HP have been making a little bit of a comeback of late. Everywhere you look it’s Omen this and Omen X sponsored that, so I assumed it was excessive time I noticed what all of the fuss was about. What I’ve bought right here is the Omen X 17, or the catchily named HP Omen X 17-ap003na to present it its full and correct title, which is the toppest of HP’s top-end gaming laptops.
There are many different Omen X 17 configurations accessible, together with fashions with totally different processor and graphics card combos, however contained in the 17-ap003na you’ll discover an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, a quad-core Intel Core i7-7820HK processor, 16GB of RAM, an enormous 17.3in, 1920×1080 IPS show with a 120Hz refresh fee and Nvidia G-Sync assist, plus a 256GB NVMe SSD and 1TB HDD, making it one of the crucial potent moveable(ish) gaming machines I’ve seen because the MSI GT75VR Titan Pro.
Now the MSI GT75VR was loopy costly, hitting north of three grand on both facet of the Atlantic. The Omen X 17 can also be loopy costly, however comparatively it’s a a lot saner purchase than its MSI rival, coming in at just below £2700 / $2645 (or perhaps a mere £2300 should you purchase it via HP’s website with the code CLEAR400 within the UK). That’s not dangerous when you think about each laptops have nigh-on an identical specs and you get added G-Sync assist with the Omen X.
Admittedly, having any form of adaptive body fee expertise onboard might be a barely moot level while you’ve bought a whopping 4K-capable GTX 1080 at your disposal and solely a 1920×1080 decision wherein to flex its muscle mass, as you may simply play most video games at 60fps on max settings with this sort of pairing, if not the complete 120fps allowed by the Omen X 17’s 120Hz refresh fee.
Yep, you guessed it. It’s RGB time!
Still, for the few video games that lock you in at 60fps like The Witcher III, and even these whose body charges fall someplace between 60 and 120fps, it by no means hurts to have a bit of additional assist conserving the body fee good and clean in addition to tear- and stutter-free. After all, not even a GTX 1080 is sufficient to play Final Fantasy XV at 120fps at 1080p with out a few compromises within the graphics division, so these after the final word boyband roadtrip expertise could effectively really discover it fairly helpful.
Indeed, I used to be solely in a position to get a most body fee of round 95-100fps on Highest with all of FFXV’s particular Nvidia bits turned off, and even then I noticed dips to round 80fps when carving up the native wildlife for a spot of dinner. Switch on all of the HairWorks, Turf Effects, VXAO and ShadowLib gubbins and also you’re solely taking a look at round 70-75fps while you’re exploring the world at giant and round 65-70fps in fight. That’s nonetheless nothing to smell at, after all, however dropping all the way down to High solely yielded round 5-10 further frames throughout the board, so these after the complete 120fps should accept decrease graphics settings.
The identical goes for Hitman and Total War: Warhammer II. The former managed a clean 77fps common in its inside benchmark on Ultra settings whereas the latter settled nearer to 70fps in Ultra-fied battles and 80fps on the marketing campaign map. At no level did both fall under 60fps, which is nice information, however you’ll have to make do with High, or maybe even Medium, if 120fps in case your superb goal.
Let’s simply take a minute to understand how lovely this energy provide is…
Rise of the Tomb Raider’s meaty anti-aliasing settings additionally proved to be fairly a problem for the Omen X 17, however no less than right here you don’t essentially must compromise on its general graphics high quality to hit that scrumptious 120fps sweetspot. With SSAAx4 engaged, you may nonetheless count on a mean of round 68fps on Very High, however knock it all the way down to FXAA and also you’ll get the complete 120fps with out having to modify graphics settings.
Doom, likewise, breezed via at 120fps on Ultra once I stormed via its opening battle sequence, and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus additionally broke the 120fps barrier on a number of events, typically reaching as excessive as 180fps.
You’ll by no means see greater than 120fps as a result of display screen’s refresh limitations, after all, but it surely bodes effectively should you ever wish to use its rear-facing HDMI, miniDisplayPort or pair of Thunderbolt Three outputs to attach it to an exterior monitor with a fair larger refresh fee. Those Thunderbolt Three ports are additionally a welcome sight for doubtlessly hooked up an exterior GPU additional down the road, and whereas we’re with regards to ports, you additionally get three USB 3.1 ports, an SD card reader, separate headphone and microphone jacks and Gigabit Ethernet.
Returning to my benchmark outcomes, I used to be additionally impressed with how the Omen X 17 dealt with Assassin’s Creed Origins. By far one of the crucial labour-intensive video games of current months other than Final Fantasy XV, the 17-ap003na dealt with its demanding Ultra High setting with aplomb, its inside benchmark hitting a delightful common of 74fps. That’s ‘Very High’, in accordance with Ubisoft’s personal bizarre metric that’s by no means gone larger than ‘Stable’ every time I’ve examined the rest, and whereas there have been nonetheless a couple of stutters right here and there because the benchmark’s digital camera swept spherical some sharp corners, the body fee by no means fell under 60fps and it regarded fairly rattling beautiful all over.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War additionally felt very a lot comfortable on Ultra graphics settings, with its inside benchmark reaching a mean of 90fps and highs of 131fps. The Witcher III, in the meantime, will solely ever yield 60fps on Ultra until you begin tampering with its ini information, however even that also makes for a really pleasurable little bit of incredible beast searching.
