The Perfect Fusion of Power and Aesthetics: Introducing the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090

ASUS never fails to impress, and this time, they’ve outdone themselves with the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition. It’s an absolute beast of a graphics card, meticulously engineered to deliver mind-blowing performance and jaw-dropping visuals. The latest NVIDIA Ampere architecture, combined with ASUS’s top-tier engineering, means you’ll experience next-gen gaming like never before.

But it’s not just about raw power; ASUS knows how to make a statement. This graphics card is more than just a tool for gaming – it’s an expression of your love for the iconic anime series Evangelion. The Eva-02 themed design captures the essence of the mecha’s aesthetics, making it a true collectible for any anime fan.

A Stunning Tribute to Evangelion: The Eva-02 Edition

If you’re an anime fan (and let’s face it, who isn’t?), you’ll immediately recognise the Eva-02’s theme colors, which are beautifully integrated on to this graphics card. ASUS has truly gone the extra mile to capture the spirit of Evangelion, ensuring that every inch of the GPU exudes the same formidable aura as the Eva-02.

lmagine showing off your gaming setup with this stunning tribute to one of the most beloved anime series of all time. You’ll undoubtedly be the envy of all your friends and fellow otakus. But it’s not about looks: the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition is engineered to offer blistering frame rates and unrivaled graphics fidelity, so you’ll dominate in every game you play.

In the next sections, we’ll delve deeper into the technical specifications and performance capabilities of this powerful GPU. Plus, we’ll reveal how ASUS has incorporated subtle nods to Evangelion throughout the design. So, buckle up and get ready to embark on an exhilarating journey into the world of high performance gaming and anime fandom with the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition!

Unleashing Unparalleled Power: The Technology Behind

The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition is an engineering marvel that’s been fine-tuned to perfection. Powered by NVIDIA’s groundbreaking Ampere architecture, this GPU takes gaming and graphics rendering to uncharted territories. With 24GB of ultra-fast GDDR6X memory, you’ll experience lightning-fast load times, smooth gameplay, and incredible visual fidelity.

The GPU boasts a whopping 10752 CUDA cores, making it a true powerhouse for rendering complex scenes, handling AI-driven tasks, and tackling the most demanding workloads. NVIDIA’s DLSS 3.0 technology adds another layer of brilliance, allowing you to enjoy smoother gameplay at higher resolutions while keeping performance at its peak.

Specifications:

• GPU Model: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
• Architecture: Ampere
• CUDA Cores: 10752
• Memory: 24GB GDDR6X
• Memory Bus: 384-bit
• Memory Speed: 19 Gbps
• Boost Clock: Up to 2100 MHz
• TDP (Total Graphics Power): 450W
• Ray Tracing Cores: 84
• Tensor Cores: 336
• DLSS: 3.0
• Ports: 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a, 2 x HDMI 2.1
• HDCP Support: Yes
• DirectX Support: DirectX 12 Ultimate
• OpenGL Support: 4.6
• VR Ready: Yes
• Dimensions: 320 x 140 x 60 mm

The ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition is designed to deliver an unprecedented level of gaming performance. With a boost clock that can reach up to 2100 MHz, you’ll have a massive amount of processing power at your disposal, ensuring that you can tackle the most demanding titles at the highest settings without breaking a sweat.

The GPU is equipped with an advanced cooling system, featuring ASUS’s renowned axial-tech fans that offer superior airflow and enhanced heat dissipation. Thanks to the MaxContact technology and multiple heat pipes, you can rest assured that the GPU will stay cool even during the most intense gaming sessions.

The futuristic aesthetics of the Eva-02 edition further enhance the overall experience. A dazzling LED-lit ROG logo, intricately designed accents, and striking colors all contribute to making this graphics card a visual masterpiece. It’s not just about performance; it’s a work of art for your gaming setup.

In the next section, we’ll explore how ASUS has carefully woven the spirit of Evangelion into the design of this powerful GPU, making it a must-have collector’s item for both gaming enthusiasts and anime fans alike. Stay tuned to discover the subtle nods and Easter eggs that pay homage to the iconic mecha anime!

A Nod to the Anime Universe: Evangelion-inspired Design Details

ASUS knows that true anime fans appreciate the little things, and they’ve made sure to sprinkle the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition with delightful Easter eggs that pay tribute to the iconic Evangelion series.

The custom-designed shroud of the graphics card features the striking crimson with green/white colors that are synonymous with Eva-02. This bold color scheme, coupled with the sleek lines and futuristic patterns, instantly transports you into the realm of NERV and their epic battles against the mysterious Angels.

But ASUS’s dedication to Evangelion goes beyond just color. Look closely, and you’ll notice subtle engravings on the GPU, carefully hidden amidst the design. Iconic symbols and references to the Evangelion lore adorn the card, making it a true collector’s item for die-hard fans.

To add even more flair to your setup, ASUS has equipped the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition with customizable RGB lighting. Decked out with Aura Sync technology, you can sync the card’s RGB lighting with your other compatible components to create a synchronis

ed light show that pulsates to the beat of your favorite anime soundtracks. It’s the perfect way to immerse yourself fully in the world of Evangelion while dominating your gaming sessions.

Exclusivity and Availability

As much as we’d all love to get our hands on the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition, it’s essential to keep in mind that this exclusive GPU is a limited-edition release. ASUS has put great care into crafting every detail of this collector’s item, and as a result, quantities are understandably limited.

When it comes to availability, the demand for such a stunning collaboration between ASUS and Evangelion is bound to be high. To ensure you don’t miss out on the chance to own this epic piece of hardware, keep a close eye on ASUS’s official website and authorised retailers. Sign up for notifications and be ready to secure your own ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition as soon as it hits the market.

In conclusion, the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition is an absolute marvel that effortlessly merges the worlds of cutting-edge gaming technology and beloved anime. With unparalleled performance, exquisite design details, and a nod to the iconic Evangelion series, this graphics card is more than just hardware; it’s a passion-infused work of art that speaks directly to the hearts of anime and gaming enthusiasts alike.

So, gear up for a truly immersive experience, and don’t miss the opportunity to claim your own piece of anime history with the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 Eva-02 Edition! May your gaming adventures be as epic as the battles fought by the Eva pilots!

ASUS TUF RTX3090 uses Ampere-based GA102 GPU with 10496 Cuda cores, PCIe Gen4 interface with 24G 384-bit GDDR6X memory. Maximum resolution is 8k (7680*4320). NVlink allows 4 card total linked together at the same time (but who needs 96GB of discrete memory).

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
ASUS TUF RTX3090 Tech Specs from Official Website
https://https://www.asus.com/au/Graphics-Cards/TUF-RTX3090-24G-GAMING/specifications/

Package Front

Package Back

Package Sides

The insider package

The TUF RTX3090 main body, the total weight of this card is around 1.4kg

The accessories include:
User manual, component certificate card, greeting card and a collection card

The special collection card

Product Analysis
The whole card uses premium materials, equipped with the latest Axial-tech axial fans. It features a long fan blade and an annular seal to reduce the size of the fan hub, which can enhance the speed and improve the cooling effect under extremely silent operation.

The main body of ASUS TUF RTX3090 has a tough and nice looking front design

The backplate has the tyre print strips

The top of the graphic card has the RTX logo, TUF gaming RGB window and dual-8pin power jack

Through the bottom side we can see the length of the heatsink and the PCB of graphic card

The back IO includes 3 native DP v1.4a and 2 native HDMI v2.1, maximum 4 monitors connected

6 heat pipes heatsink view

The PCIe Gen4 connector

The mode selection switch: Performance and Quite

The dual-8pin power connector and TUF RGB window

The NVlink connector

Benchmark Software
The Graphic card details:
MODEL | TUF-RTX3090-24G-GAMING
GPU | NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3090
VRAM | 24GB GDDR6X
CUDA | 10496
M.PWR | 550W
I/O | 2 x HDMI 2.1, 4 x DisplayPort 1.4a
API | Microsoft DirectX 12, OpenGL® 4.6
EC | OC Mode – Boost Clock/Gaming Mode : 1725 MHz / 1695 MHz
SIZE | 29.99 x 12.69 x 5.17 cm

The Benchmark platform details:
CPU | AMD Ryzen 9-3950X ◎ AMD Wraith Prism RGB
RAM | Corsair 16G 3600
MTB | ASUS TUF X570 GAMING
GRA | ASUS TUF GEFORCE RTX3090 24G
SSD | SAMSUNG 970 EVO 240G
PSU | SEASONIC 850W PRIME 80+ Platinum (RTX3090) + SEASONIC 750W PRIME 80+ Platinum(CPU)
TBC | STREACOM BC1 Silver
MON | ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQ @ 4K 144Hz + Dell UltraSharp UP3218K @ 8K 60Hz

GPUZ

3DMARK Time Spy | 16,262

3DMARK Time Spy Extreme | 9,339

3DMARK Fire Strike | 30,959

3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme | 22,412

3DMARK Fire Strike Ultra | 12,456

3DMARK Port Royal | 12,714

3DMARK Sky Diver | 66,122

3DMARK DLSS | OFF – 59.12 FPS, ON – 126.61 FPS, Performance Gain – 47%

3DMARK VRS Tier 1 | OFF – 1293.89 FPS, ON – 1915.56 FPS, Performance Gain – 48%

3DMARK VRS Tier 2 | OFF – 147.47 FPS, ON – 233.15 FPS, Performance Gain – 58.1%

UNIGINE Superposition 1080P Extreme | 12,476

UNIGINE Superposition 4K OPTIMIZED | 16,300

UNIGINE Superposition 8K OPTIMIZED | 7,295

Gaming Benchmark
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided @ ULTRA SETTINGS | Avg – 58.9 FPS, Min – 52.6 FPS, Max – 64.0 FPS

Final Fantasy XV 1080P High Quality | 9,445

Final Fantasy XV 2K High Quality | 9,414

Final Fantasy XV 4K High Quality | 8,104

Final Fantasy XV 4K Custom | 8,104

Minecraft RTX NEON DISTRICT | Avg 50 FPS @ 1366×768 + DLSS ON

For more games average FPS comparison under 4K and 8K Ultra setting details

Overclock test
Under our overclocking capability test, we found out this card cannot be overclocked too much due to its high power consumption, but we still tried to boost a little bit frequency to push the performance
Under Asus GPU tweak II, we successfully boost the core frequency around 150Mhz and memory frequency 500Mhz. Finally, we got around 5% improvement without modifying the Vbios or shorting the capacitor. The maximum power of this TUF 3090 is around 550W.

