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Asus ROG GX800VH Notebook Preview

Born for 4K. Fans of high-resolution gaming are often faced with performance problems. Even the flagship model from Nvidia’s Maxwell generation, the GTX 980, struggles in 3840 x 2160. The situation is much better with the Pascal successor GTX 1080. This is confirmed by the Asus GX800, which is even powered by an SLI configuration.

For the original German preview, see here.

Asus is one of the most courageous laptop manufacturers on the market, and one prominent example to support this statement is the GX700 we reviewed in the end of 2015. The 17-inch high-end system was not only cooled by conventional fans, but was also equipped with piping for an external water cooling, more precisely the Hydro Overclocking Station. The interesting concept did reveal some drawbacks (high price, enormous weight, …), but not many notebooks were able to compete with the performance.

Asus will soon launch the GX800, which is just as spectacular, to meet the requirements of 2016. The desktop replacement gets a bigger screen (18.4 inches) and much more performance. Instead of a single GTX 980, the graphics calculations are now handled by two Nvidia GPUs. While the first prototype we got from Asus a couple of weeks ago was still equipped with Maxwell GPUs, the new prototype is based on the brand-new Pascal architecture. Two GTX 1080 chips in an SLI system is the fastest notebook solution you can currently get.

To ensure that the dual-GPU system is not slowed down, Asus equipped the test model with 64 GB DDR4-RAM (4x 16 GB @2400 MHz) as well as an overclocked quad-core processor from Intel (Core i7-6820HK). The integrated IPS panel has a native resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels (UHD).

Asus GX800VH Prototype (GX800 Series)
Processor
Intel Core i7-6820HK 4 x 2.7 - 3.6 GHz @ 4.2 GHz (Intel Core i7)
Graphics adapter
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop) - 2x 8192 MB VRAM, Core: 1632 MHz, Memory: 5200 MHz, GDDR5X, ForceWare 368.97 (372.53 for Steam Games)
Memory
64 GB 
, 4x 16 GB DDR4-2400, Dual-Channel, 4 von 4 Slots in use, up to 64 GB
Display
18.40 inch 16:9, 3840 x 2160 pixel 239 PPI, BOE06DA, glossy: no
Mainboard
Intel CM236 (Skylake PCH-H)
Storage
Intel Raid 0 Volume, 2x 500 GB m.2 PCIe SSD
Soundcard
Realtek ALC286 @ Intel Sunrise Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller
Networking
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (10/100/1000MBit/s), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 (a/b/g/n = Wi-Fi 4/ac = Wi-Fi 5/)
Size
height x width x depth (in mm): 45 x 458 x 338 ( = 1.77 x 18.03 x 13.31 in)
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
Additional features
several manufacturer tools, 24 Months Warranty
Weight
5.69 kg ( = 200.71 oz / 12.54 pounds), Power Supply: 2 g ( = 0.07 oz / 0 pounds)
Note: The manufacturer may use components from different suppliers including display panels, drives or memory sticks with similar specifications.

 

Overview

Since some aspects like the build quality, the keyboard, the display as well as the software do not represent the final state yet, we will – similar to our first preview – not evaluate the GX800 and mainly focus on the performance. You can follow this link, where we included some initial opinions for many sections, if you want to know more about the case, the connectivity and the input devices.

One of the most important improvements is the reworked Gaming Center, which now appears much more modern and more stylish (compare screenshots). Due to the number of features, however, it will take some time getting used to.

The biggest highlight turns out to be the menu Turbo Gear. Contrary to other manufacturers, Asus does not only use the default overclocking for the processor and the graphics card, but also overclocks the components even further. If you select the Extreme Mode, the standard clocks of the Core i7-6820HK will climb from 2.7-3.6 GHz all the way up to 4.2 GHz – a high value for a notebook CPU.

