Aorus 15G KC is the youngest of the Aorus laptops, if we take into account only the options on the RTX 30xx. Despite this, almost all modern games “at maximum speeds” are subject to it, taking into account a fairly high frame rate. About this and much more — here and now!
Let’s briefly go through the options from Gigabyte in general. The manufacturer offers several global series of laptops with Laptop RTX 30 video cards — there are Aorus series (15G, 17G — gaming for enthusiasts), Aero (15, 17 — for work), and G5 with 15.6 ″ 144/240 Hz screens on the market and G7 with 17″ 144Hz screen.
Appearance
But first of all — a slide with characteristics. A complete list of them can be seen on the slide below, which is formed from information taken from the official website: https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/AORUS-15G–RTX-30-Series/sp#sp.
The appearance of the RTX 30-series video cards could not be called smooth, but all the «misunderstandings» were eventually resolved — now manufacturers clearly indicate in the specifications on the website which modification is used in a particular laptop model. The 15G KC from Aorus has an RTX 3060 Laptop with a TDP of 105W and a GPU clock speed of 1530MHz at maximum Boost. The main laptop is a board with a soldered Core i7-10870H processor, which offers the user 8 fast cores (including HT — 16 threads), which, depending on the load, can reach a frequency of 5 GHz. The RAM at our disposal is 16 GB — a pair of 8 GB modules with a frequency of 2933 MHz. The OS is installed on a 512 GB M.2 SSD (NVMe). The image shows a 15.6-inch 240Hz screen with Full HD resolution.
The laptop is received by its new owner in a medium-sized box, which gives only a little information about the device inside — the sticker on the side shows only the code name of the model and a very short list of only the main characteristics.
The scope of delivery is limited to the user manual and warranty card, a thermal pad (about it a little later — when we disassemble the laptop) and a Chicony power supply that produces 230 W (model A17-230P1A with output characteristics of 19.5 V and 11.8 A).
The Aorus 15G and 17G laptop cases are almost identical in terms of design — they are only available in black, one of the visible design elements of which is the Aorus logo with a mirror surface (not only).
It is highlighted in white, but it cannot be changed.
There are no more drawings or prints on it — it is completely matte.
Before us is a laptop, which is such in its most classic sense — without any design features in terms of design and appearance. But this is never a disadvantage — nothing distracts and there is no overpayment for anything like that.
However, the laptop is not without some useful design elements. One of these is hidden from view, but is used quite often — it is a strong elastic steel frame around the display. It allows you to open and close the lid with the screen with one hand for any part of it, including the corners. Usually in such cases, the screen and its body can bend a little (or not so much), but not in this case.
Since the WEB-camera is moved to the main part of the body, the frames were made quite thin — the thickness of 3 mm is declared, which, in fact, is slightly larger — 3 mm refers to the frame, and not to the visible area of the screen, which makes a small indent from the frame .
The cover is attached to the chassis with strong steel hinges with plastic lining. The power and data cable runs through one of the loops.
On the right side of the case there are 2 USB 3.2 Type-A (Gen1) ports, one Type-C port of the same standard, an SD memory card reader with UHS-II support (maximum 300 MB / s) and a power connector.
The other side of the case is characterized by the presence of an HDMI 2.1 video output with support for 8K (120 Hz), a 1.4 standard mini-DP video output, another Type-A Gen1 USB port, one combined 3.5 mm headphone or microphone jack and 2.5 Gb / from the RJ-45 network port, which is implemented by the Realtek controller.
Regardless of the laptop model chosen, they all have a low-profile keyboard. At the same time, it is full-sized — a digital block is available and, best of all, the power button is not included in the perimeter of the main keys. Implemented support for N-Key Rollover — up to 80 clicks are processed.
The RGB backlighting of the keyboard is full and implemented independently for each of the keys — the color is configured in the corresponding software, creating its own unique profile. True, only Latin characters are translucent. Is this good or bad? Subjectively. Someone cannot live without the Cyrillic alphabet, but someone still operates only in the Latin layout.
Above the keyboard is the power/wake button, and even higher is the camera, which features HD resolution and, which many will like, a mechanical shutter. To the right and left is a block of microphones.
The intake of cold air comes from below. Filters in the form of a metal mesh are installed to prevent small elements from getting inside. The rear, so to speak, legs are quite large — they still separate the air flows, since there are holes nearby that are designed to bring hot air out.
Hot air, which is formed after passing through the radiators, is brought out not only from the rear, but also from the side.
The bottom cover is fixed with a set of screws, but not everything is so simple. Two of them (central on the user side) are closed with seals, damage to which removes the manufacturer’s responsibility to the buyer in terms of warranty repairs. In addition, this is why you cannot add another M.2 SSD yourself or replace already installed RAM modules. What to do and how to be? You buy a drive or memory and come to an authorized service center, where they install them for free and note this in the service book.
The thermal pad included in the package is just what you need if you decide to purchase an additional drive. The thermal pad for the installed one, of course, is present — it is located on the inside of the bottom cover.
Display test
Performance and temperatures — a little later, first — a screen test. There are no obvious critical problems in terms of illumination uniformity — everything is within the framework of visually reasonable.