A particular shout-out additionally goes to the Omen X 17’s splendidly over-engineered underside, the place you may peak inside on the parts…
The Omen X 17 definitely has the graphics heft to make good on its 120Hz refresh fee more often than not, then (even when its followers sound like they’re about to launch into outer area each time you play a sport), and its quad-core 2.9GHz Intel Core-i7-7820HK will little question make a high quality long-term companion on the CPU facet of issues, too.
Admittedly, it’s just a little disappointing that HP are nonetheless utilizing final yr’s seventh Gen Kaby Lake processors within the Omen X 17 slightly than the newer eighth Gen Coffee Lake fashions, however on the entire I had few complaints about its on a regular basis velocity and responsiveness. In Geekbench 4, as an illustration, it managed a rating of 4840 within the single core take a look at and 15573 within the multicore take a look at. This is just about what I’d count on from this specific chipset, and reveals there’s nothing untoward occurring beneath the chassis that’s throttling efficiency.
However, whereas the shortage of Coffee Lake is definitely a bummer, HP’s Omen Command Center software program does no less than offer you some instruments to assist overclock the CPU to present it an additional increase. As effectively as with the ability to change the processor core ratio (the velocity at which every core will function), the core voltage (how a lot voltage is being equipped to the CPU) and the processor cache ratio (which controls the utmost working frequency of the interface that connects every cache to its core), you can too take a look at the outcomes of your tinkerings with its built-in Intel XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility) benchmark.
The UI may very well be a tad clearer and user-friendly to overclocking inexperienced persons – the processor core ratio menu, as an illustration, begins at x35 however the immediate says to start out at x1, which isn’t even an choice – however on the entire it’s sensibly laid out and never too tough to get your head spherical. Overclock it too far, although, and also you’ll discover all the pieces is annoyingly returned to its default settings, even when earlier overclock makes an attempt have been profitable. I managed to rise up to a x45 processor core ratio, for instance, but it surely froze once I pushed it to x50. When I reset the laptop computer and went again in, it was again at x35, which isn’t precisely useful.
The Omen Command Centre isn’t only for overclocking your CPU, nonetheless. You can even use it to watch temperatures in your CPU and GPU, in addition to see how a lot of them are being utilised in actual time, and there are separate management tabs for customising the keyboard’s RGB lighting and assigning macros to the six programmable P keys down the left hand facet.
The keyboard itself is a reasonably respectable affair. I may most likely do with out the try-hard space-age fonts, to be trustworthy, and the programmable macro keys down the facet continuously performed havoc with my mind when attempting to press Ctrl, however on the entire I felt every key was well-spaced regardless of being so shut collectively and every press was good and tactile. Not fairly a mechanical keyboard stage of clicky-clacky-ness, thoughts, however clear and exact nonetheless.
The remainder of HP’s Omen malarkey stylings really all proper, too. The jumbo round display screen hinges are possibly a bit excessive, however the pink and black butterfly-like emblem are fairly tasteful so far as gaming laptops go and I don’t suppose I’d really feel embarrassed by it within the unlikely occasion that I’d ever have to make use of it in public. I simply want the decrease fringe of the keyboard tray wasn’t fairly so arduous and sharp, because it made typing on the Omen X 17 fairly uncomfortable on the previous forearms after some time because it continuously felt prefer it was scraping in opposition to my wrists.
The display screen itself regarded fairly respectable as effectively. I used to be initially a bit dissatisfied by its sRGB protection rating of simply 85.8%, which is fairly sub-par contemplating it has an IPS panel, however usually colors nonetheless regarded fairly punchy, and its distinction ratio of 1028:1, peak brightness of round 330cd/m2 and low black stage of 0.32cd/m2 all meant there was nonetheless loads of darkish shadow element to be present in video games and images alike.
The factor is, no matter whether or not a laptop computer prices £3100, £2700 and even £2300, I’d need perfection at this sort of value, and a keyboard tray that feels prefer it’s slowly grinding my wrists into mud doesn’t really feel prefer it ought to be one thing I’ve to place up with, it doesn’t matter what form of gaming chops it has beneath. There’s additionally its barely mediocre sRGB protection to contemplate, in addition to the truth that its processor isn’t as updated because it may very well be. The HP Omen X 17, particularly the 17-ap003na selection, is definitely a strong gaming laptop computer, however I’m unsure it’s one thing I’d wish to spend this sort of cash on, or certainly play for lengthy intervals of time, with out some form of enough wrist safety.
