Aorus X5 review: Making a strong case for G-Sync notebooks

A slim gaming notebook with NVIDIA G-Sync!

Aorus' X7 Pro was one of the better gaming notebook in recent times. The 17-inch machine not only packed in a huge amount of SSD storage, it even had NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M GPUs in SLI for an unprecedented gaming horsepower in a slimline body that was lightweight and leagues ahead of other 17-inch notebooks. While it sounds awesome in summary, it wasn't perfect and has its share of concerns.

The newer 15.6-inch Aorus X5 gaming notebook would be our first test to see whether Aorus has taken in feedback to improve upon the X7 Pro. It had a sufficiently long lead-up time from the X7 Pro's release that Aorus has had the time to make some changes to the chassis that we've grown familiar with. The result appears to have been well worth it, at least visually. What's more, the Aorus X5 is one of the launch notebooks for NVIDIA's G-Sync technology for notebooks that just debuted last month! More details on what it means for you later in the article, but first, let's have a look at the notebook and some of the key specs that shape it up.

The Aorus X5 still retains the classic X series black aluminium chassis. Our review unit came with an Intel Core i7-5700HQ (2.7GHz, 6MB cache) Broadwell quad-core processor, 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M (8GB VRAM) in SLI, 16GB RAM and two 256GB M.2 SSDs in RAID 0 plus a conventional 1TB (7200rpm) HDD. The notebook has space for three M.2 SSDs in RAID 0, so future expansion won't be an issue. Also, the Aorus X5 is the first time we're seeing a Broadwell quad-core CPU in a gaming machine. It should be interesting to see how the Broadwell CPU measures up against the Haswell CPUs in our tests.

The Aorus X5 has 15.6-inch display, which is WQHD+ (2880 x 1620 pixels) and supports NVIDIA's G-Sync technology for notebooks. It is our first review notebook with NVIDIA's G-Sync compatibility and we're really looking forward to see how it performs, which we'll get to further on in the article. Being only 22.9mm thick, the Aorus X5 is one of the thinnest 15-inch machines around. Not only is it thin, but it's also lighter than most notebooks in its class. Weighing only 2.5kg, the notebook is light enough to be carried around without too much effort, making it a perfect choice if you're interested in using it for work and play. Of course, truly portable work machines are now far less than 1.5kg, but considering the strong gaming hardware nature packed into this notebook frame, 2.5kg is quite acceptable.

For connectivity, the notebook features Killer LAN for wired connections and also supports 802.11ac standard for wireless connections. Unlike most gaming notebooks, the Aorus X5 doesn't feature Beats or Onkyo or other branded name audio hardware or software. It simply uses two generic speakers and a single woofer for its aural capabilities, which we unfortunately found it to be underwhelming. While in general it sounded clear, the single woofer didn't deliver on bass tones. If possible, we recommend using a pair of quality headphones or speakers to enjoy your game session better.

The Aorus X5 also comes with three USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, and a single 3.5mm audio input jack and another 3.5mm audio output jack. As for video outputs, there's a Mini-DisplayPort, a HDMI port and a special Surround Port that is really just an HDMI port that works only if you are outputting to three external displays. It will not only work if the other HDMI port and Mini-DisplayPort are not in use.

How G-Sync Works

To understand how G-Sync works, it is necessary to understand first that monitor refresh rates are typically fixed. For example, if a monitor has a refresh rate of 60Hz, this means it refreshes its screen 60 times a second or once every 16 millisecond. However, as we all know, a GPU rarely renders frames at a fixed frame rate. Depending on the scene and load, a GPU’s frame rates can vary wildly and greatly. The incongruous nature of the GPU’s frame rates and the monitor refresh rate is why we experience tearing, lag and stuttering images.