3DMARK Time Spy OC | 17,011 +5%

3DMARK Time Spy Extreme OC | 9,783 +5%

3DMARK Port Royal OC | 13,470 +6%

The Whole machine power average usage during the benchmark is around 1.1KW

Thermal test
We are pressure testing this graphic using Furmark
Test room temperature : 25℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 38℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 32℃±2℃

Under Furmark 4K pressure test, the TUF RTX3090 is running normally
The maximum temperature is around 71℃

Under 3DMARK Benchmark test, the TUF RTX3090 is running normally
The maximum temperature is around 62℃

Under Unigine 8K benchmark test, the TUF RTX3090 is running normally
The maximum temperature is around 64℃

The temperature control of this card is extremely good, not only for some high-pressure benchmarks but also under overclocking settings. We can’t stop imagining how good the temperature control of the upcoming ROG Strix series cards will be or the hi-end water cooling card series such as the Poseidon or Matrix.

Overall

After testing, The Nvidia RTX 3090 is worthy of being the strongest graphics card in the consumer category. Air-cooled heat dissipation can already be so efficient. Also, Samsung is providing their 8nm process, compared with the previous 20th generation of 12nm process, the heat dissipation of the GPU has been greatly improved. EPIC PC speculates here that the ROG series should be greatly enhanced, whether the level-up of core frequency or the amount of video memory because the new ‘Big Navi’ graphics card built by the Nvidia’s main competitor, AMD based on their new RDNA2 architecture GPU will use the latest 7nm process and will have two models of 12GB and 16GB VRAM capacity. In addition, Big Navi will not use HDB2 or HBM2e video memory, but the cheaper GDRR6 VRAM chip, which will effectively reduce costs. In terms of price, Nvidia hasn’t created more pressure on end users this time due to AMD’s new card is nearly released. And according to Nvidia’s consistent performance, the enhanced version of ‘Super’ cards should not be released so early. Instead, Nvidia may launch them after a round of price war with AMD, then start the Tug of war. In Australia, the price of TUF RTX3090 is estimated to be about AU$200-300 more than the official Nvidia’s Reference version. Compared with the previous generation of 2080Ti, the RTX3090 with such a big performance and heat dissipation improvement, the price has not changed much, which means the price/performance ratio is quite good.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 94.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, EXTREME PERFORMANCE, EDITOR’S CHOICE

ASUS TUF RTX3090 24G OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

EPIC PC NEW RTX3080/3090 SYSTEM IS READY! PLEASE CHECK OUT!

ASUS TUF RTX3080 uses Ampere-based GA102 GPU. The 8nm Samsung process makes the die size only 628mm2 but integrates 28.3 billion transistors. It is equipped with GDDR6X high-speed video memory, PCIe Gen4 channels and HDMI 2.1 interface that supports 8k 60hz gaming performance.

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
ASUS TUF RTX3080 10G Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.asus.com/au/Graphics-Cards/TUF-RTX3080-10G-GAMING/specifications/

Package Front

Package Back

Package Sides

The insider package

The TUF RTX3080 main body

The accessories include:
User manual, component certificate card, greeting card and a collection card

The special collection card

The main body of ASUS TUF RTX3080 10G has a tough and nice looking front design

The backplate has the tyre print strips

The top of the graphic card has the RTX logo, TUF gaming RGB window and dual-8pin power jack

The back IO includes 3 native DP v1.4a and 2 native HDMI v2.1, maximum 4 monitors connected

The PCIe Gen4 connector

The massive volume of Filter capacitors

The mode selection switch: Performance and Quite

The dual-8pin power connector

The total weight of ASUS TUF RTX3080 10G is around 1.4kg

The benchmark looking

GPUZ without driver

Overall

Because the card we received is a bit late, we will prepare a more detailed benchmark later. In general, the 30 series graphics card is very worth looking forward to, both in terms of performance and price. If you are preparing to buy the new graphics cards, the 30 series RTX is a very worthy choice.

ASUS TUF RTX3080 10G OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

EPIC PC NEW RTX3080/3090 SYSTEM IS READY! PLEASE CHECK OUT!

Razer pays tribute to the famous Koss Pro-4AA in design — an 1970’s headset, cute round-shaped shell, sponge earmuffs, dual-sided height adjustment rods, the position of the volume potentiometer and the wire connector are almost the same. This visual impact is similar to a colour-contrasting design, which is abrupt but harmonious, and also bringing a touch of elegance to the intensive Esports.

KOSS PRO-4AA

Razer Blackshark V2 X

The Package Appearance

Razer Blackshark V2 X Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-audio/razer-blackshark-v2-x

Package Front

Package Back

Package Sides

The headset main body and the accessories include:
User manual, Razer 7.1 surround sound activation card, sticker

Audio splitter cable and the collection bag

The main body of Razer Blackshark V2 X has an old fashion design on the outside.

The head beam angle cannot be twisted. The head beam part is made by a thick and single-layered form pad, which can fully stick to the head and provides comfortable pressure.

The material inside the earmuffs is officially described as breathable memory foam

The volume potentiometer

The Razer Hyperclear cardioid microphone

The microphone mute button

The headset comes with a 3.5mm combo header, an extension splitter cable also provided
The material of these cables are the standard rubber cable

The total weight of Razer Blackshark V2 X is 270g includes the extension cable (30g around)

The Product Disassembling

The Razer Blackshark V2 X has used a pair of 50mm 3 in 1 driver which has a 12 Hz – 28 kHz frequency response, 32Ω at 1 kHz impedance and Sensitivity at 1khz is 100 dB SPL/mW

The 50mm TriForce unit
This customised unit has integrated with three individual high, mid and low audio frequencies replications

The I/O connector boards

The earmuffs

The height adjustment rods

Software Analysis

The RAZER SYNAPSE software is not supported, we have to use the Razer 7.1 Surround Sound software to enable the full performance of this headset.

User should visit https://www.razer.com/71-surround-sound to download the software and use the activation code to unlock the features. It’s like an upgraded version of the previous Razer Surround software, but if the user wants to customise the position of the virtual speakers, a paid upgrade called ‘Razer THX SPATIAL AUDIO’ is also available. Unfortunately, this upgrade only supports under US and Singapore store

The Hearing Analysis

MUSIC MODE
7.1 Surround Sound MODE OFF
Turn off the 7.1 Surround Sound mode will keep the headset under stereo mode. However, this ‘tri-band’ unit is specially designed for playing games, the high-freq level is a bit sharp and crispy. The mid-freq is quite good but also been limited, the human voice will be pulled very thin, resonance and reverberation will be infinitely lowered to ensure the purity. Also, the low-freq is basically nothing.

7.1 Surround Sound MODE ON
Turn on the 7.1 Surround Sound mode will increase the sound field a little bit but not really improved a lot. It will bring the human voice to the back.

GAMING MODE
7.1 Surround Sound MODE OFF
Turn off the 7.1 Surround Sound mode will narrow the background music down for some AAA games, it’s not designed for enjoying the elaborated musical composition for full orchestra.

7.1 Surround Sound MODE ON
Under the virtual surround mode, this headset will exert its Esports power. Simple design, precise positioning and lightweight is the Blackshark V2 X’s designing language. When we playing CS:GO, this headset can quickly and accurately feedback the enemy’s footsteps and the volume of the distance, experienced players can judge the approximate location of the enemy on the map and the type of the guns they used through the echo of the gunshots in the distance.

MOBILE PHONE EXPERIENCE
Most of the MOBA or PUBG liked games on the mobile phone are not supporting 7.1 or virtual 7.1 channels headset, plus, the decent phones are getting rid of the headphone jack unless you using an adapter. However, playing FPS game on a phone with the Razer Blackshark V2 X headset, compared with the ordinary Bluetooth earbuds or wired earphone, the unique comfort of the headset, no delay without the wireless transmissions and the clear game sound effect brought by the large 50mm unit will get a larger sound field for precise positioning. Also, the noise reduction microphone will allow players to communicate with their teammates to enhance the gaming experience.

Overall

First of all, we think the Razer Blackshark V2 X is a good Esports headset. Putting aside some design flaws, the appearance is classic enough. Although there is no RGB effect, it is not a problem to attract a wave of fans.

At the same time, the only 240g overall weight and the comfortable wearing experience are also highlights that deserve recognition. And from the perspective of sound performance, the quality of the unit is also quite good. Although the gaming performance is not perfect at all, because it’s designed for Esports, there’s nothing more to be complaints about.

