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Expensive Asus Zephyrus laptops tend to ship with single-channel memory only

Expensive Asus Zephyrus laptops tend to ship with single-channel memory only
Expensive Asus Zephyrus laptops tend to ship with single-channel memory only
It's a common cost-cutting maneuver for budget gaming laptops that most high-end gaming laptops offer as standard. Retailers and resellers often neglect to mention the mode or how many RAM slots are available on product pages.

Asus gaming laptops range from the budget TUF series to the higher-end Zephyrus and ROG series. Like many inexpensive products, budget gaming laptops tend to cut corners and features including smaller storage, less RAM, fewer LEDs, color inaccurate displays, and reduced ports to keep prices low. Thus, we're a bit disappointed to find that the Zephyrus series is guilty of one particular cost-cutting measure that most other mid-range to high-end gaming laptops almost never do.

The Zephyrus G GA502, Zephyrus M GU502, Zephyrus S GX502, and Zephyrus S GX531 all include single-channel soldered RAM ranging from 8 GB to 16 GB plus a free SODIMM expansion slot for optional dual-channel memory. This mixed approach is uncommon on most gaming laptops where either 2x/4x DDR4 SODIMM slots are available or none at all. The disadvantage to having both soldered RAM and upgradeable RAM on Zephyrus laptops is that resellers and retailers would then be more likely to offer SKUs with just single-channel memory only.

The Asus Zephyrus S GX502GW for example, can currently be found on Best Buy for $2250 USD with a Core i7-9750H CPU, GeForce RTX 2070 GPU, G-Sync display, and 1 TB SSD. However, this flagship machine pairs all these high-end features with 16 GB of single-channel RAM whereas most other OEMs would have offered 16 GB of dual-channel RAM instead.

To Asus' credit, single-channel RAM impacts gaming performance only minimally when compared to dual-channel RAM except on PCs that run on integrated graphics with no VRAM. Users can simply add a SODIMM module for dual-channel memory if they are brave enough to open up their Zephyrus laptops. Still, spending over $2000 on a gaming laptop with only single-channel memory leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2019 10 > Expensive Asus Zephyrus laptops tend to ship with single-channel memory only
Allen Ngo, 2019-10-28 (Update: 2019-10-28)