On the left side are the USB ports, LAN port, audio ports and card reader slot.
On the right side are the USB 3.0 ports, various display output (mini DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA) and of course the power connector.
The air-intake is at the bottom while the exhaust vents are at the rear.
Specs aside, one can surely appreciate the thickness of the P35X V3, it comes to only 20.9mm in height, even a LEGO minifigure could look over it with ease.
Here’s the CPU-Z (for the processor)……
… and GPU-Z capture.
User Experience
The Gigabyte P35X V3 is a stunning notebook, the notebook is large and comfortable to use and the slim profile makes it easy to lug around.
The cooling system runs quite loud so anyone who’s gaming on this notebook, I recommend using a headset. The audio is good but not stunning, I had better experience with other notebooks like the Acer V Nitro where one can hear distinctly the left and right channels.
The keyboard doesn’t run hot during gaming sessions as the cooling system exhausts the heat very effectively.
With that, let’s proceed with some benchmarks. For the gaming benchmark I did the comparison in both Full HD and WQHD. This is to compare the GTX 980M on the P35X V3 against the desktop counterparts.
Unigine Heaven 4.0
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| Gigabyte P35X V3 with GTX 980M | 66.3 |
| Palit GTX 960 Super JetStream | 48.8 |
| ASUS STRIX GTX 970 | 77.2 |
Metro Last Light
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| Gigabyte P35X V3 with GTX 980M | 63.0 |
| Palit GTX 960 Super JetStream | 58.0 |
| ASUS STRIX GTX 970 | 78.5 |
Bioshock Infinite
Settings are at
2 – UltraDX11_DDOF | 2 – Custom | 1 – 16:9 | 4 – 1920×1080
| Gigabyte P35X V3 with GTX 980M | 87.62 |
| Palit GTX 960 Super JetStream | 76.42 |
| ASUS STRIX GTX 970 | 114.07 |
Gaming at WQHD+ 2880 x 1620 resolution
| Gigabyte P35X V3 with GTX 980M | 1080p (avg) |
| Unigine Heaven 4.0 | 30.0 |
| Metro Last Light | 36 |
| Bioshock Infinite | N/A (not supported) |
Performance Summary
Overall gaming experience was good, the GTX 980M performs slightly behind a GTX 970 but it was much faster than a GTX 960. I could even game on Battlefield 4 at WQHD at High Resolution with FPS above 30.
Games aside, I also did a video conversion test to see how does the processor fare.
| CPU | Time Taken |
| Intel Core i7-4710HQ (2.5GHz-3.5GHz) | 218 seconds |
| Intel Pentium G3258 | 489 seconds |
| Intel Core i3-4130 | 313 seconds |
| Intel Core i7-4790K | 167 seconds |
| Intel Core i5-4670K | 228 seconds |
The Core i7 fares similarly to the desktop Core i5 processor.
Battery Life, Heat & Power Consumption
I used PC Mark 8’s test to gauge the battery life and it comes to about 3 hours. Realistically speaking it should last around 5 – 6 hours as long as you are not gaming away.
I also used the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark to simulate gaming environment and saw that the CPU peaked at 91°C while GPU at 83°C. The same components idle at 53°C and 51°C respectively. The power draw from the wall reading comes to 149W when the benchmark was in progress.
The Verdict
The Gigabyte P35X v3 Gaming Notebook’s retails price starts from RM 7,699. Regardless of configuration, you’re assured that you have the nVidia GeForce GTX 980M and an Intel Core i7-processor.
It is a notebook with solid cooling, beautiful keyboard and a screen that’s beyond description. Other features worth mentioning are the configurable drive bay and multiple forms of display output. The P35X V3 comes with 2-years warranty.
