Review Asus ROG Zephyrus G GA502 Gaming Laptop Review: AMD and Nvidia in One Machine

[AndrewFreedman]

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G GA502 is a sleek flagship AMD Ryzen gaming laptop with Nvidia’s GTX 1660 Ti.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G GA502 Gaming Laptop Review: AMD and Nvidia in One Machine : Read more

 

[Chris Fetters]

It's probably worth mentioning at at least SOME point that the Intel CPU's you're comparing this machine to are notably more expensive 6-core/12-thread i7's (the i7-8750H to be specific), which isn't a particularly fair comparison when the much cheaper AMD Ryzen 7 3750H part in question has only 4-cores/8-threads (this is backed up by their respective TDP values as well, with the bigger Intel CPU's being rated for 45W vs AMD's 35W).

Compare it instead against it's ACTUAL Intel competition in the also 4c/8t i5-8300H though, & the Ryzen 7 3750H's "productivity deficit" drops to a by & large unnoticeable ≈5% (for example, in Cinebench R15, the R7 scores about 730-780ish whereas the i5 lands around the 780-820ish mark), and even the newer (slightly higher clocked) i5-9300H is still only about ≈10% faster. And if you compare it to the similarly priced (rather than specced) 4c/4t i3's instead (ala the i3-8100H), then Ryzen comes out with a clear victory.

Comparing CPU's in a vacuum without acknowledging price & thread count differences does a disservice to both the reviewer/article writer and the reader.

 

[AgentLozen]

Ryzen CPUs are typically competitive with Intel's offerings but consume less power doing it. That's the reason I was expecting this laptop's Ryzen CPU to perform really well given the thin form factor. As Chris Fetters was saying, I'm disappointed to see it perform so poorly but there's obviously a reason for this outcome .

Here's to hoping that there's a better balanced Ryzen 2nd gen mobile CPU in the future.

 

[Chris Fetters]

Ryzen CPUs are typically competitive with Intel's offerings but consume less power doing it. That's the reason I was expecting this laptop's Ryzen CPU to perform really well given the thin form factor. As Chris Fetters was saying, I'm disappointed to see it perform so poorly but there's obviously a reason for this outcome .

Here's to hoping that there's a better balanced Ryzen 2nd gen mobile CPU in the future.

You misunderstood my post. I wasn't disappointed with the performance AT ALL. It's totally competitive with Intel's comparably specced (aka core/thread count) mobile CPU's (4c/8t R7H vs 4c/8t i5H, and with a lower TDP for AMD to boot [35W vs 45W]), and has outright superior performance when compared with it's direct price competition, which are the 4c/4t i3's. And that's not even mentioning the MASSIVE advantage in iGPU perf (which is still important in laptops w/ dGPU's thanks to Windows' power saving automatic GPU switching feature). Peak performance might not have changed drastically vs Ryzen Mobile 1st Gen, but power efficiency, battery life, and moderate load performance have all been much improved thanks to Precision Boost 2; and those in particular were by FAR the original chips' biggest issues.

I was just upset to see Tom's Hardware comparing a 4c/8t Ryzen Mobile chip near entirely with 6c/12t i7 CPU's/laptops in a COMPLETELY different price & performance bracket. It simply makes no sense. Nobody is cross-shopping 6c/12t i7-8750H/9750H models with vastly cheaper 4c/8t R7-3750H laptops costing many hundreds less. It's direct Intel equivalents that people will ACTUALLY be comparing this new AMD chip to are the pricier (vs the R7) 4c/8t i5's (ala the i5-8300H/9300H) & the cheaper 4c/4t i3's (ala the i3-8100H).

Same thing applies to the lower end 4c/4t Ryzen 5 3550H, which should be right in the 4c/4t i3-8100H's performance wheelhouse, but at a cheaper price.