Review Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Review: AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS Tested

[csbin]

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Review: AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS Tested

One of the best AMD-based laptops we’ve ever seen.

www.tomshardware.com

On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (highest, 1920 x 1080), the Zephyrus ran at 49 fps, tying it with both the Acer Predator Triton 500 (i7-8750H, RTX 2060) and Dell G7 15 (i7-9750H, RTX 2060).


Asus’ laptop ran Hitman (ultra, 1920 x 1080) at 89 fps, two frames ahead of the Predator and one frame ahead of the Dell.


The Zephyrus outperformed on Grand Theft Auto V’s benchmark (very high, 1920 x 1080) at 115 fps, losing by two frames to the Dell but easily beating the Predator with 87 fps.

We also ran our gaming stress test, in which we ran Metro Exodus 15 times on a loop to simulate half an hour of gaming. In this case, we ran the game at the ultra preset at 1080p. The game ran at an average of 40.5 fps, and with RTX on it dropped to 37.8 fps. The average CPU clock speed was 3.1 GHz, and it had an average temperature of 78.4 degrees Celsius (173.1 degrees Fahrenheit). The GPU ran at an average of 425.1 MHz and a temperature of 64.8 degrees Celsius (148.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

It’s truly incredible how long the Zephyrus lasted on our battery test. Generally, only the best ultraportables last between eight and 10 hours on our test, which continuously browses the web, streams video and runs OpenGL tests, all while connected to Wi-Fi with the display at 150 nits brightness.

The Zephyrus endured for 11 hours and 32 minutes. That’s incredible for a gaming notebook and even for some ultrabooks. The premium gaming average is just under 4 hours. This means the Zephyrus is suitable to use as your everyday system in addition to being your gaming machine.

For comparison, the Acer Predator Triton 500, with an i7-8750H and RTX 2060, ran for 4:24 and the Dell G7 15, with an i7-9750H and RTX 2060, died after 3:12. The Razer Blade Stealth 13, with a 25W Ice Lake processor ( i7-1065G7) lasted 8:53. The Dell XPS 13, with a 6-core/12-thread i7-10710U Comet Lake CPU ran for 7:56, albeit with a more taxing 4K display.

And while it’s not quite the best comparison, the MSI Alpha 15, a budget all-AMD gaming laptop with an AMD Ryzen 7 3750H and a Radeon RX 5500M graphics lasted only 3:53.

 

[DrMrLordX]

It's best not to take Francois too seriously in any case.

 

[Panino Manino]

It's best not to take Francois too seriously in any case.

You take David Kanter seriously?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1250835688510984193

@FPiednoel Isn’t AMD better right now in IPC? Tweet added by Fr3dweiser @fr3dweiser | Twuko

Tweet added by Fr3dweiser @fr3dweiser @FPiednoel Isn’t AMD better right now in IPC? | Twuko

www.twipu.com

 

[AtenRa]

You take David Kanter seriously?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1250835688510984193

@FPiednoel Isn’t AMD better right now in IPC? Tweet added by Fr3dweiser @fr3dweiser | Twuko

Tweet added by Fr3dweiser @fr3dweiser @FPiednoel Isn’t AMD better right now in IPC? | Twuko

www.twipu.com

Well , IPC is application depended. ZEN 2 may have higher IPC in Floating Point in Cinebench but that doesnt actually mean it has the higher IPC in general.
I dont know it may have the higher IPC but taking only Cinebench to showcase this is not the complete picture.
I would like to see a review with 10-15 applications having both Integer and Float benchmarks and then we can come to a conclusion who has the higher IPC.

 

[DrMrLordX]

@Panino Manino

Maybe. But anyone can be wrong. Also Kanter may just not want to be banned from Francois' twitter feed.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Well , IPC is application depended.

Remember we're talking Renoir vs. Intel mobile chips specifically. You can't just compare Zen2 to Coffeelake on desktop and come to a conclusion. In mobile, you've got to normalize for power (I guess?) for things to be meaningful. Unless it's okay for Intel to win benchmarks by burning up 2x more package power.

 

[Hitman928]

You take David Kanter seriously?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1250835688510984193

@FPiednoel Isn’t AMD better right now in IPC? Tweet added by Fr3dweiser @fr3dweiser | Twuko

Tweet added by Fr3dweiser @fr3dweiser @FPiednoel Isn’t AMD better right now in IPC? | Twuko

www.twipu.com

I have a ton of respect for David Kanter and his knowledge of digital IP design far outweighs mine. With that said, appeal to authority doesn't go very far with me so without an argument with data to back it up, a simple no response is meaningless to me.

