Update: I have confirmation the battery difference outside of gaming is due to a bug in the control center software. Just to be clear, this video isn't showing the general differences between 1660 Ti vs 2070 Max-Q, it's specific to the Vapor 15/MAG-15/Fusion 15 laptops. Thermal limits of 75c are clearly the primary limitation to GPU performance here.
Thank you for the video Jarrod! In the video you mention the fans sound alike at high loads, but do you have any impressions of the fans from the two at lower loads? Lighter games or idle-ing? Thank you
1) Did you manage to tweak the GPU temp limit to push it above 75? I couldnt seem to do it on Asus GPU TWEAK 2 with my Triton 500 2060 2) What is the wattage of this 2070 Max Q?
Could you give us the source you got the info on the bug from? It is windows related or bios related? (I'm planning on dual booting the machine with windows and ubuntu). Incidentally, has it been fixed?
Thankyou for still including dota 2 in your tests.. actually you being the only one who reviews and benchmark multiple laptops with dota is the reason i subscribed to you!!
Thanks Jarod. You're only one youtuber to show that 2070 version is a crap. I’ll take 1660ti -version after your video. Thanks for saving my wallet. Love you!
It's not crap dude. The battery life is caused by a bug that either machines can have. And it would be even higher graphically if you unlocked the system to 87° most likely. I have the 1660ti version though.
No problem! @Frank yeah but it's not worth the extra large amount of money for most people. @Nathan yeah I've heard that, like I said I wouldn't rely on the battery results to base the decision on.
Even before i watched I can tell it's a great video I've been waiting for so long to see that I was watching mkbhd and closed the video to see this one
@@tserings2228 Been loving it. The keyboard is phenomenal. I can play Monster Hunter at all graphics at its max. The only thing is i wish had another USB C and that brick of a adapter is to very irritating to carry around. Other than that I love it.
I’ve been looking forward to this vid (you mentioned you would be doing it in a previous video). It’s great seeing how the two cards affect overall performance, and your video really helps one make an informed choice when buying. The MAG-15 is currently one of two laptops I’m looking at buying, so I’m very interested in what you have to say about it. Black Friday is going to be a lot of fun this year. Here in Canada the price difference is roughly $300 CDN, so the 2070 may be a worthwhile choice for us. I would also suggest that by going with a higher performance gpu now one might be able to go longer before needing to upgrade.
@@avxrevo I know this is late, but I get like 100ish fps when I play warzone in Modern Warfare and between 120 and 140 in regular multiplayer. It does thermal throttle sometimes though, so I've had to prop it up on something so it cools better on my desk. Overall it's great though considering the price and mobility. For context I have the 32 GB of RAM version with the 1660 ti
Hey Jarrod! Just made a big quarantine purchase and your videos really helped me come to an informed decision. Ended up going with the Vapor Pro 1660ti, can't wait to see how it performs!
It's only 69.99 more for the 2070 max q version today. The 1660ti version has 144hz display with a 512gb ssd. The rtx 2070 max q version has a 240hz 3ms display with a 1tb nvme ssd. Worth the little extra money for sure. Also they both have the i7 10750h now.
I just ordered mine after selling my desktop for 7k due to needing something more portable. Sadly to everyone's disappointment (I know the price isn't justifiable) I got the 2070 with 32gs of ram. Super excited to pick mine up Friday though!! Thanks for the review champ. Sending love from Melbourne and hope you're doing ok during the corona virus lockdowns bro
I got the 1660 ti variant and undervolted both the cpu and gpu. I get a stable gpu speed of 1875mhz in games and around 70 degrees celsius temp avg for both the cpu and gpu while gaming, almost never hitting the 74 temp limit of the gpu. Also ran Timespy a few times and I got between 6150-6200 scores. The same performance you'd get from a 1660 ti desktop. If you are willing to tinker, I highly recommend going for the 1660 ti variant.
update: recieved, only managed to push it to -0.130v. i am also using the opolar vacuum cooler and so far performance is great. loving the windows hello too
Thank you very much for this comparison Jarrod'sTech! First on youtube I believe. I've been waiting with baited breath for this clip, and you certainly didn't disappoint! In trademark style the video showed everything we need to know and was high quality. And best of all, you saved me $780! The battery life difference was baffling, but the real kicker was just how close the gap was between the two cards. I wish this laptop shipped with a full 2060, rather than trying to be edgy with a max-Q card.
No problem at all, happy to help! Yeah bit strange the 2060 was skipped, would have been interesting to test with the 75c limit test but time didn't allow that unfortunately, I figure most people would run at stock anyway so the comparison should be valid in most cases.
Hi guys! thanks Jarrod for your videos, they're extremely detailed and very useful! I moved to UK at the end of december 2019 for work reason. I work in photography and video field but I'm a gamer as well. Actually I've a custom built desktop PC, which is in my country of origin (Italy) with liquid cooling and a old 3930k, 32gb, 1060. With all the components the total weight 18kgs. Shipping it to UK it's very risky and pricey. Also, I don't have much space to place a desktop, with standalone monitor and so on. Also I'm a VR gamer (Rift S). As mobile workstation I've a 1st Gen Surface Book. So I'm considering seeling my desktop PC and the Surface Book to have a single machine for work and gaming, compatible with Oculus Rift S, which has the limitation of working only on laptop with the GPU ability to be attached to the display port. Otherwise it won't work. My choice would be between Razer Blade Base Model 2019 with 1660ti (1190£ actually on Amazon) and Eluktronics Mag-15/XMG Fusion 15. The Fusion 15 is 1298£ with 1660 ti. The 2070 Max Q upgrade is +240€/215£. Please, share your experience and your minds about these two products if you like. Reading on the internet looks like the Mag-15 is better built, less issues and better support. Thank you :-)
I'm going (sadly) for the 2070max-q because I need at least 8gb vram to edit 4k smoothly on Davinci Resolve and because Resolve also benefits in some features from the rt cores. Also, Blender is already in plans to make use of the rt cores in future updates for denoising. In my case, those specific content creator needs push me to the 2070max-q. Other than that it would make no sense AT ALL to get it over the 1660ti. For ray tracing in games, I believe the ASUS Strix Scar iii would be a better choice, even with the rtx2060. Thank you again for the great work Jarrod. At least I am making an informed buy.
Happy to come across this comment, I just bought the machine with 2070max-q for the very same reason. Resolve, Blender and everything else. I'm curious to know how its going so far over the last 7 months? I'd love to know!
@@housechimp2695 I got another laptop in the end (Mech 15 gr2x) also from Eluktronics (American version of the one shown here) with the same specs rtx 2070max-q, 16 gb RAM, 8gb VRAM. I chose that one because of a sweet deal I got for Christmas. So, I will talk about how functional the specs are for work, putting aside that is another laptop (in case that still works for you). The specs are perfect for most tasks, certainly more than enough for Blender. In Resolve it will depend on the ambition of your edit. 16gb is more than enough for a regular edit and very light use of fusion, 32gb will work better if you plan to make more use of fusion and color grading. If, on the other hand you need a lot of Fusion and color grading, you should definitively go for 64gb RAM. HOWEVER, I recommend starting with 16gb RAM since is more than enough for most of the stuff you need to do. If you find yourself struggling from there I think you can then upgrade your RAM according to what I said previously. Hope that helps.
@@faithalityblog I appreciate the helpful insights! Thank you for that. No questions asked I went with 32gb RAM as I can easily choke on 16gb doing general digital production. But for editing, I never realized that color-grading is also memory demanding but it makes sense. Glad I went with 32gb.. As for 2070max-q in relation to CGI/Blender, has it proven valuable in your experience (heavy-production and rendering)? Examples include photo-realism (using multiple 2-4k texture maps on one object) or complex scenes and the rendering? I know there are techniques and tricks to reduce the cost of rendering (filmic lighting etc) but I wonder if the 2070max-q has proven to be better at maintaining your production demands than the 1660ti.
@@housechimp2695 I am sure the 1660Ti is enough for Blender. However, Blender has been working with NVIDIA to get hardware accelerated ray tracing for cycles (this feature however is still under development as far as I know). THIS was a selling point for me (besides being aware of how GPU intensive Resolve is). Also, both Resolve and the future Blender update make use of the Tensa cores present in the RTX cards to optimize some features (Speed warp, facial recognition, etc, in Resolve and an AI denoiser in Blender). For this however, you will need to install the NVIDIA studio drivers instead of the gaming ones . As far as I know, you can still play videogames with these drivers (I've tried a couple). However, since I use my laptop strictly for work I really don't know if that could affect you in some games. I have not made a direct comparison in render speeds between the two cards, so I fail you on that one, but I went with the RTX card for those extra features, not so much for added rendering speed (I am sure the extra 2gb of VRAM will prove helpful in some of the most demanding tasks though).
All I have to say is... After playing with my new HP OMEN dc 1047nr i7 950 32GB RAM and the RTX 2070 max q for about a week now, there's not a game I've played with MAX ULTRA SUPER graphic settings that went under 60FPS and whatever FPS it was for a particular game, it stayed steady in that FPS range. It didn't jump around driving me crazy. Granted, I don't know if the G SYNC had something to do with the steadiness of the FPS , but it was smooth pleasurable gaming for sure! What a powerhouse. I don't know what the hell "MAX Q". is but it sure made me a happy camper. If price isn't a factor then by all means do grab the RTX 2070 Max q and do enjoy this life we have and all the modern technology that's available to us... ALL of us 💖
Good to hear, for what it's worth, almost any 2070 Max-Q laptop will outperform the results in this video due to the throttling. This video isn't meant to give a general idea of performance from it, just a specific comparison for this model :)
Thanks for the insight and informative video. When I picked my helios 300 laptop choice between the 1660 ti or the other choices like the rtx 2060 or rtx 2070 max q, i'm glad I picked the 1660 ti route since not only it's already a capable gpu but can also save some money and like you said, it provides good value.
