Gigabyte have introduced a larger 17 inch model of their Aero laptop, and it’s available
with some excellent specs, so just how well does it perform in games? I’ve benchmarked
20 different games at all setting levels to show you how well it runs and compared it
against some other laptops to see the differences.
Just quickly before we jump into the benchmark results I’ll cover off the specs in my unit.
I’ve got the XA model, there’s an 8 core Intel i9-9980HK CPU, 90 watt Nvidia RTX 2070
Max-Q graphics, and 16gb of memory running in dual channel. The new Aero 17 is available
with different specs though, you can find examples and updated prices linked in the
description.
I don’t think the Aero 17 has been designed with gaming in mind, it’s more of a machine
for content creators, hence the 4K screen and the fact that it came with Nvidia Studio
drivers installed. With that said, if it’s got decent specs like these we can still play
games on it and it’s worth seeing how well it does as even creators will take a break
to play games, so for this game testing I’ve installed Nvidia game ready drivers for best
performance.
The Control Center software allows us to define the CPU power limits in 6 stages, and 2 stages
for the GPU, however no overclocking or undervolting is done for us. I’ve tested these games
at the highest limits for best performance, so up to 80 watts on the CPU and 90 watts
on the GPU, along with the latest version of Windows and Nvidia drivers at the time
of testing.
We’ll only be covering gaming performance here, so if you’re new to the channel, you'll
definitely want to get subscribed for the upcoming full review. Alright let’s start
out by going through all 20 games at all setting levels, then afterwards we’ll see how the
new Aero 17 compares with some other laptops.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode rather multiplayer. I’ve tested with RTX
off in the purple bars, and RTX on in the green bars. Even with RTX on it was still
playing well enough at high settings, ultra wasn’t too terrible either due to the high
1% low performance. Personally I’d rather play at ultra with RTX off, as it both looks
good and runs well, and we’ll see how this game compares with some other soon.
Battlefield 1 was also tested in campaign mode, and like always it’s running well
and performing better than the newer Battlefield 5 just shown. Compared to other laptops with
the same RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics I’ve tested, the 1% low was clearly higher over the i7
machines.
Apex Legends was tested with either all settings at maximum, or all settings on the lowest
possible values, as it doesn’t have predefined setting presets. It was still playing well
with maximum settings, however with minimum settings we could boost average FPS by 36%,
though I didn’t see much of a difference in this test compared to other i7 laptops
with similar graphics.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, the results from this
test were looking pretty great at lower settings due to the high CPU power limit, and the results
were still better than most 2070 Max-Q machines at higher settings, though it was close, but
we’ll see how this game and others compare later.
The Division 2 was tested using the built in benchmark. While the average frame rates
aren’t too different when compared with other 2070 Max-Q machines, the 1% low, in
particular at ultra settings, was noticeably improved in this test, again likely due to
the higher powered 8 core i9 CPU.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark. This game seems to be fairly
CPU heavy, however it was one where I didn’t actually find that much difference when compared
to other i7 laptops, though I have noted before in my desktop CPU comparisons that Far Cry
tends to not work too well with increased core counts.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and the results were ahead of the
newer Far Cry New Dawn just covered, and we’ll see how this one compares to some other laptops
later.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and epic settings was still working just fine
with 130 FPS averages and relatively high 1% low performance, with much higher frame
rates possible at the lower setting levels.
Overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range, as other
players, bots and even different maps in actual gameplay affect the frame rate and this allows
for consistent testing. The 300 FPS frame cap was hit at low settings, while even max
settings was still averaging well above 100 FPS for the 1% low and was playing very well.
Metro Exodus was tested using the built in benchmark, most parts of the game perform
a fair bit better than this, so don’t take these results as a good indication of what
to expect throughout the entire game, it’s more of a worst case but does let you perform
the same test to compare against.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and as a game that is pretty CPU bound we’re
seeing above average results compared to most i7-9750H laptops that I’ve tested. Machines
like the Lenovo Y740 with same GPU but i7 CPU will beat it though, due to the option
of disabling Nvidia Optimus, which I’ve found helps out quite a bit for games such
as this with high frame rates.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark, and the results weren’t too
different in this test compared to similarly specced machines. Don’t get me wrong, still
excellent performance, but it doesn’t seem that the extra CPU cores and slight clock
speed difference helps here compared to an i7.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and the results between very low and high
settings are higher than what we usually see with most laptops in this test, and there
wasn’t really a practical difference in terms of FPS between these setting levels,
while ultra was still able to average above 100 FPS.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and from my experience
seems to be a fairly CPU heavy game. There’s not much of a boost over most other laptops
I’ve tested though, still fairly similar average FPS, however I was seeing higher 1%
lows due to the CPU compared to say the Y740 with same GPU but i7 CPU.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on,
and is yet another game that I’ve found to prefer higher CPU power, which explains
why the average frame rates at lower settings are higher than the 9750H machines I usually
test, granted not by enough to make a practical difference as we’re already around 200 FPS.
