The 2015 Razer Blade Review
by Brett Howse on February 11, 2015 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Razer
- Razer Blade
- Notebooks
- GTX970M
The 2013 Razer Blade was a great gaming system with a not so great display. For 2014, Razer outfitted the Blade with a Sharp IGZO 3200x1800 display, as well as a faster GPU. The GeForce GTX 870M was a pretty potent graphics card, and the improved display made the Blade one of the best Windows laptops around. But it was not without its faults. For a laptop that was over $2000, it came with just 8 GB of system memory, and although the GTX 870M was a powerful GPU for last year, it would struggle with framerates at the native resolution of the laptop. So for 2015, Razer is back with another updated version of the Razer Blade, hoping to rectify the remaining nits that we like to pick.
The first major upgrade is the GPU. The 2014 Razer Blade was outfitted with the Kepler based GK104 870M. With one SMX disabled, the 870M came in with 1344 cores. But in October 2014, NVIDIA released their new Maxwell 2.0 based GM204 chips, and they showed not only a performance boost, but much better performance per watt. In a desktop that equates into smaller, less expensive cooling solutions, but in mobile, the lower power draw of the new parts is even more important in unlocking performance. Laptops have been getting smaller and smaller, making it harder to keep a power hungry GPU cool. For the 2015 Razer Blade, the new GTX 970M is now pushing pixels, which should give a nice jump in performance as well as keep the temperatures in check while gaming.
The next upgrade is the CPU. For 2013 and 2014, Razer outfitted the Blade with a quad-core Intel Core i7-4702HQ. This was a 37 watt Haswell CPU, with a 2.2 GHz base and 3.2 GHz turbo frequency. It offered good performance for day to day tasks on the Blade. However, for 2015, there is a substantial upgrade here as well. Although Razer has not said, it is likely that the decreased power draw of the 970M GPU allowed for more of the system TDP to be allocated to the CPU, so the new Blade comes with the Intel Core i7-4720HQ CPU, which is a 47 watt part. The increased TDP allows higher clock speeds, with 2.6 GHz as the base and 3.6 GHz as the turbo, and the ability to keep more cores at a higher frequency under load. It also allows for a higher boost frequency for the integrated HD 4600 GPU.
The last major upgrade is system memory, which is now 16 GB of DDR3L-1600 on the 3200x1800 version of the Blade. Here it is important to specify the model, because for 2015, Razer has introduced a different version of the Blade as well. They are now offering a 1080p version of the Blade, which will come with an anti-glare IPS display, a 256 GB SSD, and only 8 GB of system memory. With the 970M and updated CPU, this model should be plenty fast to run games at native resolution, and the lower resolution panel should help with battery life as well. We will try to get one in to test it against its 3200x1800 IGZO outfitted brother.
Razer Blade 14-Inch Specifications | |||||
2014 (Last Model) |
2015 (New Model) |
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Processor | Intel Core i7-4702HQ (4x2.2GHz + HTT, Turbo to 3.2GHz, 22nm, 6MB L3, 37W) |
Intel Core i7-4720HQ (4x2.6GHz + HTT, Turbo to 3.6GHz, 22nm, 6MB L3, 47W) |
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Chipset | Intel HM87 | Intel HM87 | |||
Memory | 8GB DDR3L-1600 | 16GB DDR3L-1600 | |||
Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M 3GB GDDR5 1344 CUDA cores, 941 MHz core 5 GHz memory clocks 192-bit memory bus Intel HD 4600 Graphics (20 EUs, up to 1.15GHz) |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3GB GDDR5 1280 CUDA cores, 924 MHz + Boost 5 GHz memory clocks 192-bit memory bus Intel HD 4600 Graphics (20 EUs, up to 1.20GHz) |
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Display | 14" Glossy 16:9 3200x1800 Sharp LQ140Z1JW01 IGZO Multitouch with LED Backlight Optional Anti-Glare Matte 16:9 1920x1080 LED Backlight non-touch |
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Hard Drive(s) | 128/256/512GB SATA M.2 256GB Only on 1080p model |
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Optical Drive | N/A | ||||
Networking | Intel Wireless-AC 7260HMW Dual Band 2x2:2 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.0 |
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Audio | Realtek ALC269 HD audio Stereo speakers Combination mic/headphone jack |
