Razer have finally made the move over to AMD’s Ryzen processors in their new Blade 14 gaming
laptop, and the performance is on another level for a machine of this size!
I’ve tested it in 12 games at 1440p and 1080p resolutions and compared it to other
laptops, so let’s see how it performs!
I’ve got the highest specced Blade 14 here, so AMD’s 8 core Ryzen 9 5900HX, yes that’s
right, HX rather than the HS chip we usually see in thinner designs like this, along with
RTX 3080 graphics, 16 gigs of memory and a 1440p 165Hz screen.
There are also lower specced 3060 and 3070 options too, you can find updated prices with
those links down in the description.
Although the screen response time isn’t amazing when compared to many 15 and 17”
screen options, it’s the best I’ve recorded so far out of any 13 or 14” gaming laptop.
The new ASUS Zephyrus G14 is only slightly slower, but the last gen G14 was above 20ms,
so comparatively 14” panels are definitely improving this year.
I found the power limit of my RTX 3080 would run up to 100 watts with dynamic boost, just
like Razer said it would, but I also found that it would still run up to 90 watts even
with the CPU under stress test, which took me by surprise.
I was expecting to see the lowest 80 watts, which is the bottom of the range specified
by Nvidia, but that wasn’t the case.
All testing was done with the custom performance mode with both the CPU and GPU set to the
highest options for best results.
Unfortunately there’s no MUX switch, so it’s not possible to disable the integrated
graphics to get a speed boost in games.
But we can bypass it by connecting an external screen to any of the display ports, so I’ll
test that out as well.
Alright, let’s start out by seeing how well this Blade 14 compares against other laptops,
then after that I’ll also test it out in 12 different games at both the native 1440p
and 1080p resolutions.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark, and I’ve got the Blade
14 highlighted in red.
It’s actually scoring the same as the Blade 15 advanced from last generation with 8 core
Intel CPU and RTX 2080 Super graphics, quite a good result considering its smaller size.
Now at the same time the far cheaper HP Omen 15 with lower Ryzen 7 5800H and RTX 3070 is
ahead of it, but consider that the Blade 14 is 18% faster than the new top spec ASUS Zephyrus
G14 while also being smaller in every dimension, impressive stuff.
I’ve tested Battlefield 5 in campaign mode at ultra settings.
The new Blade 14 is again beating the last gen Blade 15 advanced here, the 1% lows in
particular are much improved and one of the better results recorded out of all laptops.
The average frame rate is extremely close to the larger ASUS Zephyrus G15 with similar
wattage 3080, so another great result for the Blade 14.
This time the Blade 14 is reaching 24% higher average FPS compared to the G14, and yeah
this top end spec of Blade 14 probably costs more, but I think it’s still interesting
to see what’s now possible in 14 inches.
Far Cry 5 was tested with the games benchmark at max settings.
This game typically depends more on the processor, and this time the Blade 14 was just 6% ahead
of the G14.
The Blade 15 advanced is also much further ahead now compared to the previous two games,
but this title tends to favor Intel processors so that may be why.
The Blade 14 is just 4 FPS behind the smaller 13” X13 with 3080 eGPU, and that’s not
a cheap setup either.
As I mentioned earlier, it should be possible to boost the performance of the Blade 14 by
attaching an external screen, as this will bypass the iGPU.
Both the Type-C ports on either side of the laptop and the HDMI port connect straight
to the RTX 3080, so basically connecting an external screen to any port will give a speed
boost.
We’re looking at a 7% boost to average FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider with this simple
change, so not quite as big compared to some other laptops I’ve tested such as the ASUS
Strix G15 Advantage Edition, but hey still an easy way to get some additional performance
out of the laptop.
Esports games like CS:GO that hit much higher FPS would see bigger gains here.
Generally the higher the frame rate, the more the integrated graphics acts as a bottleneck.
Now that we’ve got an idea of where Razer’s new Blade 14 fits in compared to others I’ll
also test it out in 12 different games at both 1440p and 1080p resolutions.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in little China with the street kid life path.
I’ve got the native 1440p results shown by the red bars, but I’ve also tested 1080p
in purple to boost performance, which still looks alright at the smaller 14” screen
size.