Just to be clear, this video isn't showing 1660 Ti vs 2070 Max-Q as a general concept, it's specific to the Vapor 15/MAG-15/Fusion 15 laptops. I will pin this to make it known.
I had the helios 300 with 1660ti 16gb ram 144hz is was alright Now I updated to triton 300 with 2070 max q 16gb ram 240hz I can say that performance is noticeable, games are smother on 2070 max q, frames are higher and more stable Just an opinion
In my country there was only a 200$ difference between the 1660ti and the 2070 max q laptop, so i bought the 2070 its an hp omen, and i will never regret it because it more future proof option. great video anyways 👍
Thanks, this video isn't really relevant to that unfortunately. This information is specific to the Mag, other laptops should have much higher limits for the 2070, so yours is probably doing better than what is shown here
Hello. Nice review as always. I am mainly getting these high performance or gaming laptops for rendering architecture models. (Gaming is 2nd priority Do you think RTX has a significant advantage over GTX? and i also looking at he eluktronics max 15 or mag 15. Thanks. Also im deciding between eluktronics max15 and the legion y540. which one do you prefer? Thanks.
i'd want to thank you for making this comparison. i've been on the fence whether or not to buy an rtx laptop but now i see that i can save some money with the current generation laptops seeing as the price for a 1660Ti to an rtx laptop is basically double in my country
Happy to help! For what it's worth, this is only useful comparing these specific laptops. In general, a 2070 max-q will perform much better than what I'm showing here.
Nice comparison Jarrod. Do you happen to have some results from both machines if you use the Asus tweak to remove the 75 Celsius limitation from the GPU? They should both perform better but I'm curious if the 2070 Max Q would perform a bit better compared to the 1660 ti.
No, I did not test that one unfortunately. Honestly did not have time, too much going on at the moment and I figured most people would use theirs at stock without knowing about it.
Hi Jarrod, thanks for another great video. I was very tempted to get the 1660ti version of this laptop, especially after watching your full review of it. However, with the click frenzy sales on I scored a Lenovo y740 15inch for less than the price of the 1660ti version of this laptop. Hopefully I made a good choice. Keep up the great videos :)
@@JarrodsTech just a quick update, I got the y740 yesterday and I am very happy with the purchase. The specs I got were, i7 9750h, 16gb ram, GTX 1660ti, 1tb m.2 total cost was $1836aud. I love the premium feel of the chassis and it's fairly thin for a gaming laptop. The thermals seem very cool in games and the 144hz screen (non gsync) make them buttery smooth. Overall I'm one happy chappy. Thanks to content creators such as yourself I was able to make an informed decision even though I never saw the laptop in person before purchase.
This was unexpected, 2070 Max-Q is slightly better than 1660 TI and costs significantly more! 2070 Max-Q is a high segment of video cards, and 1660 TI is average, but performance is very close. 1660 TI is the absolute top in its price today.
Thanks Jarod! I've been waiting for this review! Left me something to think about on the GPU. Do both the laptops perform well under CPU intensive tasks?
It might if you undo the 75 degree thermal limit. Undervolt the CPU and limit the TDP to get a steadt CPU temperature and without the heat the GPU should perform much better still with acceptable temperatures. The 75 deg thermal limit is stupid, no other way to put it
@@aashutoshrijal4741 Is there actually a way to 'undo' the thermal limit? I'm considering buying this laptop and whilst I would be prepared to pay the extra for a better gpu, the meager increase in performance is off-putting.
@@yaroslavchechel6116 yes you'll need to download the Asus GPU tweak tool. There you can manually increase the thermal limit frim 75 to 87 (max). You'll need the program to be running in the background at all times for the tweak to be functional
Jerod First, thanks for making your video-super awesome, great content, great video work. There's been talk on some reddit forums that the 2070 has been going down to 3-4 hrs battery life with some of the Intel XTU app. 40 mW power consumption by that app even when not actively running in the foreground. Any chance this was happening in your You tube test?
Thanks mate. I was wandering the difference, your video cleared up so much and answered all my questions. Another one though, I would imagine the 2070mq is louder as well ?
XMG Fusion 15 with RTX 2070 Max Q now only 200 euros more than the 1660 Ti. Is this now worth the extra spend against performance with the latest firmware updates/DLC planned a few months ago?
Hi Jarrod! First of all thank you for your great work reviewing laptops on your channel. I´m a vfx artist and due that I have to travel a lot for work I need a power and light laptop. I mostly use my pc with programs like maya, houdini and I also use it for gaming. I was thinking about buying a razer blade but after all the bad feedback I though about buying the XMG Fusion 15 here in Europe. Here are the questions: Do you have any recommendation for my kind of profile? Does it worth it spending more money on an RTX instead of GTX for GPU 3D rendering? Should I wait for a new generations of laptops (maybe the asus proart ones)? Thank you very much for your time and consideration. Kind regards!
Hey, yeah I'd be looking at this chassis over the Blade myself due to the price difference as it offers many of the same and extra features. As for the GPU difference, I don't have much experience with 3D rendering workloads (I wanted to include more benchmarks for that in the video but ran out of time unfortunately) so hard to say. Technically the 2070 Max-Q will do better, I think if you use it for work and make money with the machine then spending the extra for something you will use for years could be worthwhile. The pro art ones look decent, but will probably be expensive and not sure how they perform yet, hopefully I can get some to cover on the channel in future.
Thank you very much for your quick response. Your opinion is very important for me. I’ve been using a mountain IVY 17 which is an old clevo chasis from 2012 but now is almost impossible working with it. I know, I was time to buy a new machine from while ago. Thanks again for your time and consideration. Best!
Firstly good job i love your channel and waiting for this comparing but something is off (maybe). For what i know like you mention yourself 2060 is better then 1660ti like 12+% and 2070maxq is better then 2060 6-7%, its strange that the gap between the 2070maxq and 1660 is that small. People must not looking to compare low settings and old games and says its not worth it 5fps, always look for newest games and difference in high , ultra settings. I think in this laptop the problem for this result is that GPUs are limited to 75C. I am very interesting if you use asus tweek to change the limit to 87C, is the results between them will be different. I strongly considering to buy XMG Fusion 15 sometime in near future and for sure i will remove the 75C thermal limit for the GPU. Also thing to buy the 2070maxq not because of re-tracing, its just more powerful.I think with some tweek the gap between them will be more.
Yes, something is off. It's that the GPUs are thermal throttling at 75c by design, so performance is lost due to that. This video is not comparing the 1660 Ti and 2070 Max-Q as a general best case, it's specific to this chassis only. Yes if you raise the temperature limit it will probably do better, however I did not make the time to do this.
For the battery test, i read on reddit on XMG forum that latest nvidia drivers + their control center + hwinfo software make optimus not work well or something...and battery drain faster. Intel working on this problem.Maybe its only on 2070 card but still this will be fixed and battery life when not gaming must be the same if not using graphic intense programs that use dedicated GPU.
Does this comparison of GTX 1660ti and RTX 2070 Max Q apply to other laptops as well? Like for example the new Razer Blade 15 which have GTX 1660ti vs the ones which have RTX 2070/2060?
No it does not, the difference would be larger, as both of these are thermally limited by the BIOS to 75c which caps performance - some more info in the pinned comment.
Nice comparison. I'm in EU so XMG is most relevant to me. They're releasing their Ryzen 4000 based Core 15 laptop in the next month or two. Jarrod, do you think it's worth waiting for a Ryzen 4000 based system? TUF A15 is also on my radar, but would prefer to buy an XMG.
Thanks! Ryzen 4000 looks good just depends what GPU you want as there doesn't really seem to be many higher end GPU options available. Still waiting to get the A15 so not too sure how it goes, heard bad things about the screen though.
@@JarrodsTech Ok, thanks a lot for the reply. I've heard similar, which tips the balance further in XMG's favour! I will stick with 1660ti (or 2060 if good offer comes up) due to performance/price balance.
Great review, Jarrod! About to pull the trigger on the MAG15 1660ti, but wondering if the 90c CPU temps during gaming are with the stock paste or with Eluktronics' liquid metal and repaste? Curious to see if its worth purchasing from Eluktronics' site with the LM and thermal repaste. Amazon is offering the stock paste with a headset, mouse, hdmi cable, and mouse pad for the same price. Not sure where to get it from.
Thanks! Mine weren't from Eluktronics, so not sure what stock paste they use, but from memory Aftershock sent them with what ever they use for stock paste. Personally I would just pay the extra for liquid metal application by the pros given the thermals being a limit, probably have to get it direct via their website for paste modification.
@@JarrodsTech thanks for the response! I've never dealt with liquid metal on laptops, but have heard it will need to be reapplied after sometime. Probably the case for this as well, I assume?
