ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503 gaming laptop review: Zen 3 + Ampere = love

We first got acquainted with Zephyrus G-series laptops almost a year ago – in the spring, a review of the ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401IV model was released on our website. The laptop turned out to be compact, fast, durable and rather cold for a computer equipped with a 14-inch matrix. The ROG Zephyrus G15 series, as you might guess, got a larger display, but otherwise we have all the same advantages and the already familiar bunch of AMD CPU and NVIDIA GPU. Only we are now talking about Zen 3 generation chips and Ampere graphics – and such a bundle should prove to be the best possible.

⇡#Specifications, equipment and software

So here we are with the ROG Zephyrus G15 equipped with an octa-core Ryzen 7 5800HS and a 100W GeForce RTX 3070, but there are quite a few models in this series of gaming laptops. A list of all used components is shown in the table below.

It’s nice that in this case the manufacturer indicates the power of the graphics processor in the characteristics of their mobile PCs. On sale you can find a large number of laptops with GeForce RTX 3070 graphics – and different models with different power consumption will have different levels of performance. In some cases, the differences can be very significant. As you can see, in our case, we are using the GeForce RTX 3070 version with a power limit of 100W, although the maximum value for this GPU is 130W.

Unfortunately, I did not find a tested modification of the ROG Zephyrus G15 for sale, but, most likely, the cost of such a laptop will tend to $ 3,100. For example, for the model GA503QM-HQ095 with Ryzen 7 5800HS, GeForce RTXC 3060, 16 GB DDR4-3200 and 512 GB SSD, they ask for $ 2,500 in retail.

All compact Zephyrs based on the AMD platform are equipped with an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 wireless module that supports IEEE 802.11b / g / n / ac / ax standards with a frequency of 2.4 and 5 GHz and a bandwidth of 2.4 Gbps /s, as well as Bluetooth 5.1.

Included with the laptop was a fairly large external power supply with a capacity of 200 watts. Its weight is 600 grams. I note that the laptop supports USB Power Delivery 3.0 technology, so you can buy a compact 65W charger for it.

⇡#Appearance and Input Devices

The new ROG Zephyrus G15 is very similar to the G14 – the design is recognizable, attractive and practical. On the other hand, there were some exclusive chips. Thus, a special pattern is carved on the metal cover of the case, iridescent due to the prismatic film placed below. True, such a pattern also has a minus: the recesses are clogged with dust, and this becomes noticeable.

On sale you will find two versions of the ROG Zephyrus G15: white (Moonlight White) and gray (Eclipse Gray) versions.

But let’s talk about practicality. The thickness of any “Zephyrus” is 20 mm, and the weight is 1.9 kg. The laptop is light and compact by the standards of “Fifteen”, and together with a small PSU it is comfortable to take it with you all the time. The manufacturer claims that the laptop case has a cellular structure, which increases the rigidity of the chassis without thickening its walls.

The lid of the laptop received very tight hinges – it opens with one hand, but with great effort. The maximum opening angle is 180 degrees. When you open the lid, the base rises a few degrees – this trick provides more comfort for the user and creates additional space for air circulation in the area of ​​​​the bottom panel of the case. This design feature was also used in the ROG Zephyrus G14. The reverse side of the coin is that the laptop cooler throws heated air directly onto the display lid.

Naturally, with this hinge design, all ROG Zephyrus G15 interfaces are located only on the sides of the case. On the left and right, you’ll find an HDMI output, two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C ports with mini-DisplayPort that support power mode, two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, a microSD card slot, RJ-45, and 3.5mm combo headset jack.

Here, on the sides, there are grilles for the output of heated air.

The keyboards of ASUS 15-inch gaming laptops traditionally do not have a numeric keypad. At the same time, the set of ROG Zephyrus G15 keys visually seems larger and more sweeping, or something. However, you still have to get used to the small arrow keys and the F1-F12 row, but I still couldn’t get used to the complete absence of the Insert and Print Screen keys.

At the same time, the main buttons are large and comfortable. This is me about Ctrl, Shift, Tab, Backspace and Enter. The travel of each key is 1.7 mm, but the actuation occurs at half the travel. Naturally, the G15 has a backlight. And the manufacturer also indicates that the buttons will work correctly in any combination of any number of keys, and in general, the resource of pressing is more than 20 million times.

