Gateway USA creators series tongfang 2060m i5 10300h

[Hertzian56]

Since I had a thread for my gateway 2060m system on nbr thought I'd just do a little update on it after almost 2 years of constant usage. Here's a link to the nbrchive.net of the original nbr thread: https://www.nbrchive.net/xfa/other-manufacturers.11/Gateway Creators Series 15.6 RTX 2060 i5-10300H/

 

There's also the official one started later on by another nbr'r: https://www.nbrchive.net/xfa/other-manufacturers.11/OFFICIAL Gateway Creator Series Model- GWTN156-3 i5-10300H W RTX 2060/

 

So got in during the holiday 20 for 699 plus tax and it's worked out pretty great so far, has handled my gaming needs with the 90w 2060m which can also be vbiosed using any tongfang variant with the 115w but I've heard it really only minimally performs better. Have not done it with mine, but I do MSIAB OC it both vram and core clock, 515/115 so it goes from the original 1800mhz up to 2000mhz in heavier games like cp77. It's handled everything I've thrown at it satisfactorily, usually turn down and tweak the default game settings, mid-high, sometimes dial down the AA and AO and sometimes go 900p, use DLSS. Sometimes if it's a cpu heavy game I'll use DSR to go to 2k to force more gpu usage but hasn't been necessary too much.

 

I still only have 8gb ram and I've had no problems in any games, no doubt it would be better to upgrade but I'm cheap and lazy and this just works. It's a bit of a minefield to get compatible ram speeds and such. This has 1 8gb stick so would only need one more.

 

256gb nvme has required more external hdd/ssd gaming using a sata adapter to usb3, so I have several 2.5hdd/ssd's just for games. I do usually have a variety of small games on the nvme and one larger game like TW3 and currently DL1. Obviously games like RDR2, Uncharted Legacy and other large games are external and have had no problems. There's another slot for an nvme but it's the same story as the ram there. I usually have a good 35-80gb free.

 

Screen has terrible color gamut but only really noticeable when I'm hooked up to an external screen and have half on one and half on this. It's 120hz but gaming I rarely can get close to that with this dgpu so lock most games to 60 which is easily done with even the toughest games like cp77, rdr2 etc I've noticed ghosting in some situations as well but it's minor and rare. No dead pixels so far and no other problems. I applied a screen calibration profile from notebookchecks review.

 

So far the keyboard has been fine as well, I have noticed some of the keys are starting to wear off the letters though. I don't game with the kbm usually, use an xbone gamepad more comfortable for me.

 

I/O is adequate with 3xusb , 1xusbc video and mouse only, hdmi, dp, almost useless minisd and such. No need so far for a hub or adaptors other than the mouse usbc so I can use all three usbs on the sides.

 

Case has held up well, I kept the clear plastic on it since day one. Fairly easy to open it with some m3s, clean the fans and vents. I keep it tilted up using some of those cheap plastic door jams from the dollar store so plenty of airflow.

 

The default THX sound was really weird to me, like a stadium effect so I loaded in the default windows sound profile and it's been fine. I'm no audiophile.

 

The nose cam is annoying but thankfully I've only had one instance of needing to use it, with the new ones they moved it back to the top of the screen. If I had need of it more I'd get an external.

 

Battery is pretty poor on the dgpu, maybe a couple hours so when I'm on it, which is rarely, I switch to the igpu which gives around 4hrs my guess normal usage. Since this has a mux switch in the bios I always just have the dgpu enabled because it's always wall plugged. Maximum power.

 

Still just have the win10 20h1 home edition it came with and have had no problems, all updates turned off and other tweaks with winaero and the sordum stuff. Don't run av at all, that's like a virus itself and drags the system down, and you pay for it lol I've not had any system bluescreens of note or that I can remember probably one or two in there though. Once I move on to another primary rig probably stick LTSC on here.

 

Thankfully the warranty was not necessary and I suspect it was useless anyways.

 

I've seen some newer models of the creators gaming gpu series, notably a 17" version with a 3050ti and an i7 11th gen, more ram larger nvme and such but the fantastic sales seem to be long gone, they're all 900+ now. May as well go with a major manuf with real warranty support 3060 for around the same price imo.

