Gigabyte Aorus 15 XE4 Laptop Review (12700H + 3070 Ti)

CPU:

Starting with a look at default CPU behaviour, the i7-12700H draws 105W of power for a period just shy of 20 seconds, before quickly ramping down to 55W package power which it maintained for the rest of our 30-minute Cinebench R23 stress test. Clock speed for the P-cores similarly starts at 3.8GHz, before dropping down to hover at around 2.7GHz, occasionally flitting between 2.5-2.7GHz.

Package temperatures are kept very cool during this stress test, with some small variation but typically remaining below 70C during an extended workload, which is highly impressive.

GPU:

As for the GPU, the RTX 3070 Ti drew a consistent 130W across a 30-minute stress test in Cyberpunk 2077, with the core clock operating at an almost-fixed 1410MHz. GPU temperatures were well within safe limits, too, hitting 83C but no higher.

Noise:

The above thermal figures were recorded when using the Balanced fan profile. After 30 minutes of gaming, this produced 43dB of noise with the sound meter positioned 30cm away. There is also a Turbo fan profile, however I can't recommend this as noise hit 52dB and the thermal performance is fine using the Balanced mode anyway.

Battery:

Battery life is OK for the Aorus 15. Despite the bigger battery than the MSI Crosshair 15 R6E, the CPU and GPU both draw more power so battery life is reduced by about 25 minutes. A run time of over 5 hours is still acceptable for light office tasks, but those who really need all-day battery would be better served by an ultrabook-style machine with a low-power CPU.

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