The power button is located where it should be – away from the rest of the keys. It has a built-in fingerprint sensor that allows you to quickly unlock the system when using the Windows Hello function. Four more keys are placed separately from the main keyboard: with their help, the volume of the speakers is adjusted, and the built-in microphone is turned on and off. Pressing the brand logo button opens the Armory Crate app. The fan key activates the various profiles of the laptop’s cooling system: Silent, Performance and Turbo.

Finally, the brand new touchpad is said to be 20% larger than the HID found in previous generation laptops. Now its dimensions are 13 × 8.5 cm. And the sensor began to work, according to ASUS, 40% faster – this is achieved through the use of a new controller. Well, the glass touchpad panel on the ROG Zephyrus G15 turns out to be pleasant to the touch and quite comfortable while working – everything suits me.

And Zephyrus does not have a built-in webcam. There was also no external webcam bundled with the laptop.

⇡#Internal design and upgrade options

The bottom cover of the laptop is very easy to remove, but I traditionally recommend that this procedure be carried out as carefully as possible.

The laptop cooler has six heat pipes. Between the sole of the CO and the CPU is a liquid metal Thermal Grizzly – according to ASUS, it reduces the temperature of the chip by 10 degrees Celsius compared to using conventional thermal paste. This, one might say, is already the hallmark of ROG laptops of the last two generations. The tubes are connected to four copper radiators. Due to the metal thickness of only 0.15 mm, the number of ribs is increased to 247 pieces. In addition, their shape is optimized for the ErgoLift hinge, which lifts the laptop case.

Each Arc Flow fan received 84 blades. The Carlsons are made of liquid crystal polymer, which allows them to be strong but thin. As a result, the engineers were able to increase the airflow by 5% with the same noise level as the previous generation of fans.

Please note that part of the RAM is already soldered on the motherboard of the laptop – this is how ASUS was able to make the laptop thinner and more compact. Some versions of the ROG Zephyrus G15 have 16 GB soldered, while others (like in our case) have 8 GB. The only memory slot has an 8 GB DDR4-3200 module. It turns out that if you want to increase the number of “brains” in the laptop, you will have to remove this module and replace it with an analogue of a larger volume. So it turns out that the RAM subsystem of the test model supports a maximum of 24 GB.

Our model has a 1 TB NVMe drive HFM001TD3JX013N – this is a device from SK Hynix. And if we want, we can install another M.2 SSD in the second slot – in this regard, the ROG Zephyrus G15 looks much more interesting than last year’s G14.

⇡#Test Methodology

The testing methodology for gaming laptops puts even more emphasis on PC gaming. Laptop performance was measured using various software.

Games (Full HD and WQHD resolution):

• World of Tanks EnCore RT. DirectX 11. Benchmark. Ultra mode, RT off
• Counter Strike: Global Offensive. DirectX 9. FPS Benchmark map. Multi-core processing – incl. Maximum quality.
• The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. DirectX 11. Novigrad and surroundings. Maximum quality.
• GTA V. DirectX 11. Built-in benchmark. Maximum quality, FXAA + 2x MSAA, advanced quality settings on, 16x AF, image resolution scaling off
• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. DirectX 11. Training mode. Ultra Mode
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Maximum quality, DXR – off, TAA.
• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. DirectX 11. Built-in benchmark. Highest mode.
• Battlefield V. DirectX 12. The Last Tiger mission. Ultra Mode, TAA, DXR Off
• Red Dead Redemption 2. Vulkan. Built-in benchmark. Maximum quality (advanced settings – off), TAA.
• Gears 5. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Ultra Mode
• Metro: Exodus. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Ultra Mode
• Horizon Zero Dawn. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Top quality, TAA.
• Death Stranding. DirectX 12 Prologue. Maximum quality.
• A Total War Saga: TROY. DirectX 11. Built-in benchmark. Max mode, 4x AA (no AA in Ultra HD).
• DOOM Eternal. Vulcan. Beginning of the game. Absolute Nightmare Mode
• Watch Dogs: Legion. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Maximum quality, TAA, DXR off, DLSS off
• Cyberpunk 2077. DirectX 12. City trip. Impressive quality mode, DXR off, DLSS off

Gaming performance was measured using the well-known CapFrameX program. It allows you to get the rendering time of each frame. The use of the 99th percentile instead of the minimum frames per second is due to the desire to clean up the results from random performance fluctuations that were provoked by reasons not directly related to the operation of the main components of the platform.

