The Gigabyte P35X v3 Review: Slim GTX980M Gaming Laptop
by Brett Howse on April 23, 2015 8:00 AM ESTGPU Performance
The P35X is certainly not the first system we have seen with the NVIDIA GTX980M GPU inside, but it is currently the thinnest notebook to sport the highest tier GPU from NVIDIA. We have seen the GTX980M in two other systems so far. The MSI GT72 has it, but that is a 17.3 inch device with a weight of 3.82 kg or 8.4 lbs. The Clevo P750ZM is a 15.6 inch device, but weighs almost as much as the larger MSI, at 3.4 kg or 7.48 lbs. The P35X is only 2.2-2.3 kg (4.85-5.07 lbs) depending on configuration, which puts it much closer in mass to the 2015 Razer Blade, but the Blade only has a GTX970M GPU.
So we know that the GTX980M is a potent GPU, but can the P35X handle this much GPU in such a small chassis? That comes down to system cooling, and we will dig into that soon, but for now, let’s take a look at how the P35X handles gaming. First we will look at our synthetic tests, and then move on to some gaming workloads.
3DMark
The P35X does very well in 3DMark, scoring right in line with the other GTX980M devices. On Fire Strike in particular, which is the most demanding test that we run from 3DMark, you can see there is a very big gap between the 980M in the P35X and the 970M in the Razer Blade. Let’s move on to actual gaming workloads now.
Bioshock Infinite
Although Bioshock Infinite is getting a bit long in the tooth, it is still a fantastic game, and on maximum settings it can still tax even the fastest gaming laptops. On this test, the P35X slots in right behind the Clevo which is a great result. The smaller chassis does not seem to affect performance.
GRID Autosport
This is a new addition to our notebook suite, and as such we have only a few results available to compare against. The P35X can very easily run this game at over 60 FPS though, so no worries here.
Civilization: Beyond Earth
Another new addition to our 2015 gaming suite, this is the latest in the very popular Civilization series. We only have a couple of data points right now, but even at our Enthusiast settings, the P35X does very well here.
Shadow of Mordor
We have a couple more new additions coming for our 2015 gaming suite, but the final one for today (due to a lack of data points on the others) is Shadow of Mordor. At 66.8 FPS, the P35X even outperforms the Clevo on this test.
Metro Last Light
4A Games has created one of our most demanding titles in Metro Last Light. The P35X scores very close to the P750ZM in this test, but neither of them can crack the elusive 60 FPS mark at this setting.
Tomb Raider
One of my favorite games in some time was Tomb Raider. At maximum settings, it can offer a lot of options that can bring slower cards to their knees, especially when TressFX is enabled like it is on our Enthusiast setting. However the P35X handles this game like a champ.
High Resolution Gaming
One of the things I mentioned earlier in the review is that Gigabyte has an optional display with a resolution of 2880x1620, and that this can benefit gaming. Razer’s Blade has a 3200x1800 panel, and while much sharper on the desktop, the GTX970M can struggle at such a high resolution. The P35X has around a million less pixels to deal with than a 3200x1800 panel, and it has a stronger GPU than the Razer Blade. It is also far less pixels to deal with than something like the Clevo which has a 4K display. So in theory, you should be able to game with reasonable settings at the native resolution of the panel. To see how well the P35X performs at this resolution, here is a chart of how it does with the detail settings listed beside the title.
There can be a significant decrease in framerate moving up to 2880x1620, but the GTX980M has enough headroom that most of our gaming suite is fairly playable. For those that are not, the GeForce Experience should help customize the settings for better performance. NVIDIA has made a big jump in performance with the GTX980M, and the P35X takes advantage of that, and couples it with a great display.
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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.