Gaming A16 Gaming Laptop - 165Hz 1920x1200 WUXGA - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 - Intel i7-13620H - 1TB SSD with 32GB DDR5 RAM - Windows 11 Home AD Gaming A16 CWHI3US864SH

Owned for about a week of occasional gaming for testing as i planned to be traveling and wanted an option to do so while away. Great price performance all around. I have an external GSYNC HDR monitor i push it to at home and everything is almost on par with my desktop.I Did all the updates for drivers, bios and utilities and all was well. Satisfied I let it be for about a week until I began traveling yesterday and went to boot up a game i had tested before and its slow to launch, all inputs lag and i get about 5fps on all titles, that were previously tested and running well. Task manager shows none of the hardware being taxed in any capacity so i went to check GI Mate and its just spinning. Ive tried uninstalling and re installing from the website and it just spins. I know GI mate does interact with the hardware so I don't know if thats the issue is of if some aspect of the hardware is already on the fritz. I would have reset everything but since im traveling on on hotel internet I'd be home before all the updates were done.During my question to get support from Gigabyte their live service has always told me its unavailable and I cant find a phone number so I currently await in my hotel during my free time with my very expensive netflix machine.

My purchase included the NVidia RTX 5070 and 32GB RAM options.Before purchasing this laptop, I spent a few hours researching the laptop's performance on several well-known technical review websites. I also watched a few side-by-side comparison video's on YouTube. I strongly recommend you do the same before buying.My primary reason for purchase was to upgrade from my 12 year old Windows 7 PC. My secondary reason was to be able to have the ability to play older games (3+ years) on high settings, along with some newer games on low-mid settings. Most of my gameplay is on consoles, so I did not need a top-tier gaming PC. If you are a die-hard PC gamer who wants to play the latest AAA titles on high graphical settings, you'll need to spend a lot more money on a different setup.This laptop booted very fast into Windows 11. From an engineer's point of view, Windows 11 is probably a huge change from Windows 10, but from a layman's point of view, there isn't a huge difference. So, if you are used to Windows 10, this should be a fairly easy transition. After 2 months of use, I have not had any Windows-related crashes, so the hardware and OS seem to get along okay.Gigabyte A16 motherboards do have an additional, empty SSD expansion slot. Knowing that my Steam gaming library would probably fill the default 1TB SSD hard drive quickly, I purchased a separate 2TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD from Amazon. It was easy to physically install. I then used Windows Disk Management to initialize, partition, and format the drive. Total process only took 30 minutes. ***IMPORTANT - On a Gigabyte Gaming A16 CWH motherboard: Unlike the default SSD which is horizontally mounted above the battery, the expansion slot is positioned on the opposite side of the board, vertically mounted, at the right side of the battery.*** If you are not comfortable with laptop upgrades, I strongly recommend you do research OR ask an expert for help.All of my non-gaming applications run fine, no issues. The only taxing game I've played on this laptop is Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition. I run it in 1900x1080 resolution, with most Cyberpunk graphical settings on Ultra, including Ray Tracing. With DLSS Frame Generation set to 4X, I get an average 165 FPS. Very crisp, clear, and smooth gaming experience. However, with Cyberpunk's "Path Tracing" turned on, the FPS drops to 30. This exposes the Nvidia RTX 5070's lack of raw power compared to the NVidia 90 series GPUs.UPDATE - the above experience is correct, until I started the Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty expansion, which released about 2 years ago. CDPR really pushed the envelope on visual detail in “Dogtown”. I had to reduce Ray Traced Lighting detail to Medium AND turn Off all Ray Traced Shadow effects to maintain the high framerate. The game still looks great, but this showcases another drawback to the Nvidia 70 series GPUs.***IMPORTANT - When taxed, the GPU Fan is loud and NEEDS PROPER VENTILATION. Make sure you have it on a hard, flat surface. Better yet, place it on a grated laptop stand that provides lots of room for airflow.***The laptop's display is great for what I use it for. I have no complaints. it is bright, clear, and the ability to position the display at 180 degrees is a plus.The onboard speaker is average for a laptop. I've played music on it and the clarity is decent, but like many laptops, not very loud. If you want high volume, you will have to use an external audio accessory (headphones, headset, external speaker, etc.)The battery life is good. After 2 months: During normal use (no gaming), the laptop defaults to the onboard Intel UHD GPU, which allows for approximate 5-7 hours of use at 100% battery power. When using software that engages the NVidia RTX GPU (gaming, etc.), the battery power consumption greatly increases. In summary, if you are gaming with the NVidia GPU, you will need to leave the laptop plugged in.After 2 months of consistent use, my only complaint is the "GiMATE" onboard, proprietary Gigabyte system maintenance software. Every time I unplugged the battery charger, it asks a series of questions, while recommending disengaging the NVidia GPU to save battery power. I gave in one day and clicked yes, assuming the change would be temporary. NOPE! It fully disabled the NVidia GPU to the point where Windows 11 hid it in the device manager. Rebooting the laptop wouldn't undo this change. Eventually, I had to uninstall the NVidia drivers, unhide and remove the disabled NVidia display adapter from Windows Device Manager, then do a hard shutdown and bootup of Windows. Windows finally "found" the GPU and I had to reload the NVidia drivers to get it functional again. At the end of that 4 hours of frustration, I UNINSTALLED GiMATE permanently. I will track and upgrade hardware drivers and firmware manually rather than go through that nightmare again. *THIS* is the only reason I will not reward this product with 5 stars.In summary, this A16 laptop with the RTX 5070 and 32GB options was a great choice for my budget/midgrade gaming needs. With the exception of the GiMATE software debacle, my experience has been seamless, enjoyable, and fulfilling. The value was well worth the money spent.