3070 with lcd screen quotation

Excellent circuit design with the top-grade materials, not only maximizes the excellence of the GPU, but also maintains stable and long-life operation.

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Last month, Nvidia’s RTX 3080 ushered in the next generation of 4K gaming with an impressive leap in performance over the 2080 model it replaced. While Nvidia’s flagship card was designed to push 4K, the $499 RTX 3070 is $200 less expensive and still promises big performance gains over the previous-generation RTX 2080 and even the RTX 2080 Ti. Like all of Nvidia’s RTX cards before it, the RTX 3070 can also take advantage of ray tracing and Nvidia’s AI-powered DLSS technology to boost frame rates and still maintain great image quality.

This combination of performance and price puts the RTX 3070 in the ideal sweet spot for 1440p gaming. The vast majority of PC gamers are still using 1080p displays, and the RTX 3070 offers up an upgrade path to 1440p without the steep cost of an RTX 3080 and the extra power draw.

I’ve spent the past week testing out the RTX 3070 at both 1440p and 4Kahead of its October 29th debut, and it’s fair to say this card will give you a lot of headroom for games coming in 2021 and beyond so long as you’re playing at 1440p or below. If you’re considering the move to 1440p, the RTX 3070 is the more budget-friendly option if you want to futureproof along the way.

Nvidia made some big changes to the cooling on the Founder’s Edition RTX 3080, but it’s maintained a traditional dual-fan setup with the RTX 3070. The dual-axial fans work in tandem to keep the card cool, with the right fan pushing air all the way through the card’s shroud to the opposite side, while the left directly cools the GPU cores with air that can exhaust out the rear of your chassis.

During my testing, I rarely heard the fans spin up, even with the card hitting temperatures of 75 degrees Celsius. While the RTX 3070 doesn’t benefit from the same push-pull system found on the RTX 3080, it does pick up some of the other hardware improvements found on the flagship.

The hardware design on the RTX 3070 is very similar, allowing Nvidia to use a dense PCB that’s a lot smaller to improve airflow throughout the card. And just like the RTX 3080, Nvidia is using its new 12-pin single power connector, as opposed to the separate 6- and 8-pin or twin 8-pin connectors on prior cards.

Nvidia has included its own adapter inside the box. Since the RTX 3070 only needs a single 8-pin power connector, it makes the adapter a little less wieldy than the one found on the RTX 3080. Still, I would highly recommend picking up a direct 12-pin connector from your PSU manufacturer instead of using the ugly adapter.

The RTX 3070 also includes a single HDMI 2.1 port and three DisplayPort 1.4a ports. Much like the RTX 3080, Nvidia has dropped the USB-C VirtualLink port found on the RTX 2080, which never saw any real adoption for VR. While the RTX 3080 has pure white LEDs around the fan and to light up the GeForce RTX branding, the RTX 3070 ditches this for a simple look without any lighting.

Nvidia’s RTX 3000 series cards have introduced a bump in power requirements, and the RTX 3070 pulls up to 220 watts by itself. That’s a 19 percent jump from the previous RTX 2070 but still slightly less than the RTX 2080. Nvidia is recommending a 650W power supply for the RTX 3070, compared to the 550W recommendation for the RTX 2070.

I’ve been testing the RTX 3070 on a newly built machine using Intel’s latest Core i9-10900K inside. I previously tested the RTX 3080 on an older Core i7-7700K, so I’ve gone back and tested Nvidia’s flagship on this new system to provide a comparison between the RTX 2080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080. For 1440p tests, I hooked up the RTX 3070 to a 27-inch Asus ROG Swift PG279Q monitor. This monitor supports refresh rates up to 165Hz plus G-Sync, so it’s a great match for the RTX 3070’s power. I’ve also been testing 4K performance, which you can find below.

Like my RTX 3080 testing, I’ve been playing a variety of AAA games to understand what the RTX 3070 is capable of. I’ve also performed average frame rate testing and used built-in benchmarks across a variety of games, including Fortnite, Control, Death Stranding, Metro Exodus, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Microsoft Flight Simulator. All games were tested at max or ultra settings, and nearly every title exceeded the 100fps average mark at 1440p.

Fortnitecame close to hitting my monitor’s max refresh rate with maxed-out settings, averaging 138fps. Call of Duty: Warzone also came close, averaging 130fps. Normally, I’d adjust graphical settings way down to hit these types of frame rates, but the RTX 3070 was able to handle both games with ease. As you can see in the benchmark chart below, you won’t often need an RTX 3080 to max out today’s games with a 1440p monitor.

Most games that implement DLSS allow you to pick between performance or quality modes, and in Fortnite, I tested both. I was able to get a 215fps average with the performance DLSS mode enabled, and a 172fps average when I favored quality. It’s difficult to notice the impact on image quality in the performance mode, and the quality mode looks the same if not better. I’m still surprised at how well DLSS works.

