The ASUS Strix G15 Advantage Edition is the first gaming laptop to feature AMD’s new Radeon
RX 6800M graphics - their new top end option to compete with Nvidia’s RTX 3070 and 3080,
so let’s find out what an all AMD system has for us in this review!
My G15 has an 8 core Ryzen 9 5900HX processor,
Radeon RX 6800M graphics, 16 gigs of memory and a 1080p 300Hz screen,
but there are other configurations available too such as 1440p. You can check out other
configurations of the G15 as well as updated prices with those links down in the description.
The G15 has an all black design with metal lid, while the interior is all plastic.
Build quality feels decent and there aren’t any sharp corners or edges.
The laptop alone weighs about 2.4kg or 5.2lb,
then we’re looking at almost 3.4kg or 7.5lb with the fairly large 280 watt power brick and cables.
Width and depth are similar to many other 15” gaming laptops.
It’s a little thicker, but not huge and still portable.
The 15.6” 1080p screen has acceptable color gamut and contrast ratio,
there’s no MUX switch but it does have FreeSync with a fairly large range. Brightness is able to
get above 300 nits at maximum, but expect different results with the 1440p option.
The ASUS armoury crate software, the control panel for the laptop,
lets us control panel overdrive mode, which affects screen response time.
With overdrive disabled we’re looking at a 7.9ms average grey-to-grey response time,
but we can lower this down to around 5.6ms with overdrive enabled, which is the default,
though this does add a bit of overshoot.
Although it’s not the slowest 300Hz screen I’ve tested, looking at you MSI GE66,
it’s not below the 3.33ms needed for transitions to occur within the
refresh window, in any case not too bad compared to others, but could be better.
No obvious backlight bleed in my unit, but this will vary between laptops and panels.
Unfortunately, like some others from ASUS, there’s no camera here.
Although there’s no camera it does still have microphones, and this is what they sound like.
The ASUS website notes that a 1080p 60 FPS camera is included in the box,
I guess this varies by models or by region as mine didn’t have one.
The chiclet keyboard has 4 zones of RGB backlighting, and all keys and secondary
functions are lit up, though I thought some of the lighting on the F keys was a little patchy.
There’s also a light bar that runs along some of the left and right as well as the front.
It’s got 3 levels of lighting brightness which can be adjusted with the function
plus F2 and F3 shortcuts, while F4 can be used to cycle through the different effects,
and the keyboard shortcuts control both the light bar and keyboard together,
but you can control them independently through the Aura Creator software instead.
Personally I liked typing on it, the layout felt nice as it’s not cramped with a numpad.
It’s got some media control buttons on the right hand side,
and extra buttons above the keyboard on the left to change volume,
mute the mic, change the performance mode or open the armoury crate software.
The power button is separate to the keyboard, so no need to worry about an accidental press,
and there appears to be some air vents below the screen.
The precision touchpad clicks down anywhere and works well, it’s on the larger side but
I had no problems with it getting in the way while typing or playing games.
The left has an air exhaust vent, two USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack,
while the right just has an air exhaust vent,
presumably so no cables get in the way of your mouse hand as most people are right handers.
The rest of the I/O is on the back between two corner air exhausts.
From left to right we’ve got a third USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A port,
USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port, HDMI 2.0b output, gigabit ethernet facing the preferred way so
you don’t have to lift the machine up when removing the cable, and the power input.
That Type-C port on the back can be used to charge the laptop, and it connects directly
to the RX 6800M graphics, meaning if we connect an external screen it will bypass the integrated
graphics and offer us a speed boost in games, which I’ll show you later. The HDMI port
on the other hand connects to the integrated graphics, so that won’t give you a speed boost.
The front sticks out a little in the middle so you can get your finger in and open the lid easily.
There’s more lid flex than I was expecting considering the metal exterior,
but the screen doesn’t wobble when typing, as was the case with the
cheaper TUF A15. There’s some flex to the plastic interior when pushing hard,
but again I’d say it’s less so compared to the A15, and I never noticed it during regular use.
