Deutsch
EspaƱol
FranƧais
Italiano
Nederlands
Polski
PortuguĆŖs
Š ŃŃŃŠŗŠøŠ¹
TĆ¼rkƧe
Svenska
Chinese
MagyarAsus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402R Gaming Laptop Review: AMD Times Two
Asusās 2022 edition of the ROG Zephyrus G14 comes with two firsts. In addition to AMDās latest Ryzen 9 6900HS we also find a Radeon RX 6800S for the first time in our lab. On our review unit, this 8-core CPU paired with AMDās latest high-end GPU has access to 32 GB of DDR5 RAM as well as a 1 TB NVMe SSD, a 16:10 QHD display running at 2560 x 1600 and 120 Hz with allegedly 100 % DCI P3 coverage. And while US prices have not yet been announced our review unitās MSRP in Europe is 2,299 Euros incl. VAT.
Its main competitors are other 14-inch gaming notebooks, such as the Razer Blade 14 with GeForce RTX 3070 or its immediate predecessor with GeForce RTX 3060. Other competitors include the MSI Delta 15 with Radeon RX 6700M and the Asus ROG Strix G15 with Radeon RX 6800M.
Potential Competitors in Comparison
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Best Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 86.7 % | 03/2022 | Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK R9 6900HS, Radeon RX 6800S | 1.7 kg | 19.5 mm | 14.00" | 2560x1600 | |
| 83.5 % | 06/2021 | Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM R9 5900HS, GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU | 1.7 kg | 19.9 mm | 14.00" | 1920x1080 | |
| 87.5 % | 06/2021 | Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 R9 5900HX, GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU | 1.8 kg | 16.8 mm | 14.00" | 2560x1440 | |
| 82.9 % | 10/2021 | MSI Delta 15 A5EFK R9 5900HX, Radeon RX 6700M | 2 kg | 19 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | |
| 84.7 % | 07/2021 | Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY R9 5900HX, Radeon RX 6800M | 2.4 kg | 27.9 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 |
Case
Even though the case remained largely identical Asus did opt for a few minor changes and updates. In addition to added connectivity (hello microSD, bye bye Kensington Lock) and the relocated speakers we would also like to point out the enlarged touchpad as well as the modified keyboard.
An absolute highlight and unique selling point are the AniMe Matrix LEDs on the lid, which are however not available on every SKU. These are tiny punch holes inside the display lid that light up and can be controlled by software for sleek animations (see photo below). All things considered the G14ās case is rather stylish, and we liked Asusās choice of color in particular. The case looks stunning in āMoonlight Whiteā and definitely stands out among its brethren.
Thanks to its low overall weight of just 1.7 kg (3.75 lbs), which is even less than the Razer Blade 14ās 1.8 kg (4 lbs) the device is very portable. Rather fittingly it is also very compact and thin (19.5 mm/0.77 inches with Matrix LEDs, 18.5 mm/0.73 inches without), and its build quality is fantastic. Despite the use of metal (magnesium) the chassis can feel a bit like plastic, but its surfaces are very well machined and left an overall premium impression.
The laptopās overall rigidity played a major role in this as well. Save for the area in the middle behind the keyboard the base unit cannot be depressed or warped noticeably. As is often the case the lid is nowhere near as rigid. A clever extra is built into the hinges: when opening the lid the entire device is lifted by a few millimeters for improved air flow and cooling. The lid opens a full 180 degrees, and the hinges do teeter and give in when shaking the device with the lid opened wide enough.
Connectivity
Ports
Apart from the missing RJ45 port and, as is typical for AMD notebooks, the lack of Thunderbolt 4 overall connectivity was very good. Users have access to a total of four USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two of which are USB-C with DisplayPort signals, a modern HDMI 2.0b port, an audio jack, and last but not least a microSD slot that was suspiciously missing on the G14ās predecessor.
We do, however, have to criticize Asusās port spacing and distribution. Most ports are located in the middle and front on both sides, which means that by using a wired mouse one might run into space constraints caused by an abundance of cables. We would have at least expected the power port to be located further back.