Even without DLSS, demanding titles like Control still hit 95fps with maxed-out settings, and Metro Exodus managed to hit 30fps with the highest-level settings enabled. The RTX 3080 felt like a very comfortable option for 1440p and may have more staying power, but the RTX 3070 is so close behind that you could skip it and save $200 at this resolution.

While I’m happy with the 1440p performance of the RTX 3070, its 4K performance isn’t nearly as impressive. I’ve been testing the RTX 3070 with Acer’s 27-inch Nitro XV273K, a 4K monitor that offers up to 144Hz refresh rates, G-Sync, and even HDR support.

It’s more of a 50 / 50 split on how many games hit 60fps or more on the RTX 3070 with maxed-out settings at 4K. Shadow of the Tomb Raider didn’t quite make it, nor does Control, which regularly drops below 30fps during gameplay even without ray tracing.

Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone do well to maintain above a 60fps average, but there’s not enough headroom in most modern games to make this a capable 4K card without compromise. You’ll need to drop visual quality to maintain higher frame rates at 4K, which was the story of the RTX 2080 as well. Only this time, you’ll pay $200 less to get better performance.

DLSS certainly helps here, though. While Control is unplayable at 12fps with ray tracing enabled at 4K, if you use the DLSS quality mode alone the frame rate jumps to a reasonable 83fps. Likewise, I managed to get a 139fps average in Fortnite with the DLSS performance mode enabled.

DLSS alone means the RTX 3070 can stretch to be a 4K, 60fps card in most of today’s games, even if it might not be enough tomorrow. As Metro Exodus and Microsoft Flight Simulator show, there are already games where this brand-new card can’t hit 30fps without lowering graphical fidelity.

Speaking of futureproofing, the RTX 3070 only has 8GB of video memory, lower than the 10GB of memory that was already slightly worrisome on the RTX 3080. 4K games currently average between 4GB and 6GB, and some titles are already demanding that much at 1440p. While 8GB should be enough for 1440p, I would still have liked to have seen at least 10GB on the RTX 3070 and 12GB on the RTX 3080. There’s room for Nvidia to launch additional 3080 and 3070 cards with more memory on board, probably in a future Super branded edition.

I should also note here that I had two back-to-back driver crashes while using the RTX 3070 in Call of Duty: Warzone. The RTX 3080 had some early driver issues with certain games that were later fixed, so this could have simply been some quirks in the review drivers. I haven’t been able to replicate the issues, though.

Nvidia’s big performance promises for the RTX 3000 Series of cards are holding up. I’m surprised at how small, powerful, and quiet the RTX 3070 is. While the RTX 3080 ushers in a 4K gaming era for those with the budget to really go all out, the RTX 3070 offers a slightly more affordable option for moving from 1080p to 1440p.

The RTX 3070 is the 1440p sweet spot right now. With more games supporting DLSS, and even ray tracing, I think it’s going to be a card that will be great at 1440p for years to come. I wouldn’t recommend an RTX 3070 for 4K gaming, though. If you’re willing to spend extra for 4K, then the RTX 3080 is a far more capable option.

The biggest problem with the RTX 3070 will be similar to the RTX 3080: availability. Nvidia promised that it had “great yields” for the 3080, and it was “making them as fast as we can.” Unfortunately, the launch was messy, with demand massively outstripping supply. I expect the same will happen with the RTX 3070, even with the delay to its launch to build up stocks.

If you’re upgrading from a GTX 1070 or even a GTX 1080, particularly if you’re moving from 1080p to 1440p, the RTX 3070 feels ideal to me. I think this card, and whatever other lower-priced GPUs Nvidia has planned, will help usher in a move toward 1440p for a lot of people wanting to upgrade their PCs.

The RTX 3060 bundle pairs a Gigabyte Eagle OC RTX 3060 with a Gigabyte 24-inch, 1080p flat panel gaming monitor. The monitor features a 1ms response time and a variable refresh rate of either 165 or 180Hz. The monitor also features AMD FreeSync Premium, which provides a smoother image at higher refresh rates without adversely impacting performance. You’ll find plenty of connectivity options with the monitor as well, including a pair of HDMI inputs, a single DisplayPort input, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a trio of USB ports for peripherals.

The other bundle on offer here includes a Gigabyte Gaming OC RTX 3070 packaged with a 27-inch, 1440p, curved gaming monitor from Gigabyte that features a 165Hz refresh rate. The monitor also features AMD FreeSync Premium support and has a 1ms response time. Other vital specs accompanying this monitor include a pair of HDMI inputs, a single DisplayPort input, and four USB ports for peripheral connectivity.

