Shootouts

Third Strike: Aorus X7 Pro and Gigabyte P35X V3 gaming notebooks tested!

By Salehuddin Bin Husin - 23 Dec 2014

Benchmarks

Test Setup

As usual, we'll be running the two machines through our battery of tests. As both machines are equipped with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 900M series graphics, we decided to bring only the MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro back for a comparison since it too is similarly specced.

We also made another change to games we benchmark the machines on. We swapped out the aging Crysis 2 and put in the seminal Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor instead. Shadow of Mordor is particularly intensive on GPUs, requiring massive amounts of VRAM to run well on Ultra settings, with HD textures enabled. As we mentioned in our MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro review, we had originally benchmarked the machine on Shadow of Mordor in anticipation. Our other game is still Tomb Raider. As before, we'll be using 3DMark, PCMark and the native benchmarks in Tomb Raider and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Benchmarks:-

  • PC Mark 8
  • 3DMark 2013
  • Tomb Raider
  • Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Test Notebooks Compared
  Gigabyte Aorus X7 Pro Gigabyte P35X V3 MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro
  Gigabyte Aorus X7 Pro Gigabyte P35X V3 MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro
Processor and Chipset
  • Intel i7-4870HQ (2.5GHz)
  • Intel HM87
  • Intel i7-4710HQ (2.5GHz)
  • Intel HM87
  • Base:- Intel Core i7 4720HQ Processor
  • Tested:- Intel Core i7-4980HQ Processor
  • Intel HM87 chipset
Operating System
  • Windows 8.1
  • Windows 8.1
  • Windows 8.1
System Memory
  • 16GB DDR3L
  • 16GB DDR3L
  • 16GB DDR3L (4 slots) @ 1600MHz
Video & Display
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M (2 x SLI)
  • 17.3 inch Full HD Matte LCD
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
  • 15.6 inch WQHD+(2880 x 1620) LCD
  • 17.3-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080), Anti-glare
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 8GB DDR5
Storage
  • 512GB (256GB x 2, RAID 0) SSD + 1TB HDD
  • 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD
  • 256GB (2x 128GB SSD) Super RAID 3
  • 1TB HDD 7200rpm
Connectivity
  • Integrated 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth 4.0
  • Killer LAN
  • Integrated 802.11ac/b/g/n
  • Bluetooth V4.0
  • Gigabit LAN
  • Killer DoubleShot Pro Gb LAN
  • Killer DoubleShot Pro 11ac Wireless LAN
  • Bluetooth v4.0
Audio
  • 2x 2 Watt speaker
  • 2x Woofer speaker
  • 2x 1.5 Watt speakers
  • 1x Woofer speaker
  • Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater
  • Dynaudio 2.1-channel speaker system
  • Supports 7.1-channel S/PDIF output
  • Exclusive Audio Boost 2 technology
  • Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 2
I/O Ports
  • 3x USB(3.0)
  • 2x USB(2.0)
  • 1 x HDMI
  • 1 x mini DisplayPort
  • 1 x D-sub
  • 1 x Headphone jack
  • 1 x Microphone jack
  • 1 x Ethernet port
  • 1 x S/PDIF port
  • 1 x SD card reader
  • 2 x USB(3.0)
  • 2 x USB(2.0)
  • 1 x HDMI
  • 1 x mini DisplayPort
  • 1 x D-sub
  • 1 x Mic-in
  • 1 x Earphone-out (SPDIF)
  • 1 x Ethernet
  • 1 x SD Card Reader
  • 1 x DC-in Jack
  • 6x USB 3.0
  • 1x HDMI (1.4)
  • 2x Mini-DisplayPort
  • 1x Headphone
  • 1x Microphone
  • 1x SD (XC/HC)
  • 1x Line In
  • 1x Line Out
Battery Type
  • 73.26Wh (Li-Polymer, fixed)
  • 75.81Wh (Li-Polymer, fixed)
  • 9-Cell Lithium Ion (83wHr)
Dimensions
  • 428 x 305 x 22.9 mm
  • 385 x 270 x 20.9 mm
  • 428(W) x 294(D) x 48(H)mm
Weight
  • 3KG
  • 2.3KG (with battery)
  • 3.78Kg (w/ Battery)
Optical Drive
  • DVD Super Multi
  • Blu-ray Writer
Miscellaneous
  • Full-color backlight SteelSeries keyboard

 

PC Mark 8

While PC Mark 8 tests the overall hardware of a machine, it's still interesting to see the MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro outgunning the Aorus X7 Pro and the Gigabyte P35X V3 in some of the test suites. It has to be noted though that the MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro that we had was beefed up more than its usual specifications. In particular, its Intel Core i7-4980HQ processor is more powerful (both in base frequency and in Turbo mode) than the Intel Core i7-4710HQ or the Intel Core i7-4870HQ found in the Aorus X7 Pro and the Gigabyte P35X V3 respectively. Had the MSI notebook been equipped with the Core i7-4710HQ, which is its standard configuration, we reckon that the MSI notebook would perform equivalent to the compared Gigabyte notebook(s).

 

3DMark 2013

It's really not surprising to see that the Aorus X7 Pro dominating the charts here. Even though it's just using the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, it's configured to run in SLI, which gives a significant performance boost over the single NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M in MSI's GT72 2QE Dominator Pro and the Gigabyte P35X V3. Interestingly. despite both the single GPU notebooks using the same graphics engine, the MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro has the edge in both tests and this is due to the speedier CPU of the MSI notebook.

 

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is the newest game we're using to benchmark. Due to its demanding requirements on higher settings, it's the perfect test for the beefier NVIDIA GeForce GTX 900M series of GPUs. We tested the machines on two settings (High and Ultra) with all machines outputting at a 1080p resolution. We left all graphics quality parameters on default at High settings but enabled HD textures on the Ultra settings.

Naturally, once again the SLI'ed Aorus X7 Pro came out the clear winner. That was never in question. What was interesting to note is that the difference in FPS wasn't that much higher, certainly not as much difference as there was in the 3D Mark testing. Whether it's poor SLI integration for Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor or the result of the drivers, the SLI'ed Aorus X7 Pro has less than 10 FPS difference difference between it and the MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro. Our eyes probably won't notice the difference either.

 

Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider's the other game on the list and it's also the older of the two. It's also here that we see the most of the difference. The Aorus X7 Pro performs better than the other two machines on both graphical settings. Tomb Raider is also the first benchmark where we see the Gigabyte P35X V3 posting better scores than the MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro, though like previous benchmarks, the difference isn't too great.

 

Temperature testing

To gauge temperature performance, we ran the Tomb Raider benchmark on High and then left it keep running for about half an hour before we checked GPU-Z. We knew previously that the MSI GT72 2QE had the highest recorded temperature of all the notebooks we've tested (at the point of its review) but the Gigabyte and Aorus notebooks featured in this article were even hotter. Surprisingly enough, despite running two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970Ms in SLI, the overall temperature for the cards were only a degree above the single card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M in the Gigabyte P35X V3. However, temperature only tells part of the story since there are two GPUs within the Aorus notebook and so more cooling power is required to ensure the notebook maintains a reasonable level of operating temperature compared to the single GPU counterparts.

Despite the high temperatures for the graphics core, both Gigabyte machines recorded cooler chassis temperature than the MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro and that's commendable.

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