The G5 is Gigabyte’s most budget friendly gaming laptop, and at $899 on sale,
it’s also the cheapest RTX 4060 laptop I’ve ever seen, but is it worth buying?
Cheaper laptops like this are always going to have less features and more
compromises. Corners just need to be cut in order to get the price down.
And at this price point, alternatives include
Acer’s Nitro 5. But that has a lower tier RTX 4050 GPU for the same price.
So obviously the higher tier RTX 4060 in the G5 is better, right? Well, actually no.
We’ve spent weeks testing out this laptop in depth, and in this review I’ll share the good,
the bad, and the ugly parts that you need to know before buying.
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Back to the laptop. Gigabyte’s G5 has a black plastic lid and interior. It doesn’t feel as
bad as MSI’s slightly cheaper GF63, but there is some flex if you go looking for
it. Nothing too bad though, again it’s a budget laptop, so it is what it is.
It felt ok during normal use, and one finger opening is possible if
you go fast. The hinge felt fine even when ripping the lid open quickly.
It’s quite portable for a 15 inch gaming laptop, not too large or thick compared to others.
The laptop alone weighs about 4.2lb or 2.1kg,
increasing to 5.6lb or 2.5kg with the small 150 watt charger included.
My G5 has Intel’s Core i5-12500H processor, Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics, but they only
run up to 75 watts, 8 gigs of DDR4 memory in single channel, and a 15.6” 1080p 144Hz screen.
The keyboard has one zone of RGB backlighting, and all keys and secondary functions get lit
up. Key brightness can be changed between 4 levels by holding function and pressing
the plus or minus keys, while the asterisk key is used to turn the lighting on or off.
Gigabyte’s control center software lets you change between 15 different colors,
but that’s all the customization you get as there don’t appear to be any effects.
I did not like typing on the keyboard, the presses just felt mushy.
If we take a closer look, even a lighter press moves a bunch of keys nearby.
This is because the keyboard can be removed. My partner did not like it,
she thought this made it feel worse than the cheaper GF63. I had no problem with the layout,
but the shorter right shift might annoy some.
The touchpad felt a bit cheap and plasticy, but it worked fine for me.
The power button is separate from the keyboard, but you have to hold it down for a bit to
turn it on, which is a bit annoying as other laptops only need a brief press.
The left side has a Kensington lock at the back, two USB Type-A ports, the blue one is faster 3.2
Gen 1 while the black one is ancient and slow USB 2.0, followed by 3.5mm mic and headphone jacks.
The right has a MicroSD card slot, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, and Gigabit ethernet,
while the back has a second USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port,
HDMI 2.0 and Mini DisplayPort 1.4 outputs, and the power input.
The two Type-C ports do not have Thunderbolt support, they cannot be used to charge the laptop,
and you cannot connect a monitor to them. Just USB functionality only.
Interestingly the HDMI port connects to the Intel integrated graphics. With
most gaming laptops that connects to the more powerful discrete graphics, bypassing
optimus. But this can still be done with the mini DisplayPort on the back, which bypasses the iGPU.
Getting inside requires removing 13 Phillips head screws, all the same length. It was
quite easy to open with my usual pry tools, I’ll leave a link to the ones I use below.
Once inside we’ve got the battery down the front right corner. There’s some empty space next to it,
but I suppose a larger battery would also increase cost. The two M.2 slots are next
to that. The one with the SSD installed supports faster PCIe Gen 4 drives, while the spare one is
Gen 3 only. The spare slot didn’t have a screw included for some reason, but maybe some other
reviewer just lost it. There are two memory slots in the middle, and a Wi-Fi 6E card on the left.
The G5 is only sold with 8 gigs of DDR4 memory, which means one memory stick in
single channel. Upgrading to 2 sticks in dual channel can offer a big FPS boost in games.