The Gigabyte 3070 GPU paired with this bundle is significantly larger than the 3060, with a length of 11.26 inches and height of 4.53 inches; not all cases may be able to accommodate this GPU. While the 3070 may feature just 8GB of VRAM compared to the 12GB in the 3060, its more efficient memory interface makes the 3070 better suited to QHD gaming. A card of this size demands a power supply with a 650W rating or better and requires a six-pin power connector in addition to the usual eight-pin connection.

1 - Up to 4k 12-bit HDR at 240Hz with DP1.4a+DSC. Up to 8k 12-bit HDR at 60Hz with DP 1.4a+DSC or HDMI2.1+DSC. With dual DP1.4a+DSC, up to 8K HDR at 120Hz

4 - Requirement is made based on PC configured with an Intel Core i9-10900K processor. A lower power rating may work depending on system configuration.

Note: The above specifications represent this GPU as incorporated into NVIDIA"s reference graphics card design. Clock specifications apply while gaming with medium to full GPU utilization. Graphics card specifications may vary by add-in-card manufacturer. Please refer to the add-in-card manufacturers" website for actual shipping specifications.

Besides excellent cooling and superior performance, LCD Edge View is another spotlight of AORUS RTX 30 series graphics cards. LCD Edge View is a small LCD located on the top of the graphics card. What could users do with this small LCD? Let’s find it out.

LCD Edge View is a LCD located on the graphics card, you can use it todisplay GPU info including temperature, usage, clock speed, fan speed, VRAM usage, VRAM clock and total card power. All this information can be shown one by one or just certain ones on the LCD.

Besides that, there are three different displaying styles available and users could choose their ideal one. However, not just GPU info but FPS (Frame Per Second) in the game or other application could be displayed through LCD Edge View.

The LCD Edge View can also show customized content including text, pictures or even short GIF animations.Users could input the preferred text to the LCD, also set the font size, bold or italic. It also supports multi-language so users could input whatever type of text they want.

About the picture, LCD Edge View allows users to upload a JPEG file to it and AORUS RGB Fusion software will let users choose which region of the picture should be shown. The support of short GIF animations is the most interesting part.

Users can upload a short animation in terms of GIF to be shown on the LCD so they can easily build up a graphics card with their own style. All of the customizations above can be done via AORUS RGB Fusion software.

There’s something more interesting with LCD Edge View: The little CHIBI.CHIBI is a little falcon digitally living in the LCD Edge View and will grow up as more time users spend with their graphics card. Users could always check their little CHIBI through the LCD Edge View and watch it eat, sleep or fly around, which is quite interactive and interesting.

In conclusion, LCD Edge View can display a series of useful GPU information, customized text, pictures, and animations, allowing users to build up the graphics card with their own style. Users can also have more interaction with their card via the little CHIBI, the exclusive little digital falcon living inside the LCD Edge View, which brings more fun while playing with the graphics card.

While the 2021 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 has been available for a few weeks in some regions, it has yet to come in stores in this part of Europe, so I had to wait to spend some time with a final product before I could share my thoughts on this series with you. I did get to use some early Zephyrus G units for the preview article published in January, but I couldn’t run any proper tests on those, as they were not finalized retail products.

I did watch and read a couple of other reviews while unpatiently waiting for my unit, and most of them are highly praising this revised 2021 G15. Having finally spent time with it, I agree that it’s undoubtedly a major step-up from the 2020 G15 GA502 and an excellent performer in the portable 15-inch segment. It’s also a good typer, and benefits from the QHD screen with 100% DCI-P3 colors, some of the best speakers available on any laptop right now, and a large-capacity battery, all these adding up to the overall daily-use experience.

But it’s not without some quirks and even flaws, as you’ll find out from this article, some of them expected when cramming this sort of hardware in a compact chassis, and some of them software bugs or just weird decisions that take a toll on the laptop’s functionality. You know I tend to complain about all these small imperfections that perhaps you might not care about, but I’d prefer you find out about all of these after reading the article, so you can then decide for yourself if you can live with them or not.

Aside from the configuration tested here, Asus also offer an entry-level Zephyrus G15 GA503QM variant of this laptop, built on Ryzen 7 5800HS/ Ryzen 9 5900HS processors, RTX 3060 Laptop graphics (80W + 15W Boost), and either FHD 240 Hz or QHD 165 Hz screens. These are only available in some markets, though.

Update: There’s a 2022 Zephyrus G15 in the works, with AMD Rembrandt hardware, higher power GPUs, and a MUX, among others. You’ll find all about it in this detailed review of the Zephyrus G15 GA503RW model.

The 2021 G15 is available in two color variants, a white model with a white keyboard, and a dark-gray model with black keys. Having used both, I’d go with the latter.

