But A Lot Of Potential - AORUS 15 (2023) Gaming Laptop Review

**A Review of the Gigabyte Aorus Gaming Laptop**

The Gigabyte Aorus Gaming Laptop is a recent release that has generated significant interest among gamers and tech enthusiasts. In this review, we will delve into the laptop's features, performance, and user experience.

**Fan Noise and Profiles**

One area where the laptop falls short is in its fan noise and profiles. The built-in fan profiles are not as effective as some other laptops on the market, with the gaming profile being the most effective. However, there is room for improvement in reducing fan noise, and Gigabyte does offer a few other fan profiles, but they are not significantly better than the gaming profile. On the other hand, the Power and Turbo fan profiles are even louder, which can be a drawback for some users.

**Eco Mode and Customization**

The Eco Mode is an interesting feature that runs the fans too slow, causing the GPU to start clocking down. This can be detrimental to performance, especially in games where frame rates are crucial. To mitigate this issue, it's recommended to use a custom setting to create your own personal fan curve depending on ambient temperature and preference.

**Software Messiness**

The software is another area that requires improvement. The fan profiles are not logically organized within the general settings tab, making it difficult for users to navigate. Additionally, some settings are vague and lack explanation, leaving users wondering about their purpose. A tool tip system or clear documentation would greatly enhance the user experience.

**Performance and Gaming**

The laptop's performance is a significant aspect of its overall value. It runs every game I threw at it very well, making it an excellent option for gamers on a budget. However, there is a noticeable limit to the GPU power, with the typical 90-95 watt power limit holding back performance from reaching its full potential.

**Pricing and Positioning**

The laptop's pricing of $1900 in the US and €2000 in the EU makes it an attractive option for those looking for a powerful gaming laptop without breaking the bank. The positioning is reasonable, with a price point slightly above the lower mid-range category for a 4070 laptop.

**Challenges and Recommendations**

The biggest challenge facing potential buyers will be older laptops on special offer. However, considering a new laptop with a reasonable price tag, especially if it offers a good performing 1440p display, makes this an attractive option.

**Sponsor and Affiliate Link**

This video was brought to you by Corsair and their Elite LCD XD coolers. These Premium All-In-One water coolers combine excellent performance with a fully customizable LCD screen that can showcase anything users have in mind. With a low noise pump and AF Elite fans, they can easily keep up with the latest and hottest processors while keeping systems quiet. They are compatible with various sockets, including the latest Intel and AMD ones, and can be controlled using the IQ software. Check them out using the links in the description below.

