Gigabyte P56XT (7700HQ, GTX 1070, Full-HD) Laptop

[Redaktion]

A wild ride. After the successful Aero 15, Gigabyte has now provided us with another 15-inch notebook aimed at the gaming and multimedia sector. The P56XT is equipped with a Core i7-7700HQ and a GeForce GTX 1070. Will this configuration be enough for pole position? We shall find out in our detailed review.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Gigabyte-P56XT-7700HQ-GTX-1070-Full-HD-Laptop.234424.0.html

[Gary]

I am surprised you have not reviewed the updated p36x v6... your summary of external reviews is an extremely unfair 70% based on an average of 1 review of 6 and recommendation of BAD and not to buy.

Quote their conclusion

"Provided you're willing to tolerate a little heat and noise, the Gigabyte P35X is an admirable choice. "

I read the review and they certainly did not say that... you summary was extremely lazy and bordering on libel.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Gigabyte-P35X-v6-PC4K4D.173875.0.html

[Daveymonkey]

This is good, thorough review. Have you received a replacement laptop to re-test?

I hope the issue is only with your sample machine as I had already ordered one before seeing this  :o  It's arriving this week so I guess I'll find out soon. I wonder, given that the intake vents look to be on the underside of the chassis, do you think a fan powered cooling pad would help the overheating issue?

[dthrp]

(@Gary: I think you mean the P35X v7.)

Been eyeing this, thanks for the update NBC.

The P3x and Aero lineup are the lightest higher end apart from Aorus whereas the P5x is their heavier mid-range series, until now. Currently all P series units has a small battery while filling up the remaining space with an OCD or storage bays in order to cut costs. Not to mention severe overheating and throttling issues caused by outdated thermal handling design, which they recently improved a bit with Aorus then Aero.

The P56XT is the first lightweight GTX 1070 laptop with a 90+ Whr battery that also features Nvidia Optimus, sort of a beefier upgrade to the recent de facto Aero 15. It isn't perfect, but glad to see they're on the right track.

[john s]

Does the Intel gpu support all those vga, hdmi, displayport x2 simultaneously with multiple displays?

[4004]

Oh yeah, the P56, this was always one of the top options for a slim gaming machine. And priced under 2k!

[4004]

On second look, it might be more average than good. Still the useless hot swap bay instead of bigger battery/better thermals. Those orange accents are totally unnecessary. Still, an ok all-rounder. If it had a 120hz panel I'd be interested

[dthrp]

Turned out to be cheaper than the Aero 15 where I live.
Battery life was better than expected at 8 hours (imitated NBC's WiFi v1.3 test) after repaste + undervolt + power optimization + disabling EP11.exe (an executable baked into Gigabyte's own Smart Manager software to make Optimus switching "smoother" at the cost of moderate CPU usage and battery life). But as far as I can tell, Gigabyte hasn't updated the chassis and cooling on its Phantasus lineup at all this year.
Both the CPU and dGPU throttled very heavily and the latter performed 15% worse compared to my previous Aorus X5, that share the same weight, form factor, and graphics card. Fan noise wasn't that bothersome but the chassis got very hot, hotter than my Aero before mods.
Then there's that gaping hole when I open up the chassis because I haven't used internal 2.5" storage and OCD for a long time. Felt like such a waste, when they could've at least offered an option for an extra 100 Wh battery for extended battery life. And that would still leave enough of motherboard space for a proper DP 1.4 port instead of miniDP 1.2 and maybe another TB3 port.
All in all, it just wasn't worth the bulkier form factor.

[Laptophunter]

This part of the review totally contradicts itself, the two sentences in bold.
How can the two cooling fans never turn of completely in the first sentence, but the cooling fans never turn on for no reason, as in the second sentence???

While idling, the P56XT could be quieter as well. The two cooling fans never turn off completely (even when the Smart Manager is set to "Quiet"), but continue running at a constant audible level of 34 to 35 dB(A). Apart from when the system is booting, the cooling fans never turn on for no reason, as is the case in the XMG P507. However, the P56XT does have some annoying characteristics. Depending on its load, the cooling fans tend to hum (while idling) or throb (under load).

[P56XT user]

How to install Windows 7 64-bit on a PCIe NVMe SSD in UEFI-Mode on Gigabyte Notebook P56XT

For the installation of Windows 7 on an NVMe SDD on Gigabyte Notebook P56XT it is needed to install Windows 7 from a USB-Stick in UEFI-Mode including the needed drivers!
A Windows 7 Setup-DVD will not work on the P56XT in UEFI-Mode!

This guideline was tested successfully with Windows 7 SP1 on the Gigabyte P56XT (7th Gen Intel Kaby Lake Processor) to boot from a Samsung SSD 970 EVO (1TB) NVMe SSD drive. All device drivers have been installed successfully without missing drivers in the Windows device manager!

Installation Guideline:

1.) Download the Windows 7 SP1 64-Bit ISO image (The 32-bit version will not be supported!)

2.) Download the Windows 7 drivers from the Gigabyte P56XT support website (with 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7700HQ Kaby Lake Processor)

3.) Missing Windows 7 drivers for the P56XT can be downloaded from the Gigabyte AERO 15X support website (first version with 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7700HQ Kaby Lake Processor only!)
(Remark: Most of the AERO 15X Windows 7 drivers are also compatible with the P56XT, e.g. LAN, optional also WLAN, Audio, Touchpad, etc.)
Drivers for the Intel WiFi/WLAN and Bluetooth devices (Intel Wireless AC 8265) can be directly downloaded from the Intel support website.

