12-Watt GeForce MX450 beats the 25-Watt GeForce-MX350 - Testing the Asus ZenBook 14 UX435EG

With the ZenBook 14 UX435EG, Asus offers a mobile 14-inch notebook whose technology is housed in a slim, compact, dark-gray metal case. The UX435EG offers two Thunderbolt 4 ports (USB Type-C; Power Delivery, DisplayPort via USB-C), which serve both to provide power to the notebook and as video outputs. It is a plus that even when one port is connected to the charger, the other port remains available for other devices such as a docking station or an external GPU.

The hardware configuration that was provided to us is run by a Core i7-1165G7 quad-core processor and a GeForce MX450 graphics core. In combination, they offer more than sufficient computing performance for office and Internet applications. The dedicated graphics core also allows using it for games.

The MX450 GPU represents Nvidia's current midrange model. It is based on the same chip as the GeForce GTX-1650 graphics core. Nvidia has announced four MX450 versions that differ in terms of their power consumption, the graphics storage used, and/or the storage connection. Only the storage of the top model (TGP: 28.5 Watt) is using a 128-Bit connection, and the remaining models have to be content with a 64-Bit connection.

With the low-power version (TGP: 12 Watt), the ZenBook contains the least powerful model. However, the term "least powerful" is relative, since the low-power MX450 mostly delivers better benchmark results and higher frame rates than its predecessor, the GeForce MX350 (TGP: 25 Watt), at a significantly lower power consumption.

While the MX350 and the low-power MX450 place head-to-head in the Fire Strike benchmark, the MX450 is able to score an advantage of about 25% in the Time Spy benchmark. The Far Cry 5 benchmark (720p, low settings) shows a clear result with 72 fps (MX450) to 59 fps (MX350). The full-power models of the MX450 (TGP: 25 Watt, 28.5 Watt) will leave the MX350 more clearly behind.

You can find additional information and many benchmark results in our review of the Asus ZenBook 14 UX435EG.