We’re going to find out how the new all AMD ASUS Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop actually
performs in games!
Of course performance depends on the hardware that’s actually inside, so let’s start
out with the specs.
I’ve got the highest specced configuration of G14 from ASUS.
We’ve got AMD’s latest Ryzen 9 6900HS 8 core processor, Nice, Radeon RX 6800S graphics,
32 gigs of DDR5-4800 memory and a 14” 120Hz screen.
This year the screen makes the move to 16:10 which is a little taller vertically compared
to most other laptops.
This results in a screen resolution that actually ends up being slightly larger than standard
1440p, so the question is can this new G14 actually run games well at this higher resolution?
We’ve tested 11 games with and without FSR and ray tracing to find out!
The RX 6800S graphics can run up to 105 watts with AMD’s SmartShift, but with the CPU
also loaded up I found it to run at 75 watts.
The ASUS Armory Crate software can be used to control the performance modes.
I’ve done all testing here with manual mode and the power sliders and fans maxed out for
best results.
For the first time ever, ASUS have included a MUX switch in this year’s G14, so we’ve
got the option of disabling the integrated graphics to get a speed boost in games, so
all testing has been done this way for best results.
We really need to talk about the screen first.
The response time is actually impressive now at 4.9ms.
Last year’s G14 was 9ms, while the year prior in 2020 was close to 21ms, so it’s
great that they’ve been able to get this down over time.
Because the lower the screen response time, the less blurriness and ghosting that you’re
going to see while playing games.
This also helps the G14 get a lower total system latency.
This is the total amount of time between a mouse click and gun shot fire on the screen
in CS:GO, and it’s a full 10ms faster compared to last year’s G14, so great news for competitive
players!
Alright so let’s get into the game benchmarks.
Although the G14 has that 16:10 screen with a 2560 by 1600 resolution, we’re going to
start out by comparing 1080p and 1440p resolutions as that’s just what I’ve got data for
for the purposes of comparing.
Don’t panic though!
After we get an idea of how the G14 compares against other gaming laptops we will test
it in 11 different games at all setting presets with the native screen resolution to see what
it’s actually capable of.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested the same on all laptops, and I’ve got the G14 shown by the
red highlight.
Compared to last year’s G14 with RTX 3060 graphics we’re looking at an 11% higher
average frame rate and an 18% higher 1% low, so fewer dips in performance compared to something
that’s similar in size.
The 6800S is ahead of a number of lower wattage 3060 gaming laptops, and interestingly slightly
behind the 6600M in the Legion 5 which was one spot ahead of it.
We’ve got a different selection of laptops at the higher 1440p resolution as we only
test machines that actually have a chance of running it.
Now although this year’s G14 looks like a lower result relative to other models, it’s
worth considering where it’s coming from.
Compared to last year’s G14 at the bottom, this year’s update was reaching a 27% higher
average frame rate in this test.
This game recently added FSR support which will boost performance further, and we’ll
check that out in a moment.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the game’s benchmark, and I’ve found this
test to generally favor AMD graphics.
Interestingly, the 6800S is now the best Radeon result I’ve got, only a little ahead of
last year’s 6600M, 6700M and 6800M GPUs that I tested in larger 15-in laptops.
Perhaps other factors like this move to DDR5 memory are also contributing?
Compared to Nvidia options, the G14 is hanging out with larger full wattage RTX 3070 machines
like the Legion 5 Pro, and even beating the 3080 in the Alienware m15 R6 - impressive
stuff.
I’ve got a larger range of high spec laptops at 1440p, but the G14 is still right next
to the RTX 3080 in last year’s Blade 14 - definitely make sure you’re subscribed
for when I get this year’s updated blade, it should be getting here soon.
The 2022 all AMD G14 was reaching a 48% higher average FPS compared to last year’s, but
it’s not all big gains for Radeon.
While Red Dead Redemption 2 seems to favor AMD’s Radeon graphics, Control on the other
hand typically seems to favor Nvidia’s GeForce graphics.
The new G14 was only like 2 FPS ahead of last year’s model with the 3060 just underneath
it, however the 1% low with the 2022 all AMD configuration was notably behind.