**Conclusion**

Overall, I had a good experience with this laptop, building on last year's model that was a bit of a step back for Gigabyte. The return of the Max Switch is a welcome feature, along with an excellent display and good CPU performance. However, the limitations on GPU power hold it back from reaching its full potential. With some improvements to software and fan profiles, this laptop has the potential to become one of the top gaming laptops on the market.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit took quite a while this time around but I finally got my hands on a couple of RTX 4000 series gaming laptops and the first one I'm going to talk about is this auris 15 2023 Edition from gigabyte so this particular model comes with an RTX 4070 graphics card and i7 13700h processor 16 gigs of RAM and a Quad HD 165 Hertz display and I think that is a pretty reasonable configuration because higher specs would make it even more expensive and keep in mind you already need to set aside nineteen hundred dollars in the US or about 2 000 Euros here in the EU to be able to get this configuration so let's talk about its gaming performance it's a thermal performance panel response times and all those other juicy numbers you guys really like let's begin on the outside the aorus 15 feels like a pretty typical mid-range gaming laptop the chassis is made out of metal and it feels pretty decent it is not as rigid as a MacBook Pro or a razor blade for example but it is still quite okay there's definitely a bit of Flex if you really press it hard but not more than other laptops in the same price class now do keep in mind metal does make it more susceptible to fingerprints so you will have to clean it a bit more often size wise it is pretty typical for a 15 inch gaming laptop and with a weight of almost 2.4 kilos it is not the lightest but it will be completely fine to drag it around on occasion it is easy to open it with one hand and the hinges do feel alright there's a bit more Flex in the bottom of the display than I would like it to be and this might not matter as much in actual use but it is definitely something they could improve on inside you get the RGB Keyboard Plus a small RGB light bar that is under the display and both can be turned off if you prefer but I do think it is subtle enough and it won't bother anyone that much the keyboard itself is a pretty typical tactile keyboard it reminds me a lot of my own Rog strix gaming laptop from a few years ago which is completely fine and it doesn't Flex that much unless you're really pushing it down which doesn't really happen while you're normally typing and gaming they did aside to get rid of the numpad which is really a shame as it made last year's auras 15 stand out a bit more and it's not like they use the free space for something more interesting like better speakers for example I would rather have the numpad back to be honest and the touchpad is also fine-ish it is smooth enough and palm rejection works fine but it's not nearly as precise as the touchpad on my M1 MacBook I personally always avoid using touchpads and if you're gaming you will want to use a proper Mouse anyway but if you are on the go and you don't have a mouse around this touchpad will do its job just fine I mean it is really hard for me to get excited over any touchpad really when it comes to connect connections you get the power connection Mini DisplayPort HDMI 2.1 one type c with Thunderbolt support and one network Port which are all positioned nicely on the back the type C Port also supports power delivery so for light office or School use you can leave the bulky charger at home and just travel with a compact type c charger instead on the left side there is a type a port and a headphone jack and on the right side you get another type c port and two more type A ports so other than an SD card reader maybe I don't think this laptop is missing any connections and considering they're all nicely positioned on all sides you can keep the right side completely clear for your gaming mouse but let's check the performance of this machine so the laptop comes with a 13 gen i7 13700h that has six performance cores and eight efficiency cores with a total of 20 threads in cinebench R23 it scored about 17 700 points which is a bit more than the gf-66 with a 12700h and a bit less than the RG scar 15 with a 12 900 H that has the same core layout but higher power limits in blender however the aorus 15 ended up scoring about the same as the two previously mentioned laptops so yes it is not really a big improvement from the 12th generation of laptop processors but it is also completely fine so if you're upgrading from a laptop that is a few years old it will make a huge difference and you will end up with a laptop processor that is completely fine and capable at any kind of work even video editing since it has a 1440p panel you do want to game on that 1440p resolution to get the nicest image quality and the RTX 4070 does do a good job there some of the heaviest titles like Dying Light 2 Microsoft flight simulator and cyberpunk 2077 were comfortably getting about 60 FPS without any sort of upscaling while many lighter games did run higher than that God of War and Assassin's Creed Valhalla for example sit closer to 90 FPS and games like Rainbow Six Siege do maternal and CS go run much faster than the 165 Hertz screen can show but with a 1440p resolution on a 15-inch display it also makes sense to use upscaling which is supported in most games nowadays and with dlss on quality setting games like cyberpunk and dying light went up to a 94 and 99 FPS respectively which does offer a better experience overall the 47 and he also gives this laptop access to dlss3 technology that includes frame generation which is great because it makes it possible to play some of these heaviest titles on this high resolution