Vortex IX first look

ixende

Bronze Level Poster
is that -0.25V? as in -250mV?

That's a pretty substantial undervolt!

Did you cause any BSOD when going lower than that?





GPU and CPU benchmarks simultaneously can be used to simulate real gameplay.

I run MSI Kombuster to get the GPU nice and hot

then run CPU-z with a limited thread count and increment the count gradually to gradually test different loads on the cpu.

The GPU benches don't stress the cpu enough, and the GPU benches hardly bother the cpu and don't really give a good real world example.

optimising for both seperately tended to end up with a lot of throttling for me when I actually started using them

Yep -250mV undervolt and is stable at least with aida64 for the 30mins I ran it for (Stressed CPU/FPU/Cache).

I'll definitely test out your method for stability, but give me 2 weeks from now. Will update once I get it tested!
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
I was very surprised by the 250mv too, though googling turned out it was surprisingly common for the H series :)

@ixende - best of luck with final exams btw!
 

woody2521

New member
I'm actually currently stuck between the Vortex and the Recoil III. Dunno if I should go for a smaller screen or a larger one.
[/QUOTE]
Hi, i just found the 17 inch version on scan and can confirm that the 2070 is not max q
 
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Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Which chassis are you talking about? The 17.3" Recoil III from PCS is definitely a non-max-Q 2070, that's never been in question :) And PCS don't sell a 17.3" Vortex currently.
 

TheUberMedic

Active member
Under the keyboard, does it have extra connectors? Trying to find out if all versions of the PB51 have the connector for the per key RGB keyboard.
 

ixende

Bronze Level Poster
Under the keyboard, does it have extra connectors? Trying to find out if all versions of the PB51 have the connector for the per key RGB keyboard.
The vortex (PB50RF-G) apparently supports per-key rgb but is an optional feature and pcspecialist doesnt have the per-key rgb keyboard type. The connector should be the same, just the keyboard support for it.

I personally cant be bothered with rgb. A normal backlight is the best when in the dark.
 

ixende

Bronze Level Poster
Wow, came back after exams to see 1300 views to this review of the laptop.

Decided to have a chill day off, kicked back and relax with some music with M40x headphones and wow this laptop blew me away. Expected average to poor onboard audio like my previous GS60, but the vortex was like good soundstage and decent vocals. Ended up writing a mini review in post 4 (post 2 was getting too long).

Nahimic is trash, which is included with MSI laptops. Glad to see Creative providing good audio in this Clevo laptop
 

ixende

Bronze Level Poster
Gave myself a heart attack when using the memory overclock option.
Added the memory overclocking info in Post 4 (forums wont let me extend Post 2 any longer)
Or you can read it down here
Memory Overclocking:
w0LaKIT.jpg

Managed to get my 2666mhz vengeance ram to 3000mhz.

1SIDO8D.jpg

IMPORTANT *READ THIS*
The memory overclocking profile is unintuitive. I say that because in nowhere does it provide any info on what frequency you will be applying, and the [custom XMP2] column does NOT show the values until a reboot.

So how do you overclock memory with this bios?
Firstly, it uses the DoubleDataRate(DDR) values. And to get the base frequency you have to multiply [memory reference clock] with [memory ratio] and then double it.
In my 2nd picture the example is 100MHz x 15 ratio = 1500MHz
Double 1500MHz = 3000MHz.
Alternatively the default XMP profile for my 2666MHz is
Double (133MHz x 10ratio = 1333MHz)

I learnt this the hard way, normally most bios uses the maximum(already doubled values).
Which I accidentally applied because I didnt know: 133MHz x 23ratio = 3059MHz
and the bios doubles that in 6118MHz (LOL)

What happens next you ask. Firstly the laptop fails to boot (of course), I was like no problem I'll reset the laptop.
The BAD part- Holding the Fn + D and pressing power resets the bios. But I panicked as the laptop takes literally FOREVER to reset.
Just be patient. 3-5minutes after the keycombo, (while still in black screen) the laptop will power off on its own and turn on. 1-2minutes later the bios splash screen will finally appear and you can press F2 to go back to bios.

Also, I found out later that a bad overclock of memory will do the same shutdown and reset procedure on its own. No need for Fn + D key.
Im glad thats over :)
 

unrealmitch

New member
Hi!

First, you made a awsome review. After read all about this laptop and see some videos, anything helped me as this analysis did.
But I miss one detail in it. How about the battery? Did you test in both modes (MSHybird and Discrete)?

And again, thanks! because I didn't know which laptop buy (ASUS GL504GW/MSI GE63 8SF/Vortex IX) and this review helped me a lot!
 

joslac

New member
Hey I just got this a couple of weeks ago and I'm loving it too! Awesome review by the way. Just curious, how difficult was it to open the chassis? I've been trying to open it to upgrade the internal SSD but I didn't want to use excessive force in case I break it.
 

darbyjack

Bronze Level Poster
Why is there a choice of 180 Watt or 230 Watt adaptor? The website seems happy to accept both for a 2070 GPU config. Is there any reason for this? Excuse the ignorance.
 

SlimCini

KC and the Sunshine BANNED
Why is there a choice of 180 Watt or 230 Watt adaptor? The website seems happy to accept both for a 2070 GPU config. Is there any reason for this? Excuse the ignorance.
Just tested it and the website doesn't let you chose a 180W with a 2070 so not sure what you mean... try and progress an order choosing those two and see what happens.
 

darbyjack

Bronze Level Poster
Okay it doesn't let me proceed with the 180 watt adaptor now. Possibly a glitch on my end or they updated it.

Fantastic review by the way
 
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villads115

New member
I'm very close to buying the vortex ix, but i'm a little worried about the case, is it aluminium? And can you tell about the battery performance?
 

ixende

Bronze Level Poster
I'm very close to buying the vortex ix, but i'm a little worried about the case, is it aluminium? And can you tell about the battery performance?
Mostly plastic with some aluminium trim and internal structure. Battery performance is pretty good, maybe 1-1.5hour on light gaming loads using Discrete mode (rtx2070 only)

What type of display has it got? TN, VA or IPS?
Panel identified is a AUO80ED panel
Its a AHVA panel.

From https://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/lcd-panel-types.php
What is AHVA?
Yet another proprietary "IPS-like" panel type that offers similar performance to PLS. Developed by AUO, AHVA is short for Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle. The acronym can be slightly confusing as AHVA technology will sometimes be mixed up with Vertical Alignment (VA, see below) even though it makes use of In-Plane Switching (IPS).
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
As a footnote, AHVA = IPS, though is sometimes confused for VA (which it isn't).

Great info being provided in this post btw!
 
Btw, in regards to your original review, did you leave your GPU with a 100MHz OC on the memory? I've heard some pretty outrageous overclocks can be had on that GDDR6.
 
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