Gaming laptops that have Nvidia’s powerful RTX 30-series graphics chips inside are now shipping. I have a first look at MSI’s 2021 GS66 Stealth with the RTX 3080, and my colleague Monica Chin published two reviews for launch day: the Asus ROG Flow X13 (with its detachable RTX 3080 eGPU) and the MSI GP66 Leopard with the RTX 3070.
We discovered something strange: an RTX 3070 can now be faster than an RTX 3080 in some cases. We saw this first-hand in a few benchmark runs, where the RTX 3070 in the GP77 Leopard slightly surpassed the RTX 3080 in the GS66 Stealth. It wasn’t a blowout, just a few odd frames per second more in the benchmarks built into games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. But this shouldn’t be happening, right?
This sounds like a huge controversy, but the explanation is nothing new. It’s just become something shadier than it ever needed to be. Nvidia is no longer adding “Max-Q” labels to the weaker, more power-efficient variants of its laptop-grade GPUs, and so you can no longer easily tell if you’re getting a full-fat GPU.
The RTX 3080 in the GS66 Stealth is actually a Max-Q variant with a boost clock of 1,245MHz and a maximum wattage of 95 watts, which is about as weak as an RTX 3080 can get, according to Nvidia’s spec sheets. But customers probably wouldn’t know this by looking at this laptop’s box, MSI’s site, or the numerous retailer sites selling this model. The GP66 Leopard, on the other hand, is using an RTX 3070 that has a higher clock speed and more wattage than the norm, which explains why it was able to pull ahead a few times during our testing.
Nvidia’s breakdown of the range in performance of each RTX 30-series graphics chip.Image: Nvidia
As NotebookCheck explains, there’s a wide array of wattages each RTX 30-series laptop chip can be set to — but it depends on what kind of laptop the manufacturer wants to sell.
Thinner, lighter gaming laptops tend to use dialed-back Max-Q versions of Nvidia’s graphics chips for better efficiency (indicated as GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q in the past, for instance), while others use ones that don’t have the Max-Q branding and thus can be trusted to deliver better performance that’s more akin to the desktop versions of the GPU. Now, Nvidia is letting manufacturers hide which one they’re using in a laptop. It lets companies treat Nvidia’s mobile graphics cards on a spec sheet as if they all have consistent performance across all devices, but that’s far from being true.
This lack of transparency is the key difference between how these RTX 30-series graphics chips are being marketed versus previous generations that utilized Max-Q chips, and it may lead to a lot of confused people. Nvidia also doesn’t require manufacturers that use Max-Q graphics chips to have Max-Q stickers on the laptop, which it has done previously.
Naturally, MSI isn’t the only company already taking advantage of this. The Asus TUF Dash 15 and Gigabyte Aorus 15G that I’m testing each claim to have the RTX 3070, but each omits the crucial info that you’re getting the Max-Q variant of the chip. Like MSI’s laptop, you won’t find a detailed breakdown of the GPU’s boost clock speed or wattage requirements on either box or on retail listings.
That’s crucial info to communicate to people, as they all but confirm whether you’re getting a slower Max-Q variant or a faster standard part.
Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
Why would Nvidia make this change, knowing most average consumers will fall for it? When I asked, a spokesperson told The Verge that it “strongly encourage[s] OEMs to list clocks and other technologies a laptop supports, including Advanced Optimus, Dynamic Boost 2, and more.” Judging by manufacturer websites so far, that “encouragement” doesn’t seem to be working.
Nvidia also says the Nvidia Control Panel app, which is accessible only after you’ve paid for and set up one of these laptops, now provides more spec info than before. Not very helpful.
When I pressed Nvidia on whether it’d work to make these details more transparent to customers when they’re researching which laptop to buy, a spokesperson said the company is “reviewing additional ways to give consumers more insight prior to purchase.” It seems like a simple way of going about this would be to keep a running list of each model with detailed specs, like Nvidia does with G-Sync-compatible monitors.
There’s always a degree of uncertainty as to how each laptop is going to perform in the real world. The Max-Q branding, at the very least, helped customers see right away that they were getting a machine with a graphics chip that had a lower clock speed, thus resulting in slightly dialed-back performance than you’d get from the full-fat chip. Now, you’ll either have to read comparison reviews or hope that Nvidia reverses its policy that lets manufacturers keep people in the dark.
We’ll update this post if and when Nvidia shares its plans to improve transparency for customers.
Microsoft posted the second quarter of its 2021 financial results today, reporting revenue of $43.1 billion and a net income of $15.5 billion. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 33 percent. We saw some impressive growth for Surface, Xbox, and cloud-related services in Microsoft’s previous quarter, and it’s very much the same this time around.
The PC market just had its first big growth in 10 years, with around 300 million shipments of devices during 2020. The pandemic has impacted the way a lot of people work or learn, and many have turned to laptops to continue remotely.
Windows OEM non-pro revenue has grown by 24 percent for Microsoft, reflecting the demand from consumers. Windows OEM revenue overall, including pro licenses, grew 1 percent in total, likely because of the strong prior Windows 7 upgrade schedule for businesses.
Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox consoles.Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
This is the first quarter of sales of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. While both debuted toward the end of the quarter (November 10th), Microsoft says hardware revenue has grown 86 percent, thanks to the next-gen consoles.
Xbox content and services revenue has also increased by 40 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Gaming has been incredibly popular throughout 2020, and many have clearly turned to Xbox Game Pass and services like xCloud during the pandemic. That’s pushed Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue up 51 percent.
Over on the Surface side, Microsoft’s updated Surface Pro X and Surface Laptop Go also debuted during this quarter. Surface revenue is up 3 percent, but it’s crucially now a $2 billion business for the first time ever. That’s significant for the long-term health of the Surface business, and it comes during an increased demand for laptops and PCs.
Microsoft also just announced an updated Surface Pro 7 Plus device, available only for businesses and schools. The new model includes a bigger battery, Intel’s 11th Gen processors, a removable SSD, and LTE.
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 lineup.Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers have also increased to 47.5 million, a 28 percent bump. Microsoft has been focusing on Teams and Microsoft 365 services for consumers, launching a renewed effort to attract more subscribers last year.
Cloud services continue to be a big boost to Microsoft’s revenues, thanks to the general pandemic shift in work and learning behavior. Both Office commercial and consumer are up, with Office 365 Commercial revenue growth up by 21 percent. Server products and cloud services revenue has also increased 26 percent as more businesses rely on cloud services. Azure revenue itself grew 50 percent.
“What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry,” says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “Building their own digital capability is the new currency driving every organization’s resilience and growth.”
Microsoft is planning to hold an investor call at 5:30PM ET, and we’ll update this article with any relevant information.
Intel’s Xe Graphics has been out for a while now, in the form of 11th Gen Tiger Lake laptops, but the discrete variant (Iris Xe Max) has only been in a few notebooks. Now, Intel is finally releasing its Iris Xe for desktops, but they’re not what you would expect, nor can you just go to the shop and buy them.
The GPU in question is the renowned DG1, similar to what we found in the Tiger Lake laptop we tested last year. Except, for the discrete graphics cards for desktops, Intel has seemingly cut the GPU down to 80 Execution Units for 640 cores, and it’s wired to 4 GB of memory. It’s not clear what kind of memory the GPU is wired to (Iris Xe Max used LPDDR4), but it does have its own dedicated pool, unlike the Xe Graphics integrated into Tiger Lake CPUs.
With this design handed over to Asus and Colorful, the following GPUs were conjured:
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Asus’s flavor of the DG1 comes passively cooled, and Colorful’s card comes with a cheap-looking dual-fan cooler. Neither of the cards have PCIe power connectors, so it’s clear these are low-power chips. We haven’t found exact TDPs yet, but with cooling solutions like these and a cut down chip design in the desktop parts, expect a sub-30W TDP. The cards both have three display outputs: DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.
The chips are manufactured on Intel’s 10nm SuperFIN fabrication process, and performance is supposed to be pretty decent at 1080p. Our tests on the mobile platform confirmed this, and chances are that the desktop parts run at higher clock speeds to make up for the deficit in EUs — but exact details aren’t available and neither Asus nor Colorful have working product pages yet.
(Image credit: Intel)
OEM Only — How Bad Is It Really?
However, as much as everyone has been jumping at the thought of Intel joining the discrete high-end GPU market for gamers, that isn’t happening yet. That’s no surprise given what we know about Xe Graphics, as the high-end variants are mostly aimed at HPC and data centers and have not yet launched.
At this level, the DG1 level, Intel is only selling the GPUs directly to system integrators to put in prebuilt desktops — think parties such as Dell and HP. That might seem like a bummer, but let’s be honest: If you’re a gamer, would you really be jumping at the performance offered by the DG1 GPU? Probably not, so we doubt the DIY space will miss the DG1. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for the HPG (High Performance Gaming) Xe solutions in the future.
As a result of this OEM-only strategy, we also don’t know what pricing will look like. Availability is slated for Q1, and this looks like a half-hearted move by Intel at best. Iris Xe Max hasn’t been particularly impressive, and unless Intel has some ace up its sleeve, the desktop DG1 will be pretty anemic compared to competing solutions from AMD and Nvidia.
Then again, even budget graphics cards are currently sold out or selling at inflated prices. Nvidia’s GTX 1050 Ti from over four years back starts at around $170, and the newer GTX 1650 is selling at $300+ on Newegg. Similarly, the Radeon RX 570 that was selling for $120-$130 for over a year now starts at $290. If Intel’s DG1 can keep up with a GTX 1050 for $150, maybe it has a chance?
The Gigabyte Aorus 17G pushes out solid RTX-30 series performance while offering a mechanical keyboard.
For
300 Hz Screen
Physical Mechanical Keyboard
Against
Not much faster than prior-gen laptops
Slightly dim screen
Slightly low color gamut
Ampere has finally landed on laptops, with Gigabyte’s 2021 refresh of the Aorus 17G in particular representing our first chance to look at how RTX 3080 performs on mobile. This refresh also brings a 300Hz display to an Aorus laptop for the first time, plus sees the return of Aorus’ mobile physical mechanical keyboard. But the GPU still steals the show here, for two particular reasons. The first is to see if mobile Ampere is enough to propel this to our list of the best gaming laptops, and the second is that this represents yet another way to buy the notoriously rare RTX 30-series of GPUs.
Still, transitioning to mobile always comes with its tradeoffs, so the question remains- does the mobile RTX 3080 live up to the reputation set by its full-size cousins, or will PC owners still be left without many ways to get their hands on the best Ampere has to offer?
Specifications
CPU
Intel Core i7-10870H
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GDDR6 8GB
Memory
32GB DDR4-2933MHz
Storage
1TB M.2 NVMe SSD
Display
17.3 inch, 1080p, 300Hz, IPS-level
Networking
802.11ax Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0
Ports
3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type-A), 1x Thunderbolt 3, 1x UHS-II SD Card Reader, 1x RJ-45 Ethernet, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x Mini DP 1.4, 1x 3.5mm Headphone jack, 1x 3.5mm Microphone jack
Camera
720p
Battery
99Wh
Power Adapter
240W
Operating System
Windows 10 Home
Dimensions(WxDxH)
15.9 x 10.8 x 1.0 inches
Weight
5.95 pounds
Price (as configured)
$2,699
Design of Gigabyte Aorus 17G
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Like Gigabyte’s other Aorus laptops, the 2021 refresh of the Aorus 17G unabashedly wears its gamer branding on its sleeve, with an angled hinge, copious vents and a full physical mechanical keyboard. It does look a little cluttered upon opening the lid, mostly due to all the stickers advertising this laptop’s new features, like an RTX GPU and 300Hz screen. But removing those stickers reveals a slick look that speaks to its gaming nature while still not coming across as embarrassing.
Take the lid, which has a simple matte black finish that mostly resists fingerprints and is only accentuated by a single logo in the center. And the hinge, while angled, is also pleasingly rounded. The webcam placement is questionable- it’s under the screen- but that affects usefulness more than looks and at least allows for a thin bezel.
Despite looking reasonably restrained for gamer gear, the Aorus is still bulky enough to draw attention. When compared to other high-end gaming laptops, its 15.9 x 10.8 x 1 inch dimensions were only matched by the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17’s 15.7 x 11.53 x 1.02 inch dimensions. The Razer Blade Pro 17, meanwhile, is far more compact at 15.5 x 10.24 x 0.78 inches, while the similarly RTX-equipped, 15-inch Alienware m15 R4 is also smaller at 14.2 x 10.9 x 0.7 ~ 0.8 (depending on model) inches.
Despite its girth, though, the Aorus is slightly lighter than its competition at 5.95 pounds. While by no means lightweight, only the Alienware’s 5.25-pound weigh-in beat it. The Scar 17 and the Blade Pro 17, meanwhile, came in at 6.28 and 6.06 pounds, respectively.
The Aorus’ size also means it has plenty of room for ports. On its left side, you’ll find two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A ports, an SD card reader, an RJ-45 ethernet port and 2 separate 3.5mm audio jacks, one for headphones and one for microphones. That last feature in particular is a nice upgrade from, well, pretty much every other laptop I’ve reviewed. The laptop’s right side, meanwhile, has an additional USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A port, a single Thunderbolt 3 connection, plus connections for both Mini DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1. You’ll also find the DC In here, but there’s no lock slot anywhere on the Aorus.
Gaming Performance of Gigabyte Aorus 17G
What makes the Aorus 17G’s 2021 refresh special is that it’s the first laptop we’re looking at with a mobile RTX 3080 inside. Nvidia Control Center suggested the the laptop is utilizing Max-Q technologies. The Aorus 17G is also packing an Intel Core i7-10870H CPU and 32GB of RAM. So, how does the Aorus compare to both the m15 R4, which has the same CPU and 16GB of RAM, as well as powerful Turing laptops like the Scar 17 (i9-10980H, 2080 Super, 32GB RAM) and the Razer Blade Pro 17 (i7-10875H, 2080 Super Max-Q, 16GB RAM)?
In general? It sat towards the top of our results but didn’t make the RTX 2080 feel obsolete.
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In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the Aorus 17G hit an average 65 fps at 1080p on its highest settings, which was slightly behind the m15 R4’s 67 fps average but slightly above the 63 fps average of both the Scar 17 and the Blade Pro 17.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, both the Aorus 17G and the Scar 17 had average frame rates of 86 fps, while the m15 R4 was significantly lower at 77 fps and the Blade Pro 17 hit the bottom of the ranking at 75 fps.
Far Cry: New Dawn was fairly close across all contenders save the Blade Pro 17, with the Aorus 17G scoring 92 fps, the Scar 17, hitting 95 fps and the m15 R4 lagging imperceptibly behind at 91 fps. The slowest contender here was the Blade Pro 17, with 87 fps.
I also personally played Control for about a half hour on the Aorus using DirectX12 and High settings. With ray tracing off, I tended to fall between 79 – 84 fps, and with ray tracing on its high preset lowered that to 46 – 55 fps. The computer never felt hot to the touch during this time, nor did the fans get loud. The frame rate was also stable regardless of the amount of action on screen, though I did notice that it tended to load in at 94 – 105 fps before dropping a few minutes into play, I assume as more assets get loaded.