1440p actually isn’t doing too bad here, 60 FPS was still possible at medium settings,
though 1080p was able to surpass this even at ultra.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the games benchmark, and surprisingly 1440p ultra
was still capable of 60 FPS in this test, quite impressive given the size of the laptop
and this higher resolution.
There’s not much of a difference at low settings, but the gap increases at the higher
setting presets.
Call of Duty Warzone was tested with either all settings at minimum or maximum, as it
doesn’t have predefined setting presets.
Again 1440p max settings was still running fine and right on 100 FPS.
Dropping down to minimum settings only offered a 14% boost to average frame rate, while instead
keeping max settings but lowering to 1080p offered a larger 27% improvement.
For Control I’ve tested with ray tracing enabled and disabled, let’s start with it
off.
This is a GPU heavy test, and even the 1% lows from medium and high settings at 1080p
were ahead of the average FPS at 1440p.
Regardless, 1440p max settings was still above 60 FPS here too.
Generally ray tracing without DLSS isn’t a great time, and that was mostly the case
here at 1440p, but look at 1080p, even max settings is close to 60 FPS.
There’s no denying that DLSS offers a nice improvement in this title though, and now
with DLSS combined with ray tracing the Blade 14 is able to reach above 60 FPS at 1440p.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the game's benchmark.
High settings 1440p could hit 60 FPS, while max settings at 1080p was able to do better
still.
I don’t think this game, or most of the AAA titles tested so far need super high frame
rates to play well, so again great results from a smaller laptop.
That definitely goes for Microsoft Flight Simulator too, which was tested in the Sydney
landing challenge.
There’s only a small difference between 1080p and 1440p resolutions here, something
I’ve noted in other videos too, I’m not sure why but with laptops at least there just
doesn’t seem to be much of a performance difference, so I suppose might as well just
stick to 1440p.
Watch Dogs Legion was tested with the game's benchmark.
Ultra settings was above 60 FPS at 1080p, while 1440p needed medium settings to achieve
a similar result, but yeah again mega high frame rates aren’t a solid requirement in
games like this, so 1440p even with higher settings would be ok too.
Fortnite was tested with the same replay, and this is after the update that made epic
settings heavier.
Still 1440p epic settings was above 100 FPS, while medium settings 1440p was close to the
screen’s refresh rate.
Meanwhile low settings at 1080p could hit 1% lows higher than the screen’s refresh
rate if you want a super smooth experience.
It’s a similar deal for CS:GO, high frame rates no problem, but we’d be able to boost
performance significantly in titles like this by attaching an external screen.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the games benchmark using Vulkan.
1440p max settings is hitting average FPS higher than the screen’s refresh rate, so
no problem here either.
The weird results at 1440p low and medium settings were also seen with the Zephyrus
G14, so I guess this is just some issue with this title on laptops at that resolution.
I showed Battlefield V earlier in the comparison graph, but here’s how it looks at different
setting presets and with different resolutions.
Again great results even at 1440p max settings, but this is a last gen game on modern hardware.
Likewise Shadow of the Tomb Raider was hitting high frame rate in the game’s benchmark
at 1440p max settings.
So very impressive results from Razer’s new Blade 14 gaming laptop, but as you would
probably expect this top end spec won’t come cheap.
Now there are of course cheaper 3060 and 3070 configurations, but expect lower performance
compared to what I’ve shown in this video.
I had some doubts about the RTX 3080 in this laptop going into the testing, but it ended
up doing better than I expected.
Of course you can pay less money for slightly larger laptops that will outperform it, so
it really depends on how much you value that extra portability.
In any case I think this is still a great showcase of what a 14” laptop can do now.
The screen response time isn’t super amazing, but hey it’s better than the G14 competition,
and both this and last year’s G14 are significantly faster than what we had available from 14
inch laptops just last year.
I’ll cover things like thermals, battery life and pretty much everything else about
the Blade 14 in the upcoming full review video, so if you’re new to the channel make sure
you’re subscribed for that upcoming content, and I’ll also do a dedicated comparison
against the ASUS Zephyrus G14.
Come and join me in Discord and get behind the scenes videos by supporting the channel
on Patreon, and while you wait for the full review you can check out some of my other
videos over here, I’ll see you over in one of those next!