Dear Jarrod, thank you for your awesome work! You are the only channel that I found with such comprehensive gaming (and not only) reviews, and I thought this is the only place I can solve my dilemma. But, even in your channel, I didn't find benchmarks of laptops with i5 CPU! I am deciding between i5 9300H and i7 9570h, both with 1660 ti. But every laptop you reviewed with such graphics card (or 2060) has i7 cpu. May be I missed something, but I opened every Gaming benchmark video I could see of the last year in your channel, and there was no i5 with such level of graphics cards. I only had time to compare Dota 2, all laptops with i7 showed the same performance (180fps), even if they had 1660 ti or 2080 max-q. But what about i5? Will it be much slower as amd 3750h (100fps)? What about other games, like PUBG, Overwatch, Fortnite? I really hope that I missed i5 & 1660ti (2060) laptop review, if so, could you please give a link?
Cheers! I really want to compare the i5 and i7, trust me it'd do 200k views no problem haha, I just haven't been sent any i5 laptops to do the comparison fairly. I bought an i5 laptop, the Lenovo L340, to do this, but didn't realise that it was single channel memory when I bought it so I can't actually use it to do the comparison. I have compared the i5-8300H with the 3750H on the channel, and the i5 was a fair bit better, and the 9th gen should be a little ahead.
@@JarrodsTech Oh, thanks! I just saw that video, compared benchmarks and decided to go with i7 :) You've already done a lot of awesome work, thank you again :)
Hey Jarrod - thanks for the great video, as always. I am looking into either getting the Mag-15 or the Zephyrus S GX502 (RTX2060). Do you have any suggestions as to which I should get? I will likely not be playing many AAA titles and I do place a premium on build quality, thermals, and noise. I understand the Zephyrus is loud, but I was hoping the 2060 model mixed with repasting would help curb that. But, after seeing your reviews, I am back in the thinker. Any advice? Thanks!
The GX502 will outperform it assuming the 1660 Ti Mag-15, depends what you care about though. I'd get the Mag-15 because I prefer the bigger battery, mech keyboard, SD card slot and Thunderbolt 3. That said I have not used the 2060 version of the Zephyrus so not sure how it runs, changing the paste could help if they use sub-optimal paste at the factory.
Thanks for the review Jarod. To your question, as to what GPU I would go for and why. I would pick the RTX 2070 MaxQ. The reason is, that I am an engineer who is working on Machine Learning problems, not only at work but also in my free time (gaming maybe 2% of time). Thus, the extra VRam really comes in handy, especially given that the RTX architecture can hold larger models than the GTX series. Also I would like to say that, I think that machine learning/programming applications should also be included in the review and benchmarking of such machines. In my opinion, the machine learning/programmers community is widely overlooked, but we are there :) ... and we also look for powerful laptops to buy :)
Yeah fair enough, makes more sense in that case. I'd be interested in adding those in future, however I have no personal experience with those sorts of workloads. What sort of benchmarks are available for those tasks that I could add?
1660 Ti is one of the best options for Premiere exporting, I find no real difference going to higher GPU from that point - at least in the videos that I make on the channel. I don't think the GPU matters much for the timeline, seems to be more CPU dependent in my own experience.
Got my 2070 max-q at 2060 price. Max-q dynamic boost ON makes mine boost like a 2070 and DLSS really boosts it more. 1660Ti would have been more awesome if they put some tensor core in them for DLSS.
Hey Jarrod, new sub here. What a well thought and in-depth review. Awesome job sir. One request - Can we have comparison between 1660ti vs 2070 max q vs 2080 max q for 1080p and 1440p?
Thanks! I'd like to, but to do it properly I'd need 3 laptops that are all the same with the only difference being the GPU, and I'm not sure I'm able to arrange that at the moment.
Hello Jarrod. I'm looking for new 15 inch laptop for video editing with Adobe Premiere and After Effects and now I'm just creating my list of "must have things" on my future laptop. I don't have experience with newest models, because I'm working with Lenovo T540p (i7-4710MQ/16GB RAM/NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M) which I bought 3 years ago and one of my requirements was good build quality, because sometimes I have to work in the car or outside, so maybe my ThinkPad looks ugly, but it's build like a tank :) So now my "must have" list looks like that: 9gen i7 or higher CPU, NVME SSD, Dual channel RAM (Min. 32GB), not glossy screen, SD card reader, minimum 3 USB ports. Now I'm confused about GPU. I don't play games at all, but I see that a lot of youtubers promoting new RTX cards for editing. My Lenovo wasn't bad at editing even with this GT730M card, but when I started using Panasonic GH5, my laptop became slower with higher bitrates an 4K from this camera. Of course, my CPU isn't good and If I have time, I use proxies, but overall I need to upgrade my system, because I want faster randering and smoother perfomance. So back to GPU, what graphics card would you recommend for video editing? In my opinion GTX 1660 or something would be good choice.
I've heard thinkpads are still much like that, unfortunately I haven't had a chance to ever test one as Lenovo are a little hard to get things out of to test. If you check out my more recent laptop reviews, I have a lot more data with Adobe Premiere. Basically once you have an i7 CPU and GTX 1660 Ti, there is almost no benefit getting a higher tier GPU, at least in terms of export time with the videos I make, maybe if you have some sort of GPU intensive task it might help. I use a GH5 too with 4K video, granted I use a Threadripper PC to edit most of my videos, I use an 8th gen i7 and GTX 1070 Max-Q (performs similarly to 1660 Ti) and it works quite well.
@@JarrodsTech Thank You for your time answering. Now I'm thinking between Gigabyte Aero 15, Lenovo X1 Extreme Gen2, Eluktronics MAG-15 and Lenovo ThinkPad P53, but it has Quadro GPU and I still don't understand if it would be good decision for video editing. I found information, that Quadro is great for engineering computing and 3D rendering. In my opinion, Premiere and After Effects would benefit more from GTX.
Hi Jarrod, if neither laptops had BIOS bug issues regarding thermal limitations, do you know roughly how much battery consumption the 2070 would be more than 1060 with regards to just simple office work? Cheers
Hi Jarrod, thanks for the quality review. I was on the edge of getting the 1660TI variant, but with a special offer I can get the RTX 2070 for less than 100 EUR additionally. Putting that aside: how much of an impact is the DLSS 2.0 in this regard?
I only tested 2.0 for the first time in my recent Aero 17 game test video in Control, it was pretty good actually, but that said it still only exists for 5 games, I wouldn't spend the extra money for RTX in mind personally, but up to you and how much that matters to you, in a way it's a bit of a gamble because who knows what future games will support it.
@Jarrod'sTech do you think MAG 15 is better than Razer Blade 15?? and did you like the keyboard because everyone is saying that the keyboard dosent feel nice?
For the battery issue fix, check out xmg subreddit. They has a fix for it. Before using xmg method, I was getting 3-4h for my 2070 version. After using the xmg method, I was getting around 6.5h
Hi Jarrod's, ive been looking for a gaming laptop for awhile now. im leaning towards Scar II or Scar III because of FHD 144 or 244hz and the GPU 2070 and if i understand it correct the Scar is NOT using MAX-Q.. besides the Scar II and III can you recommend any other thats similar spec that's available in our home town Australia :D ..i only saw the Asus , Alienware and Acer.. i didnt look at other brands thats not so famous. after watching this vid. it looks like 1660 Ti and 2070 MAX-Q is the same? so im after the full 2070
Hi, correct, Scar does not use Max-Q 2070. Hmm lenovo stuff is generally priced pretty well here, or Metabox who sell Clevo units from Perth which are also generally cheaper than most of the bigger brands. You cannot use this video to fairly compare the 1660 Ti and the 2070 Max-Q, as per the pinned comment, that is not the purpose of it. It is purely and only to compare them within the Vapor 15, which thermally restricts performance of both. In most cases a 2070 Max-Q will outperform the 1660 Ti by a fair margin.
I picked up an Alienware m15 that has a 2070 max q, 16 gb ram, i7 9750h, 1 tb nvme, 144hz screen, and wifi 6 for the price of 1400. For the price of $1400 I though it was a bargain and Im enjoying it as a secondary device.
@@JarrodsTech thanks I saw it on slick deals and couldn't over look the price I even thought of picking up a laptop with 1660ti based on your reviews until I found that deal. Keep up the good work I enjoy your content.
is something wrong with the cooling mechanism for this laptop? Cause I saw most 2070 maxQ laptops in your other reviews can hit 90watts power with lower than 75 degrees in GPU temperature. Such as Acer and Lenovo etc
Hey jarrod, which would you prefer if you could only choose one laptop between the max 15, mag 15 and the mech 15 g3? Would you do a review on mech 15 g3?
Never tested mech so can't fairly compare, hopefully they will send it soon though. I like mag personally because I need SD slot, bigger battery, Thunderbolt and mech keyboard is nice. If I just wanted raw gaming performance, then max over mag.
Jarrod'sTech what about the bigger version of max 15, max 17? It has a bigger battery too, will the max 17 prevails over the mag 15 for your choices in term of overall?
How about choosing a popular laptop like the Helios 300 and doing a thermal repaste video to see how it affects the temperature and performance! It'll be interesting ❤️
I'd love to buy I can only do it with laptops I own. If I change the paste on a borrowed review unit and send it back, it will go to the next reviewer without stock paste and they will report incorrect data without knowing due to what I've done.
Whats up dude, got a question. I've been looking to buy a 1660 ti gaming x this month, but I'm not sure if I should wait for the black friday sale coming up. Since the card came out this year 2019 in febuary I'm not sure it will even have a sale. Any thoughts?
wth that's so close! I can't believe how close these are, especially considering there's another GPU that's marketed right in-between these (2060). Do you think there's even any point in paying extra for 2070maxq/2060 laptops if one doesn't care about rtx?