SD Card Reader
The built-in microSD card reader performed very well overall. With a sequential read performance of 178 MB/s and 151 MB/s when transferring photos using our 128 GB AV Pro V60 reference card it performed above average.
| SD Card Reader | |
| average JPG Copy Test (av. of 3 runs) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK (AV PRO microSD 128 GB V60) | |
| Average of class Gaming (19 - 202, n=95, last 2 years) | |
| maximum AS SSD Seq Read Test (1GB) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK (AV PRO microSD 128 GB V60) | |
| Average of class Gaming (25.8 - 269, n=95, last 2 years) | |
Communication
Despite the fact that Asus decided to forego Intel and Killer for their wireless modem overall Wi-Fi performance turned out to be very good. Our review unitās MediaTek MT7922 Wi-Fi chip performed as well as its competitors and achieved excellent results both sending (TX) and receiving (RX) data. Keep in mind that these results are not comparable to older test results since we recently replaced the Wi-Fi router used for our benchmarks (Asus GT-AXE11000).
| Networking | |
| iperf3 transmit AXE11000 | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Average of class Gaming (469 - 1843, n=154, last 2 years) | |
| iperf3 receive AXE11000 | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Average of class Gaming (726 - 1890, n=157, last 2 years) | |
Webcam
The G14ās 720p webcam with support for Windows Hello performed as poorly as expected and produced a blurry and not particularly color-accurate image. We have, however, also seen worse.
Accessories
Included in our review unitās box were the notebook itself as well as a power supply, which while comparatively compact for a 240 W unit (16.5 x 7.5 x 2.5 cm/6.5 x 2.95 x 0.98 inches) turned out to be relatively large and at 600 g (1.32 lbs) also heavy when compared to the petite laptop itself. A 200 W unit may have been a better fit. According to the Asus homepage the G14 will come bundled with a laptop sleeve, a gaming mouse, and a USB Type-C charger (Power Delivery is supported on one of the two USB-C ports) in selected regions.
Maintenance
A total of 11 philips screws have to be undone before the bottom lid can be removed, some of which are hidden behind rubber feet. Given that one of the corner screws actually lifts the bottom plate up it can be removed without issues or special tools.
Underneath we find a very orderly and uncluttered design. The location of both CPU and GPU is stylized with good-looking images thereof, and they are covered by a spacious cooling system. As is fairly common for Asus gaming notebooks the cooler itself is a combination of vapor chamber cooling paired with liquid metal, which is supposed to improve overall cooling performance. Both fans are oriented towards the rear and sides. In between the cooling system and the ginormous battery, which covers the entire palm rest area, we find a single DDR5 slot as well as a single M.2 slot, both of which were populated on our review unit. We do have to criticize Asus at this point for soldering 16 GB onto the motherboard by default as it negatively impacts upgradability in the long run.
Warranty
By default, Asus notebooks sold in the US come with a single year of warranty. In comparison, our review unit - a retail unit sold in Europe - comes with a full two years.
Input Devices
Keyboard
The Zephyrus G14ās input devices turned out to be surprisingly good for a gaming notebook. The keyboard offers a pleasant clear and precise feedback, and the contrast between the dark letters and the bright background color on the key caps was more than sufficient for excellent readability. At night, the keyboard offers a built-in RGB backlight that supports various modes and can be controlled via software.
The keyboard layout itself was not particularly good, although this criticism is limited mostly to German users that will have to get used to a single-row return key. In addition, the Print and Insert keys had to make way to the now wider yet smaller arrow keys. The keys themselves were sized very well, except for the arrow keys, the F-keys, and the admittedly quite useful extra keys above the keyboard (volume, microphone, tuning software).
Touchpad
Compared to its predecessor, the touchpad received a major overhaul. With a size of 13 x 7.6 cm (5.12 x 3 inches) it is larger than on most other 14-inch notebooks, and it performed very well overall. Precision was great and gestures worked like a charm, and its smooth surface resulted in very smooth finger gliding. Compared to other clickpads without dedicated mouse buttons this touchpadās clickable areas offer a high stability and punchy feedback.