Finally, is this headset worth buying? In Australia, you can get it for only $99! and this will be the Razer’s most cost-effective gaming headset in the retail market. With the traditional analogue connection, players can use it on most of the gaming devices, mobile phones, PC and laptops etc. If you want to buy a cheap and practical Esports designed product, the Razer Blackshark V2 X is actually a perfect device to consider.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 93.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD, BEST VALUE

Razer Blackshark V2 X OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Product Specification

MSI Alpha 15 A3DDK Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.msi.com/Laptop/Alpha-15-A3DX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with a yellow recycled carton

The inner box is made of black cardboard. The new green Alpha logo and MSI is printed in the middle of the box

The side of the inner box has the specs and model number printed on the label as usual

The laptop is protected by a thick and shock-proof foam, and the main body is wrapped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Accessories bag contains an instruction manual and some M.2 mount screws

Product Analysis

Compared to the GP65 series, Alpha 15 has the same design on the A panel. The only difference is the Alpha logo is actually printed on the panel and it won’t light up

The D panel has a similar design, or they are using the exact same case

The maximum opening angle is about 140°

The 144 Hz Free-sync supported B panel has a thin-bezel design, using a full-sized keyboard and a large-sized Key-separation designed touchpad

The RGB Per-key keyboard comes from Steelseries

The AMD Ryzen & Radeon sticker

The Alpha 15 nameplate sticker

The large touchpad

There is a small triangle shape design next to the arrow key

The HD camera supports 30fps@720p and the microphone is next to it

The rear side of the laptop has a GT series like design, which increases the cooling area

The power supply is the 180W ADP-180MBK from Delta, the output is 19.5, 9.23A

I/O Analysis

The laptop front side – the three indicators in the middle are wifi, battery, and hard drive

The laptop rear side – The vent is not a symmetrical design

The laptop right side – I/O is 2 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen1, a full-size SD (XC/HC) card readers and the power jack

The laptop left side – I/O is the Kensington lock port, Killer Gb LAN, an HDMI(4K @ 60Hz), a mini DP, a USB3.2 Type-A Gen2 and headphone + microphone port

Disassembling Analysis

From the back vent we can see through the black colourised heatsink

Quickly removed all screws from the D panel, the inside of this laptop is shown below — the heatsink with 7 heat pipes is covering the CPU, GPU and their power supply chips

The D Panel plate

The back side view of the Alpha 15. The ram area is covered by an isolated pad

The ram and SSD area. Only 1 SSD slot and 2 so-dimm slots are implemented

The 2.5″ HDD area. This socket allows users to put an extra 2.5″ HDD/SSD for storage expansion

After removing the motherboard, we can see the Keyboard ribbon cable and the touchpad PCB

The motherboard front/back

The AMD Ryzen CPU – YM3700C4T4MFG with Radeon RX Vega 10 GPU. FP5 socket, Max Turbo 4.0GHz 4 core / 8 Threads

The AMD RadeonT RX5500M Graphic chip

The wireless chip – a rare AzureWave AW-CB375NF 2×2 802.11AC with Bluetooth v5

The Samsung 16G (2 x 8G) DDR4 2666 So-dimm

The 6-Cell 51Wh Battery BTY-M6H manufactory by Simplo

The Giant-sized speaker, this version is not certified by Dynaudio

SSD is from Western Digital, SN520 NVMe PCIe Gen3 x 2, Up to 1700/1400 MB/s Read/Write speed

The 7-pipes designed Heatsink with black colour finished design

The exhausting fans are from Aavid Thermalloy
PAAD06015SL 0.55A 5VDC N426

PABD07012SH 1.0A 5VDC N425

Thermal & Noise Analysis

We are running Aida64 pressure test get a CPU and GPU temperature recording

After boosting CPU and Graphic card, we have taken this snapshot of the thermal distribution of the computer

Aida64 Single CPU Burnning test without activate Cooler Boost Fan
CPU Temperature ~78°C

Aida64 Single CPU Burning – Cooler Boost Fan activated
CPU Temperature ~79°C
It’s quite interesting because when Cooler Boost mode has been activated, the temperature has risen by 1°C

Aida64 CPU & GPU Burnning test without activate Cooler Boost Fan
CPU Temperature ~71°C

Aida64 CPU & GPU Burnning – Cooler Boost Fan activated
CPU Temperature ~70°C
It’s also interesting because when Cooler Boost mode was active this time, the temperature dropped by 1°C

Noise Level when idle ~48dB

Noise Level when full loading ~51.7dB

Noise Level when Cooler Boost mode activated ~65.4dB

Noise Level when Cooler Boost mode activated | in front ~56.7dB

Hardware & Software Introduction

AIDA64 Summary

HWiNFO64 System details

Aida64 CPU details

Aida64 Motherboard Details

Thaiphoon Burner – Memory Details

LAN chip – Killer E2600 Gigabit LAN
WIFI Card – Realtek 8822CE 802.11AC with Bluetooth v5

Screen Panel – 15.6″ FHD Panel, 1080P 144Hz manufactured by AUO

The MSI Alpha 15 desktop wallpaper

AMD Radeon Settings

MSI Dragon Center
Mode Settings – Gaming

Mode Settings – Creator

Mode Settings – User Scenario

Mode Settings – General Settings

Monitor

MSI Ambient RGB Link

MSI My Device

Live Update

Tools

Steelseries Engine 3 RGB Keyboard Settings

Normally the AMD platform is very susceptible to overheating, but this time, what we did not expect is that the temperature control of AMD Ryzen 3 platform is constantly stable. Even if the laptop is running at full speed, the overall temperature does not exceed 85°C. Compared with the same level Intel platform, which frequently exceeds 95°C overheating and throttling, the Ryzen 3 platform remains at about 79°C and does not have a large fluctuation. The result is very good.

Run-time Benchmark Test

CPU-Z snapshots

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is around 80% performance compared with a desktop version

CPU-Z Onboard AGPU detail

GPU-Z Onboard AGPU snapshots

GPU-Z RX5500M

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

FURMARK test result

Aida64 GPGPU Benchmark

SSD Benchmark – Aida64

ASSSD 1G/10G test

Crystal Disk Info

PCMark : 4,910

PCMark Web results

3DMark Fire Strike : 10,342

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 5,657

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 3,123

3DMark Time Spy : 3,976

3DMark Time Spy Extreme : 1,819

3DMark Sky Diver : 21,713

3DMark Port Royal/VRS : Not Supported

3DMark API Overhead : Not Supported

Unigine Superposition (Normal 1080P) : 7,893 | Avg FPS : 69.04

Unigine Superposition (Extreme 1080P) : 2,447 | Avg FPS : 18.30

SUMMARY

In general, Alpha 15 is a mid-range mainstream gaming laptop with a relatively balanced configuration. Although the performance of the RX5500M is not perfect, it meets our expectations. This card has similar performance compared with a desktop GTX1060 6G, and it beats the AMD RX580 mobile version and is much better than the Nvidia GTX1650 mobile version. This means that AMD has returned to the mid-range market for gaming laptop graphics cards, indicating that AMD ’s massive counterattack is coming, and also adding a little competition to the gaming graphics card battlefield. It’s a good start.

The price of AU$1,599 is pretty good, plus its stable thermal control and overall performance, the MSI Alpha 15 will be very competitive in the recent gaming laptop market.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 84/100

EPIC REWARD: EDITOR’S CHOICE & VALUE AWARD

MSI Alpha 15 A3DDK OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Package Appearance
The outside packaging
Razer has changed the packaging to reduce the size and weight of the outer box

The player on the package is Taco from the Counter-Strike e-sports team MIBR

The list of e-sports teams that are currently using Razer mouses

The inside packaging — The mouse and accessories

The instruction manual and Razer sticker

Product Analysis
Razer hasn’t used the integrated upper shell design like they have on their mid and high-level product line. Instead, Razer have adopted the Viper’s old design. The left, right and upper shells of the mouse were composed of three pieces of ABS plastic, with a symmetrical design.

The Razer Viper is frosted in all areas where it has direct hand contact, which has been done for slip resistance, and the non-slip rubber on both sides is different from the previous Razer mouse. Because of the need to keep weight under control, the rubber on both sides is relatively thin, but still providing a very good anti-slip ability. At the same time, Razer Viper may be the mouse with the lowest back curve in the past few years. After the low-back design of the Zowie FK series was welcomed by the FPS gaming market, it seems that Razer has also got the point and decide to lower the back curve of the mouse with a height of only 3.7cm

In FPS games that requires a right-clicking, the low-back design is more popular for gamers, and the new Viper with a short tail design, reduces the pressure on the palm when holding

Razer Speedflex cable
The Razer Viper uses a new braided wire called the “SpeedFlex Cable”, which is similar to an umbrella wire. The SpeedFlex cable is significantly lighter than the woven wire used on previous Razer mouses. It has a thicker wire diameter and soft filling material inside. Moreover, the SpeedFlex Cable does not have the deformation memory effect that is caused by excessive bending

In actual use, players will clearly feel the updated experience of the new SpeedFlex cable

There is a large area of adhesive tape on the bottom of the mouse to ensure smooth use

The default CPI switch button of this mouse is designed at the bottom. A total of 5 profiles can be set from 400, 800, 1800, 2400 and 3200

The weight of the mouse without the cable is only 68g

Software Analysis
New Razer products are now managed by Razer Synapse 3
Razer Synapse 3 Dashboard

Razer Viper buttons customise panel
Because the mouse has an asymmetrical design, it is easily mapped and fully customisable, the ‘Hypershift’ function also enables the ‘Shift’ function on the mouse to enable more combination keys

Razer Viper Performance control panel
The CPI of this mouse can be asynchronously customised for XY axes, up to 16000 cpi and Polling Rate up to 1000 Hz, CPI can be customised for 5 files with different triangle colour LED indicators

Razer Synapse Chroma RGB design panel

Performance Test
When a mouse has a lower weight, it’s easier to highlight player’s own skill when they are playing high-intensity e-sports games, because the lightweight design means more precise control under low CPI conditions, especially for snipers. And for pro e-sports players, a lighter mouse can reduce the strain on their wrist joints, the weight of 69g is a very big attraction.

We have tested the mouse on the most popular mouse pads: Fine coated pad, aluminum, soft silicone pad, fine fabric cloths thin pad and coarse fabric cloths thin pad.

The tests are based on the mouse’s start, Smoothness, Brake, and Transparency.

Fine coated pad
Start: Medium feeling on both Static friction and dynamic friction
Smoothness: Extremely smooth
Brake: Easy to brake and good positioning accuracy
Transparency: Very good contact, no heightened sense of passage that results in misalignment on the Z-axis

Aluminum pad
Start: Very low felling on both Static friction and dynamic friction
Smoothness: It is very smooth, but the maintenance is relatively difficult. The Teflon feet skates will be frayed quickly by the aluminum surface
Brake: Easy to brake and good positioning accuracy
Transparency: Very good contact, no heightened sense of passage that results in misalignment on the Z-axis

Soft silicone pad
Start: This textured pad makes the higher static and dynamic friction feeling
Smoothness: Medium smooth
Brake: Easy to brake and relatively accurate positioning
Transparency: a relatively thin thickness of the cushion, the material is quite solid and the permeability is good

Fine fabric cloths thin pad
Start: Low static friction and very high dynamic friction
Smoothness: Very smooth
Brake: Easy to brake, positioning is accurate, the resistance is light. Muscle memory is easier to form and more friendly for novices
Transparency: A thin pad with soft material and good permeability

Coarse fabric cloths thin pad
Start: Medium static friction, low dynamic friction
Smoothness: Extremely smooth
Brake: Easy to brake and relatively accurate positioning
Transparency: A thin pad with soft material and good permeability

IIn general, this mouse has a very adaptable feeling that directly related to light-weighted design. Similarly, this type of mouse is not suitable for a thick mouse pad. The high sensitivity of the sensor will cause Z-axis shaking and lead to unnecessary displacement.

