The new Gigabyte Aero 15x laptop has some pretty nice specs, including Intel’s new
6 core i7 8750H CPU and Nvidia 1070 Max-Q graphics, so let’s find out how well it
performs in a bunch of different games.
Just quickly before we dig into the benchmark results, I want to mention that the laptop
comes standard with one 16gb stick of memory, meaning that it’s running in single channel.
Most of the laptops I’ve tested would instead come with two 8gb sticks so that it runs in
dual channel, as this typically improves performance, so just keep in mind that the results could
be improved a little if you swap over to dual channel memory, but I’m testing the aero
15x in its stock configuration here.
All testing was done at 1080p, the native resolution of the laptop’s display, although
it’s also available in 4K you won’t really get a great 4K gaming experience here, I’d
suggest playing at 1080p anyway, even with the 4K screen.
With that out of the way let's check out some gaming results.
By popular demand I’ve started testing Fortnite, and with the lowest settings we’re averaging
144 FPS which fully utilizes the 144Hz display in the laptop, but I thought it felt nice
and smooth even maxed out.
Overwatch was fairly similar, we’re getting fairly high frame rates and at epic it ran
nice and smoothly for me, as shown by the fairly high 1% low frame rates.
CS:GO was averaging just under the maximum refresh rate of the display, with the 1% lows
sitting around 60 FPS so again it ran quite well.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, but take the results with a grain of salt,
as like Fortnite it will depend on what’s going on in the game, so the results will
vary quite a lot.
While I was playing it ran pretty well, no noticeable issues.
Dota 2 was tested using a fairly intensive replay, so this should be a worst case scenario,
realistically you’ll probably get better results than this while playing.
Battlefield 1 also ran well, and again even at max settings to me it felt nice and smooth,
with 1% low frame rates just under 60 FPS.
The witcher 3 doesn’t really need a high frame rate to enjoy, to me it ran well even
at ultra settings despite the large drop compared to the other levels.
Rise of the tomb raider was tested with the built in benchmark, nothing in particular
to call out other than it’s running pretty well.
Ghost recon is a fairly resource intensive game, and was again tested with the built
in benchmark.
The frame rate drops down a little at ultra settings, but seems pretty good at any level
below this.
Watchdogs 2 is another fairly resource intensive game, but is another that I personally think
doesn’t need a high frame rate to play.
The averages and 1% lows are fairly close together at the top 3 levels, so you might
as well just play on ultra settings.
DOOM was tested with Vulkan, and we’re able to get above 100 FPS averages at any setting
level with not really too much difference between the setting levels.
Shadow of war was another game tested with the built in benchmark, and we’re just able
to average above 60 FPS at ultra settings.
Overall the gaming results were pretty decent, however the 1070 Max-Q doesn’t really seem
to be powerful enough to consistently make use of the 144Hz 1080p panel.
Some of the esports titles like csgo, overwatch and fortnite are able to reach high enough
frame rates to make use of the refresh rate, but in general only at the lower setting levels,
so it probably would have better been paired with a non Max-Q 1070 or above.
So how do you guys think the Aero 15x did in these games?
I was quite happy with the performance, but I’m generally happy with anything above
60 FPS, higher is nice to have but not essential in many of the games I play, and the esports
titles where this was needed were able to get quite high.
I’m in the middle of testing the laptop out for the full review video, and so far
I think the laptop is great, but you’ll hear more about that in the full laptop review.
The full review takes a lot more time and effort to make and will include all of these
test results too, so let me know if you liked this sort of quick benchmark result style
video before the full review, as it’s the first one I’ve done.
I can get the gaming results up a bit quicker this way, so let me know if it’s something
you guys want to see more of, and if you’re new here don’t forget to subscribe for the
full Aero 15x review as well as future tech videos like this one.