Yes. As mentioned in the pinned comment, this is NOT a good example of the real differences between these two. In this example, both GPUs are thermal throttled at 75c in games, so we're not getting full performance. I have better comparisons that fairly show the differences without restrictions here: 2060 vs 2070 Max-Q: ua-cam.com/video/chMwINWqIUc/v-deo.html 1660 Ti vs 2060: ua-cam.com/video/X59_-ol8H88/v-deo.html
Hey Jarrod. About the 1660 ti, does it come with Nvidia Optimus? And about the keyboard, is there anyway to switch on the media shortcut, like volume up/down without holding Fn key. I played around with it at aftershocks but couldn't find it. Wonder if it was in the bios. Cheers
Yes, both do. Not actually sure about the keyboard shortcuts, I don't recall macro key settings in the limited control panel so my guess is probably not, at least with the version I had during testing, but it's getting regular updates.
@@JarrodsTech really hope they will do something about that. I'm really keen about the 1660 ti model. They have a pretty good deal currently. 2200 from 2353 but I noticed they dropped the nvme from 512 to 256 but give you free thermal grizzly instead. Still good. Lol
Awesome you review dota 2!! I only play dota 2 trying to buy a.gaming laptop just for dota 2 looks like I'll be getting the 1660Ti ..or is there a better gaming laptop out there???
You mention 160 watt power draw for the 2070 while gaming. Do you believe a 180watt power brick would be sufficient if not running benchmarks all the time ?
The thing you forgot that the 2070 maw q has some decent RTX capacity, and that combine with the improvement of RTX performances thanks to driver update can be a big factor for someone that just want to play Solo and "pretty" game.
Do you think applying Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut will improve the performance of the 2070? Is there a way to get the 80 watts power limit or the cooling solution as bottleneck won't allow it?
Maybe, hard to say, I've used kryonaut on 2 of my personal laptops and saw zero change, so comes down to how good their stock paste is, I'd probably just pay them to do liquid metal.
Laptops are so frustrating. With a different cooling solutions and different power usage, it is hard to extrapolate between manufacturers. Sometimes you see a much bigger difference. With that said, maybe it's not so bad that Lenovo legion is pairing the AMD 400 0 to the 1660 ti. That may be the value champion across the board. Best processor with very good graphics card for the money
Okay, one year latar, XMG just basically cut the price of its Mag-15 equivalent. The 2070 MQ model now starts at *1600* euros, as opposed to 2000 euros. That's...okay cool. That battery life tho. Has this been fixed?
I think the difference between 2070mxq vs 1660ti is certainly noticeable and 2070mxq is the better card although probably not $300 better. On the other hand, the difference between 2070mxq and 2060 is almost indiscernible. for budget reason, it is probably wiser to choose a 2060 on laptops (2060 just slightly more expensive than 1660ti). However, the strength of 2070mxq really is that it can be fit into a ultra thin laptop for better thermo. if you are down for ultrathin gaming laptop, pick 2070mxq, otherwise dont bother.
Yeah it's better just comes down to price at the end of the day. To be fair could probably get more out of the 2070 max-q by boosting the temperature limit, but yeah didn't look into that here.
I'm about to pull the trigger on an xmg fusion 15 and have been unsure of whether to go for the 2070 or 1660ti. I think after this video I'm going to go for the 1660ti as I really don't see the price VS graphical gains are worth it. Would be interested to know if you have any other suggestions for a thin and light laptop for gaming. I travel extensively so need something compact with good gaming specs
@@JarrodsTech argh everytime I feel like I'm firm with my decision something comes along to rock the boat. The xmg fusion (I'm I Europe) is now €150 off making the 2070 option more viable to me. Really not that fussed about Ray tracing but thinking it might be the better option for running vr to my oculus quest
I'm not sure, I haven't been following the matter and no longer have the laptop to do follow up testing. Apparently it can happen with either of them though, it's a control center bug rather than to do with the hardware config.
Hi jarrod between metabox alfa 58rc and aftershock which one you ganna choose? I am looking a laptop somewhere around 15 to 2 grand can you plz help me out which one is better. I am heavy users of premier pro and lightroom.
Ok, Jarrod, I am about to buy my first gaming laptop, the only games i'm using is Train Simulators , on STEAM, from MS & Dovetail Games, with Windows 10 , now it's playing slow and choppy, but i'm a bit confused with all the graphic cards available, I plan to get a SSD 1 tb do you have any suggestions on what would be the best graphics card for me, any help and suggestions would greatly appreciated , Thank You, James Lee
Honestly no experience with those games so really hard for me to say what they need, sorry, you'd have to check benchmarks of that specific game to get a rough idea of what to expect, I'd only be guessing - that said a 1660 Ti can play any modern game no issues at all and is a good mid range option for the money.
Update: I have confirmation the battery difference outside of gaming is due to a bug in the control center software.
Just to be clear, this video isn't showing the general differences between 1660 Ti vs 2070 Max-Q, it's specific to the Vapor 15/MAG-15/Fusion 15 laptops. Thermal limits of 75c are clearly the primary limitation to GPU performance here.
Thank you for the video Jarrod!
In the video you mention the fans sound alike at high loads, but do you have any impressions of the fans from the two at lower loads? Lighter games or idle-ing?
Thank you
They didn't seem too bad, you can listen to the fan speeds in the thermal testing video here: ua-cam.com/video/qDrxVxFllIk/v-deo.html
1) Did you manage to tweak the GPU temp limit to push it above 75? I couldnt seem to do it on Asus GPU TWEAK 2 with my Triton 500 2060
2) What is the wattage of this 2070 Max Q?
Please make a comparison video between Mag 15 vs Aero 15. I'm considering to buy a lightweight with good battery life gaming laptop. Thanks a lot
Could you give us the source you got the info on the bug from? It is windows related or bios related? (I'm planning on dual booting the machine with windows and ubuntu). Incidentally, has it been fixed?
Thankyou for still including dota 2 in your tests.. actually you being the only one who reviews and benchmark multiple laptops with dota is the reason i subscribed to you!!
Schubligify what’s your address?
@@quackers7063 lol
@@quackers7063 well, of course, at the cancerous burning pit, where all the other cancers of DOTA2 resides: Philippines!
No problem!
@@JarrodsTech
could you add Overwatch into your benchmarks?
Thanks Jarod. You're only one youtuber to show that 2070 version is a crap. I’ll take 1660ti -version after your video. Thanks for saving my wallet. Love you!
what do you mean? The 2070Q is faster in everything. lol
It's not crap dude. The battery life is caused by a bug that either machines can have. And it would be even higher graphically if you unlocked the system to 87° most likely. I have the 1660ti version though.
No problem! @Frank yeah but it's not worth the extra large amount of money for most people. @Nathan yeah I've heard that, like I said I wouldn't rely on the battery results to base the decision on.
@@JarrodsTech extra price something like + 100% of price(for most of laptops )
+ €465 in Europe for 2070mq. Terrible value.
you're a legend
Cheers 😊
Even before i watched
I can tell it's a great video
I've been waiting for so long to see that
I was watching mkbhd and closed the video to see this one
😁
This video finally did it for me and finally decided on my first true gaming laptop. Mag 15 1660 Ti. Can't wait to receive it!!!
Nice 😁😁
CV how is it so far?
@@tserings2228 Been loving it. The keyboard is phenomenal. I can play Monster Hunter at all graphics at its max. The only thing is i wish had another USB C and that brick of a adapter is to very irritating to carry around. Other than that I love it.
I’ve been looking forward to this vid (you mentioned you would be doing it in a previous video). It’s great seeing how the two cards affect overall performance, and your video really helps one make an informed choice when buying. The MAG-15 is currently one of two laptops I’m looking at buying, so I’m very interested in what you have to say about it. Black Friday is going to be a lot of fun this year.
Here in Canada the price difference is roughly $300 CDN, so the 2070 may be a worthwhile choice for us.
I would also suggest that by going with a higher performance gpu now one might be able to go longer before needing to upgrade.
Hope it was everything you wanted it to be 😁
Thanks for mentioning the XMG Fusion.
👍
Glad I ordered the 1660ti! Looks like its the best value. Cant wait to get my vapor 15!
Nice 👍
Mind if I ask where did u get one? U from United States?
I got it from aftershock Singapore. I am from singapore. In the US, you can get the eluktronics mag 15. That's the US equivalent
@@ChubbyUA-camr I'm from sg too what is your specs and how much was it looking to get it soon
@@amanisaini8696 hi, I got the 1660ti, 2tb samsung ssd, 32gb ram. $3200 plus. U can opt to remove the aftershock logo, giving it an even cleaner look
Can’t wait for Acer Helios 300 gtx 1660 ti 2019 vs rtx 2070 max-q 2020 version performance👍
Yeah I pick the 1660ti anytime anywhere and saves that extra dollar for Black Friday
Thanks Jarrod nice video as always
I got 1660ti laptop. And it's worth it xD
Xuân Nguyễn what frames are you getting while playing some
Triple A titles
No problem!
@@avxrevo I know this is late, but I get like 100ish fps when I play warzone in Modern Warfare and between 120 and 140 in regular multiplayer. It does thermal throttle sometimes though, so I've had to prop it up on something so it cools better on my desk. Overall it's great though considering the price and mobility. For context I have the 32 GB of RAM version with the 1660 ti
@@dannyboy6947 were you playing in the highest settings or was it adjusted to reach those frames?
The differences in battery life kinda confuse me
It's just a bug
Yeah weird stuff, either way shows current issues that exist with the platform.