Things turn around at the higher 1440p resolution where we’re more GPU bound, and to be fair
this is closer to the 2022 G14's native resolution.
The 1% lows are much closer together now, and the newer G14 is able to reach a 23% higher
average frame rate compared to last year’s model.
Otherwise a number of other higher wattage Nvidia laptops were outperforming the 6900HS
and 6800S combination here.
So for the most part, this year’s new all AMD G14 is doing pretty well compared to last
year’s G14.
But now let’s find out how newer games actually perform at the screen’s native 2560 by 1600
resolution.
Let’s start out with God of War.
We’ve got the stock results in purple and with FSR set to balanced mode in red.
FSR is able to get us some nice performance gains, particularly at higher settings.
Ultra settings was like 44 FPS normally, but simply switching FSR on boosts us up by 38%
to 60 FPS.
Dying Light 2 also features FSR, so we’ve tested with this enabled too, again in the
red bars.
We’re looking at some fairly massive gains with the non ray tracing setting presets with
double the FPS in some cases, thanks to FSR.
The ray tracing performance without FSR is beyond unusable, but even FSR isn’t helping
a whole heap getting us to 30 FPS.
Forza Horizon 5 was tested with the game’s benchmark.
Even the highest extreme setting preset which adds on some RT effects was able to hit 60
FPS at this higher than 1440p screen resolution, so great stuff.
Medium settings were able to get us almost double the performance at close to the screen’s
120Hz refresh rate.
Cyberpunk 2077 recently added FSR support, so once more we’re using red to show that,
and again it’s able to double our FPS with some setting presets.
Ultra settings was 30 FPS without FSR on balanced then 71 FPS with it on, quite a big difference.
The new 1.5 version of this game added the RT Low preset and that does alright with FSR,
but the higher ray traced modes weren’t doing super well.
Far Cry 6 is yet another relatively new game with FSR support, it’s great to see this
feature starting to appear in the latest titles.
There wasn’t as much of a performance improvement here compared to some of the earlier games,
but a 38% boost at ultra settings is still excellent considering we're literally turning
one setting on.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was doing fairly well, don’t forget the native screen resolution
of this year’s Zephyrus G14 is higher than standard 1440p as it’s got a 16:10 screen.
Honestly this one still plays quite well even without super high frame rates, the higher
setting levels weren’t too bad at all.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the game’s benchmark.
This game has DLSS, but that’s no good to us with an all AMD machine, and unfortunately
there’s no FSR yet.
Even without it we’re still able to pass 100 FPS at low and medium settings and high
settings was decent too.
As we saw earlier, this game seems to favor AMD graphics.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was also tested with the game’s benchmark, and we’re looking
at nearly 60 FPS at max settings even with the higher resolution, while low pushes us
beyond 100 FPS if you prefer smoothness over visual quality.
Rainbow Six Siege has been thrown in for a shooter game.
As usual, the top 3 setting presets all perform the same in the game’s benchmark, and even
the 1% lows are higher than the screen’s 120Hz refresh rate, so all good here.
Control has been tested with and without ray tracing enabled.
RT in the red bars honestly wasn’t going great at all.
This is another game that has DLSS but not FSR, probably as the game came out back when
DLSS was relatively new before FSR was here, so you’re probably not going to want to
try ray tracing without FSR gains.
Watch Dogs Legion was tested with the game’s benchmark.
Very high settings was just able to hit 60 FPS, and this is another game with DLSS but
no FSR, so based on what we saw just before in Control I didn’t bother looking at ray
tracing here.
So despite its smaller 14” size and a screen resolution that’s bigger than standard 1440p,
this year’s all AMD G14 is certainly very capable even in the newest games at higher
settings.
There’s still a whole lot to test like thermals, battery life and more, so make sure you’re
subscribed for my upcoming full review video of the ASUS Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop.
While you wait for that one, chances are you probably like smaller gaming laptops, so check
out my full review of the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet next.
You can actually attach an RTX 3080 to make it the most powerful 13” device on the planet!