The Razer Blade Review
by Vivek Gowri & Jarred Walton on March 15, 2012 3:01 AM ESTOur Enthusiast tests, which run at 1080p with maximum settings and 4xAA enabled, makes the GT 555M look pretty bad—Portal is the only result over 30fps, though overall the results weren’t too much worse than the GTX 560. Even low amounts of anti-aliasing seem to really kill the framerates and overall smoothness of gameplay, so I’d definitely recommend disabling it.
Razer Blade, Enthusiast Settings
The Blade wasn’t meant to be a GPU monster, only to offer adequate gaming performance in a portable package. And the GT 555M holds up the adequate side of that bargain, with reasonable performance in mid-level gaming modes . I’d liked to have seen a GTX 560 instead to provide more consistent performance at 1080p, but it’s likely that a higher end GPU wouldn’t have fit within Razer’s thermal design constraints.
It's also worth mentioning Kepler here. Though much of the new 28nm GPU is still under wraps, we did benchmark the GT 640M earlier in the Acer TimelineU M3. It's about 5-10% slower than the Blade's GT 555M but that's with DDR3 vs. GDDR5. Without being able to share more details about the graphics core, clock speeds, or anything else, it's not a comparison that we can shed too much light on. Kepler is the next generation of NVIDIA's GPUs, so as such, performance and efficiency are expected to improve. I'd like to see a midlife refresh of the Blade with a Kepler-based GPU inside; it would go a long way towards quelling the fears about GPU performance especially in the long run.
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will54 - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
This seems like its more suited for MMO gamers on the go. From the trackpad and programmable buttons to the specs this seems like it would be perfect for WOW , SW TOR or Guild Wars.Roland00Address - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
1) This laptop is for a person who has a lot of money2) Wants to play on ultra
3) Wants a big screen
4) While keeping the weight down
5) For other games this person does not care about, or is willing to play those games on mainstream settings even though this laptop costs over 2.5k
Or maybe I am wrong, maybe the laptop is for people who want to have a pure sexy laptop and don't care what is inside of it?
Roland00Address - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
(sigh, I would kill for an edit button)ShieTar - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
All the images in this article show the keyboard being backlit. Can this be switched off?I already hate that my current notebook has two LEDs that are always on, they really annoy me when I want to watch a movie on it, because they get really distracting at dark scenes.
I can not imagine watching anything on a notebook that has constantly backlit keys.
kevith - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
A 2800$ notebook, very expensive indeed.But what are these people thinking? You pull out this, almost sexy thing. It looks like a million dollars, unique, black, thin and simple, yet advanced.
And everybody goes "Wow" and envy you. And then, as you turn it on, it sounds like a f... hairdryer?!
We could forgive the lack of real gaming-power.
But this is simply not good enough at this pricepoint! Boooh, Razer.
Thanks for reviewing it, because it looks SO stunning, that I would be very tempted to buy it.
But not anymore.
Silma - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
The razer blade looks like a great laptop but not for true gaming. Or perhaps Sudoku or Angry Birds.I'm not buying a laptop to play at anything lower than 1080p and the blade can't do.
In my experience no thin laptop can adequately overcome the heat generated by hours of playing.
That's why I finally purchased an Alienware M17x R2. Yes it's big. Yes it's heavy. But I can play @1920x1200 for hours on end at truly decent fps (>30). It's been 2 years and I don't regret it. Nowadays I would either buy an Alienware or an Asus G but there are very few truly gamers laptop out there.
hotsacoman - Friday, March 16, 2012 - link
How do I win this????jigglywiggly - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
lack of 120hz is dissapointingotherwise i wud care
also 17in too big for the weak gpu
silverblue - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
Wasn't that Interplay's slogan back in the day?Notmyusualid - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
So many people here are right, Ivy Bridge & Kepler, and this thing is going to rock.I'm in the market for a new gaming laptop, so I'll be watching this one very closely.
Basically it is the most beautiful laptop I've seen...