Subjectively, white laptops are a bit too flashy for my taste, and objectively, white backlit keyboards with white keys are frustrating to read in most conditions, to the point where you’ll just have to disable the illumination altogether. That aside, I worry dirt will gather over time in the punctured holes on this laptop’s lid, in the speaker cuts that flank the keyboard, and even around the clickpad, and all of this will be more visible on the white model. On the other hand, this white version hides smudges and fingerprints easier, so it’s a win some lose some situation here.

That being said, my 3080 review unit is the white model, hence most of the pictures in this article. It’s also important to mention that there’s a good chance you might not get to choose between the two colors in your area. From what I’m seeing right now, the GA503QR available at Best Buy only comes in gray, while these GA503QS review-units Asus have provided lately are all white. Nonetheless, if given the choice, I’d go with the gray model.

Aesthetically, this 2021 G15 builds on the design lines of the 2020 G14, with minimalist branding elements, the same kind of dotted lid with a layer of prismatic material that reflects light in different shades on this 15-inch model, and without the AnimeMatrix array of lit dots, which remains exclusive for the Zephyrus G14. A more detailed comparison of the G14, G15, and the newer Zephyrus M16 is also available here on the site.

Smooth magnesium alloys are used for the main case, which feel nice to the touch, while plastic is used for the bezel around the screen. That’s black and it kind of bothers me on this white variant of the laptop, as it looks a bit weird and cheap. I don’t think a white bezel would have looked better, but perhaps Asus should have used a smoother plastic texture for this bezel part, more in line with the rest of the design.

The lid is aluminum and covered in matte white paint. Make sure you treat this with care, as it can dent fairly easily. A friend of mine recently bought one of these white G15s, and when he peeled off the sticker that comes attached to the top of the lid, some of the paint also peeled off. So be very careful about that.

Speaking of the bezel, there’s still no webcam on this series, even if there’s enough room for it at the top of the screen, where instead you’ll only find a set of microphones. There’s also a hefty chin under the screen, which might not look that appealing, but actually serves a practical role on this laptop, as it absorbs some of the heat pushed out through the vents.

And that’s because the Zephyrus G15 inherits the Ergolift hinges and thermal design from the G14, which I’m not a fan of: the laptop raises up on rubber feet placed at the bottom of the screen part, allowing for a slightly inclined typing position and extra airflow underneath, into the fans. That’s perfectly fine, but this sort of design means that the hot air is expelled into the screen, and not behind the screen and to the back, as on the other ROG Zephyrus models.

The chassis includes some design elements on top of the radiators that are meant to channel the airflow to the sides, and not straight up into the screen, but despite this, the panel still heats-up while running games, as you’ll see in the following section. This sort of design might also make the laptop feel noisier than the other ROG designs with the exhausts behind the screens, but that might just be my impression. Either way, the fans get loud on this thing, especially on the Turbo profile. We’ll get to that in a bit.

And while we’re here, I should also mention that for some reason Asus put the most atrocious status LEDs I’ve seen in years on this laptop. They’re huge and bright and placed under the screen, right in the line of sight. They did angle those LEDs in a way that tucks them behind the main-chassis, but you’re still going to notice their obnoxious reflection in the bezel when using the laptop at night. And not just the status LEDs reflect in the bezels, but also a small part of the keyboard’s illumination, right under the O in ROG. Why would you do that?

Most of you will probably only notice the awkward power-plug right there in the middle, standing out especially on this white version of the laptop, but good luck if you plan on hooking up peripherals on this thing, especially a USB-C dock. I do understand there’s only so much space you can work with on a portable design such as this one, but this Zephyrus G15 just takes things one step further than the other ROG models by squeezing everything on the left, all the way to the front. On the other hand, that does leave the right-side clutter-free, and I like that there’s at least an extra USB-A slot there, I like having those on each side. That SD card reader could have been full-size, though, and I would have enjoyed having the USB-Cs split on both sides as well, especially since these support video and charging.

With these out of the way, let’s touch on a few aspects that Asus did well here. The entire design is very friendly to the touch, with smooth materials and blunted edges and corners. The finishing seems solid and hasn’t chipped, scratched or dented in any way during my time with this laptop.

This also sits sturdily on the desk, even when only leaning on those small feet under the screen, and the hinge allows to easily pick up the screen and adjust it with a single hand. They also keep it steadily in place, so it doesn’t wobble with daily use, and they allow it to open all the way flat to the back, something most other performance laptops do not. Idk about you, but this matters a whole lot to me.

I also appreciate the ample palm-rest on the laptop and the large glass clickpad, and there’s also a finger-sensor baked into the power-button on this series, the kind that logs your fingerprint when you press it and uses it to log into Windows without requiring a second finger swipe. It takes some time to get used to, but it worked alright on my unit.