Now, from what I've seen, he is correct in terms of Icelake, but Icelake also doesn't have any skus with more than 4 cores, doesn't scale well in frequency compared to AMD or intel's own 14 nm, and doesn't seem to offer any significant power savings to speak of compared to intel 14 nm, so it's hard to mark that one in the win column.

 

[uzzi38]

I have a ton of respect for David Kanter and his knowledge of digital IP design far outweighs mine. With that said, appeal to authority doesn't go very far with me so without an argument with data to back it up, a simple no response is meaningless to me.

Now, from what I've seen, he is correct in terms of Icelake, but Icelake also doesn't have any skus with more than 4 cores, doesn't scale well in frequency compared to AMD or intel's own 14 nm, and doesn't seem to offer any significant power savings to speak of compared to intel 14 nm, so it's hard to mark that one in the win column.

The question was about IPC though, so he's right. Ice Lake is ahead in IPC.

It may be littered with other problems, but if you're gonna talk about IPC, then currently in x86 Intel is still technically in the lead.

We'll see if that holds up later this year though.

 

[AtenRa]

Remember we're talking Renoir vs. Intel mobile chips specifically. You can't just compare Zen2 to Coffeelake on desktop and come to a conclusion. In mobile, you've got to normalize for power (I guess?) for things to be meaningful. Unless it's okay for Intel to win benchmarks by burning up 2x more package power.

IPC will be almost the same in desktop vs mobile.

perf/watt is a different measurement, it doesnt have an impact in IPC performance.

 

[AtenRa]

The question was about IPC though, so he's right. Ice Lake is ahead in IPC.

It may be littered with other problems, but if you're gonna talk about IPC, then currently in x86 Intel is still technically in the lead.

We'll see if that holds up later this year though.

At what applications ??

 

[DrMrLordX]

IPC will be almost the same in desktop vs mobile.

Not necessarily! Renoir has a reworked die design. Cache latency and memory latency may be different.

 

[uzzi38]

At what applications ??

On average of a multiple applications. I dunno, if you want an industry standard or something use Spec results, they'll tell you the same thing. Sunny Cove is ahead of Zen 2 and Skylake.

 

[Hitman928]

The question was about IPC though, so he's right. Ice Lake is ahead in IPC.

It may be littered with other problems, but if you're gonna talk about IPC, then currently in x86 Intel is still technically in the lead.

We'll see if that holds up later this year though.

My point is that when your perf/clock lead is with a chip that is mobile only with a limited number of SKUs, it's not exactly a win. AMD has the perf/clock lead in desktop, server, and mobile above 4 cores. Intel has a lead in mobile 4 cores and below where it still loses in overall performance and efficiency. So who has the "IPC lead"? It's not a straight forward decision at this particular point in time.

 

[moinmoin]

Now, from what I've seen, he is correct in terms of Icelake, but Icelake also doesn't have any skus with more than 4 cores, doesn't scale well in frequency compared to AMD or intel's own 14 nm

Comparing Icelake with Intel's 14nm CPUs or Zen 2 in desktop performance right now is like comparing Apple's A13 with Intel's 14nm CPUs or Zen 2 in desktop performance! lol

 

[AtenRa]

Not necessarily! Renoir has a reworked die design. Cache latency and memory latency may be different.

Yea ok there will be a small difference.

 

[AtenRa]

On average of a multiple applications. I dunno, if you want an industry standard or something use Spec results, they'll tell you the same thing. Sunny Cove is ahead of Zen 2 and Skylake.

Yes ok, what are those applications ?? do you have a link with results from those applications ??

 

[tamz_msc]

Yes ok, what are those applications ?? do you have a link with results from those applications ??

SPEC itself is a bunch of different "applications".

 

[AtenRa]

SPEC itself is a bunch of different "applications".

We have links of Spec int and Spec float in a single thread at a given clock speed for ZEN 2 vs Ice Lake ??

 

[tamz_msc]

We have links of Spec int and Spec float in a single thread at a given clock speed for ZEN 2 vs Ice Lake ??

Not single thread and not at fixed clock speeds as Andrei has repeatedly said that its not relevant, but here you go:

The Ice Lake Benchmark Preview: Inside Intel's 10nm

www.anandtech.com

As you can see from the final graph in that page Ice Lake is ~10% ahead in PPC vs Zen 2 in int and ~13% ahead in fp.