We also ran the Aorus through our typical Metro: Exodus stress test, where we ran the game’s 1080p RTX benchmark on a loop 15 times in a row. This is to simulate a half hour of intense gaming. The laptop scored an average frame rate of 59.6 fps, with a CPU clock speed of 3.47 GHz and a GPU clock speed of 1.19 GHz. The average CPU temperature during this time was 77.32 degrees Celsius (171.18 degrees Fahrenheit) while the average GPU temperature was 75.62 degrees Celsius (168.12 degrees Fahrenheit).
Productivity Performance of Gigabyte Aorus 17G
We’ve seen how the Aorus 17G handles games, but what about the productivity software that gaming laptops so frequently moonlight in? The Intel Core i7-10870H and 32GB of RAM provide a solid amount of power.
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In Geekbench 5.0, which is a synthetic general productivity benchmark, the Aorus 17G scored 7895 points on multi-core tests and 1,265 on single-core tests. That puts it above both the Razer Blade Pro 17’s 5776/1,179 points and the Alienware m15 R4’s 7642/1,252 points, but behind the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17’s 8708/1,290 points.
In Handbrake, where we track how long it takes laptops to transcode a 4K video down to FHD, the Aorus 17G jumped down to third place, with a time of 8:33. That’s slower than the Scar 17’s 7:06 and the m15 R4’s near-identical 7:07, but still beats the Blade Pro 17’s 9:31.
The Aorus 17G was also in third place in our file transfer test, where we test the rate at which laptops can move 4.97GB of files. The Aorus did so at 845.02 MBps, which was about on par with the Blade Pro 17’s 844 MBps. That’s a far cry from the 1570.76 MBps score from the Scar 17 or even the m15 R4’s 1,055 MBps.
Display of Aorus 17G
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Aside from its GPU, another key innovation for the Aorus 17G is its 300 Hz
IPS
-level display. I tested this screen in two separate ways. First, I watched a trailer for Wandavision (one with color and widescreen, don’t worry), and second, I played Overwatch on it.
In Wandavision, I was impressed by the color quality and even the depth of blacks, but found viewing angles and reflectivity to be a big problem. While vertical viewing angles were almost complete, the screen’s image washed out whenever I strayed more than 45 degrees away from it horizontally. More problematic than this, though, was glare. I had to be certain my screen was pointing away from light, or else my image would reflect back at me even within perfect viewing angles.
In Overwatch, I was in love. While I’m doubtful that refresh rates over 144 Hz can really make one better in a game if they haven’t trained for professional esports, high refresh rates just feel responsive and pleasing to my eyes. I love being able to see as many frames of Overwatch’s gloriously detailed animation as possible, and to feel like my screen is almost instantly reacting to me. That said, I’m not sure I noticed too much of a difference between this display and the 240 Hz display I saw on the last Aorus I reviewed. How well you can distinguish between frame rates, however, tends to be highly personal.
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Looking at our benchmarking results, I was surprised to see that the Aorus 17G actually covers less of the DCI-P3 color spectrum than competitors. It tops out at 79% versus the Scar 17’s 88.5% score, the Razer Blade Pro 17’s 84.1% score and the Alienware m15 R4’s whopping 149.5% score (thanks to a slower OLED screen). This is something I didn’t notice much in practice, though while my colors didn’t come across as flat, neither were they especially vivid.
The same pattern applied to brightness. The Aorus 17G had 300 nits of average brightness, while the Scar 17 had 336 nits, the Blade Pro had 304 nits and the m15 R4 had 362 nits. 300 nits of brightness was plenty for my purposes, and was a welcome increase over the unfortunately-dim 243 nits I saw on my last Aorus laptop.
Keyboard and Touchpad of Aorus 17G
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
While not new to the Aorus line, another key way this laptop differentiates itself from the competition is the inclusion of a full physical mechanical keyboard. It’s got a number pad and full-size keys, plus an easy to read Arial font and media controls baked into its Fn row. Full per-key RGB and clicky low profile Omron switches with 2.5mm of key travel and a 1.6mm actuation point make the gaming implications obvious, so I tested this in both general typing and Overwatch.
In general typing, I scored an average word-per-minute count of 65 – 70 on 10fastfingers.com. That’s lower than my usual score range between 75 – 80 wpm, which isn’t what I’d expect from a mechanical keyboard. However, I found that because these keys sit higher than the typical laptop keyboard (despite resting inside a divot into the case), my wrists had to come at them from an awkward angle where I had to manually raise them above where the wrist rest encouraged me to place them. Additionally, the perfectly smooth keycaps leave my fingers without any identifying features to use as landmarks when typing by touch alone.
In Overwatch, by contrast, I found button presses were satisfying and easy to register through touch and audio alone. This made actions like triggering my shift ability feel like second nature, and more importantly, made spamming A/D to stay evasive and help with aiming both easy to perform and easy on my fingers.
The 4.1 x 2.8 precision touchpad, meanwhile, is comfortably smooth without losing the friction needed for precise input and handles multitouch well. It does have a fingerprint reader in the top-left corner, though, rendering it unusable for input.
Audio on the Gigabyte Aorus 17G
The Aorus 17G has two bottom-firing speakers, one on either side, that tend to produce accurate sound but have an issue with volume.
I tested these speakers by listening to Driver’s License by Olivia Rodrigo. The most noticeable issue I had was that the song didn’t become audible until I hit about 30% volume and didn’t get comfortable until about 55 – 60% volume. On max volume, that song was able to fill my whole office, but didn’t hit much of the rest of my 2-bedroom apartment.
Sound quality was full-bodied during the test, with clear voices and bass and no sign of tinniness. However, throughout my whole test, the song also sounded somewhat muffled, as if the laptop was struggling to push it out.
Upgradeability of Gigabyte Aorus 17G
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Being a 17 inch laptop, the 17G has plenty of room for extra storage and memory. It’s a bit of a hassle to open — you’ll need a Torx screwdriver (we used a TR 6 bit) — and a spudger, but upgrading is easy once the case is off. Inside, you’ll have easy access to the two RAM slots and two M.2 SSD slots, plus the networking card. Our configuration came with both RAM slots filled with unsoldered memory, plus one of the SSD slots already taken, but there’s nothing to stop you from substituting your own parts.
Battery Life on Gigabyte Aorus 17G
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The Aorus 17G has the type of battery life you’d expect from a high-powered gaming laptop, which is to say “not much.” It clocked in at 4:42 during our battery life test, which continuously streams video, browses the web and runs OpenGL over Wi-Fi tests at 150 nits of brightness. That’s about on par with the Razer Blade Pro 17’s 4:41 hours of battery life and longer than the Alienware m15 R4’s 4:01 battery life, but still falls short of the ROG Strix Scar 17’s 5:25 battery life.
Heat on the Gigabyte Aorus 17G
We tested the Aorus 17G’s heat after 15 minutes of streaming video on YouTube, and found that it stays cool during non-gaming use. Its touchpad was the coolest touchpoint on the laptop at 71.4 degrees Fahrenheit (21.89 degrees Celsius), while the center of the keyboard (between the G&H keys) was slightly hotter at 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius). The bottom of the laptop generally hit 81.9 degrees Fahrenheit (27.72 degrees Celsius), but the center of the bottom, which is just below the vents, did hit 85.5 degrees Fahrenheit (29.72 degrees Celsius).
Webcam on the Gigabyte Aorus 17G
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The Aorus 17G suffers from what we like to call a “nosecam.” Placed below the screen rather than above it, this webcam has the unfortunate tendency to look directly up your nose. The idea here is usually to save bezel space, but we have to wonder if the unflattering angle is worth it? You can rectify it a little by stretching in uncomfortable ways, but if you’re looking directly at your screen, be prepared to show off your nostrils, your chin, pretty much everything a good selfie avoids.
Quality is mixed, with accurate color and decent shadows, but fuzzy texture. On the plus side, the Aorus 17G’s webcam does come with a sliding privacy cover.
Software and Warranty on the Gigabyte Aorus 17G
The Aorus 17G comes gracefully free of bloat, with the only examples we could find being standard Windows pre-installs like Microsoft Solitaire Collection and Spotify. In addition to these, you’ll also find utility apps like Nahimic Companion, Intel Graphics Command Center and Thunderbolt Control Center. These let you adjust and customize your audio and display as well as check what’s attached to your Thunderbolt ports.
Gigabyte Aorus 17G Configurations
The Aorus 17G has two different configurations, one with an RTX 3080, dubbed the Aorus 17G YC and one with an RTX 3070, listed as Aorus 17G XC. We reviewed the 3080 configuration, which is $2,699. Both configurations are otherwise identical, each packing an Intel Core i7-10870H, up to 64GB of DDR4-2933MHz RAM (our unit had 32GB) and 1TB of SSD storage. They also both have the same 17.3 inch 300HZ IPS-level display.
The version we reviewed costs $2,699, while the 3070 version costs $2,099.
Bottom Line
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I’m of two minds on the 2021 refresh of the Aorus 17G. While I was hoping for a laptop equipped with a mobile RTX 3080 to far outperform its 2080 and 2080 Super cousins, what I instead got was a machine that was largely on par with them in performance. However, the Aorus 17G is also about $1000 cheaper than its competitors, even with the same CPU and memory/SSD loadouts.
That means you can now regularly hit frame rates anywhere from 60 – 90 fps on ultra settings in graphically intensive games for less than $3000 on a laptop.
Which brings us to the display. This is the first Aorus with a 300Hz option, and it’s just as responsive and satisfying as you’d think. The tradeoff here is that the screen is limited to FHD, and while it is IPS-level, its color and brightness don’t quite hit the peaks of its competitors. The 2021 refresh of the Aorus 17G also sees the return of its physical mechanical keyboard, though its featureless keycaps and awkward height leave it a little more useful for gaming than typing.
While I’d love to see an Ampere laptop pushing out significantly more frames than the competition, I have to compare it to what we have benchmarks for right now. And doing that, it’s still plenty enticing. The Aorus 17G gives you similar power to what you may find in a Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G732 or Razer Blade Pro 17 for almost $1,000 less, plus a 300 Hz screen and a physical mechanical keyboard.
That said, we have recently reviewed another Ampere laptop, the Alienware m15 R4, which comes with a mobile RTX 3070 as opposed to a 3080. The upside here is that the Alienware lets you choose between a 300Hz screen or a 4K OLED, which drops the refresh rate to 60Hz but far eclipses the Aorus on color and brightness. You’ll also gain some performance on Handbrake and file transfer speed, but will generally be weaker on gaming. At $2,499 against the Aorus’ $2,699 (or $2,099 if you go for the RTX 3070 configuration), it’s up to you if those seem like worthwhile tradeoffs.
The Asus TUF Dash F15 is an attractively thin gaming clamshell with an eSports-ready screen. But you can squeeze more frames out of other RTX 30-series laptops.
For
Decent battery life
Fast screen
Successful software-based noise cancelling
Easy upgrades
Against
Frame rates could be better
No webcam
Flat keyboard
Gaming laptops are trying to slim down. This growing trend finds vendors promising power comparable to the best gaming laptops, which often require bulky chassis and cooling to support high-end components, in a PC that’s closer in size to a mainstream notebook.
The Asus TUF Dash F15 ($1,100 to start, available as tested on March 8 for $1,450) is a next-gen example. It offers the latest in Nvidia RTX 30-series mobile graphics and is one of the first machines to use an Intel H35-series chip. The Dash F15 is 20% thinner and 10% lighter than Asus’ usual TUF gaming laptop.
But while the Dash F15 can handle high-end titles, its gaming performance overall feels more like a last-gen Super card than the latest and greatest.
Asus TUF Dash F15 Specs
CPU
Intel Core i7-11370H
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (8GB GDDR6)
Memory
16GB DDR4-3200
Storage
1TB M.2 2230 NVMe PCIe
Display
15.6-inch IPS panel, 1920 x 1080 resolution @, 240 Hz
Networking
Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), RJ45 Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.2
Ports
Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C), 3x USB 3.2 Gen1 (Type-A), HDMI 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack
Camera
None
Battery
76 WHr
Power Adapter
200W
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro
Dimensions (WxDxH)
14.17 x 9.92 x 0.78 inches (360 x 252 x 19.9mm)
Weight
4.41 pounds (2kg)
Price (as configured)
$1,450
Design on the Asus TUF Dash F15
Available in moonlight white or a more subtle eclipse gray, the Dash F15 can be striking or muted. Its trim build won’t grab attention on its own, but if you opt for the bolder white or decide to activate the keyboard’s “bolt blue”-colored backlight, you may make a head or two turn.
It’s not the striking visage that many gaming laptops proudly carry but with the large TUF block typography that may or may not have been inspired by Alienware (Asus hasn’t stated) on the lid accompanying the TUF logo, there’s enough to keep this more mature laptop from being a complete snooze. But if you’re looking for more fun, the aqua backlight sure looks special coming out of white keycaps compared to our review unit’s more traditional black ones.
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The Dash F15 isn’t the only trim gaming laptop on the block. At 4.41 pounds and 14.17 x 9.92 x 0.78 inches, it’s a little lighter and wider than the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (4.7 pounds, 14 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches). The Acer Predator Triton 300 is also of a similar build (4.4 pounds, 14.3 x 10 x 0.7 inches), but the Alienware m15 R4, which also holds an RTX 3070 graphics card, is heavier than the Dash F15 (5.25 pounds).
When you open the Dash F15, you’re greeted by a more gamer-friendly font and a darker deck. The deck loves to attract fingerprints and is side-flanked with diagonal line carvings that complement the vents north of the keyboard. Liberties were also taken with the shape of the power button. White WASD keys also add to the gamer aesthetic but can look kind of cheap, as you can see the keys’ cross-armed-like white retainers, especially if you turn the blue backlight on.
You get some offset media controls, including a mute button, which is particularly handy as we do more conference calls from home offices. Less welcome is the button for launching Asus’ Armoury Crate software. I’d much rather have the volume mute button here, alongside the other volume buttons (it’s on the FN row instead). There are also no play or pause functions on the keyboard.
Thankfully, the Dash F15 doesn’t sacrifice ports in its quest for sleek. The left side hosts the port for charging the laptop, along with an Ethernet jack, HDMI 2.0, USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type-A) and even Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C). The right side carries two more USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports. All the ports are closer to the laptop’s lip, and the charger is shaped like a right angle, so it can be easy for attached cables to get in the way of one another or you.
The Dash F15 isn’t the only trim gaming laptop on the block. At 4.41 pounds and 14.17 x 9.92 x 0.78 inches, it’s a little lighter and wider than the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (4.7 pounds, 14 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches). The Acer Predator Triton 300 is also of a similar build (4.4 pounds, 14.3 x 10 x 0.7 inches), but the Alienware m15 R4, which also holds an RTX 3070 graphics card, is heavier than the Dash F15 (5.25 pounds).
Accompanying the travel-friendly form and backing the TUF moniker is military-grade MIL-STD-810H certification for durability. The machine was tested for drops, extreme temperatures, humidity and vibration. Its plastic deck feels a little more solid than the average laptop, especially a budget one, but there’s a little bit of give when pressing the function row buttons. The lid is thin and also has a small amount of flex. The laptop doesn’t open all the way flat, which was a rare nuisance.