Display
For many years, the realm of gaming notebooks was dominated by 16:9 panels. This, however, has now started to change, and we can find more and more 16:10 panels in modern gaming laptops. The ROG Zephyrus G14 comes with such a display running at QHD resolution (2560 x 1600) resulting in a high pixel density and accordingly a very sharp image.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 80 %
Center on Battery: 480 cd/m²
Contrast: 1000:1 (Black: 0.48 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 2.62 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.95, calibrated: 1.12
ΔE Greyscale 4.2 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
85.5% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
99.9% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
97.4% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.16
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK NE140QDM-NX1 (BOE0A1D), IPS-Level, 2560x1600, 14" | Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM LM140LF-1F02, IPS, 1920x1080, 14" | Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 TL140BDXP02-2, IPS, 2560x1440, 14" | MSI Delta 15 A5EFK LQ156M1JW03 (SHP155D), IPS-Level, 1920x1080, 15.6" | Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY Sharp SHP152C, IPS, 1920x1080, 15.6" | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | -20% | 0% | -18% | -18% | |
| Display P3 Coverage | 97.4 | 68.1 -30% | 97.2 0% | 66.5 -32% | 66.5 -32% |
| sRGB Coverage | 99.9 | 92.4 -8% | 99.9 0% | 97.8 -2% | 97.7 -2% |
| AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 85.5 | 67.7 -21% | 85.4 0% | 67.6 -21% | 67.6 -21% |
| Response Times | -326% | -83% | -44% | -29% | |
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 8.8 ? | 34.4 ? -291% | 16.4 ? -86% | 12.8 ? -45% | 8 ? 9% |
| Response Time Black / White * | 6 ? | 27.6 ? -360% | 10.8 ? -80% | 10.4 ? -73% | 10 ? -67% |
| PWM Frequency | 27170 ? | 23580 ? -13% | |||
| Screen | -38% | 9% | -8% | -19% | |
| Brightness middle | 480 | 329.4 -31% | 331.1 -31% | 291 -39% | 306 -36% |
| Brightness | 456 | 311 -32% | 318 -30% | 266 -42% | 283 -38% |
| Brightness Distribution | 80 | 90 13% | 91 14% | 88 10% | 86 8% |
| Black Level * | 0.48 | 0.39 19% | 0.36 25% | 0.36 25% | 0.25 48% |
| Contrast | 1000 | 845 -15% | 920 -8% | 808 -19% | 1224 22% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 2.62 | 4.01 -53% | 2.25 14% | 2.98 -14% | 4.97 -90% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 6.71 | 8.21 -22% | 4.62 31% | 7.59 -13% | 10.12 -51% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 1.12 | 3.89 -247% | 0.91 19% | 0.7 37% | |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 4.2 | 3.2 24% | 1.7 60% | 4.2 -0% | 7.2 -71% |
| Gamma | 2.16 102% | 2.2 100% | 2.3 96% | 2.293 96% | 2.23 99% |
| CCT | 7122 91% | 7070 92% | 6751 96% | 7624 85% | 7784 84% |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 67.6 | ||||
| Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 97.7 | ||||
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | -128% /
-75% | -25% /
-7% | -23% /
-17% | -22% /
-20% |
* ... smaller is better
Other benefits include a refresh rate of 120 Hz, low response times of less than 10 ms, which allow for adequate playability of fast-pasted games such as first-person shooters, and last but not least a very wide color gamut. According to Asus the display is supposed to cover the DCI-P3 color space in its entirety ā a feature seldom to be found in a gaming laptop.
Fans of the outdoors will benefit from its overall high brightness, and while it failed to reached the advertised 500 nits and peaked at just 456 nits it is still very well usable outdoors. Unfortunately, the G14ās contrast ratio of just 1,000:1 and its comparatively high black level of 0.48 nits result in a slight gray haze and tint on what should be black.
Viewing angles are typical for an IPS panel. Given that this panel comes with an X-Rite Pantone certification and therefore a high color-accuracy by default a retroactive calibration is not required. That being said we were able to improve accuracy slightly, and you can download the resulting ICC profile above.
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 6 ms ... rise ā and fall ā combined | ↗ 1.8 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 4.2 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 14 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (21.1 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 8.8 ms ... rise ā and fall ā combined | ↗ 4 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 4.8 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows fast response rates in our tests and should be suited for gaming. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.165 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 18 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (33.2 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM detected | 27170 Hz | ≤ 35 % brightness setting |  |
The display backlight flickers at 27170 Hz (worst case, e.g., utilizing PWM) Flickering detected at a brightness setting of 35 % and below. There should be no flickering or PWM above this brightness setting. The frequency of 27170 Hz is quite high, so most users sensitive to PWM should not notice any flickering. In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 17365 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. | |||
Performance
Donāt be fooled by its low weight and compact size - the Zephyrus G14 is definitely a high-end laptop with 32 GB of RAM, a 1 TB SSD, and an 8-core CPU that should easily last for many a year to come.