In terms of the button touch feeling, according to the Razer official propaganda, the Razer’s exclusive purple-dot microswitch focuses on clicking life and no rebound delay, but in actual use, we believe that this unique feeling is the important point. It has a different click sound and feedback compared with Omron’s 50M series micro switch that implemented in mid and high range gaming mice. The overall feedback is more compact and the button sound is correspondingly lower, it is not the kind of crisp sound that Omron often has. In addition, compared to other same level mouses, Viper’s new optical microswitch has a significantly lower feedback delay, this is because the optical technology uses a light speed trigger which allows users to feel the fastest response time of about 0.2 milliseconds when playing games and also 3 times faster than the traditional mechanical microswitch.

There are also some huge changes to the scroll wheel design. Viper uses a hollow-carved design to reduce the weight and the scrolling feedback is quite clear. The wheel button has also been carefully tuned for moderate triggering force.

The side button position is properly arranged to prevent accidental pressing. Razer decided to arrange the side keys on both sides subtly in a position where you can easily reach them with your thumb raised slightly, and the other side’s button is not easy mistakenly pressed by the ring finger. These four buttons all have a very low-profile design, it is almost on the same plane of mouse top case, which will further reduce the frequency of mis-pressing keys.

In the actual gaming experience, for FPS games, the accuracy improvement led by light-weighted design that cannot be expressed in words. The force we use on the relatively heavy-weighted mouse that moves 1mm is totally different compared with the light-weighted mouse. This can be perfectly reflected on a smooth mouse pad, and the light-weighted mouse does not suffer from an excessive displacement caused by the instantaneous high static friction that often occurs with the mouse.

Razer is experienced in the adjustment of the PAW3390 sensor. There is no problem with the sensor during actual use, and the optical sensor is fully sufficient in performance for normal usage. Generally, in FPS gaming, the commonly used CPI segment is around 600 – 1000, and it’s a bit lower for snipers.

Disassembling Analysis
The Backplate has 4 screws that hidden under the mouse feet’s

The inside of the mouse

The upper cover of the mouse has a very simple design due to the weight reduction, the side keypad and the RGB light guide are embedded inside

The mouse bottom side part

Microswitch
The two main buttons are using the Razer Optical Mouse Switch which has a superfast 0.2 milliseconds response. Since the electrical signal can be transmitted without mechanical contact, the Razer optical mouse micro switch is difficult to wear under heavy usage. As a result, this microswitch has a durability of up to 70 million clicks, which has a 40% better than the most durable microswitches in the market.

The side button board
The four red-dots microswitches used by the side buttons are from Changfeng, the model is ‘kw10-01WR’, 1 million button life and 70 ± 25 gf

The mouse wheel part and the top button board

The roller encoder comes from Kailh’s EN7236 series, 10 – 25 gf.cm, 100,000 lifespan

The mainboard for this mouse

The bottom side of the main board

The sensor is PAW3390 from PixArt, which has the same 16000 cpi, 450 IPS and 50 G acceleration of Mamba Elite. Compared to the TM3 engine from Steelseries, they are both high-end and have the same performance instability.

The controller chip is LPC51U68 from NXP

The optical sensor and cover

Usability Analysis
To test the line correction, frame loss, and the smoothness, we are using the mousetest from Areson

This mouse doesn’t have the line correction function

The Frame loss control and the smoothness control are also quite good

We also tested this mouse by using Enotus Mouse Test

Finally, we are using the powerful MouseTester v1.5
By using its powerful plot function, we are tested several mouse performances

xCounts vs Time
While the average line is smoother, which means it’s more liner on the mouse track movement; while the points of the counts are much closer to the line, which means the jitter of the engine is lower. As the graph shows, the result of this performance is quite good in different CPIs

1800 cpi is under a normal use level, jitter is not large and relatively stable

800 cpi, jitter is a bit low

1800 cpi, jitter starts to be unstable

2400 cpi, jitter is under a usable level

3200 cpi, jitter is still under a usable level

6400 cpi, jitter is significantly increased, but still can be used, top level of the range

12800 cpi, jitter becomes larger and unstable, and the usability begins to decrease

16000 cpi, jitter is basically kept the same level as the 12800 cpi, and the usability is not under a usable level

yCounts vs Time
If there is a straight-line correction/angle function, the y-axis offset will remain at 0 for a long time. As the graph shows, the result of this performance is very good

X vs Y
This function is to detect mouse frame loss, As the graph shows, the result of this performance is quite good

xyVelocity vs Time
The unit of velocity is m/s. This test is mainly to look at the acceleration of the mouse. As the graph shows, the point of Razer Viper is better for curve fitting, that means the jumped-like rapid acceleration rarely appears, The line of fit is coherent and also has a dense distribution

If there is a good device that allows the mouse to move at a constant speed, in this case, the speed line is a straight line, if the engine has acceleration, it will fluctuate, so this is the most ideal test method. The result of this performance is quite good

Summary
Razer highlighted a new concept ‘Absolute Control’ on this new Viper, whether the light-weighted design, the SpeedFlex cable, the re-customised microswitch or the deeper matte finishes, they all born from the concept of ‘Absolute Control’.

The professional player needs a weapon that responds quickly, sensitively and can fight for a long time. These elements are present as features in the Viper. It can be said that Razer Viper is a special super rifle tailored for professional-grade FPS players, which will perfectly restore the true skill for them.

The new Razer Viper is a signal that Razer is ready to enter the professional FPS field. There is not much redundant function, only for the ultimate ‘absolute control’. The light-weighted 68g plus the overall feel adjustment brings the mouse a completely new feel that is totally different from the previous Razer mouse. Like the old Viper 15 years ago, the new Viper is also the founder of a new era, this mouse is expected to appear in the hands of professional CSGO players in the future, in more event scenes, and on more players’ desktops.

In terms of price, it’s only AU$134.95. If you’re tired of the high pricing of other light-weighted mice or the homogenous design of holes, be sure to try the new Razer Viper, because it’s really a gaming mouse for e-sports.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 92/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED & DESIGN AWARD

RAZER VIPER GAMING MOUSE OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-mice/razer-viper

Product Specification

GE65 Raider 9SF Tech Specs from Official Website
https://au.msi.com/Laptop/GE65-RAIDER-9SX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with yellow recycled carton

The inner box is made of black cardboard. Unlike the GT series, there are no lines and patterns on the GE series box

The laptop is protected by a thick and shock-proof foam, and the main body is wrapped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Product Analysis

Compared to the previous-gen GE63 8SF, 9SF has taken off the RGB L-shaped decorative strip on the A panel, replaced with two I-shaped red-light strips, and changed the red dragon shield in favour of a silver metal onel

The D panel has increased the heat dissipation

The maximum opening angle is about 130°

The 240 Hz B panel has the thin-bezel design, using a full-sized keyboard and a large-sized Key-separation designed touchpad

The RGB Per-key keyboard comes from Steelseries

The 2.2(2x2W Speaker,2x3W Woofer) sound system is still from Dynaudio

The GE63 nameplate sticker

The rear side of the laptop has a GT series like design, which increases the area of the cooling and prints the ‘Raider’ nameplate

The power supply is the 280W ABP-280BB from Delta, the output is 20V, 14A

The laptop overall weight: 2.36KG

The power adapter package overall weight: 1.03KG

I/O Analysis

The laptop front side – the thickness of 27 mm, the three indicators in the middle are wifi, battery, and hard drive

The laptop rear side – The heat sink cover is redesigned and enlarged

The laptop right side – I/O is 2 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen1, a full-size SD (XC/HC) card readers and the power jack

TThe laptop left side – I/O is the Kensington lock port, Killer Gb LAN, an HDMI(4K @ 60Hz), a mini DP, a USB3.2 Type-A Gen2 and headphone + microphone port

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 System details

Aida64 CPU details

Thaiphoon Burner – Memory Details

LAN chip – Killer E2600 Gigabit LAN
WIFI Card – Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650x with Bluetooth v5

SSD – 1TB Samsung PM981
HDD – 1TB Seagate Barracuda

Screen Panel – 15.6″ IGZO Panel, 1080P 240Hz manufactured by Sharp

Run-time Benchmark Test

CPU-Z snapshots

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is around 80% performance compared with a desktop version i9-9900K

GPU-Z snapshots

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

FURMARK test result

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 9,009

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 4,720

Unigine Superposition (Extreme 1080P) : 4,602 | Avg FPS : 34.42

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (1080P,HQ pack) : 8,074

Overclocking Test

Since the MSI Dragon Center provides overclocking options, we definitely need to use it. In all tests, fan cooling is selected to Auto mode and Cooler Boost mode if necessary

We also enabled the Ultimate Power Performance setting in Win10

None Overclocking Idle – Fan Auto mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 3,600rpm | CPU package Temp : 59°C | CPU average FQ ≈ 3.1Ghz

None Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – Both Auto and Max cooling, CPU Overheat and throttled
Fan Speed ≈ 5,520rpm | CPU package Temp : 99°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.6Ghz (Max 23% loss)

In MSI Dragon Center, under Turbo mode, we have maximised all OC settings both on CPU and GPU

Overclocking Idle – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Auto mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,400rpm | CPU package Temp : 81°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.3Ghz (Max 7% loss)

Overclocking Idle – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,500rpm | CPU package Temp : 51°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.7Ghz

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – Auto Mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,800rpm | CPU package Temp : 99°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.9Ghz (21% loss)

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,520rpm | CPU package Temp : 97°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.7Ghz (Max 22% loss)

PRIME95 Test – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,485rpm | CPU package Temp : 84°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.6Ghz (3% loss)

overclocking GPU & CPU – Furmark Normal test – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on – CPU Overheat and throttled
Fan Speed ≈ 5,600rpm | GPU Max Temp : 72°C | GPU Max Clock ≈ 1.21Ghz | Max Memory Clock ≈ 1.75Ghz | CPU Max Temp : 78°C

3DMARK Test – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,500rpm | CPU Avg package Temp : 68°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.7Ghz (Max 16% loss)

UNIGINE Superposition Test – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,500rpm | CPU Avg package Temp : 65°C | CPU FQ ≈ 2.3Ghz

Overclocking summary
The MSI GE65 Raider 9SF is only average in terms of heat dissipation. Compared with the GT76’s 11 heat pipes and the double-layer 4 fan design, GE65’s 7 heat pipes are a bit weaker, which causes overheating and throttling issues for the CPU and GPU overclocking. Although the Intel i9-9880H has only 45W TDP and running together with an overclocked RTX 2070, the total power consumption close to 160W.