Jarrod'sTech hey do you know if the battery problem has been fixed on the 2070 max q version?
@@danraj23ful It's s bug they can both have and not completely fixed. You can fix yourself if you have it though.
Nathan Casey how do you fix the battery issue?
Just ordered my Komplett Khameleon P9 with the 1660 TI because of this video, keep up the amazing work!
Thanks
Hey Jarrod! Just made a big quarantine purchase and your videos really helped me come to an informed decision. Ended up going with the Vapor Pro 1660ti, can't wait to see how it performs!
how is it?
It's only 69.99 more for the 2070 max q version today. The 1660ti version has 144hz display with a 512gb ssd. The rtx 2070 max q version has a 240hz 3ms display with a 1tb nvme ssd. Worth the little extra money for sure. Also they both have the i7 10750h now.
I just ordered mine after selling my desktop for 7k due to needing something more portable.
Sadly to everyone's disappointment (I know the price isn't justifiable) I got the 2070 with 32gs of ram. Super excited to pick mine up Friday though!!
Thanks for the review champ. Sending love from Melbourne and hope you're doing ok during the corona virus lockdowns bro
No problem! Hope you like it 👍 all good here, I work from home so not too big of a change!
I got the 1660ti and it cook me breakfast in the morning. Every day. Awesome value 😉😂
lol
i really appreciate that you added captions thanks man
No problem!
I got the 1660 ti variant and undervolted both the cpu and gpu. I get a stable gpu speed of 1875mhz in games and around 70 degrees celsius temp avg for both the cpu and gpu while gaming, almost never hitting the 74 temp limit of the gpu. Also ran Timespy a few times and I got between 6150-6200 scores. The same performance you'd get from a 1660 ti desktop. If you are willing to tinker, I highly recommend going for the 1660 ti variant.
Thank you for the in-depth review.
You covered every aspect that I was looking for. Subscribed:)
Good to hear, welcome to the channel!
just bought the aftershock vapor 15 1660ti! cant wait to recieve it. will be trying undervolting
Nice!
update: recieved, only managed to push it to -0.130v. i am also using the opolar vacuum cooler and so far performance is great. loving the windows hello too
@@high5083 how are the thermals without the cooling pad?
Just ordered XMG Fusion with 1660ti, and doesnt look the 2070mq was worth those 465euro premium.
Nice, yeah I agree
Almost rm3000 in premium or $750 in my country.. thanks really much Jarrod,now i can share this info to my friends 👍
Which website did you ordered from? Are you from the UK?
Same here, def not worth it for that price tag
@@lennoxchen8646 You can order from bestware.com
Thank you very much for this comparison Jarrod'sTech! First on youtube I believe. I've been waiting with baited breath for this clip, and you certainly didn't disappoint! In trademark style the video showed everything we need to know and was high quality. And best of all, you saved me $780! The battery life difference was baffling, but the real kicker was just how close the gap was between the two cards. I wish this laptop shipped with a full 2060, rather than trying to be edgy with a max-Q card.
No problem at all, happy to help! Yeah bit strange the 2060 was skipped, would have been interesting to test with the 75c limit test but time didn't allow that unfortunately, I figure most people would run at stock anyway so the comparison should be valid in most cases.
Hi guys!
thanks Jarrod for your videos, they're extremely detailed and very useful!
I moved to UK at the end of december 2019 for work reason.
I work in photography and video field but I'm a gamer as well.
Actually I've a custom built desktop PC, which is in my country of origin (Italy) with liquid cooling and a old 3930k, 32gb, 1060. With all the components the total weight 18kgs.
Shipping it to UK it's very risky and pricey. Also, I don't have much space to place a desktop, with standalone monitor and so on.
Also I'm a VR gamer (Rift S).
As mobile workstation I've a 1st Gen Surface Book.
So I'm considering seeling my desktop PC and the Surface Book to have a single machine for work and gaming, compatible with Oculus Rift S, which has the limitation of working only on laptop with the GPU ability to be attached to the display port. Otherwise it won't work.
My choice would be between Razer Blade Base Model 2019 with 1660ti (1190£ actually on Amazon) and Eluktronics Mag-15/XMG Fusion 15.
The Fusion 15 is 1298£ with 1660 ti. The 2070 Max Q upgrade is +240€/215£.
Please, share your experience and your minds about these two products if you like.
Reading on the internet looks like the Mag-15 is better built, less issues and better support.
Thank you :-)
On point! Thanks again Jarrod! This is very informative. Cheers! 🍻
👍
I agree, why would you pay 50% more for a laptop for a marginal 10-15% increase in performance. 2070maxQ is terribad value in my opinion.
I'm going (sadly) for the 2070max-q because I need at least 8gb vram to edit 4k smoothly on Davinci Resolve and because Resolve also benefits in some features from the rt cores. Also, Blender is already in plans to make use of the rt cores in future updates for denoising. In my case, those specific content creator needs push me to the 2070max-q. Other than that it would make no sense AT ALL to get it over the 1660ti. For ray tracing in games, I believe the ASUS Strix Scar iii would be a better choice, even with the rtx2060.
Thank you again for the great work Jarrod. At least I am making an informed buy.
Yeah fair enough, makes sense for those sorts of workloads
Happy to come across this comment, I just bought the machine with 2070max-q for the very same reason. Resolve, Blender and everything else. I'm curious to know how its going so far over the last 7 months? I'd love to know!
@@housechimp2695 I got another laptop in the end (Mech 15 gr2x) also from Eluktronics (American version of the one shown here) with the same specs rtx 2070max-q, 16 gb RAM, 8gb VRAM. I chose that one because of a sweet deal I got for Christmas. So, I will talk about how functional the specs are for work, putting aside that is another laptop (in case that still works for you). The specs are perfect for most tasks, certainly more than enough for Blender. In Resolve it will depend on the ambition of your edit. 16gb is more than enough for a regular edit and very light use of fusion, 32gb will work better if you plan to make more use of fusion and color grading. If, on the other hand you need a lot of Fusion and color grading, you should definitively go for 64gb RAM. HOWEVER, I recommend starting with 16gb RAM since is more than enough for most of the stuff you need to do. If you find yourself struggling from there I think you can then upgrade your RAM according to what I said previously. Hope that helps.
@@faithalityblog I appreciate the helpful insights! Thank you for that. No questions asked I went with 32gb RAM as I can easily choke on 16gb doing general digital production. But for editing, I never realized that color-grading is also memory demanding but it makes sense. Glad I went with 32gb.. As for 2070max-q in relation to CGI/Blender, has it proven valuable in your experience (heavy-production and rendering)? Examples include photo-realism (using multiple 2-4k texture maps on one object) or complex scenes and the rendering? I know there are techniques and tricks to reduce the cost of rendering (filmic lighting etc) but I wonder if the 2070max-q has proven to be better at maintaining your production demands than the 1660ti.
@@housechimp2695 I am sure the 1660Ti is enough for Blender. However, Blender has been working with NVIDIA to get hardware accelerated ray tracing for cycles (this feature however is still under development as far as I know). THIS was a selling point for me (besides being aware of how GPU intensive Resolve is). Also, both Resolve and the future Blender update make use of the Tensa cores present in the RTX cards to optimize some features (Speed warp, facial recognition, etc, in Resolve and an AI denoiser in Blender). For this however, you will need to install the NVIDIA studio drivers instead of the gaming ones . As far as I know, you can still play videogames with these drivers (I've tried a couple). However, since I use my laptop strictly for work I really don't know if that could affect you in some games. I have not made a direct comparison in render speeds between the two cards, so I fail you on that one, but I went with the RTX card for those extra features, not so much for added rendering speed (I am sure the extra 2gb of VRAM will prove helpful in some of the most demanding tasks though).
Thanks for the comparison! Looks like for me atleast the 1660ti version is a great combination for this laptop.
No problem!
All I have to say is... After playing with my new HP OMEN dc 1047nr i7 950 32GB RAM and the RTX 2070 max q for about a week now, there's not a game I've played with MAX ULTRA SUPER graphic settings that went under 60FPS and whatever FPS it was for a particular game, it stayed steady in that FPS range. It didn't jump around driving me crazy. Granted, I don't know if the G SYNC had something to do with the steadiness of the FPS , but it was smooth pleasurable gaming for sure! What a powerhouse. I don't know what the hell "MAX Q". is but it sure made me a happy camper. If price isn't a factor then by all means do grab the RTX 2070 Max q and do enjoy this life we have and all the modern technology that's available to us... ALL of us 💖
Good to hear, for what it's worth, almost any 2070 Max-Q laptop will outperform the results in this video due to the throttling. This video isn't meant to give a general idea of performance from it, just a specific comparison for this model :)
Thanks for the insight and informative video. When I picked my helios 300 laptop choice between the 1660 ti or the other choices like the rtx 2060 or rtx 2070 max q, i'm glad I picked the 1660 ti route since not only it's already a capable gpu but can also save some money and like you said, it provides good value.
I also went with 1660ti. Super happy with performance.
@@pathofexile7529 yeah the 1660ti performance is actually shocking tbh
Just to be clear, this video isn't showing 1660 Ti vs 2070 Max-Q as a general concept, it's specific to the Vapor 15/MAG-15/Fusion 15 laptops. I will pin this to make it known.
Thank you for the amazing review just in time cuz I was curious about the mag 15
No problem!
