Performance issues with brand new laptop.

Wilbur Cobb · September 30, 2021

So I had ordered a Clevo X170kM-G laptop from Sager, it had a RTX 3080, i7-11700k, and 32GB of DDR4 3200mhz. I ended up having to get a refund on it, and I ultimately got the EON17-X which is OriginPC's version of the same laptop. Only difference is I got the i9-11900k, but when I run the Time Spy benchmark it gets a way lower score then the i7-11700k. I can't seem to explain why this is... My i9 seems to have all cores functioning, and they all go up to their boost clock speeds as advertised.

The score difference is strange. On the i7 version the overall score is 12,774 and the CPU score is 12,253. The i9 version from OriginPC is getting and overall score of 12,190 with a CPU score of

9,813 ... I am not sure why ... Is there some kind of common Nvidia setting or BIOS setting that triggers this? Both laptop even have the exact same BIOS, and the GPU scores are about equivalent with Sager's version only being marginally higher.

Another strange issue, I am not sure if its related or not, but the Control Center 3.0 app for this machine seems to cause it to crash with clocking problems. I am not even sure why, overclocking is disabled in the BIOS but the app makes the entire laptop fail. However, without the app, and overclocking enabled, it crashes after a few seconds. It seems like even minor tweaks to the CPU clocks causes crashing.

Edit:

Interesting detail, my Sager's RAM was (16,384 MB Crucial Technology DDR4 @ 3,192 MHz)

but Origin's is (16,384 MB Kingston DDR4 @ 2,926 MHz)

The Kingston sticks are rated for 3200mhz ...

HanZie82 · October 1, 2021

Just because its the same CPU doenst mean it will perform the same if cooling is severely hindered by using it in a small form-factor like a notebook.

Wilbur Cobb · October 1, 2021

56 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

Just because its the same CPU doenst mean it will perform the same if cooling is severely hindered by using it in a small form-factor like a notebook.

Yeah, I am aware. I am comparing it with an exact same notebook, which I had previously.

Why would an i7-11700k, perform way worse then a i9-11900k? That doesn't make since if they are essentially the exact same PC!

This is a desktop replacement laptop too, but it performs about the same as the GE76 Raider. The i7-11700k at least had higher performance then that.

Wilbur Cobb · October 1, 2021

Well... looks like I am just outta luck. Clevo laptops are just terrible, and resellers seem to miss their issues.

I am willing to bet what I am experiencing is motherboard damage, right out the box. It's the only way I can explain clocking issues, and BSODs from merely running on a high performance power setting. Point is $5k for a laptop that can't even so much as perform like the GE76 Raider 11UH-245, and has constant BSODs is inexcusable.

My solution, was to jump on their return policy, and never buy Clevo again. MSI has never failed me, so the GE76 Raider 11UH-245 is my laptop of choice now. The hell with this Clevo circus.

MarkYork · October 1, 2021

In my opinion, returning the laptop is your best choice. It seems Clevo has terrible control quality processes. It is highly possible that the problem you are experiencing is due to thermal cooling inefficiencies. In my experience, what I've noticed is that some vendors tend to use very poor quality thermal paste; sometimes replacing it solves the problem, but it could be an inherited cooling design problem. I would try replacing the thermal paste with a high grade one like Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut.

Wilbur Cobb · October 1, 2021

9 hours ago, MarkYork said:

In my opinion, returning the laptop is your best choice. It seems Clevo has terrible control quality processes. It is highly possible that the problem you are experiencing is due to thermal cooling inefficiencies. In my experience, what I've noticed is that some vendors tend to use very poor quality thermal paste; sometimes replacing it solves the problem, but it could be an inherited cooling design problem. I would try replacing the thermal paste with a high grade one like Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut.

Whats interesting, is the thermals were actually reasonable, I had it repasted before they sent it. Also it seems like the individual CPU score by itself was seemingly normal, its just when the GPU and the CPU would work together the CPU just couldn't perform.

All the cores were running at their highest boost clock too, so no issues there.

It just seems when working with the GPU on full load, that's when the system would crash. It would work fine as long as I put it into a low performance mode, but would suffer a BSOD as soon as I bumped it into a higher performance mode.

Personally, I believe there was something wrong with the motherboard. I don't know why they would send it like that though, a benchmark like 3DMark Time Spy would have revealed issues immediately. I expect that kind of testing for $5k.

EDIT:

All that being said, if I got 2 of the most expensive Clevo laptop, and both came broken right out the box, how can I trust the machine will last?

MSI laptops have never failed me, so I am sticking with a brand that does good.