Gaming and Graphics on the Asus TUF Dash F15
The Dash F15 we reviewed uses an RTX 3070 (we confirmed that it’s a Max-Q design; however, Asus isn’t using the Max-Q label anymore) mobile graphics card, a member of Nvidia’s newest lineup. With Nvidia’s Dynamic Boost 2.0 AI feature, Asus says the card can clock to over 1,390 MHz (Nvidia specs the card to run from 1,290-1,620 MHz with boost). This is combined with Intel’s latest H35 series processor, a 35W, 4-core/8-thread part based on 11th Gen “Tiger Lake,” rather than the 45W parts we often see in gaming notebooks.
The machine handled Control well on high settings with ray tracing off. The game typically showed frame frame rates in the high 60s to low 70s, going as low as 57 frames per second (fps) and as high as 75 fps. With ray tracing set to high, the average frame rate dropped to the mid to upper 40s. However, it was sometimes down to 33 fps and managed as much as 53 fps.
There’s an obvious hit to frame rate, but ray tracing does provide a noticeable change in graphics in Control, since it uses ray tracing in five ways (on reflections, transparent reflections, diffuse lighting, contact shadows and debris). With ray tracing on, an office wall inside the Oldest House looked very high-end, with a shiny mirrored finish. I could see Jesse’s reflection, as well as that of the light fixture behind her. The wall’s gold paneling reflected a large staircase. But with ray tracing off, I could no longer see the light fixture or my reflection. The wall looked less like a pricey, executive border and instead had a large rectangular area that just looked whiter. The paneling was so washed out it barely looked gold and also lacked reflections.
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The Dash F15 and Alienware both rock the midrange card in Nvidia’s latest mobile GPU lineup; however, the pricier Alienware was able to push out much more impressive frame rates with its RTX 3070 in the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (1920 x 1080 resolution, highest settings). Even the Razer and Acer laptops, which use a last-gen RTX 2080 Super Max-Q and RTX 2070 Super Max-Q, respectively, did better than the Asus, though those are also paired with 10th Gen 45W Intel CPUs.
Our review focus ran the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark (very high) at an average of 87 fps, tying with the Razer and beating the acer (77 fps). But at 108 fps, the Alienware is starkly on top.
The Dash F15 fell to last place when it came to Far Cry New Dawn (ultra), with a 74 fps average. That’s 17 fps slower than the fastest machine in this benchmark, the Alienware. The two last-gen graphics systems were in the mid-80s.
In Red Dead Redemption 2 (medium), the TUF Dash F15 landed a solid second place finish with a 61 fps average. The Alienware beat it by just 8 fps.
The Dash F15 continued to outshine the Razer and Acer laptops on the Borderlands 3 benchmark (badass). The Razer was just 2 fps behind though, and the Alienware, again, took the crown, this time by a notable 16 fps.
To measure ray tracing prowess, we also ran the 3DMark Port Royal benchmark. The Alienware got the highest score (6,411), followed by the Razer (5,048). As a next-gen RTX card, it’s a little disappointing for the Asus to rank third (4,982), albeit a close third. The Acer took last place (3,989).
As a stress test, we ran the Metro Exodus1080p RTX benchmark on a loop 15 times, simulating 30 minutes of gameplay. During this time, the game’s frame rate was very consistent and averaged 51 fps. The RTX 3070 ran at an average clock speed of 1,238.64 MHz and average temperature of 70.8 degrees Celsius (159.44 degrees Fahrenheit). Meanwhile, the CPU averaged 3.66 GHz and 72.19 degrees Celsius (161.94 degrees Fahrenheit).
Productivity Performance on the Asus TUF Dash F15
The Dash F15 stands out as one of the first machines to arrive with an Intel H35-series CPU. Announced in January, these chips were designed specifically for ultraportable laptops and can operate at a TDP between 28W and 35W. Our Dash F15 configuration opts for an Intel Core i7-11370H. It runs at up to 35W, has four CPU cores, eight threads and a clock speed of up to 5.0 GHz. Our review laptop combines that with a 1TB M.2 2230 NVMe PCIe SSD and 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM.
That proved ample for 21 Google Chrome tabs, with one streaming a TV show, Spotify and the Epic Games launcher. The 21st tab caused the fans to kick up for a second, but not so powerfully that the sound overpowered the audio. I could quickly toggle through tabs and programs without delay or interruption to my show. Even tracking through the show was easy, with just a 1-3 second delay.
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In Geekbench 5.0, the Dash F15 bested the Alienware (same specs as our review focus but with an octa-core i7-10870H), Acer (six-core i7-10750H / 16GB DDR4-2933 / 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD) and Razer (eight-core i7-10875H / 16GB DDR4-2933 / 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD) by a few hundred points. When it came to multi-core productivity, the Dash F15 naturally couldn’t compete with its beefier rivals here. All the competing machines’ CPUs have higher core counts than that of the Dash F15. They also all use older 10th Gen chips, but they’re configured at a higher 45W TDP. If you’re running heavily threaded tasks or games, you can get better performance out of the competitors here.
The Dash F15 fared better against the competition in our file transfer test, moving 25GB of files at a speed of 1,052.03 Mbps. Only the Alienware (1,147 Mbps) was faster. The Razer meanwhile, was at a crawl compared to the other machines here.
In our Handbrake test, each system is tasked with transcoding a video from 4K resolution down to 1080p. The TUF Dash F15 accomplished this in 10 minutes and 41 seconds. That’s 3:34 slower than the winner here, which is, again, the Alienware. The Triton 300 came in third place, completing the task 1:30 faster than the Dash F15.
Display on the Asus TUF Dash F15
Asus opted for a 15.6-inch IPS panel for the Dash F15 and even went the extra mile to include Nvidia G-Sync, a high 240 Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time.
A speedy screen like that has obvious benefits to gaming, especially if you’re playing an eSports title, where it’s easier for your graphics card to near 240 fps. Keep in mind that more graphics-intensive games will be harder to hit high frame rates on.
IPS is known for good color reproduction, and the shades, including the hints of brown cabinets in the darkest shadows or the pale robin’s egg blue of cabinets, came through. Smoky effects with rainbow prisms looked smooth and realistic with hints of purple, blue and red striking through. The area I was playing in is quite dark, however, and in my sunny room I did find myself wanting to nudge up the brightness a smidge.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout didn’t lose its luster on the Dash F15. Subtle shades, like pink in a light purple sky, were apparent, and reds were especially strong. The movie was bright enough head on, but from a side view, I could see reflections on about 80% of the screen.
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The TUF Dash F15 is a bit shy of our 300-nit preferred minimum. At 265 nits, it’s in last place here, although the Triton 300 isn’t too far ahead (286 nits). Not surprisingly, the Alienware’s OLED ran away with both the brightness and color tests. The TUF Dash F15’s more equal color competitors are the Razer and Acer machines, and the Asus tied with the Razer with 79% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, while just barely edging out the Acer.
Keyboard and Touchpad on the Asus TUF Dash F15
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The keyboard on the Dash F15 is a mixed bag. There’s backlighting, but it’s only a teal-ish blue. On the plus side, you can toggle it across three brightness settings or turn it off straight from the keyboard. There’s also an Aura button on the keyboard that toggles through effects, which are all basically flashing blue at different speeds.
The keys have a good amount of travel at 1.7mm, but they’re excruciatingly flat. Typing felt swift and snappy, but it was harder to figure out where my fingers were without any grooves to help them feel grounded in between presses. The travel makes most of the keys comfortable to press, but larger keys, like backspace, enter and shift (interestingly, not the spacebar) felt a little loose and hollow.
On the 10fastfingers.com typing test I averaged 112 words per minute (wpm) with a 93.97% accuracy rate. That’s slightly below my typical 115 wpm average and 98% accuracy rate, and I attribute all that to the flat keys.
Making the keyboard even more home office-friendly, Asus built the keyboard to be quiet and claims that the keys exude less than 30dB of noise. They certainly shouldn’t drum up any complaints. Their gentle clicking is neither silent nor annoying or distracting.
The 4.1 x 2.9-inch touchpad on the Dash F15 is on the smoother side, but doesn’t offer the ice rink-like gliding that some premium competitors offer. Clicks are heavy and clunky, but Windows gestures worked well though.
Audio on the Asus TUF Dash F15
The Dash F15 has two speakers that pump out virtual 7.1 surround sound audio via four cutouts on the laptop’s underside. They’re clear and accurate for gaming, but I wished for a little more volume.
When I played Control, it was sometimes hard to hear voices, such as those chanting in the background or my character’s voice. I also wanted to pump up the volume to better focus on key dialogue providing instructions. Footsteps were also hard to hear, sometimes, especially if the laptop’s fans were whizzing, and the experience wasn’t comparable to the virtual surround sound experience you can get with some of the best gaming headsets. Gunshots, however, sounded crisp and with solid pop.
Again, when I listened to music I want to turn it up about 15% louder for stronger effect. It was loud enough to enjoy but not to blast. Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” came through accurately and without sounding tinny. But some of the strength and echo in her voice, along with the instruments, didn’t come through, and there was little bass. More electronic sounds, such as those in ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” suffered more. The song’s sound lost warmth and sounded tinny at times. Playing around with the equalizer and presets in the included Realtek Audio Console software didn’t yield significant improvements.
Upgradeability of the Asus TUF Dash F15
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The Dash F15’s back covers prys off easily after unscrewing 14 Phillips head screws. Once inside, there’s space for a second PCIe Gen3 x4 SSD. You can also add up to 32GB of RAM, but you’ll have to get past some thermal tape to get to the SO-DIMM slots, as is the case with the Wi-Fi card.
Battery Life on the Asus TUF Dash F15
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Despite its trim build, the Dash F15 packs decent battery life for a gaming laptop. Our battery test surfs the web, runs OpenGL tests and streams video while connected to Wi-Fi and set to 150 nits brightness. The TUF Dash 15 kept up the workload for 6 minutes and 32 seconds, which is 41 minutes longer than the closest competitor, the Triton 300. The Alienware has been a favorite among our benchmarks, but all that power cost it battery life, and it placed last.
The Dash F15 comes with an AC charger, but you can also charge it at up to 100W via USB-C. Sadly, our review unit wasn’t bundled with a USB-C laptop charger. Still, it’s a nice feature to have. If you’re ever in a pickle, it keeps getting more likely that you or someone around you has something that uses a USB-C charger.
Heat on the Asus TUF Dash F15
As you might expect with a slender laptop, this isn’t the coolest machine around, but the Dash F15 still manages to keep warm temperatures relatively at bay. Although, it gets harder not to sweat when you get gaming. When I fired up Control, my right hand controlling my mouse immediately felt warm air blowing out of the side of the laptop, which remained as long as I was playing.
After 15 minutes of watching YouTube, the Dash F15’s hottest point was the center of the underside, where it measured 93 degrees Fahrenheit (33.9 degrees Celsius). The spot between the G and H keys was 90.5 degrees Fahrenheit (32.5 degrees Celsius), while the touchpad was 78 degrees Fahrenheit (25.6 degrees Celsius).
After 15 minutes of gaming, the touchpad was still a cool 78 degrees Fahrenheit, but the spot between the G and H keys jumped up to 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit (38.6 degrees Celsius), and the hottest point reached 117.5 degrees Fahrenheit (47.5 degrees Celsius. For comparison, the Alienware hit 108.7 degrees after YouTubing and 111.4 degrees when gaming.
To keep a 0.78-inch machine cool, Asus implemented its ROG Intelligent Cooling hardware-software solution. The Dash F15 uses 5 copper heat pipes (covering the CPU, GPU, VRAM and VRM) and two 83-blade, liquid crystal polymer fans to pull heat away from the CPU, GPU, VRAM and VRM and disperse it through the machine’s four heatsinks and fan outlets. There’s venting by the WASD keys to let the fan beneath generate airflow. Additionally, Asus upgraded the self-cleaning capabilities over last year’s TUF lineup with 5% more airflow space.
On the software side of the cooling solution, the TUF Dash F15 uses Nvidia’s Dynamic Boost 2.0, which switches power to the CPU or GPU, depending on what needs the most push. There’s also Armoury Crate, which, once downloaded, lets you choose among performance modes, including a “Silent” one that promises a max sound level of 35dB.
Webcam on the Asus TUF Dash F15
There’s no webcam integrated in the slim bezel on the Dash F15’s display. There’s no making up for that, especially with more people taking so many video calls these days, but Asus tries by offering software-based artificial intelligence (AI) to block out background noise on both ends of a call.
That’s right, Asus claims its tech can remove the sound of your noisy keyboard while also silencing your friend’s dog annoyingly barking in the background. Once you activate AI noise cancelling in the Armoury Crate software and switch to the appropriate speaker and mic in your chatting platform, it provides a helpful service.
In a video call with a friend, I was able to silence his TV and banging in the background. And on my end, he could “barely” hear me tapping my pen right next to my laptop on my desk.
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Asus claims its software can reduce noise by 95% and eradicate 500 million “types of background noise.” The technology purposely uses the laptop’s CPU instead of its graphics card, so as to not interfere with gaming performance. You can also tweak its settings in Armoury Crate, and Asus provides recommended settings based on the scenario.
Software and Warranty on the Asus TUF Dash F15
Asus kept the Dash F15’s bloatware light. Our review unit came with RealTek Audio Console, McAfee Personal Security, Skype, Your Phone, Xbox Game Bar and Xbox Console Companion, courtesy of Windows 10, but not much else — not even your usual smatterings of Candy Crush Sagas.
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Asus does include Armoury Crate, but it’s worth keeping for the AI noise cancelling and, partially, because two of the keyboard’s buttons are useless without it. If you do download the app, you’ll also get access to other perks, the most helpful being the ability to select and tweak different cooling profiles and display presets.
Asus backs the TUF Dash F15 with a 1-year warranty.
Asus TUF Dash F15 Configurations
We tested the middle configuration of the Dash F15 (SKU FX516PR-211.TM15). Available on March 8 for $1,450, it includes an Intel Core i7-11370H CPU, RTX 3070 graphics card, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD and a 240 Hz display.
The cheapest configuration (SKU FX516PM-211.TF15) will be available on February 15 for $1,100. It comes with the same CPU and RAM as our review focus but drops down to an RTX 3060 GPU, a less roomy 512GB SSD and a slower 144 Hz refresh rate.
The most expensive version of the Dash F15 is $1,700 and matches our review configuration, except it bumps up to an Intel Core i7-11375H and RTX 3070.
Bottom Line
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The Asus TUF Dash F15 continues the trend of slim gaming laptops and does it justice, but there are inherent limitations to a gaming laptop focused on staying thin.
For one, frame rates might not match what you expect from Nvidia’s next-gen RTX 30-series on thicker machines. The Dash F15 fell behind the Alienware m15 R4 using the same GPU in our gaming benchmarks, and overall, its gaming performance was more similar to an RTX 20-Series Super card. .
At $1,450, our configuration of the Dash F15 seems fairly priced . It performed similarly to the Acer Predator Triton 300, which was $1,600 when it came out with a six-core Intel Core i7-10750H and RTX 2080 Super Max-Q. The aforementioned Alienware, meanwhile, is $2,499 as tested. So the Dash F15 offers good gaming performance for the price; it’s just not much of an upgrade over last-gen machines.