In actual use, Aida64’s single FPU test will lead to overheating issues for your CPU, in some AAA games, the temperature of CPU and GPU will probably remain at 70°C – 75°C. There is no throttling, and during gameplay, it is recommended to turn on the Cooler Boost mode to prevent overheating. However, after ray tracing is turned on, if the DLSS setting is not opened simultaneously, the in-game fps will be extremely low. When we connected a external 4K monitor to test more 2K and 4K games, their in-game fps is around 30 and sometimes will drop below 25. After the DLSS is turned on, the fps is just barely acceptable.

SUMMARY

We really like the overall design of the MSI GE65, which is thinner and packs a punch compared with other brands at a similar level. As a portable gaming device, the GE65 has a powerful and balanced hardware configuration.

For the design, the mould of thin-bezel designed GE75 is feasible to apply on the GE63 directly, but it is unbelievable that the 15-inch thin-bezel design has forced MSI to give up previous heatsink module. However, MSI made the decision to directly cut off the right outlet in order to use the old heatsink mould. Due to the limitation of the laptop body size, the volume of the right fan’s air chamber has been compressed again. Even if the heat-dissipating module on the right side was castrated, the body of the laptop will still be unable to cope with the power interface. Therefore, the power interface and the rest I/O ports on the right side were moved to the front half.

In the heat dissipation design, GE65 uses a ‘7 copper tubes + double fans’ design, but this mould has only a single air outlet on the right side, which is about 25cm² of the specification and a 45W TDP. The part of CPU’s copper tube is actually shared with the graphics card, so as long as the graphics card has a high temperature, this i9 has frequent throttling issues.

In terms of price, AUD$4,599 has a $1,000 higher than the previous generation GS65 Stealth 9SF. It should be noted that the GS65 Stealth 9SF uses the i7-9750H and a Max-Q version RTX 2070 graphics card, and the rest of the hardware is basically similar to GE65 9SF, and the whole machine is lighter and thinner, and the heat dissipation has very good control. Although the performance of GE65 exceeds the GS65 9SF, the cost-performance ratio suffers.

In general, MSI has always been a bridgehead of the laptop field and likes to be the first to innovate, but it is always copied by other manufacturers in the future. Although the laptop has integrated some components from other manufacturers, it also weakened MSI’s brand cohesion. Cohesion is a magic weapon to ensure that a brand has a long-lasting market, and we also believe MSI will continue to improve its brand cohesion and brand image in the future.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 82/100

EPIC REWARD: EDITOR’S CHOICE

GE65 Raider 9SF OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

In order to support the powerful performance, GT76 Titan DT 9SG uses MSI’s new generation Cooler Boost Titan cooling system, with 4 sets of turbofans and 11 high-performance cooling ducts designed to bring greater airflow and heat dissipation, which is 2.25 times higher than the traditional dual fan design.

So let’s dig in the details with the following benchmark.

Product Specification

GT76 Titan DT 9SG Tech Specs from Official Website
https://au.msi.com/Laptop/GT76-Titan-9SX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
Like the previous MSI packaging, the GT76 Titan’s packaging has night sky black colour, and the front of the MSI dragon shield has a large red domineering dragon pattern behind it

The back of the package is a multi-angled line avant-garde design of the GT76 Titan laptop, which is very fashionable

The GT76 TITAN’s electroplated red text and red beveled design on the side bring a sense of sharpness

The notebook is protected by the thick and shock-proof foam, and the main body is warped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Product Analysis

Compared to the similar size GS75 Stealth, the GT76 Titan DT 9SG is more biased towards their Prestige series laptop

Although the rest material is made of plastic, the re-designed side A provides a diffused channel for its thick and prominent rear exhaust pipe. Plus, a cool RGB lighting system around the body is a bonus

RGB strips are distributed at the rear, left, front, right, and keyboard sections

The heat-dissipating part at the back of the laptop mimics the design of supercars, and all the sharp corners act to prevent scratches

The design of the Dragon Shield has been changed from the old red to the silver. This custom shield looks and feels expensive

The keyboard comes from Steelseries. This time, the mechanical keyboard has not been used to reduce the weight and thickness of the whole machine

The RGB brightness of the keyboard is pretty well distributed, and the built-in Fn function key can change the RGB effect directly

The 2.1 sound system is still from Dynaudio

The C panel buttons from left to right are the Cooler Boost button, the on/off switch button and the Dragon Center button

The touchpad is separated by the touch area and buttons, which avoids accidental touch and improves the feel

The GT76 nameplate sticker

The 720p camera on the top of the B cover is next to the built-in directional noise reduction microphone

The power supply is the classic “double-headed dragon”, two 230W A12-230P1A from Chicony with 4pin interface design, these adapters can be replaced by the Delta ADP-230EB T

Power aggregation Adapter, the computer side of this adapter is a special connector, if it is damaged, then it cannot be replaced, the only way is to contact customer service and request a replacement

I/O Analysis

The laptop front side – the thickness of 42 mm is reduced compared to the previous generation, and the bottom side has integrated an RGB light strip

The laptop rear side – The heat sink almost covers the entire rear side and it is the heat dissipation channel of the entire machine

The laptop right side – I/O are the Micro SD card readers, 2 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen2, 1 x USB3.2 Type-C Gen2, 1 x mini DP and 1 x HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz)

The laptop left side – I/O are the power jack, Killer 2.5Gb LAN, 1 x Type-C (USB3.2 Gen2 / DP / Thunderbolt™3), 2 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen2, headphone port and microphone port

The laptop overall weight: 4.21KG

The power adapter package overall weight: 2.43KG

Screen Analysis

The screen panel is B173ZAN03.0, 17.3″, 16:9 60Hz 4K IPS IGZO, 100% Adobe RGB, manufactured by AUO

Screen Calibration
Before the calibration, we have tested the MSI TRUEcolour application, but the software remains at the previous version, there is no “Adobe RGB” mode but a Designer mode instead, it’s not quite functional

According to the media update email from MSI, we have installed the latest MSI TRUE COLOR, now it shows the correct model and it’s functional

We are using the Datacolor Spyder 4 Elite for screen calibration, the screen temperature is under 6500K
The Gamut test result, this panel comes in with 100% of sRGB, 98% of AdobeRGB

The Tone Response test result, the two curves almost coincide

The Brightness & Contrast tests result

The OSD tests results

The Screen Uniformity tests result
Colour Uniformity for Brightness from 50% to 100%

Luminance Uniformity for Brightness from 50% to 100%

Colour Accuracy test result, Average ΔE≈0.55

There is almost no difference before and after the colour calibration. The quality of this screen is very good.

Hardware & Software Introduction

BIOS details, the main view

BIOS details, SSD details

BIOS details, Advanced view

BIOS details, Advanced view, Raid details

MSI Desktop Background Picture

Windows 10 Info page

HWiNFO64 System details

Aida64 CPU details

Memory Details

Thaiphoon Burner – Memory Details

LAN chip – Killer E3000 Gigabit LAN
WIFI Card – Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650x with Bluetooth v5

SSD – 2 x 512GB Samsung PM981 Raid-0

Steelseries Engine 3

MSI Nahimic Control Panel

Overclocking Test

Since the MSI Dragon Center provides overclocking options, we definitely need to use it. In all tests, fan cooling is selected to Auto mode and Cooler Boost mode if necessary

We also enabled the Ultimate Power Performance setting in Win10

None Overclocking Idle – Fan Auto mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 3,700rpm | CPU package Temp : 52°C | CPU average FQ ≈ 4.0Ghz

None Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – Both Auto and Max cooling, CPU Overheat and throttled
Fan Speed ≈ 5,580rpm | CPU package Temp : 99°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.6Ghz (9% loss)

In MSI Dragon Center, under Turbo mode, we have maximised all OC settings both on CPU and GPU

Overclocking Idle – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Auto mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,200rpm | CPU package Temp : 75°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.1Ghz (23% loss)

Overclocking Idle – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,580rpm | CPU package Temp : 63°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.8Ghz

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – Auto Mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,800rpm | CPU package Temp : 99°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.9Ghz (21% loss)

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,530rpm | CPU package Temp : 99°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.8Ghz (24% loss)

PRIME95 Test – CPU Overheat and throttled – Auto Mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,485rpm | CPU package Temp : 85°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.2Ghz (16% loss)

overclocking GPU & CPU – Furmark 4K Normal test – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,600rpm | GPU Max Temp : 69°C | GPU Max Clock ≈ 1.72Ghz | Max Memory Clock ≈ 1.70Ghz | CPU Max Temp : 66°C

overclocking GPU & CPU – Furmark 4K + 8xMSAA stress test – Fan Cooler Boost mode turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 5,600rpm | GPU Max Temp : 72°C | GPU Max Clock ≈ 1.89Ghz | Max Memory Clock ≈ 1.75Ghz | CPU Max Temp : 43°C

Overclocking summary
The GT76 TITAN DT 9SG uses a desktop-class CPU, and the desktop CPU generates more heat either from the power supply module or the CPU itself. This requires large-area multi-channel heat pipes plus multiple high-speed turbofans to balance the heat for efficient discharge. luckily, MSI has always been ahead of other brands in thermal design.

Under actual usage, it is difficult to break the power and heat limit. During the test, whether opening a large number of big software or playing AAA games and broadcasting at the same time, the CPU temperature has been very good, and there is no CPU throttling happened.

