ASUS ROG Strix G513 laptop review: graphics getting closer

 

This spring we got acquainted with the new line of gaming laptops ROG Strix G15. The acquaintance began immediately with a very well-prepared model equipped with a top-end AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor and a discrete RTX 3070 video card. In general, this is the traditional state of affairs, as NVIDIA begins to release new generations of video cards, starting from the top. We also highly appreciated the ROG Strix G513QR model. Combined with excellent performance, it turned out to have a very ergonomic, although typically angular, body appropriate for a gaming model. With the release of more affordable graphics solutions, we wondered whether the magic of an aesthetic and functional solution would remain, or whether the place of high fps values would be replaced by antics and caveats. Let’s check this with the ROG Strix G513 model.

 

Design

 

Externally, the G513 model is no different from the G513QR. The laptop has a screen diagonal of 15.6 inches with narrow frames on the sides and top. It is mounted on fairly high hinges to lift the lid over the bulge at the rear of the base. There is no webcam and, if necessary, you will need to purchase it separately. The lift also prevents you from opening the lid with the display much, but this angle is enough for use at the table. In general, this was the price for improving the performance of the cooling system, which is definitely good in the case of top-end components.

 

 

There is a small protrusion on the lid to make it convenient to open the laptop. The bottom is heavy, so it was easy enough to do with one hand. When opened, white indicators of system operation are visible under the display: power, charging, storage operation and airplane mode activity.

 

 

When the lid is closed, there remains an opening between it and the base superstructure, in which the mentioned indication is visible. The mesh in the gray part has random, at first glance, holes. In the corner of the thickening we find another “ROG” logo.

 

Attention to detail is one of the main points that we note in the design of ASUS gaming laptops. On the outside of the laptop lid, in addition to the prominent backlit Republic of Gamers logo, there are small symbols “R”, “O”, “G” in the upper right corner. There are the same ones in the same area inside – on the keyboard field.

 

The base consists of two planes – perforated and solid, which are implemented at different levels. The legs on which the device is placed form a slight rise of the body with a wedge. The rear longitudinal legs, gray with the slogan “For those who dare” and black, with the slogan “Back on top”, are the highest. The legs closest to the user protrude the most beyond the plane of the base. There are two more in the middle, with the numbers “18-15-07 06/06” and the inscription “Republic of Gamers”.

 

 

The hot air outlet grilles in this model are located on the right, left and rear sides, and again there are some Easter eggs here. The rear slots are made symmetrically, but only one of them forms the “MMVI” symbols (2006 – the year the ROG brand was created).

 

The audio components continue to impress. The stereo speakers reproduce mid and high frequencies quite cleanly and balanced. The engineers also managed to achieve surround sound and even some bass. In games, special effects already feel much more complete.

 

 

The connectors are located on the left and back sides. The right one is freed up for right-handed users using a mouse. True, the air from the ventilation there still warms your hands quite noticeably.

 

On the left side there are two USB Type-A version 3.2 Gen 1 and a hybrid connector with the ability to connect a headset with a microphone. The rear end has “stationary” connections – power, Ethernet, full-size HDMI, USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 1 with Display Port support and another high-speed USB-A.

 

The keyboard is made with characters in the company’s corporate font. Bright, customizable backlighting synchronized with the LED strip underneath the laptop. The Cyrillic alphabet is slightly muted due to the fact that it is shifted to the lower right corner of each button. What we missed here was the activation of the touch digital unit on the touchpad field.

 

 

It’s cool that the model with more affordable components did not lose most of its features. There is a full set of a wide variety of ports, good external speakers and the same cute design delights.

 

Display and components

 

 

The laptop has an IPS matrix with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 with a matte finish. This option, combined with a 15.6-inch diagonal, should have a beneficial effect on gaming performance. Yes, the color gamut of the screen, which in our case has a frequency of 144 Hz, without calibration will not allow working with media content for professional purposes. But for non-gaming tasks, such as daily office work and editing amateur content, a laptop will be a convenient solution.

 

The combination of increased resolution in this diagonal and a smooth picture provided by the market average frequency is more than optimal. The display becomes as versatile as possible for a gaming laptop. It is equally well suited for single-player games with cool graphics, and MMOs where you want to have an advantage in reaction and perception of information. What else ensures comfort in games?