I had the helios 300 with 1660ti 16gb ram 144hz is was alright
Now I updated to triton 300 with 2070 max q 16gb ram 240hz
I can say that performance is noticeable, games are smother on 2070 max q, frames are higher and more stable
Just an opinion
In my country there was only a 200$ difference between the 1660ti and the 2070 max q laptop, so i bought the 2070
its an hp omen, and i will never regret it because it more future proof option.
great video anyways 👍
Thanks, this video isn't really relevant to that unfortunately. This information is specific to the Mag, other laptops should have much higher limits for the 2070, so yours is probably doing better than what is shown here
Hello. Nice review as always. I am mainly getting these high performance or gaming laptops for rendering architecture models. (Gaming is 2nd priority Do you think RTX has a significant advantage over GTX? and i also looking at he eluktronics max 15 or mag 15. Thanks. Also im deciding between eluktronics max15 and the legion y540. which one do you prefer? Thanks.
Great review. You mentioned and and compared the things that no one do again👍
Thanks!
i'd want to thank you for making this comparison. i've been on the fence whether or not to buy an rtx laptop but now i see that i can save some money with the current generation laptops seeing as the price for a 1660Ti to an rtx laptop is basically double in my country
Happy to help! For what it's worth, this is only useful comparing these specific laptops. In general, a 2070 max-q will perform much better than what I'm showing here.
Nice comparison Jarrod. Do you happen to have some results from both machines if you use the Asus tweak to remove the 75 Celsius limitation from the GPU? They should both perform better but I'm curious if the 2070 Max Q would perform a bit better compared to the 1660 ti.
Me too, i want limit to 87C and see then the full performance comparing... i think then the difference will be more.
@@AlexNN3 It should. But the 1660 to turns into a beast with the 75° cap lifted tbh
No, I did not test that one unfortunately. Honestly did not have time, too much going on at the moment and I figured most people would use theirs at stock without knowing about it.
Nathan Casey "Beast" as in good or bad
Hi Jarrod, thanks for another great video. I was very tempted to get the 1660ti version of this laptop, especially after watching your full review of it. However, with the click frenzy sales on I scored a Lenovo y740 15inch for less than the price of the 1660ti version of this laptop. Hopefully I made a good choice. Keep up the great videos :)
Based on the mention of click frenzy I assume you're in Australia, in which case the 740 was probably much cheaper, so it'll do well for the money.
@@JarrodsTech just a quick update, I got the y740 yesterday and I am very happy with the purchase. The specs I got were, i7 9750h, 16gb ram, GTX 1660ti, 1tb m.2 total cost was $1836aud. I love the premium feel of the chassis and it's fairly thin for a gaming laptop. The thermals seem very cool in games and the 144hz screen (non gsync) make them buttery smooth. Overall I'm one happy chappy. Thanks to content creators such as yourself I was able to make an informed decision even though I never saw the laptop in person before purchase.
how's the screen of this laptop? is it good for content creation? and is it good than latest Hp Omen 15 ?
This was unexpected, 2070 Max-Q is slightly better than 1660 TI and costs significantly more! 2070 Max-Q is a high segment of video cards, and 1660 TI is average, but performance is very close. 1660 TI is the absolute top in its price today.
In this specific instance I think it's due to the 75c temp limit on the GPU being the limitation, they're both subject to the same limit.
Thanks Jarod! I've been waiting for this review! Left me something to think about on the GPU. Do both the laptops perform well under CPU intensive tasks?
Yeah they seem to do pretty well
hmm, here I thought the 2070 max q would absolutely kill it
Yeah apparently not 😰
It might if you undo the 75 degree thermal limit. Undervolt the CPU and limit the TDP to get a steadt CPU temperature and without the heat the GPU should perform much better still with acceptable temperatures. The 75 deg thermal limit is stupid, no other way to put it
@@aashutoshrijal4741 Is there actually a way to 'undo' the thermal limit? I'm considering buying this laptop and whilst I would be prepared to pay the extra for a better gpu, the meager increase in performance is off-putting.
@@yaroslavchechel6116 yes you'll need to download the Asus GPU tweak tool. There you can manually increase the thermal limit frim 75 to 87 (max). You'll need the program to be running in the background at all times for the tweak to be functional
Jerod First, thanks for making your video-super awesome, great content, great video work. There's been talk on some reddit forums that the 2070 has been going down to 3-4 hrs battery life with some of the Intel XTU app. 40 mW power consumption by that app even when not actively running in the foreground. Any chance this was happening in your You tube test?
1660ti version as well
Could be, though I did do a windows reset so the app wasn't installed and it still happened, maybe a BIOS issue, don't know.
Thanks mate. I was wandering the difference, your video cleared up so much and answered all my questions.
Another one though, I would imagine the 2070mq is louder as well ?
I tested both at max fan speed so didn't bother looking into it, probably somewhat similar though.
XMG Fusion 15 with RTX 2070 Max Q now only 200 euros more than the 1660 Ti. Is this now worth the extra spend against performance with the latest firmware updates/DLC planned a few months ago?
Hi Jarrod!
First of all thank you for your great work reviewing laptops on your channel.
I´m a vfx artist and due that I have to travel a lot for work I need a power and light laptop. I mostly use my pc with programs like maya, houdini and I also use it for gaming.
I was thinking about buying a razer blade but after all the bad feedback I though about buying the XMG Fusion 15 here in Europe.
Here are the questions:
Do you have any recommendation for my kind of profile?
Does it worth it spending more money on an RTX instead of GTX for GPU 3D rendering?
Should I wait for a new generations of laptops (maybe the asus proart ones)?
Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Kind regards!
Hey, yeah I'd be looking at this chassis over the Blade myself due to the price difference as it offers many of the same and extra features. As for the GPU difference, I don't have much experience with 3D rendering workloads (I wanted to include more benchmarks for that in the video but ran out of time unfortunately) so hard to say. Technically the 2070 Max-Q will do better, I think if you use it for work and make money with the machine then spending the extra for something you will use for years could be worthwhile. The pro art ones look decent, but will probably be expensive and not sure how they perform yet, hopefully I can get some to cover on the channel in future.
Thank you very much for your quick response. Your opinion is very important for me.
I’ve been using a mountain IVY 17 which is an old clevo chasis from 2012 but now is almost impossible working with it. I know, I was time to buy a new machine from while ago.
Thanks again for your time and consideration.
Best!
Thank you so much! This is the review I am searching for, and have helped me on saving bunch of money!
Happy to help!
Firstly good job i love your channel and waiting for this comparing but something is off (maybe). For what i know like you mention yourself 2060 is better then 1660ti like 12+% and 2070maxq is better then 2060 6-7%, its strange that the gap between the 2070maxq and 1660 is that small. People must not looking to compare low settings and old games and says its not worth it 5fps, always look for newest games and difference in high , ultra settings. I think in this laptop the problem for this result is that GPUs are limited to 75C. I am very interesting if you use asus tweek to change the limit to 87C, is the results between them will be different. I strongly considering to buy XMG Fusion 15 sometime in near future and for sure i will remove the 75C thermal limit for the GPU. Also thing to buy the 2070maxq not because of re-tracing, its just more powerful.I think with some tweek the gap between them will be more.
Yes, something is off. It's that the GPUs are thermal throttling at 75c by design, so performance is lost due to that. This video is not comparing the 1660 Ti and 2070 Max-Q as a general best case, it's specific to this chassis only. Yes if you raise the temperature limit it will probably do better, however I did not make the time to do this.
For the battery test, i read on reddit on XMG forum that latest nvidia drivers + their control center + hwinfo software make optimus not work well or something...and battery drain faster. Intel working on this problem.Maybe its only on 2070 card but still this will be fixed and battery life when not gaming must be the same if not using graphic intense programs that use dedicated GPU.
hmmmm
Does this comparison of GTX 1660ti and RTX 2070 Max Q apply to other laptops as well? Like for example the new Razer Blade 15 which have GTX 1660ti vs the ones which have RTX 2070/2060?
No it does not, the difference would be larger, as both of these are thermally limited by the BIOS to 75c which caps performance - some more info in the pinned comment.
@@JarrodsTech thanks !!
1660ti is better and cheaper
For my use
Thank you so much
Now i can buy it without any thinking
👌
Hi Jarrod, were the test on the 2070 max Q done with dlss2.0 activated? If not, would there be a much bigger difference in performance?
Nice comparison.
I'm in EU so XMG is most relevant to me. They're releasing their Ryzen 4000 based Core 15 laptop in the next month or two.
Jarrod, do you think it's worth waiting for a Ryzen 4000 based system? TUF A15 is also on my radar, but would prefer to buy an XMG.
Thanks! Ryzen 4000 looks good just depends what GPU you want as there doesn't really seem to be many higher end GPU options available. Still waiting to get the A15 so not too sure how it goes, heard bad things about the screen though.
@@JarrodsTech Ok, thanks a lot for the reply. I've heard similar, which tips the balance further in XMG's favour!
I will stick with 1660ti (or 2060 if good offer comes up) due to performance/price balance.
Great review, Jarrod! About to pull the trigger on the MAG15 1660ti, but wondering if the 90c CPU temps during gaming are with the stock paste or with Eluktronics' liquid metal and repaste?
Curious to see if its worth purchasing from Eluktronics' site with the LM and thermal repaste. Amazon is offering the stock paste with a headset, mouse, hdmi cable, and mouse pad for the same price. Not sure where to get it from.
Thanks! Mine weren't from Eluktronics, so not sure what stock paste they use, but from memory Aftershock sent them with what ever they use for stock paste. Personally I would just pay the extra for liquid metal application by the pros given the thermals being a limit, probably have to get it direct via their website for paste modification.
