The Dell G5 is the first all AMD laptop to feature Radeon 5600M graphics, so let’s
find out how well it performs in 22 different games at all setting levels and compare it
against other gaming laptops.
I’ve got the higher specced model here, which means there’s an 8 core AMD Ryzen
7 4800H processor, Radeon 5600M graphics, 16gb of memory in dual channel, and a 144Hz
1080p screen, I’ll test response time too.
The G5 is also available with the 6 core 4600H CPU too for less money, I’ll be testing
that in a future video so make sure you’re subscribed for those results, otherwise for
now you can find prices linked in the description.
The Dell G5 has the G key on the F7, pressing this enables high performance mode which boosts
performance and fan speed, so I’ve done all testing with this enabled.
As the G5 has an AMD Ryzen processor and Radeon graphics, it’s able to use smart shift which
cannot be disabled.
Basically this will dynamically shift power around to where it’s needed for optimal
performance, for instance in a GPU heavy load the GPU will get the bulk of the power, and
I found the 5600M would run up to 100 watts.
We’ll only be covering gaming performance in this video, so look out for the upcoming
full review and thermal testing videos.
Let’s start out by going through all games at all setting levels, then afterwards we’ll
see how the AMD Dell G5 gaming laptop compares with some other laptops.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark tool, and this
test is tough on pretty much any laptop regardless of specs with max settings, though we’re
only just under 60 FPS with the high setting preset.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode, and it was playing alright with the ultra
setting preset at over 70 FPS, though we could pass 100 FPS with the low setting preset,
we’ll see how this title compares on different laptops later.
Control was playing ok at high settings, though medium felt a bit better if you actually get
into a fight, in my test it was able to get us above 60 FPS, while low could hit 100 FPS.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, and the results were
a little under many other i7 plus GTX 1660 TI laptops, but we’ll check out how other
laptops compare with the G5 in this game shortly.
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.
Even maxed out we’re close to 100 FPS, while minimum would make better use of the 144Hz
panel.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare was tested in campaign mode, and I’ve also tested it with
the settings either maxed out or at minimum, though there wasn’t as big of a difference
between them this time compared to Apex.
Borderlands 3 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark, and high settings was
just under 60 FPS in this one, while very low was basically on 100 FPS.
DOOM Eternal wasn’t able to run at nightmare or ultra nightmare settings as you need more
than 6GB of VRAM, however I don’t think it really looks all that much better at higher
settings anyway, and at ultra settings we’re still utilizing the high refresh panel.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint was tested with the benchmark tool, and although this is another
resource heavy game, we’re still able to reach above 60 FPS at very high settings.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, there wasn’t that much of a difference at
the lower levels, just a few frames here and there, and maxed out at ultra was still running
quite well with 60 for the 1% low.
Fortnite was also tested with the replay feature, and as a less demanding title it was still
running very well with over 100 FPS at the highest epic setting preset, while low settings
was hitting a 1% low above the screen’s refresh rate.
Overwatch is another less demanding game and was tested in the practice range.
It was playing perfectly fine at epic settings again, but we could once more raise the 1%
low above the screen’s refresh rate quite easily with lower settings.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and there were only extremely minor differences
between the three setting levels that I’ve tested with, so might as well just play at
maximum I suppose.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane, and the results are close to a lot of other
gaming laptops tested, perhaps a little lower compared to Intel counterparts at lower settings,
but I honestly doubt you’d actually notice a difference when playing.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark using Vulkan, ultra settings
was doing well with 120 FPS, high settings gets us closer to the screen’s refresh rate,
while low settings could hit 200 FPS.
Metro Exodus was tested using the built in benchmark, most parts of the game perform
a fair bit better than this, so don’t take these results as a good indication of what
to expect throughout the entire game, it’s more of a worst case.
The Division 2 was also tested with the built in benchmark, the highest ultra setting preset
was only just below 60 FPS, though we could double this frame rate by stepping down to
medium.
Monster Hunter World was also around the 60 FPS mark with the highest setting preset in
use, though above 100 FPS could be achieved at low settings.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and the performance
was fair, in fact not actually that far behind the RTX 2060 and Ryzen 4800H in the ASUS TUF
A15 I tested last week, but I’ll compare these GPUs properly in a future video.
Far Cry New Dawn was also tested with the games benchmark, and tends to be more CPU
heavy, we’ll check out how the older Far Cry 5 compares with some other machines very
soon.
The Witcher 3 was playable with the ultra setting preset which was still above 60 FPS,
though we could boost performance a fair bit with high settings which had a 1% low above
the average at ultra.
F1 2019 was tested using the game’s benchmark tool, and it generally sees a similar pattern
of lower results at max settings when compared to dropping back just one level, granted above
100 FPS maxed out is still going to play great.
Let’s also take a look at how this configuration of the Dell G5 special edition gaming laptop
compares with other laptops, 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 highlighted in red.
It’s beating the 1660 Ti in the FX505DU just below it, though that’s paired with
the 3750H.
The Y540 with 9th gen i7 was a little ahead in average FPS, though there was a much larger
difference seen in the 1% low performance.
This is a nice improvement over the 5500M, as seen in the MSI Alpha 15, however the GPU
also draws more power now.
These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark.
This time the 1% low performance is closer to many of the Intel i7 based laptops, while
the average FPS was a little behind most of the 1660 Ti and 2060 results, but I plan on
doing a full in depth comparison between these graphics in a future video.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings.
Again the 5600M seems to come in just behind many of the 1660 Ti and 2060 laptops with
Intel processors.
It’s reaching a 33% higher average FPS over the only 5500M laptop I’ve tested, the Alpha
15, though some of that would also be due to the improvements gained from Zen 2 with
the 4800H.
The Dell G5 with these specs is definitely a capable gaming machine.
Although it was coming in behind the Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti and i7 laptops in many instances,
I’ve only looked at max settings here.
At lower settings more often than not the 5600M was ahead, perhaps due to smart shift
being able to send more power to the processor.
It’s important to consider other factors such as price and processor performance.
For instance, the 4800H destroys Intel’s i7 processors outside of gaming, and the price
of the G5 starts from $880 USD.
Now that is with the lower specced 4600H, and I will be comparing those soon, the 4800H
model currently starts at $1200, so it’s a bit more expensive compared to some of those
i7 1660 Ti laptops that outperform it like the Helios 300.
In games I suspect going from 6 to 8 cores probably doesn’t make that much difference,
so 5600M level performance starting at $880 looks reasonable.
The G5 is available with different screen options, I’ve tested the response time of
the 144Hz panel and got about a 9ms grey to grey average response time.
You can check the link in the description if you want to understand what all of these
numbers mean.
While not amazing, this is certainly a big improvement over say the ASUS TUF A15 gaming
laptop, which was closer to 20ms.
My 4600H configuration of the G5 that’s currently in the mail has the cheaper 60Hz
screen, so I’ll test that one soon too.
I believe the screen is meant to have freesync, however I haven’t been able to enable that
yet, I’ll keep investigating that and get back to you for the full review.
In terms of driver stability, I haven’t had any games crash so far, however as is
the case with pretty much all Radeon based gaming laptops I’ve tested, running many
games with Vulkan in particular would open on the Vega graphics instead.
This is easy to fix by setting the game to high performance mode to ensure it opens up
automatically using the 5600M, however ideally this would be fixed to just work out of the
box.
Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from this first Radeon 5600M gaming
laptop down in the comments, and if you’re new to the channel then get subscribed for
the full review as well as for my testing on the cheaper Ryzen 5 model.