ASUS Zephyrus Duo 15 Gaming Performance

**ASUS Zephyrus Duo 15: A Comprehensive Review of Gaming Performance**

---

### **Introduction to the ASUS Zephyrus Duo 15**

The ASUS Zephyrus Duo 15 is an innovative gaming laptop featuring dual screens, designed to deliver exceptional performance. In this article, we will explore its gaming capabilities in depth, based on a thorough testing regimen that included 21 titles at various settings. Additionally, we will compare its performance against other laptops to provide a comprehensive understanding of its strengths.

---

### **Performance Modes and Hardware Specifications**

The ASUS Zephyrus Duo 15 comes equipped with high-end specifications, though it also offers lower-tier hardware options for broader accessibility. The laptop is managed by the Armoury Crate software, which allows users to select performance modes. Manual mode was found to be particularly effective, as it boosts fan speeds higher than Turbo mode and applies a small GPU overclock. Additionally, disabling Optimus via Armoury Crate enhances G-Sync performance, delivering noticeable improvements.

The laptop features Max-Q Dynamic Boost, enabled by default, allowing the GPU to increase its power consumption when the CPU is under less load. During stress tests, it averaged 100 watts, showcasing its potential for peak performance. The combination of an i9 processor with liquid metal cooling and a 2080 Super GPU ensures robust gaming capabilities.

---

### **Gaming Performance Analysis**

#### **General Impressions**

The ASUS Zephyrus Duo 15 was tested across various games, including Red Dead Redemption 2, Battlefield 5, Control, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Apex Legends, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Fortnite, PUBG, CS:GO, Dota 2, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, Metro Exodus, The Division 2, Monster Hunter World, Borderlands 3, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Far Cry New Dawn, and The Witcher 3. Each game was tested at different settings to evaluate performance.

---

#### **Game-Specific Results**

- **Red Dead Redemption 2**: Struggled slightly at ultra settings but delivered fair results.

- **Battlefield 5**: Showcased some of the best performance seen on a laptop, particularly in campaign mode.

- **Control**: With RTX enabled and DLSS support, it maintained playable frame rates.

- **Shadow of the Tomb Raider**: Achieved impressive results, making it ideal for comparison with other laptops.

- **Apex Legends & Call of Duty Modern Warfare**: Ran smoothly at maximum settings, with minimal performance drops.

- **Fortnite**: Excelled at both medium and max settings, utilizing the 300Hz screen effectively.

- **PUBG**: Demonstrated strong performance at max settings, exceeding 100 FPS in critical scenarios.

- **CS:GO & Dota 2**: Showcased significant improvements with Optimus disabled, outperforming other laptops.

- **Overwatch**: Easily achieved high frame rates at maximum settings.

- **Rainbow Six Siege**: Performed well within the 300Hz screen's capabilities.

- **Metro Exodus & The Division 2**: Results were inconsistent, with some parts performing better than others.

- **Monster Hunter World**: Smooth operation at max settings, maintaining a solid 60 FPS.

- **Borderlands 3**: Exceeded expectations with frame rates well above 60 FPS.

- **Ghost Recon Breakpoint**: Delivered exceptional performance, rarely seen in other laptops.

- **Assassin’s Creed Odyssey & Far Cry New Dawn**: Showed consistent and strong performance.

- **The Witcher 3 & F1 2019**: Demonstrated good frame rates, with minor drops at higher settings.

---

### **Comparison with Other Laptops**

The ASUS Zephyrus Duo 15 was compared to several high-end laptops across various games. In titles like Battlefield 5 and Far Cry 5, it held its own against thicker machines with higher wattage GPUs. Shadow of the Tomb Raider saw the Duo 15 outperforming even higher-wattage models due to faster memory and Optimus disablement.

---

### **Dynamic Boost and GPU Performance**

Testing revealed that Max-Q Dynamic Boost provided a modest performance boost, especially in GPU-intensive workloads. The 2080 Super GPU could reach up to 100 watts under load, enhancing frame rates significantly at higher settings compared to without the feature enabled.

