Awesome hardware, mixed performance. Kaby Lake-G has been impressive thus far, but its overall performance depends wholly on how OEMs implement the hardware. The HP Spectre x360 15 is unfortunately not the best example of the Intel-AMD platform with its substantial throttling issues.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Spectre-x360-15-i7-8705G-Radeon-RX-Vega-M-GL-Convertible-Review.323436.0.html
Based on the information I could find online, the first units that shipped had a more relaxed thermal policy, but then this advisory came out: support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-spectre-15-ch000-x360-convertible-pc/16779588/document/c06001575
Apparently the GPU was overheating, and starting with bios version F.13 they started throttling aggressively with a target temp of 70C.
I found about the advisory soon after I ordered the laptop (which I haven't received yet) and I was hoping that HP would have balanced the way they handle thermals with subsequent BIOS updates. However, in one of the screenshots it looks like the BIOS version of the unit tested was F.20 and given that the latest revision is F.21 and it mentions nothing about thermals, I don't think there is much hope.
I also don't think there is a way to downgrade the BIOS to the initial release to test that theory either.
Their Elitebooks' 700 nits FHD without numpad and maybe I would consider it. Also would like to see some improvements in the 2-in-1 department because this is not entirely ergonomic as a tablet.
Just another overpriced poor performing crap...
PROCHOT needs to be disabled (with something like throttlestop) to properly test this unit. Otherwise it will always throttle the GPU down to 70-75C. It will run hot when stressed (90ish), but the throttling is much more manageable.
To be honest, I think this review needs an update on thermals and performance after this is implemented. We can't really see how it actually compares until then, due to how atrociously HP's updates currently hamstring it.
Two other notable exceptions worth amending:
The Spectre does indeed have a high pitched whine that is either attached to c4-state on the processor, or tied to screen brightness (pitch goes up and down based on this). Fortunately, it is only noticeable in a silent room.
Fans "always on" option needs to be disabled in the BIOS. That is why they were always running on this review. As I type this, my Spectre's fans are off... which is why I can hear the aforementioned high pitched buzzing.
I did some quick tests on Cinebench 15.0. and at least the CPU throttling seems to be a pretty straight forward thermal issue.
10 CB iterations per 1 test. Undervolt was managed by ThrottleStop 8.60, Speed Shift had been enabled on all tests (was off on default settings), with a value of 128 so some mild underclocking compared to stock could be expected on all cases.
The laptop stand had 2 60mm fans which I had based on the upper part of the laptop, just under the CPU/GPU.
Test 1 - No (laptop stand) fans, no undervolt
CB scores:
755 711 709 688 690 641 623 628 638
mean : 676
Test 2 - Fans on, no undervolt
742 673 690 696 678 555 700 692 694 695
mean = 682
mean ignoring outlier (555) = 696
There was 45 min of pause between Test 1 and Test 2 (went to the store) so the system was cooled down. Still it seemed to start to throttle faster than Test 1. No idea why. The floor seemed to be higher though.
Test 3 - No fans, -60mV undervolt
733 745 732 660 705 714 738 730 701
mean : 718
Test 4 - Fans, -60mV undervolt
751 747 744 753 754 752 750 683
mean : 742
The 10 iterations is probably too little to see the system stabilise fully, so to see the real gains much longer tests should be done. Anyways, it seems like that if we trust the Cinebench scores it is possible to gain ~10% of sustained multithread performance on a 10min intensive workload by using a laptop stand with fans and applying a relatively conservative underclock. A ~6% performance gain was seen with just the underclock. Keeping this in mind I atleast am going to repaste the CPU when the warranty runs out, and probably going to push the underclock a bit more.
Missed a few numbers,
Test 3 was :
733 745 732 660 705 714 738 730 730 701
mean : 719
Test 4 was :
751 747 744 753 754 742 752 750 683 736
mean : 741
If only the 15" models came in FHD "HDR-spec" screen option without numpad I positively would buy them in a heartbeat. Are you reading HP? Please make it happen.
Hi sir, I need help you ! I have an identical laptop but with the "black screen". My laptop got stuck when updating my BIOS. First I have a question for you: what code does bios chip have? My chip is 25q80xxx - 1mb and the latest bios file on the hp site has 8mb. Thanks for your time.