Thinking of Defiance III

[Roblucci]

Good news, I just received my laptop and the 17.3" screen is G-Sync capable at 75Hz after you select discrete mode in the BIOS, otherwise on MShybrid mode (Optimus) is stays at 60Hz. I used this site to for the frame rate https://www.testufo.com/#test=framerates
The model is the P670HS-G and the board is the kabylake HM175.
I will do a review later but for the people who wanted to know these details, here we go.

 

[Tony1044]

Have some rep...handy for others searching to know that

 

[Ohmu]

Good news, I just received my laptop and the 17.3" screen is G-Sync capable at 75Hz after you select discrete mode in the BIOS, otherwise on MShybrid mode (Optimus) is stays at 60Hz. I used this site to for the frame rate https://www.testufo.com/#test=framerates
The model is the P670HS-G and the board is the kabylake HM175.
I will do a review later but for the people who wanted to know these details, here we go.

Damn son, that's some great news
Too bad those consultants misinformed us both lol.
Wanna check out your review asap, cause I'm not getting my laptop any time soon apparently, as I'm still in that forsaken pre-production stage :/

 

[amoshi]

Good news, I just received my laptop and the 17.3" screen is G-Sync capable at 75Hz after you select discrete mode in the BIOS, otherwise on MShybrid mode (Optimus) is stays at 60Hz. I used this site to for the frame rate https://www.testufo.com/#test=framerates
The model is the P670HS-G and the board is the kabylake HM175.
I will do a review later but for the people who wanted to know these details, here we go.

That's great to hear, btw you can also select GPU mode (hybrid/discrete) in the Clevo Control Centre (surprisingly I couldn't find it in the BIOS)

 

[Ohmu]

What I also found frustrating btw, is that there's no option for a dual RAM kit, for instance 2x8GB, so that the RAM would work in dual channel mode. I find it weird why they don't have this option available. Some games apparently can really benefit from that dual channel ram (in terms of fps).

 

[Oussebon]

It's very uncommon for single vs dual channel to make any real difference with dGPU gaming: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...-Hardware-FAQs&p=397286&viewfull=1#post397286

I haven't actually seen benchmarks of any game that really does benefit, though I could hazard a guess at a one.

You might be more likely to find a difference in non-gaming applications.

That said, I agree that it's very weird and somewhat annoying that they don't offer it. Given that they'll sell you a laptop with 8gb RAM, and then presumably sell you another 8gb stick as an upgrade (they do sell RAM and storage as upgrades to existing customers).

 

[Dennymac]

Hey. Sorry to piggy back this thread but I am also thinking about a defiance III. The problem is though, all the reviews I’ve read have said it’s a great machine but the screen lets it down. Is the 1080 ips panel really that bad? I am going from a dell xps 9343 which does have an excellent screen but is beyond useless for gaming. Is it worth splashing out for the 3k screen with the gtx 1060 card? Thanks

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hey. Sorry to piggy back this thread but I am also thinking about a defiance III. The problem is though, all the reviews I’ve read have said it’s a great machine but the screen lets it down. Is the 1080 ips panel really that bad? I am going from a dell xps 9343 which does have an excellent screen but is beyond useless for gaming. Is it worth splashing out for the 3k screen with the gtx 1060 card? Thanks

The 1060 wouldn't be able to drive a 3k screen for gaming so you'd have to lower resolution significantly or reduce settings again significantly.

I haven't heard reports that the 1080p gsync screen is bad, where did you read those?

 

[Dennymac]

The 1060 wouldn't be able to drive a 3k screen for gaming so you'd have to lower resolution significantly or reduce settings again significantly.

I haven't heard reports that the 1080p gsync screen is bad, where did you read those?

A couple review sites said the screen was the let down due to light bleed and colour issues but maybe they were just saying it’s the worst bit of an excellent laptop which prob means it’s not that bad at all and I should just pull the trigger and order.

Thanks for the reply

 

[Ohmu]

It's very uncommon for single vs dual channel to make any real difference with dGPU gaming: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...-Hardware-FAQs&p=397286&viewfull=1#post397286

I haven't actually seen benchmarks of any game that really does benefit, though I could hazard a guess at a one.

You might be more likely to find a difference in non-gaming applications.