Test Conditions
The preloaded Armoury Crate software turned out to be a true feature monster and seemed rather overloaded and confusing due to the sheer number of settings and options. We ran most of our benchmark with the āPerformanceā profile selected and ran our 3D and gaming benchmarks with the āTurboā profile selected. The reason for this discrepancy was the fact that we found the TGB to fluctuate significantly in āPerformanceā resulting in decreased performance over time. More on that later.
| Armoury Crate | CPU PL1 (HWINFO) | CPU PL2 (HWINFO) | GPU Power Draw @Witcher 3 | Noise @Witcher 3 |
| Profile: Silent | 90 W | 113 W | ~40 W | 37 dB(A) |
| Profile: Peformance | 100 W | 125 W | ~55-85 W | 43 dB(A) |
| Profile: Turbo | 125 W | 157 W | ~105 W | 51 dB(A) |
Processor
The Ryzen 9 6900HS, successor to the Ryzen 9 5900HS that powered todayās G14ās predecessor, is a power-efficient variant of AMDās Ryzen 9 6900HX. Instead of 45 W it comes with a TDP of just 35 W, which means it is particularly interesting for portable high-end laptops. Thanks to support for SMT this 6 nm octa-core CPU can handle 16 simultaneous threads. It runs at between 3.3 and 4.9 GHz and has access to 16 MB of L3 cache.
According to HWiNFO, the CPU was able to draw 100 W PL1 and 125 W PL2 in Performance mode and 125 and 157 W in Turbo mode, respectively. Running CineBench we were able to show that CPU performance is consistent over long periods of time, and the new G14 scored similarly to notebooks equipped with the R95900HX and R9 5900HS. In other words: do not expect significant performance improvements over last gen Ryzen processors. The fact that the Ryzen 9 6900HS can be found at the very top of our performance rating is due to its improved single-core performance.
Cinebench R15 Multi Loop
| CPU Performance Rating - Percent | |
| Average of class Gaming | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM -2! | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 -2! | |
* ... smaller is better
AIDA64: FP32 Ray-Trace | FPU Julia | CPU SHA3 | CPU Queen | FPU SinJulia | FPU Mandel | CPU AES | CPU ZLib | FP64 Ray-Trace | CPU PhotoWorxx
| Performance Rating | |
| Average of class Gaming | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| AIDA64 / FP32 Ray-Trace | |
| Average of class Gaming (4986 - 60169, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| AIDA64 / FPU Julia | |
| Average of class Gaming (25360 - 252486, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| AIDA64 / CPU SHA3 | |
| Average of class Gaming (1339 - 10389, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| AIDA64 / CPU Queen | |
| Average of class Gaming (41257 - 200651, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| AIDA64 / FPU SinJulia | |
| Average of class Gaming (3925 - 32988, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| AIDA64 / FPU Mandel | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Average of class Gaming (12321 - 134044, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| AIDA64 / CPU AES | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Average of class Gaming (19065 - 328679, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| AIDA64 / CPU ZLib | |
| Average of class Gaming (269 - 2409, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| AIDA64 / FP64 Ray-Trace | |
| Average of class Gaming (2540 - 31796, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| AIDA64 / CPU PhotoWorxx | |
| Average of class Gaming (10805 - 60161, n=201, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
System Performance
The same is true for the System Performance category, in which the new G14 scores an excellent 7,731 points. Please note that in this benchmark the difference to its competitors is not as pronounced anymore.
| PCMark 10 / Score | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Average of class Gaming (5442 - 9852, n=179, last 2 years) | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| PCMark 10 / Essentials | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Average of class Gaming (8829 - 12334, n=178, last 2 years) | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| PCMark 10 / Productivity | |
| Average of class Gaming (6662 - 14612, n=178, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| PCMark 10 / Digital Content Creation | |
| Average of class Gaming (6462 - 18475, n=178, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| PCMark 10 Score | 7731 points | |
Help | ||
| AIDA64 / Memory Copy | |
| Average of class Gaming (21842 - 94222, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| AIDA64 / Memory Read | |
| Average of class Gaming (23681 - 99713, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| AIDA64 / Memory Write | |
| Average of class Gaming (22986 - 108954, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| AIDA64 / Memory Latency | |
| Average of class Gaming (59.5 - 259, n=200, last 2 years) | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
* ... smaller is better
DPC Latencies
Out of the box, the G14 suffered from pretty major latencies, which we were able to show using LatencyMon. This is an area that definitely requires further refinement.
| DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
* ... smaller is better
Storage Devices
Storage devices are a safe bet for Asus, and the included Micron 2450 PCIe 4.0 SSD literally wipes the floor with its competitors. According to AS SSD it scored more than 3,000 MB/s in sequential read and write performance. If you require more storage space you will have to replace the existing drive as the G14 does not feature a secondary M.2 slot.