The two Pascal chips also received a performance boost. Instead of 1582-1771 MHz (core) and 5000 MHz (VRAM), respectively, the GTX 1080 runs at 1632-1821 and 5200 MHz. These clocks are not the limit though. Thanks to the clever architecture, you can get much higher clocks depending on the cooling system. We were able to execute the GPU-Z Render test with up to 1950 MHz (!) in the case of our pre-production unit. 1900 MHz on average after two Unigine Heaven Benchmark runs deserve respect as well. 

But back to the Gaming Center. You can comfortably access other software components via quick-access bar at the bottom. These include ROG Macro Key for the configuration of the auxiliary keys or ROG Aura for tuning of the keyboard illumination. It is also possible to adjust the fan behavior of the notebook and the external water cooling (the latter is not required for operation) via Fan Boost. Other tools are Sonic Studio for the Sound and ROG Game First for communication.

old Gaming Center
old Gaming Center
new Gaming Center
new Gaming Center
Aura
Aura
MacroKey
MacroKey
Sonic Studio II
Sonic Studio II
Sonic Radar II
Sonic Radar II
Gamefirst IV
Gamefirst IV
Splendid Technology
Splendid Technology

Performance

We start the performance section with a couple of screenshots covering all important components like the CPU, RAM, and the storage devices. It remains to be seen which of these components will actually be available in the final product. We obviously plan to review the final product as well.

Processor

While the majority of gaming notebooks is equipped with the Core i7-6700HQ, the GX800 gets a Core i7-6820HK with 8 instead of 6 MB L3-cache, a free multiplier (makes overclocking easier) and it runs at a base clock of 2.7-3.6 instead of 2.6-3.5 GHz.

Single-Core Rendering
Single-Core Rendering
Multi-Core Rendering
Multi-Core Rendering
CPU & GPU load
CPU & GPU load

The Skylake quad-cores are otherwise very similar. Besides the TDP (45 Watts), the manufacturing process (14 nm) is identical as well. The big difference between the Asus and the competition is not the other CPU, but primarily the mentioned overclocking. The latter raises the GX800’s performance to desktop levels.

Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit
6836
Cinebench R11.5 CPU Single 64Bit
1.89 Points
Cinebench R11.5 CPU Multi 64Bit
9.33 Points
Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64Bit
75.9 fps
Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64Bit
168 Points
Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64Bit
850 Points
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64Bit
114.2 fps
Help

Both Cinebench R15 and Cinebench R11.5 position the Core i7-6820HK slightly ahead of the Core i7-6700 (desktop) in the Multi-Core test, which runs at 3.6-4.0 GHz. Notebooks with the Core i7-6700HQ like the MSI GT62VR are beaten by 26 % in the processor benchmarks. The GPU of the Core i7-6820HK (HD Graphics 530) is deactivated because of SLI, so graphics switching via Optimus is not supported, either.

Cinebench R15
CPU Single 64Bit
MSI GT80S 6QF
Intel Core i7-6820HK
174 Points +4%
SCHENKER XMG U726
Intel Core i7-6700
171 Points +2%
Asus GX800VH Prototype
Intel Core i7-6820HK
168 Points
Asus G800VI Prototype
Intel Core i7-6820HK
164 Points -2%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
Intel Core i7-6700HQ
143 Points -15%
CPU Multi 64Bit
MSI GT80S 6QF
Intel Core i7-6820HK
888 Points +4%
Asus GX800VH Prototype
Intel Core i7-6820HK
850 Points
SCHENKER XMG U726
Intel Core i7-6700
813 Points -4%
Asus G800VI Prototype
Intel Core i7-6820HK
714 Points -16%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
Intel Core i7-6700HQ
673 Points -21%
Cinebench R11.5
CPU Single 64Bit
MSI GT80S 6QF
Intel Core i7-6820HK
1.98 Points +5%
SCHENKER XMG U726
Intel Core i7-6700
1.91 Points +1%
Asus GX800VH Prototype
Intel Core i7-6820HK
1.89 Points
Asus G800VI Prototype
Intel Core i7-6820HK
1.83 Points -3%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
Intel Core i7-6700HQ
1.61 Points -15%
CPU Multi 64Bit
MSI GT80S 6QF
Intel Core i7-6820HK
9.81 Points +5%
Asus GX800VH Prototype
Intel Core i7-6820HK
9.33 Points
SCHENKER XMG U726
Intel Core i7-6700
8.94 Points -4%
Asus G800VI Prototype
Intel Core i7-6820HK
7.84 Points -16%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
Intel Core i7-6700HQ
7.41 Points -21%

