PC Specialist Defiance IV (w/ Core i7 & GTX 1070)

1. Introduction2. First Look3. Components4. Keyboard, Screen and Speakers5. Testing Methodology 6. Cinebench R157. SSD Performance8. 3D Mark (Time Spy & Fire Strike)9. Gaming Tests (1080p)10. Thermal Dynamics & Acoustics11. Power Consumption & Battery Life12. Closing Thoughts13. View All Pages

The PC Specialist Defiance IV comes with a discrete graphics chip in the form of Nvidia’s GTX 1070. For our tests today, we have ran Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Rise of the Tomb Raider on this laptop. We used 1080p resolution both times and used the highest available graphics settings while running each game’s in-built benchmark.

The GTX 1070 is a fantastic chip for 1080p gaming – as our benchmarks demonstrate.

With Deus Ex running at its High settings the PC Specialist delivered a solid average of 60.9fps, and that figure only dropped by about five frames when we moved the graphics settings to Very High and Ultra. Minimum framerates are good, too, ranging from 48.1fps to 37.6fps – so gaming will always be smooth, even in frenetic moments.

As expected, that’s a step above the Asus, which returned an average that was more than ten frames slower in the Very High benchmark.

It’s a similar story in Rise of the Tomb Raider. The PC Specialist’s averages hit at least 60.9fps, so gameplay will always run well – although its minimums hovered around the 30fps mark, so there might be the occasional slowdown in frenetic moments.

These results are great for 1080p gaming, but they do call the 120Hz screen into question: that panel will only look at its best when games average nearer to 120fps, and neither of our test titles could manage it.

Of course, those higher framerates can be achieved by graphical tweaks – if you’re happy to drop graphics settings to get higher, smoother playback in particularly challenging games, that’s your call.

And, happily, the GTX 1070 will run every popular esports game at 100fps or beyond, so they’ll look particularly smooth on the 120Hz panel. That’s important, when smooth, consistent framerates can be important for wins in competitive titles. It’s just a shame that G-Sync isn’t included to keep those framerates and screen refresh rates coordinated.

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