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Razer Blade 15 configurable with up to RTX 2080 graphics

by Mark Tyson on 7 January 2019, 11:35

Tags: NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), Razer

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Razer has announced an updated range of Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model gaming laptops. The announcement was timed to coincide with Nvidia's CES 2019 keynote - where the green team revealed that Turing GPUs will be at heart of 40+ gaming laptop models from the end of January. So, of course, Razer's big news today is that it will soon be selling laptops featuring GPUs up to and including the GeForce RTX 2080 (meanwhile, the base model with a GTX 1060 Max-Q will remain on sale ($1,599) to appeal to varying budget levels).

"The award-winning Razer Blade 15 is an ideal device for the latest NVIDIA Turing graphics processors, up to the GeForce RTX 2080, allowing gamers to take their visual experiences to new levels," said Razer Co-Founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan. "Fluid, lifelike visuals are displayed on the expansive 15.6-inch Full HD panel with refresh rates of 144Hz, and the compact Max-Q design makes the laptop perfect for gamers on-the-go."

According to Razer, the Razer Blade 15 remains the "world's smallest 15.6-inch gaming laptop," and now it is even more powerful, with the inclusion of the latest 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H 6 core processor, 16GB of RAM (supports up to 64GB), up to 512GB SSD (supports up to 2TB), Windows Hello IR camera, plus options including RTX 20 series GPUs.

The new Advanced Models of this 15-inch gaming laptop come with the choice of RTX 2060 (6 GB GDDR6), RTX 2070 (8 GB GDDR6), or the RTX 2080 (8 GB GDDR6). Razer says the top two configurations use a Max-Q design GPU "for user comfort" - or rather for thermal considerations. To partner these graphics powerhouses there are also various screen options; most come with a Full HD 100% sRGB panel with refresh rates of 144Hz, but one model includes a 4K 100% Adobe RGB touch panel. At the CES 2019 Razer will also showcase a Razer Blade 15 with 240Hz panel, and another with a 4K OLED panel - but these are not going to be for sale, for now.

Whichever Advanced Model you choose, Razer says that you will get a laptop with minimal footprint and is just 0.7-inches thick. The chassis is CNC-milled from a single aluminium block and comes with a scratchproof anodised finish. To keep this compact and thin chassis effectively cooled, Razer deploys its vapour chamber technology on the CPU, GPU, and other heat sensitive components. Additionally, ultra-thin nanoparticle material and graphite-based server grade thermal interfaces are used. Rounding off the cooling solution Razer uses 0.1mm thin fin high-performance low-noise fans to expel hot air out of the back of the chassis.

Before I list the models and respective pricing, it is worth mentioning the rest of the laptop's specs such as; anti-ghosting keyboard with Razer Chroma lighting, the large clickable precision glass touchpad, the 80Wh battery, dual front-firing speakers with Dolby Atmos, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI, and Thunderbolt 3 display connectors, 3x USB 3.1 ports, 3.5mm headphone jack. Razer will also be selling a Razer Blade 15 Mercury White edition in select stores / markets*.

  • FHD(144Hz)/i7-8750H/RTX 2060/16GB/512GB – $2,299.99
  • FHD(144Hz)/i7-8750H/RTX 2070/16GB/256GB – $2,399.99
  • FHD(144Hz)/i7-8750H/RTX 2070/16GB/512GB – $2,599.99
  • 4K(Touch)/i7-8750H/RTX 2070/16GB/512GB* – $2,899.99
  • FHD(144Hz)/i7-8750H/RTX 2080/16GB/512GB – $2,999.99

Mercury Edition:

  • FHD(144Hz)/i7-8750H/RTX 2060/16GB/512GB* – $2,349.99
  • FHD(144Hz)/i7-8750H/RTX 2070/16GB/512GB* – $2,649.99

GeForce RTX-powered laptops will be available starting from 29th January from the likes of Acer, Alienware, ASUS, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo Legion, MSI, Razer and Samsung. If you buy an RTX 2080 powered model from a participating retailer you will get both Battlefield V and Anthem free. GeForce RTX 2070 or RTX 2060 laptop models come with a choice of either title.