---

### **Screen Response Time**

The laptop's 300Hz screen was tested for response time, yielding impressive results. With ASUS OverDrive enabled, it achieved a 3.8 ms grey-to-grey response time, among the best seen in laptops. Disabling OverDrive slightly increased response time but improved color accuracy.

---

### **Conclusion**

The ASUS Zephyrus Duo 15 delivers exceptional gaming performance, particularly excelling in esports titles and demanding games. Its dual-screen setup, powerful hardware, and software optimizations make it a standout choice for gamers seeking top-tier performance. While there are minor inconsistencies in performance across different games, the overall experience remains impressive.

For those interested in a detailed comparison or more insights into specific games, be sure to check out the full review. The Zephyrus Duo 15 is a testament to ASUS's commitment to innovation and gaming excellence.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThe ASUS Zephyrus Duo 15 is a unique gaminglaptop with two screens, but just how welldoes it actually perform in games?I’ve tested 21 titles at all settings andcompared it against some other laptops tofind out.I’ve got the highest specs available inthe Duo 15, but it is also available withlower tier hardware options too, you can findexamples and updated prices linked in thedescription.The ASUS Armoury crate software lets you selectbetween different performance modes.I’ve used manual mode as it boosts the fanshigher than turbo and applies a small GPUoverclock.The software also lets you disable optimusfor G-Sync which will give us a performanceboost.By default Max-Q Dynamic Boost is enabled,meaning the GPU should be able to boost higherwhen the CPU doesn’t need the power, andI saw it average 100 watts under stress test.We’ll only be covering gaming performancein this video, so if you’re new then getsubscribed for the full review which willcover everything else like the dual screensand thermals.We’ll start out by going through all 21games at all setting levels, then afterwardswe’ll see how other laptops compare.Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using thegame’s built in benchmark tool, we’renot quite able to reach 60 FPS at ultra settings,but only the best and thicker machines seemto be able to manage that, still fair resultsfor this heavier test though.Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode,and the result at ultra settings were oneof the best I’ve ever seen from this gameon a laptop, but we’ll see how the Duo 15and others compare in this title and moresoon.Control was tested with and without RTX enabled.I’ve got the results with RTX off in purple,RTX on in the green bars which was actuallystill somewhat playable, then RTX on withDLSS enabled as shown by the red bars, whichwas running much better while also lookinggood.Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested withthe built in benchmark, again some of thebest results I’ve seen from any laptop here,this is another game I’ll use to comparewith other laptops shortly.Apex Legends was tested with either all settingsat maximum, or all settings on the lowestpossible values, as it doesn’t have predefinedsetting presets.It was playing very well even with everythingat maximum, while minimum would get prettygood use out of the 300Hz screen.Call of Duty Modern Warfare was tested incampaign mode with either max or min settingsfor the same reason, and although there wasless of a difference between the levels here,there’s still no problems playing with maximumsettings.Fortnite was tested with the replay feature,and medium settings were averaging above 300FPS, so great for the 300Hz screen, whilelow was able to hit this even for the 1% low.Meanwhile it was still running smoothly atmax settings, with above 100 FPS for the 1%low.PUBG was also tested using the replay feature,and even max settings was running well, agreat match up for a 144Hz screen and above100 for the 1% low again.CS:GO was tested with the ulletical FPS benchmark,and this game sees big improvements with optimusdisabled compared to other laptops that arestuck with it.Dota 2 wasn’t much different compared tofar lower specced laptops, though at highersetting levels it’s still above 200 FPSwhich is something many others don’t seemable to achieve.Overwatch is another less demanding game andwas tested in the practice range, no issueshitting the 300 FPS frame cap at high settings,while even epic was above 200.Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the builtin benchmark using Vulkan, there wasn’tmuch difference in average FPS between highand ultra settings, and although 250 FPS wouldstill be good with the 300Hz screen, low settingsgets us all the way there.Metro Exodus was tested using the built inbenchmark, most parts of the game performa fair bit better than this, so don’t takethese results as a good indication of whatto expect throughout the entire game, it’smore of a worst case.The Division 2 was also tested with the builtin benchmark.Ultra settings was just below 100 FPS, butwe could more than double this with low settings.Monster Hunter World was tested running throughthe main town, and I had no issues with thehighest setting preset, it felt quite smoothwith a solid 60 FPS for even the 1% low.Borderlands 3 was tested using the game’sbuilt in benchmark, again quite good results,max settings was easily above 60 FPS whichis good for this test, while medium was ableto reach about 100 FPS.Ghost Recon Breakpoint was also tested withthe benchmark tool, again excellent resultscompared to other laptops tested, above 70FPS at ultimate is quite uncommon and is downto the 2080 Super with higher wattage fora Max-Q variant.Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is another thatwas tested with the games benchmark, and theresults were decent here, it’s challengingto score above 60 FPS at max settings on laptophardware.Far Cry New Dawn was also tested with thegames benchmark, and the results were excellenthere, 100 FPS at max settings is a nice resultand likely thanks to the i9 processor withliquid metal.The Witcher 3 was doing well at ultra settings,though it was possible to get a nice boostjust going down one level to high settings,granted you don’t really need to, above100 FPS is plenty for this one I think.F1 2019 generally sees similar behaviour,and although the average frame rate at maxwas quite high, the 1% low seemed a fair bitlower comparatively.Now let’s take a look at how the ASUS ZephyrusDuo 15 with these specs compares against otherlaptops, use these results as a rough guideonly, as they were tested at different timeswith different drivers.In Battlefield 5 I’ve got the Zephyrus highlightedin red.It’s giving one of the best results I’veseen in this game, only coming in behind themuch higher wattage 2080 Super Max-P in theMSI GE75, though the difference isn’t toomajor in a practical sense, and the 1% lowwas actually better with the Duo 15.These are the results from Far Cry 5 withultra settings in the built in benchmark.This time the Duo 15 was performing the bestout of this selection of laptops, it wouldonly get beaten by much thicker machines withthe 9900K, so another good result.In Shadow of the Tomb Raider the Duo 15 isagain doing much better compared to otherlaptops.It’s interesting that it’s beating thehigher wattage 150 watt 2080 Super in theGE75 just below it, though the Duo 15 doeshave faster memory and the option of disablingoptimus.Overall the performance from the Duo 15 withthis hardware is quite impressive.The i9 processor has liquid metal cooling,this is the first Intel 10th gen laptop I’vetested that can run the memory at DDR4-3200,and the 2080 Super GPU is able to boost upto 100 watts in GPU heavy workloads due toNvidia’s new Max-Q dynamic boost, and thesethings combined are giving good results interms of frame rate in games.I’ve tested one game with and without dynamicboost just to get an idea of the differenceit makes.With it enabled, the default, the 2080 SuperMax-Q would run up to 100 watts in a GPU onlyload, and with it off, it would run up to90 watts which seems to be more standard fora 2080 Super Max-Q. Anyway it was giving alittle boost at the higher setting levelswhich are typically more GPU heavy, but nothinggame changing.Let me know if you want a dedicated videoshowing the differences in more games.The 300Hz screen was useful in esports titles,and as we saw, high enough FPS could be reachedin many games, granted with lower settinglevels.This is in part due to the option of disablingoptimus, which is required to use G-Sync,and this offers a performance boost as theintegrated graphics is no longer a bottleneck.Here are the screen response time resultsfor the 1080p 300Hz screen in my unit.By default ASUS have overdrive enabled throughthe Armoury Crate software, and this givesus a 3.8 ms grey-to-grey response time.When we compare this against other laptopsthat I’ve tested so far, it’s one of thebetter results.ASUS also gives us the option to disable overdrive,which will increase the response time a bitto 7.2ms, however it does remove the overshootand undershoot in some transitions.I’ve got a link in the description if youneed an explanation on what all these numbersmean.Let me know what you thought of the gamingperformance from the Zephyrus Duo 15 downin the comments, and if you’re new thenget subscribed for the upcoming review whereI’ll test out everything this dual screenmachine has to offer.\n"