System Performance

The top position of the GX800 in the system benchmarks is not really a surprise. 7517 points in PCMark 7 are an excellent result, which is hardly beaten by any high-end notebook. Most gaming systems manage between 6000-7000 points.

PCMark 7 Score
7517 points
Help
PCMark 7 - Score
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
7826 Points +4%
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
7517 Points
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK, 2x Samsung SM951 MZVPV256HDGL (RAID 0)
7386 Points -2%
SCHENKER XMG U726
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700, Samsung SM951 MZHPV512HDGL m.2 PCI-e
7093 Points -6%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ, Toshiba HG6 THNSNJ256G8NY
5926 Points -21%

Storage Devices

The main reason for the excellent PCMark scores is the RAID 0 system consisting of two PCIe-SSDs in the case of our review unit (the high-end SKU is supposed to be equipped with 3 Solid State Drives). The GX800 manages much higher transfer rates compared to single-SSD notebooks.

Around 2700 MB/s for sequential reads and 1600 MB/s for sequential writes (AS SSD benchmark) are not possible for a SATA-III model. The test model of the MSI GT62VR, for example, only manages 502 and 465 MB/s, respectively. CrystalDiskMark even determines more than 3100 and 2100 MB/s, respectively, for the GX800. Okay, the distance is not that big for smaller files, which are more important in practice, but SSD-RAIDs are still a nice gimmick for hardware enthusiasts.

Sequential Read: 3125 MB/s
Sequential Write: 2146 MB/s
512K Read: 1765 MB/s
512K Write: 1741 MB/s
4K Read: 40.18 MB/s
4K Write: 126.6 MB/s
4K QD32 Read: 699 MB/s
4K QD32 Write: 508 MB/s
Asus GX800VH Prototype
 
Asus G800VI Prototype
 
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
Toshiba HG6 THNSNJ256G8NY
MSI GT80S 6QF
2x Samsung SM951 MZVPV256HDGL (RAID 0)
SCHENKER XMG U726
Samsung SM951 MZHPV512HDGL m.2 PCI-e
AS SSD
-0%
-59%
13%
-17%
Seq Read
2703
2895
7%
502
-81%
2892
7%
1943
-28%
Seq Write
1605
1537
-4%
455.5
-72%
2408
50%
1500
-7%
4K Read
40.62
40.17
-1%
20.08
-51%
44.96
11%
40.45
0%
4K Write
111.3
114.3
3%
89.9
-19%
109.9
-1%
103.6
-7%
Score Total
3327
3096
-7%
915
-72%
3336
0%
1930
-42%

GPU Performance

Speaking of nice: Asus also goes all-in in respect to the graphics cards. If you do not want to make any compromises for the picture quality even in 4K and regularly update your GPU driver, you might be the perfect candidate for an SLI configuration.

The GX800 is even equipped with the most powerful high-end GPUs you can currently get in the notebook segment. Nvidia’s 16-nm model GeForce GTX 1080 is designed for passionate gamers that want to play every game in the highest details with its 2560 shaders, 8 GB GDDR5X-VRAM and a 256-bit memory interface. The previous top mobile chip GTX 980 was only equipped with 2048 shaders and simple GDDR5-VRAM.