HEXUS Forums :: 3 Comments

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Posted by Ozaron - Mon 07 Jan 2019 12:52
Okay, I have a BUNCH of questions here. Let's start with this one; you mention
Article
up to 512GB SSD (supports up to 2TB)
which suggests the SSDs have a max capacity of 512GB, and support up to 2TB total capacity. But the spec sheet claims that the “Advanced” variant only gets one (max 512GB, then) SSD and the regular gets two (max 1TB, then?) so I have no idea how that works. Is it possible to replace SSD(s) with higher capacity models, without voiding warranty? Is it even “up to 2TB” if you don't offer a config which yields 2TB?

As to the Advanced spec, why would you include the 4K Touchscreen on the model with more GPU grunt? What workload is best performed on a laptop with highest tier GPUs, using a touchscreen?…while branded as a gamer laptop, of course. I for one won't be playing Tomb Raider with my fingers? Perhaps there's some edge case where this makes sense, but I don't get it.

Advanced spec only gets one SSD. In design that makes sense, I guess space had to be freed up to get a bigger GPU and requisite cooling in, but now that big GPU is going to be powering far fewer games and media at any one time because there's no second storage drive to keep the media on. And you're capped at 512GB, which in the real world is more like 460GB.

Chroma makes sense. We get that GPU e-peen, double down with more cRaZy RaDiCaL RGB dUdE.

So this is obviously serious gaming kit, with its RTX 2080, and people always play their intense 144 FPS games while moving around mobile, and they really hate low latency networking, so just cut that Ethernet port. WiFi best, right?

Now that all of that makes no sense, they make the laptop even thinner. I'm sure it didn't need any space for keeping those shiny, new, giant CPU and GPU chips cool.



What??? Am I the mad one? :crazy:
Posted by kalniel - Mon 07 Jan 2019 13:16
Ozaron
Okay, I have a BUNCH of questions here. Let's start with this one; you mention which suggests the SSDs have a max capacity of 512GB, and support up to 2TB total capacity. But the spec sheet claims that the “Advanced” variant only gets one (max 512GB, then) SSD and the regular gets two (max 1TB, then?) so I have no idea how that works. Is it possible to replace SSD(s) with higher capacity models, without voiding warranty? Is it even “up to 2TB” if you don't offer a config which yields 2TB?
They use the all important wording: “supports” - ie, yes, if you replaced the SSD with a 2TB model the system would still work. Usually it's fine to replace HDDs/SSDs with a higher capacity model without voiding warranty on the rest of the computer.

As to the Advanced spec, why would you include the 4K Touchscreen on the model with more GPU grunt? What workload is best performed on a laptop with highest tier GPUs, using a touchscreen?
4K displays need a lot more grunt than 1080p, so pretty well matched to the 2080 model. As for touchscreen, it's surprisingly effective on a modern OS, and it's likely the display panel maker produces a 4K touch for other manufacturers as well, so economies of scale mean it's not worth making a 4k non-touch. It is possible to want a computer for browsing/watching shows etc. as well as gaming.

Advanced spec only gets one SSD. In design that makes sense, I guess space had to be freed up to get a bigger GPU and requisite cooling in, but now that big GPU is going to be powering far fewer games and media at any one time because there's no second storage drive to keep the media on. And you're capped at 512GB, which in the real world is more like 460GB.
You could always replace it with a bigger SSD. In terms of speed and reliability it's better to go with a single bigger SSD than multiple smaller ones.

So this is obviously serious gaming kit, with its RTX 2080, and people always play their intense 144 FPS games while moving around mobile, and they really hate low latency networking, so just cut that Ethernet port. WiFi best, right?
Ethernet ports are fat - thin laptops have done away with them for years, and usually provide an adaptor with the computer for free. It's a pain, but it's not new.
Posted by j.o.s.h.1408 - Mon 07 Jan 2019 23:37
excellent spec laptop this is