The Performance and Cooling of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15

To test the performance of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15, we used the built-in benchmark at 1080p with Ultra settings. We were able to see a 3% improvement in average performance with the CPU under vaulted power limit boosted and graphics overclocked. The best-case scenario saw a 1% lower rise by five point six percent. It is likely that this extra CPU performance contributed to the improvements, as it is possible to get some additional gaming benchmarks using simple tweaks.

We also tested the card in the top right corner of the screen, where we ran 20 different games on the laptop. The results showed external temperatures that were putting hands at idle with the silent profile enabled was cool mid-20s in the center while gaming or under stress test with the balanced profile in use was still very cool and the majority of the keyboard state was barely getting to the high 30s in the center and mid-40s of the back. When turbo mode was enabled and the stress tests were running, the laptop was perhaps just a tiny bit cooler.

As for the fan noise produced by the laptop, we listened to some of the tests to see how it performed under load. The fan speed was constantly ramping up or down while under any sort of load, regardless of balanced or turbo profile in use. This may be annoying, as the fan speed changes every minute or so while under load between low speed and high speed even if you manually set it to 100%. However, at idle, the laptop was fairly quiet with no fan changing.

Under gaming load and stress test with the balanced profile, the fan noise was not that loud and dropped down fairly low at times. When turbo mode was enabled, the fan did get quite loud but again would lower back down for a bit before going back up. Personally, I prefer a constant speed somewhere in between overall.

In terms of thermal throttling, it seemed that the laptop was performing quite well without any significant issues. The temperatures did not get as high as many other laptops with similar specs that we have tested. It is likely that power limit throttling was put in place for combined CPU and GPU workloads which reduced maximum clock speeds by a little. This is always going to be a compromise to have a cooler machine.

It is possible to improve combined workloads with under bolting and using turbo mode, while CPU only workloads could be improved by boosting the power limit. Despite this, the 231 power brick seemed adequate and did not show any performance loss or battery drain under heavy loads while plugged into the power.

The 230 watt bricks generally seems to get paired with the RT X 2070 which is what a soos also do with the scar - so it was good that we still get a higher brick than your typical 180 watts, which seems to be more common with the RT X 2060. However, these differences in performance showing aren't hard and fast rules, as there are different factors that will vary results.

Primarily, the temperature of the room you're running in, application of thermal paste, and even the specific hardware which comes down to the silicon lottery may not be able to under bolt or overclock your hardware the same as me. It depends on the chip and its specific power requirements. So, don't just blindly copy my settings and do some testing to find out where your stable point is for best results.

For example, my i7 only got a minus 0.1 volt under-volt before becoming unstable, while I have had other laptops that would easily take minus 0.15 volts no problem. There were others when -3.7 was too far. It may be possible to further improve temperatures by swapping the thermal paste, but as this is a review unit that I have to send back, I am not able to change the paste.

