Hi everyone,
we already have a new EC/BIOS with adapted fan curves and performance profiles in the pipeline. As soon as this is available, we will also document the exact changes here.
If you are interested, more links:
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Megathread with FAQ-
Extensive video review from an Early Adopter first ownerIn the review we have spotted the following points of critique:
1. High idle consumption of 60WThis value does not correspond to our internal measurements and customer feedback. We are at an average of 40W in idle which also leads to a higher battery life. This also has a positive effect on the fan noise at low load.
Comparison testSample with serial production with Ryzen 5 3600, 2x8GB 2666, NVMe SSD, Windows 1909 and all current drivers. Measured at the power outlet with full battery.
XMG NotebookcheckMinimum 38W 55WMedian 42W 59WMaximum 50W 63W
QuoteMinimum: all additional modules are off (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.), minimum brightness, and Windows power plan is set to "Energy Saving".
Medium: maximum brightness, additional modules off, Windows power plan: "Balanced".
Maximum: maximum power consumption while notebook is idle. All modules are on (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.), maximum brightness and power plan set to "High Performance".
It is not clear why the Review 59W has a 'median' value.
It's currently unclear why we see 60W in the review. Some possibilities:
- Measurement software in the background, keeps CPU from sleep state?
- BIOS problems, reset necessary?
- Control Center reinstallation necessary because Windows energy profiles have become tangled?
- Connected peripherals?
- Other problems?
2. Fan control in idle or at low loadThis is partly due to the point of idle energy consumption, which we cannot confirm.
Otherwise, there is another phenomenon here: AMD offers a hotspot-based CPU temperature reading by default, which is very hectic and not suitable for laptops. Igor Wallossek writes about this in
an article:
QuoteAMD's feedback of the internal sensors is partly quite absurd and therefore less suitable for mobile devices.
The jittery Tctl/Tdie values alone are a real problem, as the 50 sensors per CCD tend to report false values and short-term hotspots often enough, which mutate the current notebooks into fan howling buoys. Intel had this years ago, but while such a normal 12cm fan in the PC gallantly ironed out these spikes by its own inertia, the small and fast reacting fans of the notebooks with their very large speed range are a willing victim for acoustic missteps.
We'll examine whether we can use an alternative measured value for the fan control on EC level, calculated as an average over the entire CPU.
Such a change would have virtually no effect on situations under full load. But we could better avoid the occasionally exaggeratedly appearing turning on of the fans with it.
In addition to this measure, a further update of the fan curve is currently in progress. A corresponding BIOS update should already be available next week for testing.
3. DPC latenciesWe confirm the DPC values of Notebookcheck - but only in 'Entertainment' mode.
The DPC latencies can easily be improved by switching to the 'Performance' profile in Control Center. Then you'll have values in the green range for hours. LatencyMon constantly shows "
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts".
Sample:(https://download.schenker-tech.de/media/products/xmg-apex-15_e20/apex15_dpc_performance-mode_587.png)The difference between 'Entertainment' and 'Performance' is probably due to the energy saving functions (SpeedShift etc.) of the CPU. We'll see if these can be set for the 'Entertainment' profile in Windows with a few simple steps.
As you can see in the table above, the 'Performance' profile in idle is only 4W above the 'Entertainment' profile. The differences in the fan control actually only become noticeable under 100% full load, which usually doesn't happen in music production. A less aggressive fan curve for the 'Performance' profile can be set manually in the Control Center - in case you want to make the 'Performance' profile your standard for professional use.
4. Boot timeWe currently have a cold boot time of about 18 seconds between pressing the power button and the login screen appearing on a NVMe SSD with Fast Boot enabled by default. Waking up from sleep mode (Hibernate, S4) with 16GB RAM is on the same level. Waking up from standby (power save, sleep, S3) takes about 5-6 seconds from the moment you open the lid.
Most of the boot and hibernate time is spent in BIOS P.O.S.T. Some Ultrabooks can do better, but for a desktop system this should be acceptable.
Concluding remarksXMG APEX 15 has so much power that I'd suggest to run it permanently in 'Quiet' mode in everyday life. Even for occasional gaming this is more than enough, especially since most games are not CPU-limited. If you want more, you can quickly switch to a higher performance profile with the key combination Fn+3.
The sweet spot of the system efficiency is the 'Entertainment' profile. The CPU peak performance achieved there (which is far beyond that of other, often more expensive laptops) is achieved with relatively little additional power consumption. These sweet spots have already been adequately investigated in large-scale reviews of the Ryzen 3000 series in desktop systems.
The 'Performance' mode (which was used in the review for the rather loud 'The Witcher 3' test) is not really intended for gaming but rather for really deep and long 100% CPU+CUDA rendering sessions. In the 'Performance' profile the system performance really hits its theoretical peak. The CPU then consume up to 88W (beyond the 65W TDP specification) with about 115W consumed by the GPU. This is where the law of diminishing returns comes into play: at a certain point, more power is
purchased with disproportionately high energy consumption.
The upcoming BIOS and fan curve updates will only affect the other 3 performance profiles. The 'Performance' profile (you could also call it the 'Overclocking' profile) will remain mostly untouched as peak performance.
We are looking forward to your feedback and questions!Cheers,
Tom Fichtner
Product Management
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