Merion erazer beast x25

[Alexrose1uk]

Good to see that Medion have stepped up and issued the VBIOS update to allow for this as I indicated they probably could in my initial post. This being said, the machine shouldn't have been released without it, given the marketing of this as a 150+15W GPU, but it is something.

@Robbie_G - maybe worth making a note on the listing about this required flash etc, as out the box it ISNT as advertised, which is pretty naughty.

Providing there are no issues with this flash; it looks like a LOT of machine for the money!

 

[ianh]

Hardware Info for various bits -

 

[ianh]

First completely stock "straight out of the box" Time Spy benchmark - Using latest Nvidia driver, nothing changed in NV Control panel, using Balanced Power Plan and using stock/untouched Medion Control Panel (used for OC'ing etc).

CPU temps are Hot as Balls right now due to room heat (25'c+ with zero cooling airflow in basically a small spare box-room) hitting 86'c+ and still rising which dropped the frequencies from 4.3Ghz max to 4.05Ghz during the test - fan noise was fine, loud but a nice low freq hum.

****EDIT****

This was drawing 120w maximum through the tests.

 

[ianh]

This benchmark is still on the old BIOS with everything still stock (Power plan/Nvidia etc) but running the Medion Control Centre software which allows upto a 140W push on the GPU (125W + 15W boost) and allows the CPU a little more power (still very hot though as above really).



Thats a nice little bump just using their software and GPU-Z shows that the GPU power draw is around 135W +/-3W with a single 149.3W spike.

 

[ianh]

Hit a snag during the installation of the Control Centre with the new software version.

The BIOS flash and DMI file installation for the 3080 all went perfectly and only took 2-3 minutes but following the instructions to Uninstall the old Control Centre software there is two parts to the software - the windows "service" and the seperate GUI App - and the new folder provided only contains the new Windows Service so I've dropped a post on the Medion forum asking for the actual App to be uploaded (or a link anyway) so I can get the App back.

 

[Yubnub]

Thanks for the updates. I'm still struggling to decide if this is the laptop for me especially as a new legion 7 at the same price just popped up (It's similar spec but less memory).

 

[ianh]

I had the Legion in my wish list and only went for this one due to the £400-ish price difference and the delay in getting the Legion.

 

[ianh]

After a System Restore to get the Medion Control Centre software back working (nearly 5 wasted hours of rubbish info from Medion later - DO NOT UNINSTALL THEIR CONTROL CENTRE SOFTWARE!!!) everything is now updated and is confirmed to be running 165W (150W base and 15W dynamic) with the results below (Nvidia & Win10 power plans still unchanged) -



The CPU ran hotter this time (still hot in my small box room) due to the GPU power increase, hitting 91'c at one point.





So, other than a few wasted hours I've now got a 165W 16GB RTX 3080 and AMD 5800H for £2k and I'm pretty happy. I've edited the "How To" post above with a bit better info to help anyone else doing this but a 1000 point Time Spy increase "for free" (or more correctly, doing what the manufacturer should have done first!) is fine with me.

 

[ianh]

Just to clarify what the faff was with uninstalling the Medion Control Centre - it seems to come as effectively two different bits of software combined into one - one part is the win10 background Service specific to Medion and the other is actual GUI side which is used by a few different manufacturers. The uninstall/reinstall above is ONLY for the background Service and not the GUI which wasn't made clear initially.

Sadly Medion are absolutely god awful at giving out correct, accurate info about how this software actually works, making it almost impossible to actually find just the GUI part of the software and insisting that re-installing the "service" part of the software will install both - it won't.

If anyone is interested in actually using the Control Centre I did manage to find an extremely good Reddit post from another manufacturer who uses the same GUI and they explain how to get the best out of the overclocking, what setting mean what etc. There's some discrepancy as their version has a few more options than Medion's or has a different name for the same setting but it's still extremely good info to have -

https://www.reddit.com/r/XMG_gg/comments/lbk7pl/control_center_for_experts_in_xmg_core_and_neo/

 

[Yubnub]

thanks ianh. So apart from it running quite hot it seems an excellent laptop and great value for money. Most laptop reviews i see seem to have the cpu running at 90+ under stress and i think i read somewhere that the AMD cpus were designed to run even hotter than that. Still it seems very hot to me

 

[ianh]

thanks ianh. So apart from it running quite hot it seems an excellent laptop and great value for money. Most laptop reviews i see seem to have the cpu running at 90+ under stress and i think i read somewhere that the AMD cpus were designed to run even hotter than that. Still it seems very hot to me

Tj Max is 105'c for the 5800H, the OEM "do not breach" setting is 95'c but I've now got mine set to 90'c during this heatwave so mine will throttle earlier to prevent spikes taking it too high, hence the lower CPU score in the 165W test where it went back to the same CPU score as the 120W test.