Run-time Benchmark Test

CPU-Z snapshots

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is nearly no difference compared with an i9-9900K on a desktop

GPU-Z snapshots

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

FURMARK 4K Stress test

SSD Benchmark – AS SSD 10GB tests

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

SSD Benchmark – Anvil’s Storage Utilities

SSD Benchmark – Blackmagicdesign DST

PCMark10 Extended Benchmark: 7,979
Results Link: http://www.3dmark.com/pcm10exb/71340

3DMark API Overhead Feature Test :

3DMark Fire Strike : 21,510

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 11,628

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 6,262

Unigine Superposition (Extreme 4K) : 8,464 | Avg FPS : 63.31

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (4K,HQ pack) : 3,126

HALDDEAD2 Bench : 61.28FPS

Workstation Benchmark
VRAY Benchmark

SPECviewperf 13 – The overall results

SPECviewperf 13 – Catia

SPECviewperf 13 – CREO

SPECviewperf 13 – Energy

SPECviewperf 13 – MAYA

SPECviewperf 13 – Medical

SPECviewperf 13 – SNX8

SPECviewperf 13 – Solid works

Thermal and Noise Tests

Test room temperature : 16℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 49℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 42℃
AIDA64 Extreme full load stress test CPU&FPU: 99℃
Furmark full load stress test GPU: 76℃

The surface full load temperature :

The surface full load temperature (Back part of the exhausting fence):

The Noise level under Max Cooling mode : Front | around 57 dB

The Noise level under Max Cooling mode : Exhausting fence | around 78 dB

Disassembling analysis

It’s extremely easy to disassemble the backplate

The heat dissipation system uses up to 11 heat pipes and 4 fans (dual-layer design, 2 on top and 2 on bottom), we can see 7 pipes directly from the D panel

The power supply uses a 90Wh eight-cell battery, which requires a single 330W or two 240W adapters. If you choose the i9-9900K, it uses the latter

Battery, 6250mAh manufactured by Getac, 90Wh

Samsung DDR4 2666 2 x 16GB Dual Channel : M471A2K43CB1 – CTD

The flagship design of 3 SSD slots working with superRaid

SSD : Samsung PM981 512GB x 2

WIFI & Bluetooth card : Killer 1650x from Intel(AX200NGW), 2.4G/5G, AX200 2×2 Wi-Fi 6, 1024QAM and 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5

Sound system: LR+SUB, 2 x 2W midrange units are distributed on the left and right sides, and a 3W woofer is placed next to the touchpad

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18E-G3-A1 which is the Nvidia TU104 chipset

The LGA CPU socket with INTEL i9-9900K

The LGA CPU socket with power supply module

The INTEL i9-9900K Desktop level CPU

The middle power control board, driven by an STM32F072 microcontroller

The RGB board

The Whole Beast Cooling system of GT76

The Graphics Memory and power supply Heatsink: 2 Pipes

The Graphic chipset Heatsink: 4 Pipes

The CPU chipset and power supply Heatsink : 5 Pipes

Main cooling fans are from AAVID, PABD18525BH, around 5200rpm speed

Supporting Layer 2 twin-pack cooling fans are from AAVID, PABD0A308SH, around 5000rpm speed

Touchpad board

The motherboard front side

The motherboard backside

HDD is Seagate Barracuda Pro 1TB

The disassembled laptop

SUMMARY

The MSI GT76 Titan DT 9SG is a very bold laptop with an overclocked desktop-class Intel i9 processor, equipped with MSI’s new generation cooling system that includes a total of 4 turbine fans and eleven cooling pipes designed to suppress this top-level 8-core 5.0GHz CPU. Supported by the Nvidia RTX 2080 BGA video chip to achieve extreme performance, the GT76 Titan DT 9SG easily matches the performance of a desktop computer.

In terms of design, the body shape is guided by the RGB light to show a sports car style streamline appearance, and the metal texture accompanied by the carbon fiber grain design to make the product aesthetics more in line with a supercar. The RGB full-colour lighting effect makes dazzling light toward the laptop body line, while the narrow frame design reduces the overall size of the body, providing a refreshing gameplay experience for players.

In terms of weight, GT76 Titan DT 9SG is also significantly lower than the previous generation, the laptop weight is about 4.4kg. However, compared to those thinner, but lower-performance gaming laptops, the mobility of GT76 is still not that good.

On the price part, the pricing of AUD$7,399 is indeed a bit high for ordinary users, but compared to the performance and thermal design of other brands, this notebook can be used not only for games, but also for some professional applications and designs.

As a manufacturer of e-sports hardware products, MSI has been deeply involved in the field of gaming hardware and peripherals. The GT76 Titan DT 9SG itself is an achievement of a commitment to research with development spirit and the continuous exploration in the field of e-sports hardware at MSI. In the face of the turbulent gaming laptop market, MSI is more concerned about products, only the quality and reliability of the products themselves will be sustained by consumers. MSI will continue to optimise product performance based on the rapid changes in the gaming market, making it the best choice for players.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 87.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC EXTREME POWER, EDITOR’S CHOICE & DESIGN AWARD

GT76 Titan DT 9SG OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

So, can this laptop stand out against similar brands competing for the flagship market? Let’s test it in detail!

Product Specification

GIGABYTE AERO 15-Y9 Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/AERO-15–RTX-20-Series#sp

Product Unboxing

Package
This generation of Gigabyte Aero 15 has abandoned the previous plain colour packaging, using a black orange colour like a sports car to reflect performance.

After removing a simple sticker with the Gigabyte Logo, the laptop body is simple.
Since this machine is a sample sent by Gigabyte, there is no fibre jacket with anti-scratch protection and anti-static outer packaging

A 230W brick power supply with a standard D-type power cord is provided in the accessory box
The manufacturer of the power supply is Chicony Electronics from Taiwan. 19.5V / 11.8A output voltage / current, 110V-240V adaptive

The length and height of the power supply are 155mm and 30mm respectively, the total weight is 0.72kg. The size and weight are moderate.

Product Analysis

Gigabyte’s latest AERO 15-Y9 follows the design of the first two generations. The black aluminum alloy case is matched with the carbon fibre to decorate the triangle area and make the whole machine stand out. This seems to be ruined by the huge backlit Gigabyte LOGO. It was criticised by netizens as “the design work of college students”. Confusingly, although the A-panel top cover is made of aluminum alloy, the deformation can still be seen if you press it.

All the sides of the fuselage are chamfered, and the sleek touch is very comfortable

The screen design of the B-panel is also the same as the previous generation, the design of the three-side thin-bezel and the 720P camera at the bottom. The sticker of Pantone colour is attached to the lower right corner of the screen

The thin bezel is still around 5mm wide

This 15.6-inch IPS matte screen is made by AUO. The resolution of this screen is UHD 3840 x 2160, refresh rate 60Hz, brightness 400 cd/m2, response time 30ms, G-SYNC is not supported

The opening angle of the screen is about 120°, and it cannot be completely flat

The keyboard on the C-panel is also the same design as the previous generation. The full-sized keyboard + Per-key RGB button feels solid and it is currently the most comfortable laptop keyboard to use in the market

The touchpad feels delicate, but the size is still small compared with other similar products on the market, and the asymmetric design may be awkward for some users

The design of the air-exhausting vent is similar to a Macbook. The left and right radiator grids are the air outlets of the fan. However, the left and right shafts will block the air duct of the outlet and affect the wind pressure inside the machine. This will cause a small amount of heat to flow back to the bottom of the machine, forcing the fan to intake again and resulting in overheating issues

The D-panel still uses the previous chassis. The thin design of the rubber feet makes the bottom of the machine only 2-4mm away from the tabletop, plus the fan-shaped opening design is narrow, also the metal dust-proof net is too dense, the seriously insufficient space results in a lack of overall heat dissipation

I/O Analysis

The front view of the laptop, there is no I/O port located on this side

The rear view of the laptop has a feeling of battery looking, but this is actually the built-in design of the shaft.

The left side I/O of this laptop includes the LAN port with Killer E2500 Ethernet card, a USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port, an HDMI 2.0 port, an USB 3.1 Type-C with DP 1.4 and a standard 3.5mm combo audio port

The right side I/O of this laptop contains an UHS-II SD Card Reader, a USB 3.1 Type-C with Thunderbolt™ 3 port, 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A port, a power jack, and a Kensington lock port

The laptop weight is around 2.12KG, the power brick is around 2.84KG

Screen Analysis

This laptop uses a 15.6 inch, 16:9 60Hz 4K IPS Matt screen, manufactured by AUO

Screen Calibration
We are using the Datacolor Spyder 4 Elite for doing screen calibration, the screen temperature is under 6500K

The Gamut test result, this panel comes in with 100% of sRGB, 97% of AdobeRGB

The Tone Response test result

The Brightness & Contrast tests result

The Screen Uniformity tests result
Colour Uniformity for Brightness 50% & 100%

Luminance Uniformity for Brightness 50% & 100%

Colour Accuracy test result, Average ΔE≈0.90

Before & after calibration
This panel has impressed us, red, green and yellow colours become richer and higher vividness after calibration. We have taken some screenshot directly via the SLR camera.