@@JarrodsTech thanks for the response! I've never dealt with liquid metal on laptops, but have heard it will need to be reapplied after sometime. Probably the case for this as well, I assume?
Dear Jarrod, thank you for your awesome work! You are the only channel that I found with such comprehensive gaming (and not only) reviews, and I thought this is the only place I can solve my dilemma. But, even in your channel, I didn't find benchmarks of laptops with i5 CPU! I am deciding between i5 9300H and i7 9570h, both with 1660 ti. But every laptop you reviewed with such graphics card (or 2060) has i7 cpu. May be I missed something, but I opened every Gaming benchmark video I could see of the last year in your channel, and there was no i5 with such level of graphics cards. I only had time to compare Dota 2, all laptops with i7 showed the same performance (180fps), even if they had 1660 ti or 2080 max-q. But what about i5? Will it be much slower as amd 3750h (100fps)? What about other games, like PUBG, Overwatch, Fortnite? I really hope that I missed i5 & 1660ti (2060) laptop review, if so, could you please give a link?
Cheers! I really want to compare the i5 and i7, trust me it'd do 200k views no problem haha, I just haven't been sent any i5 laptops to do the comparison fairly. I bought an i5 laptop, the Lenovo L340, to do this, but didn't realise that it was single channel memory when I bought it so I can't actually use it to do the comparison. I have compared the i5-8300H with the 3750H on the channel, and the i5 was a fair bit better, and the 9th gen should be a little ahead.
@@JarrodsTech Oh, thanks! I just saw that video, compared benchmarks and decided to go with i7 :) You've already done a lot of awesome work, thank you again :)
Now I don't regret buying 1660ti laptop, Thanks Jarrod!
No problem!
Hi! great comparison, but I was thinking what the results will be undervolting the gpu
Do you think the rtx will gain more fps?
Thanks!
Possibly, not sure I don't test it as I've never found it to make a perf gain only temps.
Hey Jarrod - thanks for the great video, as always.
I am looking into either getting the Mag-15 or the Zephyrus S GX502 (RTX2060). Do you have any suggestions as to which I should get? I will likely not be playing many AAA titles and I do place a premium on build quality, thermals, and noise. I understand the Zephyrus is loud, but I was hoping the 2060 model mixed with repasting would help curb that. But, after seeing your reviews, I am back in the thinker. Any advice? Thanks!
The GX502 will outperform it assuming the 1660 Ti Mag-15, depends what you care about though. I'd get the Mag-15 because I prefer the bigger battery, mech keyboard, SD card slot and Thunderbolt 3. That said I have not used the 2060 version of the Zephyrus so not sure how it runs, changing the paste could help if they use sub-optimal paste at the factory.
Could you do a review on the Aftershock Vapor 15X?
Nvm, everyone, it's the eluktronics max 15. Just that now it comes with the 10th gen CPU
Thanks for the review Jarod. To your question, as to what GPU I would go for and why. I would pick the RTX 2070 MaxQ. The reason is, that I am an engineer who is working on Machine Learning problems, not only at work but also in my free time (gaming maybe 2% of time). Thus, the extra VRam really comes in handy, especially given that the RTX architecture can hold larger models than the GTX series. Also I would like to say that, I think that machine learning/programming applications should also be included in the review and benchmarking of such machines. In my opinion, the machine learning/programmers community is widely overlooked, but we are there :) ... and we also look for powerful laptops to buy :)
Yeah fair enough, makes more sense in that case. I'd be interested in adding those in future, however I have no personal experience with those sorts of workloads. What sort of benchmarks are available for those tasks that I could add?
I would dearly love this laptop with an 8 core, even the base 2.3ghz. It would literally make it the perfect windows laptop for me. Oh well.
Me too!
Hi all! Love the content from Jarrod. I'm a computer newbie and wanted to know what 1% low meant.
Thanks! It's a way of showing the dips in performance, this video explains it well: ua-cam.com/video/l6WgbfG_z-k/v-deo.html
Perfect comparison, perfect video. Thank you !
No problem!
Thanks for the great review!!! One question: How does the 1660 Ti perform in the Premiere Pro timeline with 4k footage? Just like the 2070 version?
1660 Ti is one of the best options for Premiere exporting, I find no real difference going to higher GPU from that point - at least in the videos that I make on the channel. I don't think the GPU matters much for the timeline, seems to be more CPU dependent in my own experience.
Jarrod'sTech exporting doesnt really utilize GPU tho? Youd have to look at timeline playback (4K?) to see Which one performs the best.
Got my 2070 max-q at 2060 price. Max-q dynamic boost ON makes mine boost like a 2070 and DLSS really boosts it more. 1660Ti would have been more awesome if they put some tensor core in them for DLSS.
Hey Jarrod, new sub here. What a well thought and in-depth review. Awesome job sir. One request - Can we have comparison between 1660ti vs 2070 max q vs 2080 max q for 1080p and 1440p?
Thanks! I'd like to, but to do it properly I'd need 3 laptops that are all the same with the only difference being the GPU, and I'm not sure I'm able to arrange that at the moment.
@@JarrodsTech I understand. Which one would you recommend for 1440p gaming and for long term solution :)
@@PSK385 you didn't give enough information for him to have answered that inquiry.
Hello Jarrod. I'm looking for new 15 inch laptop for video editing with Adobe Premiere and After Effects and now I'm just creating my list of "must have things" on my future laptop. I don't have experience with newest models, because I'm working with Lenovo T540p (i7-4710MQ/16GB RAM/NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M) which I bought 3 years ago and one of my requirements was good build quality, because sometimes I have to work in the car or outside, so maybe my ThinkPad looks ugly, but it's build like a tank :)
So now my "must have" list looks like that:
9gen i7 or higher CPU,
NVME SSD,
Dual channel RAM (Min. 32GB),
not glossy screen,
SD card reader,
minimum 3 USB ports.
Now I'm confused about GPU. I don't play games at all, but I see that a lot of youtubers promoting new RTX cards for editing. My Lenovo wasn't bad at editing even with this GT730M card, but when I started using Panasonic GH5, my laptop became slower with higher bitrates an 4K from this camera. Of course, my CPU isn't good and If I have time, I use proxies, but overall I need to upgrade my system, because I want faster randering and smoother perfomance. So back to GPU, what graphics card would you recommend for video editing? In my opinion GTX 1660 or something would be good choice.
I've heard thinkpads are still much like that, unfortunately I haven't had a chance to ever test one as Lenovo are a little hard to get things out of to test. If you check out my more recent laptop reviews, I have a lot more data with Adobe Premiere. Basically once you have an i7 CPU and GTX 1660 Ti, there is almost no benefit getting a higher tier GPU, at least in terms of export time with the videos I make, maybe if you have some sort of GPU intensive task it might help. I use a GH5 too with 4K video, granted I use a Threadripper PC to edit most of my videos, I use an 8th gen i7 and GTX 1070 Max-Q (performs similarly to 1660 Ti) and it works quite well.
@@JarrodsTech Thank You for your time answering. Now I'm thinking between Gigabyte Aero 15, Lenovo X1 Extreme Gen2, Eluktronics MAG-15 and Lenovo ThinkPad P53, but it has Quadro GPU and I still don't understand if it would be good decision for video editing. I found information, that Quadro is great for engineering computing and 3D rendering. In my opinion, Premiere and After Effects would benefit more from GTX.
If there is discount that makes it so that it’s a $200 increase from 1660ti to 2070, do you think the performance difference is worth $200?
Hi Jarrod, if neither laptops had BIOS bug issues regarding thermal limitations, do you know roughly how much battery consumption the 2070 would be more than 1060 with regards to just simple office work? Cheers
Hi Jarrod, thanks for the quality review. I was on the edge of getting the 1660TI variant, but with a special offer I can get the RTX 2070 for less than 100 EUR additionally. Putting that aside: how much of an impact is the DLSS 2.0 in this regard?
I only tested 2.0 for the first time in my recent Aero 17 game test video in Control, it was pretty good actually, but that said it still only exists for 5 games, I wouldn't spend the extra money for RTX in mind personally, but up to you and how much that matters to you, in a way it's a bit of a gamble because who knows what future games will support it.
@@JarrodsTech Your answer is much appreciated. I'll keep that in mind for the purchase. Thank you very much for taking time for a proper reply.
Great video!
Thanks!
hi Jarrod, would u be able to review the aftershock Terra as well? compared with the Vapor 15
They're sending it soon.
@@JarrodsTech yaaaaaaaaaaasss!!!
Nice vid! Anyways any plans for MSI Alpha 15?
Thanks, yes MSI said they'd be sending it out today.
@Jarrod'sTech
do you think MAG 15 is better than Razer Blade 15?? and did you like the keyboard because everyone is saying that the keyboard dosent feel nice?
Yes, costs less and offers similar but more features. Keyboard is personal preference, I like the mech one here.
For the battery issue fix, check out xmg subreddit. They has a fix for it. Before using xmg method, I was getting 3-4h for my 2070 version. After using the xmg method, I was getting around 6.5h
What is the xmg method?
