Gigabyte has been scaling its operations in India. Hot on the trail of its AORUS CO49DQ gaming monitor (review), the company has now unveiled exciting gaming laptops powered by Intel’s 13th-gen processors and Nvidia’s RTX 40-series GPUs. I managed to get my hands on a unit with the 13650HX processor and the RTX 4050 GPU. As specced, my review unit costs Rs 95,000 in India, making it a compelling option for gamers on a tight budget. But is the laptop any good? Let’s find out in this review.
Table of Contents
Design and Display
The Gigabyte G6X 9MG is a typical gaming laptop. Its bulky and heavy frame is reminiscent of most gaming notebooks. Additionally, the company has drawn inspiration from sci-fi video games and movies for the laptop’s design. I say this because the laptop’s chassis looks very futuristic and mechanical. It also has an edgy pattern on the lid and bronze-coloured vents that help the laptop stand out that much more. The company even states that the laptop’s base was designed with an armoured factory in mind.
Suffice it to say, Gigabyte is not being subtle with the G6X 9MG’s design. I, for one, like gaming laptops disguised as boring office machines. This allows me to use them when I’m out and about without drawing too much attention. Although I don’t find the G6X 9MG’s design offensive, it’s definitely attention-grabbing.
One thing we can all agree on, however, is that the laptop is quite heavy. In fact, at around 2.5 kilograms, the G6X 9MG is not setting any benchmarks for portability. On the upside, the laptop’s sizeable chassis houses a truckload of connectors. These include one Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, one USB Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, two USB Type-C USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, an HDMI 2.1 connector, and an RH45 jack.
The laptop also supports Wi-Fi 6E and can interface wirelessly with devices like mice and controllers over Bluetooth v5.2. In addition to a headphone jack, the unit comes with two 2W speakers that can get reasonably loud. While the sound doesn’t distort at high volume levels, it lacks depth and richness. As such, I resorted to using headphones to enjoy games on the machine during my review period.
The laptop’s display leaves a little to be desired as well. The 16-inch Full HD panel is bordered by slim bezels and refreshes at 165Hz. Correspondingly, gamers will be able to make the most of modern eSports games like Valorant, XDefiant, and Apex Legends on the laptop’s display. That said, the display appears dim and dull. The colours lack brilliance, and the screen maxes out at 250 nits of brightness.
As such, those using the laptop in a well-lit room may struggle to view movies or play games. Additionally, the panel is not very colour-accurate, so while you can use the laptop to power creative workflows, I recommend you interface it with an external monitor instead. I do like the screen’s 16:10 aspect ratio, though, which offers improved vertical space to fit more text.
Keyboard, Trackpad, and Webcam
The G6X 9MG’s keyboard does some things right. For one, it comes with RGB backlighting and offers 15 different lighting presets. It also offers an accommodating layout, and after acclimating to the keyboard deck, I could comfortably type over 60 words a minute. Notably, unlike some competing gaming laptops, the keyboard deck also comes with a full-sized Numpad and arrow keys.
That said, there is certainly room for improvement. For starters, the keyboard deck flexes toward the middle, near the H and J keys. Additionally, the keys have a springy sound and offer mushy feedback. The same goes for the webcam, which tops out at 720P resolution. The picture quality is quite soft, and – as you may have guessed by the specs – the webcam doesn’t support Windows Studio effects, either.
The trackpad works as advertised and offers a sizeable and smooth tracking surface. I could comfortably use multi-finger gestures and didn’t notice any left or right-click dead zones, either, so no complaints here.
Performance and Battery Life
The Gigabyte G6X 9MG is backed by Intel’s 13th Gen Core i7-13650HX processor. It gets an RTX 4050 GPU with 105W TGP, 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and a 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD. The laptop also benefits from a MUX switch, and can automatically assign the dGPU for more demanding tasks or switch to the iGPU to conserve battery life.