All in all, this G15 nails some design and practical aspects, while failing a few others. My biggest gripes are with the status LEDs and the keyboard light shinning into the bezel at night, with the thermal design pushing the hot air into the screen, and with IO all squeezed on the left side, towards the front of the laptop. Those LEDs could be deal-breakers, but perhaps there a way to cover them up? A permanent marker might work, especially on the dark color model.

It’s a standard layout, nothing weird about it, but without a NumPad section or any extra columns of Function keys at the right, the way Asus puts on the Zephyrus M15/S15 models or the previous 2020 G15. That’s because the space around the keyboard is reserved for those speakers on this series.

As I mentioned before, the white version of this laptop gets white keys with white illumination, and that makes the writing difficult to read in most conditions. That’s not an issue on the Gray version of the G15, which gets black keys and single-zone RGB illumination, at least on the Best Buy version that Derek got. Not sure if that’s exclusive for the Best Buy models or something you should expect from all the black keyboards, but my white model doesn’t get any color options in the Aura software, as well as a lot fewer light effects than Derek got on his model.

I’m a little surprised, Asus had some issue with their clickpads on part models, but they really brushed things out here. The surface is made out of smooth glass, is spacious and accurate with swipes, gestures, and taps. It also doesn’t rattle with taps, unlike other large clickpads, and the physical clicks are quiet and smooth. Well done!

Asus offers two screen options for the G15, an FHD panel with 240 Hz refresh of the lower-tier models, and a QHD 165 Hz panel on the higher tier, the one both I and Derek got on our units.

This is the same Chi Mei panel also available on the 2021 ROG Scar 15 and just an awesome screen for pretty much everything: regular use, gaming, and professional use that requires superior color-accuracy, as it’s ~100% DCI-P3 and ~85% AdobeRGB.

As for the 165 Hz refresh rate and ~10 ms GtG response times, those are more than enough for everyday gaming and AAA titles for the average gamer (paired with AdaptiveSync), while those interested in a higher-refresh screen could opt for the 240 Hz FHD panel instead, just keep in mind that won’t get the same color coverage, as it’s only a 100% sRGB panel.

We should also discuss the QHD resolution and Windows scaling. I’ve kept my unit at QHD resolution and 125% scaling during my time with it, and while I found things a little small for my eyes at first, I got along with it fine after a while. Some older Windows apps might not scale smoothly to 125%, though. The alternative would be to bump the scaling to 150%, but at this level, everything looks huge and you can’t put that much info on the screen, so I can’t see myself using the laptop in this way. Either way, it’s hard to tell for sure if you’ll be happy with the QHD 125% mode without giving it a try for a while, and with an open mind, as it might not look ideal at first, especially for those of us over 35.

As I mentioned earlier, my review unit is a top-specced configuration of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus GA503, code name GA503QS, built on an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS 8C/16T processor, 32 GB of DDR4 3200 MHz memory in dual channel, 1 TB of fast SSD storage, and dual graphics: the Nvidia RTX 3080 dGPU with 8 GB of vRAM and the AMD Vega iGPU integrated within the AMD processor.

Spec-wise, this 2021 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 is built on the latest AMD Ryzen HS and Nvidia RTX 3000 hardware available as of early 2021. We’re looking at a Ryzen 9 5900HS processor, the top mobile-processor meant for ultraportable formats as part of the HS series, with 8C/16T, clock speeds of up to 4.6 GHz, and a designed TDP of 35W. Asus offers a couple of power profiles in the Armoury Crate control app that allows you to juggle with the sustained power limits, thermals, and noise levels based on your needs, and as you’ll find out from this review, the Ryzen 9 processor runs at higher sustained power on most profiles.

As for the GPU, the G15 series is built on 80W variants of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080/3070 graphics chips, so lower-end Max-Q variants, but these are overclocked out of the box with ROG Boost on the Turbo profile, and they can run at up to 100W through Dynamic Boost 2.0 in supported titles. Dynamic Boost 2.0 is a technology that shifts up to 20W of power from the CPU to the GPU when required, impacting a couple of games.

Nonetheless, it’s important to understand that you’re getting more power and frequency-constrained versions of the RTX 3000 chips on this series, and not the same kinds available on the ROG Strix and Strix Scar models. That shouldn’t be a surprise, since the Zephyrus G15 is a thinner and more compact design, with an adjusted thermal module and a more affordable price.

For the RAM and storage options, the laptop comes with either 8 or 16 GB of RAM soldered out of the box, and one accessible DIMM. Our unit came with 16 GB onboard and a 16 GB DIMM, for a total of 32 GB in dual-channel. Make sure you’re getting dual-channel memory on this laptop, it makes a big difference in games. For storage, we got a fast PCIe x4 SK Hynix drive, and there are two M.2 slots inside if you’re looking to add more. We haven’t noticed any thermal or performance losses with sustained file transfers, but keep in mind that the exact included SSD might differ between regions.