and with Ray tracing on so daylight 2 for example with frame generation sits close to 100 FPS and Spider-Man remastered at 114 FPS dlss 3 also relieves the CPU bottleneck in those CPU heavy titles like flight simulator for example and with everything on we were getting 109 FPS in this game so the games did run as well as you would expect with this configuration but we did notice that the 4070 graphics card was only using about 80 to 95 watts in most games while the specs suggests it is supposed to boost up to 140 Watts now it did get to 140 in a synthetic Benchmark like for Mark for example but in any of the 10 plus games that I've tested so far it never went over 95 Watts so it does feel like the performance is not really reaching its full potential and in this state it feels unfair to Market it as a 140 watt 4070 laptop now I don't know exactly how much that matters until I have a chance to test some other 4070 laptops but I do suggest that gigabyte should look into this ASAP and try to maximize that gaming performance the potential is definitely there and it could be fixed with an easy software update for example so let's hope they think about that I also retested a couple of games on an Rog scar laptop with an RTX 3070 at 130 watts and this 4070 does show slightly better performance at a lower power draw but at the same time it also doesn't feel like a huge upgrade that I think it could be so I will keep you posted in the comments down below if this power draw issue changes but when it comes to the display its color performance was very good it has wide gamma to covering the entire srdb Spectrum as well as 98.5 of the P3 spectrum and it was calibrated really well so it would be a great option for anyone that needs to do some color accurate work or create content that looks exactly like it is supposed to it is an IPS panel so contrast isn't exceptional but it is fine for an IPS technology and it doesn't get extremely bright so it's not ideal for outdoor use but with a peak brightness of 311 nits it will be fine for typical indoor use it does dim nicely which is great for those of you that like to game in pitch dark rooms in terms of speed the total latency is nice and low making it a nice panel for those fast Esports type games and the response times of the panel are completely fine as well it is not exactly OLED instant with some transitions from Full white taking a bit longer than I would like but for the most part gigabyte managed to find a very good balance with their Factory overdrive settings there's minimal ghosting and there's a little bit of overshoot here and there but nothing too problematic the one terabyte SSD in this is gigabyte's own Gen 4 7000 SSD which performs well and generally speaking laptops aren't limited by SSD performance but it's still good to see that manufacturers are not cheaping out when it comes to storage battery life is another strong side of this machine it lasted 9 hours and 18 minutes in the modern office Benchmark now this Benchmark simulates a mix of light tasks that we are likely to do on our laptops and that's all happening with the Nvidia GPU disabled and I think this is a great result especially for an Intel based laptop it means you can work throughout your regular workday or school day without charging it which is a huge quality of life upgrade from pretty much all gaming laptops from a few years ago and as always when gaming the battery life is much shorter and it ran out in just under 80 minutes the webcam is also pretty good as long as you have a little bit of light going on and the speakers are typical for a gaming laptops I mean they are good enough for that incidental use but a proper headset will be a much better option in my opinion thermal performance on the other hand is rather interesting most gaming laptops run pretty hot but because gigabyte is so conservative with their GPU power thermals while gaming were quite good with gigabytes profile set to gaming and the fan settings set to normal it got to 65 degrees on the CPU and 74 degrees on the GPU which is well under its thermal limits and it is more than comfortable 48 decibels and 50 centimeters distance is not very quiet but most gaming laptops run a lot louder when temperatures are that low it means that there is some room to lower the fan noise and gigabyte does offer a few other fan profiles but they're not really better than the gaming one and the power and turbo fan profiles are even louder but there isn't much point in running the CPU and GPU even cooler on the other hand the Eco Mode actually runs the fans too slow which causes the GPU to start clocking down and you really don't want that either so you really want to use that custom setting to create your own personal fan curve depending on the ambient temperature of wherever you are and on your preference and I feel like the software is yet again not done right aside from the profiles not really being tuned well the software is also just very messy and confusing fan profiles are actually in a completely different tab from the general profiles and in the general tab all other settings are all over the place without any logical order so the GPU boost muck switch and power options should be together in my opinion as well as the options related to the display like the color setting brightness or even the low blue light mode and some settings are just very vague and have no explanation at all what is the purpose of the charge mode slider for example or the GPU boost settings which you know some people might know but most people don't and for some reason the aigpu Boost isn't even available in the gaming mode but it is in other modes so I really think they should add some tool tips to at least explain what some of these settings do but software is a nice gaming laptop that I had an overall good experience with over the last few weeks last