Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model 11th Gen Intel (2021) Review: Small Changes, Big CPU Gains

[Redaktion]

We're only half way through the year and Razer has already launched its second Blade 15 refresh of 2021. However, the updates this time are more substantial than they appear.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Razer-Blade-15-Advanced-Model-11th-Gen-Intel-2021-Review-Small-Changes-Big-CPU-Gains.548802.0.html

[Sfasciacarene]

What about the refresh rate of the display? I mean, is it possible to use the high refresh rate also when it is used with iGPU? Or is it like the "old" model that with iGPU is possible to use only the 60Hz refresh rate?

[Liam]

Does the new razer have enough lanes of pcie to fully support both m.2 drives at the same times without throttling each other or the gpu? Also if it does what form factor does the 2nd drive need to be?

[DidAGoodJorb]

Am I reading this correctly?  The GPU supports PCIe 4.0 x16 but only runs at x8?  Not that it makes much of a difference.

[Sfasciacarene]

Yes all the 30 serie should use pci-e 4 up to 16x(4), but actually there are no really reasons to use them at 16x4 lanes, for two main reasons:
- an rtx 3070/3080 mobile at 105W is like an rtx 2080 desktop that use 16x3 lanes, hence use 8x4 lanes is the same to use a 16x3. So, it is a big bump respet to the 8x3 used in the previous gen and could give you maybe 1% of difference in the best case.
- the 11700 and 11800 has 20 lanes of PCI-E or better 1x16+1x4 or 2x8+1x4 or 1x8+3x4, where 1x4x(4)  is dedicated to chipset and probaly shared with the thunderbolt controller. So, they choose to use two 4x4 lanes for the ssd connections and 8x4  lanes for the GPU connection. In this way you can use a full pci-e 4x3 lanes in thunderbolt, and you have other 32Gb/s (4x3 lanes) for the the USB ports/wifi etc.
In my opinion it is the best way to fully use the cpu capabilities. If you choose to use a 16x4 in the GPU you have your two ssd/thunderbolt/wifi/USB etc connected to the signle 4x4 connection with a lots of performance issues.

[Javi De Leon]

I have a question, how much FPS are we seeing in more competitive games such as Fortnite and CS:GO with LOW settings??

[Something]

Razer blade 14 anyone?

[DarkEchoes]

Razer blade 14 anyone?

I bought one, and then returned it for the Blade 15. Not that it's a bad product, but if you value screen size the Blade 15 is the way to go.

[Semplar]

Got this laptop around month ago, QHD version.
It's damn fast and looks beautiful.
Display refresh is so fast, no visible ghosting in chase squares test whatsoever, even 60 Hz usual video stuff now looks a little rippy because of how fast it refreshes, but that's my subjective impression and it's fine.
Yes, quite hot above keyboard when high loaded, but normally you don't put hands there so that's ok. It gets cold quite fast.
Surface has premium aluminium feel, but doesn't collect much smudges.

[I disappointing laptop]

Couple seconds with (factory paste) cpu z stress test and 100 C.
Noise, even with (liquid metal) helps much but still fans all time working, just keep laptop turn on, I dont want start talk about factory paste.
Synapse 3 - Uses 2-4 % cpu load, without this program the laptop have 40%~ less power.
DDR4 latency and DPC latency (I think many user even will never notice)

[Vyacheslav]

After months of usage, I confirm downsides stated by "I disappointing this laptop" comment below: factory paste is bad, CPU quickly reaches 100°C; without Synapse 3 laptop 40% performance, so I have to keep bloatware, although it doesn't load CPU by 2%-4% anymore; fans are spinning most of time.

Now, my observations:
Very bad CPU performance on battery (dGPU is off), even video can stutter. Only 2 hours of battery time. When on battery you get permanent throttling signal from somewhere (probably BIOS setup or motherboard signal) despite CPU is used only at 5%. There are hacks to unlock all BIOS settings, but you need to reflash BIOS chip.
Sometimes, distinctive coil whines, triggered during pressing of Shift or A key, which is weird. They're gone now but that's weird.
When you put a phone or anything magnetic on laptop's right corner, it thinks that lid is closed and turns off, which is unhandy.