I’ve tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the laptop at stock, so with one stick of DDR4 memory
in single channel. If we connect a monitor to the mini DisplayPort, we get an 8% FPS boost,
as this bypasses optimus which acts as a bottleneck. If we instead just upgrade to
dual channel memory, we’re looking at a much bigger 24% performance boost in this
game. There’s a bigger 27% boost if we stack both upgraded RAM with the monitor connected,
so there are definitely improvements you can make if you’re willing to spend more money.
The Wi-Fi speeds were decent and ahead of many more expensive laptops,
and I was surprised that it’s got the latest 6E, despite being a cheaper laptop.
The 512 gig PCIe Gen 4 SSD was performing alright, and the MicroSD card wasn’t too bad for the reads,
but way lower for the writes. The card clicks in and sits most of the way into the machine,
but there’s enough to make it easy to get back out.
The upgradeability score was decent as we can change both
M.2 slots and fit drives with chips on both sides, change both memory slots,
and Wi-Fi. Unfortunately there’s no removable battery like older versions of the G5 had.
The speakers are found down the front on the left and right sides. They sound terrible,
possibly the worst I’ve ever heard. There’s zero bass, they sound high pitched and tinny.
The Latencymon results were quite good, one of the best results we’ve seen all year.
The G5 is powered by a 54Wh battery. The power saving mode disables the Nvidia graphics and
lowers the screen’s refresh rate down to 60Hz, which is why the screen flashes black. It does
not automatically make this change when you unplug the charger like other laptops though.
We’ve got the option to limit the charge level in the control center software,
which should help improve the lifespan of the battery.
Battery life was surprisingly decent considering the smaller battery,
lasting for more than 5 hours in the YouTube video playback test. Many more
expensive laptops below it with larger batteries weren’t able to last as long,
and it’s beating similarly priced laptops with similar sized batteries.
Let’s check out thermals next. There’s one heatpipe shared between the CPU and GPU
with two fans. There are plenty of holes underneath for air intake, and air gets
exhausted out of the left and right corners, as well as out of both corners on the back.
The Control Center software allows us to change between different performance modes, which from
lowest to highest are quiet, entertainment, and performance. Power saving mode disables
the Nvidia graphics, so wasn’t used here. You can set the fans to maximum speed or customize
them in any mode, but I’ve tested all modes on auto fans and only performance mode with max.
The internal temperatures were cool when just sitting there idle. The rest of the
results are from combined CPU and GPU stress tests which aim to represent a worst case full
load scenario. The CPU was thermal throttling in performance mode, but it didn’t get any hotter
with the lid closed if you want to dock it. The cooling pad I test with, linked below the video,
made a massive difference, lowering the CPU by 7 degrees Celsius and the GPU by 9.
These are the clock speeds during the same tests. CPU and GPU clock speeds were best
with the cooling pad, as it was able to remove thermal throttling. There’s no
performance difference between lid closed and open, so again no problems docking it,
apart from the fact that it’s already hot anyway with the lid open of course.
The GPU was running at 65 watts in performance mode. Nvidia’s control
panel notes that the RTX 4060 maxes out at 75 watts, but that includes
dynamic boost. With the CPU also loaded up at the same time though we’re looking at 65 best case,
with entertainment mode only a little behind at 60 watts.
Performance and entertainment modes performed about the same with an actual game running,
while quiet mode was a fair bit lower, but as you’ll hear soon it is actually quiet.
The CPU can use more power in workloads where the GPU is idle,
like in Cinebench. Quiet and power saving modes run the same, except enabling power saving mode
disables the Nvidia graphics, which is why it couldn’t be tested in the game.
This is the second time we’ve had a laptop with the i5-12500H processor. The only other time
was with Acer’s Nitro 5, which is available for the same price right now. The Nitro was
scoring 12% better in multicore, and although the G5 appears to be 2% faster in single core,
that result is within the margin of error range and likely just silicon lottery luck.
