How ROG improves gaming performance by up to 20% (Hint: it’s cool.)

To understand the results, you have to understand ROG Boost, the name that ASUS uses to describe the improved GPU performance it derives from greater thermal headroom. Most laptop GPUs use lower clocks and wattages to compensate for the thermal constraints of their chassis. They harness NVIDIA’s GPU Boost technology to increase clock speeds when (closely monitored) thermals allow. Laptop makers have some freedom to define their GPU clock speeds and wattage within the range of specs supported by NVIDIA. ROG Boost ratchets up these specs, pushing the GPU to realize more of its potential and in some cases even surpass stock frequencies.

The blade density stands out with the bottom panel removed, as do the system’s five heat pipes. Two are wholly dedicated to the GPU, one to the CPU, and a fourth is shared between them. Another wraps around the GPU, cooling its GDDR6 memory and the VRM supplying the processors. The configuration of pipes varies by model and the power requirements of the GPU, though simply comparing numbers and designs across OEMs would be misleading. Not all heatpipes are equally capable of transferring heat. ROG, for example, focuses on efficient thermal exchange, using sintered metal and parallel channels inside its heatpipes to speed transfer between the system’s individual components and their associated heatsinks.

The SCAR III contains three such heatsinks filled with stacks of copper fins. Some of the fins are just 0.1mm thin, or half the thickness of standard designs. Using thinner fins lets ROG increase surface for heat dissipation without taking up more space. They also reduce air resistance, enabling the SCAR’s fans to more efficiently push warm air out of the chassis’s exhaust vents.

The gaming benefits of ROG cooling tech were even more tangible when we moved to the Zephyrus S GX502. At just 18.9mm thin, this machine has less room to cool its top-shelf components than the SCAR III and most other designs we’ve seen with this screen size. To compensate, it deploys a signature Zephyrus invention called the Active Aerodynamic System (AAS).

AAS uses special hinges to open a 7mm gap in the bottom panel of the laptop as you lift the lid. This special intake runs nearly the entire width of the device, freely drawing in cooler air near the surface of your desk instead of making the laptop breathe through a narrow gap under the chassis. Air cycles through the cooling system and eventually leaves through ramped outlets in the edges that direct exhaust up and away from the AAS intake. These subtle ramps ensure that the warmer air flowing out does not interfere with the cooler air flowing in.

The Zephyrus S 15” uses similar n-Blade fans to the SCAR, and its cooling system provides enough thermal headroom for ROG Boost to clobber the similarly slender Gigabyte Aero 15 XA in both synthetic and gaming benchmarks. The results are the most impressive in our testing, and they highlight the fact that thermal design is an especially challenging (and rewarding) consideration for ultra-slim laptops.

The Zephyrus S 17” features a keyboard-forward design that makes more room for internal cooling. Pulling the deck forward lets the dual n-Blade fans draw cool air into the chassis from an array of small ventilation holes where the keyboard would have been. Increasing airflow from above helps ROG use just 6mm of AAS lift despite squeezing RTX 2080 graphics into a laptop just 18.7mm tall. Moving the keyboard away from the system’s hottest components also reduces surface temperatures for prolonged heavy use, such as extended gaming sessions.