The ASUS Zephyrus G GA502 is an interesting gaming laptop. Although it’s got Nvidia
graphics, it’s paired with an AMD Ryzen 7 mobile CPU rather than Intel, so let’s
see just how well this combination performs in a bunch of different games and compare
it against some other laptops.
I’ve got the GA502DU model, so there’s a Ryzen 7 3750H quad core CPU, Nvidia GTX
1660 Ti Max-Q graphics, 16gb of memory in dual channel, and a 120Hz 1080p screen. You
can find up to date 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, and I’ve 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 GA502 compares with some other laptops.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode, and at ultra settings it was still playable
and able to average above 60 FPS, with up to 90 reached at low settings.
Battlefield 1 was also tested in campaign mode, and this game tends to perform better
than the newer version just shown, allowing us to hit 90 FPS even at ultra settings and
closer to the refresh rate of the display at low settings.
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, so we’re seeing pretty good results here.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, and at max settings
we’re just under 60 FPS, not too bad, and lower settings weren’t really improving
this by that much, but we’ll see how this game compares with other laptops soon.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark, and although the results were
lower compared to most other laptops I’ve tested as this test is heavier on the CPU,
60 FPS was still hit at normal 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.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and as a less demanding game even at epic
settings the average frame rate was still quite good and playing fine, though we could
get much higher FPS at lower settings to take advantage of the 120Hz panel.
Overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range, and it was
running fine even at max settings, with the average frame rate still close to the refresh
rate of the display.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and as a game that depends primarily on CPU
power it was around 100 FPS lower than an i7 based laptop, however 150 FPS at max settings
is still plenty to play this game well.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark. At maximum settings 100 FPS
averages were still being hit in this test with a 100% render scale, while high settings
took us to the refresh rate of the 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, and above 60 FPS averages were
being reached with high settings, while just below 100 FPS was possible at low settings.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and high settings and below were all around
the 100 FPS point with not really that much of a difference, while ultra settings was
still above 60 FPS too.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark and this seems to be
a CPU heavy test, though I don’t think it needs a super high frame rate to play, so
these results aren’t too bad.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane, and as a primarily CPU driven game the results
are a bit lower compared to an Intel based laptop, however the performance from this
machine was still great, with 100 FPS averages at ultra settings, while high settings better
took advantage of the 120hz display.
Watch Dogs 2 is a resource heavy game, however I think it plays fine with a solid 30 FPS,
and we’re only just below this for the 1% low at ultra settings and it was playing ok
even maxed out.
Ghost Recon Wildlands is another resource intensive game, though very high settings
was still close to averaging 60 FPS, with higher possible at lower settings.
The Witcher 3 was still playable at ultra settings and was averaging right on 60 FPS,
however high settings did play nicer, as shown by the 1% low which was close to the average
frame rate at ultra.
I normally test DOOM with Vulkan, however that wasn’t possible here so I’ve used
OpenGL, meaning the results can’t accurately be compared against other times I’ve tested
this game. In my ASUS FX505DU review I noted that Vulkan didn’t work unless I first disabled
the Vega graphics in device manager, however trying that here didn’t work.
Strange Brigade is another game I usually test with Vulkan, but again I couldn’t get
it to work here so I’ve used DirectX 12. Again my work around of disabling the Vega
graphics on the 3750H CPU didn’t allow me to run Vulkan games, so it seems like there
might be an issue with the AMD CPU Nvidia GPU combination when it comes to Vulkan.
Let’s also take a look at how this config of the ASUS Zephyrus G GA502 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 GA502 highlighted in red near similarly specced machines. It’s
worth noting the L340 beneath it is the only machine in this graph that had single channel
memory. The performance was actually quite similar to the FX505DU, which has the same
Ryzen CPU, but non Max-Q graphics. We can see the higher 1% low result with the Dell
G3 which has the same graphics, but has the higher performing i7 CPU, however average
FPS doesn’t change too much between them.
These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark.
Again the results were close to the FX505DU just above it, I think the higher average
FPS is due to the non Max-Q 1660 Ti though, as they’ve got the same Ryzen 7 3750H CPU.
The Dell G3 with same 1660 Ti Max-Q graphics is a fair amount ahead though, which makes
sense as this is a CPU heavy game and it’s both faster and has a 50% higher core count.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings. Interestingly this time the GA502 came a little ahead of the FX505DU, I’m
thinking this may be due to updates the game has had or possibly Nvidia driver updates
since I tested the 505, as it otherwise doesn’t really make sense given it has the same Ryzen
7 CPU but slightly better graphics.
Overall the ASUS ROG Zephyrus GA502 gaming laptop is performing fairly well. Unfortunately
I haven’t tested all that many other machines with similar specs to compare against, but
as we’ve seen here it is able to perform quite well in most games even at higher setting
levels and is capable of providing a good gaming experience.
The issue I have with it is the price. In the US it normally seems to go for around
$1200. This is Acer Helios 300 price range, and as we just saw that outperforms the GA502
significantly, however at the moment it’s currently on sale, perhaps making it a better
deal, though the Helios has gone as low as $999, but I plan on comparing both machines
in a future video as I’ve had a lot of requests so make sure you’re subscribed for that
one.
Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the ASUS Zephyrus G GA502
gaming laptop down in the comments, we’ll test out thermals in depth in an upcoming
video and the full review is still to come, so if you’re new to the channel consider
getting subscribed for those as well as future tech videos.