That said, I agree that it's very weird and somewhat annoying that they don't offer it. Given that they'll sell you a laptop with 8gb RAM, and then presumably sell you another 8gb stick as an upgrade (they do sell RAM and storage as upgrades to existing customers).

I saw quite many videos on youtube which suggest otherwise. Of course it heavily depends on the system's setup and even on how the game you are player demanding towards the CPU, but still, I saw some 5-20fps difference in some games, and for additional 5-10 euros? Why not? At the very least it won't do any harm.
So I decided to try it out, made an amendment to switch to 1x8GB and contacted PC to ask them to provide me with an additional RAM stick for an extra cash, they didn't refuse. I'm so far very satisfied with the customer support and the functionality of the web site by the way. So I'm going dual channel mode , will see how it turns for me

A couple review sites said the screen was the let down due to light bleed and colour issues but maybe they were just saying it’s the worst bit of an excellent laptop which prob means it’s not that bad at all and I should just pull the trigger and order.

I guess I saw that review. I didn't read it too carefully and I'm not a native speaker (not even a good one), but I think the way they were reviewing it is very precise and those cons they found were mostly relevant for professional users like designers and other guys who work with images/videos/photos etc., those who really need the picture to be 10000% clear and perfect. If you are one of those - well then yeah may be you should be concerned, else if you are a gamer like me, there's nothing to worry about, there's no chance you will ever notice those imperfections.

upd. Nevermind. I took a look at that review once again, and you are right. The screen is somewhat, lets say, a little below average, even in terms of response time (which is ofc matters for gamers, or at least those who play FPSs).
Dunno, maybe somebody else will hop in and correct me and you.

 

[Oussebon]

So I'm going dual channel mode , will see how it turns for me

Glad they listened - I've seen someone ask them that before on the forums and they said no :S which was silly on them in my opinion.

I looked at a few videos on youtube. Most of the ones reporting a big difference were by the same guy. There was another guy who was apparently reporting big differences in BF1, but didn't notice his GPU and CPU were nearly overheating until someone in the comments section told them. Someone else had a video which referred to the "hardwaresecrets" article which I never use because of the really bizarre results they posted where single channel was a lot better than dual channel in some games. I've seen other articles they've posted with weird and clearly anomalous results that they don't explain or comment on, so they're about the one tech website on the net that I deliberately ignore.

In short, I don't normally go to youtube for tech evaluations, I tend to go to articles that talk more in detail about the method they used for testing and are a bit more transparent.

Not saying that dual channel is bad - I too would buy RAM in dual channel, because why not? It's just that reliable evidence of it making much of a difference in dGPU gaming is thin to non-existent

 

[Ohmu]

Got mine today. Gonna test it, see how it performs and write a small review in a couple of days.

 

[Portland]

Matching ram configuration and OS used to be much more of a thing, but different engines can respond differently these days.

 

[Dennymac]

Hey Folks. Got my new defiance and installed all the drivers etc that came on the dvd with it. Have one question though. I have MSHybrid and Control Center v5.0001.1.05 both running from start up. are they both the same program just with different names?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hey Folks. Got my new defiance and installed all the drivers etc that came on the dvd with it. Have one question though. I have MSHybrid and Control Center v5.0001.1.05 both running from start up. are they both the same program just with different names?

Mshybrid is a form of graphics switching.
Control center is the clevo management driver that links into everything and offers overall control over your hardware.

Very different drivers, both very important.

 

[Dennymac]

Mshybrid is a form of graphics switching.
Control center is the clevo management driver that links into everything and offers overall control over your hardware.

Very different drivers, both very important.

Thanks for the reply. Can I ask do I have to restart the laptop to use descrete mode so I can game with the gpu or does mshybrid just allow the laptop to switch from the Intel graphics to the gtx 1070 on the fly depending on what I am doing?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for the reply. Can I ask do I have to restart the laptop to use descrete mode so I can game with the gpu or does mshybrid just allow the laptop to switch from the Intel graphics to the gtx 1070 on the fly depending on what I am doing?

Yeah, mshybrid should automatically control the graphics switching.

 

[Dennymac]

Again thanks for the reply. I was asking as after some googling I was getting conflicting information that MSHybrid no longer worked for on the fly graphic switching. Should the light on the very left of the laptop front light up when the graphics card is in use through MSHybrid or only when the laptop is in discrete mode only?

Thanks again