CPU and Storage Performance
While gaming is obviously the main focus of the ROG Zephyrus, we wanted to get a better idea of general performance in tasks as well. Equipped with an Intel i7-7700HQ quad-core mobile processor, the ROG Zephyrus is the most powerful laptop we have ever tested.
In the Cinebench R15 rendering benchmark, the i7-7700HQ in the ROG Zephyrus uses Hyper Threading to its advantage for a 37% improvement in multi-core rendering over the quad-core non-Hyper Threaded i5-7300HQ in the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming.
Similarly, in Handbrake video encoding, we see a 35% advantage over the Dell gaming notebook and a 73% speed increase over the MacBook and ThinkPad X1 Carbon with low-voltage processors.
It's worth noting that the Zephyrus did not let us run our encode in Intel QuickSync mode. This is likely due to the lack of Intel integrated graphics drivers on this system since it ships with a GTX 1080 in an always-on configuration.
PCMark 8 is a benchmarking suite that aims to emulate several different usage scenarios ranging from basic productivity to mixed workloads with light gaming and to applications for creative professionals like photo and video editing. While the "conventional" tests are running applications as you'd expect, the "accelerated" versions add OpenCL acceleration and use the available GPU devices for some operations.
In PCMark 8, we see the power of the i7-7700HQ CPU and the OpenCL performance of the GTX 1080 combine to obliterate the other notebooks we have previously tested.
Storage results from the Samsung SM961 SSD in the ROG Zephyrus are as expected. We see industry-leading performance similar to Samsung's consumer-focused Samsung 960 Pro.
Overall, the ROG Zephyrus is well equipped to handle any task you may run into. Whether it's basic productivity in Word or Excel, video editing, or gaming, this machine is a top-of-class performer.
Nice piece no doubt. Battery
Nice piece no doubt. Battery life is a killer though. More disabling tech needed to be incorporated when on battery (i.e. on chip iGPU switch over with disabled dGPU, lower multipliers, cores disabled, lower DDR4 speeds etc.). <2hrs on battery is unusable in the real world.
Is the RAM running in dual
Is the RAM running in dual channel? With on board chips and then two DIMMs, I thought this non-symmetric design might kick it back to single channel?
Intel chips have been smart
Intel chips have been smart enough to do a split dual/single channel partition of the RAM for a little while now. In most scenarios you won’t notice the difference
What the hell is the point of
What the hell is the point of an ultraportable that lasts less than two hours? Seriously who approves such a product?
Maybe I’m in the minority
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I’d be more interested in a push for more durable, reliable, and serviceable laptops rather than this focus on thinness.
This is honestly a stupid way
This is honestly a stupid way to go with laptop design. If I’m buying a laptop for gaming, I don’t want thin and light to compromise battery life, thermals, noise, throttling and all sorts of other criteria. I /want/ a thicker laptop that has a larger battery, better cooling and temperatures. I’m all for Nvidia GPUs, but this idea is complete non-sense and a waste of time.
So it’s a 1080m…
So it’s a 1080m…
“You’ll find four USB 3.1
“You’ll find four USB 3.1 Type-A ports”
should be: You’ll find four USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports. But the spec sheet table lists them as “4 x USB 3.0″(old USB-IF nomenclature) and at least there is a TB3 so that’s not so bad.
Really a gaming laptop and Ultrabook/Thin And Light means only one thing: thermal throttling and crappy battery life. And the deal killer is that Thin/Apple like form over functionality design for a gaming laptop that costs $2700.
Why does it have a
Why does it have a significantly smaller battery than my Surface Book? Two hours is a joke. I had a Clevo gaming laptop that wasn’t much thicker than this thing back in 2005 that had three hours of battery life…
I think the compromises here are in all the wrong places.
Needs a 90whr battery.
In a
Needs a 90whr battery.
In a world where external GPUs are looming I don’t think the form factor makes sense.
Having a single machine to do it all is a good goal. But, Nvidia and AMD should OEM eGPUs in a small, sleek form factor. No need for an enclosure, if the GPU itself is designed to sit on the desk with an integrated 120v PSU on the PCB. I don’t think an eGPU has to be much bigger than a large conventional GPU if it’s done right.
I think this laptop is
I think this laptop is amazing.
Yes….the battery life let’s it down, but all Asus has to do is design and manufacture an external power-bank to attach to the Zephyrus, thus making it more portable.