The back red corner can also be customized, you can remove it and replace it with the
two other options that come with the laptop if you prefer a different look.
Otherwise the laptop has all sorts of subtle parts in the design so that you know it’s an
all AMD laptop. The ROG logo on the lid is subtly lit up by the screen’s backlight too.
The bottom panel is plastic too with holes for air intake directly above the fans.
Getting inside requires removing 11 Philips head screws, and the ones down the front are shorter
than the rest while the front right one doesn’t come out and instead helps you pry it open.
I found this easy to do this using the tools linked in the description below,
but you’ve got to watch out for the two ribbon cables that are connecting
the light bar to the motherboard, so don’t just rip the bottom off.
Inside we’ve got the vapor chamber cooler at the back,
battery down the front, two memory slots just above in the middle,
two M.2 storage slots to the left of that, and the Wi-Fi 6 card is hiding underneath the SSD.
The memory that this laptop ships with can lower performance of the laptop in games,
I’ve got a dedicated video explaining this linked in the description if you want more information.
The speakers are underneath on the left and right sides towards the front. I thought they
sounded above average, definitely better than say the TUF A15 I’ve got here at the moment.
There’s some bass and they can get quite loud, and the latencymon results were alright too.
Speaking of sounds, it plays this one by default on boot.
Fortunately you can disable it through the Armoury crate software or BIOS,
but according to my recent poll more of you than I expected enjoy boot sounds.
The Strix G15 Advantage has a 4-Cell 90Wh battery. In the gaming test by default the frame rate would
just run as high as it could. Nvidia laptops cap frame rate to 30 FPS by default with battery
boost, so to mirror this I capped frame rate to 30 with the Radeon Chill settings in the Radeon
software. The battery lasted for more than 9 hours in my YouTube playback test, a great result
compared to others, in fact I’ve noticed many of the top results are all ASUS gaming laptops.
This is because of the panel power saver option in the Armoury Crate software,
which is enabled by default, it automatically disables panel overdrive and lowers the refresh
rate down to 60Hz which saves battery life, though you can turn it off if you prefer.
Let’s check out thermals next.
The Armoury Crate software lets us change between different performance profiles, which from lowest
to highest are silent, performance, turbo and manual. Manual mode gives us some control over
power sliders and fan customization. I also want to note that while you can set the fans
to max speed here, when the laptop isn’t actively doing work they would slow down and speed up once
you start doing stuff, they don’t just stay at maximum as specified like most others do.
The Strix G15 Advantage also uses thermal grizzly liquid metal on both the CPU and GPU.
In the past I believe ASUS has only done this on the CPU, my understanding is that it hasn’t
really offered much improvement with Nvidia graphics, but as the die size of RDNA 2 is
smaller the heat is coming from a smaller space, so that might be why liquid metal was used there.
The idle results down the bottom were fine. I’ve run stress tests with both the
CPU and GPU loaded up to represent a worst case, as well as playing an actual game.
Worst case we’re seeing 95 degrees Celsius on the CPU, which is pretty standard in this
workload when compared to most other laptops I test. The GPU appears a little warm at 88,
but I’m just used to testing Nvidia laptops where 87 degrees is generally the thermal
throttle limit. This is my first time with the 6800M so I don’t know what to expect,
and for all I know it might not even be fair to compare the two as the sensors probably
differ. Anyway manual mode was running cooler as it lets us max the fans out,
then the cooling pad that I use, linked down in the description, didn’t really improve this.
These are the clock speeds from these same tests. Above 4GHz in the stress test is a good result for
an 8 core laptop. The GPU speeds in the game test were lower compared to the stress test,
but this will depend on how smartshift decides to allocate power between them. Perhaps if I had the
1440p model of the Strix G15 we’d see higher GPU speeds running at that higher resolution.
