Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 overview: highly effective graphics, LOUD FANS

The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 is a gaming laptop computer, and it positive seems to be like one. It’s an inch thick, weighs 5.5 kilos, and is awash in RGB lighting, stylized textual content, and curved plastic.

This Aorus Master affords highly effective {hardware} and a stunning high-res, high-refresh OLED show. It’s the primary of a number of laptops we’re reviewing with the GeForce RTX 5080, Nvidia’s second-fastest laptop computer graphics card of this era. At $3,100, it’s really a number of hundred {dollars} lower than equally highly effective fashions from Razer, Lenovo, and Asus, and over a thousand {dollars} lower than laptops with the RTX 5090, Nvidia’s quickest GPU.

But in change for being a bit of cheaper than its direct opponents, the Aorus Master feels a bit of low cost, and its built-in software program features a ineffective AI chatbot however no customized fan controls. And these followers get loud.

Like the Razer Blade 16, the Aorus Master 16 comes with a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 OLED show. The Aorus’s panel isn’t fairly as correct because the Blade’s — with barely decrease colour replica — but it surely’s simply as vibrant and about as pleasing to the attention in common use. It’s bought punchy colours that aren’t oversaturated, and its 2.5K decision and most 240Hz refresh charge allow video games, web sites, and movies to look sharp and clean.

By distinction, the plastic display bezel is a bit ugly, and the Aorus Master as an entire isn’t a lot of a looker. Its plasticky construct feels dated and a bit of low-rentcheap in comparison with the extra grown-up-looking Lenovo Legion Pro 7i or the all-out RGB bombast of Asus’ ROG Strix Scar, with its wraparound mild bar and animated LED matrix on the lid. The lid of the Aorus opens simply with one hand, however the display can wobble. And the diagonal-line designs in its vents and branding throughout its trackpad look tacky. It has “Team up. Fight on” written on the lid for some purpose, and it even tasks the Aorus wordmark under the rear exhaust followers, which is as gauche right here as it’s on the doorways of luxurious vehicles.

While I’ll poke enjoyable on the Aorus’ tryhard design, Gigabyte will get credit score for specializing in what counts: the display, GPU, CPU, ports, and even user-upgradeable RAM and storage. The keyboard and trackpad are strong, with good tactile suggestions. The keyboard has a 1.7mm key journey and the trackpad, whereas a bit of loud, simply clicks even close to its high hinge.

The 1080p webcam, built-in mics, and audio system aren’t something particular, however you’ll get by way of video calls trying and sounding wonderful in most lighting. The audio system sound decently full for music, however dialog is flat. It might be barely troublesome to obviously hear spoken strains in video games in opposition to loud music and sound results, particularly because you’ll even be competing with the Aorus’ followers.

Fan noise is my greatest hangup with the laptop computer. In graphically intensive video games like Monster Hunter Wilds or Lushfoil Photography Sim it’s loud and aggravating sufficient that you end up cranking the sport quantity or reaching for a pair of headphones.

My spouse is used to listening to the followers of gaming laptops in our shared residence workplace, however at one level the Aorus made her flip to me and say, “What the hell is occurring over there?”

I used to be taking part in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered on a 4K exterior monitor, and the followers had been audible even within the subsequent room, particularly throughout preliminary shader compiling. At peak rpm, they sound like somebody working a small vacuum cleaner throughout the room. The followers on the Razer Blade 16 and ROG Strix Scar 16 are noticeably quieter and fewer annoying.

And not like Razer Synapse or Asus Armoury Crate, Gigabyte’s GiMate software program doesn’t allow you to tweak the fan curves, solely select between 4 presets. Switching the laptop computer from recreation mode to balanced, and the followers from efficiency to regular can lower the noise a bit with minimal sacrifice to framerates. Though, even on this mode, the followers can nonetheless go loud when obligatory. And turbo mode is solely for masochists; it pegs the followers at 100% the entire time.

GiMate’s different options are sparse, restricted in scope, and worse than native options inside Windows 11 and Nvidia’s GPU settings. Its working modes are simply shortcuts to Windows energy settings. In some instances, GiMate merely opens Microsoft Copilot or Nvidia’s Control Panel and Broadcast App. But its interactions with different apps get even weirder if you unplug the charger and GiMate prompts you to change to built-in graphics and kill apps it says are utilizing the discrete GPU. This MUX change performance is already dealt with by Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus, so I’m unsure why Gigabyte brute forces it this manner.

The GiMate AI chatbot, one other misfire, allegedly helps you optimize your laptop computer. I requested it to inform me the distinction between Game Mode and Balanced, and it simply enabled Game Mode. You can ask it to do fundamentals like toggle Wi-Fi on or off, but it surely takes for much longer than doing it your self. That could possibly be helpful for somebody unfamiliar with computer systems, however it is a gaming machine.

Bad software program and noisy followers apart, the Aorus Master 16 is generally an excellent performer. Its 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, RTX 5080 GPU, and 32GB of RAM simply deal with multitasking throughout numerous productiveness apps, although it may possibly’t final greater than six hours on cost, even utilizing energy saving mode. It did okay with some hefty picture enhancing, however on two events on battery energy Lightroom Classic slowed to the purpose the place I needed to shut and restart it — not perfect when it’s good to edit shortly.

In gaming efficiency, the Aorus Master is correct in step with an Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 utilizing the identical CPU and GPU for $200 extra. The Aorus Master is normally on par or a body or two higher in 4K and a pair of.5K benchmark exams of Black Myth: Wukong and Cyberpunk 2077. And just like the Asus, that places the Gigabyte inside attain of the flagship RTX 5090 within the $4,500 Razer Blade 16. In our exams, the 5090 bested it by a mean of simply 3.5 fps with out body era, and by as much as 10 fps with body era. Those are fairly minimal variations, making the cellular 5080 a a lot better worth — no less than, in comparison with the Blade 16’s power-limited 5090. We haven’t but examined a laptop computer with an uncapped 5090.

I averaged 143 fps in Oblivion Remastered on a 4K show with excessive settings and body era turned on within the recreation’s prologue. Turning off body gen dropped it to a mean of 99 fps. When I switched to extremely settings within the open world I noticed a mean of fifty fps with out body gen and 77 with. The one factor I couldn’t flip off was the incessant fan noise.

If you at all times play with headphones on, you may mitigate the Gigabyte’s greatest challenge. But whereas the Aorus Master 16 is among the least expensive 5080 laptops, there are many attention-grabbing opponents for just a bit extra. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16, for instance, seems to be cooler and has quieter followers; the HP Omen Max and Lenovo Legion Pro 7i each have OLED screens just like the Gigabyte. I believe I nonetheless favor the Gigabyte’s OLED to the Asus’ Mini LED, however I must spend extra time with the Asus earlier than making that decision. I’ll even be testing the Lenovo and HP; their OLED screens might make them nearer opponents to the Gigabyte.

There’s quite a bit to love within the Aorus Master 16, but it surely’s not as simple to like. Its highly effective {hardware} and good OLED show are a deal with to recreation on, however the lackluster GiMate software program, primary construct high quality, and at occasions maddening fan noise appears like somebody knocking the ice cream cone out of your hand proper after you get it.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge