iBuyPower GT72 Dominator Notebook Review Update

Color space reproduction is a little over 76 percent of the sRGB standard or just 56 percent of AdobeRGB. While certainly superior to budget panels where color coverage is typically 60 percent of sRGB, this is standard amongst gaming notebooks of this class. This may be a $2000 notebook, but professional graphics artists should be looking into workstations like the HP ZBook series or specialized panels as found on certain Eurocom models for extreme color accuracy. The current TN panel on the GT72 is sufficient for gaming needs.

Further color analyses with a X-Rite spectrophotometer reveal inaccurate colors and grayscale out of the box. Correlated color temperature is overly cool and Cyan in particular is inaccurate across all saturation levels. Calibration improves the display dramatically: the RGB curve is flattened and the average dE2000 color deviation reduces to just 5.19 from over 11 units. Though not essential for daily use or gaming, a display calibration is recommended on the GT72.

Outdoor usability is difficult and not recommended. Aside from the obvious size and weight disadvantages, the backlight is insufficient for overcoming ambient light on such a large 17.3-inch monitor. The matte panel is mainly a perk in indoor situations to avoid reflections that a glossy display would otherwise have.

Processor

The CPU in our GT72 performs similarly to other i7-4710HQ processors in our database with no outliers or other abnormal results. Certain notebooks equipped with the same CPU tend to score much lower than our GT72 due to inferior Turbo Boost. The IdeaPad Y50, for example, completes wPrime 1024M in about 320 seconds compared to just 254 seconds on the GT72.  

Compared to desktop processors, our Multi-core CineBench R15 score of 631 points is just 1 percent and 5 percent shy from the popular i7-2600K and AMD FX-8350, respectively, while drawing just a fraction of the power. Compared to the previous mobile generation, this Haswell core is most similar to the Ivy Bridge i7-3820QM while operating at a slower 200 MHz core clock.

For more benchmarks and technical information on the Core i7-4710HQ, see our dedicated CPU page here.

System Performance

According to PCMark 7, system performance is on par with other high-end gaming notebooks that sport dedicated SSDs including the Aorus X7, MSI GS70, and the Eurocom X3. PCMark 8 benchmark results are some of the highest in our database as well and are in fact higher than our Gigabyte P35X V3, which sports the same GTX 980M GPU. Navigation is almost instantaneous with no latency or frame skips. The day-to-day feel of Windows is not all that different from an Ultrabook, but with a much more powerful GPU.

Gaming Performance

The GTX 980M is the most powerful single GPU solution in the mobile market as of this writing. In fact, the overall 3DMark 11 score of 10793 points is comparable to the AMD 8790M Crossfire found on the One K73-3S barebones notebook. We've already had a couple of 980M GPUs tested and benchmarked, so definitely check out our dedicated GPU page for more benchmarks and technical information on the 980M.

In short, this is a monster of a card that can play most any title as of 2014 on 1080p60. For more intensive titles like Last Light or Sleeping Dogs, however, don't expect a perfectly locked 60 FPS experience as frames will still fluctuate down to the low to mid 50s depending on the situation. Nonetheless, titles can be played on their maximum settings without technical or driver issues as of ForceWare 344.00.

We use the stress test benchmarks Prime95 and FurMark to identify any throttling or stability issues with CPU-Z, GPU-Z, and HWiNFO monitoring tools active. With only Prime95 running, the CPU will run at its maximum 3.3 GHz Turbo Boost until core temperatures reach about 87 degrees C, which takes less than half a minute. At this point, the CPU drops to a more steady 2.9 to 3.0 GHz range and core temperatures remain stable in the 75 degrees C zone. Thus, the processor is able to maintain a Turbo Boost of about 500 to 600 MHz above its 2.4 GHz base speed when under full CPU stress. If the turbo fan is enabled, core temperatures drop a few degrees closer to 70 degrees C, but performance remains unchanged.

With just FurMark active, the 980M GPU operates at a steady 834.9 to 847.6 MHz core clock with a 1252.8 MHz memory according to GPU-Z. This is about 200 MHz below its base speed of 1034 MHz, which suggests that the GPU is unable to sustain higher speeds nor can it benefit appreciably from GPU Boost when at maximum stress. Like the Intel CPU, the Nvidia GPU will operate at its fastest for the first minute or so before leveling off. GPU temperature plateaus at 80 degrees C. Note that setting the system Shift Mode to Green or Comfort will limit the GPU core to the 468.9 to 810 MHz range, which further reduces performance.

When under both Prime95 and FurMark stress, the CPU and GPU remain in their respective 2.9 to 3.0 GHz and 834.9 to 847.6 MHz ranges. Power consumption under this extreme state is slightly above 200 Watts or at least 4x the demand when idling. After a full hour of stress, we experienced no throttling or stability issues on the GT72.

Running on batteries will reduce CPU and GPU performance. A 3DMark 11 run on batteries returns Physics and graphics scores of 7460 and 6184 points, respectively, compared to 8171 and 12142 points on mains. This is due to the wildly fluctuating cores as the CPU and GPU will occasionally drop to 800 MHz and 162 MHz, respectively, when under consistently high stress.