The beast unleashed: Overclocking the ASUS ROG GX700

This article is also contributed by Sophia Dao.

A force to be reckoned with

There are gaming notebooks, and then there are gaming notebooks. The ASUS ROG GX700 clearly falls into the latter category. One look at the ROG GX700, and any other gaming laptop – even one with the top-end NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M – seems tame by comparison. And we haven’t even gotten into its specifications yet! Thanks to its outlandish liquid-cooling dock, the ROG GX700 is truly one-of-a-kind, and even extravagant affairs like the Aftershock W-15 don’t quite compare.

Even though we’ve already written extensively about the GX700 in a preview article and full review, the laptop has never ceased to amaze us. Here’s a brief recap of its specifications (the components can speak for themselves):

• Intel Core i7-6820HK (2.7GHz, 8MB L3 cache)
• 32GB DDR4 RAM (up to 64GB)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
• Dual M.2 256GB Samsung SM951 PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 (configurable with up to dual 512GB SSDs)
• 17.3-inch 1,920 x 1,080-pixel IPS display with support for NVIDIA G-Sync (4K display also available)

If the 32GB of DDR4 RAM doesn’t already impress you, remember that you’re also getting an overclockable mobile processor, a top-end desktop graphics card, and a blazing-fast storage configuration. The specifications in the brackets are what you get if you opt for a unit with a 4K (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) display.

On top of that, it also has all the connectivity options you could possibly need, including two USB Type-C ports (one Thunderbolt 3, one USB 3.1), three USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, a Mini DisplayPort connector, and even a dedicated low-profile Gigabit Ethernet jack.

But you already know all that. This time, we’re going to push the ROG GX700 by manually overclocking it. The ROG GX700 has been expressly designed to enable overclocking, and with a liquid-cooling dock to go with it, we’re quite excited to see how much extra performance we can squeeze out of the notebook.

Over on the next page, we’ve also taken apart both the laptop and the dock to take a peek at its innards and better understand the cooling apparatus.

Inside the liquid-cooling dock

According to ASUS, they first started working on the idea of an overclockable, liquid-cooled laptop in late 2013. However, after changes in Intel’s CPU architecture locked all clock domains to a single, central reference base clock, CPU overclocking became more difficult, even if it was still possible by increasing the CPU multiplier value. There were also no unlocked mobile CPUs back then, which meant that a liquid-cooling dock would be an overkill if there were no overclockable parts.

ASUS also toyed with the idea of bringing desktop CPUs into play in order to maximize performance. It also made sense to pair desktop chips with liquid cooling, but the whole idea still seemed overly extravagant because the necessary pumps and radiators would make the notebook too bulky and large. In the end, ASUS went back to the drawing board and came up with the idea to separate the notebook and its liquid-cooling system, leading to the conceptual birth of the ROG GX700.

When the GX700 is docked, both the CPU and GPU are both liquid-cooled. As we noted in our preview article, the dock interfaces with the notebook via a pair of metal pipes and a single red connector for power delivery. The metal pins poking out from the base mounting plate are actually alignment pins that make docking the notebook a lot easier.

The dock also features a custom self-sealing valve design to guard against coolant leakage, although ASUS tells us that it is normal to see some trace coolant residues on the valves or the rear of the GX700. The dock contains enough coolant to last for at least two years, but should it run low during the warranty period, ASUS will help you refill or replace the dock for a service fee (around US$150, depending on your region).

But if you like to tinker with your own hardware, you can also refill the coolant yourself by unscrewing the cap on the right-hand side of the dock. You’ll know that the coolant level is low when the dock emits a series of continuous short beeps.

Inside the dock, ASUS has installed a single pump and dual 92mm radiators. Overall, the liquid-cooling system is rated as being able to remove over 500 watts of heat. The pump and both radiators rest on 2mm-thick rubber washers, and a second layer of rubber padding sits between the radiators and the top cover to minimize transmission of vibrations and keep noise to a minimum. Indeed, in our time with it, the faint hum of the dock was easy enough to forget about.

