The Dell G5 gaming laptop has been refreshed into a thinner and more modern looking machine,
but just how well does it perform in games with Nvidia’s latest RTX graphics? In this
video I’ve benchmarked 20 different games at all setting levels to show you how well
it runs, and compared it against some other laptops to see how it stacks up.
Just quickly before we jump into the benchmark results I’ll cover off the specs in my unit.
I’ve got the highest specced version here, which has an Intel i7-8750H CPU with Nvidia
RTX 2060 graphics and 16gb of memory running in dual channel. The G5 is available in different
configurations, you can check updated prices for different models in the description.
I’ll also note that Dell has already refreshed the G5 lineup with Intel's latest 9th gen
CPUs which came out while I was testing this one out, so expect different results there.
I was running Windows 10 with the latest Nvidia drivers available, and just a reminder we’re
only looking at gaming performance here, if you’re new to the channel get subscribed
for the upcoming full review which covers everything. We’ll start off with the results
from all 20 games at all setting levels, then compare with some other laptops afterwards
to see how the G5 compares.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode and not in multiplayer mode, as it’s easier
to consistently reproduce the test run. The purple bars show the results with ray tracing
disabled, while the green bars show RTX on. The RTX results weren’t great at ultra and
high settings, though it was usable at high, for a game like this I’d want higher frame
rate though, and RTX off at high settings both looks and runs better than with RTX on
at low settings.
Battlefield 1 was also tested in campaign mode, and was performing quite well, with
ultra settings still able to reach above 100 FPS, while around medium settings would be
a good match for the optional 144Hz display.
Apex Legends was tested with either all settings at maximum, or all settings on the lowest
possible values, as it doesn’t have predefined setting presets. It played alright even with
everything maxed out, averaging about 80 FPS, and averaging about 40% higher with everything
on minimum.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark. In this test above 60 FPS averages
were possible at ultra, and just over 100 achievable at low settings.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and the results were ahead of the
newer Far Cry New Dawn just covered, and we’ll see how this one compares to other laptops
later.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and due to a recent game update the replay
I’ve used is a fair bit different compared to my previous tests, so these results can’t
be compared with my past results. Even with max settings over 100 FPS was easily possible
in this well optimized game.
Overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range, as other
players, bots and even different maps in actual gameplay affect the frame rate and this allows
for consistent testing. Even maxed out at epic settings was giving us around 140 FPS,
plenty to take advantage of the 144Hz screen.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, the results were alright
here, although other 2060 laptops I’ve tested like the Scar II were ahead at higher settings,
but again there will be some comparisons later.
Metro Exodus was tested using the built in benchmark, which performs worse than actual
game play, making this more of a synthetic test rather than indicative of actual game
performance, but does allow you to perform the same test run to compare.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and like always high frame rates were coming
out of this test. Even with all settings at maximum well over 100 FPS was possible with
much lower at lower settings if you need it, if you play this a lot it might be worth holding
out for the 240Hz screen models.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark, and is a game I’ve found to
benefit from Nvidia’s new turing architecture. I’ve only recently started using a 100%
render scale here, as the built in presets use 50% by default, so the results can’t
be compared to most of my previous tests. In any case even at ultra settings over 100
FPS was still possible here.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and over 100 FPS was possible even with the
settings maxed out at ultra, with closer to 140 possible at very low settings. At the
lower settings in particular this game seems to benefit from better CPU performance, which
we do seem to get with this laptop, however as a result it does run hotter than I’d
like, but more on that in the upcoming thermal testing video.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, still enough to play
the game fine, though the ASUS Scar II with same specs was 6 FPS higher at ultra high
and 14 FPS higher at high settings, a pretty big difference. The drop here is most likely
thermal throttling on the CPU, which would top out at 99 degrees depending on the game.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on,
and it was running very smoothly without any problems at all. The average FPS is around
20 higher when compared to the Scar II here, again as this game seems to favour higher
CPU clock speeds, which we are getting it just runs hot to achieve them.
Watch Dogs 2 is a resource intensive game, although I still found it to play perfectly
fine even with ultra settings, I can play it without any problems.
Ghost Recon is another demanding game and was tested using the built in benchmark. Unless
you’ve got a top of the line laptop, 60 FPS at ultra in this test is basically not
possible.
The Witcher 3 was running well with hairworks disabled, and played fine with ultra settings
in my test, although you can get much higher frame rates if you prefer with lower settings,
with almost 150 at low, but personally I’d just use the higher settings and have it looking
better, given I don’t think it benefits much from huge FPS.
DOOM was tested using Vulkan, and usually this game runs very well on basically anything,
well except the Razer Blade 15 I recently tested. Anyway even with max settings I was
seeing very high frame rates, above 100 for the 1% low, so it was playing extremely smoothly.
Strange Brigade was another game that was tested with Vulkan, and this one was also
running well, almost 100 FPS at ultra settings, with low settings almost doubling this.
Shadow of War was tested with the built in benchmark, and is another game that I’ve
found to benefit from Nvidia’s new Turing architecture. The results look alright, plenty
for playing the game in any case, with almost 100 FPS reached in this test at high settings.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the Dell G5 compares with other laptops
to see how it stacks up, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested
at different times with different drivers.
In Battlefield 5 I’ve got the G5 up the top in red, and in this game I found it was
actually a fair bit below the other 2060 laptops I’ve tested, the Aorus 15 which was about
10 FPS higher, and the Scar II which was about 5 FPS higher. The G5 was only just a little
ahead of the throttled m15 in this test.
Here are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark, and things
have changed a bit here, with the 2060 more inline compared to the other 2060 laptops,
coming in a little ahead of the Aorus 15 and just behind the Scar II, granted there isn’t
as much difference overall here compared to Battlefield 5.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings, and in this one the G5 is back at being the lowest 2060 result I’ve got, behind
both the Scar II and Aorus 15.
Overall I thought the gaming performance from the Dell G5 gaming laptop was alright, however
as we’ve just seen there are other RTX 2060 laptops that are performing better. The G5
seems to be behind due to some throttling that was present during testing, however I’ll
have a whole video dedicated to thermal testing coming soon, so if you’re new here get subscribed
for that one. That said there were some games where the G5 comes out noticeably ahead like
Dota 2, so it depends on the title and how it makes us of the CPU.
So how do you guys think the new Dell G5 gaming laptop did in these games? Let me know your
thoughts down in the comments, and get subscribed so you don’t miss the upcoming full review.