 

[AtenRa]

Not single thread and not at fixed clock speeds as Andrei has repeatedly said that its not relevant, but here you go:

The Ice Lake Benchmark Preview: Inside Intel's 10nm

www.anandtech.com

As you can see from the final graph in that page Ice Lake is ~10% ahead in PPC vs Zen 2 in int and ~13% ahead in fp.

nice thx

this is not single thread ??

 

[tamz_msc]

this is not single thread ??

Yes, it is single thread as in its the result for a single instance of the rate benchmark(hence rate_1).

 

[AtenRa]

Yes, it is single thread as in its the result for a single instance of the rate benchmark(hence rate_1).

Nice, we have a winner then

 

[moinmoin]

With Lenovo Legion 5 the trend continues that the Intel version of the laptop gets stronger versions of Nvidia dGPUs and less options like for screen refresh rate than the AMD counterpart. The AMD version scores near double the battery life though according to the spec sheet. (via Computerbase)

I wonder when Nvidia is going to step in to avoid its high end mobile dGPUs being associated with all the (both performance and battery life wise) worse laptop versions across the board. This can't be in Nvidia's interest as it only invites a stronger return of AMD's dGPUs in the now leading laptops at some point.

 

[inf64]

Nice, we have a winner then

Icelake is about ~10% faster than Zen2 (desktop version). It's not a massive advantage but it's not small either. The clear upper hand is AVX512 stuff but that is super niche and basically irrelevant for 99% of the market. Once Zen3 arrives AMD will again have IPC advantage (even Vs TGL), albeit a smaller one.

 

[Topweasel]

With Lenovo Legion 5 the trend continues that the Intel version of the laptop gets stronger versions of Nvidia dGPUs and less options like for screen refresh rate than the AMD counterpart. The AMD version scores near double the battery life though according to the spec sheet. (via Computerbase)

I wonder when Nvidia is going to step in to avoid its high end mobile dGPUs being associated with all the (both performance and battery life wise) worse laptop versions across the board. This can't be in Nvidia's interest as it only invites a stronger return of AMD's dGPUs in the now leading laptops at some point.

It is if they can lock down AMD as not appearing to be a true performance manufacturer, AMD's success in gaming laptops gives them a larger mouth in the arena and more ears listening. We haven't really seen any implementation of mobile Navi, would a watered down 5700 with its 7nm usage put screws to the 2060 and 2070 when you have a low power cap? Not sure personally needs a lot of power to get competitive on the desktop. But could it be more efficient on the low end, does Nvidia possibly have a higher peak efficiency, where AMD has a lower but can push it higher to catch up? May never know because Intel and Nvidia have kept people from even thinking about AMD. Hell Nvidia as part of that big Nvidia experience thing they got in hot water for was actually trying to ban people from using an AMD CPU in anything "Gaming" and that they should be limited to Nvidia video cards and Intel CPU's. Going as far to basically buy rights for intents and purposes to product lines like RoG (Asus was one of the companies to create a line specifically for AMD under this policy).

Point I may have gone a little off topic for it is that if Nvidia can keep AMD out of Gaming even at the cost of a few frames then its a win. Where AMD stumbles here though, is that Intel is limited by thermals and not Silicon too much. Where AMD for the most part is silicon limited, which means that Intel only needs one extreme cooling solution on a laptop (supersized 5 fan solution desktop replacement 12lb beast) to ratchet things up to stay ahead here. For the most part a 4900h and a 9900 are a wash performance wise anyways, so its not a hard accomplishment to keep a crown here. As long as Intel has the best performing Laptop CPU "Halo", Nvidia loses no cred on the performance of their GPU's, best mGPU's for best CPU's. Who cares if any where down the line a laptop might see better performance with AMD CPU, the options aren't there because people aren't taking a chance. The G14 is the best case scenario that AMD can come up with in this setup. They get a near thin and light laptop that punches like 3 weight classes above its belt even with a slimmed 2060, well built, and well priced.

 

[coercitiv]

With Lenovo Legion 5 the trend continues that the Intel version of the laptop gets stronger versions of Nvidia dGPUs

I had imagined the real cringe inducing info would find it's way on the forums since yesterday... I guess it falls on me to deliver the critical blow.

ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. UX434IQ

• AMD R7 4700U
• 16GB LPDDR4x 4266MHz
• GeForce MX350

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