 

 

The ROG Strix G513 is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, which belongs to the Cezanne family. It has 8 cores based on Zen 3 microarchitecture clocked at 3.2-4.4 GHz and supports SMT (16 threads). The chip is manufactured using a modern 7-nm process technology at TSMC.

 

The new Zen 3 microarchitecture offers significantly higher IPC (instructions per clock) compared to Zen 2. In addition to eight cores, this processor also has an integrated AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics card with 8 compute units and a frequency of up to 2000 MHz. The dual-channel memory controller supports the DDR4-3200 MHz standard and energy-efficient LPDDR4-4266 memory. In addition, the chip has 16 MB of L3 cache.

 

 

With mixed activities (browser, image editor, office applications and some full load in professional software), the processor temperature ranged from 40 to 70 °C.

 

The relatively recently released video card GeForce RTX 3050 Ti aroused interest. Let us remind you that the laptop is also available in a configuration with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and 3070 video cards.

 

The desktop version of the GA107 graphics processor, which became the basis for theGeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPUmodel, uses 2560 CUDA cores, 80 tensor cores and 20 RT cores. The declared operating frequency range of the GPU is from 1035 to 1695 MHz. The video card received 4 GB of GDDR6 video memory with support for a 128-bit bus.

 

The GeForce RTX 3050 Ti delivers a much higher level of performance than its predecessor, the GeForce GTX 1650 Ti. Thanks to support for AI anti-aliasing DLSS, the new product can provide more than 60 FPS even in games with ray tracing. For budget laptops this is a very good result. This is what we were convinced of by conducting a series of measurements in synthetic tests.

 

 

As for games, the Full HD resolution matrix is successfully used here, which allows you to run games at settings close to maximum. As a result, the frame rate is quite comfortable.

 

The ROG Strix G513QR has an Intel AX200 wireless adapter that supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. in our case.

 

As for autonomy, it is typical for gaming models. Due to the fairly capacious battery, we get 4-5 hours for office tasks. You can play using only the battery, but the video card in this case operates at a power of 20-25 W instead of the working 80 W in normal mode and 95 W in Turbo mode.

 

The proprietary ASUS Armory Crate software implements many settings, because a laptop is a computer complex, it is logical that both internal and external equipment can be customized. In the familiar interface, which we saw for peripherals, for example, the configuration of many parts of the system is implemented. In general, everything is identical to the model we tested earlier.

 

 

Impressions

 

The ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513 model is a representative of relatively lightweight and practical gaming laptops. We liked the design even in the test of a more advanced model with an RTX 3070 video card. Then we appreciated the combination of strict black and gray elements, which, if desired, can be diluted with bright design elements. The lower part with customizable RGB lighting completes the look with an interesting design.

 

The very fact of the existence of a review of such a configuration as in this test shows that the line will become very diverse and universal – for tasks and games of different levels. The set of processor-video card-memory combinations is really quite large.

 

Vesria with AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti in terms of price/performance ratio, provides a sufficient number of frames in games at medium-high settings and does not force you to pay almost one and a half times more hard-earned money for an increase of 10-15 fps. Moreover, popular MMOs will run perfectly at maximum speed. This is not a decisive factor, but this level of components also requires less powerful cooling and, as a result, is more comfortable in terms of noise.

 

All models with 144 Hz screens are characterized by small sRGB coverage, which may be critical for some use cases. In any case, we have before us a balanced gaming solution that meets fairly high requirements, regardless of genre preferences.

 

Characteristics of ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513 (90NR0512-S00020)
Processor:	AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, 8 cores, 16 threads, 3.2-4.4 GHz
Video accelerators:	AMD Radeon RX Vega 8, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 4 GB GDDR6 (up to 95 W)
RAM:	16 GB DDR4-3200
Storage:	SK Hynix HFM512GD3JX013N, 512 GB
Display:	15.6”, 1920×1080, IPS, 144 Hz
Communications:	Wi-Fi 802.11ax (2×2), Bluetooth 5.1
Connectors:	3x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 1 (Display Port + Power Delivery), 1x HDMI 2.0b, Ethernet, 3.5 mm audio
Web camera, microphone:	no, yes
Additional:	Keyboard and case backlight
Battery:	56 Wh, Li-ion
Dimensions:	354 x 259 x 27.2 mm
Weight:	2.1 kg
Supplier:	ASUS representative office in Ukraine
Price:	~$1400

Rating:

+ ratio of resolution and diagonal

+ design and ergonomics

+ performance/price

-no NumLk in the touchpad