Turbo – High-Performance profile with increased CPU power allocation, faster-spinning fans, and overclocked GPU (80-100W, +100 MHz Core/+120 MHz Memory).

Turbo/Manual are only available with the laptop plugged-in and are meant for gaming and other demanding loads. Performance is a jack-of-all-trades, while Silent is made for video and daily light-use. As a novelty for this 2021 generation, the two fans can completely switch off while the laptop runs on the Silent profile, as long as the CPU/GPU stay under 60 degrees C, leading to a quiet daily-use experience. However, you’ll find out that the components usually peak over 60C with daily multitasking, so the fans only stay quiet with video streaming and other very basic activities.

You can also power the laptop through USB-C, in which case you can use this on the Performance mode without depleting the battery, but with a performance toll in demanding combined loads. We’ll look at the performance while hooked up through a 100W USB-C charger in a follow-up article.

On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance by running the Cinebench R15 test for 15+ times in a loop, with 1-2 seconds delay between each run. Keep in mind we’ve mostly tested the GA503QS configuration with the Ryzen 9 processor and RTX 3080 Laptop GPU, and we’ll add comparisons to the GA503QR model with the 3070 where available.

Switching over to the Performance profile translates in the CPU running at 65W for a while and then stabilizing at 45W, with temperatures in the low to mid-80s and the fans fluctuating between 37 and 42 dB.

On Silent, the processor quickly stabilizes at ~25W with barely audible fans (sub 35 dB) and temperatures in the low-70s C. It returns very good scores of around ~1600 points, roughly 25% beneath those registered on the Turbo profile.

We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and the gruesome Prime 95, on the Turbo profile. The CPU stabilizes at 65+ W in Turbo on Cinebench R23, and only ~55W in Prime95, with lower clocks and sustained temperatures of ~80 degrees Celsius.

These are some excellent results. To put them in perspective, the full-size Scar 15 built on a Ryzen 9 5900HX + RTX 3080 Laptop 115W+ scores roughly the same in single-core CPU tests, within 2-5% higher in the CPU multi-core tests, and within 5-8% higher in the GPU benchmarks. And that’s a thicker, heavier, and more expensive product. For what is worth, though, I will add that the Zephyrus G15 runs a fair bit louder on Turbo (48+ dB) than the Scar 15 (44+ dB).

As for a 2020 pier of this laptop, I’ll pitch it against Asus’s own ROG Zephyrus S15 built on an 8Core i7-10875H processor and RTX 2080 Super 80+ graphics chip. The 2021 G15 scores roughly 12-20% higher in the single-core CPU tests, within 10-25% higher in the multi-core CPU tests, and about 7-10% higher in the graphics tests.

We’re only looking at only ~5% lower 3DMark FireStrike/TimeSpy scores for the 3070 Laptop configuration, and a bit extra for the RayTracing Port Royal test. The CPU scores are mostly the same (within the margin of error of 3%). Definitely not bad for the much more affordable G503QR configuration.

We’re still looking at alright scores, with barely any decrease in single-core tests, but a ~25% toll in the multi-threaded CPU tests, as the CPU runs at lower sustained power on Silent. The GPU ends up being significantly limited as well in sustained loads, at around 55-60W, that’s why the GPU scores are roughly 60% of what we got on Turbo.

These results are again within 10% of the Scar 15 implementation of the higher-power Ryzen 9 + 3080 hardware, with a higher difference in the few loads that can benefit from the higher GPU clocks, extra CUDA cores, and extra vRAM on the Scar, such as 3DSMax or Studioworks.

We ran a couple of DX11, DX12, and Vulkan titles on the stock Turbo, Performance, and Silent profiles, on both FHD and QHD resolutions, both on the laptop’s internal screen and an external monitor hooked up via DP, to document the performance toll taken by Optimus. Whisper Mode is enabled in GeForce Experience on the Silent mode, and I’ll explain why further down.

These results are for the Ryzen 9 + RTX 3080 Laptop variant of the Zephyrus G15, and we’ll touch on the RTX 3070 configuration further down. Here’s what we got:

Those above are rasterization-only tests, and here are some results for RTX titles. For some reason Metro Exodus crashed with RTX settings, so we’re still digging into it.

There are a lot of numbers here, so let’s get into some context. First, we’ll explain the differences between the tested profiles and then we’ll also compare the G15 with the Scar 15 and last year’s top-portable ROG model, the Zephyrus S15.

Much like with all the other Rzeyn 5000 laptops tested so far, there are two types of games that we need to look into: those that properly support Dynamic Boost and switch power from the CPU to the GPU (Cyberpunk, Red Dead, Witcher), and those that do not (Far Cry, Battlefield). That’s even more important on this laptop, which does a fair job thermally handling the GPU, but struggles with the CPU at higher-power.

