you guys have been asking about the hp
victor 16 like crazy so i bought one and
tested it in 13 different games and
compared it against other laptops to
find out how it stacks up i've got the 8
core ryzen 7 5800h with nvidia rtx 3060
configuration it came with 16 gigs of
memory and dual channel and a 16.1 inch
1080p 144hz screen now the rtx 3060
graphics in the victus can boost up to
95 watts with nvidia's dynamic boost and
even with the cpu loaded up at the same
time it was still running at 95 watts so
it's nice that the power limit wasn't
dropping if the cpu was also active but
at the same time this is also below the
115 watt limit that the rtx 3060 is
capable of hp's omen gaming hub software
can be used to change performance modes
all testing here was done in the highest
performance mode with fan set to max
speed for best results unfortunately the
victus does not have a mux switch so
it's not possible to disable the
integrated graphics and bypass optimus
but it is still possible to get a speed
boost by attaching an external screen to
either the type c port or hdmi port and
i'll test this out later despite the
screen being 144hz unfortunately it's
not amazing we're looking at a slower 17
millisecond average greater grey
response time here one of the slower
results for a 144hz panel that i've
tested and higher response time means a
blurrier image in games now i don't
think i'm all that sensitive to low
response time screens while playing
games on this thing at times i did think
it was a little blurry but at the same
time it was also nowhere near as bad as
compared to dell's g15 with the 120
hertz screen but that one's an
additional five milliseconds slower
compared to this one lower response time
is always better but it's going to come
down to personal preference as to
whether or not you notice it and yeah i
don't think 17 milliseconds is excellent
but it's still definitely possible to
have a good time playing games on this
machine now it's also worth noting that
i bought my victus with the cheaper 250
minute screen there's also a brighter
300 option for 40 extra and as that's a
different panel it would have a
different response time unfortunately i
can't say if or how much of an
improvement that would be without
testing it the victus is also on the
slower side in terms of total system
latency which is the total amount of
time measured between a mouse click and
a gunshot fire in cs go the slower
screen would contribute here but really
this is only going to matter in
fast-paced esports games interestingly
the memory that shipped in my viktor 16
had x8 memory banks most gaming laptops
that i've tested this year seem to have
the slower x16 option as it just sounds
like those are more widely available to
be purchased by companies in bulk so i
was pleasantly surprised to see the x8
sticks in the victus as this will give
it a speed boost compared to other
laptops now that said i bought this
model in australia i have no idea if
this is the same memory that hp is using
all around the world so this might vary
by region alright so with all that in
mind let's find out how well hp's victor
16 compares against other laptops in a
few different games cyberpunk 2077 was
tested the same on all laptops and i've
got the victus highlighted in red we've
got two results here the lower one with
just the laptop screen and another
slightly higher result with an external
screen connected in gpu heavy games like
this at higher settings the external
screen makes less of a difference but
hey it's still an improvement the 95
watt 3060 invictus is sitting right
where we'd expect just below the 100w
3060 in the omen 15 above it and
slightly higher than the acer nitro 5
with the 90 to 95 watt range red dead
redemption 2 was tested with the game's
benchmark and the victus was doing well
i was particularly surprised to see that
even without the external screen it was
right in line with lenovo's legion five
especially considering that one has the
maximum power limit for the 3060 and a
muck switch the legion was tested with
optimus off so really it should be more
comparable to the victus with external
screen result i think the reason is the
legion 5 result is with its stock ram
which had x16 memory banks performance
can definitely be improved further by
swapping it to x8 memory like the victus
has by default control was tested
running through the same part of the
game on all laptops and this time the
victus wasn't quite as good as the
legion 5 or dell g15 which were my best
3060 results both of those laptops are
at the higher end of the power limit
range for the 3060 though and were
tested with optimus off so that's
expected especially considering that
this is a gpu heavy test in any case the
3060 in the victus wasn't too different
compared to many other 360 laptops that
i've tested shadow of the tomb raider
was tested with the game's benchmark and
the victors could increase average fps
by six percent with the external screen
here so again not a massive difference
like we saw in the previous games just a
nice little extra again it's extremely
close to the other 360 laptops covered
just one fps behind the lenovo legion 5.