Looking at the top most graph, we can see that the GPU is rendering frames at a rate that is asynchronous to that of the monitor’s refresh rate. What happens then is that the GPU presents the frame even before the monitor is ready to refresh itself and this causes tearing. There are existing technologies that are used to overcome this and you might have probably heard of V-Sync. What V-Sync does is that it forces the monitor to only accept a new frame from the GPU only when its refresh cycle is up. However, as can been seen in the graph directly above, since the GPU does not render every frame at an equal speed, this can cause lag and stuttering images. That is not to say that V-Sync is not useful, but its effectiveness is limited in instances only when the GPU can consistently render faster than the monitor’s refresh rate.

NVIDIA’s G-Sync offers a simple and elegant solution to address this problem - simply synchronize the rate at which the monitor refreshes to the rate at which the GPU finishes rendering a scene. A special controller in the monitor simply tells the monitor that its time to refresh after the GPU finishes rendering. The end result is a smoother gaming experience.

On desktop computers, G-Sync needs a hardware component installed in the display for it to work. Since external displays can be used for a variety of purposes (set-top boxes, gaming consoles, desktop display), the monitors needed a hardware component to serve as an enhanced scaler so that it can work with different sources. On a notebook, the display only has a single source so making G-Sync is far simpler. As a result, NVIDIA is relying solely on eDP's (embedded DisplayPort) built-in variable timing and panel self-refresh features to enable G-Sync functionality.

That said, not all notebooks that have eDP for video output will support G-Sync as they must still undergo qualification from NVIDIA. According to reports, there is a fee involved so do expect G-Sync notebooks to command a premium, even if they don't require specialized hardware. This qualification is to ensure that products that carry the G-Sync branding will meet a certain level of quality and visul experience.

While we've previously reported that NVIDIA is bringing G-Sync to notebooks, the Aorus X5 is the first G-Sync capable notebook that we got our hands on to test extensively..

We tried the Aorus X5's G-Sync capabilities first on NVIDIA's pendulum demo. Embedded below is the Youtube version of the demo, courtesy of Digital Foundry.

Play

The Aorus X5 performed exactly like the video when G-Sync was turned on. In games, we tried it out on Shadow of Mordor and Tomb Raider, our benchmark titles. Without V-sync enabled for both titles, we ran both titles on the highest settings to tax the Aorus X5, which usually causes stuttering and screen tearing. Despite low frame rates in some instances (due to the extreme graphical settings used), the gameplay remained free of stuttering and screen tearing.

The downside of G-Sync on notebooks is that it's not compatible with NVIDIA's Optimus technology. This is because the notebook display must be connected directly to the GPU. As a refresher, Optimus works by using the CPU's integrated GPU as an intermediary. In other words, the display is actually connected directly to the integrated GPU. The discrete GPU, when activated, actually feeds video display data through the integrated GPU's display controller. But since G-Sync requires a direct connection betwen the display and the discrete GPU, Optimus cannot be supported. On the flip side, this won't matter much to the Aorus X5 since Optimus is not supported for notebook SLI configurations too (remember, the Aorus X5 has a dual GeForce GTX 965M GPUs in SLI configuration). 

Other design & feature aspects

Aorus also offers an optional hardware encoder (called the Hardware Live Streaming Engine) for users who stream gameplay regularly. Hardware encoding ensures that performance hits are minimal as the hardware takes some of the duties away from the CPU, freeing it up for game-related matters instead. As such, Aorus claims that there's a 25 - 30% improvement when you're streaming with the Aorus X5 over other machines. We didn't really have a way to measure this but we did notice a marked increase in frame rate while streaming when hardware encoding is enabled.

Aorus has a done a decent job of stabilizing the display, as it doesn't wobble as easily as the one on the X7 Pro did. While that wasn't a major criticism we had with the X7 Pro, it's still nice to see that the X5 actually changed an aspect of the X7 Pro that irked us.

Sadly, the keyboard isn't one of the things Aorus has updated on the X5. Like the X7 Pro, the keyboard on the X5 is full featured, with the Numpad included. However, the machine still retains the shallow keyboard style found on the X3 Plus V3 and the X7 Pro where the keys have little travel. This gives typing a somewhat unsatisfactory feel.

There's a small silver lining though. The keyboard isn't as easy to smudge this time around. Even after repeated use, the keyboard on the X5 was nowhere near the condition of the X7 Pro's, which was easily smudged, even with minimal usage.