As a result, the CPU averages temperatures in the 82-90 C in the games that support Dynamic Boost, with the GPU running at 78-81 C, on the Turbo profile. However, the peak CPU temperatures are very high on all titles, at around 95 C and above.

With Far Cry 5, where the system supplies more power to the CPU, this averages a whopping 96.9 C on Turbo, with the GPU running at 79C. So the CPU seems to be the culprit, at least on this sample that we have here.

However, there’s something else to consider here: fan noise. On Turbo, the fans ramp up to about 48-50 dB at head-level across the tested titles, which means you’ll need headphones to cover-up. I for one prefer this sort of a more aggressive fan-profile on the Turbo mode, with the Performance mode as a mid-performer and quieter option, but you might not.

As it is, the fans average around 44 dB on the Performance mode, with still fair temperatures, and a loss in framerates of around 5-8%, as the GPU is no longer overclocked on this mode, but Dynamic Boost still works in the compatible titles.

Quiet gaming is possible as long as you opt for the Silent mode, especially with Whisper Mode 2.0 active, limiting the fps to 60. Not all games can run at 60 fps on Silent with Ultra settings, though, and that’s because the GPU is capped at .99 MHz and 45-55W of power in this mode. But you can always trim down the details if you’re after a sub-40 dB gaming experience, and keep in mind the system only runs at around 35-36 dB in most games, ramping up to around 40 dB in the more demanding titles.

Here’s what I tried. First, you can mingle with the Manual mode, which allows you to set different fan-curves for the CPU/GPU, as well as overclock the GPU.

This can help with the temperatures, but actually increases the noise profiles. Since the CPU is the sensitive problem here, I created a profile that pushes the CPU fan at 95% once the processor goes above 90 C, and that increased the noise-levels to 52+ dB in titles such as Far Cry 5, while still averaging 48+ dB in the other titles that put a lesser strain on the processor. Pushing both fans to 100% is going to increase the noise levels to 55+ dB.

The impact is documented in the following logs, with the games that support Dynamic Boost running at excellent temperatures on this Manual mode, but the CPU still peaking out above 90 C, especially in FarCry 5 and Battlefield V.

So what next? Well, since AMD Master doesn’t support the Ryzen Mobile platform, disabling the CPU’s Boost (as explained here) is pretty much the only way to further tackle the problem. Without Boost, the CPU only clocks up at 3.3 GHz, and here’s the performance impact in the game we’ve tested:

Surprisingly, most games actually run better without CPU Boost, as this profile allows extra thermal headroom to the GPU, which ends up running at higher clocks than on the standard Turbo profile. The fans still average 48+ dB on Turbo and 44+ dB on Performance, but this time around with better temperatures in all games.

Further tweaking is then possible on the Manual profile with the Boost Disabled, and you could maybe drop the fans to around 42 dB (at 60% of their speeds) with still alright temperatures in most games. I’ll let you further play with the settings, for me, the Performance profile + Disabled Boost is enough of a sweet spot on the computer.

Update: I’ve also tested what happens when you limit the CPU’s power in Manual mode in Armory Crate, without disabling Boost. We set the SPL value at 20Wk with default GPU settings, as well as also set the CPU and GPU fans at 70% rpm for temperatures above 70 degrees Celsius, which equals noise levels of roughly 42-44 dB at head-level between the tested titles.

The results vary between the tested titles, and that’s because for some reason the GPU averages lower power and clocks with these settings in some of these games, such as Witcher 3 or Strange Brigade. At the same time, Cyberpunk or Shadow of Tomb return better fps on this mode, especially at FHD resolution. The CPU/GPU temperatures aren’t bad as well, at around 80-85 C on the CPU and 78-80 C on the GPU, with fairly quiet fans in the 42-44 dB at head level.

You should further test things yourselves, there’s potential here, but I don’t think there’s a set of settings that would work in every title, so you’ll have to change things out with every game for the best results.

AMD Master support for the Ryzen 5000 mobile platform would surely help a lot here, and especially the ability to switch off some of the cores with games, without affecting the increased Boost frequencies. That kind of tweak would put this laptop at a different level altogether. Not possible for now, though, and as far as I understand, won’t be in the near future either (if ever).

Our logs also show that both the CPU and the GPU run a little bit cooler when the laptop is hooked to an external monitor. Here are some logs with the laptops sitting on a desk. on the Turbo mode.

Overall, this Zephyrus is a prime candidate for vertical-dock use, with peripherals and an external monitor hooked in. Again, I’ll let you further test the profiles out and find the right balance between performance and noise, but I’m happy with how this unit performed on Turbo.