As for games, it all depends on the genre and the speed of the gameplay, but the image is very clear and saturated, and also very smooth (yes, in the photo below Skyrim SE with 60 fps lock).
If you look at the screen from the side, you can see some change in the image, but there is no loss of detail.
But smoothness is worth talking about in games with high-speed gameplay that is full of action. In such cases, it is a pleasure to see what is happening on the screen.
The measurements showed that the maximum brightness deviation is 14%. Only the lower left corner stands out, otherwise there are no complaints.
Gamma corresponds to the preset — 2.2.
The sRGB coverage is more than 90%, which is enough for games, as well as for further work with captured game screenshots/videos.
The highlight of the display is its factory calibration. The manufacturer calibrates all devices individually and then builds the appropriate profiles into the OS settings. If this is suddenly required, then this profile is available for saving to another location or to a USB flash drive (for example, if you want to reinstall the OS not by restoring).
Software
The main tool for managing the parameters of Aorus/Aero/Gigabyte laptops is the Aorus Control Center application. It adjusts performance, fans, keyboards, etc.
The program greets us with the Smart Dashboard page, which displays the load of the processor, memory and video card, the used space of the system disk and its status in general; displays the correct operation of the fans and the battery level. Here you can quickly select the operating mode of the processor — from maximum power saving to maximum performance.
An interesting and somewhat controversial solution in terms of convenience is the ability to add applications to the App Shortcuts section. More precisely — not applications, but shortcuts to them. And run them from this interface.
Quick enable/disable of a certain set of laptop functions is available in the Manager section.
All keyboard settings are collected in the Fusion section — here you can not only choose the type of backlighting from the available ones, but also create your own personal profile.
You can customize the operation of the cooling system in several ways — choose from available profiles or create your own. This is done in the Device Setting section.
If you are too lazy (or just sorry to waste time) updating drivers and software manually, then you can periodically check for updates in the Smart Utilities section, where you can install the update selectively or all at once. Or rollback to the original.
Testing
And finally, let’s move on to testing. Processor, platform, and memory information is provided by the CPU-Z utility. What about power limit? The processor is characterized by a TDP of 45 W, but for 2.44 ms it is allowed to «use» 107 W, and then for 56 seconds already 62 W. After 56 seconds, the value is reduced to the standard 45 watts. Boost depends on the number of simultaneously active cores — the maximum 5 GHz can only be obtained with a load on one core, 4.9 GHz — with a load of 2 cores, 4.7 GHz — with 3 cores, 4.6 GHz — with 4 cores, 4.5 GHz — with a load of 5 cores, 4.4 GHz — load on 6 cores, 4.3 GHz — on 8, and when loading all cores at the same time — 4.1 GHz.
Information about RTX 3060 Laptop:
Solid state drive performance.
The speed of the RAM.
A comprehensive test PCMark 10 Extended showed quite a decent result.
How does the video card behave depending on the presence of a connected power supply? For verification, let’s take the 3DMark test package and the Port Royal subtest. Full performance — frequency approximately 1550-1660 MHz, GPU power consumption — 78 watts with a total of 107 watts for the video card.
Without a power supply, performance is a third lower. This is understandable — the power consumption of the GPU is limited to approximately 34 W (frequency 1100-1250 MHz) with a total power consumption of the video card of about 57 watts.
To emulate an office load, let’s take PCMark 10 in Extended mode. The processor worked at a frequency of 2.5-4.8 GHz at temperatures below 90°C (mostly even up to 70°C).
The GPU heats up to 85-90°C (including the hot spot values - the hottest point of the GPU) when operating at a frequency of 1550-1600 MHz.
All of the games we tested were running at near-maximum graphics settings. Why almost? Some of them were excluded, which bring to their knees and full-fledged desktop video cards. Also added performance values at medium graphics settings.
Conclusion
What can be said in the end about the Aorus 15G KC? This is a laptop with high performance, medium noise, high-speed screen and a calm design in black. By and large, there is nothing to complain about — the shortcomings identified during the study of the laptop can be considered subjective and depend on the specific user and specific use case. Recall them — the lack of Cyrillic backlighting, the strange location of the WEB-camera and its not very high resolution (HD) and the inability to install an SSD or replace the memory during the warranty period. Otherwise, the laptop pleases the owner — it demonstrates good performance at a moderate noise level (you can’t call it annoying — it’s a soft hum), shows a rich, bright and smooth picture, does not distract RGB with excesses in design (keyboard backlight can be configured completely “for yourself” — even leave one single luminous key or turn everything off altogether), and also does not take up much space on the table or in the backpack. Every day with you it (plus a power supply weighing 600 g) is unlikely to be comfortable to wear, but still. In terms of autonomy, games can easily drain the battery in a little over an hour, and office applications without a particularly heavy load on the components can be used for about 5 hours at maximum screen brightness. At the time of publication of the material, the cost of Aorus 15G KC is $ 135-1400, depending on the place, time and seller. We have considered all the key points of the laptop, so it remains only for you to weigh all the pros and cons and make the final purchase decision.