System information
System information
GPU-Z
GPU-Z
GeForce Experience
GeForce Experience
SLI
SLI

The new GPU architecture does, however, not only impress in terms of performance. Thanks to countless improvements, Pascal is much more frugal than the old Maxwell generation, which enables quieter and/or thinner devices. The SLI system with two GeForce GTX 1080s still reveals some problems, which are already familiar from other dual-GPU notebooks. This includes the high cooling and power requirements (the GX800 needs two 330-Watt power adaptors with a weight of more than 1.2 kg each) or the micro stutter problems, even though this is fortunately not a big issue for the 18-inch notebook.

Then there is the issue of the fluctuating performance. If the driver lacks a corresponding SLI profile or a title does not support dual-GPUs in general, the second GTX 1080 does not have any advantages and can sometimes even result in lower from rates compared to a single-GPU solution. Only 12 out of the 22 games we tested in 4K benefitted heavily from the second GPU (>50 % more performance). 5 titles ran between 10-50 % faster, and 5 (Just Cause 3, Rainbow Six Siege, Anno 2205, Fifa 16, and Batman Arkham Knight) did not work well with SLI at all. The GX800 therefore leaves mixed impressions in our gaming tests, even though this is the verdict for all dual-GPU notebooks.

3DMark Vantage P Result
55056 points
3DMark 11 Performance
25328 points
3DMark Fire Strike Score
22020 points
3DMark Time Spy Score
10294 points
Help

The 18-inch system can really show its performance in the synthetic graphics benchmarks. 13,013 points for the SLI system in the brand-new 3DMark Time Spy test are 90 % faster compared to a single GTX 1080. The GTX 1070 is beaten by almost 150 %, and even two GTX 980 chips are struggling. The GX800 is almost 70 % faster than the MSI GT80S 6QF in the Fire strike test (GPU score: 39,221 vs. 23,351 points). In short: Asus created an almost unrivaled device in terms of performance, which raises the bar quite a bit.

We used the preloaded driver version 368.97 for our benchmarks, and it worked very well in general (hardly any graphics errors or crashes). Nvidia’s driver version 372.53, which was released shortly ahead of the Pascal launch does – if at all – only have minor performance advantages. We used the latter for our Steam titles, while Origin and Uplay games were tested with ForceWare 368.97.

3DMark
1920x1080 Fire Strike Graphics
Asus GX800VH Prototype
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop)
39221 Points
MSI GT80S 6QF
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop)
23351 Points -40%
Asus G800VI Prototype
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile
21501 Points -45%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile
17066 Points -56%
SCHENKER XMG U726
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)
13047 Points -67%
2560x1440 Time Spy Graphics
Asus GX800VH Prototype
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop)
13013 Points
Asus G800VI Prototype
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile
6834 Points -47%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile
5247 Points -60%
3DMark 11 - 1280x720 Performance GPU
Asus GX800VH Prototype
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop)
50983 Points
MSI GT80S 6QF
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop)
30045 Points -41%
Asus G800VI Prototype
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile
28458 Points -44%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile
22195 Points -56%
SCHENKER XMG U726
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)
17474 Points -66%
Unigine Heaven 4.0 - Extreme Preset DX11
Asus GX800VH Prototype
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop)
180.5 fps
Asus G800VI Prototype
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile
136.3 fps -24%
MSI GT80S 6QF
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop)
129.5 fps -28%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile
104.3 fps -42%
SCHENKER XMG U726
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)
78.7 fps -56%

Gaming Performance

The gaming benchmarks show that the advantage of a second graphics cards is getting smaller the faster the single model is. While the GTX 980 SLI of the first prototype still managed performance gains of around 60 %, the value drops to about 40 % on average for the GTX 1080 SLI, even though some titles showed gains of more than 70 % (Battlefield 4, Star Wars Battlefront, The Witcher 3, Mad Max, Call of Duty Black Ops 3, XCOM 2, Fallout 4, Overwatch). Despite the smaller performance boost, the Pascal duo still beats two GTX 980 chips by around 50 %, which is very impressive.

Advantage of the GTX 1080 SLI

(4K/High)

Comparison GPU

+39 % vs.