Watch Dogs 2 is a resource heavy game, but in my opinion is still playable with a stable
30 FPS, so even at ultra settings with our higher than 60 FPS average it’s playing
very well without any issues, and I don’t often see 100 FPS being reached at all in
this title when it comes to laptops, so that seems to be due to the i9.
Ghost Recon is another resource intensive game and was tested using the built in benchmark.
Around 50 FPS at ultra is a pretty decent result from this test in my experience, as
you generally need a very powerful laptop to reach 60 FPS, though much higher is of
course possible at lower settings.
The Witcher 3 was playing well with hairworks disabled, I’ve found this to be a somewhat
more GPU demanding title. For quick comparison, the average frame rates are close to the Y740
I tested with 2070 Max-Q, however the 1% lows with the i9 are 10 to 20 FPS higher than the
i7.
DOOM was tested using Vulkan, and is a game that almost always gets really high frame
rates. There wasn’t really that much difference between the different setting levels, still
over 140 FPS at max settings with well above 100 for the 1% low which shows it was running
perfectly smoothly.
Strange Brigade was another game that was tested with Vulkan, and this one was also
running well with the built in benchmark. Still around 120 FPS at ultra settings, and
above 200 at low settings with relatively high 1% low results compared to averages.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the new Aero 17 compares with other laptops
to see how it stacks up, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested
at different times with different drivers.
In Battlefield 5 I’ve got the Aero 17 highlighted in red near similarly specced machines, including
the new Aero 15 OLED just below it. In terms of average FPS, the result is right in line
with the Aero 15 and Lenovo Y740, both of which are machines with the same GPU but i7
CPU, however the average from the Razer Blade Pro 17 with same GPU is significantly higher,
as that machine undervolts the CPU, overclocks the graphics, and boosts the GPU power limit
higher. I’m only testing these machines at their best stock settings, so with some
tweaks we could also improve the Aero 17, however even at stock due to the superior
i9 CPU with higher clock speeds and more cores we’re getting the highest 1% low result
out of all machines tested. This 1% result is ahead of the average FPS in the Scar II
with RTX 2060, just for comparison.
Here are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark. I’ve
found this to be a pretty CPU heavy test, though unlike the last game we’re not seeing
results too different from the other similarly specced machines. The average FPS was again
in line with most of the other 2070 Max-Q machines tested, though the 1% low was a little
ahead of the others, again most likely due to the higher CPU performance, the difference
is just much smaller in this title.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings. Once more the average frame rates are very similar to the other 2070 Max-Q machines
tested, again with the exception of the Blade Pro as that’s just tuned very well out of
the box, still though the Aero 17 holds up nicely here. I’ll be overclocking and undervolting
the Aero 17 in future videos, so keep an eye out for those.
Overall the new Gigabyte Aero 17 laptop is providing high levels of performance. Many
RTX 2070 Max-Q laptops I’ve used cap the GPU power limit to 80 watts, so the option
of boosting this to 90 watts improves performance. Likewise the 8 core i9 CPU with 80 watt power
limit is a step up over the usual i7-9750H machines I’ve tested previously, and while
it can be overclocked we’ve only looked at stock performance here, again I’ll cover
overclocking in detail in future content.
It does really depend on the game though, some games saw very similar performance to
a laptop with same GPU but i7-9750H, especially in terms of average FPS, higher 1% low performance
was more common with the i9, while other games saw no noticeable improvements. Of course
not all games are really going to care about the differences between 6 and 8 cores, so
different results are expected. This might change more once we boost the clock speed
with some overclocking though.
While my Aero 17 came with a 4K screen I’ve only tested games at 1080p here and they looked
fine to me, but let me know if you also want to see some games tested at 4K for the upcoming
full review video.
Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the new Aero 17 laptop down
in the comments, and if you’re new to the channel you’ll definitely want to get subscribed
for the full review to see everything this new machine is offering.