though again the legion could get a
reasonable boost here if it also had x8
memory the differences between the
laptop screen and external screen
weren't that big here and that's
generally the case in more gpu heavy
games at higher setting levels generally
the external screen will make a much
bigger difference in games that can hit
high frame rates now something else
worth noting is that if you were to buy
the victus with a lower gpu option like
the gtx 1650 rtx 3050 or rtx 3050 ti
then of course expect much lower results
compared to what i've shown in this
video the rtx 3060 is simply way better
compared to all those options and also
with the cheapest gtx 1650 option you of
course don't get the option of retracing
in dlss granted i don't think ray
tracing on rtx 3050s is generally going
to go too well but dlss on the other
hand is actually a pretty useful feature
and a lot of modern games now alright
now let's see how well hp's viktor 16
performs in even more games at all
starting levels let's start with call of
duty warzone which was tested with
either all settings at max or minimum as
it doesn't have built-in presets like
most other games it was still playing
fine at max settings averaging above 100
fps minimum settings was only boosting
average frame rate by 14 so might as
well take the better looks we compared
control earlier but now let's see how
ray tracing and dlss go i've got the
stock results shown by the purple bars
with ray tracing enabled in the green
bars we're not quite reaching 60 fps at
low settings and personally i think the
game looks better with ray tracing off
but instead using high settings not to
mention it performs much better too this
is where dlss comes in shown by the red
bars it's able to boost performance even
with ray tracing on though you could of
course use dlss without rt for fps
higher than the purple bars if you want
cyberpunk was also compared earlier but
i've got the rt plus dlss enabled modes
here at the top now too honestly they
weren't going super well bet i test with
dlss on quality mode so you could
further boost fps with some other
changes or again use dlss without
retracing otherwise only the high preset
was only able to offer above 60 fps
microsoft flight simulator runs much
better after its recent update reaching
above 100 fps with the lowest setting
price up high settings was just above 60
fps so not too bad at all for this
resource heavy game assassin's creed
valhalla was around 60 fps at very high
settings which honestly i think is fine
i don't think many aaa games need super
high fps to enjoy their higher fps is of
course possible at lower settings
watchdog's legion has a fairly big gap
between max settings and just one level
below max settings in most games usually
only offer slight visual improvements so
personally i'd take the 43 higher
average fps at very high settings
compared to ultra fortnite was running
great as it's an esports title high
settings was reaching average fps above
the screen's refresh rate while medium
settings could boost even the one
percent low to near that though you
could of course enable dlss in this game
for a further boost cs go was also doing
well here bit lower compared to laptops
with similar hardware inside that have a
mock switch because being able to
disable optimus generally gives big
gains in this one and other games that
hit very high frame rates more frames
just seems to bottleneck the igpu hot
off so that matters more in games like
this rainbow six siege was also hitting
very high frame rates without issue even
the 1 lows at max settings are higher
than the screen's refresh rate for some
reason they dipped at medium settings
which is something i've seen on many
laptops now so it must just be some
issue with this game on medium red dead
redemption 2 was compared earlier and
the high settings i compared with look
like a good sweet spot still above 60
fps and not as big of a dip compared to
ultra settings while also not getting
too much of an extra boost at lower
levels shadow of the tomb raider was
almost at 100 fps at max settings and
similar deal for battlefield v still
easily playable on this hardware at max
settings though these are essentially
older gen games now going back even
further and the witcher 3 was still
above 100 fps maxed out too but like
many other games we can get a large
boost by lowering just one setting
preset while still looking good as for
everything else like thermals battery
life and more i'll cover absolutely
everything else in the upcoming full
review of the victus 16. so make sure
you're subscribed for that upcoming
content as well as for future gaming
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