Jarrod'sTech basically uninstalled all the tuning and systems monitor app ( except control center ) and downgrade Nvidia driver
Hi Jarrod's, ive been looking for a gaming laptop for awhile now. im leaning towards Scar II or Scar III because of FHD 144 or 244hz and the GPU 2070 and if i understand it correct the Scar is NOT using MAX-Q.. besides the Scar II and III can you recommend any other thats similar spec that's available in our home town Australia :D ..i only saw the Asus , Alienware and Acer.. i didnt look at other brands thats not so famous. after watching this vid. it looks like 1660 Ti and 2070 MAX-Q is the same? so im after the full 2070
Hi, correct, Scar does not use Max-Q 2070. Hmm lenovo stuff is generally priced pretty well here, or Metabox who sell Clevo units from Perth which are also generally cheaper than most of the bigger brands. You cannot use this video to fairly compare the 1660 Ti and the 2070 Max-Q, as per the pinned comment, that is not the purpose of it. It is purely and only to compare them within the Vapor 15, which thermally restricts performance of both. In most cases a 2070 Max-Q will outperform the 1660 Ti by a fair margin.
I picked up an Alienware m15 that has a 2070 max q, 16 gb ram, i7 9750h, 1 tb nvme, 144hz screen, and wifi 6 for the price of 1400. For the price of $1400 I though it was a bargain and Im enjoying it as a secondary device.
Nice, sounds pretty good for that level of hardware for the money.
@@JarrodsTech thanks I saw it on slick deals and couldn't over look the price I even thought of picking up a laptop with 1660ti based on your reviews until I found that deal. Keep up the good work I enjoy your content.
is something wrong with the cooling mechanism for this laptop? Cause I saw most 2070 maxQ laptops in your other reviews can hit 90watts power with lower than 75 degrees in GPU temperature. Such as Acer and Lenovo etc
Maybe, not sure, you can order them with better paste which may help, or can also boost the GPU temperature limit.
Me 1 year later looking at this laptop and it being on Amazon US for 1000 USD. Absolutely amazing value for that price.
thats the 1660ti version?
@@jayjaytv2563 yes
@@codyaustin2840 My Question is...is this laptop a better value then the Legion 5 since they both have Similar specs for the same price.
@@jayjaytv2563 it all depends on what you are looking for in a laptop. Compare other features besides processor and gpu
@@codyaustin2840 if were looking at the other features such as the Keyboard and cooling system...then the MAG-15 wins
Hey jarrod, which would you prefer if you could only choose one laptop between the max 15, mag 15 and the mech 15 g3? Would you do a review on mech 15 g3?
Never tested mech so can't fairly compare, hopefully they will send it soon though. I like mag personally because I need SD slot, bigger battery, Thunderbolt and mech keyboard is nice. If I just wanted raw gaming performance, then max over mag.
Jarrod'sTech what about the bigger version of max 15, max 17? It has a bigger battery too, will the max 17 prevails over the mag 15 for your choices in term of overall?
Hi Jarrod. Do you think the new Alienware m17 r2 with rtx 2070 Max q is worth buying when compared to 1660ti or 2060?
Looks interesting but still waiting on them to send me one over to review.
How about choosing a popular laptop like the Helios 300 and doing a thermal repaste video to see how it affects the temperature and performance! It'll be interesting ❤️
I'd love to buy I can only do it with laptops I own. If I change the paste on a borrowed review unit and send it back, it will go to the next reviewer without stock paste and they will report incorrect data without knowing due to what I've done.
Whats up dude, got a question. I've been looking to buy a 1660 ti gaming x this month, but I'm not sure if I should wait for the black friday sale coming up. Since the card came out this year 2019 in febuary I'm not sure it will even have a sale. Any thoughts?
Don't get the Ti, it's a waste, get the Super. I've compared the Gaming X of the Ti and Super here: ua-cam.com/video/0MMZ4FxQFYs/v-deo.html
The current state of Ray tracing is so much better now than when this video came out that the final comments on which choice to make might change.
Ray tracing still seems to be a bit of a meme on laptop hardware
wth that's so close! I can't believe how close these are, especially considering there's another GPU that's marketed right in-between these (2060). Do you think there's even any point in paying extra for 2070maxq/2060 laptops if one doesn't care about rtx?
Yes. As mentioned in the pinned comment, this is NOT a good example of the real differences between these two. In this example, both GPUs are thermal throttled at 75c in games, so we're not getting full performance. I have better comparisons that fairly show the differences without restrictions here:
2060 vs 2070 Max-Q: ua-cam.com/video/chMwINWqIUc/v-deo.html
1660 Ti vs 2060: ua-cam.com/video/X59_-ol8H88/v-deo.html
Hey Jarrod. About the 1660 ti, does it come with Nvidia Optimus?
And about the keyboard, is there anyway to switch on the media shortcut, like volume up/down without holding Fn key. I played around with it at aftershocks but couldn't find it. Wonder if it was in the bios. Cheers
Yes, both do. Not actually sure about the keyboard shortcuts, I don't recall macro key settings in the limited control panel so my guess is probably not, at least with the version I had during testing, but it's getting regular updates.
@@JarrodsTech really hope they will do something about that. I'm really keen about the 1660 ti model. They have a pretty good deal currently. 2200 from 2353 but I noticed they dropped the nvme from 512 to 256 but give you free thermal grizzly instead. Still good. Lol
Awesome you review dota 2!!
I only play dota 2 trying to buy a.gaming laptop just for dota 2 looks like I'll be getting the 1660Ti ..or is there a better gaming laptop out there???
That graphics is more than enough for Dota, CPU matters much more, an i5-9300h or i7-9750h should have it playing very well.
@@JarrodsTech awesome thanks for the reply!
No problem, happy to help!
So would you personally choose the 1660 Ti model?
Absolutely.
What's the state of this comparison with the new BIOS update?
You mention 160 watt power draw for the 2070 while gaming. Do you believe a 180watt power brick would be sufficient if not running benchmarks all the time ?
Probably
The thing you forgot that the 2070 maw q has some decent RTX capacity, and that combine with the improvement of RTX performances thanks to driver update can be a big factor for someone that just want to play Solo and "pretty" game.
I didn't forget I just think it doesn't perform very well
@@JarrodsTech It does performs more than decently in games like CODW for example.
Do you think applying Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut will improve the performance of the 2070? Is there a way to get the 80 watts power limit or the cooling solution as bottleneck won't allow it?
Maybe, hard to say, I've used kryonaut on 2 of my personal laptops and saw zero change, so comes down to how good their stock paste is, I'd probably just pay them to do liquid metal.
Laptops are so frustrating. With a different cooling solutions and different power usage, it is hard to extrapolate between manufacturers. Sometimes you see a much bigger difference. With that said, maybe it's not so bad that Lenovo legion is pairing the AMD 400 0 to the 1660 ti. That may be the value champion across the board. Best processor with very good graphics card for the money
Okay, one year latar, XMG just basically cut the price of its Mag-15 equivalent. The 2070 MQ model now starts at *1600* euros, as opposed to 2000 euros. That's...okay cool.
That battery life tho. Has this been fixed?
I think the difference between 2070mxq vs 1660ti is certainly noticeable and 2070mxq is the better card although probably not $300 better. On the other hand, the difference between 2070mxq and 2060 is almost indiscernible. for budget reason, it is probably wiser to choose a 2060 on laptops (2060 just slightly more expensive than 1660ti). However, the strength of 2070mxq really is that it can be fit into a ultra thin laptop for better thermo. if you are down for ultrathin gaming laptop, pick 2070mxq, otherwise dont bother.
Yeah it's better just comes down to price at the end of the day. To be fair could probably get more out of the 2070 max-q by boosting the temperature limit, but yeah didn't look into that here.
I'm about to pull the trigger on an xmg fusion 15 and have been unsure of whether to go for the 2070 or 1660ti. I think after this video I'm going to go for the 1660ti as I really don't see the price VS graphical gains are worth it.
Would be interested to know if you have any other suggestions for a thin and light laptop for gaming. I travel extensively so need something compact with good gaming specs
That would be the model I would choose if I was buying today, otherwise maybe an Aero 15 if I wanted OLED and similar features.
@@JarrodsTech argh everytime I feel like I'm firm with my decision something comes along to rock the boat.
The xmg fusion (I'm I Europe) is now €150 off making the 2070 option more viable to me.
Really not that fussed about Ray tracing but thinking it might be the better option for running vr to my oculus quest
Has the bug for the 2070 laptop been fixed for battery, and if so what is the results?
I'm not sure, I haven't been following the matter and no longer have the laptop to do follow up testing. Apparently it can happen with either of them though, it's a control center bug rather than to do with the hardware config.
Hi jarrod between metabox alfa 58rc and aftershock which one you ganna choose? I am looking a laptop somewhere around 15 to 2 grand can you plz help me out which one is better. I am heavy users of premier pro and lightroom.
The Vapor 15, mech keyboard, bigger battery, SD card slot, and Thunderbolt, in short all things I personally need.
How much time does it take to get delivered mostly?
I do not know, I get review units that are not the same experience as someone buying.
Ok, Jarrod, I am about to buy my first gaming laptop, the only games i'm using is Train Simulators , on STEAM, from MS & Dovetail Games, with Windows 10 , now it's playing slow and choppy, but i'm a bit confused with all the graphic cards available, I plan to get a SSD 1 tb do you have any suggestions on what would be the best graphics card for me, any help and suggestions would greatly appreciated , Thank You, James Lee
Honestly no experience with those games so really hard for me to say what they need, sorry, you'd have to check benchmarks of that specific game to get a rough idea of what to expect, I'd only be guessing - that said a 1660 Ti can play any modern game no issues at all and is a good mid range option for the money.
Which one would you choose for a workstation? (Cad work/ orthophoto etc)
I'd probably get the 1660 Ti still unless my workload would really benefit from the extra VRAM of the 2070.