Alright, treat this graph as essentially a rough estimate. The CPU power levels at
the very least are basically my best guess, because SmartShift laptops seem to show CPU
plus GPU power combined under CPU package power in hardware info. I subtracted the
GPU TGP reported by software from that combined value to get this rough guess,
so this probably isn’t super accurate, as that might contain other stuff too.
In any case the 6800M could run up to 150 watts in a GPU only stress test when the CPU
isn’t under load. Note that turbo mode seems to boost the GPU higher than manual mode.
Here’s how an actual game performs with these different modes in use. Turbo mode was slightly
ahead of manual mode, though it’s just a couple of FPS. This test at max settings is more GPU heavy
than CPU, so that matches what we just saw in the stress tests because the GPU power limit in turbo
mode seems to be higher than manual mode because manual mode seems to favor processor performance.
There’s not really a way to control this and ultimately it’s up to SmartShift,
but the settings for manual mode let us control the CPU plus GPU up to 190 watts
combined and that’s how I tested it, maxed out.
Here’s how the different modes perform in Cinebench R23, a cpu only workload with the
gpu now idle, and honestly even silent mode is killing it here, still over 12,000 for multicore.
Here’s how the G15 compares to others in this CPU workload,
it’s the best Ryzen 9 5900HX result I’ve ever recorded for multicore,
just a hundred points behind the desktop 11900K in a much thicker machine.
On battery power the strix G15 is now performing the best out of any laptop I’ve ever tested,
at least for multicore, it’s only just beaten
by the TUF Dash F15 with 10nm quad core CPU in single core performance.
The keyboard sits in the low 30s when idle, the same as most gaming laptops I test.
With the stress tests running it's now in the low 40s in the middle, so just a bit warm
feeling. Performance mode is similar and hotter up the back, but you don’t need to touch there.
Turbo mode is similar, still only warm worst case on the keyboard and not a problem at all. Manual
mode was cooler now, but the fans were also maxed out here so it’s louder too, let’s have a listen.
I couldn’t hear it when idling in silent mode, and it’s still
relatively quiet once the stress tests are running. Performance mode is a bit louder,
turbo mode is then similar to many other gaming laptops I’ve tested,
then maximum fan speed in manual mode is a fair bit louder, I’d want to stick to headphones.
Even though it can get fairly loud, personally I much prefer this compared to a laptop like
the Legion 5 Pro or Legion 7 that doesn’t let you have any fan control. I think user
choice is always best, so if I want to max it out then I should be able to.
Now let’s find out how well the Strix G15 Advantage Edition compares against other
laptops in games. As I’ve covered in this dedicated video over here, it is possible
to boost gaming performance by changing the memory, so I’ve included these results here too.
This is the difference in memory that I’m testing with, and the kit I’ve tested
with is linked in the description. The new kit is x8 instead of x16
and it has lower secondary timings, again refer to the dedicated video for all the details.
I’ve tested Battlefield 5 in campaign mode at ultra settings,
and the Strix G15 is highlighted in red. I’ve got both the stock memory and the new memory results,
which in this case offers a 9% boost to average FPS. The 6800M can beat the lower power limit
3070 in the Omen 15 with the memory upgrade and is close to 2080 Max-Q options, though the 1%
lows with the Radeon GPU seem lower compared to most others whether or not we change the memory.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark with the highest setting preset.
This game had one of the biggest differences out of all titles tested with the memory upgrade,
almost a 19% boost to average FPS. The Strix G15 can compete with RTX 3070 and
3080 machines with the new memory like AMD was claiming at launch,
while the stock memory puts it closer to the 3060 and under the power limited 3070 in the omen 15
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the games benchmark at max settings, and this test typically depends
more on processor performance. The new memory was offering an 11% boost to average FPS here,
again moving the Strix G15 closer to some of the Ryzen plus Nvidia 3070 and 3080 options,
such as the ASUS Scar 15 which is right above it with the same processor, but RTX 3080 GPU.