GeForce GTX 1080 Notebook

+49 % vs.

GeForce GTX 980 SLI Notebook

+85 % vs.

GeForce GTX 1070 Notebook

+138 % vs.

GeForce GTX 980 Notebook

You do not really have to worry about the settings in most of the games. The GX800 always manages smooth frame rates with high or maximum settings independent of the resolution. The 18-inch device even managed at least 50 fps in 3840 x 2160 pixels.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst - 3840x2160 High Preset AF:16x
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
67.3 fps
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
48.3 fps -28%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
47.4 fps -30%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
36.4 fps -46%
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6820HK
31 fps -54%
Overwatch - 3840x2160 High (Render Scale 100 %) AA:SM AF:4x
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
215 fps
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
143 fps -33%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
104 fps -52%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
78.7 fps -63%
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6820HK
69.4 fps -68%
Doom - 3840x2160 High Preset AA:FX
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
83.2 fps
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
70.3 fps -16%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
65.8 fps -21%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
45.6 fps -45%
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6820HK
41.4 fps -50%
Need for Speed 2016 - 3840x2160 High / On AA:FX
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
92.8 fps
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
75.1 fps -19%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
59.4 fps -36%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
47.8 fps -48%
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6820HK
40.5 fps -56%
Hitman 2016 - 3840x2160 High / On AA:FX AF:8x
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
57.4 fps
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
54.6 fps -5%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
45.7 fps -20%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
33 fps -43%
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6820HK
28.8 fps -50%
The Division - 3840x2160 High Preset AF:8x
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
75.7 fps
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
55.1 fps -27%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
49.4 fps -35%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
37 fps -51%
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6820HK
33.3 fps -56%
Far Cry Primal - 3840x2160 High Preset AA:SM
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
69 fps
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
56 fps -19%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
48 fps -30%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
36 fps -48%
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6820HK
32 fps -54%
XCOM 2 - 3840x2160 High Preset AA:FX AF:8x
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
59.4 fps
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
39 fps -34%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
30.9 fps -48%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
23.6 fps -60%
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6820HK
20.1 fps -66%
Rise of the Tomb Raider - 3840x2160 High Preset AA:FX AF:4x
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
78.4 fps
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
60.9 fps -22%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
50.1 fps -36%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
37.5 fps -52%
Asus GX800 Prototype
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6820HK
33.7 fps -57%
Just Cause 3 - 3840x2160 High / On AA:FX AF:8x
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
58.6 fps +2%
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
57.6 fps
Rainbow Six Siege - 3840x2160 High Preset AA:T AF:4x
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
81.8 fps +34%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
62.7 fps +3%
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
61.1 fps
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
50.2 fps -18%
Assassin's Creed Syndicate - 3840x2160 High Preset AA:FX
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
71.7 fps
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
47.2 fps -34%
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
37.7 fps -47%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
35.6 fps -50%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
28.2 fps -61%
Star Wars Battlefront - 3840x2160 High Preset AA:FX
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
132 fps
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
66.2 fps -50%
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
62.6 fps -53%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
49.9 fps -62%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
39.6 fps -70%
Fallout 4 - 3840x2160 High Preset AA:T AF:16x
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
92.2 fps
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
55.6 fps -40%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
52.5 fps -43%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
41.9 fps -55%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
33.7 fps -63%
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 - 3840x2160 High / On AA:FX
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
105 fps
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
60.8 fps -42%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
56.9 fps -46%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
42.7 fps -59%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
34.2 fps -67%
Anno 2205 - 3840x2160 High Preset AA:4x
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
68.4 fps
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
66.8 fps -2%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
48.9 fps -29%
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
35.4 fps -48%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
34.1 fps -50%
FIFA 16 - 3840x2160 High Preset AA:2x MS
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
219 fps
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
201 fps -8%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
161 fps -26%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
124.4 fps -43%
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
118.6 fps -46%
Mad Max - 3840x2160 High Preset AF:6x
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
168 fps
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
82.1 fps -51%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
48.1 fps -71%
Batman: Arkham Knight - 3840x2160 High / On (Interactive Smoke & Paper Debris Off) AA:SM AF:8x
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
58 fps
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
56 fps -3%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
40 fps -31%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
34 fps -41%
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
32 fps -45%
The Witcher 3 - 3840x2160 High Graphics & Postprocessing (Nvidia HairWorks Off)
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
87.2 fps
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
51.2 fps -41%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
51 fps -42%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
38.3 fps -56%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
30.1 fps -65%
Dirt Rally - 3840x2160 High Preset
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
155 fps
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
118 fps -24%
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
85.6 fps -45%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
84.2 fps -46%
Battlefield 4 - 3840x2160 High Preset
Asus GX800VH Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
170 fps
MSI GT80S 6QF
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), 6820HK
91.6 fps -46%
Asus G800VI Prototype
GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, 6820HK
90.2 fps -47%
MSI GT62VR-6RE16H21
GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6700HQ
67.2 fps -60%
SCHENKER XMG U716
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop), 6700
52.5 fps -69%
low med. high ultra4K
Crysis 3 (2013) 101
BioShock Infinite (2013) 194
Metro: Last Light (2013) 140
Battlefield 4 (2013) 200 170
Thief (2014) 120
Watch Dogs (2014) 75.6 67.1
GRID: Autosport (2014) 166 136
Sims 4 (2014) 150 142
Alien: Isolation (2014) 244 234
Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) 174 163
Dirt Rally (2015) 162 161 155
The Witcher 3 (2015) 177 115 87.2
Batman: Arkham Knight (2015) 143 95 58
Mad Max (2015) 263 261 168
FIFA 16 (2015) 306 219
Anno 2205 (2015) 102 57.1 68.4
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (2015) 137 136 105
Fallout 4 (2015) 132 129 92.2
Star Wars Battlefront (2015) 198 195 132
Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015) 88.3 80 71.7
Rainbow Six Siege (2015) 177 161 61.1
Just Cause 3 (2015) 125 115 57.6
Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016) 81.6 80.3 78.4
XCOM 2 (2016) 95 84.1 59.4
Far Cry Primal (2016) 71 70 69
The Division (2016) 138 124 75.7
Hitman 2016 (2016) 60.9 60 57.4
Need for Speed 2016 (2016) 107 99.2 92.8
Doom (2016) 139 136 83.2
Overwatch (2016) 294 292 215
Mirror's Edge Catalyst (2016) 115 113 67.3