In terms of the new Intel H35-series chip, the Dash F15 excelled with lightly threaded workloads, even compared to pricey rivals. But for workloads requiring more cores, the Dash F15’s 11th Gen quad-core chip can’t keep up with beefier 10th Gen CPUs.
The performance conundrum of a slim gaming laptop is something Asus hasn’t fully solved with the Dash F15. But if you’re after a lightweight laptop with the premium screen and components that can handle high-end gaming with good frame rates for the price, the Dash F15 may be for you.
The Alienware m15 R4 packs plenty of RTX 30-series performance in an attractive design with an amazing screen.
For
Sleek design
Strong performance
Snappy Keyboard
Vibrant optional OLED Screen
Against
Warm temperatures
Relatively short battery life
Nvidia’s RTX 30-series “Ampere” graphics cards have been burning up the desktop market since they launched last fall, and now they’ve come to laptops. Alienware’s m15 R4 is among the first laptops to offer RTX 3070 and 3080 GPUs and has paired them with 10th Gen Intel Comet Lake H CPUs for speedy performance.
But the Alienware m15 R4 ($2,149 to start, $2,499 as configured) is more than just a speedy system with the latest components. Ready to compete with the best gaming laptops, it sports a spaceship-like chassis that’s relatively thin and light, a fantastic tactile keyboard and an optional 4K OLED display that offers epic image quality.
3x USB Type-A Gen 3.2, microSD, Thunderbolt 3, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI 2.1
Camera
1280 x 720
Battery
86 WHr
Power Adapter
240W
Operating System
Windows 10 Home
Dimensions(WxDxH)
14.19 x 10.86 x 0.78 inches (360.43 x 275.84 x 19.81mm)
Weight
5.25 pounds (2.38kg)
Price (as configured)
$2,499
Design of the Alienware m15 R4
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Available in lunar light (white) or dark side of the moon (black), the Alienware m15 R4 has the same sci-fi-inspired chassis design — Alienware calls it “Legend” design — as its immediate predecessor, the Alienware m15 R3. A sloped front lip and a large rear exhaust with a honeycomb grille and RGB light ring make the m15 look like an alien spaceship. The number 15 adorns the back of the lid in a sci-fi font that looks like it comes straight from a warehouse at Area 51. The space theme continues on the inside, where a honeycombed grilled appears above the keyboard, which matches the color of the deck.
Like other Alienware laptops, the m15 R4 is loaded with RGB. The keyboard comes with either 4-zone or per-key lighting, depending on your configuration, and there are also lights around the rear exhaust and on alien heads on the back of the lid and power button. You can customize all the lights and create your own themes that launch along with your favorite games using the preloaded Alienware Command Center app.
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As befits a laptop of its price and stature, the Alienware m15 R4 is made from premium materials with a magnesium alloy shell and clear coat paint. On the inside, Alienware’s own Cryo-Tech cooling technology uses a CPU vapor chamber, 12-phase graphics voltage regulation and 6-phase CPU voltage regulation to improve performance.
At 14.19 x 10.86 x 0.78 inches (360 x 276 x 20mm) and 4.7- 5.5 pounds ,(depending on your configuration; ours was 5.25 pounds), the Alienware m15 R4 is pretty compact for a 15-inch mobile gaming right with all the trimmings. It’s only a little larger than last years’ Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (14 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches, 4.7 pounds), which had a last-gen RTX 2080 graphics card, and slimmer than the MSI GE66 Raider (14.1 x 10.5 x 0.8 inches, 5.3 pounds). The 17-inch Gigabyte Aorus 17G YC with its RTX 3080 measures 15.9 x 10.8 x 1.0 inches while weighing 5.95 pounds.
The m15 R4 finds room for plenty of ports. On the right side, you’ll find two USB Type-A Gen 3.2 ports, while on the left live a third USB Type-A port, a 2.5 Gbps Killer Ethernet port and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the back side, there’s HDMI 2.1, a Mini DisplayPort, a Thunderbolt 3 port and Alienware’s proprietary graphics amplifier port.
Gaming Performance on the Alienware m15 R4
One of the first laptops with an RTX 30-series inside, the Alienware m15 R4 is powerful enough to do real 4K gaming with the effects turned up. Our review configuration came with the optional 4K OLED display that’s limited to 60 Hz, but it’s so damn sharp that to some, the spectacle may make up for the refresh rates.
With the RTX 3070 in our unit and its Core i7-10870H Comet Lake H CPU, we were able to play Cyberpunk 2077 at RTX Ultra in 4K, the highest possible settings, and the visuals were impressive (more on that in the display section below). However, we were limited to around 42 frames per second (fps) during action scenes, which is more than playable but a tad below the 60 fps that would max out the display’s capabilities. Turning down the settings to RTX Medium improved the frame rate by a few fps, as did setting DLSS to prioritize performance
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The Alienware m15 R4 returned an impressive 108 fps in Grand Theft Auto V at 1080p resolution with very high settings. That rate was surprisingly a little higher than the Gigabyte Aorus 17G YC laptop (100 fps) with its RTX 3080 GPU and the same Core i7-10870H CPU. The Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (RTX 2070) and MSI GE66 Raider (RTX 2080) were about 10% slower.
When we tested with the very-demanding Red Dead Redemption 2 at 1080p and medium settings, the story was much the same. The m15 R4 managed a strong 68 fps, while the on-paper more powerful Aorus 17G YC was slightly behind (64 fps), followed by the two laptops with older cards.
On Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p, highest settings, the m15 R4 returned an impressive 77 fps, but this time the Aorus 17G YC pulled ahead (86 fps) and the Razer and MSI laptops were just a few fps behind.
The numbers for Far Cry New Dawn, running at 1080p and ultra settings, weren’t the strongest. The m15 R4 managed a buttery smooth 91 fps, which is about on par with the 17G YC’s 92 fps but a little behind the GE66 Raider’s 99 fps. Though the Raider has an older GPU, it has a faster CPU in the Core i9-10980HK.
It’s worth noting that, as you might expect, playing these same four games at 4K dramatically reduced the frame rates to a modest 34 fps for Grand Theft Auto V, 33 fps for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, 56 fps for Far Cry New Dawn and a barely playable 27 fps for Red Dead Redemption 2. To run at higher resolutions, you may want to turn down other settings.
To see how the Alienware m15 R4 and its cooling system perform when you’re playing a demanding game over time, we ran the Metro Exodus benchmark at the RTX preset 15 times, simulating about 30 minutes of gaming. The system averaged 60.2 fps, but performance declined steadily from 63.9 fps at run 1 to 58.9 on the final run. During that time, the GPU clock speed averaged 1.4 GHz, and the CPU clock speed averaged 3.5 GHz. It had average GPU temperature and CPU temperatures of 77 and 88 degrees Celsius, respectively (170.6 degrees Fahrenheit and 190.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Productivity Performance of Alienware m15 R4
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With an Intel Core i7-10870H CPU, along with 16GB of RAM, a speedy 1TB NVMe PCIe SSD and RTX 3070 graphics, our configuration of the Alienware m15 R4 was more than capable of productivity work and heavy multitasking. Even with 35 tabs open and a 4K video playing, the laptop didn’t miss a beat. In fact, we were able to set the webGL Aquarium test to show 4,000 fish during this multitasking workload and still got 60 fps.
The Alienware m15 R4 scored a solid multi-core score of 7,642 on Geekbench 5 , a synthetic benchmark that measures overall performance. The Gigabyte Aorus 17G with the same Core i7-10870H scored a bit higher at 7,895.T he Core i9-10980HK-enabled MSI GE66 Raider understandably fared much better with 8,379, and the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model with its Core i7-10875H was slightly behind the rest at 7,319. When it came to single-core performance, the numbers were much closer with the Alienware dipping behind all three of its competitors by a few points.
The 1TB PCIe M.2 SSD in our review unit delivered a speedy 1,055 MBps on our file transfer test, which copies 4.97 GBps of mixed media files from and to the storage drive. That rate is quicker than all of the Alienware m15 R4’s direct competitors except the GE66 Raider, which hit an impressive 1,696 MBps.
It took just 7 minutes and 7 seconds for the m15 R4 to transcode a 4K video to 1080p using Handbrake. That time is faster than the Aorus 17G (8:33) and Blade 15 Advanced Model (8:04) but a few seconds behind the GE66 Raider (6:59).
Display on Alienware m15 R4
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Alienware sells the m15 R4 with two different screen options: a 1080p, 300 Hz screen and a 4K OLED display with vibrant color but a 60 Hz refresh rate. Our review unit came with the OLED screen, and it was just eye-popping to behold. When I watched a 4K nature video, colors, like the red in a parrot’s feathers and the green in a frog’s skin, seemed incredibly vibrant — as colorful as I’ve seen on any laptop screen.
Images were also bright and sharp for gaming. When I played Cyberpunk 2077, the facial lines on character, such as Jackie, were well-defined, and colors, like the reds and pinks of neon lights, were quite vibrant, though they didn’t pop as much as they did in the video. When I fired up Shadow of the Tomb Raider, water rippling in a lake had a very realistic sheen to it, and the green in trees really stood out.
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According to our colorimeter, the screen reproduces an impressive 149.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is nearly double that of its competitors without OLED screens, which all covered 79 or 80% of the gamut. OLED screens measure as brighter if only a portion of the pixels are white, so, with a smaller white square, our screen averaged an impressive 461 nits and, with the entire screen white, it was a still-strong 361 nits. Its IPS-based competitors were all stuck at around 300 nits.
Keyboard and TouchPad on Alienware m15 R4
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The Alienware m15 R4’s tenkeyless keyboard is really snappy and great for typing or gaming. Thanks to its generous 1.7mm of travel, I never bottomed out while hitting a strong 99 words per minute (wpm) on the 10 Fast Fingers typing test with a 2.5% error rate. Both were improvements over my typical 95 wpm and 3-5% error rate.
The keyboard features customizable RGB backlighting and comes in two configuration options: one with 4-zone lighting and another with per-key RGB. Either way, you can customize the colors and enable effects using the included Alienware Command Center software.
The 2.4 x 4.1-inch glass touchpad has just the right amount of friction, providing smooth navigation. Using Windows Precision touchpad drivers, it quickly and accurately responded to all our gestures, from pinch-to-zoom to three-finger swipe.
Audio on Alienware m15 R4
The front-mounted speakers produce music that’s mostly accurate and relatively loud, if not overly smooth. When I played AC/DC’s guitar and drum-heavy “Back in Black” at full volume, I could hear a clear separation of sound with some instruments coming from one side or the other. However, there was just a slight hint of tinniness on the drums.
A Taste of Honey’s bass-centric “Get Down, Boogie Oogie Oogie” sounded perfectly clean, thanks to its lack of harsh percussion. The top volume was loud enough to fill a small room, but I wouldn’t recommend using the Alienware m15 R4 to DJ a party, unless you attach external speakers.
The speakers are definitely good enough for gaming. When I played Cyberpunk 2077, the thumping music in a club scene felt really immersive, and gunshots were loud and clear.
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The Alienware Command Center software has an audio settings section, which allows you to control the equalizer and contains profiles for a variety of situations, from music to gaming and movie-viewing. I found that the default profile, labeled “Alienware” sounded nearly identical to the Music profile and is probably your best bet overall.
Upgradeability of the Alienware m15 R4
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
You can upgrade the storage on the Alienware m15 R4, and the good news is that there are two M.2 2280 slots. To open up the laptop, all I needed to do was to loosen the eight Philip’s head screws on the bottom, two of which come out, and then use a spudger to pry the cover off.
Underneath, there are two M.2 slots under copper heatsinks. If your configuration only comes with one SSD, this means that you have an expansion slot that’s readily available. You just need to remove the heatsink covering the slot, pop it in and you’re good to go. Unfortunately, the RAM is soldered on and can’t be removed.
Battery Life on Alienware m15 R4
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We don’t expect long battery life from a gaming laptop this powerful, but you will get a few hours of endurance on the Alienware m15 R4. The laptop lasted 4 hours and 1 minute on our battery test, which involves continuous surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. The Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (5:02) and MSI GE66 Raider (4:57) both lasted about an hour longer but have older-generation graphics cards. The Gigabyte Aorus 17G, however, has a more powerful RTX 3080 and lasted 40 minutes longer than the R4.
Heat on Alienware m15 R4
As with many thin gaming laptops, the skin temperature on the Alienware m15 R4 can get uncomfortably warm. We don’t recommend holding this on your lap with shorts on while you’re gaming.
After running the Metro Exodus benchmark for 15 minutes, the keyboard measured a toasty 53.9 degrees Celsius (129 degrees Fahrenheit), and the bottom center hit 51.7 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit). The back bottom was the warmest spot, reaching a full 57.8 degrees Celsius (136 degrees Fahrenheit), while the touchpad was relatively cool at 36.7 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit). The fan was running loud and nearly constantly during this test.
Webcam on Alienware m15 R4
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The Alienware m15 R4’s 720p resolution webcam captures pictures that were color-accurate but noisy. When I shot a selfie, the red on my hat, shirt and in a set of bins behind me really popped, as did some yellow and blue objects. However, there was a lot of speckling from sunlight coming in through a window.
Like other Alienware laptops, the m15 R4 comes with Tobii eye tracking sensors. The Tobii software comes preloaded, and I found that setting it up was a breeze. It asked me to calibrate it for my eyes. The software then showed a bubble, which moved accurately around the screen to follow my glances.
Software and Warranty on Alienware m15 R4
The Alienware m15 R4’s main piece of first-party software is the Alienware Command Center, which lets you control the RGB lighting, set the power policy, overclock the CPU and GPU (if your CPU allows it) and change the audio profile.
There’s also the Killer Control Center app ,which lets you control the Killer Wi-Fi card that can be set to prioritize gaming internet traffic over other background tasks, such as Windows updates, that might slow down your play. I really like the Wi-Fi analyzer screen on this tool because it showed the relative strength of all the networks in the area, even several of my neighbors’ routers.
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Like every other Windows laptop, the R4 comes with a little bloatware: two free-to-play games, a trial of Microsoft Office, a link to download Photoshop Express and Hulu.
Dell backs the Alienware m15 R4 with a standard 1-year warranty, which you can extend if you pay extra.
Configurations of Alienware m15 R4
Like many other Alienware laptops, Dell sells the m15 R4 with a variety of configuration options. You can get it with a Core i7-10870H or Core i9-10980HK CPU, an RTX 3070 or 3080 GPU, up to 32GB of RAM and up to 4TB of SSD storage in RAID 0. The display comes in either 1080p, 300 Hz or 4K, OLED 60 Hz varieties, and the chassis is either Lunar Light (white) or Dark Side of the Moon (black).
The system starts at $2,149 and comes standard with the Core i7 CPU, RTX 3070 graphics, the 1080p screen, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.
Our review configuration of the Alienware m15 R4 is $2,499. For that price, you get the laptop with an Intel Core i7-10870H CPU, RTX 3070 GPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB M.2 SSD and the 4K, OLED display panel.
Prices for other configurations were not available at press time.