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Battery | 150 watt power adapter 70Wh Lithium-Ion Polymer |
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Front Side | - | ||||
Right Side | USB 3.0 HDMI 1.4a Kensington Lock |
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Left Side | AC adapter 2x USB 3.0 Combination mic/headphone jack |
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Back Side | - | ||||
Operating System | Windows 8.1 64-bit | ||||
Dimensions | 13.6" x 9.3 " x 0.70" 345mm x 235mm x 17.8mm |
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Weight | QHD+ Model: 4.47 lbs 2.03 kg 1080p Model: 4.19 lbs 1.9 kg |
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Extras | 2.0 MP Webcam Razer Synapse 2.0 Software 10-point Multitouch Display on QHD+ Model Backlit anti-ghosting keyboard |
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Warranty | 1 year limited | ||||
Pricing | $2199.99 for 128GB QHD+ Model $2399.99 for 256GB QHD+ Model $2699.99 for 512GB QHD+ Model $1999.99 for 256 GB 1080p Model |
That constitutes the majority of the changes over last year. One other minor change that is worth mentioning here is that the Samsung PM851 SSD has been replaced with the LiteOn L9G, but those hoping for a PCI-E based SSD in the Razer Blade for this year will be disappointed. This is still a SATA based model in M.2 form factor. LiteOn specifies the L9G model to have 520 MB/s sequential reads on all versions, and 310 MB/s sequential write speeds on the 128 GB model, and 440 MB/s sequential writes on the 256 GB and 512 GB models, and 85K read IOPS and 75K write IOPS at 4K random workloads. There has not been a degradation in performance with this year’s model, and it even nudges past the PM851 on our PCMark Storage benchmark. We reached out to Razer to inquire about the SSD change, and was informed that they source from several manufacturers, so the PM851 in last year’s model was possibly luck of the draw.
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dovah-chan - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
I guess apple does it out of fear of receiving criticism for running hot or having a loud cooling system to tame the GPU? Maxwell doesn't run that hot so they should be able to keep it in check with at least a 965M but any higher would likely cause issues. They should at least include the option for a higher end mobile card.The school I'm at has 2011 iMacs with a 6570D and they tank so hard when using spaces and mission control. (not to mention the magic mouse is awful)
TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link
given the 750m's TDP, nothing higher than the 850m would be feasible. the 965m draws way too much power for that machine to handle.tipoo - Thursday, February 12, 2015 - link
Yep, I've been a lifelong PC guy, but I'm enjoying my 15" rMBP a lot. I just wish there was more GPU grunt for when I use Boot Camp for the occasional game.fokka - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
one would think some kind of 960m should be in the cards, when the rmbp get upgraded and such a card is available from nvidia. that should be quite a bit faster than the current 750m, which is getting a bit old in the tooth, especially considering the machines price.tipoo - Sunday, February 15, 2015 - link
Brett? Anyone? Beuller?eanazag - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Is the SSD an mSATA or 2.5"?eanazag - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Nevermind, I reviewed the introduction over again.I have an aversion to LiteOn SSDs. I have no experience with that model, but I have with Dell OEM Lite-On drives as they struggle with garbage collection when Bitlocker is installed (Windows 7). For Windows 8 Bitlocker I recommend only encrypting used space option.
peterfares - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Shame that it just has HDMI output. They should have put a DisplayPort (or two) outputs just like the MBP the body mimics. Can't even run an external WQHD screen, very lame.BillyONeal - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
This is literally the only reason I have not bought one yet. :/fokka - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
it has hdmi 1.4a, which should be good for 1600p/60p or 4k/30p according to wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Version_compari...