Aorus X7 Pro Sync Review

Performance Analysis

To start with then, just how potent is this laptop in games? Very is the answer and at the native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, it managed a minimum framerate of 75fps in Battlefield 4 - this was getting on for double a single GTX 970M and indeed twice the speed of a desktop GTX 960, which is roughly the same as a GTX 970M in performance terms. This means in SLI, the GTX 970M sits at about the same level as a desktop GTX 980 - not bad at all for a laptop.

It was a similar story in Crysis 3, although SLI here wasn't quite as effective. Still, a minimum framerate of 73fps compared to 40fps for a single GTX 970M means there's plenty of scope for using a bigger, higher resolution monitor. In desktop performance terms, you're looking at the equivalent of somewhere between a GTX 980 and GTX 980 Ti. Unigine Valley saw the dual GTX 970Ms achieve a score of 4,453, which was pretty close to matching a desktop GTX 970, gaining around 1,600 points over a single GPU.


Elsewhere, the Broadwell quad-core saw consistantly better performance than the older Haswell equivalent, with the Core i7-5850HQ outpacing the slightly slower clocked Core i7-4720HQ in all our tests. Thanks to the addition of hyper-threading, the Aorus X7 Pro Sync was able to better modern Core i5 desktop CPUs in some tests too, even on occasions when they were overclocked.

Battery life and noise are usually where these big beasts are let down and sadly, the Aorus X7 Pro Sync isn't stellar in either category. Even at idle, you'll be lucky to see more than two and a half hours of battery life, although for light work you should get a little over two hours. Gaming obviously hammers the battery, lasting just 49 minutes here, but it's mainly the idle and low-load tests that were a bit disappointing.

Under low loads the Aorus X7 Pro Sync is blissfully quiet, but under load it's quite simply one of the noisiest laptops we've ever heard. The fans spin up to a tremendous racket, although they are quick to ramp down. The included software does allow you to set a number of fan modes, but anything other than the top-end gaming mode saw clock speeds knocked back to reduce the heat, rather than allow for higher temperatures. However, if we're honest, few if any gaming laptops are less than intrusive when gaming - if noise is that much of an issue, you may want to consider a mini-ITX PC instead.

Conclusion

The Aorus X7 Pro Sync is arguably suffering from a mild case of form over function. Its slim dimensions and reasonable weight given the extreme hardware inside means that it's actually a fairly portable unit. However, the slim chassis also inevitably gives way to excessive noise levels as the smaller fans need to ramp up to deal with the heat. The GPUs are spread apart, which does help spread the load here, but this is one noisy laptop. If you can cope with less power but still want a slim design, then the MSI GS70 2QE Stealth Pro is also worth a look - it's quieter but far from silent under load. It also costs just £1,400 - around £700 less than the entry level price for the Aorus X7 Pro Sync but you do also get just one GTX 970M. Thankfully, the noise didn't translate into too much chassis heat - it was comfortable to use even after all our benchmarking. Would we rather see a few extra millimetres in chassis size and a quieter laptop? Well, a lot of the Aorus X7 Pro Sync's appeal lies in its sleek lines and slim chassis so the jury is out here.

Performance is unquestionably spectacular though, and matching a desktop GTX 980 is quite an achievement - if you're after a desktop replacement, you're looking right at it and there should be no issues hooking up a sub-4K display here. Even a 3,440 x 1,440 display might be within reach. Storage performance was good too and depending which variation you get, there's likely room for expansion here too. One fly in the ointment is the use of different memory manufacturers in our sample unit. We saw no issues here but we'd obviously prefer to see a set of four identical DIMMs if we bought the laptop ourselves.

Apart from noise, there really isn't much else to complain about. The touchpad buttons can be a tad stiff in places and an M.2 port would have been nice. Overall though, this extreme laptop is one of the best we've seen and comes with an excellent warranty. If you're looking for a desktop replacement, it makes a very strong case. Just make sure you're wearing headphones while you game.