Eurocom Q8 (i9-8950HK, GTX 1070, QHD) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

Core i9 gamer. Eurocom is skipping the i7-8750H and going straight for the jugular with the more powerful i9-8950HK. Performance is indubitably faster than the last generation Core i7-7700HQ, but some repeatable throttling behavior is holding back the system.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Eurocom-Q8-i9-8950HK-GTX-1070-QHD-Laptop-Review.313514.0.html

[Defeats the Purpose]

The inclusion of the i9-8950HK, which is a 6 core overclockable CPU, defeats the purpose of it's installation when it's installed in this laptop that can't cool it properly - resulting in thermal throttling & erratic game performance as seen in this review.  Particularly the Witcher 3 benchmark is very damning for this notebook, I'll quote a section of the review on this:

"As shown by our HWiNFO screenshots below, CPU and GPU clock rates alternate between 1.8 GHz and 4.4 MHz and 1025 MHz and 1785 MHz, respectively. The inexplicably large fluctuations mean very unsteady frame rates. Witcher 3 jumps between 43 FPS and 62 FPS just from idling on the world map."

Yep, so that CPU thermal throttling down to 1.8Ghz is just completely unacceptable in a gaming notebook - it makes this laptop unusable for gaming - you can't live with constant fluctuations from 62fps down to 43fps when gaming due to the CPU thermal throttling.  Not only is it not good for the longevity of the CPU, it's just not an enjoyable gaming experience.  The Witcher 3 benchmark test is a very valid determination of real world gaming performance so the poor results seen in this test speak volumes about the inadequacy of this notebook for gaming.  They really should have beefed up the cooling for this monster 6 core CPU, or they otherwise would have seen better real world gaming performance by just sticking to an easier to cool 4 core CPU like the 7700HQ.  There was also GPU throttling happening during the Witcher 3 benchmark too - this wasn't due to GPU temperature, so that seems like it could be related to the notebook's power delivery system being unable to cope with a combined CPU & GPU load - again this would be partially alleviated if they had stuck to a 4 core rather than 6 core CPU, or they should just beef up the power delivery system.

[Ramby]

Hope you guys get to test the Aorus X7 DT v8 with the i9 and GTX1080.

[David O'Sullivan]

"The strange throttling behavior of the Q8 when gaming makes the system a difficult recommendation for the time being."

Yet it gets a mid 80's score like every single other laptop you review lol!

[Roger Uzun]

Purchasing a Eurocom Q8 now we should not experience the throttling issues, correct, since it was a bug in the control panel software?  Does the 84% rating reflect the fact that the throttling was likely due to a software bug?

Is there any way to get a report on the system performance without the throttling bug?

[StephanBB]

Please do a retest - it would be great to know if all throttling issues are gone now and the system can run without overheating and the CPU can overclock itself as it was designed..