As mentioned there’s no way of disabling the integrated graphics for a speed boost,
but we can connect an external screen to that Type-C port on the back
because this connects directly to the 6800M, bypassing the iGPU.
I’ve got the results with an external screen connected shown by the green bars,
and I’ve tested it both with the stock memory and with my memory. With the stock memory and
external screen we’re just a couple FPS behind the RAM upgrade plus laptop screen.
If we both combine an external screen with the RAM upgrade, the performance uplift is nothing short
of astonishing. It’s just a few FPS behind MSI’s larger and much more expensive GE76, though this
is just a single game example, but gives you an idea of what a 6800M with no limit can do.
Here are the results from 3DMark for those that find them useful.
Now for some creator tests.
Adobe Premiere was tested with the Puget Systems benchmark. Generally all AMD machines
do worse in this test compared to Nvidia options, it seems like the software might
not yet be optimized for Radeon, so the G15 is being beaten by cheaper laptops from last gen.
Adobe Photoshop generally depends more on processor performance, but this is still
one of the lower results I’ve got for a Ryzen 9 5900HX, most of the others are closer to the
top of the graph. Not sure if it’s the Radeon graphics, or possibly the slower stock RAM.
DaVinci Resolve is more GPU heavy, and the G15 Advantage is now in between a couple of
2070 Super laptops, so not terrible, but again also behind where we saw it in the game tests.
I’ve also tested SPECviewperf which tests out various professional 3D workloads.
Some workloads like energy are scoring super low compared to Nvidia options,
while other tests were much better.
The 512gb NVMe M.2 SSD was doing well for the reads, but not so great on the writes.
The BIOS is pretty much the same as all of the others from ASUS,
just the usual basic options that you’d expect to see. I didn’t see
anything unique there that the Nvidia plus Ryzen models don’t already have.
I booted an Ubuntu 21 live CD to test Linux support. Out of the box the touchpad,
ethernet, and speakers worked, but Wi-Fi wasn’t recognized and although the keyboard worked,
after any key press it kept asking me if I wanted to shutdown.
Otherwise screen and keyboard brightness and volume shortcuts on the keyboard all worked.
Now let’s discuss pricing. This will change over time,
so refer to those links down in the description for updates.
At the time of recording, the Strix G15 Advantage Edition with the same
specs I’ve tested here goes for $1650 USD, a very competitive price, especially when
you consider that it can take on Nvidia RTX 3070 and 3080 laptops that cost more money.
So all things considered, I think the Strix G15 advantage edition
is offering good value compared to other options.
AMD’s new Radeon RX 6800M graphics are looking quite competitive
against Nvidia’s higher end graphics which generally appear in more expensive models,
and this is the first time in the last 6 years that I’ve been
reviewing laptops that AMD have finally had a competitive mobile option at the high end.
I do hope that we get more software optimizations in future, as we saw some of those content creator
workloads weren’t doing too well compared to other laptops, and as we’ve seen it’s also possible to
improve performance and unleash the 6800M by using faster memory or an external screen.
It’s unfortunate that ASUS had to use x16 memory with lower secondary timings,
but apparently that’s just supply issues which is the world we live in at the moment.
A MUX switch would have been good to improve performance,
though I’ve been told by ASUS that this would have also increased cost.
Based on the performance increase that was possible with an external monitor,
personally I’d be willing to pay $100 more or so no problem,
but that’s just me and I always prefer having the choice of how I want to run my machine.
When the 6800M isn’t being limited by memory or the iGPU, as Hardware Unboxed
have shown in this video over here it can compete with the Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics.
Anyway apart from that there wasn’t much else to complain about. The only problems
I had in terms of software experience or drivers were that a couple of games opened
up on the iGPU instead of the 6800M, which is a pretty easy fix in Windows,
but hopefully that sort of thing improves with future updates.
Apart from those small hiccups, this laptop rand perfectly fine for me, so apart from
that there’s not much else to complain about, this seems like a great laptop for the money,
but I’m interested to hear what you think so let me know down in the comments, and
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