In addition, we also opened up the notebook itself for a closer look at the cooling layout, which reveals that the coolant doesn’t actually flow into the notebook itself. Instead, the CPU and GPU heatpipes interface with the dock via a special connector that allows the coolant to draw heat away rapidly.

For more images of the dock's and notebook's innards, you can refer to a picture gallery we've put up here.

Upgradeable RAM and storage

ASUS designed the GX700 to be as slim as possible, and easy access to components was only a secondary objective. However, after you’ve managed to open up the bottom cover, the memory and M.2 SSDs are actually still relatively accessible, and users should be able to upgrade them fairly easily if they wish. But given that the base configuration already comes with 32GB of DDR4 RAM and a total of 512GB of storage, we think this to be unlikely.

Test Setup and Performance

We’ll be using the same set of benchmarks (except for PCMark 8) and comparisons that we used in our initial review of the ROG GX700. These notebooks were chosen because they have all been configured for extreme performance, with a couple even sporting dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980Ms in SLI.

Here’s a full list of the notebooks we’ll be looking at:

• ASUS ROG GX700
• ASUS ROG G752VY
• ASUS ROG G751JT
• MSI GT72S 6QE Dominator Pro G
• MSI GT80 2QE Titan SLI
• Aftershock Titan v2.1
• Aorus x7 Pro

We ran the notebooks through our usual gaming benchmark suite as below:

• 3DMark (2013)
• Tomb Raider
• Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Here’s a table summarizing the clock speeds of various components for the GX700’s four different performance modes (note that the values for manual mode are theoretical values that you can expect to achieve under ideal conditions). The notebook defaults to Optimized mode when it is undocked, but automatically ramps up to Extreme once you dock it.

We also decided to just stick to overclocking the GPU because the CPU automatically overclocks quite aggressively to 4.0GHz in Extreme mode, and we saw little point in fiddling with the BCLK settings just to squeeze out an extra 100MHz boost. The Intel Core i7-6820HK actually runs at a base clock of 2.7GHz (Turbo: 3.6GHz) by default, so the automatic overclocking really does amount to quite a significant increase.

Another reason not to change the BCLK is because doing so disables Intel XMP, which lets you boost the DDR4 RAM speed up to 2,800MHz (base clock, not the net speed). Whatever your thoughts about the benefits of faster RAM, the memory speed boost arguably still confers broader performance benefits than a marginal increase in CPU speed. Intel XMP can be enabled in the ROG Gaming Center in Manual mode.

However, should you still wish to experiment with the CPU clock speeds, you can tweak the BCLK settings (referred to as the reference clock in the menu) in the ROG Gaming Center itself. Alternatively, Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) will work as well, and it comes with a built-in CPU stress test for you to test the stability of your overclock.

But when it came to the GPU overclocking, we opted to use MSI’s Afterburner overclocking utility to boost the GPU clock speeds as it’s easier to navigate compared to the ROG Gaming Center. Instead of fiddling with a dropdown menu to select the desired processor frequency offset value, you can simply key in the value you want in the Core Clock and Memory Clock fields in Afterburner. The slider works well also, even if it is a bit imprecise.

According to ASUS, you can expect achieve a top overclock of up to 1,400MHz, and effective memory clock of around 8,000MHz (your mileage may vary). Ultimately, we managed to achieve an overclock of 1,403MHz and effective memory clock of 7,360MHz, up from 1,228MHz and 7,000MHz respectively in Extreme mode. Finally, do note that the core clock speeds referenced here actually refer to the boost speeds, because the liquid-cooling system lets the GPU run at its boosted speed almost without stopping.

3DMark (2013)

In 3DMark Fire Strike, the overclocked ROG GX700 posted around a 13% increase in performance over the GX700 in Extreme mode. And when compared to the GX700’s performance while it is undocked, the overclocked machine was a whopping 40% faster.