year's model was a bit of a step back for gigabyte and kind of disappointing because they removed the muck switch that just ruined its performance and they also released it without any software available it was just a mess but this one is a nice step forward again the max switch is back the display is excellent as CPU performance is good thermals are fine the inputs and the connections are really good and it's a decent looking well-built machine gaming performance is a bit more complicated I mean it does run every game I throw at it very well and if you're coming from an older laptop and you're suddenly getting this sort of performance on a great looking 1440p display the experience will be great but I do feel like there is a lot more performance in there and the gigabytes typical 90 to 95 watt GPU power limit is really holding it back from offering even more frame rates I mean yes it can hit its 140 Watts back in a synthetic Benchmark but calling this a 140 watt RTX 4070 but it cannot pass 100 watts in actual games is a bit misleading I'm really curious to get my hands on another 4070 laptop to see how it compares to this one so I can get a better picture but I do expect gigabyte to take this constructive criticism and simply adjust this via a software update for example because when we look at the price this is a very nice machine to recommend to anyone that is looking for a powerful gaming laptop that doesn't break the bank they're launching it at 1900 in the US and a bit over 2 000 Euros here in the EU and nineteen hundred dollars is like in the lower mid-range category for a 470 laptop which sounds about right in terms of positioning there are cheaper models like the MSI Katana for example that will offer a similar CPU and GPU performance for about 300 less but personally I would pay more for a good performing 1440p display instead of a 1080p one especially if you want to use it for more than just gaming now the biggest challenge will probably be older laptops that are currently on special but that really goes for any new laptop that comes with the latest configuration so assuming you want a gaming laptop and you run into one of these with a price tag that seems reasonable I would probably consider it especially if they do fix that GPU power limit now that is all I had for today but before I go let's talk about the sponsor of this video this video was brought to you by Corsair and their Elite LCD XD coolers these Premium All-In-One water coolers combine excellent performance with a fully customizable LCD screen that can showcase anything you have in mind with a low noise pump and the AF Elite fans they can easily keep up with the latest and hottest of processors out there while keeping your system quiet you can install them on a variety of sockets including the latest Intel and AMD ones and once the installation is complete you can use the IQ software to control the RGB effects or sync them with the rest of your Corsair gear check them out using the links in the description below thank you all for watching I really hope this video was helpful please do consider subscribing if you want to see more more videos like this one bye guys and see you in the next oneit took quite a while this time around but I finally got my hands on a couple of RTX 4000 series gaming laptops and the first one I'm going to talk about is this auris 15 2023 Edition from gigabyte so this particular model comes with an RTX 4070 graphics card and i7 13700h processor 16 gigs of RAM and a Quad HD 165 Hertz display and I think that is a pretty reasonable configuration because higher specs would make it even more expensive and keep in mind you already need to set aside nineteen hundred dollars in the US or about 2 000 Euros here in the EU to be able to get this configuration so let's talk about its gaming performance it's a thermal performance panel response times and all those other juicy numbers you guys really like let's begin on the outside the aorus 15 feels like a pretty typical mid-range gaming laptop the chassis is made out of metal and it feels pretty decent it is not as rigid as a MacBook Pro or a razor blade for example but it is still quite okay there's definitely a bit of Flex if you really press it hard but not more than other laptops in the same price class now do keep in mind metal does make it more susceptible to fingerprints so you will have to clean it a bit more often size wise it is pretty typical for a 15 inch gaming laptop and with a weight of almost 2.4 kilos it is not the lightest but it will be completely fine to drag it around on occasion it is easy to open it with one hand and the hinges do feel alright there's a bit more Flex in the bottom of the display than I would like it to be and this might not matter as much in actual use but it is definitely something they could improve on inside you get the RGB Keyboard Plus a small RGB light bar that is under the display and both can be turned off if you prefer but I do think it is subtle enough and it won't bother anyone that much the keyboard itself is a pretty typical tactile keyboard it reminds me a lot of my own Rog strix gaming laptop from a few years ago which is completely fine and it doesn't Flex that much unless you're really pushing it down which doesn't really happen while you're normally typing and gaming they did aside to get rid of the numpad which is really a shame as it made last year's auras 15 stand out a bit more and it's not like they use the free space for something more interesting like better speakers for example I would rather have the numpad back to be honest and the touchpad is also fine-ish it is smooth enough and palm rejection works fine but it's not nearly as precise as the touchpad on my M1 MacBook I personally always avoid using touchpads and if you're gaming you will want to use a proper Mouse anyway but if you are on the go and you