Like the other machines in the X series, the X5 also has the recognizable macro keys on the left side of the keyboard. As with the ones on previous X series notebooks, the macro keys uses a special type of scissor switch, which offers faster response times when compared to the normal chiclet switches. We didn't really notice it but the switches do have a different feel than the keyboard switches.

The biggest usability aspect that Aorus has improved on the Aorus X5 is the trackpad. It's still has a glossy finish, but the trackpad now has the Aorus eagle logo embedded in it and there's a small textured section on the lower portion of the trackpad. The trackpad is no longer as glossy as the ones on the X7 Pro or the X3 Plus V3, and is harder to smudge, which is a win-win in our book. The textured area at the bottom is also great, serving as a warning to the user that the finger is approaching the end of the trackpad. It also serves as a marker to where you can click in the trackpad to perform mouse button functions.

Still, as much as we like the new trackpad, its response is still a bit sluggish. Clicking on the designated mouse button area on the trackpad isn't as responsive as having real physical buttons. Despite that, it's still a marked improvement over the Aorus X7's trackpad, so at least there's that.

Now that you've read what Aorus X5 is made of and its key features, head on to the next page to see how it performs when it's put to the test!

Test Setup

As per the norm, we'll be using the usual suspects for benchmarking the Aorus X5. We have PC Mark 8, which is a generalist benchmark that puts the hardware to the test in a slew of generic tasks. We also have 3D Mark 2013, which benchmarks the GPU performance. Finally, we're also testing the Aorus X5 on two different games, Tomb Raider and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor to see how it performs with real games.

Here are the benchmarks we used in an easy to read form:

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

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We brought back a whole slew of past gaming notebooks this time around for a really detailed comparison. We have SLI machines like the Aorus X7 Pro, the Aftershock Titan V2.1 and the MSI GT80 2QE Titan SLI. We also added in the ASUS ROG G751JT and the Gigabyte P35X V3 to represent single GPU machines. We're especially interested in seeing how the Aorus X5 stacks up to the Gigabyte P35X V3. Like the Aorus X5, the Gigabyte machine is also a 15-inch class machine, though one with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M instead of a pair of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M GPUs like the Aorus X5.

Another thing to note is that since the Aorus X5 has a display resolution that is higher than 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels), we've also added in an extra category for the Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and the Tomb Raider benchmarks, showing the average frame rate of the Aorus X5 running on its native resolution of 2880 x 1620 pixels.

PC Mark 8

In the following charts, the Gigabyte P35X V3 is the Aorus X5's main rival. Both are 15-inch classs gaming machines - save for the GPU configuration. Looking at the various benchmark scenarios, the Aorus X5 leads the Gigabyte machine with a 30% lead in Home, 34% difference in Creative and a 17% difference in Work test scenarios.

 In PC Mark 8, the Aorus X5 handily overcomes the Gigabyte machine in all the tests. The Aorus X5's new Broadwell CPU, coupled with the SLI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M easily gives it the lead over. However, the Aorus X5 doesn't fare as well against the two Titan notebooks from Aftershock and MSI.

3D Mark 2013

The 3D Mark benchmark held a major surprise. While scores for Cloud Gate are within expected ranges, we were surprised by the difference in scores when comparing the Fire Strike scores. Since Fire Strike is a more recent benchmark, it's a better test of today's modern GPUs due to it being more demanding.

On Cloud Gate, the Aorus X5 outperforms the Gigabyte P35X V3 with a 14% difference. On the more taxing Fire Strike test though, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M equipped Gigabyte machine pulls slightly ahead with a 7% difference in scores.

Tomb Raider

It seems that the score the Aorus X5 posted from 3D Mark's Fire Strike benchmarks weren't a fluke after all. Despite being an SLI machine, the notebook posted results on the level of a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, as the Gigabyte P35X V3 also recorded similar scores in Tomb Raider. There's a slight 3% difference between the Aorus X5 and the Gigabyte machine (in the Aorus' favor) in frame rate average on Normal, though that slim lead disappears when both machines are running on High quality settings, with difference in average frame rates between them not even reaching 2 frames per second. As such the performance of the machines on High are pretty much on par with each other.