Furthermore, using a gaming laptop cooling pad did seem to help a little, though it doesn't really seem worth it given the small air intakes underneath and the fact that there was no thermal throttling. It won't really help improve performance anyway, just temperatures slightly.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe asou scar - is a good gaming laptop but what does it get I'll be taking a detailed look at thermals overclocking and seeing how much we can improve performance by under vaulting boosting power limits and raising fan speed I've got the GL 504 GV version here which is the 15-inch version with an Intel i7 87 58 CPU NVIDIA r-tx 2060 graphics and 16gb of memory running in dual channel the Scott 2 is also available with our TX 2070 graphics so expect different results with that configuration on the bottom of the laptop that doesn't appear to be that many vents for airflow however there is also an intake vent above the keyboard there was also a heat pipe shared between the processor and graphics so a change in temperature of one of these will affect the other the asou summary Krait software provides different modes silent balanced and Tubber balanced mode is essentially stock settings and gives us a 35 watt TDP limit on the CPU while under a combined CPU and GPU workload while turbo mode boosts this to 45 watts and also raises the fan speed to help with cooling thermal testing was completed in an ambient room temperature of 23 degrees Celsius so expect different results in different environments I've tested idle down the bottom with the silent profile and the temperatures were fairly cool gaming was tested by playing watchdogs tune as I find it to use a good combination of processor and graphics the stress test results are from running that a 264 CPU stress test and heaven benchmark at the same time to fully load the system we can see that any time turbo mode is engaged the CPU temperatures shown by the blue bars increase this is because the TDP limit raises to boost performance and we'll see how this helps improve clock speed in the next graph the Thermaltake massive 20 cooling pad was tested at the top of the graph and only slightly helped with the temperatures I suspect due to the small air intakes underneath the laptop I'll also note that there was no thermal throttling from any of these tests these are the average clock speeds from the same tests just shown with the gaming tests it was possible to boost CPU clock speed by 300 to 400 megahertz by enabling turbo mode so there's no change to the GPU speeds here as turbo mode doesn't perform any GPU overclocking something I noted there did do in the Zephyr SS with turbo mode and the minus 0.1 volt under bolt applied to the CPU it was almost possible to reach the full 3.9 gigahertz all code turbo speed of the eye 78758 with the stress tests running we were still about 300 megahertz behind the maximum possible speed and the cooling pad at the top of the graph doesn't change the clock speeds here as there was no thermal throttling power limit throttling was the issue here despite this we're still able to get a fair improvement with turbo mode and under vaulting these are the clock speeds I got while just running CPU only stress tests without any GPU learned with the ADA 64 stress test running it was possible to hit the 3.9 gigahertz or quarter base speed of the i7 with a combination of CPU under volt and boosting the parliment max speed wasn't possible in this test with just one or the other I'll also note that raising the power limit of the CPU was only possible in CPU only workloads increasing the limit did nothing in combined CPU and GPU workloads it would max out at 45 watts which is why power limit throttling was preventing higher clock speeds in the combined two tests shown previously despite there being some thermal Headroom here are the temperatures from the same tests just shown no change with the under multiplied while boosting the TDP raises the CPU temperature by 15 degrees Celsius but then under bolting brings it back seven degrees at the max 3.9 gigahertz speed to demonstrate how this translates into performance I've got some Cinebench CPU benchmarks here there's no difference to the single core results as this isn't enough load to cause any throttling the results otherwise closely match the CPU and the clock speeds just shown before here are the GPU only clock speeds while under a graphical early stress test with turbo mode in use as well as the improvements seen by applying a manual 140 megahertz overclock to the GPU core with MSI Afterburner although it was Powell of a throttling even at stock which seems to be the case with most r-tx laptops I've tested so far this is why there was no temperature difference between stock and overclocked so how do these performance boosts actually translate into games I've tested with the exact same windows Nvidia and game updates installed the only changes were the ones listed here far cry 5 was tested using the built-in benchmark at 1080p at Ultra settings there was a 3% improvement to average be us with the CPU under vaulted power limit boosted and graphics overclocked the best-case scenario the 1% lower rose by five point six percent I'm guessing due to that extra CPU performance so it is possible to get some improvements with simple tweaks if you're after more gaming benchmarks with the asou Skaar to check the card in the top right where I've tested 20 different games as Bini external temperatures will actually be putting your hands at idle with the silent profile enabled it was cool mid 20s in the center while gaming or under stress test with the balanced profile in use the rest rest was still very cool and the majority of the keyboard state called - barely getting to the high 30s in the center and mid 40s of the back with turbo mode enabled and the stress tests going it was perhaps just a tiny bit cooler either way it was quite impressive at containing the heat as for the fan noise produced by the laptop I'll let you have a listen to some of these tests the fan speed was constantly ramping up or down while under any sort of load regardless of balanced or turbo profile in use this may be annoying it changes every minute or so while under load between low speed and high speed even if you manually set it to 100% this still happens despite this at idle it was fairly quiet with