Bottom Line
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The Alienware m15 R4 offers plenty of performance in a sci-fi-styled chassis that’s relatively thin and light for its class. The snappy, deep keyboard feels absolutely fantastic for typing or gaming ,and the optional 4K, OLED panel is one of the most vibrant we’ve seen.
There are some trade-offs here: the laptop skin temperature can get pretty warm, the battery life is mediocre and the 4K display tops out at 60 Hz. On the other hand, getting a AAA game running at 4K and more than 60 fps at high settings can be a challenge, even with RTX 30-series graphics cards. If smooth frame rates are more important than sharp resolution and eye-popping color, the 1080p, 300 Hz panel might be more your speed.
Whatever your display preference, the Alienware m15 R4 is an impressive gaming laptop that’s worth its premium price.
AMD whipped the covers off of its Ryzen 5000 ‘Cezanne’ mobile chips at CES 2021, but today marks the official launch and AMD has unveiled the deep-dive details of the SoC that brings the Zen 3 architecture to the notebook market for the first time. The new chips will power a large range of notebooks, like the Asus ROG Flow X13 that we reviewed today, and finally bring Ryzen to the highest-end gaming notebooks to compete with Intel’s Tiger Lake chips.
On the surface, the Ryzen 5000 chips look like an iterative update to existing Ryzen 4000 Renoir processors, but there’s a surprising amount of ingenuity under the hood. AMD’s Ryzen 5000 Mobile chips bring the 7nm process paired with Zen 3’s 19% IPC increase to notebooks for the first time, largely by replacing the Zen 2 CPU cores with faster Zen 3 cores while leveraging much of the Ryzen 4000 design (like the 7nm Vega graphics cores and existing I/O accommodations) to minimize time to market.
And time is of the essence. For now, Intel will fend off the Ryzen 5000 chips with its Tiger Lake lineup that’s currently capped at four cores and eight threads with its 35W H35 series chips. Intel says its long-awaited eight-core 45W H-series chips are still in development, with headline specs including a 5.0 GHz boost on multiple CPU cores, but the company’s first eight-core 10nm processors won’t come to market until later this quarter.
Meanwhile, AMD is shipping Ryzen 5000 and has wrung out extra performance through clever modifications to its existing Ryzen 4000 SoC design, which we’ll cover below, culminating in a 23% overall improvement in single-threaded work and a 17% increase in multi-threaded performance for the 5000 series.
AMD says the improvements open up new levels of performance and set a new standard for battery life in x86 notebooks, with up to a 20-hour increase in standby life and an additional two hours during general productivity work, all while remaining the only 8-core x86 chips for ultrathin laptops.
The Ryzen 5000 Mobile series looks promising. Provided that AMD can provide sufficient quantities, they could mark yet another escalation in the increasingly-competitive notebook market. Let’s take a closer look.
AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors 35W – 45W+ H-Series
Cores / Threads
Base / Boost
TDP
GPU CU / Boost
Cache
Ryzen 9 5980HX
8 / 16
3.3 / 4.8
45W+
8 / 2.1 GHz
20MB
Ryzen 9 5980HS
8 / 16
3.0 / 4.8
35W
8 / 2.1 GHz
20MB
Ryzen 9 5900HX
8 / 16
3.3 / 4.6
45W+
8 / 2.1 GHz
20MB
Ryzen 9 5900HS
8 / 16
3.0 / 4.6
35W
8 / 2.1 GHz
20MB
Ryzen 9 4900H
8 / 16
3.3 / 4.3
45W
8 / 1.75 GHz
12MB
Ryzen 9 4900HS
8 / 16
3.0 / 4.3
35W
8 / 1.75 GHz
12MB
Ryzen 7 5800H
8 / 16
3.2 / 4.4
45W
8 / 2.0 GHz
20MB
Ryzen 7 4800H
8 / 16
2.9 / 4.2
45W
7 / 1.6 GHz
12MB
Ryzen 7 5800HS
8 / 16
2.8 / 4.4
35W
8 / 2.0 GHz
20MB
Ryzen 7 4800HS
8 / 16
2.9 / 4.2
35W
7 / 1.6 GHz
12MB
Ryzen 5 5600H
6 / 12
3.3 / 4.2
45W
7 / 1.8 GHz
19MB
Ryzen 5 4600H
6 / 12
3.0 / 4.0
45W
6 / 1.5 GHz
11MB
Ryzen 5 5600HS
6 / 12
3.0 / 4.2
35W
7 / 1.8 GHz
19MB
Ryzen 5 4600HS
6 / 12
3.0 / 4.0
35W
6 / 1.5 GHz
11MB
The 13 new processors span from low-power 15W chips up to two new overclockable 45W+ HX-series models designed to bring desktop PC-like gaming performance to notebooks. The Ryzen 5000 mobile processors all come with threading enabled, the 7nm Vega graphics engine with higher graphics boost clocks than the prior-gen models, support CPPC (Collaborative Power and Performance Control) technology, which we’ll dive into shortly, and have higher CPU boost clocks than the previous-gen.
As before, the H-series models are designed for notebooks that will use discrete graphics. The two 45W+ eight-core HX models carve out a new high-performance niche by bringing CPU, memory, and fabric overclocking to AMD-powered notebooks for the first time, but overclocking headroom will largely be dictated by the thermal and power characteristics of each notebook. Naturally, bulkier notebooks with more robust cooling and power delivery will unlock better overclockability.
The two H models slot in with eight- and six-core variants and a 45W TDP rating, with the former having eight CUs that boost to 2.0 GHz, while the latter has seven CUs that stretch up to 1.8 GHz.
AMD also expanded its HS series with four chips with boost clocks that reach up to 4.8 GHz within the 35W TDP envelope. AMD segments the HS stack with three eight-core models with varying base and boost clocks, but these models have lower base clocks than the H-series models to accommodate the 35W TDP envelope. AMD also has a lone six-core twelve-thread model to round out the bottom of the H-Series stack. AMD also segments the HS models with either seven or eight Vega CUs, with peak boost clocks weighing in at 2.1 GHz.
AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors 15W U-Series
Cores / Threads
Base / Boost
GPU CU / Boost
Cache
Ryzen 7 5800U – Zen 3
8 / 16
1.9 / 4.4
8 / 2.0 GHz
20MB
Ryzen 7 4800U
8 / 16
1.8 / 4.1
8 / 1.75 GHz
8MB
Ryzen 7 5700U – Zen 2
8 / 16
1.8 / 4.3
8 / 1.9 GHz
12MB
Ryzen 7 4700U
8 / 16
2.0 / 4.1
7 / 1.6 GHz
8MB
Ryzen 5 5600U – Zen 3
6 / 12
2.3 / 4.2
7 / 1.8 GHz
19MB
Ryzen 5 4600U
6 / 12
2.1 / 4.0
6 / 1.5 GHz
8MB
Ryzen 5 5500U – Zen 2
6 / 12
2.1 / 4.0
7 / 1.8 GHz
11MB
Ryzen 5 4500U
6 / 6
2.3 / 4.0
6 / 1.5 GHz
8MB
Ryzen 3 5400U – Zen 3
4 / 8
2.6 / 4.0
6 / 1.6 GHz
10MB
Ryzen 3 4300U
4 / 4
2.7 / 3.7
5 / 1.4 GHz
4MB
Ryzen 3 5300U – Zen 2
4 / 8
2.6 / 3.8
6 / 1.5 GHz
6MB
The 15W U-Series models slot in for thin and light devices and will often lean on the integrated graphics units. AMD recently chose to unify its Ryzen Mobile branding under the same Ryzen 5000 umbrella as its desktop chips to clear up the confusion with the Ryzen 4000 series processors that came with an older architecture than desktop Ryzen 3000 models.
However, AMD also sprinkled in three Zen 2 ‘Lucienne’ chips in the Ryzen 5000 Mobile stack, muddying the waters. AMD says this approach meets specific pricing criteria and customer (OEM) demand on the lower end of its product stack. These Zen 2-powered Ryzen 3, 5, and 7 models slot into the lowest-end 15W U-series category.
The Zen 2 variants come with the same design as their predecessors, but again, the targeted enhancements to the SoC (all of the same modifications listed below apply) and increased clock rates result in higher performance.
The Ryzen 7, 5, and 3 families also include one Zen 3 model apiece with either eight cores and 16 threads, or four cores and eight threads. Unlike the previous-gen Ryzen 4000 chips, all of the 15W models come threading enabled.
AMD Ryzen 5000 Mobile Architecture Deep Dive – Design Goals
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AMD’s performance claims for the Ryzen 5000 chips are quite impressive, with a 23% generational improvement in single-threaded performance being the highlight feature. The increased single-threaded performance over the Zen 2-powered Ryzen 4000 chips stems from the 19% IPC improvement borne of the Zen 3 microarchitecture and more fine-grained SoC-level optimizations that optimize power delivery, among other factors. AMD also claims two additional hours of battery life and a 108% advantage in multi-threaded work over Intel’s 11th-gen mobile processors.
AMD’s design goals focused on three key areas: Performance (particularly in IPC and per-core performance), latency improvements that come via the unified L3 cache and eight-core CCX, and improved power efficiency.
Zen 3 Unification
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The Ryzen 5000 Mobile chips come with all the hallmarks of the Zen 3 microarchitecture, which you can read more about here. Like the desktop chips, AMD increased the L3 cache to 16MB over the prior gen’s 8MB and unified the eight cores and cache into one contiguous cluster inside the CCX (Core Complex). In contrast, Zen 2 had two four-core clusters, each with 4MB of cache.
This new arrangement improves both core-to-cache and core-to-core latency. For highly-threaded applications, this new design imparts a 2X cache increase, and lightly-threaded workloads now have access to a full 16MB of cache, which is equivalent to a 4X increase in directly-accessible cache.
Ryzen 5000’s monolithic die, meaning it is one large die instead of the multi-die arrangements on desktop chips, allows for tighter control of power efficiency. The company also improved performance-per-watt (power efficiency) by targeting the highest-end of the frequency/voltage curve it could maintain while controlling thermal density. That’s a key consideration for thin-and-light devices with limited cooling capability. By sustaining the highest clocks possible while the chip is still in the thermal and power efficiency sweet spot, the company increased single-threaded performance beyond Zen 3’s 19% IPC uplift to a 23% improvement in per-core performance.
The Ryzen 5000 Mobile Die
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In many respects, AMD simply replaced the Zen 2 cores with Zen 3 cores, leaving the rest of the design untouched. AMD’s re-use scheme allowed the company to accelerate time to market; AMD introduced the mobile variants a mere 90 days after the desktop models, which is the fastest transition of a new architecture to mobile in the company’s history (it typically takes a year).
The company’s forward-thinking modular design eased the process: AMD planned for this eventuality when it designed the Ryzen 4000 SoC. AMD also preserved the same pinout (BGA mounting scheme) for the Ryzen 5000 processors, meaning they are backward compatible with existing designs. This also allows OEMs to use the same motherboards and componentry for both existing and future products, speeds the design of new laptops, and allows OEMs to leverage existing supply chains. However, while these design elements largely remain the same, AMD fine-tuned the various elements to extract more performance, which we’ll dive into below.
Although it doesn’t equate directly to the physical layout on the die, the topology in the second slide shows us the design’s basic outlay. Here we can see the eight threaded cores clustered around the central 16MB slice of L3 cache, two DDR4-3200 / LPDDR4x-4266 controllers, and the 7nm Vega GPU with 1MB of L2 cache and eight CUs.
The SoC also has a host of other fixed-function acceleration blocks for multimedia, the System Management Unit (SMU) for power delivery control, Fusion Controller Hub (FCH) for external sensors, audio engine, Platform Security Processor (which comes into play in the Pro models), and the usual external interfaces, like NVMe and three flavors of USB (Type-C, 3.1, 2.0).
As before, the chips have 16 lanes of PCIe 3.0 connectivity, meaning Cezanne will not have PCIe 4.0 support. AMD allocates eight lanes to the graphics, while the remaining eight lanes are split between two NVMe interfaces for storage.
The Ryzen 5000 mobile die spreads 10.7 billion 7nm TSMC transistors across 180mm2 of silicon, with the core complexes, L3 cache, and GPU in the center of the die, while the I/O componentry lines the periphery. This is slightly larger (~15%) than Renoir’s 156mm2 die and comes with 900,000 more transistors (the larger caches contribute to the higher transistor count).
Die Size
Transistor Count
Transistor Density
Ryzen 5000 Mobile Cezanne
180mm2
10.7 billion
59.44 MTr/mm2
Ryzen 4000 Mobile Renoir
156mm2
9.8 billion
62.82 MTr/mm2
Ryzen 5000 Mobile Memory Controller Enhancements
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AMD’s engineers turned their eye to optimizing the memory PHY to reduce the overall SoC power draw. With Ryzen 4000, the PHY remained fully ‘on’ if the SoC wasn’t in a standby power state, consuming a significant amount of power draw. Ryzen 5000 introduces a deep power state that the SMU engages when the PHY is in a lower-activity state (but not idle). This shifts the digital portion of the PHY into a lower power state, bypassing it to reduce supply voltage. This technique engages a new low-dropout (LDO) power regulator and turns off the primary on-chip voltage regulator for the memory PHY during low usage. This approach reduces power consumption from the PHY and the power delivery network as well.
Of course, minimizing latency when the controller shifts back to its full-performance state is paramount. AMD leverages the data fabric’s hardware-assisted fast entry/exit mechanisms to shift into different power states, thus lowering latency.
Each memory controller supports a single 64b memory channel or dual 32b virtual channels. Each controller supports DDR4-3200 in single-channel (1DPC SR/DR) or two channels of LPDDR4x-4266.
Quad-channel LPDDR4x provides 33% more theoretical bandwidth than DDR4-3200 and has twice the density of standard DDR4, thus improving maximum capacity to 32GB of memory with a two-channel die.
Vega Rides Again
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As before, the Vega graphics unit comes with a maximum of 8 compute units (CU) and 1MB of L2 cache, but AMD increased the peak frequency by 20% (up to 2.1 GHz).
AMD fine-tuned the power management mechanisms, like the on-chip voltage regulator, to improve sustained performance. AMD also reduced Vmin (the minimum voltage required for operation) to improve power efficiency (performance-per-watt). These improvements enable higher-frequency operation in tandem with improved frequency-per-watt throughout the entire voltage/frequency range. That frees up additional power that’s used to sustain higher frequencies in either the CPU or GPU.
AMD’s new intelligent graphics Dynamic Energy Management (DEM) functionality steps in to detect which workloads are impacted heavily by graphics frequency, allowing the GPU to operate at lower frequencies when increasing the frequency wouldn’t result in tangible performance gains (for example, when the workload is primarily memory bound).
Ryzen 5000 uses the latest revision of the 7nm process, which has less leakage. It also marks the debut of per-core CPU voltage regulation to the Ryzen Mobile lineup, which reduces overall power consumption during gaming workloads. The saved power savings from these two factors can be directed to the GPU to boost gaming performance.
