Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (RTX 2070 Max-Q, FHD) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

The Blade 15 series is barely one year old and it has already expanded across two generations of Nvidia GeForce GPUs with multiple display options ranging from FHD 144 Hz to full-on OLED. For this particular review, we'll focus on the RTX 2070 Max-Q SKU to see what kind of performance advantages it carries over last year's GTX 1070 Max-Q options.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Razer-Blade-15-Advanced-Model-RTX-2070-Max-Q-FHD-Laptop-Review.402631.0.html

[Vilmir]

If this laptop can deal with the 2070 MaxQ at only 43db during gaming, then it will be hard for me to not pull the trigger for the future model with the OLED panel.

[gm89uk]

15% higher than 1070 MQ @ FHD but significantly better at 2k/4k?

Mainly looking to hook this up to 4k TV/external monitor.

[will]

yeah but is this the 80W 2070 MQ or 90W TDP 2070 MQ?

I'm surprised this isn't mentioned here. And will we be able to flash the 80W cards to 90W vbios's?

[Dalingrin]

As I mentioned in the m15 vs Razer Blade comparison article.
The CPU throttling mention in the article is due to the performance mode you are using. Razer ships with a standard and a gaming mode. Standard will not sustain turbo in an effort to keep fan noise to a minimum. Gaming mode will open up the turbo frequencies at the cost of fan noise.

[S.Yu]

Very interesting, looks like the cooling will handle the 2080 too. If there's a configuration of 2080+4k available in white that's what I'll spring for.

[Goran Draskovic]

As I mentioned in the m15 vs Razer Blade comparison article.
The CPU throttling mention in the article is due to the performance mode you are using. Razer ships with a standard and a gaming mode. Standard will not sustain turbo in an effort to keep fan noise to a minimum. Gaming mode will open up the turbo frequencies at the cost of fan noise.

I hear what you are saying but this is not the case here. RTX actualy has 3 modes not Balanced Gaming and Creator where new creator mode is suppose to push CPU more. However in my testing cinebench is almost never above 900 and while on loop it settles around 830.

My Aero 15x as a comparison settles down to 1100 and can go to 1250 cold

[Fruper]

Hi all

i will buy this razer.
I need this notebook too for work - decent visual
On black razer is the logo everytime lighting? or can by off?
And my dilemma... i like mercury white :) but 2070 / 512 is out of stock :/ if is available i 100% buy 2070 mercury white but now ? What i buy?

1. mercury white 2060/512GB
or
2. black 2070/512GB

soo what now?
2060 model vs. 2070 model
- what is diffrence only GPU performance?
- 2060 ist slower 15-20% ? or?
- what other difference?

thanks for reply

[sticky]

Tried this out the other day, and just couldn't get used to that keyboard.
I'd say the keyboard and skimpy ports at this price point are immediate deal breakers. Also could've made more vents for better airflow.

Otherwise everything was very solid. Good build quality, screen, and especially great touchpad for a Windows laptop.

[Allen.Ngo]

@Fruper:

That is actually a great question about the glowing green logo on the outer lid. The ability to turn it on and off would be useful in professional settings. Unfortunately, there is no switch to deactivate the light even in the BIOS. Opting for the Mercury White color option would circumvent this issue.

Mercury White is a "limited edition" color and it is not available on all SKUs. Only the RTX 2060 SKU is available in Mercury White for now as Razer has not announced any plans as of this writing to expand the color.

There are no differences between the RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 Max-Q SKUs other than GPU performance. The RTX 2060 is slower than the RTX 2070 Max-Q by about 13 percent in 3DMark Fire Strike.

@gm89uk:

The performance delta between the GTX 1070 Max-Q and RTX 2070 Max-Q increases at higher resolutions when the processing load becomes more GPU bound. When running the Time Spy benchmark at 2k resolution, for example, the RTX 2070 Max-Q is able to outperform the GTX 1070 Max-Q by about 45 percent. This isn't very helpful for SKUs with the 1080p panel, but it's important nonetheless for users who want to output to higher resolution monitors.

@Dalingrin:

We took your suggestion and reran the CineBench loop test on the Razer "Creator" Performance mode that supposedly increases CPU performance. Multi-Thread score settles at 960 points compared to 925 points on our original loop test.

