The Gigabyte P35X v3 Review: Slim GTX980M Gaming Laptop
by Brett Howse on April 23, 2015 8:00 AM ESTSystem Performance
Gigabyte has provided the lowest speed processor that they have available in the P35X series, but it is no slouch. As a 47 watt CPU, the quad-core Core i7-4710HQ has a base frequency of 2.5 GHz and turbo of 3.5 GHz and assuming the P35X’s cooling system is up to the task, it should be able to keep the frequencies up during most scenarios. They do also offer the i7-4720HQ as an option, which bumps both frequencies another 100 MHz, and the i7-4860HQ which is 2.4-3.6 GHz and includes Iris Pro graphics.
To analyze and contrast system performance among various notebooks, we turn to our standard benchmarking suites. I have sampled several devices to compare against, including the Clevo P750ZM which has a 4K display and a desktop CPU inside, and several other gaming systems. Additionally, I have included some more typical workstation devices just for comparison. If you would like to see how the P35X compares to any other device we have reviewed, please check out our Bench section.
PCMark
PCMark performs several tasks depending on which mode is being run, which attempt to represent real-world use cases. The nature of the workloads has several burst loads and several sustained loads. All aspects of the system are taken into account, including CPU performance, some GPU performance, storage performance, and even display resolution. That is why devices with desktop class components like the Clevo P750ZM can fall behind much slower CPUs in this test, because the Clevo comes with a 4K display.
The Gigabyte P35X fares very well here, even though the higher than normal display resolution does pull its scores back somewhat compared to the 1080p that is common in this range of devices. Somewhat non surprising is the RAID 0 configuration of the two SSDs does not really improve the PCMark Storage results, although maximum transfer rates would be increased.
Cinebench
As a test of CPU based rendering, Cinebench loves IPC and frequencies. The single-threaded performance of the i7-4710HQ processor is quite good with the maximum turbo frequency available of 3.5 GHz, although I did not see much more than 3.3 GHz during the run. Mult-threaded scores are drastically increased over Ultrabook class parts due to the higher TDP parts having four cores plus hyperthreading.
x264
The x264 benchmark is another one that craves cores and high frequencies, and the P35X scores quite well in these sorts of scenarios. It of course cannot compete with the desktop part in the Clevo P750ZM, but that device cannot compete on weight either.
Javascript Performance
None of the high performance systems will struggle with Javascript, and all of them show performance levels significantly higher than Ultrabooks and the like.
TouchXPRT 2014
This is a benchmark which has very small short workloads, and the P35X handles this test with ease. It slots in exactly where you would expect, between the i7-4702HQ and i7-4720HQ models of the Razer Blade.
System Performance Conclusion
Overall, the P35X performs about where you would expect. System performance is quite good for any sort of CPU bound workload. I would question the use of RAID 0 for the SSDs, rather than just a single larger drive, but it does not harm performance. The base system’s 256 GB of SSD storage is not really a lot to work with, so games will likely end up on the much slower 7200rpm disk drive. Absolute performance will be up slightly, but it does not affect real world use very much.
The CPU is plenty powerful, and those that need a bit more grunt can check out the optional processors. With 16 GB of memory, the P35X should handle most desktop workloads with aplomb.
Those that buy this system though are likely more interested in gaming performance, so let’s move to that now.
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Hubb1e - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
If you like the idea of this laptop but are not sold on the total execution, the Clevo p650se should be on your radar. It has a thin design that is only a little larger than the Gigabyte but lacks the optical drive and adds more cooling performance. Build quality is comparable and quite good. I just got a Clevo p650se (from Sager np8651) with the 970m and it is decently portable for a gaming laptop with a top tier GPU. At idle it is almost completely silent with only a very slight hum from the CPU fan. The 2nd HD spinning is noisier than the fan in my Clevo and that turns off after a minute of use anyways. As an early member of SilentPCReview.com idle noise was important to me. Less important to me was load noise and this Clevo exceeded my expectations with only a mild hum from the exhaust (vsync is on reducing load). I can game easily without headphones on and don't notice the noise at all once in the game. As a Clevo notebook you can get it from several vendors which opens up displays from bad TN 1080p panels to full 4k IPS displays. I opted for the Sager which came stock with a pretty good 1080p IPS panel. Mine has some light bleed in the lower left corner, but is otherwise one of the best displays I've used on a Windows laptop. I wanted this Gigabyte in this review but after reading other reviews on it I decided I didn't want a noisy laptop. My Clevo has been great and I recommend it. Hopefully Anandtech can get their hands on one.Dr_Orgo - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
I have this laptops little brother, the Gigabyte P34G-V1. I've been quite happy with it. Howerver, these thin and light gaming notebooks aren't for everyone. I was looking for a work laptop that was small enough to bike to work with, but powerful enough to run modern games at 1920x1080 with good settings. I already have a gaming desktop that I use as my primary machine. I wanted a laptop to play co-op pc games with my wife at good enough quality. It serves that purpose quite well.Darkstone - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
Are you really sure you've interpreted the cooling/frequency graph correctly? From the way i see it, the CPU is throtteling at 800mhz. 30 seconds into the test.This can mean 2 things, either the benchmark does not utilize the CPU beyond a very basis level, or the system is really throttling. In either case, the benchmark is completely unrepresentative.
I suggest running prime95 on a low priority alongside any game, carefully monitor the TDP of the CPU and the clock speeds of the GPU. The temperature can be, imo, mostly ignored. The clock speeds of the cpu can be completely ignored.
Brett Howse - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
The CPU Load is only 30%, so the CPU clocks down to keep temps down.Jon Tseng - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
The Gigabyte P35X v3 Review: Slim GTX980M Gaming Laptop"Slim" and "GTX980M" - two words I never thought I'd see in the same sentence! :-p
bennyg - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
Slim, powerful, cool, quiet, reasonably priced. Pick a maximum of three.BMNify - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
Excellent Slim gaming laptop, cheaper and better than Razer Blade too, And not to forget the most important point: Gigabyte actually sells their laptops worldwide whereas Razer is USA only !! Can't take any laptop manufacturer seriously who sells only in one country.meacupla - Sunday, April 26, 2015 - link
Well, razer does sell to Canada, but with expensive shipping + duties.I'm sure razer could prepay duties, like newegg does, but nope.
erple2 - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
I've been waiting a bit for this review. It looked like it checked all of the right boxes, and could be the replacement for my aging Envy 15t, at least as a portable gaming computer. I was hoping for better battery life than what this gives (just under 5 hours seems low), and a better keyboard. The trackpad on my Envy 15 is pretty bad (then again, every non-macbook pro trackpad has been pretty terrible IMO), but the keyboard is reasonable. It's battery life is terrible though at a whopping 90 minutes at idle on the desktop.Anyway, I wish they'd just get rid of the space the DVD drive takes up, and shrink the chassis more. Also, the more I use laptops, the less I like a number pad. I'd rather connect it up to a KVM switch if I really needed a number pad.
I dunno, it still looks like a pretty solid laptop, and isn't horribly angled like the kiddie laptops that have similar internals.
milkod2001 - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
i wonder if it would help dramatically with noise/thermal issues if they have implemented different notebook design approach: Starting from front very thin(2-3 mm) continuing to thick(up to 25mm).This way there would be enough space at the rear to implement better/bigger cooling system.
Plus it would be better for typing as laptop keyboard would face up the same way as any external keyboard.
Aslo trackpad completely removed for navigation only touch screen or external mice would be used.
Keyboard moved to front, made bigger for better typing experience and at the position where keyboard currently is now to have bigger speakers +small sub.