Windows 10 Display settings

Hardware & Software Brief Introduction

BIOS details, main view

BIOS details, advanced SSD details

BIOS details, memory details

Windows 10 Info page

Aida64 Brief summary page

Memory Details

Thaiphoon Burner – Memory Details

LAN chip – Killer E2500 Gigabit LAN

Audio Chipset – Realtek ALC255

SSD – 2TB Intel 760P NVMe SSD

WIFI Card – Intel Wireless-AC 9260 with Bluetooth v5

System memory usage – Idle

Gigabyte Control Center
The Gigabyte Control Center is very powerful and can be divided into 6 major functions

‘Smart Dashboard’ can display the system usage, hard drive information, battery and power plan, fan speed, and simple overclocking options

‘App Shortcut’, users can add their favourite app’s shortcut here

‘Manager’ is the laptop function control manager, users can change nearly all important functions via this control panel

‘Fusion’ is Gigabyte per-key RGB manager, this function is to manage the RGB feature and Macro Key for the keyboard

‘Device Setting’ is the smart fan manager for this laptop, this function is to customise the fan spinning profile for different usage scenarios

‘Smart Utilities’ is the laptop driver and utility downloader, if the driver has an update, it will show on the 2nd column, user can click the highlighted version number to start downloading and installing

The memory usage of Gigabyte control center

Overclocking Test

Since the Gigabyte Control Center provides overclocking options, we definitely need to use it. In all tests, fan cooling is selected to turn on the automatic temperature control of Microsoft Azure AI and turn on the Maximum Fan Cooling option to maximise the fan speed

None Overclocking Idle – Microsoft Azure AI Gaming+ & Professional+ turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 3,300rpm | CPU package Temp : 66°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.8Ghz | CPU Power : 32.4W | GPU Temp : 46°C

None Overclocking Idle – Fan Maximum Cooling turned on | MS Azure AI turned off
Fan Speed ≈ 5,550rpm | CPU package Temp : 58°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.8Ghz | CPU Power : 33.7W | GPU Temp : 51°C

None Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – Both AI and Max cooling, CPU still Overheat and throttled
Fan Speed ≈ 5,530rpm | CPU package Temp : 83°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.8Ghz (14% loss) | CPU Power : 61.9W | GPU Temp : 57°C

During the test, we have found the overclocking level of CPU from level 0 to 4 has the same frequency and power consumption setting, only level 5 is actually overclocked.

Overclocking Idle – CPU Overheat and throttled – Microsoft Azure AI Gaming+ & Professional+ turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 3,800rpm | CPU package Temp : 66°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.1Ghz (8% loss)| CPU Power : 23.4W

Overclocking Idle – Fan Maximum Cooling turned on | MS Azure AI turned off
Fan Speed ≈ 5,500rpm | CPU package Temp : 59°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.5Ghz | CPU Power : 21.1W

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – MS Azure AI Gaming+ & Professional+ turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 3,700rpm | CPU package Temp : 90°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.5Ghz (21% loss) | CPU Power : 72.8W

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – Fan Maximum Cooling turned on | MS Azure AI turned off
Fan Speed ≈ 5,530rpm | CPU package Temp : 88°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.8Ghz (14% loss) | CPU Power : 61.9W | GPU Temp : 63°C

None overclocking GPU | overclocking CPU – Furmark 4K stress test – MS Azure AI Gaming+ & Professional+ turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 4,410rpm | GPU Max Temp : 80°C | GPU Max Clock ≈ 1.47Ghz | Max Memory Clock ≈ 1.50Ghz | CPU Max Temp : 95°C

overclocking GPU & CPU – Furmark 4K stress test – Fan Maximum Cooling turned on | MS Azure AI turned off
Fan Speed ≈ 5,600rpm | GPU Max Temp : 77°C | GPU Max Clock ≈ 1.81Ghz | Max Memory Clock ≈ 1.50Ghz | CPU Max Temp : 95°C

Overclocking summary
First of all, the overclocking level of the CPU may be set incorrectly, only ‘0’ and ‘5’ do have different frequencies. The CPU frequency and voltage do not change at all in level 1-4. The CPU frequency can indeed go up. Similarly, the graphics card can also be overclocked under the same situation, and the performance is also obviously improved. However, in some games either need the higher single-core CPU frequency or required the extreme graphics resources such as Ray Tracing and DLSS, etc., Consuming graphics resources, such as turning on optical chasing and anti-aliasing, etc., this thin-n-double copper tube cooling system is completely collapsed.

Secondly, turning Azure AI on or off does not play a decisive role in heat dissipation, and most of the time it will affect it. Then the fan speed needs to be manually adjusted to the highest level to barely hold the i9 and 2080 Max-Q while working lightly. When we tested the SPECview Workstation, the time used exceeded our imagination and the test did not pass. In the end, the CPU has been overheated and throttled. Similarly, the temperature of the CPU and GPU in idle state is also somewhat hot, and AI seems to ignore this selectivity. Therefore, after our tests, although this laptop can be overclocked, but based on the incompetence of the cooling system, it will naturally reduce the frequency after overclocking, and it is completely useless.

Run-time Benchmark Test

CPU-Z snapshots

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, the average performance of this i9-8950HK is nearly the same as the desktop CPU i7-7700K

GPU-Z snapshots

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

g

FURMARK 4K Stress test

SSD Details – Intel SSD Toolbox

SSD Details – Crystal Disk Info

SSD Benchmark – ASSSD 3GB, 5GB, 10GB tests

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

PCMark10 Benchmark : 5,505
Results Link : http://www.3dmark.com/pcm10b/516317

3DMark API Overhead Feature Test :

3DMark 2K DLSS Test :
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/nd/43570

3DMark 4K DLSS Test :
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/nd/43566

3DMark Time Spy : 7,201
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/spy/6693251

3DMark Time Spy Extreme : 3,300
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/spy/6693329

3DMark Fire Strike : 16,628
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/fs/18828560

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 8,825
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/fs/18828618

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 4,621
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/fs/18828665

3DMark Fire Port Royal : 4,206
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/pr/68148

Unigine Vally (Extreme HD): 3,669 | Avg FPS : 87.9

Unigine Superposition (Extreme 4K) : 6,162 | Avg FPS : 46.09

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (1080p,HQ pack) : 7,475

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (2K,HQ pack) : 5,358

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (4K,HQ pack) : 3,126

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (4K Custom,HQ pack) : 3,212

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (1080p,HQ pack) : 7,475

Workstation Benchmark
VRAY Benchmark

SPECviewperf 13 – 4K benchmark settings

SPECviewperf 13 – The overall results

SPECviewperf 13 – Catia

SPECviewperf 13 – CREO

SPECviewperf 13 – Energy

SPECviewperf 13 – MAYA

SPECviewperf 13 – Medical

SPECviewperf 13 – SNX8

SPECviewperf 13 – Solid works

Thermal and Noise Tests

Test room temperature : 18℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 58℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 51℃
AIDA64 Extreme full load stress test CPU&FPU: 90℃
Furmark full load stress test GPU: 80℃

The surface idle temperature :

The surface full load temperature (Exhausting fence):

The surface full load temperature (Back part of the exhausting fence):

The surface full load temperature (Intake fence):

The surface full load temperature (Middle and both fan side exhausting fence):

The surface full load temperature (Keyboard):

The Noise level under balance mode : around 42 dB

The Noise level under gaming mode : around 43-44 dB

The Noise level under Max Cooling mode : around 56-64 dB

Disassembling analysis

There are 13 Torx screw mounting on the back D panel, it’s quite easy to disassemble the back plate

The back panel looking

The upgraded cooling system, the capacitors on the PCH are also covered, and the PCH chip is also equipped with a metal heat shield

Battery, 6200mAh manufactured by Getac, 94.2Wh

The BIOS Battery under the WIFI card

Samsung DDR4 2666 Dual Channel : M471A2K43CB1 – CTD

Memory chip us using Samsung SEC 849 K4A8G08 5WC BCTD, which is the C-DIE chip

the 2nd m.2 combo SSD Slot supports both NVMe and SATA M.2 SSDs

SSD : 760P from Intel, 2TB, SSDPEKKW020T8

WIFI & Bluetooth card : 9560NGW from Intel, 2.4G/5G, 300Mbps+1730Mbps, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5

The PCH chip

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18E-G3-A1 which is the Nvidia TU104 chipset

The graphics memory is using GDDR6 chip from Samsung, a single chip of 1GB/32bit, a total of 8 components of 8GB/256bit specifications

The CPU chip, ‘SRCKN’ represents the Intel i9-8950HK

CPU power supply module

Graphics power supply module
The core part uses the NCP81610 PWM made by ON Semiconductor, which supports up to 8 phases power supply

The NCP303150 integrates a MOSFET driver, high−side MOSFET and low−side MOSFET into a single package. The driver and MOSFETs have been optimised for high−current DC-DC buck power conversion applications. The NCP303150 integrated solution greatly reduces package parasitic and board space compared to a discrete component solution.

The TPS65982 device is a stand-alone USB Type-C and power delivery (PD) controller providing cable-plug and orientation detection at the USB Type-C connector

The GST5009 LF Magnetics Module is designed for long haul gigabit Ethernet 1000 BASE-T, full duplex applications

The Chipset Heatsink. A dual-fan with 2 heat pipes heatsink system is not powerful enough to suppress the i9 CPU and 2080 Max-Q

Cooling fans are from A-POWER, BS5005HS-U2N, and BS5005HS-U2M, around 5500rpm speed

Heatsink Details – Graphics card part, the heatsink thickness is around 1.54mm

Heatsink Details – CPU part

Heatsink Details – Copper pipe thickness is around 2.2mm

Heatsink Details – The most thickness part is around 3.46mm

The exhausting fence

The intake fence

SUMMARY

According to our evaluation and disassembling result, I believe that the AERO 15-Y9 laptop, which is light-weighted, portable, performance, longer battery life and even professional.

For a laptop that sells for $5,699, it hasn’t reached or exceeded the price of some professional workstation laptops, and buyers could use this budget to purchase a top-of-the-line multi-core desktop workstation and a thinner office-use laptop. From the perspective of usability, for high-end gamers, this laptop uses an RTX2080 Max-Q graphics card, but the screen does not support G-SYNC, and the refresh rate is only 60hz, also the weakness of the high-color IPS screen such as Light leakage and high latency of around 30ms are also unacceptable for gamers, so an external large-sized high-refresh rate gaming screen may be a good additional choice.

For workstation users, the CPU of this laptop has reached the standard or even better, 32GB memory and 2TB NVMe SSD plus 4K colour-calibrated screen also make this laptop a performance beast, but the RTX2080 Max-Q is designed for game graphics, there is a huge gap between RTX and Quadro series graphic card in rendering and 3D modeling processing, this is obvious from our SPECviewperf test results, and for light-weight 4K graphics and video editing, the 15.6-inch screen size is a bit small, an external large-size display can play the strengths prominently of this laptop. So in terms of usability, the positioning of this laptop is quite vague.