no fan changing nerdist here while gaming law under stress test with the balanced profile it wasn't that loud and dropped down fairly low at times with turbo mode it did get quite loud but again would lower back down for a bit before going back up personally I prefer a constant speed somewhere in between overall I think the scar too is performing quite well it's not thermal throttling and the temperatures don't get quite as high as many other laptops with similar specs that I've tested this appeared to be due to power limit throttling that was put in place for combined CPU and GPU workloads which as we saw did reduce maximum clock speeds by a little which is always going to be a compromise to have a cooler machine as we've seen it is possible to improve combined workloads with under bolting and using turbo mode while CPU only workloads could be improved by boosting the power limit despite the small air vents underneath it didn't get too hot likely thanks to that x-ray event above the keyboard I was surprised at how cooled the keyboard area stayed during high load - no problems there the only annoying thing was the fans constantly ramping up and down perhaps a future BIOS update will allow them to actually stick at 100% which would further improve thermals at the expense of system noise the 231 power brick also seemed to be adequate I didn't see any performance loss or battery drain under heavy loads while plugged into the power 230 watt bricks generally seems to get paired with the RT X 2070 which is what a soos also do with the scar - so it was good that we still get a higher brick than your typical 180 watts which seems to be more common with the RT X 2060 these differences in performance showing aren't hard and fast rules there are different factors which will vary results primarily the temperature of the room you're running in application of thermal paste and even the specific hardware which comes down to the silicon lottery you may not be able to under bolt or overclock your hardware the same as me it depends on the chip and its specific power requirements so don't just blindly copy my settings and do some testing to find out where your stable point is for best results for example my i7 only got a minus 0.1 volt under volt before becoming unstable I've had other laptops that would easily take minus 0.15 volts no problem while there were others when - three point zero seven was too far it may be possible to further improve temperatures by swapping the thermal paste however as this is a review unit that I have to send back I'm not able to change the paste otherwise the next reviewer will unknowingly report different results due to what I've done under vaulting and raising the fan speed is much easier for most people to do and as we've seen it did improve performance in the SCAR to gaming laptop cooling pad can help a little - though it doesn't really seem to be worth it given the small air intakes underneath and the fact that there was no thermal throttling so it won't really help improve performance anyway just temperatures slightly let me know how much of a performance boost you found by under bolting your hardware and what you thought of the improvements here and of course don't forget to subscribe for the full review of the soos car - gaming laptop as well as future thermal testing videos like this onethe asou scar - is a good gaming laptop but what does it get I'll be taking a detailed look at thermals overclocking and seeing how much we can improve performance by under vaulting boosting power limits and raising fan speed I've got the GL 504 GV version here which is the 15-inch version with an Intel i7 87 58 CPU NVIDIA r-tx 2060 graphics and 16gb of memory running in dual channel the Scott 2 is also available with our TX 2070 graphics so expect different results with that configuration on the bottom of the laptop that doesn't appear to be that many vents for airflow however there is also an intake vent above the keyboard there was also a heat pipe shared between the processor and graphics so a change in temperature of one of these will affect the other the asou summary Krait software provides different modes silent balanced and Tubber balanced mode is essentially stock settings and gives us a 35 watt TDP limit on the CPU while under a combined CPU and GPU workload while turbo mode boosts this to 45 watts and also raises the fan speed to help with cooling thermal testing was completed in an ambient room temperature of 23 degrees Celsius so expect different results in different environments I've tested idle down the bottom with the silent profile and the temperatures were fairly cool gaming was tested by playing watchdogs tune as I find it to use a good combination of processor and graphics the stress test results are from running that a 264 CPU stress test and heaven benchmark at the same time to fully load the system we can see that any time turbo mode is engaged the CPU temperatures shown by the blue bars increase this is because the TDP limit raises to boost performance and we'll see how this helps improve clock speed in the next graph the Thermaltake massive 20 cooling pad was tested at the top of the graph and only slightly helped with the temperatures I suspect due to the small air intakes underneath the laptop I'll also note that there was no thermal throttling from any of these tests these are the average clock speeds from the same tests just shown with the gaming tests it was possible to boost CPU clock speed by 300 to 400 megahertz by enabling turbo mode so there's no change to the GPU speeds here as turbo mode doesn't perform any GPU overclocking something I noted there did do in the Zephyr SS with turbo mode and the minus 0.1 volt under bolt applied to the CPU it was almost possible to reach the full 3.9 gigahertz all code turbo speed of the eye 78758 with the stress tests running we were still about 300 megahertz behind the maximum possible speed and the cooling pad at the top of the graph doesn't change the clock speeds here as there was no thermal throttling power limit throttling was the issue here despite this we're still able to get a fair improvement with turbo mode and under vaulting these are the clock speeds I got while just running CPU only stress tests without any GPU learned with the ADA 64 stress test running it was possible to hit the 3.9 gigahertz or quarter