Verdict

Asus GX800. Prototype courtesy of Asus Taiwan.
Asus GX800. Prototype courtesy of Asus Taiwan.

It does not matter if you think external water cooling for notebooks makes sense or not, the Asus GX800 is definitely a very impressive device. As expected, the highlight is the SLI system based on two GTX 1080 chips, which can compete with high-end desktop PCs. 

If you can live with the typical drawbacks of a dual-GPU solution (driver dependency, micro stutters, high power consumption), you will get a really powerful gaming platform with sufficient power for demanding games over the next couple of years.

However, the two luxury GPUs only make sense when you use a 3K or 4K screen. SLI will not often be noticeably faster in 1920 x 1080 since a single GTX 1080 already manages sufficient fps numbers, the system is limited by the CPU or other aspects will limit the performance. There are even some cases in 3840 x 2160 pixels where the GX800 does not really benefit from SLI, which is often not caused by the driver, but the lack or limited dual-GPU support of the games.

Our 4K tests show a performance advantage of 40 % (on average) for the GX800 over a notebook with a single GTX 1080. Every gamer will have to decide for himself whether the performance jump is worth the retail price and the space requirements of the water cooling. By the way, barebones manufacturer Clevo wants to handle the GTX 1080 SLI in the P870DM chassis – only with air cooling.

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Florian Glaser, 2016-08-16 (Update: 2018-05-15)