 

All in all it's been a great experience and no major problems at all. I've traveled extensively with it and it's held up fine. Good value and the plan is at least 3yrs with it seems like it will do that easily.

[ryan]

yeah back on NBR I was so jealous of your laptop I had the 1060 msi laptop. pretty much every regard yours was double. now I have a 3060 laptop and still envy you for one reason and one reason only. temps. I get throttled quite a bit. the gap between 3060 and 2060 is closing fast. im paying 3500 for this hp omen 16 over 4years (financing) and well im screwed. perhaps we could do an old vs new benchmark session..like comparing the 3060 to the 2060 to see if people should pull the trigger on a used 2060 laptop or buy new.

[Hertzian56]

Idk why jealous, it was available afaik up there when new, and there's usually a few on ebay used since for 4-500 if you look. I might get a second one later on for CAD use and backup. It's not worth more than that unless there are some nice upgrades you don't already have you can move over. The 17" 3050ti model with the i7 8/16 cpu is still available in certain places for not much more than 750. I was seriously looking at it but I just couldn't justify it financially right now. And was concerned with 4gb vram, no reason for anything below 6gb vram or more but we all know nvidia scammers. The CPU is the biggest problem with this one and the screen has a terrible color gamut. I compensate using night light so it's not so blue/desaturated in games and during normal use but it's fine for the average user for the most part.

 

Omens a good gaming laptop much better in all respects but you pay for it, I briefly had a 1070 version of one and it was awesome, but some keyboard keys wouldn't work and that was not mentioned by the seller, returned it. That was like 750 a couple years ago and is probably cheaper used now, no need for more if you don't care about raytracing and 4k/60, you could use FSR for fps boosting.

 

Eh I think it's pretty clear the 3060m is at least 25-30% higher fps at same settings and better at 2k/4k, that's usually the spread every generation. I had some timespy, firefly and other benches results listed in the nbrchive link for comparison. I also have just the default RAM in there, 8gb, waiting on another stick of 8 in the mail to help out. Might get another NVME too have to do some shopping there. The only thing that seems to be a big plus is the MUX switch so I can cut out the igpu and optimus stuff during normal plugged in use. I'm guessing the 3050ti version has one too, same tongfang chassis etc

 

 I'm guessing you have an Intel cpu which are not too efficient that way, AMD so much better. Omen should be better since it's a long standing gaming platform. You're getting way higher fps and resolutions with probably the same temps, sounds good to me. But wow 3500, that's too much for a 60 level imo, should be at least 70 if not 80 and a 2080m would be even less. I'd return that if you still can.

[Hertzian56]

I got a second 8gb stick after 15 days in the mail for some reason, it was usps first class so really bad on the postal service. I did get a full refund as well, didn't ask for it though. It was listed as new but it was obviously an open package, sellers can be very shady on eb and other places. The extra 8gb does give a noticeable benefit for cp77 play, it's much more smooth in many areas and I don't have to close everything else down while playing like I used to. CP77 uses almost a whole 8gb of ram but the vram usage is unchanged around 4.5gb 1080p DLSS performance setting, cpu heavy stuff turned to minimums, 60max fps. They run in dual channel mode as well so that's good.

 

-canceled other order, got to thinking about finances nah couldn't do it. From notebookcheck on the 3050ti it's either equal or below in most games afa fps on the systems they tested it on, with the 4 more cores of the 17" gateway it would probably be a benefit as to fps but on equal systems isolating the mgpu it's the same or less performance. The extra 2gb of vram are likely a big factor there. I think the base mhz is higher on the 2060m I have as well or pretty much equal. It would just be the cpu benefit really and larger screen size but as to the ram and nvme size I got those for minimal cost nah not worth it. Wait to see what they come out with this year in the 4xxx range.

 

-I did go ahead and order a second phison nvme 256gb to give a total of 512gb in this laptop.

[Hertzian56]

Got a second 256gb nvme I think 2280 same size as the phison it came with and also phison brand why not. Nice to have enough room for a couple of larger games and also some larger programs if I decide to put them on here. Dragged over cp77 since I've been modding and binging on it. I didn't notice any perf increase at all, maybe loads a few seconds faster idk And with the second ram stick it helps too but I didn't notice FPS difference at same settings still CPU limited here, like I said to just balance it out maybe up the resolution but seems overkill have to try it.

