Let’s find out how the ASUS TUF A15 gaming laptop with AMD Ryzen 5 4600H and Nvidia GTX
1650 Ti performs in 20 different games at all setting levels.
I’ll also compare it against some other laptops to help you decide if it’s worth
it.
I’ve got the FA506II model here, so these are the specs we’re dealing with, 6 core
CPU, my first time with a GTX 1650 Ti, 16gb of memory in dual channel, and a 144Hz 1080p
screen, I’ll test response time too.
The TUF A15 is also available with different specs, I’ve still got the 1660 Ti model
yet to test, otherwise you can find prices for different models linked in the description.
The ASUS Armoury Crate software lets you select between different performance modes.
I’ve done all testing with turbo mode enabled for best performance, and this raises the
fan speed and applies the following overclock to the GPU.
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 ASUS TUF A15 gaming laptop compares with some other laptops.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark tool, and I wasn't
even able to test ultra settings because the GTX 1650 Ti graphics has 4GB of VRAM and ultra
settings needs more than this.
Even with low settings we’re just under 60 FPS.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode, there wasn’t too much of a difference between
ultra and high settings, both are around the 60 FPS mark and were playable, though low
settings was approaching 100 FPS if you prefer frame rate over looks.
Control was only seeing above 60 FPS with the low setting preset, though honestly I
think the game still looks pretty good at lower settings anyway, and I’d much prefer
the higher performance during fights, but at the same time it doesn’t really feel
laggy to me even at higher settings.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark.
Medium settings was just able to get us above 60 FPS in this test, and we’ll see how other
laptops compare in this game soon.
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.
It played fine for me at max settings, though we could greatly improve performance at minimum.
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.
There wasn’t as big of a jump going to minimum in this game, but doing so did at least push
us past 60 FPS.
Borderlands 3 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark, and medium settings was
needed to hit 60 FPS, anything above this and we start losing performance quickly, likely
as higher settings are more GPU heavy and the 1650 Ti becomes the main limitation.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint was also tested with the benchmark tool, and again much lower frame
rates were seen at the higher setting levels, notably because more than 4GB of VRAM is needed
here.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and as a less demanding title it was still
running quite well with the highest epic setting preset, however medium would be a much better
option to make use of the 144Hz display.
Overwatch is another less demanding game and was tested in the practice range.
Once more at the highest epic setting preset the frame rates were good, and we could make
large improvements with lower settings.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and it was doing alright, I mean the game
can basically run on a potato after all.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane, and we’re still reaching decent frame rates
in this esports title, even high settings were getting average FPS above the screen’s
refresh rate.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark using Vulkan, and as another
less demanding title the frame rates weren’t too bad even with ultra settings, though we
could still get much better results with lower presets.
High settings for instance looks like a decent match for the 144Hz screen.
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, high settings couldn’t quite
reach 60 FPS, however low was reaching above this even for the 1% low, with averages surpassing
100 FPS.
I’ve only tested monster hunter world a couple of times, but the results match what
I’ve seen so far, in that generally the 1% low performance isn’t too far behind
the average frame rates, so high settings still played pretty well.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and the performance
was quite low here at higher setting levels, most likely due to the lower powered graphics.
Medium settings were needed to hit 60 FPS, though I think the game runs pretty well without
high frame rates.
Far Cry New Dawn was also tested with the games benchmark, and we were just able to
scrape 60 FPS with the ultra setting preset in this test.
The Witcher 3 was a bit choppy at max settings, noticeably better with the high preset as
even the 1% low is now above the averages seen at ultra, and high settings gets us above
60 FPS for the average.
F1 2019 was tested using the game’s benchmark tool, and like the last game there’s a big
boost in performance simply by dropping down to high settings, though it was doing alright
even maxed out.
Let’s also take a look at how this configuration of the ASUS TUF A15 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 A15 highlighted in red.
This is the first laptop with GTX 1650 Ti graphics I’ve ever tested so there’s no
others to compare against at the moment, however I found it interesting that the lower wattage
part was beating the 85 watt 5500M just below it in this test, though of course there is
also a pretty big difference between the older 3750H and 4600H too.
These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark.
This time the 5500M was just above it.
It’s clear that this part is designed to compete with the 5500M in terms of performance,
as it’s filling in the gap that existed between Nvidia’s GTX 1650 and 1660 Ti options,
which was quite big at around 50% on average.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings.
Again the 5500M with lower CPU was slightly ahead, though that is a much higher wattage
GPU, and again the 1650 Ti seems to be nicely filling in the gap that exists between the
1650 and 1660 Ti laptops.
I’ll do some proper comparisons once I have more laptops with it.
The TUF A15 with these specs is able to offer a decent gaming experience, just be prepared
to lower the settings in more demanding titles.
Realistically to get full use out of the 144Hz screen with the 1650 Ti, you either need to
use minimum settings, or mostly play less demanding esports titles.
While testing these 20 games out, I honestly cannot say I had any issues with the panel,
but I don’t think I’m personally that sensitive to the slower response times, which
is why I recently invested in the tools needed to measure response time.
So far the A15 is the slowest laptop panel I’ve ever tested by a fair amount, granted
I’ve only tested about 5 laptops with this so far.
You can check the link in the description if you need an explanation of what all of
these numbers mean, but the key takeaway is on average the grey-to-grey response time
is 19.3ms.
I’ll cover thermals in depth in the next video, so make sure you’re subscribed for
that one as well as the upcoming full review, but for now let me know what you thought of
the gaming performance with the 1650 Ti down in the comments.
I’ll also be testing some other A15 configurations with different specs over the coming weeks
too.