4.) Download the Gigabyte "Windows USB Installation Tool B16.0120.01" from Gigabyte AERO 15X Support website ("nb-utility-windowsusbinstallationtool-20160120.zip")
or Gigabyte "Windows USB Installation Utility B18.0213.1" ("mb_utility_windowsimagetool_B18.0213.1.zip")

5.) If you want to install Windows 7 on a newer NVMe SSD (e.g. Samsung 970 EVO) it will be recommend to download the newest NVMe device drivers for the related SSD as standalone *.inf, *.sys and *.cat files
(e.g. Samsung NVMe drivers v3.0.0.1802 or higher for Samsung SSD 970 EVO Series with Phoenix controller)
Download:

Code Select Expand

www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-RAID-and-NVMe-Drivers.html

6.) Download "Rufus 3.1" (or higher) to create a bootable USB drive for the GPT/UEFI mode

Code Select Expand

rufus.akeo.ie/

7.) Extract the Gigabyte Windows USB Installation Tool and optional add or replace the needed NVMe drivers.
e.g. replacing "\WindowsImageTool\StorageControllers\Samsung_NVMe...\" with the newer downloaded Samsung NVMe drivers.
Check the right path and/or edit the path to the NVMe driver in file "\WindowsImageTool\chipset.xml".

8.) Connect a USB-stick or -drive with a minimum of 8 GB and start Rufus 3.1
Rufus settings:
- Device: Select as target device your USB drive
- Boot selection: "Disk or ISO image" / Select your Windows 7 64-bit ISO Image
- Partition scheme: "GPT" / Target system: "UEFI"
- Format Options / File system: "FAT32"
- Advanced format options: activate "Quick format"
Then press "Start" to copy the Windows 7 setup files to the USB drive and make it bootable

9.) Start the Gigabyte "WindowsImageTool.exe" and select
Gigabyte Windows USB Installation Tool settings:
- Source Path (CD-ROM): "None - Add USB drivers"
- Destination Path (USB drive): Select your USB-Drive with the Windows 7 setup files
Activate all options:
- "Add USB drivers to an offline Windows 7 image."
- "Add NVMe drivers to an offline Windows 7 image."
- "Add Packages to an offline Windows 7 image."
Then press "Start" to add the needed drivers to the Windows 7 setup files on the USB drive

(Information: "Add Packages..." option will also add Hotfix "Windows6.1-KB2990941-v3-x64.msu" for Windows 7 native driver support for NVMe drives)

10.) Reset the BIOS/UEFI setup of the Gigabyte P56XT to the "Windows 7 Default" settings:
Press "F2" at boot to enter UEFI setup, go to menu "Save & Exit" and activate "Restore WIN7 Defaults"
(This option will enable a BIOS/UEFI compatibility mode and disable SecuBoot)

11.) Insert the USB drive to the P56XT and boot the notebook by pressing "F12" to open the boot menu, then select booting from "UEFI: [USB-Drive]" (The UEFI-Mode must be used!)

12.) Now you can install Windows 7 on your NVMe SSD drive (in GPT partition format).
Remark: If you have more as one hard drives or SSD installed it could be needed to remove or disable the other HDD/SSD drive(s) temporary during the Windows 7 installation. After the Windows installation you can reinstall the additional drive(s).

13.) Install all needed Windows 7 device drivers of the P56XT starting with the chipset and at last the display drivers

14.) Optional: For the silent fan control of the P56XT the Gigabyte Smart Manager version 7.4.3 will be recommend (Win 7/10 compatible)
To download "Smart Manager 7.4.3" see on Gigabyte "AERO 15X (i7-8750H)" support website ("nb-driver-64bit-smartmanager-7.4.3.zip").

(Older versions of the Gigabyte Smart Manager will start the Sound settings after every Windows start!)

15.) Optional: Problem fix for Windows blue screen "nvlddmkm.sys" (if needed only):
If your P56XT gets a blue screen with the error message for driver "nvlddmkm.sys" by starting the P56XT Notebook in the battery mode, you can fix this issue by the NVIDIA PowerMizer fix by setting following registry keys.

In the registry file below the string {****} has to be replaced by the key name which contains the value "ProviderName"="NVIDIA"
Open regedit.exe goto [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\] and search within this registry key the value "ProviderName" = "NVIDIA".

Registry file: "PowerMixer_3322.reg"

Code Select Expand

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{****}\0000]
"PerfLevelSrc"=dword:00003322
"PowerMizerEnable"=dword:00000000
"PowerMizerLevel"=dword:00000000
"PowerMizerLevelAC"=dword:00000000

(This NVIDIA PowerMizer fix should working for NVIDIA drivers up to version 388.71)

Remark for this installation guideline:
Step 4.) up to 9.) for prepare the Windows 7 setup files by adding NVMe and USB 3.0 driver support is also working for other Notebooks or Mainboards with Intel Kaby Lake Processor (also "none-Gigabyte" products)

[Shiffly]

Oh yeah, the VGA port?

It only has a bandwidth of like 180mHz making it worse than a Displayport to VGA or  HDMI to VGA adaptor!!

You have to go to Startech to get the DP to VGA/HDMI adaptor to see greater than 300mHz.

Next best is the ONN from Walmart (HDMI) which sees I think 250mHz or 290Mhz?  I don't feel like testing...

Either way, not for your high-scanning CRT.