AMD also optimized its graphics drivers for enhanced memory management and tweaked anti-aliasing and other functions, with peak performance weighing in at 2.15 TFLOPS (FP32) and 4.30 TFLOPS (FP16). AMD used benchmark results from Timespy, a CPU intensive workload, to quantify the performance improvement, noting a 171% increase over the first-gen Ryzen processors. Notably, the Ryzen 5000 Vega iGPU is 15% faster than Ryzen 4000.
AMD carries all the security features present in the 4000 series to the 5000 series, with the addition of Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) that eliminates control flow attacks that hijack legitimate applications to run malicious code. As before, the chips also have other security features that serve as the bedrock of the Pro Security suite for Ryzen Pro processors.
Ryzen 5000 Mobile, Boosting Boosts
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AMD’s addition of its Collaborative Power Performance and Control (CPPC) interface was truly a watershed breakthrough for its Ryzen 3000 desktop chips. This tech tells the operating system which cores are the fastest, and the Windows scheduler then targets lightly-threaded workloads at those cores. This allows AMD to bin its chips into higher speed grades based on the fastest available cores on the chip, instead of the older technique of binning the chip based on the lowest common denominator (slowest core).
This technique discards the old paradigm of only having three power states, which provides more granular power control to improve both power efficiency (battery life) and performance. The CPPC interface also allows the operating system to dictate power state transitions on a per-core basis via a broader range of voltage and frequency settings. Now the processor can assign any voltage or frequency within its operating range on the fly. Additionally, this technique reduces transition latency from ~30ms when it is controlled by firmware down to 1-2 ms, which improves performance in bursty workloads and saves power.
AMD also added per-core power and frequency management to provide another layer of granularity. In the past, the CPU cores were tied to the same voltage plane as the GPU, resulting in a 1:1 relationship between CPU vCore and GPU Vgfx, regardless of load on either unit.
The illustration on the right of the second slide illustrates the impact – Ryzen 4000’s cores all ran at the same voltage regardless of voltage, matching that of the graphics unit, while Ryzen 5000 adjusts on a per-core basis regardless of GPU voltage.
During multi-threaded heterogeneous workloads, the chip can match frequency and voltage on all the cores running that specific workload, thus ensuring consistent operation. AMD’s on-chip power regulation also supports software quality of service (QoS) hooks that allow the operating system to more effectively identify higher- and lower-priority workloads, which then is used to dictate voltage and frequency of the affected cores to maximize power efficiency.
As you can see in the last slide, AMD says that the culmination of these technologies delivers significant reductions in SoC power draw, with a head-to-head comparison between the Ryzen 7 5800U and 4800U showing impressive reductions in a few different scenarios. That includes a 26% reduction in standby mode, an impressive 47% reduction at idle, a 33% reduction in video playback, and an 18% reduction when the chip is under load in the MobileMark 2018 benchmark.
Ryzen 5000 Mobile Battery Life
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AMD also made a host of other refinements at the system level to help reduce power draw, including working with audio codec vendors to increase the occurrence and duration of low-power/idle residency states for the audio codec. Likewise, AMD worked with hardware vendors for certain components, like DC-to-DC regulators and embedded controllers, to enable support for new ‘hints’ that trigger lower-power states.
AMD says it has increased standby state time by 20 hours, idle battery life by 3.9 hours, video playback by 1.1 hours, and MobileMark by 2 hours. The company also claims that the Ryzen 9 5900HX is 19% faster in single-threaded workloads than Intel’s flagship 10980HK.
AMD Ryzen 5000 Mobile Performance Benchmarks
AMD provided a host of performance benchmarks in three key areas: Mobile gaming, content creation, and ultrathin performance. As with all vendor-provided benchmarks, you should take these results with a grain of salt. We’re sharing the full slide deck for each category, but without commentary – take the results as you will. We also include the endnotes that contain the test configurations.
Today marks the launch of the chips, so there should be plenty of third-party reviews for another take on performance, like our Asus ROG Flow X13 review.
AMD Ryzen 5000 Mobile Cezanne Gaming Benchmarks
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AMD Ryzen 5000 Mobile Content Creation Benchmarks
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AMD Ryzen 5000 Mobile Ultrathin Benchmarks
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Thoughts
Ryzen 5000 Mobile brings a new level of competition to the laptop market through a more refined 7nm process, the Zen 3 architecture, and good old fashioned engineering. Some will see AMD’s decision to re-use key parts of the design, like the Vega graphics unit and PCIe 3.0 controllers, as a liability. Still, AMD managed to wring out enough extra performance and longer battery life to offset most of the downsides.
AMD’s re-use tactic allowed it to speed the chips to market and also simplify the design process for its OEM partners. That’s important in the face of a much larger and entrenched competitor like Intel. AMD’s deeper levels of engagement with ecosystem partners are emerging as it gains more market share and thus has access to more resources. And this is a virtuous cycle: AMD has made the types of adjustments and collaborations that OEMs appreciate, which should further deepen its partnerships.
AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series mobile processors have already taken the notebook market by storm, granting the company its biggest slice of the mobile market in history, and the Ryzen 5000 Mobile chips look to continue that momentum. AMD pulled off this feat in record time — the Raven Ridge chips didn’t come to the mobile market for a year after debuting on the desktop, while the Zen 3 transition should take roughly four months.
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Speaking of Raven Ridge, those chips came to market in 75 designs, while the next-gen Ryzen 4000 chips landed in 100 devices. AMD expects Ryzen 5000 to power over 150 notebooks by the end of the year, many with the highest-end graphics cards, a distinction that has long eluded the company. As you can see above, the chips will debut in a wide range of devices from leading OEMs.
For now, supply could be AMD’s biggest obstacle. Record demand, coupled with the trade war and conditions associated with the pandemic, has strangled the supply of chips for almost every segment, spanning from automobiles to the CPUs and GPUs craved by enthusiasts, which has lead to price gouging. Hopefully AMD can ensure enough supply to keep OEM pricing within reasonable bounds.
AMD’s partners do have Ryzen 5000 Mobile laptops on the market, but we’ll have to wait and see how long term supply pans out. Given what we’ve seen from the first reviews, it looks like AMD will have plenty of demand for its latest chips.
With over 300 million active users worldwide (almost half of which are paying subscribers), Spotify is the world’s largest and most popular music streaming service. But thanks to Spotify Connect – arguably the streaming world’s most important feature – you’re no longer restricted to listening to the catalogue solely through your phone or desktop.
The feature allows you to play the catalogue over wi-fi to any compatible audio product (more on that later) you have in your home – and with just two presses of a button! It’s so simple and convenient that streaming service rival Tidal has now launched its own Tidal Connect feature.
Spotify Connect is a godsend for house parties – so long as you trust your friends with the controls! – but it’s really for anyone who wants to easily access Spotify’s 60-million-song-catalogue and curated playlists on hi-fi and AV kit and smart speakers without the hassle of Bluetooth pairing.
So how does it work? How do you set it up? And what are the perks of Spotify Connect?
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What is Spotify Connect?
As we touched upon above, Spotify Connect is a way of playing Spotify through your wireless speaker, soundbar, AV receiver, voice-control smart speaker, or any other compatible device, over wi-fi. That means you can play your favourite tunes anywhere in the house, all without the need for any convoluted Bluetooth pairing between devices every time you want to listen to music. Just note that it’s a Spotify Premium feature, so you won’t be able to benefit from it if you’re a user of Spotify’s free, ad-supported tier.
Best of all, Spotify Connect doesn’t use your smartphone (or tablet or desktop) app to stream music. It plays music directly from its servers to the device, leaving your smartphone free for making calls and all other uses. You only have to use your phone to identify the speaker in the first place and then control music playback.
To ensure the best quality possible, Spotify Connect always streams in 320kbps, which is the highest bitrate Spotify currently offers.
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How does Spotify Connect work? What products support it?
Just like Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect works over wi-fi. It seeks out compatible devices that are connected to the same wi-fi network and links them together to wirelessly to stream music.
To use Spotify Connect, you’ll first need a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer with the Spotify app downloaded on to it. To use Spotify Connect with most devices you’ll also need a Spotify Premium subscription, although some (the PlayStation 4, for example) are happy to work with Spotify Free. Other perks of paying for the Spotify Premium subscription (£9.99, $9.99, AU$11.95 a month) include no ads and being able to pick songs on the mobile app rather than just shuffle.
And then you just need the right product. Chances are you might already have a speaker or amp that supports Spotify Connect: there are heaps of Spotify Connect-enabled products, including smart speakers, music streamers and other hi-fi streaming components, wireless speakers, smart TVs, wearables and car audio systems. You can find the full list of compatible kit here.
Spotify Connect really has become a must-have feature in the AV and particularly audio world, and these days you won’t see many streaming-enabled products without it. In fact, it’s become so ubiquitous it’s usually the first feature you’ll see on a streaming-capable product’s feature list.
Spotify Connect works on one device at a time, unless you’re using a multi-room system such as Sonos, where you can select a group (two rooms or more, set up via Sonos’s app) to stream music to.
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Apple Music vs Spotify – which is better?
How to set up Spotify Connect
Spotify Connect is simple to use. Download the latest version of the Spotify app to your control device – a smartphone, tablet or computer, say – and make sure both it and your chosen product(s) are connected to the same wi-fi network.
On your smartphone, launch Spotify, log into your subscription account, and select a song to start playing. Click the ‘Now Playing’ bar, then the device logo at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. This will show which of your connected products can play from Spotify. Select a device (the text will go from white to green) and music will start playing on that device. Magic!
If you’re using Spotify Connect to listen to a song on another smartphone or tablet, make sure both devices are logged in to the same Spotify account and simply follow the steps above.
On the desktop app, click the ‘Connect to a device’ button in the bottom-right corner. This brings up the devices menu. Select the one you’d like to use, and it’ll do the rest.
Spotify claims using Connect lets you switch between multiple products “without skipping a beat”. In reality, there’s always a tiny bit of delay when you swap products, but it’s much quicker than having to pair to Bluetooth every time.
Once you’re all set, your smartphone or computer becomes the remote control: select a song or playlist, pause, skip or shuffle through Spotify’s vast catalogue.
Another big advantage of using Spotify Connect (especially on a product that supports it natively), is when you fire up the app or switch between products, it will always adjust the volume automatically for the chosen audio product. Pretty neat.
Best music streaming services 2021
How do you use your smartphone while using Spotify Connect?
You can use it normally without worrying that whatever you’re doing – sending a text, playing a game, watching a YouTube clip – will interrupt the music.
All songs are streamed directly from Spotify’s cloud servers to your Spotify Connect product; your phone acts purely as a controller.
First of all, this means playing Spotify won’t sap your smartphone’s battery – a fine reason to invest in a Premium account. Since you’re only using your smartphone or tablet to control playback, it goes a long way in prolonging the battery life.
Secondly, it means you can wish your mum happy birthday or make that pizza delivery call without having to pause and interrupt your carefully curated playlist.
You can also switch between devices seamlessly. Were you listening to Spotify through your headphones on your way home? Once you’ve walked through the door, simply select your Spotify Connect-compatible stereo system in the app and the song will carry on playing through your speakers without having to pause or restart it. If it’s non-stop music you want, you’ve got it.
Listen to the What Hi-Fi? playlist
Does Spotify Connect work with voice control?
If you use a smart speaker, such as the Amazon Echo, Sonos One or Google Nest Audio, you can use voice commands to play music from Spotify on them.
Add your Spotify account to the list of music streaming services (this can be done in the Alexa or Google Home apps) and make sure you select Spotify as your default music player so you don’t have to specify which service to use at every turn. Then simply say “Alexa, play the new Taylor Swift album” or “OK Google, play the John Wick soundtrack” and your smart speaker will comply.
We can’t see the Apple HomePod and HomePod Mini with Siri voice control supporting Spotify Connect anytime soon, although you can play Spotify through those Apple speakers via AirPlay.
But you might not need to rely on other brands and services to get voice controlled Spotify music: there are reports that Spotify is testing its own in-app “Hey Spotify” voice assistant.
We hope that if and when it does happen, Spotify finally unveils that lossless Hi-Fi tier – we’ve had our fingers crossed for over three years now.
MORE:
Read how Spotify saved the music industry but left some genres behind
Where is Spotify Hi-Fi? And do we still want a lossless Spotify tier?
Best free music apps: get free music on Android and iPhone
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If you’re looking for a gaming rig that’s a step above the budget price point but still more affordable than the flashiest PCs on the market, you’re looking for MSI’s Leopard line. With a starting price of $1,599 ($1,899 as tested), the 2021 GP66 Leopard takes the same top-end chips that are in the likes of MSI’s GE66 Raider and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 and puts them in a less exciting, more affordable chassis. In this case, that’s Intel’s eight-core Core i7-10870H and Nvidia’s brand-spanking-new RTX 3070 mobile graphics card — components you’ll also see in luxury gaming flagships across the board.
That’s the clear argument for the GP66. If you’re willing to make some compromises (particularly when it comes to the chassis and the battery life), you can get high-end gaming performance at a midrange price point. Thanks especially to the RTX 3070, these are some of the best frame rates you’ll find below $2,000.
The GP66 Leopard is a revamp of the 2019 GP65 Leopard. In addition to the RTX 3070, MSI made at least one other major change: its design. The changes are subtle, but they add up to a machine that looks a bit more professional and a bit less gamer-y.
For one, the GP66 is noticeably thinner — it’s 0.92 inches thick, while its predecessor was 1.08 inches thick. There’s also a new hinge design, which leaves less visible space between the display and the keyboard deck, and is meant to make the clamshell easier to open with one hand. MSI sent a dummy GP65 specifically to verify this claim, and I can confirm that the GP66 is much easier to open. The lid, which had a red MSI logo on the GP65, is all-black on the GP66, and the two raised ridges in the center of the GP65 that gave the laptop a distinctively “gamer” look are gone.
But the keyboard deck is where the Leopard has matured the most. MSI eliminated the GP65’s stiff discrete clickers in favor of a smooth, modern touchpad. The keyboard keys, which looked and felt quite plasticky on the last model, have been upgraded to a wider design that more closely resembles those of the Razer Blade line. (Don’t worry: Per-key RGB backlighting remains.) The clunky dedicated buttons the GP65 had for toggling the power and fan profiles are gone as well.
Clickers, be gone!
Wrapping your charger around the back can be a tough adjustment, but you get used to it.
USB-A and an audio jack on the left.
More USB-A ports on the right.
There’s a webcam. It exists.
The logo is pretty subtle, which isn’t always the case with gaming laptops.
Vents, vents vents.
That doesn’t mean this is the best-made laptop around. The chassis has a bit of a plasticky feel compared to many more expensive models, and the touchpad wasn’t as smooth as I’d like — I often found my fingers skidding. But I’m happy with the revamp all the same. It’s a smoother, sleeker look — a Leopard for 2021.
One more design change: MSI moved a bunch of ports to the rear of the chassis. There’s one Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 with DP1.4, one HDMI 2.0, one RJ45, and one power port back there, in addition to a Type-A USB 3.2 and an audio combo jack on the left and two Type-A USB 3.2 on the right. That means the GP66 actually has fewer ports than its predecessor, which was able to fit in a miniDP 1.4, separate input and output audio jacks, and an SD card reader (though that reader was frustratingly slow according to reviewers). On the other hand, having so many ports crammed together on the sides of a device can make cable management a frustrating endeavor, so I’m glad that MSI has been able to spread them out. In particular, having USB-A ports on both sides is handy.