[Slish]

@Fruper:

That is actually a great question about the glowing green logo on the outer lid. The ability to turn it on and off would be useful in professional settings. Unfortunately, there is no switch to deactivate the light even in the BIOS. Opting for the Mercury White color option would circumvent this issue.

Mercury White is a "limited edition" color and it is not available on all SKUs. Only the RTX 2060 SKU is available in Mercury White for now as Razer has not announced any plans as of this writing to expand the color.

There are no differences between the RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 Max-Q SKUs other than GPU performance. The RTX 2060 is slower than the RTX 2070 Max-Q by about 13 percent in 3DMark Fire Strike.

@gm89uk:

The performance delta between the GTX 1070 Max-Q and RTX 2070 Max-Q increases at higher resolutions when the processing load becomes more GPU bound. When running the Time Spy benchmark at 2k resolution, for example, the RTX 2070 Max-Q is able to outperform the GTX 1070 Max-Q by about 45 percent. This isn't very helpful for SKUs with the 1080p panel, but it's important nonetheless for users who want to output to higher resolution monitors.

@Dalingrin:

We took your suggestion and reran the CineBench loop test on the Razer "Creator" Performance mode that supposedly increases CPU performance. Multi-Thread score settles at 960 points compared to 925 points on our original loop test.

Is there an actual test between the Razer Blade 15 2060 and the Blade 2070 MaxQ? I'm curious to see the performance difference. Because the 2060 is not a MaxQ but the 2070 is! Is there really a 13% difference?
How much better is the 2060 (Laptop) compared to the 2060 MaxQ?
Thanks!

[CFH2019]

I saw the following comparing an Razer 2060 to a Alienware m17 2070 and to a MSI GS75 2080 running 3D Mark Time Spy.  2060 - 5564, 2070 - 6653, 2080 - 7123.  There was a 19.5% jump in performance from the 2060 to 2070 and only a 7% jump in performance from the 2070 to the 2080!

[laserfocus101]

@Allen.Ngo you forgot to mention that the keyboard is different in that the 2018 model only lit up the function keys (F1-F12) but did not light up the "symbols," whereas the 2019 models now light up both the function key + symbols if that makes any sense. It was a dealbreaker for me, lol.

[Rafael]

Seriously, I'm not buying this JUST because of the logo on the back. Deal-breaker.

[vekspec]

@Fruper:

That is actually a great question about the glowing green logo on the outer lid. The ability to turn it on and off would be useful in professional settings. Unfortunately, there is no switch to deactivate the light even in the BIOS. Opting for the Mercury White color option would circumvent this issue.

Mercury White is a "limited edition" color and it is not available on all SKUs. Only the RTX 2060 SKU is available in Mercury White for now as Razer has not announced any plans as of this writing to expand the color.

There are no differences between the RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 Max-Q SKUs other than GPU performance. The RTX 2060 is slower than the RTX 2070 Max-Q by about 13 percent in 3DMark Fire Strike.

@gm89uk:

The performance delta between the GTX 1070 Max-Q and RTX 2070 Max-Q increases at higher resolutions when the processing load becomes more GPU bound. When running the Time Spy benchmark at 2k resolution, for example, the RTX 2070 Max-Q is able to outperform the GTX 1070 Max-Q by about 45 percent. This isn't very helpful for SKUs with the 1080p panel, but it's important nonetheless for users who want to output to higher resolution monitors.

@Dalingrin:

We took your suggestion and reran the CineBench loop test on the Razer "Creator" Performance mode that supposedly increases CPU performance. Multi-Thread score settles at 960 points compared to 925 points on our original loop test.

Is there an actual test between the Razer Blade 15 2060 and the Blade 2070 MaxQ? I'm curious to see the performance difference. Because the 2060 is not a MaxQ but the 2070 is! Is there really a 13% difference?
How much better is the 2060 (Laptop) compared to the 2060 MaxQ?
Thanks!

Firstly, officially there is no 2060 max Q, notebookcheck's page is based on speculation and rumors as they have noted in their "beware" line.

I have the Mercury White 2060 edition and I don't regret it. From some of the other sites I've read, the 2060 version is the better value compared to the max q.