The ASUS Zephyrus S GX502 is a thinner gaming laptop that’s packing some serious punch,
so let’s see how well it performs in a bunch of different games and compare it against
some other gaming laptops so you can see the differences.
I’ve got the GX502GW model of the Zephyrus S, so there’s an Intel i7-9750H CPU, Nvidia
RTX 2070 graphics, no Max-Q here, and 32gb of memory running in dual channel. The Zephyrus
S is also available with different specs, so expect different results with different
configurations. You can find examples and updated prices linked in the description.
The ASUS Armory Crate software allows you to enable turbo mode, which basically increases
the fan speed, increases the CPU power limit and overclocks the graphics. Additionally
we also have the option of disabling Optimus mode and running the laptop with the Nvidia
graphics only, which is required to use G-Sync, and I’ve also tested in this mode for best
performance.
We’ll only be covering gaming performance in this video, so if you’re new to the channel,
you'll definitely want to get subscribed for the upcoming thermal testing and full review.
Let’s start out by going through all 20 games at all setting levels, then afterwards
we’ll see how the GX502 compares with some other laptops.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode, and I’ve got the results with RTX on shown
by the green bars, and RTX off shown by the purple bars. These are some of the highest
RTX on results I’ve gotten from this game, and was actually usable even at higher settings,
however for a game like this generally the higher FPS with RTX off will be preferable,
and I was able to average above 100 FPS even at ultra.
Battlefield 1 was also tested in campaign mode, and as expected this game was running
very well. The average frame rate at ultra settings was pretty close to the refresh rate
of the display, with the 1% lows in most cases still above 100 FPS, so playing perfectly
smoothly.
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. A recent Nvidia driver update
boosted performance of this game, and even at max settings it was running extremely well,
with over 100 FPS for the 1% low maxed out.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, and again these are
some of the best results I’ve ever seen from a gaming laptop of this size, but we’ll
see how other laptops compare in this game soon.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark, and the results were quite good
here, though realistically not too different compared to many other machines, just a few
FPS here and there ahead, likely due to that RTX 2070, namely at ultra 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 with some other
laptops later. Without spoiling it I’ll note that it’s doing extremely well compared
to the competition.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and as a less demanding game even at epic
settings the average frame rate was near the refresh rate of the display, with still over
100 FPS being hit for the 1% low, absolutely no issues at all running this game well.
Overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range, and yet
again very nice performance here, with the 300 FPS frame cap being hit at medium and
low settings. Even maxed out at epic the 1% low results are above the refresh rate of
the display, so excellent results with this game.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and this game is one I’ve found to really
benefit from the option of disabling Optimus. Combined with the good specs and even max
settings isn’t far behind 300 FPS.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark. There’s not really much to
say, again very good results were being seen even with a 100% render scale in this test.
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 but does let you perform
the same test to compare against.
The Division 2 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and just for comparison more
midrange options like the Acer Nitro 5 with 1660 Ti get lower results for their average
FPS at ultra settings than what the 1% low here is, so again excellent performance in
this test.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and I was seeing excellent results for this
game. Even high settings was averaging above 150 FPS, and the ultra results are noticeably
above the usual 100 or so I typically see from other lower specced machines.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark and seems to be a CPU
heavy test, and as a result lower settings weren’t too different from most other machines,
however the superior GPU power is putting it ahead of most others at higher settings,
with almost a 60 FPS average at ultra high settings, plenty for this title in my opinion.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane, and while the results are higher than most
other laptops I’ve tested, I doubt most people would be able to notice a difference
between 150 and 190 anyway, but in any case great results again here.
Watch Dogs 2 is a resource heavy game, however even at ultra settings it’s still well above
60 FPS, plenty for a game that I can play just fine with a stable 30 FPS.
Ghost Recon Wildlands is another resource intensive game, and I often say that we need
a pretty high specced laptop to hit 60 FPS at ultra in this test, and that's exactly
what we’ve got here, because the GX502 has managed it.
The Witcher 3 was playing well even with ultra settings and was only just a little behind
a 100 FPS average, which I honestly think is plenty for this game, though you could
get much higher if you really want at lower settings.
DOOM was tested using Vulkan, and as usual was scoring very high frame rates. At ultra
settings even the 1% low wasn’t too far behind the refresh rate of the display, pretty
crazy, while the 200 FPS frame cap was being hit at lower settings.
Strange Brigade was another game that was tested with Vulkan but was tested with the
built in benchmark. Like Apex, this title also saw a performance improvement from a
recent Nvidia driver update, and even ultra settings was getting an average frame rate
close to the refresh rate of the display, and easily above 100 FPS for 1% low.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the ASUS Zephyrus S GX502 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 GX502 highlighted in red near similarly specced machines. The
results were extremely impressive, not only was this one of the best performing machines
in terms of average FPS I’ve ever tested, but the 1% low was miles ahead of the competition
in this test.
These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark.
Again the results are very impressive, putting it in at third place in terms of average FPS
and 1% low results, though the gap between the GX502 and first place was extremely narrow,
I’d even argue there’s no practical difference between the average frame rates.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings. In this test the GX502 was scoring the highest average frame rate out of the
machines tested, an extremely impressive result for a machine of just 1.9cm thick.
Overall the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW gaming laptop is performing extremely well. It’s
the thinnest machine I’ve ever tested with a full blown RTX 2070 inside, there’s no
Max-Q here, and we’ll see how thermals go in the next thermal testing video, so look
out for that. Even if it does run hot, you can’t argue that this machine is performing
great. The CPU power limit increase, fan speed increase, and GPU overclocks applied with
turbo mode are definitely contributing, and so is the option of disabling Nvidia Optimus,
bypassing a potential bottleneck with the Intel integrated graphics. The end result,
you’ve just seen, is excellent performance in all games.
Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the new ASUS Zephyrus S GX502
gaming laptop down in the comments, and if you’re new to the channel you’ll definitely
want to get subscribed for the full review to see everything this machine has to offer.