| Drive Performance Rating - Percent | |
| Average of class Gaming | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
* ... smaller is better
Sustained Read: DiskSpd Read Loop, Queue Depth 8
Graphics Performance
Just like with the CPU Asus went for a power-optimized variant of AMDās latest GPU in order to remain within the thermal constraints imposed by the small case. Instead of the āregularā Radeon RX 6800M we find a Radeon RX 6800S. In Performance mode it can consume between 55 and 85 W while Turbo mode increases this to up to 105 W, which allows for clock frequencies of 2 GHz and more for this 7 nm chip with 2,048 shaders.
Unfortunately, we find the deviceās VRAM to be rather limited as the Radeon RX 6800S in this Zephyrus G14 has to make do with just 8 GB of GDDR6. Considering the requirements of current games higher resolutions and settings require a minimum of 10 GB already. Compare that to the Radeon RX 6800M that comes with 12 GB by default. In our benchmarks, the RX 6800S scored between the RX 6800M and the RX 6700M, with a strong tendency towards the latter rather than the former. Its performance was comparable to a GeForce RTX 3070 and significantly better than last genās GeForce RTX 3060.
| 3DMark Performance Rating - Percent | |
| Average of class Gaming | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM | |
| 3DMark 06 Standard Score | 51423 points | |
| 3DMark Vantage P Result | 82247 points | |
| 3DMark 11 Performance | 29407 points | |
| 3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 240054 points | |
| 3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 62600 points | |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Score | 24068 points | |
| 3DMark Time Spy Score | 9380 points | |
Help | ||
Gaming Performance
In order to fully assess the Radeon RX 6800Sās gaming performance we benchmarked more than 40 games, and were able to determine as follows. 1) When gaming in lower resolutions, which tend to be CPU-bound rather than GPU-bound, the G14 benefits from its powerful processor and is thus able to occasionally outperform Intel-powered notebooks equipped with RTX 3080 GPUs. This results in a distorted performance rating according to which the RX 6800S appears to be the fastest GPU currently available, so keep this in mind. 2) As is typical for AMD GPUs the raytracing performance is fairly poor and in extreme cases unable to keep up with a GTX 3060. 3) In high resolutions and settings we ran into the VRAM limit as explained above, and found that the AMD GPU suffers more from this than Nvidia GPUs such as the RTX 3070 with 8 GB of VRAM.
All things considered the Radeon RX 6800S performed similarly to a GeForce RTX 3070, not in small part due to its great performance in synthetic benchmarks. Real-world performance, however, will depend greatly on the game engine and vary more than is common for Nvidia GPUs. In other words: some games will perform much better than expected while others will perform much worse. Generally speaking, the Zephyrus G14 is powerful enough to run all current games smoothly at its native 2560 x 1600 resolution in maximum details. Only in Crysis Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 were we able to record frame rates below 40 FPS in 2560 x 1440 and ultra settings.
| Performance Rating - Percent | |
| Average of class Gaming -36! | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK -74! | |
| MSI Delta 15 A5EFK -168! | |
| Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QY -175! | |
| Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 -234! | |
| Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401QM -253! | |
| Elden Ring | |
| 3840x2160 Maximum Preset | |
| Average of class Gaming (34.8 - 60, n=4, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| 2560x1440 Maximum Preset | |
| Average of class Gaming (56.6 - 60, n=5, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| 1920x1080 Maximum Preset | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Average of class Gaming (13.3 - 60, n=9, last 2 years) | |
| 1920x1080 High Preset | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Average of class Gaming (15.2 - 60, n=9, last 2 years) | |
| 1920x1080 Medium Preset | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| Average of class Gaming (17.9 - 60, n=9, last 2 years) | |
| Elex 2 | |
| 3840x2160 Ultra / On AA:SM AF:16x | |
| Average of class Gaming (31.3 - 63, n=3, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| 2560x1440 Ultra / On AA:SM AF:16x | |
| Average of class Gaming (38.3 - 116.7, n=5, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| 1920x1080 Ultra / On AA:SM AF:16x | |
| Average of class Gaming (30.1 - 118.5, n=9, last 2 years) | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK | |
| 1920x1080 High / On AA:FX AF:16x | |
| Average of class Gaming (36.9 - 118.7, n=9, last 2 years) | |