base speed of the i7 with a combination of CPU under volt and boosting the parliment max speed wasn't possible in this test with just one or the other I'll also note that raising the power limit of the CPU was only possible in CPU only workloads increasing the limit did nothing in combined CPU and GPU workloads it would max out at 45 watts which is why power limit throttling was preventing higher clock speeds in the combined two tests shown previously despite there being some thermal Headroom here are the temperatures from the same tests just shown no change with the under multiplied while boosting the TDP raises the CPU temperature by 15 degrees Celsius but then under bolting brings it back seven degrees at the max 3.9 gigahertz speed to demonstrate how this translates into performance I've got some Cinebench CPU benchmarks here there's no difference to the single core results as this isn't enough load to cause any throttling the results otherwise closely match the CPU and the clock speeds just shown before here are the GPU only clock speeds while under a graphical early stress test with turbo mode in use as well as the improvements seen by applying a manual 140 megahertz overclock to the GPU core with MSI Afterburner although it was Powell of a throttling even at stock which seems to be the case with most r-tx laptops I've tested so far this is why there was no temperature difference between stock and overclocked so how do these performance boosts actually translate into games I've tested with the exact same windows Nvidia and game updates installed the only changes were the ones listed here far cry 5 was tested using the built-in benchmark at 1080p at Ultra settings there was a 3% improvement to average be us with the CPU under vaulted power limit boosted and graphics overclocked the best-case scenario the 1% lower rose by five point six percent I'm guessing due to that extra CPU performance so it is possible to get some improvements with simple tweaks if you're after more gaming benchmarks with the asou Skaar to check the card in the top right where I've tested 20 different games as Bini external temperatures will actually be putting your hands at idle with the silent profile enabled it was cool mid 20s in the center while gaming or under stress test with the balanced profile in use the rest rest was still very cool and the majority of the keyboard state called - barely getting to the high 30s in the center and mid 40s of the back with turbo mode enabled and the stress tests going it was perhaps just a tiny bit cooler either way it was quite impressive at containing the heat as for the fan noise produced by the laptop I'll let you have a listen to some of these tests the fan speed was constantly ramping up or down while under any sort of load regardless of balanced or turbo profile in use this may be annoying it changes every minute or so while under load between low speed and high speed even if you manually set it to 100% this still happens despite this at idle it was fairly quiet with no fan changing nerdist here while gaming law under stress test with the balanced profile it wasn't that loud and dropped down fairly low at times with turbo mode it did get quite loud but again would lower back down for a bit before going back up personally I prefer a constant speed somewhere in between overall I think the scar too is performing quite well it's not thermal throttling and the temperatures don't get quite as high as many other laptops with similar specs that I've tested this appeared to be due to power limit throttling that was put in place for combined CPU and GPU workloads which as we saw did reduce maximum clock speeds by a little which is always going to be a compromise to have a cooler machine as we've seen it is possible to improve combined workloads with under bolting and using turbo mode while CPU only workloads could be improved by boosting the power limit despite the small air vents underneath it didn't get too hot likely thanks to that x-ray event above the keyboard I was surprised at how cooled the keyboard area stayed during high load - no problems there the only annoying thing was the fans constantly ramping up and down perhaps a future BIOS update will allow them to actually stick at 100% which would further improve thermals at the expense of system noise the 231 power brick also seemed to be adequate I didn't see any performance loss or battery drain under heavy loads while plugged into the power 230 watt bricks generally seems to get paired with the RT X 2070 which is what a soos also do with the scar - so it was good that we still get a higher brick than your typical 180 watts which seems to be more common with the RT X 2060 these differences in performance showing aren't hard and fast rules there are different factors which will vary results primarily the temperature of the room you're running in application of thermal paste and even the specific hardware which comes down to the silicon lottery you may not be able to under bolt or overclock your hardware the same as me it depends on the chip and its specific power requirements so don't just blindly copy my settings and do some testing to find out where your stable point is for best results for example my i7 only got a minus 0.1 volt under volt before becoming unstable I've had other laptops that would easily take minus 0.15 volts no problem while there were others when - three point zero seven was too far it may be possible to further improve temperatures by swapping the thermal paste however as this is a review unit that I have to send back I'm not able to change the paste otherwise the next reviewer will unknowingly report different results due to what I've done under vaulting and raising the fan speed is much easier for most people to do and as we've seen it did improve performance in the SCAR to gaming laptop cooling pad can help a little - though it doesn't really seem to be worth it given the small air intakes underneath and the fact that there was no thermal throttling so it won't really help improve performance anyway just temperatures slightly let me know how much of a performance boost you found by under bolting your hardware and what you thought of the improvements here and of course don't forget to subscribe for the full review of the soos car - gaming laptop as well as future thermal testing videos like this one\n"