Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition

The Asus Rog G15 Strix Advantage Edition incorporates AMD’s best to the gaming market, the most potent duo with Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU and Radeon RX 6800M mobile graphics card. How did this laptop turn out in real work, and is it worth considering buying in terms of price and performance shown?

So, Asus has offered us an exciting laptop, which stands out primarily because it has a processor and graphics card from AMD. Judging by the name Advantage Editon, the Strix G15 isn’t a new name in the laptop gaming niche. Asus used AMD Ryzen processors and NVIDIA graphics cards in older versions of laptops.

The new AMD mobile graphics chips RX 6600M, RX 6700M, and RX 6800M compete with NVIDIA RTX 3060, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080. This Strix G15 Advanced Edition is a 15.6-inch gaming laptop based on AMD’s most potent mobile processor Ryzen 9 5900H, and the fastest mobile graphics card, RX 6800M.

 

First Impression

The laptop’s case is solid plastic made, with the screen cover from aluminum dominated by a chrome ROG and a small AMD logo. The screen for the laptop case is connected with particular hinges that are not visible from the outside. The maximum screen opening angle is up to 140 degrees.

Compared to the previous generation, two details are dominant. The first is about 7% smaller and the second is excellent detail in the form of a small red cover in the upper left corner of the case. You can replace this red cover with the black and gray that comes with the laptop. One of the rubber feet that the laptop relies on is also red.

The laptop’s base is slightly larger than the screen, and you will notice that there’s no webcam because Asus wants the edges of the screen to be as thin as possible. Asus has introduced the practice of releasing a webcam on all gaming laptops.

However, suppose the camera is so important to you. In that case, Asus also offers unique software that allows the laptop to use the camera from a mobile phone for video communication (Link to MyAsus).

Keyboard

Asus opted for the TKL keyboard without the numeric keypad but with additional keys on the top left and right. At the top are dedicated buttons for volume adjustment, microphone control, cooling profile (Silent, Performance, Turbo), and a button to call the Armoury Crate control center. On the right side of the keyboard are the dedicated multimedia keys.

The lighting is four-zone, and in addition to the keyboard, a light strip is placed under the front edge, which complements the aesthetic atmosphere of laptop lighting.

WASD keycaps are entirely transparent. Below, you can see the mechanism for moving the keys. The key mechanism isn’t mechanical, but it’s pretty correctly done and comfortable for longer work.

Below the keyboard is a larger touchpad with integrated buttons that works excellently. For gamers, the touchpad is unnecessary to comment on because they use some of the better gaming mice.

300 Hz 1080p IPS panel

The test Asus Strix G15 had Sharp’s Full HD (1920×1080) IPS panel, with an excellent color gamut and an impressive 300 Hz refresh rate. Of course, in addition to FreeSync support, the response of only 3 ms will be appreciated by gamers who play fast competitive games. So, there will be no ghosts or blurring in fast-paced action scenes. In addition to this model, Asus also offers a WQHD (1440p) screen, but with a lower refresh rate of “only” 165 Hz.

CPU AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX is a mobile processor for powerful laptop gaming configurations. Powerful CPU rests on Zen 3 architecture (the latest AMD Cezanne generation), with eight physical cores running at 3.3 GHz to a turbo mode of 4.6 GHz. The suffix X in the processor designation indicates the possibility of overclocking.

The Ryzen 9 5900HX also comes with an integrated Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics card with 8 CU and a clock speed of 2100 MHz. In addition, the integrated memory controller supports DDR4-3200 MHz. The AMD Ryzen 9 mobile processor is a potent processor that you can easily overclock from Asus’ Armoury Crate software.

Installed RAM

The Strix G15 Advanced Edition comes with a generous 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM (2×8), enough for all the gaming challenges. Quality DDR4 3200 Mhz memory comes with a Samsung signature, but Asus may put components from different vendors with similar specifications depending on the stock status. Other vendors apply not only to RAM but also to disks (SSDs), displays, etc.

Storage

Strix G15 comes with a built-in NVMe Gen3 SSD capacity of 512GB. The concrete model PM991a is signed by Samsung with a sequential read and write of 3100/1800 MB/s. Also, there’s another M.2 slot to expand storage space. So there’s no room to set up a 2.5″ SATA 3 HDD or SSD.

GPUs: AMD Radeon RX 6800M 12 GB GDDR6 + Radeon RX Vega 8

The AMD RX 6800M with 12GB GDDR6 and 192-bit memory bus is AMD’s strongest mobile graphics card, which according to AMD, should be the equivalent of the RTX 3080 (also for laptops). AMD’s most powerful mobile graphics card uses the Navi 22 chip based on the new RDNA2 architecture and is most similar in specifications to the desktop version of the Radeon RX 6700 XT.

Asus has configured the RX 6800M for 145W TDP and boosts this value by 15% using SmartShift technology. SmartShift is a beneficial option to increase CPU and graphics card performance when a system load is disproportionate. Also included on the Asus laptop is the Smart Access Memory (SAM), which allows the processor to access the entire memory of the graphics card.

 

Gaming performance

Let’s look at how the Asus Strix G15 Advantage behaves in newer and more popular games.

You can position the performance of the RX 6800M between RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 (mobile version).

Temperature

Asus has cooled the laptop via its excellent Armoury Crate software (you can also access it via the corresponding button above the keyboard). The software has the following profiles: windows (for daily work without heavy load), silent, performance (set as a standard profile), turbo, and manually adjusted. On the standard profile, you can expect moderate noise around 44 dBA, while the noise rises to 50 dBA on the turbo.

Temperatures aren’t great, but it’s challenging to remove a large amount of heat from powerful components, as with any gaming laptop. The RX 6800M goes over 70°C while the Ryzen 9 reaches over 80°C in gaming.

Connectors and more

With the Asus Strix G15 Advantage Edition, I like that most of the connectors are on the back, which allows for neater cable routing. There are enough ports, although there are no ports on the right and only two USB Type-A and one audio jack on the left.

The following connections come from the left:

• 3.5 mm Combo Audio Jack
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A

The following connections come from the back:

• power supply
• HDMI 2.0b
• USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
• USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C support DisplayPort/power delivery
• RJ45 LAN port

Asus has built a MediaTek MT921 chipset that supports WiFi 6 (802.11ax) into this laptop model for wireless connectivity. In addition to WiFi 6, there’s support for Bluetooth 5.1

It’s also imperative that the laptop work when powered by only a 90 WHrs 4-cell Li-ion battery. So, when you turn off the external power, Asus Crate activates the Silent profile, where the screen refresh rate drops from 300 Hz to 60 Hz.

Under conditions of moderate use, the autonomy time can be almost 10 hours, which is a great result. Of course, if you reach for a demanding game, the laptop will drastically reduce the autonomy time, but in any case, I don’t recommend gaming without an external power source.

Conclusion

In terms of design, build quality, and many valuable features, the Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition is an excellent gaming laptop. Performance is impressive because you get in the package at the moment, the strongest AMD has to offer in a mobile segment at an attractive price.

Given the power of this laptop, the battery is perhaps the best second thing because it can last without problems for over 10 hours without charging. The screen is excellent, with a fast response and a fantastic refresh rate.

Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition will not disappoint you if you are a demanding gamer. On the other hand, if you are bothered by the lack of a webcam, faster USB ports, and similar “little things,” look for a solution in another laptop model.

Also, the biggest hurdle can be the price for most gamers, although it is relatively affordable, considering what you get. For those with a shallower pocket and more modest requirements, there’s an excellent alternative in quality gaming laptops under $ 1000, which will provide you with quite decent performance in most AAA gaming titles.