I’ve tested 10 games on the ASUS Flow Z13 gaming laptop / table thing,
both with its built in RTX 3050 Ti graphics but
also the XG Mobile which is an external RTX 3080 that gives us even more power.
I’ve got the highest specced configuration of Z13 here. This small machine has a 14 core
20 thread processor and Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti graphics, but there are also cheaper
options like with no discrete graphics if you just plan on using the XG Mobile eGPU.
Now the RTX 3050 Ti graphics always seemed to run at 40 watts whether or not we’re running a
CPU plus GPU workload or GPU only workload, and if we instead attach the XG Mobile with RTX 3080
it was always running at 150 watts regardless of the workload. It’s also worth mentioning that with
the XG Mobile connected the graphical workload moves externally from this machine, so all of the
cooling and power budgets will be dedicated to the processor, as the RTX 3050 Ti won’t need anything.
The ASUS Armory Crate software can be used to control the performance modes.
I’ve done all testing here with manual mode and the fans maxed out,
and this applies the following GPU overclocks based on the GPU that’s in use.
This year ASUS have added a MUX switch to pretty much every model, even this 13” device,
so we can disable optimus to get a speed boost in games.
I’ve done all of the 3050 Ti testing with optimus disabled for best results,
however optimus needs to be enabled when use the XG Mobile, so that might give us a little bit of
a bottleneck when we use the XG Mobile with this laptop screen. However we could also use the XG
Mobile and connect an external screen to one of the display outputs which would bypass optimus.
Now I will also test the XG Mobile with an external screen at resolutions like 1440p
and 4K as well as compare it to a desktop RTX 3080 in a Thunderbolt eGPU,
because this machine has Thunderbolt 4 so we can use both a Thunderbolt eGPU and the XG Mobile.
Anyway that’s going to be in a future video, so make sure you’re subscribed for that.
The 13” 120Hz 16:10 touch screen has a 21.5ms average grey-to-grey response time.
While this isn’t particularly amazing compared to a number of larger gaming laptops,
it’s the fastest result I’ve recorded out of any 13” device so far, so there’s that at least.
20ms or so is where I personally start to notice a bit of blurriness in games,
so 21.5 definitely isn’t ideal. I guess there just aren’t a whole lot of panel
options at this smaller 13” size for gamers just yet, as it is a pretty niche size.
If you’re actually using the XG Mobile at home, then I suspect it probably makes more sense just
to connect a larger screen. Not only will that probably have a better screen response time,
but it’s probably just going to be better than staring at such a small screen.
A slower screen response time contributes to a higher total system latency, which is
the total amount of time measured between a mouse click and gun shot fire in CS:GO.
Still though, the Z13 is faster than some others like last year’s ASUS Zephyrus G14.
Alright, let’s start out by seeing how the Z13 actually compares against other laptops in games.
I’ve had to use standard 1080p and 1440p resolutions for the purpose of
fair comparison because that’s just what I’ve got data for. 16:10 screens are still relatively new,
so I just don’t have a whole lot of game benchmark data to compare with,
but don’t worry we will be checking out the native screen resolution after that so don’t go anywhere!
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested the same on all laptops, and I’ve got the Z13 highlighted in red.
We’ve got two results here, the lower one is just with the laptop’s RTX 3050 Ti while the far higher
one is with the XG Mobile attached, so a laptop 3080 GPU connected via PCIe. We’re looking at a
175% boost to average FPS simply by connecting the XG Mobile, and it’s performing similarly
to other larger top spec 3080 gaming laptops such as the Legion 7 slightly ahead of it. The 3050 Ti
wasn’t even as good as a 1660 Ti here, granted the power limit difference is double there,
plus of course we could always enable DLSS on the 3050 Ti, more on that in a moment.
There are fewer results at the higher 1440p resolution because we only test laptops that
actually have a chance of running it. The RTX 3080 XG Mobile is performing in between
a number of other 3080 results that I’ve got data for. Sure it’s not quite up there with
the larger 17” models, but it’s still ahead of a number of 15 inch laptops, not bad at all.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the game’s benchmark, and again the XG Mobile result was
towards the top near other RTX 3080 machines. The Z13 was just a little ahead of last year’s Ryzen
based X13 with the same eGPU, while the 3050 Ti wasn’t quite as far behind the 1660 TI this time,
plus again as mentioned we could still enable DLSS which I’ll show you shortly.
The Z13 wasn’t quite doing as well compared to other 3080 laptops at the higher 1440p resolution
in this game. Don’t get me wrong it’s still an excellent result and absolutely playable,
but other laptops with higher wattage 3080s were further ahead in this one,
but hey it is still ahead of other larger 3080 gaming laptops.
Control was tested running through the same part of the game on all laptops. Again the RTX
3050 Ti was ahead of other 1650 series laptops while not quite matching a best case 1660 Ti,
though again as mentioned, DLSS may change this. The RTX 3080 was one of the better
results here too, again only just a few FPS behind the Legion 7. At least in terms of
average FPS, as the gap in 1% lows was a bit bigger compared to the two machines above.