don't have a mouse around this touchpad will do its job just fine I mean it is really hard for me to get excited over any touchpad really when it comes to connect connections you get the power connection Mini DisplayPort HDMI 2.1 one type c with Thunderbolt support and one network Port which are all positioned nicely on the back the type C Port also supports power delivery so for light office or School use you can leave the bulky charger at home and just travel with a compact type c charger instead on the left side there is a type a port and a headphone jack and on the right side you get another type c port and two more type A ports so other than an SD card reader maybe I don't think this laptop is missing any connections and considering they're all nicely positioned on all sides you can keep the right side completely clear for your gaming mouse but let's check the performance of this machine so the laptop comes with a 13 gen i7 13700h that has six performance cores and eight efficiency cores with a total of 20 threads in cinebench R23 it scored about 17 700 points which is a bit more than the gf-66 with a 12700h and a bit less than the RG scar 15 with a 12 900 H that has the same core layout but higher power limits in blender however the aorus 15 ended up scoring about the same as the two previously mentioned laptops so yes it is not really a big improvement from the 12th generation of laptop processors but it is also completely fine so if you're upgrading from a laptop that is a few years old it will make a huge difference and you will end up with a laptop processor that is completely fine and capable at any kind of work even video editing since it has a 1440p panel you do want to game on that 1440p resolution to get the nicest image quality and the RTX 4070 does do a good job there some of the heaviest titles like Dying Light 2 Microsoft flight simulator and cyberpunk 2077 were comfortably getting about 60 FPS without any sort of upscaling while many lighter games did run higher than that God of War and Assassin's Creed Valhalla for example sit closer to 90 FPS and games like Rainbow Six Siege do maternal and CS go run much faster than the 165 Hertz screen can show but with a 1440p resolution on a 15-inch display it also makes sense to use upscaling which is supported in most games nowadays and with dlss on quality setting games like cyberpunk and dying light went up to a 94 and 99 FPS respectively which does offer a better experience overall the 47 and he also gives this laptop access to dlss3 technology that includes frame generation which is great because it makes it possible to play some of these heaviest titles on this high resolution and with Ray tracing on so daylight 2 for example with frame generation sits close to 100 FPS and Spider-Man remastered at 114 FPS dlss 3 also relieves the CPU bottleneck in those CPU heavy titles like flight simulator for example and with everything on we were getting 109 FPS in this game so the games did run as well as you would expect with this configuration but we did notice that the 4070 graphics card was only using about 80 to 95 watts in most games while the specs suggests it is supposed to boost up to 140 Watts now it did get to 140 in a synthetic Benchmark like for Mark for example but in any of the 10 plus games that I've tested so far it never went over 95 Watts so it does feel like the performance is not really reaching its full potential and in this state it feels unfair to Market it as a 140 watt 4070 laptop now I don't know exactly how much that matters until I have a chance to test some other 4070 laptops but I do suggest that gigabyte should look into this ASAP and try to maximize that gaming performance the potential is definitely there and it could be fixed with an easy software update for example so let's hope they think about that I also retested a couple of games on an Rog scar laptop with an RTX 3070 at 130 watts and this 4070 does show slightly better performance at a lower power draw but at the same time it also doesn't feel like a huge upgrade that I think it could be so I will keep you posted in the comments down below if this power draw issue changes but when it comes to the display its color performance was very good it has wide gamma to covering the entire srdb Spectrum as well as 98.5 of the P3 spectrum and it was calibrated really well so it would be a great option for anyone that needs to do some color accurate work or create content that looks exactly like it is supposed to it is an IPS panel so contrast isn't exceptional but it is fine for an IPS technology and it doesn't get extremely bright so it's not ideal for outdoor use but with a peak brightness of 311 nits it will be fine for typical indoor use it does dim nicely which is great for those of you that like to game in pitch dark rooms in terms of speed the total latency is nice and low making it a nice panel for those fast Esports type games and the response times of the panel are completely fine as well it is not exactly OLED instant with some transitions from Full white taking a bit longer than I would like but for the most part gigabyte managed to find a very good balance with their Factory overdrive settings there's minimal ghosting and there's a little bit of overshoot here and there but nothing too problematic the one terabyte SSD in this is gigabyte's own Gen 4 7000 SSD which performs well and generally speaking laptops aren't limited by SSD performance but it's still good to see that manufacturers are not cheaping out when it comes to storage battery life is another strong side of this machine it lasted 9 hours and 18 minutes in the modern office Benchmark now this Benchmark simulates a mix of light tasks that we are likely to do on our laptops and that's all happening with the Nvidia GPU disabled and I think this is a great result especially for an Intel based laptop