Again, there's a huge gulf in scores when we look at the Aorus X5 and the Aorus X7 Pro's performance. Despite being only a class higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M in the Aorus X5, the pair of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M GPUs in the Aorus X7 Pro had much more impressive scores. There's a 40% increase in the average frame rate on Normal quality mode on the Aorus X7 Pro. On High quality mode, the Aorus X7 Pro delivers 49% higher frame rate than the Aorus X5.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

The performance of the Aorus X5 is somewhat underwhelming when we benchmarked it with Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Compared with the Gigabyte P35X V3, the Aorus X5 trails behind in both benchmarks. The differences go up to as high as 45% when compared with the Aorus X7 Pro.

Temperature

In temperature testing, we're most interested to pit the Aorus machines against each other, although because each of them are from different class and size, it's not exactly a fair comparison point. In any case, the Aorus X5 reported lower GPU running temperature at just 70 degrees when compared to the Aorus X7 Pro's GPU which registered a blistering 84 degrees Celsius. Even more impressive, the similarly sized Gigabyte P35X V3 had a GPU temperature of 83 degrees, compared to the Aorus X5's 70 degrees even with two GPUs onboard.

Sadly the lower GPU temperature doesn't translate to lower chassis temperature as the Aorus X5 posted higher surface temperatures all around.

Next up, the last few benchmarks and our conclusion.

Battery Life and Power Consumption

The Aorus X5 lasted for 122 minutes, which is exactly an hour behind the Gigabyte machine. While the battery capacities for both machines are relatively near to each other, the Aorus X5 uses much more power when compared to the Gigabyte P35X V3, 36% more to be exact.

While a 122-minute battery life might be short for a single GPU machine, the Aorus X5 is an SLI machine. It should also be noted that for an SLI machine, lasting 122 minutes with the battery capacity of the Aorus X5 (73.26Wh) is impressive, especially since SLI machines are unable to make use of NVIDIA's Optimus technology, which conserves the battery and automatically manages GPU usage for optimal performance.

However, considering that the the Aorus X5 doesn't actually deliver better gaming performance than the Gigabyte P35X V3, the latter is at an advantage since it is more power efficient and lasts much longer.

Portability Index

The portability index is a score we give to notebooks that takes into account all the factors in the previous section. Battery life, weight and size are all taken into account and we then apply a formula get to their overall ratio. A point to note is that the ratio works well to compare across similar category of notebooks.

Considering the battery performance showing of the Aorus X5 and its physical characteristics, it's not surprising to see that it ranks poorly compared to the similarly sized and capable Gigabyte P35X V3 machine. The Aorus still fares better than other machines benchmarked in this review, but they are either much larger or more powerful and are thus not in direct competition. 

Conclusion

The Aorus X5 is a mixed bag. While the notebook's GPU cooling is somewhat better this time around, the surface temperature for the machine is actually higher when compared to the X7 Pro. Aorus boasts that the X5 uses its Thermal+ cooling technology and while that helped in lowering the GPU temperature, one must be mindful that the chassis size and constraints differ on both the X5 and X7 Pro and as such, it didn't seem to prevent the keyboard area from getting a bit toasty.

That aside, the Aorus X5 chassis has seen some improvements. It's no longer as easy to smudge like the X7 Pro was and the trackpad saw a marked improvement over the original (though there's still room for improvement). Losing some of the gloss not only made the trackpad more comfortable to use (less friction), it also reduced the smudge and stain build up from fingers over time. The textured bottom segment of the trackpad is also a positive change as it makes navigation easier and depress it to register mouse clicks.