Let’s get into the second thing that’s new with this machine: the RTX 3070. This graphics card was unveiled at Nvidia’s CES 2021 keynote two weeks ago, along with the rest of the new RTX 3000 mobile line. Nvidia said the chip would deliver speeds up to 1.5 times faster than those of RTX 2070 systems. In my testing, the GP66 didn’t quite display that large of a bump on every title, but it wasn’t too far off.
(My test unit also included an Intel Core i7-10870H, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, in addition to a 1920 x 1080 240Hz display with 3.5ms response time.)
The tl;dr is that pretty much any game you want to play, you can play. All of the games here were tested at their highest possible settings, and none of them gave the RTX 3070 any trouble. The GP66 averaged 96FPS on Horizon Zero Dawn; gameplay looked fantastic without a stutter to be seen. It averaged 75FPS on the highly demanding Red Dead Redemption II, with a minimum of 55FPS on the game’s built-in benchmark. Those are both significantly better results than we saw from MSI’s flagship GE66 Raider and Asus’s ROG Strix Scar 15, both of which use an RTX 2070 Super, and both of which cost several hundred dollars more for comparable specs. It’s also (unsurprisingly) a step up from MSI’s high-end GS66 Stealth that’s equipped with an RTX 2070 Super Max-Q.
MSI’s dragon remains, but the red is gone.
Ray tracing was also no problem: The Leopard put up 82FPS on Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the feature on its Ultra setting. The Raider and the Strix averaged 70FPS and 67FPS, respectively, on that title.
With esports titles, you can take full advantage of the 240Hz screen. The GP66 maxed out Rocket League (which goes up to 250FPS) and averaged 169FPS on Overwatch (where the Raider only averaged 124FPS).
The Leopard employs MSI’s “Cooler Boost 5” system, which includes two fans and six heat pipes. Cooling was good throughout; the CPU never passed 88 degrees Celsius during gaming. I never heard the fans during my regular multitasking, but there was sometimes an annoying coil whine that swapping to the Silent Fan profile didn’t always eliminate.
You can switch between cooling profiles to eliminate fan noise when you’re not stressing the machine.
While some gaming laptops can double as drivers for media work, the GP66 wouldn’t be a great choice for creative professionals because its screen maxes out at 205 nits. That’s dim, even for a mid-tier gaming laptop. The system also wasn’t quite as dominant in Premiere Pro as it was in gaming — it took five minutes and 21 seconds to export a 5-minute, 33-second video that the GS66 Stealth completed in three minutes and 14 seconds. On the bright(er) side, the GP66’s display does cover 100 percent of the sRGB gamut and 80 percent of AdobeRGB, which means your games should look nice and vibrant.
When it came to regular multitasking and office work, I didn’t experience any performance issues with the GP66. I ran into a number of bugs with the last MSI product I reviewed, the GE66 Raider, but am happy to report that they all seem to have been fixed. The Dragon Center app (where you can swap fan profiles and customize other settings) was so crash-prone and glitchy when I used it last October that MSI had to tap into my review unit and troubleshoot, but it’s quite smooth and responsive now. I’ve also previously had some trouble with the SteelSeries engine, where you customize keyboard colors and effects, but it was easy to use here.
No backlight bleed at all.
Battery life, though, is a major area where the GP66 isn’t ahead of its competition. I was averaging three and a half to four hours from the 4-cell 65Whr brick, with consistent multitasking in around a dozen Chrome tabs with the screen at 200 nits of brightness. That’s not great news for anyone who was hoping to work on the go, especially considering how heavy the 230W charger is to carry around. This unit also came preloaded with Norton Antivirus, which can drain power, so make sure to uninstall that if you want the longest possible lifespan. (Premiere Pro results also improved significantly after I nuked Norton.)
Finally, on sound. The GP66 includes two 2-watt speakers. As is usually the case with laptop speakers, treble tones were much stronger than the middle ranges, while bass and percussion were subdued. Game audio was fine with a decent surround quality — but not the best I’ve ever heard, and not as good as you’d get from a decent external speaker.
The GP66 also comes preloaded with Nahimic customization software, which lets you swap between audio presets for Music, Movie, Communication, and Gaming, and manually adjust equalizer settings. There’s a “Surround Sound” feature you can turn on and off (I didn’t notice a huge difference), and a “Volume Stabilizer” that’s supposed to keep your audio audible without waking people up (this did change the sound, though I wasn’t able to test its efficacy on any sleeping roommates). You can also customize the built-in microphones for conferences and chats — there are toggles for echo cancelation, static noise suppression, and the like.
The GP66 Leopard isn’t a perfect laptop. Between the plasticky texture, the skid-prone touchpad, the dim screen, and the preloaded bloatware, it’s clear where MSI has had to cut some corners. And while I certainly enjoy the modest all-black chassis, gamers who need RGB lights everywhere may still prefer the likes of the Raider and the Strix.
But the Leopard excels in the area that matters most: game performance. Not only does it blow budget competitors like the Lenovo Legion 5i out of the water, but thanks to the new RTX 3070 it’s a significant step up from today’s luxury gaming laptops while remaining a large step down in price. With a powerful new chip and a fresh modern design, the GP66 Leopard is an excellent new product to kick off 2021.
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I had hoped that MSI’s GS66 Stealth for 2021 would look and feel a little different than last year’s model — not that the 2020 version was particularly busted in any major way. In fact, the previous model was a few nips and tucks shy of reaching Razer’s high bar for gaming laptop design. But while the outside shell of this year’s model is exactly the same as last year’s, I can live with that because what’s inside is mostly all-new.
The review unit we were sent was kitted out with the current pinnacle of mobile graphics tech: Nvidia’s new RTX 3080 Max-Q graphics chip, with 16GB of video memory (Nvidia also makes an 8GB variant). MSI also added a gorgeous canvas of a display: a 15.6-inch 1440p (QHD) IPS G-Sync screen with a fast 240Hz refresh rate.
The other specs in the review model are good, too, but not necessarily cutting-edge. It has 16GB of RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and the same big, four-cell 99.99Wh battery that was in the previous iteration. It is equipped with an Intel Core i7-10870H processor, which on paper is a slight step down compared to the Core i7-10875H in the previous model I tested, but I didn’t notice a difference in performance.
Everything from games and websites to desktop backgrounds look so crisp in QHD.
Other minor tweaks worthy of mention include a bump up to Wi-Fi 6E compatibility and Bluetooth 5.2. This laptop has an HDMI 2.0 port, so it’s limited to outputting 4K resolution at up to 60 frames per second. Of the things MSI updated in this year’s GS66, the HDMI port should have been a little higher on the list than Wi-Fi 6E. Razer’s new Blade 15 and 17 Pro each feature HDMI 2.1, allowing 4K output with up to 120 frames per second to really take advantage of the hardware while connected to an external monitor.
The refreshed GS66 Stealth lineup with RTX 30-series chips and either a 1080p or 4K display will be shipping in February, but unfortunately, the model with the QHD display won’t be available until sometime in Q2 2021. MSI doesn’t have a price nailed down for the review configuration, either. Given that assessing value is an important part of the review process, we’re reserving a score until the cost is available.
I’ve been testing the flagship configuration of the new GS66 Stealth for a week. General performance outside of gaming felt similarly snappy to last year’s model. A big stack of tabs in Microsoft Edge, alongside Slack and Spotify, didn’t slow this machine down. It didn’t perform nearly as well in our Adobe Premiere Pro export test, though. Tasked with exporting a five-minute, 33-second 4K video, the laptop took six minutes, 30 seconds, compared to the three-minute, 14-second export time that we got with last year’s model. (It wouldn’t be fair not to mention that this configuration has 16GB of RAM versus 32GB in last year’s model, but I plan to retest this once final drivers are released for the GPU.)
Cyberpunk 2077 performed the worst of any recent AAA title I tested, but the numbers are still impressive.
But the real question is: was Nvidia’s latest high-end graphics chip worth the wait — and can it keep up with a QHD display? The short answer is that, like my colleague Tom Warren saw on the desktop version of the RTX 3080, this mobile variant is a big leap over what the last-gen RTX 2080 could provide. Since this is also the first generation of gaming laptops that offer QHD screens, it’s a little hard to compare the two, but there’s no question that games look great.
The RTX 3080 with 16GB of video memory is capable of running some of the most demanding games in QHD well beyond 60 frames per second — with all graphical settings adjusted to max, and with ray tracing and other RTX settings activated, when applicable. That’s an incredible achievement. And if you’re someone who doesn’t always play the latest games as they are released, these specs will afford you even more headroom to power through your backlog, with a fantastic display to enjoy them on to boot. The IPS screen that MSI opted to use is rich with contrast and better viewing angles than I expected, and its G-Sync adaptive sync does a great job of keeping visuals free of artifacts.
I was able to spend time playing Horizon: Zero Dawn, Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding, Shadow of the Tomb Raider,and Control, most of which have ray tracing and / or DLSS (deep-learning super sampling) graphical options to take further advantage of this powerful graphics chip. I tested it by running brief snippets of these games at 1440p and 1080p in order to see the gains from playing games at a slightly less demanding resolution.
MSI GS66 Stealth with RTX 3080 (16GB) performance
Benchmark (set to highest possible settings)
Average results running at 1440p
Average results running at 1080p
Benchmark (set to highest possible settings)
Average results running at 1440p
Average results running at 1080p
Horizon: Zero Dawn
76fps
88fps
Red Dead Redemption 2
58fps
72fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (RT shadows and DLSS on)
62fps
78fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (RT and DLSS on quality mode)
40fps
56fps
Death Stranding (DLSS on)
100fps
130fps
Control (RT and DLSS on)
56fps
80fps
Since Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding,and Control don’t ship with built-in benchmarking tests, I simply ran around a variety of locales to stress-test the hardware (the other games have scripted methods for gathering performance metrics). As someone who’s used to playing games on a 1080p display, I was impressed to see such graphically intensive games run this fluidly, especially at a higher native resolution. (If you’re a gamer who wouldn’t be totally happy with some of the numbers above, you could probably improve the frame rate by knocking down a few graphical settings.)
As I mentioned up top, the design of the 2021 GS66 Stealth is note-for-note the same as last year’s model. The overall look is stellar, though, and I wish every gaming laptop had a trackpad this generously large. It has backlit keys that can be programmed to dazzle with RGB splendor through SteelSeries software, but that’s really the only element that reveals this is a gaming laptop.
Well, aside from the very loud fans. I noted that last year’s model was relatively quiet, even under pressure. I’ve heard laptops louder than this new RTX 3080 version, but the decibel level went high enough so that at times I felt I needed headphones to hear all of the in-game details. Of course, that differed depending on the game. Cyberpunk 2077 made this laptop whir the loudest of the games I tested, while Control actually ran fairly quietly by comparison.
This QHD screen is pin-sharp, but importantly, it’s really vibrant, and the viewing angles are generous.
I found other flaws with the design. The keyboard layout is still crowded, with the important function key placed awkwardly next to the control key, making it cumbersome to do simple tasks like adjust the volume and brightness. Also, the bottom of the laptop chassis still flexes in a slightly worrying way. I don’t think it’s liable to break under normal use, but for a pricey machine like this, the design doesn’t inspire confidence.
Nvidia says that QHD-equipped laptops featuring RTX 30-series graphics chips will begin launching today, with systems from Razer, Asus, and Eluktronics launching first. For example, Razer’s Blade 15 with a 165Hz QHD screen and the RTX 3070 will price out at $2,199.99. We haven’t gotten our hands on it yet, but we expect to find similar performance in models with similar specs. However, since not all QHD panels are created equally, it will be interesting to see how the others compare to the excellent display in MSI’s review unit.
I couldn’t stop holding my eyeballs this close to the screen.
If you’re looking to buy one of MSI’s non-QHD models today, there is a number of options. You can get a system equipped with a less powerful RTX 3060 chip starting at $1,799.99, one with the RTX 3070 for $2,399.99, or with the new RTX 3080 chip starting at $2,699.99. The specs start with a 1080p IPS display with a 240Hz or 300Hz refresh rate. MSI’s product landing page indicates that it will be possible to upgrade to a 4K 60Hz IPS display.
Meanwhile, if you’re curious about how the RTX 3070 is shaping up while running alongside an FHD display, my colleague Monica Chin has our review of the MSI GP66 Leopard. We’ll have a lot more coverage of laptops built with the latest RTX graphics chip in the coming weeks and months.
But the TL;DR is that the RTX 3080, working in tandem with the QHD display and everything else that this GS66 Stealth is packing, has fantastic graphics performance, reaffirming that a display like this really is worth spending extra for (if you can swing it). The sharpness of the 1440p display makes pictures and text more enjoyable and pleasant to look at — both in-game and with everyday tasks.
The ROG Flow X13 and the XG Mobile deliver reasonable performance for quite a high price.
A top-notch convertible with a pricey sidecar
If I saw the Asus ROG Flow X13 in the wild, I would never guess it was a gaming laptop. It’s a 13.4-inch 2-in-1 convertible that’s just 2.9 pounds and .62 inches thick. Flip the screen around, and you can use it as a tablet.
A 13-inch gaming laptop with those proportions isn’t unheard of, but it’s certainly unusual. How is Asus pulling it off? The secret is that the real gaming hardware is on the outside.
The ROG Flow and its eGPU companion make an attractive pair.
On its own, the Flow X13 looks like a high-end productivity machine. Inside is AMD’s Ryzen 9 5980HS, a monstrous mobile processor with eight cores and 16 threads — making this undoubtedly the most powerful CPU we’ve ever seen in a 13-inch chassis. That’s paired with an entry-level Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 with Max-Q design, 32GB of memory, 1TB of storage, and a 16:10 3840 x 2400 touch display. (You can choose a 120Hz FHD display as well.)
On paper, that’s an excellent multimedia device that could compete very well with the likes of the Dell XPS 13, in the $1,000-$2,000 price range. But Asus isn’t selling it that way: it’s selling it as an ultraportable gaming laptop and bundling it with its very own external GPU called the XG Mobile. Asus says this GPU will deliver power equivalent to that of a GeForce RTX 3080 — Nvidia’s top of the line. So here’s the kicker: for the moment, you can only buy the Flow X13 bundled with the XG Mobile. The configuration we have costs $3,299.99.
That’s a lot of money. It’s more than any number of excellent high-end gaming laptops cost. It’s over $1,000 more than the Razer Blade Stealth 13 and more than twice the price of Asus’s own Zephyrus G14, the two best gaming laptops in the ultraportable class. The argument for it is that for $3,299, you’re essentially buying three laptops: one that’s competing with the Dell XPS 13, one that’s competing with the Blade Stealth, and one that’s competing with much larger systems like Razer’s Blade Pro 17 (with the caveat that it needs an eGPU to keep up).
I just wish those three laptops could be sold separately — and I wish I could give them separate scores. Because the Flow X13, on its own, is truly an excellent laptop and one of the most powerful 13-inch systems on the market today. But by positioning this as a gaming rig and slapping it with a $3,000 price tag, Asus has forced the Flow into the premium gaming category. And while it holds its own among competitors there, it still comes with more compromises than I’d want to see from a $3,000 product.