 

-Glad I canceled the order of the 17" 3050ti one though, from notebookchecks fps benches at high the 2060m in here is usually higher in the last games they tested on it that they tested the 3050ti on, last one was F1 21 not too demanding for any of them. But on the larger games they always test on it beats it by sometimes 20-30% and even at higher than 1080 it beats it but it's not much a few fps higher at 2k/4k the 3050ti probably better at higher resolutions on the latest games but is limited by the 4gb vram. CP77 takes 4.5gb vram at my 1080p settings and almost a whole 8gb system ram. Just this i5 the limiting factor afa fps so the 8c/16t could have really helped in that case. The notebookcheck testing is usually isolating the gpu as much as possible so no bottlenecks afa cpu in their testing which does not represent more than that, a cpu limited bottleneck like mine has consequences so maybe it would make sense to try to bump up the resolution but keep it at 60 max game setting idk.

 

The cost the major factor there would have been nice to test it on there but a lot of hassle to go through to send it back within 30 days just to do that, if it was a large enough difference I could still get back around 4-500 on this one to defray the cost of the new one. Eh not comfortable with juggling all that right now, make do and wait another year see if they come out with a 4xxx card at least a 4050ti for the new sharing tech so a gpu bottleneck in that case could be circumvented with the new tech. Selling on eb not the best experience and if I'm in a better financial position then just keep this one.

[ryan]

its 3700 because im financing it, alot of interest. but yeah Im happy with a 3060 and would be happy with a 2060. you don't need a beast for 1080p gaming

[Hertzian56]

4 hours ago, ryan said:

its 3700 because im financing it, alot of interest. but yeah Im happy with a 3060 and would be happy with a 2060. you don't need a beast for 1080p gaming

Oh man you gotta get off that, that's a lot of trouble to get into for gaming dude.

[Hertzian56]

Coming back to this on my cp77 modding binge lately the game seems to run better with higher vram usage and takes up more than 8gb of regular ram in high traffic areas. I have hundreds of mods making the game much more interesting and pleasing to the eye for me to play as well as much better QOL than cpdr is capable of. Kind of shocking how lazy the coding was after a game like GTAV came out in 2013 wow they really focused on marketing and promotion/celebs more than gamer friendly. The amazing to me graphics are one thing they did well, but it's just not near what TW3 is, the source material must have been a lot thinner.

 

CP77 uses almost my whole 6gb of vram and I turn down or off the CPU intensive stuff like crowd density and the volumetric stuff. As I've said I'm at 1080p dlss performance using 2412 atm. Have not tried dsr 2k so far that would certainly bump up gpu usage from current 40-60% , the CPU varies from 50-85% most of the time. Temps are the same since it's an intel, always 85c or so during most intensive stuff but at least 75c, gpu follows along since it's on the same pcb even with 40% usage. I'm using some 2k upscaled character face textures and some principal NPC character face textures so that adds to the vram I assume.

 

I'm good with the gaming perf of this as I said before it's not 2k/4k 60 gaming but 1k/60 fine enough and even with latest games if I make adjustments that are fine with me it can get close to that or I lock it at 60. With cp77 I'm usually 45-60 with the drops down to 30s in some places seems to be that way with everyone though. Max fps is set to 60 so I don't get unnecessary spikes in deserts/industrial areas/pacifica. Totally recommend disabling vsync for smoothness of play, not necessary unless your machine is not up to your settings.

[Hertzian56]

Saw a couple of these up on eb for auction finishing at around 400$ good deal, fine cpu for normal use and most gaming, 2060m 90w etc 1080p gaming totally fine. 8gb stick and another 256gb nvme is like 40-50$ total extra.

 

Got a BSOD, can't remember the last time I got one of those not sure what happened all good now though. I've been getting some weird mouse issues here and there sometimes it goes haywire and will start almost doing it's own thing or very delayed input. I have my mouse plugged into the usbc rear port with an adaptor not sure if that's the issue or not, seems like some sort of interference going on. I unplug it when that happens, plug it into a regular usb usually does the trick then later back in the rear slot.

[ryan]

I honestly love cp2077 just got into it. Any advice for choices before I mess it up