The NVIDIA G-Sync compatible screen is another plus for the Aorus X5 as well. As we mentioned in the past, NVIDIA G-Sync goes a long way in reducing lag, stutter and tearing. But visual quality aside, the most important takeaway is that with G-Sync, games are much more playable even if the actual in-game frame rates are not fantastic. You no longer need a constant 60fps output from your GPU to get that buttery smooth gaming experience as G-Sync is perfectly capable of replicating that experience even if frame rates dip to the mid 20s range. We guess it's fair to say then that G-Sync is a bit like a cheat code for gaming machines, and in the case of the Aorus X5, having the G-Sync display helped it present a pleasant gaming experience even when frame rates were not ideal.

On the other hand, niggling issues from the days of the Aorus X7 Pro still remain. The keyboard is still as shallow as ever, with no difference between the one present on the X5 to the one we tried on the X7 Pro last year. Problems hitting the macro keys also persist, yet another aspect of the Aorus X7 Pro's legacy.

Our biggest gripe are the twin NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M GPUs in SLI in the machine. While Aorus' website for the X5 claims that its performance exceeds that of a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, we found out that wasn't the case at all, which was disappointing. The dual GeForce GTX 965Ms' performance level was mostly trailing a single NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M GPU on the Gigabyte P35X V3. As such, the decision to go adopt an SLI configuration with two GeForce GTX 965M GPUs is puzzling, because not only does it not give any performance advantage, it is also less power efficient. Apart from missing out on Optimus, the combined TDP of the pair of GeForce GTX 965M is around 120W, whereas the TDP of a single GeForce GTX 980M is stated to be 100W. The only reason we could think of the Aorus X5 adopting this arrangement could probably be the much lower price point of the GeForce GTX 965M such that it's more cost effective to offer them in SLI configuration than offering a single top-of-the-line GeForce GTX 980M GPU.

Considering its specifications and dimensions, the Gigabyte P35X V3 is arguably the Aorus X5's most direct competitor. And at S$3,899, the Aorus X5 is priced quite closely to the S$4,299 Gigabyte P35X V3 that we reviewed. At almost S$4,000, the Aorus X5 is pricey for a notebook, and though the performance of the Aorus X5 is a somewhat lackluster, the G-Sync monitor and the larger storage capacity on the Aorus X5 does try its best to make up for the shortfall. Since NVIDIA's G-Sync makes up for any performance deficiencies as per our testing, in the grand scheme of things, the notebook can keep up with its nearest competitor. However if you plan on getting a more mobile gaming notebook, the Gigabyte P35X V3 is actually more portable, lasts longer and has more gaming horsepower to boot. It even has a built-in ODD drive, yet it's lighter and thinner than the Aorus X5.

How does the Aorus X5 stack up against other options that we've tested and reviewed? If you're willing to forgo all aspects of mobility and want to save some cash, the Aftershock W-15 comes to mind. The Aftershock W-15 is considerably more affordable at S$3,382 and boasts a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M GPU and an unlocked desktop-class Intel Core i7-4790K CPU, which can even be overclocked. Of course, the Aftershock W-15 is meant to be a desktop replacement product and is nowhere near as light or slim as the Aorus X5. However, if you're looking for pure performance and don't mind a bulkier machine that also saves you some cost, it's a decent alternative. What's more, it has a 4K display to boot!

On the other hand, if you don't mind having a 17-inch gaming machine, the Aorus X7 Pro at S$3999) is a worthy consideration. While the Aorus X7 Pro's display isn't a G-Sync capable screen or one with QWHD+ resolution, the Aorus X7 Pro has one thing going for it - sheer horsepower. For just S$100 more, you get a machine that outperforms the Aorus X5 by a considerable margin while retaining the appearance and handling of the Aorus X5.

To sum up, the Aorus X5 presents an interesting proposition for mobile gamers because of the included G-Sync technology and compliant hardware, but unfortunately doesn't stand out against several other options that seem to offer a better overall product at that price point. Its graphics configuration may not make the most sense, but this shortcoming is somewhat masked by NVIDIA's G-Sync technology, which does wonders to alleviate lag, stutter and tearing. Do note that G-Sync is not exclusive to Aorus alone as brands like Clevo, MSI and ASUS have also rolled out notebooks supporting this new technology, so you do have more options to consider if you are all set to get a G-Sync notebook.

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