I’ll start by explaining what makes the Flow X13 so great as a general-purpose laptop, because there really is a lot going for it. Not only is it light enough that carrying it feels like carrying nothing, but it’s also the coolest-feeling laptop I’ve used in the past year. The lid, the palm rests, and the bottom of the deck all have a ridged corduroy-ish texture that’s hard to resist running your hands over. It also gives the whole thing a sleek, futuristic look.
Like many Asus laptops, the Flow X13 has an ErgoLift hinge that tilts the keyboard slightly off the table when the clamshell is open. This hinge was a bit more rounded than those I’ve seen on fold-under laptops in the past, and it wasn’t sharp at all in my lap.
The keys have 1.7mm of travel and a 0.15mm keycap curve.
Another thing that’s great: the 16:10 screen. Most gaming laptops are still 16:9, but many high-end business and productivity laptops are starting to move to 16:10 and 3:2 displays this year. That’s with good reason: You get noticeably more vertical space with a 16:10 resolution, which means much less scrolling and zooming out throughout your work day.
The panel is also compatible with the Asus Pen, and Asus says it’s “highly scratch-resistant.” While I didn’t go to great lengths to try to scratch the thing, I was struck by how resilient it was in general. I gave it a good amount of touchscreen use throughout my first day of testing, and I never noticed any kind of fingerprints or smudges left behind. One note: there’s noticeable hinge wobble when you’re using the touchscreen in clamshell mode, which wasn’t an issue for me but may be for some folks.
Inside, this laptop is a whirlwind. The Ryzen 9 5980HS is clearly a powerhouse. It handled my decently heavy load of photo editing, Spotify streaming, and heaps of Chrome tabs and apps with no problem; I never once heard the fans spin up. The X13 could be a great choice for anyone who needs a 13.4-inch laptop for computational tasks or other heavy office or school work.
Audio is also pretty good. It doesn’t get as loud as an external speaker would, but the bass and percussion are some of the best I’ve ever heard on a laptop. In the preloaded Dolby Access app, you can also switch between presets for music, gaming, movies, etc. The Flow also supports two-way AI noise cancellation for video calls.
There’s a flashy ROG logo in the bottom corner.
And the keyboard, as Asus keyboards often are, is excellent. It feels quite similar to that of the Zephyrus G14, which was one of my absolute favorite keyboards of 2020. It has a resounding click, good travel, and very nice backlighting.
Finally, because this is a legitimate question with Asus ROG products: yes, there is a webcam. It’s nothing to write home about, but it does exist.
I really have only one complaint about this system, and that’s the battery life. While running my usual workload with the screen at 200 nits of brightness, even with Battery Saver on and bloatware uninstalled, the Flow X13 only lasted an average of five hours and 47 minutes. The high-resolution display is likely a contributor here — you may get slightly better mileage from the FHD panel. While playing Red Dead, the Flow lasted just over an hour and became unplayable 55 minutes in with 10 percent remaining.
The XG Mobile weighs just 2.2 pounds and measures 8.19 x 6.1 x 1.17 inches.
I wish this review could stop there. Because what Asus has made here is a beautiful machine that could absolutely rival the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 as an ultraportable, 16:10 convertible. Battery life is really my only complaint. But since Asus has decided that this is a gaming laptop, we’re going to need to dive into how it handles games.
Let’s talk a bit about this XG Mobile thing. It’s small for an external GPU, weighing just 2.2 pounds; Asus says it’s only 6 percent of the size of a typical GPU. It connects to the Flow X13 with a proprietary connector that allows for up to 64Gbps of bandwidth, with another 10Gbps reserved for USB link.
In addition to serving as an external GPU, the XG Mobile powers the laptop when it’s plugged in. (The Flow also ships with a regular 100W charger.)
The eGPU also serves as an external USB dock with a whole bunch of extra ports. In total, it includes: one HDMI 2.0, one DP 1.4, one Ethernet jack, one DC input jack, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and one SD card reader. That’s in addition to the one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C (with DisplayPort 1.4 and PD support), one audio combo jack, and one HDMI 2.0b that are already on the laptop itself. All in all, a good selection.
With the XG Mobile connected, the X13 Flow can power up to four displays.
I ran five popular games on the ROG Flow at 1920 x 1080 resolution, both with and without the XG Mobile. I also ran them at native resolution (with the XG Mobile). All games were run at their highest possible settings; in 4K, they were run with DLSS on and ray tracing off (where applicable). Take a look at the results in the chart below:
Asus ROG Flow X13
Configuration
Horizon Zero Dawn
Red Dead Redemption II
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Cyberpunk 2077
Overwatch
Configuration
Horizon Zero Dawn
Red Dead Redemption II
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Cyberpunk 2077
Overwatch
ROG Flow X13, 1920 x 1080
38
29
40
28
77
ROG Flow X13+XG Mobile, 1920 x 1080
84
76
93 (ray tracing off), 76 (ray tracing on)
71 (ray tracing off), 55 (ray tracing on)
266
ROG FLow X13+XG Mobile, 3840 x 2400
41
42
49
38
100
As you can see, these frame rates are respectable. You should be able to play whatever game you want at 1080p without needing to bump the graphics down, and you can even play some at native resolution. Even so, my overall reaction here is “Meh.” To illustrate why, I’ll pull out a few comparisons. (This is all with the usual caveat that relative performance will always vary by title.)
While using the GTX 1650, the X13 ran Shadow of the Tomb Raider at an average of 40fps. The Razer Blade Stealth 13 ran that title at 45fps, and the Zephyrus G14 ran it at 74fps. The Zephyrus also beat the Flow on Red Dead Redemption II, averaging 31fps to the Flow’s 29fps. Red Dead wouldn’t allow me to max out every slider due to available memory, so this system is further behind the Zephyrus than that score makes it appear.
Both of these laptops are comparably portable to the Flow X13 and just as well-built; they have worse processors and better GPUs. They also both cost over $1,400 less than this Flow X13 bundle. So if you’re looking to actually game on the go, rather than just do office work, think about whether you’d rather have one of those much more affordable devices with better frame rates.
But I’d still be on board with a $3,299 bundle price if the X13 Flow and XG Mobile delivered exceptional performance with no compromises — especially if it put 4K gaming on the table. The good news is that this external GPU does provide an acceptable 4K gaming experience (especially on Overwatch, the easiest game on here). But eGPUs generally come with some sort of performance penalty, and I’m seeing that on some of these titles.
For comparison, we can look to the Razer Blade Pro 17, a GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q system in the same price neighborhood as the Flow X13 bundle. (Our 2080 Super Max-Q configuration was $3,199.) The XG Mobile clearly has no trouble with easier titles like Overwatch, where it breezed past all of the laptops mentioned here. But it struggled with more intense fare, and ray tracing in particular. The Blade Pro 17 averaged 95fps on Shadow of the Tomb Raider with ray tracing maxed out, where the Flow X13 and the XG Mobile averaged 76fps. Asus’ Zephyrus Duo 15, also with a 2080 Super Max-Q, also handily beat the Flow there, averaging 87fps.
And the Flow is also coming in behind more affordable systems with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3070 — the $1,899 MSI GP66 Leopard beat it on both Tomb Raider and Horizon, and essentially tied it on Red Dead.
So overall, whether you’re getting better frame rates from the XG Mobile or a larger gaming laptop will be somewhat title-dependent — but it’s clear that we’re seeing a performance penalty on some popular games.
The X13 Flow is an innovative gaming rig, but it asks some compromises.
So here’s the best argument for the ROG Flow X13. During the day, you can use it as a work and entertainment laptop, with a great screen, a comfortable keyboard, full audio, and a phenomenal processor that can handle whatever tasks you throw at it. Maybe you can play a game or two, if you bump down the resolution. When you’re home at night, put the Flow on your desk and pop in the XG Mobile, and it becomes a premium gaming laptop with 4K chops.
That’s fine; I’m all for that. But prospective buyers should be aware that in creating a laptop that essentially functions as three laptops (an XPS 13, a Stealth 13, and a Pro 17), you’re making compromises in each use case. In the ultrabook category, it’s the battery life. In the portable gaming category, it’s the low-powered graphics card and the massive uptick in price. And in the desktop-replacement category, it’s the eGPU performance cost, which may or may not be significant depending on the games you’re playing.
Reviewers throw this phrase around to describe all kinds of laptops, but it’s very true here: in attempting to be a jack of all trades, this laptop is a master of none. And while the Flow X13 is a top-notch convertible, and an impressive achievement from Asus, it also costs over $3,000. If you need both a high-performance office laptop and a high-performance gaming laptop in one, and you have that kind of change to throw around, I won’t stop you. But those who primarily need one or the other should be better able to fulfill their needs with something more affordable, whether it’s a high-end 2-in-1 or a portable gaming rig.
The European laptop vendor that sells XMG and Schenker laptops has sent a statement to reporters about recent confusion regarding gaming laptop listings and whether or not Nvidia’s Max-Q technologies were specified.
“We always list Max-Q in the spec sheets and product texts and provide detailed information about the TGP of the installed GeForce RTX 3000 graphics card in order not to confuse our customers unnecessarily,” public relations manager Kai Tubbesing wrote. “This was already the case with the previous laptop generation and does not change with the update to RTX 3000.”
On the page for the XMG Neo 15, for instance, the company lists the most comprehensive mobile GPU listing we’ve seen, with not just the model, but whether it uses Max-Q technologies and the total graphics power (TGP).
(Image credit: XMG)
Tubbesing claims the information was there the entire time, and not added in response to recent reports.
Last week, Nvidia told Tom’s Hardware that Max-Q branding wasn’t going away, even though we haven’t been able to find the name on many major laptop OEM websites.
“No, Max-Q branding is not going away,” an Nvidia spokesperson told us at the time. “When we originally introduced Max-Q back in 2017, the brand was initially used in GPU naming since Max-Q referred to the GPU TGP only.
“Today, 3rd Generation Max-Q is broader, and is a holistic set of platform technologies and design approach to building powerful and thin laptops.
“In addition, to be more transparent about a laptop’s exact capabilities, RTX 30 Series laptops now show more information than ever, listing exact TGP, clocks and features supported. You will find this in the control panel which now reports maximum power (TGP+Boost), and support for key features including Dynamic Boost 2, WhisperMode 2, Advanced Optimus, and others, all of which fall under the Max-Q umbrella.
“We strongly encourage OEMs to list clocks and other technologies a laptop supports, including Advanced Optimus, Dynamic Boost 2, and more. Ultimately, like all laptop features and specs, it is up to the OEM to market what their particular laptop configuration supports.”
XMG and Schenker have gone full speed on transparency, which is a good look, considering the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, 3070 and 3080 for laptops can have a wide variety of clock speeds and different TGPs depending on the implementation. It’s unclear whether other vendors will follow suit.
If you wanted to connect your laptop to a desktop GPU, generally, you have to use a Thunderbolt 3-based graphics dock of some kind. However, a mod from Kosin (a China offshoot of Lenovo) has demonstrated that there is another way. Kosin shared a video where one of its employees managed to run an RTX 3090 off a notebook’s NVMe M.2 slot, and it works! (via PC Watch.)
Kosin used one of its own laptops, the Ryzen 4600U-powered Air 14, to demonstrate its modification. The modder first removed the M.2 NVMe SSD residing in the notebook, then connected an M.2 to a PCIe adapter cable, allowing the RTX 3090 to communicate with the laptop. Finally, the modder drilled out a slot in the laptop’s housing so the cable could run outside of the laptop’s chassis.
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(Image credit: PC Watch)
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(Image credit: PC Watch)
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(Image credit: PC Watch)
Surprisingly, performance from the RTX 3090 was perfectly adequate, even with just four PCIe lanes being fed to the card. The system scored 14,008 points in 3DMark TimeSpy: For reference, a standard RTX 3080 paired with a Core i9-9900K gets 15,000 points. So, yes, you lose quite a bit of performance compared to installing the 3090 in a desktop PC, but the score is still quite good considering the notebook’s specs (and the downgrade to four PCIe lanes).
If you want to do this yourself, beware that this is a mod and isn’t guaranteed to work. However, NVMe based M.2 slots run off pure PCI Express, so theoretically, you can execute this mod with little to no compatibility issues.
When you think of Asus, generally, you only think of its as a motherboard, graphics card, and laptop manufacturer. But the company has expanded its influence over the past few years to include PC peripherals, PC cases, and AIO liquid coolers. So it should come as no surprise that Asus is entering the case fan market with its own ROG Strix XF120 120mm chassis fan.
The XF120 features high-end specs. Similar to the ML120s from Corsair, the XF120 comes with a MagLev bearing, reinforced fiberglass material, grooved fan blades with rounded edges, and anti-vibration pads.
The operating range for the XF 120 is quite good, with its minimum RPM targeted at just 250RPM and a maximum RPM of 1800RPM. This is perfect for a case fan, as generally, case fans don’t need to run at the same RPM levels as CPU cooler fans.
(Image credit: YouTube)
XF120 Specs:
Acoustics:
22.5dba
Cooling Stats:
62.5CFM/3.7mmH20
Longevity:
400,000 hours
For Asus’ first chassis fan, the specs for the XF120 are quite good; compared to big case fan brands like the Silent Wings 3 from Be Quiet! or the Fractal Design Venturi, the XF120 brings similar performance with better acoustics.
But compared to Asus’ biggest competitor, the Corsair ML120, that fan has better cooling performance specs-wise. But that fan also has a much higher RPM range and is optimized towards airflow and static pressure, whereas Asus’ XF120 is optimized purely for airflow, not static pressure.
The Asus XF120 looks promising, but we still don’t know what it will cost – all we know is a release target for April. Hopefully, we can get a few of these XF120s in our lab to test in the future.
Microsoft has a habit of reigniting the Mac vs. PC conflict for its Surface ads, and this time it’s going after Apple’s Touch Bar. In a new TV commercial, aired during Sunday night’s NFL championship games, Microsoft pits Apple’s MacBook Pro against the company’s Surface Pro 7. It’s a chance for Microsoft to mock Apple’s Touch Bar in a TV commercial for the first time.
“Mac gave me this little bar, but why can’t they just give me a whole touchscreen?” asks a boy comparing the two laptops. That’s something that some MacBook Pro users have been calling for, or just the removal of the Touch Bar altogether. Apple is now reportedly planning a redesign for the MacBook Pro later this year, with the Touch Bar rumored to be replaced by physical function keys.
Elsewhere in the ad, Microsoft tries to position the Surface Pro 7 as a gaming device. “It is a much better gaming device,” claims the ad, which is an unusual way to frame Microsoft’s popular Surface device. The Surface Pro 7 is barely capable of running the latest PC games at acceptable frame rates with its integrated Intel graphics, so it’s not the biggest selling point.
Microsoft has previously compared its Surface Pro to the MacBook Air, bashed Macs in general, and found a guy named Mac Book to tell people to get a Surface Laptop.
This latest ad also focuses on the older Surface Pro 7, which has now been replaced by the Surface Pro 7 Plus for businesses and schools at least. The new model includes a bigger battery, Intel’s 11th Gen processors, a removable SSD, and LTE.
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