The 1440p result was quite good here, just a couple of FPS
ahead of the same eGPU connected to last year’s X13, but the 1% low from
the newer Intel 12th gen machine was more than 20% ahead of that Ryzen one.
Great so the Z13 does quite well with the RTX 3080 connected, surprising no one.
So far we’ve only looked at higher setting levels for the sake of comparison,
so now let’s check out more games at all setting presets and get some DLSS and FSR action going.
Let’s start out with God of War. I’ve got the Z13 with its RTX 3050 Ti shown in the red bars and the
RTX 3080 XG Mobile in the purple bars. This game has DLSS support, so it makes sense to test with
this enabled as honestly it makes perfect sense for anyone with 3050 Ti tier graphics to make
use of this. Even high settings with the Z13’s slightly higher than standard 1080p resolution
was able to hit 60 FPS in this test, granted the XG mobile was able to more than double FPS here.
Dying Light 2 also features DLSS, so I’ve tested with this enabled too.
This time high settings was only a little behind the magic 60 FPS sweet spot on the 3050 Ti,
while the XG Mobile was able to boost average FPS by more than 140%. That’s a crazy gain,
and realistically the game would still run fine on the XG Mobile even without DLSS.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was tested in the Sydney landing challenge.
There’s no DLSS here just yet unfortunately, but I’ve heard they’re adding it in future,
so that will of course change things up a bit. Anyway, right now low settings were needed to
surpass 60 FPS, while the XG Mobile was able to get above 60 FPS even with all settings maxed out.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the game’s benchmark, and this is where we start to see some
of the limitations to the RTX 3050 Ti. You can’t run this test with 4 gigs of VRAM, so the 3050 Ti
wasn’t able to have a score at ultra settings. Honestly I don’t think that’s a big deal, sure
some games might have more issues with 4 gigs of VRAM at max settings, but like the 3050 Ti isn’t
designed for max setting gaming anyway, it could still surpass 60 FPS with DLSS at medium settings.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in Little China with the street kid life path.
This seems to be another example where higher settings really start to struggle on the 3050 Ti,
even with DLSS enabled here too. 60 FPS was still possible at medium settings,
but the 1% lows with the ray tracing presets were super low and not playable.
The 3080 XG Mobile on the other hand was able to hit 260% higher average FPS, a massive difference.
Far Cry 6 was tested with the game’s benchmark, and I’ve tested with FSR enabled here which works
on both AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce GPUs. The 3050 Ti didn’t see too much of a performance
difference regardless of the setting preset in use. 60 FPS was still possible at normal settings,
however the XG Mobile was able to score higher than this even for its 1% low at max settings.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was close to 60 FPS in the game’s benchmark at medium settings,
but based on my personal experience playing this game for over 100 hours
you can absolutely still play it with lower frame rates as long as there aren’t big
dips in performance. That said the 3080 is obviously offering a much better experience.
Watch Dogs Legion was also tested with the game’s benchmark, and DLSS was enabled in
this one as it’s an option. Kind of like Far Cry 6 earlier, the 3050 Ti wasn’t
really seeing that much of a performance difference regardless of setting preset,
well until we get to ultra at least. Ultra settings warns that 8 gigs of VRAM is suggested,
so it’s not too surprising to see the 4 gigs in the 3050 Ti struggle there.
Meanwhile the 16 gigs available to the XG Mobile were almost at 100 FPS at max settings.
Control is extremely well optimized with DLSS enabled,
plus the game looks great in my opinion even at low settings,
so 84 FPS at medium with the 3050 Ti is going to play very well. Of course the XG Mobile was far
higher, and given this game doesn’t really need 200 FPS to enjoy, honestly you might as well just
enable ray tracing for even better visuals. Though that's not something I'd recommend on the 3050 TI.
I’ve also tested CS:GO just for a bit of fun to give you an idea of what sort of a
performance difference is possible in eSports titles. Games like this of course run on even
potato grade hardware, however the XG Mobile was still able to give us a fairly big gain,
showing us that the GPU difference is definitely able to make a big difference.
I won’t know until I do my detailed thermal testing for the upcoming full review,
make sure you’re subscribed by the way, but I suspect the processor probably gets a higher
power limit with the XG Mobile. The CPU can get power and cooling budget that would otherwise
be dedicated to the built in 3050 Ti, which gets disabled when the XG Mobile is connected.
So the Z13 is definitely a very capable machine despite the smaller 13” size.
Again I will be comparing the RTX 3080 XG Mobile against a desktop RTX 3080 in a Thunderbolt eGPU
in a future video, so make sure you’re subscribed for that upcoming content as
well as for my full review on the Z13. Until then, you can come and check out how last
year’s X13 performed in these tests in this video here, so I’ll see you in that one next.