I use mine out in Saudi as a "desktop replacement" so it's permanently docked on a CoolerMaster cooling platform (3x 80mm fans) but the fans are extremely weak so I'll end up replacing them with a single 120mm high static pressure fan (got a bunch of Noctua's lying around) converted to USB and aimed at the central hotplate and see if that helps but, in the end, it's a thin laptop so cooling will always be it's nemesis.

 

[ianh]

Just a quick early morning run of Time Spy in the cooler air allowed the CPU to throttle less (just mid 70'c) and bump the CPU score over 9200, but only leading to a tiny overall bump in score to 11390 for a just over 1000 point increase or 10% boost over how it arrived.

 

[Alexrose1uk]

After the flash it does look excellent for the money and compared to what you'll get from the bigger players (one reason I tend to go with HP Omen 17's is again you usually get more than the major players, and always get a Max P).

That said I still think this needs to be highlighted on the adverts and really Medion should have done it themselves; its is VERY dubious to be advertising the machine as something IT IS NOT AND CANNOT BE WITHOUT SPECIFIC, NON-SUPPLIED WITH THE UNIT, NOT EASILY AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC, INTERVENTION.

It's not like it is a small difference either; as highlighted by the Timespy GPU score you're talking about 10%+ performance. That is not insignificant at all, to the point the out the box is essentially falsely advertised.

For the money after that upgrade it is very good, it is decent without it but the marketing on this STINKS.

 

[ianh]

That said I still think this needs to be highlighted on the adverts and really Medion should have done it themselves; its is VERY dubious to be advertising the machine as something IT IS NOT AND CANNOT BE WITHOUT SPECIFIC, NON-SUPPLIED WITH THE UNIT, NOT EASILY AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC, INTERVENTION.

It's not like it is a small difference either; as highlighted by the Timespy GPU score you're talking about 10%+ performance. That is not insignificant at all, to the point the out the box is essentially falsely advertised.

For the money after that upgrade it is very good, it is decent without it but the marketing on this STINKS.

Yeap, 100% agree!

These should come from Medion already "fixed" and shouldn't require any of this to run at the power levels they are stating in adverts is "OEM performance" i.e. 165W, which is a blatant lie. I can understand where is issue/mistake has been made - Medion have bought 165W 3080's so their advertising team have understandably said that, it's the software engineer's who've messed up by taking that 165W GPU and downgrading it through software.

I don't know what option OcUK would have as it's fairly conclusive by now that Medions power claims for "Out of the Box" are just not true - do OcUK offer an "upgrade" service to apply the new BIOS? Do they change their website to say it's just a 125W GPU? Do they do that but also point people to this (or similar) thread about how to boost it back to 165W at the customers own risk? etc etc.

 

[Yubnub]

OCUK have changed their description-
Graphics:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 16GB GDDR6,
Boost Clock: Up to 1605Mhz
TGP: 150W
Max GPU Power (W): up to 165 with Dynamic Boost
BIOS flash required for 165W

I think OCUK should offer to update the machines before sending them out. At the very least they should offer support to do it with instructions and links etc

 

[ianh]

TGP: 150W
Max GPU Power (W): up to 165 with Dynamic Boost
BIOS flash required for 165W

I'd have preferred that OcUK said the GPU was "140W with Dynamic Boost" on their page as this would have been more truthful and then add a line below that saying "A 165W dynamic boost version is available through a BIOS update" to make it a more realistic advert which is a shame.

I think OCUK should offer to update the machines before sending them out. At the very least they should offer support to do it with instructions and links etc

Maybe a line saying "OcUK can provide a link of how to Flash the BIOS from the manufacturer if required" or similar would move away from OcUK being the ones "talking the risk" and therefore being less likely to do it and put the pressure firmly back with Medion, who have effective lied to OcUK by calling it a 165W GPU "out of the box".

 

[ianh]

Installed a 4TB Corsair MP400 NVMe for my steam games, went in without a single issue, quite happy so far.

Playing 1440p Cyberpunk 2077 with everything max'd out and it looks a lot better than my 1070 laptop did with things like facial lighting and indoor to outdoor crossover lighting that actually works now!!

****EDIT****

Just for a quick comparison, I ran my current Laptop - a 4 year old 7700HQ with GTX 1070 all running stock clocks - through timespy and got 5400 so, for me at least, the Medion with it's 11000+ score has shown me that I now have effectively double the "power" available to me with this upgrade.

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Check out the GPU scores and not the overall; I'd suspect (from having gone 1060 Max P ->2080 Max P) it is likely something closer to 3x, especially once flashed to the 150+15W VBIOS.

 

[ianh]

Check out the GPU scores and not the overall; I'd suspect (from having gone 1060 Max P ->2080 Max P) it is likely something closer to 3x, especially once flashed to the 150+15W VBIOS.

IIRC it was just over 2x each for both CPU and GPU (5700-ish GPU and 4200-ish CPU).

 

[U4iK]

Hi ianh, thanks for all the information you have supplied in this thread. I am looking at this laptop and just wondered how you are getting on with it now after a month or so of owning it? how does it perform when just browsing web doing office based tasks, ie is it quiet?