 Gaming X 4 GB Review

The GeForce GTX 1650 is NVIDIA's latest Turing release, going head-to-head with AMD's Radeon RX 570. MSI's Gaming X is a premium rendition of this chip with a much improved cooler, idle-fan stop, and large overclock out of the box. Noise levels are amazing and make the card whisper quiet.

www.techpowerup.com

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 review

Nvidia's new $150 GPU will please small PC builders and brings a modest generational boost in performance.

www.pcgamer.com

Similar performance difference between the laptop versions apparently.

Granted you only do light gaming, but if you can amend / cancel and resubmit the order for a 1060-equipped Optimus IX, I'd say it's still worth doing. £30 now will save you money when the 1650 would struggle to provide an acceptable experience.

A 1650 would play Total War Three Kingdoms on around medium settings (bearing in mind that the choices are something like Low, Medium, High, Very High, and Extreme - maybe with Ultra between the last two as well). So you're buying a laptop that already is struggling with today's titles. A 1060 might at least let you push for high. And by the same token could likely manage 'Low' in a future iteration where the 1650's performance would be unplayable.

I can appreciate the line of thought that gaming is only a light use of the laptop, and therefore spending as little as possible on that seems proportionate, but in reality either laptop will be fine for very many years for general workloads and it's the gaming aspect of it that will force you to upgrade long before work needs.

Thanks a lot for your observations Oussebon.

Before purchasing the gpu I was looking at was the RTX 2060, but on the desktop version it draws something like 100W more in gaming compared to the 1650 (and the 1060 is something in between) https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_1650_StormX/30.html
I thought on a laptop (associated with the alreaydy powerful cpu) could be combination which is hard to tame.

What you say makes sense, however I have decided to leave the order as it is. Keeping in mind gaming is not the main focus I will probably buy something dedicate for playing in the future (desktop or maybe ps5?) where I would not have to worry about noise/heat/laptop-AC adaptor size and so on. Thanks for pointing out at possible alternatives though. Thanks again for the suggestions.

I will definitely post my impressions regarding the laptop once I receive it. Really looking forward to it.

 

[Oussebon]

Laptop GPU power draw is different. That's just now how it works. GPU temps won't be a problem. If there are thermal issues it will be the CPU. People who buy 9750Hs in a Clevo chassis are ultimately braver than I am.

 

[llama]

Laptop GPU power draw is different. That's just now how it works. GPU temps won't be a problem. If there are thermal issues it will be the CPU. People who buy 9750Hs in a Clevo chassis are ultimately braver than I am.

Hi Oussebon, I know that the gpu version for laptop is a downclocked one compared to the desktop one (so that it pulls lesser W). Please tell me more about it.

I am reading here the RTX 2060 for laptop should use 80 or 90 W against 50W of the 1650.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-2060-Laptop-Graphics-Card.384946.0.html

SO effectively the difference narrows quite a bit inthe laptop version.

Do you think the laptop case of the Optimus X is not a very good one?
I am a little concernead as well that the 9750H under load will get really hot. Do you think the gpu will not be a main factor?

Thanks a lot for the help.

 

[Oussebon]

The power draw isn't hugely relevant because in either case you're not going to be doing much gaming on battery, and on idle the power draws are much lower ofc.

From general comments about laptops I've seen on the forums, when people have a problem with temps it's almost universally about the CPU rather than the GPU. Obviously PCS sell thousands of laptops and only a fraction of those complain about temps on the forums. But laptop CPU temps do seem higher overall than they used to be, which I guess is what happens when Intel make no architectural progress for 4+ years and just keep bumping frequencies and stuffing more cores in...