However, the largest drawback is not the appearance, but the cooling system. Aside from the dispensable Microsoft Azure AI, when you really need to play games or do your work, it is best to turn off the overclocking, and the fan must be switched to max speed, otherwise the CPU will overheat and throttling, causing tumbled gaming fps or extending the time of video rendering. A cooling pad with fans and height adjustable may be the best partner for this laptop. At the same time, the design of the right I/O ports may make it inconvenient for users who use an external mouse. In general, this laptop is more suitable to stay on the cooling pad and connect to an external display, but in this way, the 4K screen attached to the laptop itself is completely wasted. Therefore, this laptop is more suitable for working people who play less AAA games.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 77/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC EXTREME POWER

GIGABYTE AERO 15-Y9 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/AERO-15–RTX-20-Series#kf

Package Appearance
The outside packaging

The second packaging
A famous Meme from SteelSeries — RISE UP, and the DOTA2 Pro player Sumail
Good Luck & Have Fun!

The inside packaging — The mouse and accessory case

The mouse, instructions and all accessories

The wireless receiver
It has a very smart design, a user can plug the receiver into the USB port directly, or plug the Micro USB cable into the back of the body of the cover

The counterweight package

Product Analysis
The Rival 650 Wireless gaming mouse also maintains the design of Rival 600, with asymmetrical designed RGB strip on the top case

The layering process of the top cover is delicate and dry feeling and provides a higher comfort when you are holding it. The highest point of the mouse is located a little bit behind the center of the mouse, around 43mm in height, it will provide good palm support.

The overall design of the mouse is right-handed, the button panel has a higher left and lower right design and has a clear groove guide

In terms of size, this mouse is not suitable for small-handed users, because the overall mouse size is too large and long. Comparing the other two large-sized mouses from Razer and Logitech, the Rival 650 Wireless has a similar size

The design around the mouse wheel and DPI buttons has obvious lines. The mouse wheel is made of silicone material and has light-emitting belts on both sides. The mouse wheel feels firm and does not shake. The DPI button has a high protrusion, it is easier to operate without looking at the mouse, and the pressure is slightly larger than other buttons, which prevents accidently clicking it

The sides of the mouse are also designed with ABS and silicone, and the anti-slip effect has a moderate touch feeling

The detachable left and right-side panels adopt a relatively strong magnetic mode, and the left side panel has three buttons. If you do not look carefully, the first oblique button will be easy to ignore, the side buttons are slightly shaken, and the pressure is very high and difficult to press down

Comparing with Rival 600’s 97g weight, the Rival 650 Wireless has increased around 25g. As a medium to large mouse, it is obviously heavier after the integration of a 1000mAh rechargeable lithium battery. For competitive games that need to move the mouse frequently, this weight is not acceptable. Also, it seems a bit unrealistic to provide an additional 8 of 4g weights when the mouse is already so heavy

After removing the left and right-side panels, the 4 pieces of weights can be inserted on each side. According to the official statement, a certain weight can be installed at different positions on both sides of the mouse according to the user’s needs. Based on the mouse weight and the influence of the gravity balance system, a maximum of 256 weight schemes can be combined

It is a pity that the mouse itself is already heavy enough. When all the weights are attached, the total weight will increase around 151g. This will be very much up to personal taste

The front of the mouse is designed with a Micro-USB interface, which can be charged or activated under the wiring mode using the included Micro-USB cable

The Rival 650 Wireless gaming mouse features a dual-engine design called TrueMove3+, which adds an additional height response sensor to precisely control the height response and to eliminate the interference when the player picks up or puts down the mouse. According to SteelSeries, the new sensor is also equipped with a linear optical detector to provide a more accurate sensing system. Unfortunately, in terms of the height response, the Rival 650 does not bring new performance improvements compared to the Rival 600

Software Analysis
Through the settings of SteelSeries Engine 3 software, mouse function adjustments are collected on only one user interface. The text and graphic design allow users to more intuitively understand the things they are adjusting

The left side of the software is the button adjustment function area, the right side includes the DPI setting area, power saving settings, rate of return, straight line correction and corresponding distance adjustment, etc.

The button and the macro settings can customise the mouse button as a personality function according to user’s needs, or it also can map the related operation into the mouse button by loading the game-operation macro to simplify the game operation and improving the game efficiency

The RGB supports a 16.8 million-colour light circulation system, and the area that can be illuminated includes the wheel, the backlight strip, and the SteelSeries logo.

The total number of RGB light positions can be defined as 8 areas and each of the RGB light strips on the back is separated into 3 separate areas both left and right, which means different colours and lighting effects can be customised separately.

The brightness of the mouse RGB is bright enough and the circulation is also smooth, but don’t forget that the RGB lighting is very power-hungry

Performance Test
The Rival 650 Wireless gaming mouse also has special property settings on different mouse pads. The default gear position on the cloth mouse pad is 0.7mm, the lowest gear is 0.5mm, and the highest gear is 0.8mm. The default gear position on the silicon mouse pad is 1mm, the lowest gear is 0.8mm, and the highest gear is 1.1mm.

A slight lift of the mouse on the cursor is completely negligible

We have tested the mouse on these most popular mouse pads: Fine coated pad, aluminium, soft silicone pad, fine fabric cloths thin pad and coarse fabric cloths thin pad.

The tests are based on the mouse’s start, Smoothness, Brake, and Transparency.
Fine coated pad
Start: Medium feeling on both Static friction and dynamic friction
Smoothness: Extremely smooth
Brake: Easy to brake and good positioning accuracy
Transparency: Very good contact, no heightened sense of passage that results in misalignment on the Z axis

Aluminum pad
Start: Very low felling on both Static friction and dynamic friction
Smoothness: It is very smooth, but the maintenance is relatively difficult. The Teflon feet skates will be frayed quickly by aluminium surface
Brake: Braking is difficult, and the positioning accuracy needs to be grasped for a long time
Transparency: Very good contact, no heightened sense of passage that results in misalignment displacement on the Z axis

Soft silicone pad
Start: This textured pad makes the higher static and dynamic friction feeling
Smoothness: Medium smooth
Brake: Easy to brake and relatively accurate positioning
Transparency: a relatively thin thickness of the cushion, the material is quite solid and the permeability is good

Fine fabric cloths thin pad
Start: Low static friction and very high dynamic friction
Smoothness: Medium smooth
Brake: Easy to brake, positioning is accurate, the resistance is large. Muscle memory is easier to form and more friendly for novices
Transparency: A thin pad with soft material and good permeability

Coarse fabric cloths thin pad
Start: Medium static friction, low dynamic friction
Smoothness: Extremely smooth
Brake: Difficult to brake, and positioning accuracy requires a long time to grasp. Not friendly to novices
Transparency: A thin pad with soft material and good permeability

In general, this mouse is more suitable for fine and coarse fabric cloths. The heavy mouse body is not suitable for lots of movement, so a less static friction mousepad is more fit for this mouse. However, the thicker cushion will cause the Z-axis shifting.

In terms of battery life, when the mouse is fully charged, the continuous use time is more than 24 hours when the RGB function is turned off, therefore, for daily use can be extended to 2-3 days. In the absence of major innovations in battery technology, the fast charging tech is a good solution to solve the problem of shorter battery life, and the support of connecting a wire to enable the fast charging technology makes this mouse more flexible, as long as there is a device that supports USB charging.

Disassembling Analysis
Backplate, 4 screws are hidden under the mouse feets

The inside of the mouse

There are 6 parts mounted on the top side – 2 RGB cover light bars, side button board, mouse wheel RGB board, mouse wheel part, and the top buttons board

The mouse wheel part and the top button board

The mouse wheel RGB board

The side button board

Micro Switch
The side buttons are using the Series 160 blue dot Micro Switch from TTC. This microswitch has around 300,000 click lifecycle and 70 ± 15 gf operating force

The wireless connection button is using an unknown type blue dot Micro Switch from Kailh

The left and right buttons are using a SteelSeries customised blue dot micro switch from Taiwan Zippy DF series (Not DF3 or DF-M series)

The main board for this mouse

Disassembling the bracket and the main board

The bottom side of the main board

The famous SteelSeries Truemove 3 sensor, its customised from the PXI PMW3360DM-T2QU

The wireless module is using the Nordic nRF52832 QFABE0 2.4G transceiver

Fast charging controller chipset is from Texas Instruments BQ25895 Single Cell 5A Fast Charger MaxCharge, Technology for High Input Voltage and 3.1A Boost

The optical sensor

Usability Analysis
To test the line correction, frame loss, and the smoothness, we are using the mousetest from Areson

Without the line correction function

The line correction comparison snapshot when Angel Snapping function has been turned off/on

The Frame loss control and the smoothness control are also quite good

We also tested this mouse by using Enotus Mouse Test

Finally, we are using the powerful MouseTester v1.5
Under 2300cpi(count per inch), the software measured as 2338cpi

By using its powerful plot function, we are tested several mouse performances when switched off the Angel Snapping function

xCounts vs Time
While the average line is smoother, which means it’s more liner on the mouse track movement; while the points of the counts are much closer to the line, which means the jitter of the engine is lower. As the graph shows, the result of this performance is quite good.

yCounts vs Time
If there is a straight-line correction/angle function, the y-axis offset will remain at 0 for a long time. As the graph shows, the result of this performance is just ok

X vs Y
This function is to detect mouse frame loss, As the graph shows, the result of this performance is quite good

xyVelocity vs Time
The unit of velocity is m/s. This test is mainly to look at the acceleration of the mouse. As the graph shows, the point of Rival 650 is better for curve fitting, that means the jumped-like rapid acceleration rarely appears, The line of fit is coherent and also has a dense distribution

If there is a good device that allows the mouse to move at a constant speed, in this case, the speed line is a straight line, if the engine has acceleration, it will fluctuate, so this is the most ideal test method. The result of this performance is quite good

Summary
The Rival 650 Wireless gaming mouse has continued the most superior features from the previous Rival 600, adding wireless support and fast charging technology. The usability of this mouse has also become stronger. However, the extra 30g weight has a greater impact on users who are accustomed to the lightweight gaming mouse, and it takes time to re-adapt. And also, the higher price makes this mouse an extremely low CP value.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 86/100

STEELSERIES RIVAL 650 WIRELESS GAMING MOUSE OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://steelseries.com/gaming-mice/rival-650-wireless