The GX700 still ended up behind the dual GeForce GTX980M notebooks, but the higher clock speeds did help to narrow the gap by quite a significant amount.

We also ran Fire Strike Extreme to get an idea of performance at the higher 2,560 x 1,440-pixel resolution. As it turns out, we managed to squeeze out an extra 13% in performance, which bodes well for those who want to overclock in order to play their games at high resolutions and the most demanding settings.

Tomb Raider

When it came to real-world gaming benchmarks, the performance improvement was a lot more modest. The overclocked GX700 posted just a few frames of improvement in Tomb Raider, which means that you will virtually see no difference in performance at all, especially because the frame rates it is pushing are already so high to begin with. When you pair such a powerful machine with an aging game like Tomb Raider, it appears that you’ll run up against diminishing returns however much you overclock.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

When running Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor at Ultra settings, the GX700 achieved just under a 12% boost in performance when overclocked. That’s a similarly modest boost that the average gamer will probably not notice, because the GeForce GTX 980 is more than capable of handling Shadow of Mordor at these settings and resolution.

Judging by the results we obtained in Fire Strike Extreme, overclocking will prove most useful at high resolutions exceeding 1080p, since it takes a lot to really challenge the GeForce GTX 980. Nevertheless, the overclocing feat as a whole is still commendable.

Temperature

Cooling performance was still excellent, despite the GPU overclock. It ran only 3°C hotter than when the notebook was docked but not overclocked, which is clear testament to the effectiveness of ASUS’ cooling design. On the other hand, CPU temperatures were quite a bit toastier even though we didn’t overclock the GPU, and it could be that heat from the GPU is somehow affecting the readings here.

Surface temperatures were also marginally higher, which is to be expected, but the difference is so slight that it’s not really noticeable when you use it.

Overclocking: A luxury feature for a luxury notebook

All in all, overclocking didn’t result in a huge performance boost that turned the already beastly ROG GX700 into some sort of unbridled monster. In fact, we think that the GX700’s support for overclocking may be more of a niche feature for enthusiasts who like being able to tinker with their hardware and squeeze every last drop of performance out from it. And while that may be the case, the GX700 also happens to be designed for a niche audience, so the majority of customers who end up buying the notebook are going to be able to appreciate the feature anyway.

However, the notebook’s support for overclocking doesn’t mean that there is any need to do so. As we saw in our review, the GX700’s strong performance leaves little else to be desired. Furthermore, for the version of the GX700 that comes with a 1080p display, you most decidedly do not need to. The dock automatically overclocks the CPU to a whopping 4.0GHz, and combined with the power of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, the GX700 should be able to handle almost any game at a 1080p resolution.

Things are a little different if you opt for the 4K model, in which case the overclocking feature is more likely to come in handy. Still, the GX700 is no slouch at 4K at all – just consider the fact that ASUS says that it can run Star Wars Battlefront (High preset, FXAA) at a 4,380 x 2,160-pixel resolution at 40fps. So far, our test results have matched up with ASUS’ claims, so we’d hazard an opinion that the figures it’s citing are quite reliable.

At the end of the day, the GX700 is a luxury notebook for the demanding customer who wants the absolute best in mobile gaming (and has the dollars to spend). But if it so happens that you fall into the latter category, but don’t feel quite comfortable with pushing the notebook beyond its set specifications (after all, overclocking can result in issues like failure to boot), you won’t be missing out much at all. For those with cash to spare and love to tinker with the latest and greatest technology has to offer, the ASUS ROG GX700 is an all new playground, ready to handle anything you might throw its way, including a decent amount of overclocking to up the fun factor.

But that's not all we have to share. Some of our tech savvy forum members who participated in the world's first official launch of the ASUS ROG GX700 even got a chance to trial this over-the-top gaming notebook and you can check out their experiences here and here.

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