Testing the laptop in games and applications was carried out with the activation of the fastest mode suitable for these tasks.

Applications:

• Corona 1.3. Testing rendering speed using the renderer of the same name. Measures the build speed of the standard BTR scene used to measure performance.
• Blender 2.91.2. Determining the speed of the final rendering in one of the popular free packages for creating three-dimensional graphics. The duration of building the final model pavillon_barcelona_v1.2 from Blender Benchmark is measured.
• x265 HD Benchmark. Testing the speed of video transcoding to H.265/HEVC format. The tables and graphs show the average integer value obtained after five runs of the test.
• CINEBENCH R23. Performance measurement of photorealistic 3D rendering in CINEMA 4D animation package, CPU test. The tables and graphs show the average integer value obtained after five runs of the test.
• Adobe Premiere Pro 2020 – Rendering a project in 4K resolution.
• Topaz Video Enhance AI v1.2.3. Performance testing in an AI-based program to improve video detail. The test uses the original video at 1280×720 resolution, which is scaled up by 150% using the Artemis-HQ model: P, HQ, MC.

Comprehensive benchmarks:

• Futuremark PCMARK10 Professional Edition 2.1.2177. Testing in Essentials scenarios (typical work of an average user: launching applications, surfing the Internet, video conferencing), Productivity (office work with a text editor and spreadsheets), Digital Content Creation (creation of digital content: photo editing, non-linear video editing, rendering and 3D visualization -models).
• 3DMark Professional Edition 2.11.6846. Testing in Time Spy and Fire Strike scenes.
• Unigine Superposition Benchmark. 1080p Extreme testing.

Notebook testing in resource-intensive applications was carried out in the default mode without any adjustment of the parameters of the central processor and cooler.

Display testing is performed using the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter and the DisplayCAL 3 application.

The battery life of the laptop was tested in two modes. The first load option – web surfing – involves alternately opening and closing the tabs of the Computeruniverse.ru and Unsplash.com sites with an interval of 30 seconds. For this test, the current version of the Google Chrome browser at the time of testing is used. In the second mode, video in .mkv format and Full HD resolution is played in the built-in player of Windows OS with the repeat function activated. In all cases, the same display brightness was set to 200 cd / m², and the keyboard backlight (if any) and the sound were turned off.

In games and other applications, the results of the following laptops are considered:
 

⇡#Display and sound

With the advent of GeForce RTX 30 graphics, NVIDIA partners have been actively promoting WQHD resolution in new gaming systems. And this is a great initiative for at least two reasons. Firstly, the transition from Full HD to WQHD with a diagonal of 15.6 and 17 inches looks very interesting – the pixel density is seriously increasing. Secondly, such a transition does not squander the performance of laptops in games in the way that 4K resolution does. The test sample just uses a fast (3 ms, 165 Hz) CMN N156KME-GNA IPS matrix that supports adaptive synchronization. But on sale there are ROG Zephyrus G15 with other displays. So, for versions of the laptop with the GeForce RTX 3060, the use of a Full HD IPS matrix with a color gamut of 62.5% sRGB and a vertical refresh rate of 144 Hz is declared.

The test results show that these will be displays that are fundamentally different in quality. As for the CMN N156KME-GNA, this matrix is ​​perfect not only for games, but also for professional creative work.

And Zephyrus also has a cool sound – by laptop standards, of course. The design of the laptop uses six speakers at once (two high-frequency and two pairs of low-frequency).

⇡#Efficiency of the cooling system

With the help of the Armory Crate program and the function button on the keyboard, we can choose different modes of the laptop. When running on battery, the default mode is “Quiet”, when working from the mains – “Turbo”. There is also an intermediate mode called “Performance”. The last two have been tested and the results are tabulated.
 

In games, the laptop is quite loud – I used a headset when playing. But this mode allows you to effectively cool both the CPU and the graphics. The maximum temperature of the GeForce RTX 3070 chip was only 77 degrees Celsius, and we can see that the GPU works within the declared power consumption figures – the average value was 96 watts.