Now, I did have to lower some settings in games like Apex Legends to hit 144FPS at 2K resolution consistently. Even so, the graphics looked great, and I didn’t run into any performance niggles, even during chaotic fights. The same goes for indie games like Astroneer and Jusant, which ran flawlessly at 2K resolution. I did enable Nvidia’s DLSS tech while playing Jusant, as it taxed the machine a bit more. Regardless, the game looked spectacular on my monitor, and the G6X 9MG could run it at at least 70FPS or more.
Diablo 4 at maxed-out settings and with Ray Tracing logs around 60FPS at 2K resolution. The frame rate dropped to around 50FPS when a lot was happening or when I was queuing with a friend, but I still found the game more than playable. If you want more FPS, you can always drop the resolution to 1080p or enable Nvidia’s DLSS tech. The latter brings the frame rate to around 80FPS at the Quality preset, which isn’t too shabby.
The laptop can also run new-age racing games at higher resolution. Forza Horizon 5, for instance, nets around 72FPS at 2K resolution. I set all graphics presets to High except for Particle Effects and used DLSS’ Quality preset at 0.8 sharpness for my testing. With the settings in place, the frame rate rarely dipped below 65FPS. The same goes for NFS Unbound, which logs 70FPS when zooming through the streets, drifting around corners, or crashing into other vehicles. The game was run at 2K resolution at the High graphics preset and with DLSS enabled.
| Game | Graphics Presets | Resolution | FPS |
| Astroneer | High | 2K | ~120FPS |
| Diablo 4 | High with Ray Tracing (Low) | 2K | ~60FPS |
| Diablo 4 | High with Ray Tracing and DLSS | 2K | ~80FPS |
| NFS Unbound | High with DLSS | 2K | ~70FPS |
| Forza Horizon 5 | High with DLSS | 2K | ~65FPS |
| God of War | High | 2K | ~50FPS |
| Apex Legends | Medium | 2K | ~144FPS |
| Hogwarts Legacy | High | 1080p | ~45-50FPS |
| Jusant | Medium-High with DLSS | 2K | ~70FPS |
| Valorant | High | 1080p | ~400FPS |
| GTA 5 | High | 1080p | ~150FPS |
You’ll notice more frequent dips in more taxing games. God of War, for instance, should run at 50FPS for the most part at 2K resolution and High graphics preset. However, I had a much better experience playing the game at 1080p resolution as it averaged over 60FPS at all times, even when I was fighting hordes of monsters. Similarly, Hogwarts Legacy was less jittery at 1080p resolution and overturned around 50FPS at the High graphics preset.
Lighter games like Hades, Stardew Valley, and Valorant posed no issues for the machine. All things considered, I was thoroughly satisfied with the G6X’s gaming chops. It performs just as well when crunching through routine tasks like browsing the web, accessing Microsoft’s Office suite to run Excel or make PPTs, and using communication and management tools like Teams, Slack, or Basecamp. You can also use it in creative workflows. In fact, the laptop fared similarly to machines like the HP OMEN 16 in our PugetBench Photoshop test. For those unaware, the test replicates creator-centric workloads like applying the Lens Correction filter or an Iris Blur in Photoshop.
The laptop gets hot, but that’s to be expected with most gaming laptops, especially when used in Delhi heat. The unit comes with five heat pipes and two 67-blade fans, and the setup ensured I could play for hours at a stretch. The P-cores touched 100 degrees, but that didn’t affect the performance. In addition, the laptop lets users upgrade the RAM and add another M.2 drive to expand the storage, which is excellent.
Verdict
The Gigabyte G6X costs Rs 95,000 in India, making it an enticing option for budget-conscious gamers. The laptop can run most games at 1080p resolution and medium-high graphics presets. The G6X’s 165Hz display helps further the gap, as the majority of the competition is still using a 144Hz screen. As such, if you can look past the laptop’s edgy and bulky design, you will likely be quite satisfied with the Gigabyte G6X 9MG.
Editor’s Rating: 8 / 10
Pros:
- Great 1080p gaming performance
- Dissipates heat well
- User-upgradeable RAM and storage
- 165Hz display
Cons:
- Display is quite dim
- Some flex around the chassis
- Sub-par battery backup
