Performance and Battery Life
There's no doubt about it, the Core i7-4700HQ is a potent chip, and it makes the P34G particularly versatile.
This is a laptop that wouldn't be out of its depth when asked to carry out demanding tasks such as video rendering, though do be aware of the mains-powered requirement. Running the Cinebench test on battery returned a score of just 1.70.
Battery-powered performance is a let down, but on the mains, the P34G can fly. It feels extremely fast during everyday use, and the Core i7 processor, DDR3 memory and mSATA SSD work in harmony to deliver a PCMark score of over 6,000 - the best we've seen in a 14in machine.
We've seen other manufacturers shoehorn the GeForce GTX 765M into a compact chassis - XMG's P303 Pro being a prime example - but Gigabyte's P34G plays it safe by opting for the slower-clocked GeForce GTX 760M. A 3DMark score of 3,593 is decent for a system as thin and portable as this, but is the GPU going to have enough oomph to drive games at the native 1,920x1,080 resolution?
We begin our gaming analysis by running Just Cause 2 at 1,366x768 with medium quality settings. Modern-day laptops should pass this test with flying colours, and all of the comparison systems make light work of the challenge.
Native Gaming Performance (Average FPS) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game | Quality Settings | Gigabyte P34G |
XMG P303 Pro |
GeForce GTX 760M |
GeForce GTX 765M |
||
| BioShock Infinite | 1,920x1,080, Medium Quality | 51.9 |
57.7 |
| 1,920x1,080, High Quality | 45.4 |
49.8 |
|
| 1,920x1,080, Max Quality | 26.4 |
29.1 |
|
| DiRT Showdown | 1,920x1,080, 4xMSAA, Medium Quality | 82.5 |
90.9 |
| 1,920x1,080, 4xMSAA, High Quality | 69.5 |
75.2 |
|
| 1,920x1,080, 4xMSAA, Ultra Quality | 25.6 |
29.5 |
|
To get a better idea of what the P34G can do, we've tested two modern games - BioShock Infinite and DiRT Showdown - with varying degrees of image quality at the laptop's native 1,920x1,080 resolution. Performance is down by up to 10 per cent compared to the GeForce GTX 765M, but the GTX 760M still has plenty of gaming potential. Maximum image quality may be a step too far in the latest titles, but games still look fantastic and run smooth at medium quality.
Battery life, sadly, is the P34G's second major disappointment. We may have been willing to accept the reduced CPU clock speed had it resulted in stellar battery life, but that isn't the case.
In our video rundown test - which entails looping a 720p movie clip with 50 per cent screen brightness and all wireless radios disabled - Gigabyte's 14in machine could only muster up three hours and 47 minutes. That's a couple of hours short of what we would hope to see in a current-generation laptop powered by Intel Haswell technology.