Performance lowers if we unplug the charger and instead run purely off
of battery power. The single core score doesn’t change much. That
Nitro 5 in particular took a big dip, putting the G5 well ahead.
Most laptops I test are in the low 30 degrees Celsius range on the keyboard at idle,
and the G5 was right in line with this. It’s much warmer with the stress tests going in
the lowest quiet mode as the fan speed does not change, the WASD area doesn’t feel bad,
but the middle feels hot. Entertainment mode was cooler despite performing better
as the fans are now louder, and then the highest performance mode was quite similar,
with the middle still feeling a bit warm despite the louder fans, let’s have a listen.
The fan noise was the same in quiet mode whether it was just sitting there doing nothing,
or running the stress test, so quiet mode is actually quiet and that explains the
GPU thermal throttling. Entertainment and performance modes were the same,
it’s strange that there isn’t more of a gap, as it goes from quiet to loud with no inbetween.
Manually setting the fans to max was the same as automatic, and although a cooling
pad helped lower the internal temps, it did not allow the fans to run quieter.
The screen is one of the first places where a brand is going to cheap out when it comes
to making a budget friendly gaming laptop, and Gigabyte’s G5 is no exception to this.
It’s actually using the same panel model as the ASUS TUF A15 from 2020,
which was considered a budget laptop 3 years ago, and the colors don’t look very good.
It’s at least able to get above 300 nits at full brightness,
which is the minimum amount I want to see, even from a budget gaming laptop like this.
Backlight bleed wasn’t great. It wasn’t bad enough for me to notice during normal use,
but this will vary between laptops.
The screen’s average grey-to-grey response time was not good either. Once we get to
20ms or so even I, a filthy casual, start noticing blur on the screen during movements.
It’s one of the slowest results we’ve recorded in the last couple of years.
This is of course a cheaper laptop, so we shouldn’t expect amazing results,
but that said Acer’s Nitro 5 was a bit faster and is available for the same price.
The total system latency is the amount of time between a mouse click and when a gunshot fire
appears on the screen in CS:GO. Despite the lower response time, the G5 was now ahead of a
number of other laptops that had a faster response time, and again the Nitro 5 was slightly better.
There’s a 720p camera above the screen, but it does not have IR for Windows hello face unlock.
Here’s how the camera and microphones look and sound, and as you can tell,
the quality isn’t amazing, and this is what it sounds like while typing on the keyboard.
This laptop does not have a MUX switch,
so games are always going to be limited by the integrated graphics and iGPU. The only way to
bypass that is to connect a monitor to Mini DisplayPort, as that connects to the dGPU.
Now let’s find out how well Gigabyte’s G5 with RTX 4060 graphics actually performs
in games! These tests have all been done at stock to show you what to expect if
you were to buy this laptop as is, so with just one stick of memory running
in single channel. But I also did some dual channel testing at this timestamp.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested the same on all laptops, and I’ve got the G5 shown by the red highlight. At
1080p it’s actually a little behind Acer’s Nitro 5 with lower tier RTX 4050 graphics,
as that one has a higher GPU power limit and a MUX switch. This is the lowest RTX
4060 result we’ve got so far, as our other 4060 laptops have higher GPU power limits,
and as a result reach 25% higher FPS, but those also cost more too. Gains aren't for free.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the game’s benchmark, and again the Nitro 5 with lower tier
RTX 4050 graphics was ahead. The Nitro 5 costs the same now, but is cheaper without sales, so
it’s not a good look for the 4060 in the Gigabyte G5. That said, it’s very close to the RTX 3070 in
Acer’s Helios 300 from a couple of years back, but that 2021 model wasn’t very good. At least
performance is in line with a number of RTX 3060 laptops. These days those can be found for similar
money, except they have less VRAM capacity at 6 gigs, and no frame generation support.