Switching from “Turbo” to “Performance” mode significantly reduced the frequency of the video core, but at the same time, the average power consumption decreased slightly. Since Zephyrus has become quieter, the heating indicators of the main PC components have not changed much.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the hero of the review supports Dynamic Boost 2.0 technology. This means that the power consumption of the CPU and GPU can constantly change, adjusting to the conditions that provide the maximum FPS in a particular game.

As already mentioned, the heated air is partially blown directly onto the laptop display. This is clearly visible on the image of the thermal imager, but in general, the area with the keys does not heat up much – as a standard, I would say.

In summary, the ROG Zephyrus G15’s cooling system does a good job in gaming, albeit with a lot of noise.

Interestingly, in CPU tests, the average power consumption of the Ryzen 7 5800HS is 54W in Turbo mode and 47W in Performance mode. We see that the use of liquid metal allows you to squeeze much more out of the 8-core AMD, because the nominal TDP value for this chip is 35W.

⇡#Notebook Performance

As we have already found out, the mobile version of the GeForce RTX 3070 in the ROG Zephyrus G15 is rated up to 100W. Below you can see a comparison of the review hero with the MSI GE66 Raider model, the GPU of which operates within the power range of 110-130W. The Raider is also noticeably heavier and has a more powerful cooling system, but we haven’t tested lighter laptops with similar hardware lately. With all the difference in the initial data, we see that the ASUS laptop is on average only 3-8% slower. Here, of course, processor dependence also affects, because the Ryzen 7 5800HS is faster than the Core i7-10870H – largely due to operation at a higher frequency.

If we talk exclusively about the gaming performance of the ROG Zephyrus G15, then the laptop performs well in Full HD and with dignity in WQHD. In the latter case, in order to get a higher and more comfortable FPS, you will have to lower the graphics quality in such projects as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Metro Exodus, A Total War Saga: TROY, Watch Dogs: Legion and Cyberpunk 2077 – that is, in five cases out of 17.

And I remind you again that the mobile GeForce RTX 3070 (even at 130 W) will be much slower than the discrete GeForce RTX 3070 – these are laptop realities, I talked about them in detail in the article “NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 mobile version review: Ampere is now in laptops” !

Finally, it is worth witnessing the serious advantage of the Ryzen 7 5800HS over the Core i7-10870H in the case (this is an important clarification!) of the comparison between the ROG Zephyrus G15 and the MSI GE66 Raider. But do not forget that many work applications actively use the capabilities of the GPU. Here, the version of the GeForce RTX 3070 with increased power consumption already looks more interesting and faster.

Below are the results of testing the laptop in the PCMARK10 comprehensive benchmark.

In a number of tests (archiving, working with graphics and photo and video content, interaction with browsers, as well as office applications), the laptop drive plays an important role. The ASUS laptop has an SK Hynix SSD – not the fastest (by NVMe standards) drive. For example, linear read and write speeds do not exceed 3 GB / s. Random operations are also slow. All this affects the results of testing PCMARK 10, which, as you know, loves fast SSDs.

Nevertheless (largely due to the fast CPU), the ROG Zephyrus G15 confidently outperformed the MSI GE66 Raider in this test.

⇡#Laptop offline

The laptop uses a 90 Wh lithium-ion battery. The ROG Zephyrus G14 impressed me with its endurance back in the day, and we can see that the larger model (despite using a WQHD display) performs just as well. In short: “Fifteen” has excellent autonomy, which makes it an excellent companion for those users who need a powerful system at hand anywhere and anytime.

And the laptop also supports the function of accelerated charging – in the off state, using the included power supply, you can charge the battery from 0 to 50% in just 30 minutes.

⇡#Conclusions

We think today’s testing has clearly shown that the Zen 3 + Ampere combination is an excellent combination in a laptop that performs great both in games and when performing resource-intensive work applications. It remains only to choose the right model.

And buying a ROG Zephyrus G15 would be a great choice. To be honest, I have no serious complaints about this laptop – you can find fault with it only in small things, such as the lack of a Print Screen button on the keyboard. But other than that, it’s a great laptop. The cooling system is noisy, but it does an excellent job of cooling the Ryzen 7 and the mobile GeForce RTX 3070. At the same time, the use of liquid metal allowed us to seriously increase the frequency of the 8-core AMD. And ROG Zephyrus G15 is equipped with modern ports and has a great display. Well, the cherry on the cake – the laptop is able to work all day on battery power.

All in all, the new ROG Zephyrus G15 is a success.