Gigabyte has some new gaming laptops, awesome OLED monitors and faster graphics cards coming
out this year, and they’ve sponsored this video at CES 2024 for us to check it all out!
Let’s start out with their new Aorus 16X gaming laptop. There’s a
new shiny lid design which changes based on the angle of the light.
It’s available with Intel’s latest 14th gen HX processors, up to Nvidia’s RTX 4070 graphics,
and a 16” 165Hz screen with G-Sync and advanced optimus.
It keeps these specs cool with a bottom panel that has the corner
feet rounded to stop hot exhaust air coming straight back in. They also
had the WINDFORCE Infinity cooler that’s inside on display, so we’ve got two fans
and a bunch of heatpipes with air coming out the back and left and right sides.
The ports sit in front of the air vents. The left side has the power input, gigabit ethernet,
HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port, while the right has a 3.5mm audio
combo jack, UHS-II MicroSD card slot, and there’s another USB Type-A and Thunderbolt Type-C port on
this side too, which I like as it gives you the option of connecting devices on either side.
There aren’t any ports on the back, just those air exhaust vents I mentioned. You
can connect a monitor to either Type-C port as both have DisplayPort 1.4 support,
and the left one can be used to charge the laptop with 100 watts. PD 3.0 support means
50% of the 99.9Wh battery can be charged in just 30 minutes.
The keyboard has 3 zones of RGB backlighting with clear Q W E R A S D keys, and with 1.7mm
of key travel it feels nice to type on. Oh and it was one of the few new laptops I’ve
seen with Microsoft’s new shortcut key to copilot - their AI assistant that’s built into Windows.
Speaking of AI, the Gigabyte Control Center software also has an AI boost option to
automatically control the laptop based on the workload being run. Gigabyte’s website claims
that a 9% FPS boost is possible in games with it enabled, which we’ll have to put to the test.
And within the new AI Nexus section of the software they’ve included the stable diffusion
image generator, which lets you create images from text locally with the RTX graphics. I can see this
being useful on their Aero creator laptops, but hey it’s available on the gaming models too.
The Aorus 17X laptop has also been updated to Intel’s latest 14th gen HX processors, and they
had it setup with a fun live demo. Basically it takes whatever it gets from the laptop’s camera
and uses that as input to the AI image generator. The text prompt also included words like cat,
which explains why those were popping up randomly. Anyway this was running on the RTX 4090 mobile
graphics and just demonstrating how fast it can take fresh visual input and change it.
The Aorus 15 and Aorus 17 are their only gaming laptops to move to Intel’s new Meteor
Lake processors with up to the latest Core Ultra 7 155H, and they had a demo of a Microsoft Teams
call showing the background blur effect using the new NPU hardware. Offloading tasks like
this uses less power compared to the CPU and GPU, which means better battery life.
Next up is Gigabyte’s G6X, another 16 inch gaming laptop,
but a budget friendlier option compared to the Aorus 16X.
The G6X uses Intel’s 13th gen HX processors, which makes perfect sense to me. These still
perform well and presumably cost less compared to the newer 14th gen options,
so I think this is a good choice for a lower to mid-range option.
The new G6X has a refreshed design with a much smaller bottom chin below the screen. Here’s
Gigabyte’s G6 for comparison, and although that also uses Intel 13th gen processors,
they’re H series, so the newer G6X has more cores which means more multicore performance.
The G6X has a nice clean gunmetal gray plastic design with a USB 3.2
Gen 1 Type-A port and 3.5mm audio combo jack on the left,
and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C ports on the right. The back has a gigabit ethernet port,
HDMI 2.1 output, the power input, and a second USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port.
The rear Type-C port has DisplayPort 1.4 support for connecting a monitor,
while the right one can be used to charge the laptop with 100
watts using the PD 3.0 standard - another feature the lower tier G6 did not have.
This one has a single zone of RGB backlighting with 1.3mm of key travel,
so not quite as nice as the higher tier Aorus 16X, but I still had no problems typing on it.
So the G6X has a few extra nice to have premium features compared
to Gigabyte’s G5 and G6 like a MUX switch, HX processor,
Type-C charging and less screen bezel which just makes it look a bit nicer in my opinion.
And speaking of looking nice, Gigabyte also has some new OLED monitors,
like the Aorus FO32U2P - a 32” 4K OLED display with 240Hz refresh rate,
super fast response time, high color gamut, and DisplayPort 2.1.
But specs aside, the first thing I thought when I saw this monitor was “how do I get one”? I use
a 32” 4K 144Hz IPS screen at home - I love the size and resolution, but the colors from this
OLED panel just look amazing in person. It’s way more vibrant and brighter, and I need it.
But if that’s not big enough for you, Gigabyte also have their first 49” OLED
gaming monitor on show too - the Aorus CO49DQ. Now I could tell you that this
curved screen has a 5120 by 1440 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate,
fast response time and high color gamut, but that wouldn’t do it justice. All you need
to know is how fully immersive it is just standing in front of such a huge display.
It reaches right around and takes up most of your vision, really getting you into the game.
Both monitors have Gigabyte’s OLED Care, an AI-based algorithm that apparently
runs on the monitor to minimize burn in issues and keep the display looking good.
You’ll need some decent GPU power to run games at those higher resolutions,
and Gigabyte also has their new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Eagle,
on the left here, and their GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Gaming OC on the right.
Both cards have metal backplates which do more than just look cool,
they make the card stronger too. And we can see Gigabyte’s screen cooling,
which is an extended heatsink that allows air to pass through for better cooling.
Nvidia announced the new RTX 4070 Super at CES for the same price as the RTX 4070,
while the RTX 4070 Ti Super replaces the RTX 4070 Ti at the same price point - so
this should mean more performance for the dollar with these new Super cards.
I'm most interested in that new 32” OLED monitor because it seriously looks amazing,
but let me know what you thought down in the comments.
And if you want to know about more new gaming laptops this year check out the
rest of my CES 2024 coverage. I’ll see you in one of those videos next.