The 3070 Helios was close to the G5 in Control too, but again the cheaper Nitro 5 with 4050
graphics was slightly ahead. To be fair, the 4060 does have more VRAM than the 4050,
but at least in these three games tested at 1080p, that does not seem to matter,
though it may of course be a different story in a year or two with newer games.
This graph shows the 3DMark Timespy graphics scores of both the RTX 4050
and 4060 laptop GPUs at different power levels. A 65 watt 4060,
like the Gigabyte G5 has, is very close to a full powered 4050.
Here are the 3DMark results for those that find them useful, now for some content creator tests.
Adobe Photoshop was tested with the Puget Systems benchmark tool,
and it’s a poor result compared to other laptops tested. Even MSI’s cheaper GF63 with lower CPU
and GPU was better. The G5 was at least a bit better than the GF63 in DaVinci Resolve,
as this test depends more on GPU power, but like the games, the cheaper Nitro 5
with 4050 was a little ahead, while the more expensive 4060 laptops had a further lead.
It looks like GPU power limit doesn’t really matter so much in Blender,
because there’s far less of a difference between the RTX 4060 results in this one,
and there’s a clear lead compared to the 4050s.
We’ve also tested SPECviewperf which tests out various professional 3D workloads.
There’s not too much customization available in Clevo’s BIOS. It
was a bit awkward to navigate through compared to other modern gaming laptops,
but the core basic functionality you’d expect is available.
Speaking of BIOS, when we got this laptop with FB03 installed, we actually
found performance mode to perform worse than entertainment mode. After contacting Gigabyte,
they gave us FB09 which fixed this, it wasn't available when we first got the
laptop. All our testing was done on FB09, so definitely update if you’re on FB03.
Linux support was tested with an Ubuntu 23.04 live CD. By default the keyboard, touchpad, speakers,
camera, ethernet and Wi-Fi all worked fine. The keyboard shortcuts to turn the camera on and off,
screen brightness and volume adjustment all work, but none of the keyboard lighting controls worked.
Pricing and availability will change over time, so check the link below for updates
and current sales, and if this laptop does go on sale, we’ll be sure to add it to our
gaminglaptop.deals website. We update that everyday to include all of the latest sales,
so check that out regularly to save money on your next gaming laptop.
At the time of recording, Bestbuy have the RTX 4060 config of the G5
available for $950 USD on sale, which is kind of funny because it actually
makes it cheaper than the lower tier RTX 4050 option which is not on sale.
Newegg actually has it even cheaper with a better sale right now for $900,
which I think is a pretty good deal. And that’s why it’s currently listed on the
gaminglaptop.deals website. But again, deals come and go every day, so check that out regularly.
Now Acer’s Nitro 5 with RTX 4050 graphics is also available for the same price on sale.
And as we just saw in the games, the Gigabyte G5 with 4060 and Acer Nitro 5 with 4050 perform
very similarly. But the Nitro also has a better screen, better build quality,
better keyboard, a MUX switch, DDR5 memory so it doesn’t matter quite as
much if you only have one stick, and the Nitro also had better CPU performance.
Honestly, I would much prefer Acer’s Nitro 5 for day to day use compared to the G5.
But the G5 does have better battery life, better performance while running on battery,
and the RTX 4060 graphics have more VRAM than the 4050, which may be more useful in
future games. Even at 1080p, which is really all either of those two laptops are capable
of. But apart from that, I can’t really think why I would pick Gigabyte’s G5 over the Nitro.
In any case, I think both the Acer’s Nitro 5 and Gigabyte’s G5 are better than MSI’s cheaper GF63.
I really think that one should be avoided. You’re so much better off just saving up the extra $50.
Without the current sales, Gigabyte’s G5 would actually end up more expensive than
the Acer Nitro 5. So the cheaper Nitro 5 could definitely be a good alternative if
you’re after a budget friendly gaming laptop. Check out this video next to
find out all about the Nitro 5. I bought that laptop and imported it from overseas
just so I could find out if it’s worth buying, so I’ll see you in that one next!