Aorus 15 review: More powerful than most laptops with an RTX 4070 and it only costs US$1,500

You don't always have to go for the current generation if you are looking to offer gamers high-end performance — this might be what Gigabyte thought to itself as it put together our test model, the Aorus 15 YE5. Of course, the manufacturer also offers laptops featuring the current GPU/GPU generation, for example the Aorus 15 BSF which we also tested. Small suffixes can make a huge difference.

Nevertheless, the Aorus 15 YE5's concept is this: "the most high-end for a low price". This led the manufacturer to install the ex-flagship Nvidia Geforce RTX 3080 Ti into the laptop's case and it has combined it with a CPU that is also a last-gen model (but considerably less high-end): the Intel Core i5-12500H. This processor was already classed as an upper mid-range component last year. In this combination, you can certainly save a few dollars and we tested how the device compared to current laptops with Intel Gen 13 CPUs and RTX 4070s.

At the same time, most cheaper gaming laptops with an RTX 4070 are fitted with the nominally higher-class i7-13700H — although one competitor had an i5-13500H (Captiva Advanced Gaming). And yes, the i5-12500H definitely shows its age. When it comes to processor performance, the affordable current-gen competition did much better, however: In 3D games, this small disadvantage rarely makes itself known. Quite the opposite. The still powerful RTX 3080 T doesn't just make up for the CPU weakness, it actually even managed to do better than the current budget competition featuring an RTX 4070 in most games and in our total performance rating, it came out on top!

Another good aspect is that Aorus still manages to keep modern features in the back of its mind, which few budget gamers can compete with. This can be said for Thunderbolt 4, but also DDR5 RAM. In turn, gamers might get a little frustrated at its 720p webcam. In our detailed review, you can read about what other weaknesses and strengths the laptop has.