it means you can work throughout your regular workday or school day without charging it which is a huge quality of life upgrade from pretty much all gaming laptops from a few years ago and as always when gaming the battery life is much shorter and it ran out in just under 80 minutes the webcam is also pretty good as long as you have a little bit of light going on and the speakers are typical for a gaming laptops I mean they are good enough for that incidental use but a proper headset will be a much better option in my opinion thermal performance on the other hand is rather interesting most gaming laptops run pretty hot but because gigabyte is so conservative with their GPU power thermals while gaming were quite good with gigabytes profile set to gaming and the fan settings set to normal it got to 65 degrees on the CPU and 74 degrees on the GPU which is well under its thermal limits and it is more than comfortable 48 decibels and 50 centimeters distance is not very quiet but most gaming laptops run a lot louder when temperatures are that low it means that there is some room to lower the fan noise and gigabyte does offer a few other fan profiles but they're not really better than the gaming one and the power and turbo fan profiles are even louder but there isn't much point in running the CPU and GPU even cooler on the other hand the Eco Mode actually runs the fans too slow which causes the GPU to start clocking down and you really don't want that either so you really want to use that custom setting to create your own personal fan curve depending on the ambient temperature of wherever you are and on your preference and I feel like the software is yet again not done right aside from the profiles not really being tuned well the software is also just very messy and confusing fan profiles are actually in a completely different tab from the general profiles and in the general tab all other settings are all over the place without any logical order so the GPU boost muck switch and power options should be together in my opinion as well as the options related to the display like the color setting brightness or even the low blue light mode and some settings are just very vague and have no explanation at all what is the purpose of the charge mode slider for example or the GPU boost settings which you know some people might know but most people don't and for some reason the aigpu Boost isn't even available in the gaming mode but it is in other modes so I really think they should add some tool tips to at least explain what some of these settings do but software is a nice gaming laptop that I had an overall good experience with over the last few weeks last year's model was a bit of a step back for gigabyte and kind of disappointing because they removed the muck switch that just ruined its performance and they also released it without any software available it was just a mess but this one is a nice step forward again the max switch is back the display is excellent as CPU performance is good thermals are fine the inputs and the connections are really good and it's a decent looking well-built machine gaming performance is a bit more complicated I mean it does run every game I throw at it very well and if you're coming from an older laptop and you're suddenly getting this sort of performance on a great looking 1440p display the experience will be great but I do feel like there is a lot more performance in there and the gigabytes typical 90 to 95 watt GPU power limit is really holding it back from offering even more frame rates I mean yes it can hit its 140 Watts back in a synthetic Benchmark but calling this a 140 watt RTX 4070 but it cannot pass 100 watts in actual games is a bit misleading I'm really curious to get my hands on another 4070 laptop to see how it compares to this one so I can get a better picture but I do expect gigabyte to take this constructive criticism and simply adjust this via a software update for example because when we look at the price this is a very nice machine to recommend to anyone that is looking for a powerful gaming laptop that doesn't break the bank they're launching it at 1900 in the US and a bit over 2 000 Euros here in the EU and nineteen hundred dollars is like in the lower mid-range category for a 470 laptop which sounds about right in terms of positioning there are cheaper models like the MSI Katana for example that will offer a similar CPU and GPU performance for about 300 less but personally I would pay more for a good performing 1440p display instead of a 1080p one especially if you want to use it for more than just gaming now the biggest challenge will probably be older laptops that are currently on special but that really goes for any new laptop that comes with the latest configuration so assuming you want a gaming laptop and you run into one of these with a price tag that seems reasonable I would probably consider it especially if they do fix that GPU power limit now that is all I had for today but before I go let's talk about the sponsor of this video this video was brought to you by Corsair and their Elite LCD XD coolers these Premium All-In-One water coolers combine excellent performance with a fully customizable LCD screen that can showcase anything you have in mind with a low noise pump and the AF Elite fans they can easily keep up with the latest and hottest of processors out there while keeping your system quiet you can install them on a variety of sockets including the latest Intel and AMD ones and once the installation is complete you can use the IQ software to control the RGB effects or sync them with the rest of your Corsair gear check them out using the links in the description below thank you all for watching I really hope this video was helpful please do consider subscribing if you want to see more more videos like this one bye guys and see you in the next one\n"