70 TECH ADVISOR • NOVEMBER 2019GAMING SPECIALcould fiddle around at resolutions between 1080p
and 4K, though. Some games do run fine at 4K. Alien:
Isolation, for example, averages a very good 56fps
at this resolution. At 1080p, it averages 175fps and a
ridiculous 213fps at 720p, low settings.
The 15X is a great gaming laptop, although we
did see very similar results from last year’s model,
which had the same GPU.
Even with the Max-Q GPU, quite a lot of heat is
created when gaming. To get rid of this the 15X uses a
combo of wider and narrow diameter fans. You can hear
this duo tone as they rev up, the smaller fans creating
a higher-pitch noise. You can let the laptop judge
the fan speed itself, or max it out using a keyboard
shortcut, which might work well if you wear a headset
or headphones. When gaming the 15X is reasonably
loud, but does not have the annoying whine of some
thinner laptops that use smaller fans.
Heat bleeding into the keyboard is the issue you
can’t get rid of completely. However, the parts you
touch never get hot, just warm. And we’ve seen some
keyboard heat up in all the Max-Q laptops we’ve tried.
The fans run no matter what you’re doing, even
writing a document. However, they’re very quiet when
running low and we didn’t notice any annoying coil
whine noise.Battery life
A sticker on the Gigabyte Aero 15X claims it has an
“all-day battery”, and we hoped this would prove
true. The previous model trucked on for an excellent
nine hours, 55 minutes.70 TECH ADVISOR • NOVEMBER 2019
GAMING SPECIAL
could fiddle around at resolutions between 1080p
and 4K, though. Some games do run fine at 4K. Alien:
Isolation,forexample,averagesa verygood56fps
atthisresolution.At1080p,it averages175fpsanda
ridiculous213fpsat720p,lowsettings.
The15Xis a greatgaminglaptop,althoughwe
didseeverysimilarresultsfromlastyear’smodel,
whichhad the same GPU.
Even with the Max-Q GPU, quite a lot of heat is
created when gaming. To get rid of this the 15X uses a
combo of wider and narrow diameter fans. You can hear
this duo tone as they rev up, the smaller fans creating
a higher-pitch noise. You can let the laptop judge
the fan speed itself, or max it out using a keyboard
shortcut, which might work well if you wear a headset
orheadphones.Whengamingthe15Xis reasonably
loud,but does not have the annoying whine of some
thinner laptops that use smaller fans.
Heat bleeding into the keyboard is the issue you
can’t get rid of completely. However, the parts you
touch never get hot, just warm. And we’ve seen some
keyboard heat up in all the Max-Q laptops we’ve tried.
The fans run no matter what you’re doing, even
writing a document. However, they’re very quiet when
running low and we didn’t notice any annoying coil
whine noise.Battery life
A sticker on the Gigabyte Aero 15X claims it has an
“all-daybattery”,andwehopedthiswouldprove
true.Theprevious model trucked on for an excellent
nine hours, 55 minutes.