Well, I can’t get into a lot of details because I’ve tested the 3080 and Derek the 3070, and we don’t have the same titles and the same testing procedures. But here are a few results for you:

The comparison to the Zephyrus S15 is not as accurate, as we tested the two with different drivers and at different periods in time. Nonetheless, based on these results, the two laptops trade blows, with the G15 winning in some games, and the S15 still winning in others. Nonetheless, look forward to the updated S15 review once the Intel 11th gen Core H hardware is available, later in the year, for a more useful comparison.

With these updates, the cooling module handles the GPU side well, but the CPU peaks at high temperatures in some activities and games, as explained in the previous section.

The fans also ran fairly loud, averaging 48+ dB on Turbo, 44+ dB on Performance, and sub-40 dB on Silent with games and complex CPU+GPU activities, but with a significant loss in performance on this Silent profile.

I for one don’t mind a more aggressive fan profile on the Turbo mode, especially when you can revert to Performance for a quieter experience, with only a slight drop in framerates. Nonetheless, the AMD Ryzen 9 processor is still difficult to tame in this chassis even with the noisier Turbo profile, so you might want to consider disabling the CPU’s Boost to better keep those CPU temperatures in check.

At the same time, the Zephyrus G15 runs quietly with daily multitasking and light use, on the Silent profile, with the fans running at almost inaudible levels of around 30-33 dB. It’s not completely silent with multitasking, though, but only with video streaming and very basic use. The fans get the ability to completely switch off as long as the hardware runs at sub 60 degrees C, but multitasking easily pushes the CPU above that, which will wake-up the fans. In comparison, the thicker SCAR 15 is not as heat-sensitive and rests quietly with multitasking.

External case temperatures are fairly high as well, both with daily use and with demanding loads. With daily use, we’re looking at temperatures in the mid to high 30s around the keyboard, with the hottest part near the multimedia key at the top-left, and high-30s to mid-40s on the back. Shouldn’t be an issue, especially since the fans rest quietly and mostly off with light use, but more complex multitasking will cause a spike in both fan speeds and in temperatures.

With games, you’ll notice that the areas just next to the fan rest cooly, as the system pulls in air from both the top and the bottom. That allows for pleasant temperatures around the WASD and arrows regions, in the low to mid-40s on all power profiles.

I’ll also add that the thermal design blows the hot air into the screen’s bezel, as mentioned in a previous section, and as a result, that bezel is actually the hottest part on the entire laptop. Thankfully, it’s thick enough to absorb most of the outputted heat, but even so, some of the heat spreads onto the display as well, which hits temperatures in the low to mid-50s in the hottest regions near the radiators.

I’m definitely not a fan of this sort of design that heats-up the display, as liquid crystals and high temperatures might not play well together long-term. Asus claims this sort of heat should not impact the panel in any way, as they are within the guaranteed operational temperatures, but I would have much preferred a design that would push the hot-air out behind the screen, like on the other ROG Zephyrus models, cutting out this potential problem and perhaps helping with the perceived noise as well.

For connectivity, there’s Wireless 6 and Bluetooth 5 through an Intel AX200 chip on this unit, as well as Gigabit Lan. Our sample performed well on WiFi both near the router and at 30+ feet with obstacles in between.

The audio system includes 6 speakers on this 3080 G15 configuration, with two dual-sided woofers on the bottom and 2 tweeters firing through the grills surrounding the keyboard. Both the quality and volumes are excellent here, with even some decent bass. This is surely one of the better audio systems you can find on any laptop these days.

Asus seems to have some quality issues regarding these speakers though, with some of the BestBuy models shipping out with blow and pretty much unusable speakers. Make sure to give them a proper test with various types of audio content and at all volumes once you get your laptop, just to make sure you didn’t got a dud. If not happy, send it back.

Finally, the camera… well, there still isn’t any, and that FHD external webcam that Asus are bundling in some parts of the world with their higher-tier ROG laptops is not included here.

The system automatically switches the screen to 60Hz while on battery and on the iGPU, and the AMD platform prooves highly efficient with lightweight loads. There’s also an iGPU/dGPU toggle in Armoury Crate that you can use to completely shut off the Nvidia card while unplugged, making sure no rogue program running in the background would wake it up and eat into your battery life.

This ROG Zephyrus G15 configuration comes with a 200W power-brick, smaller and lighter than the variants used on past Zephyrus models. The battery fills up in about 2 hours, with fast-charging for the first half an hour, and USB-C charging is supported as well, up to 100W. The USB-C charger is not included, but Asus claim they will have this 100W ROG-branded USB-C charger widely available in stores this year.

The Ryzen 9 + RTX 3080 + 165 Hz screen Zephyrus GA503QS variant tested here, with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, is listed for $2499 in the US, 2799 EUR in Germany/France, and 2599 GBP in the UK. I wouldn’t get this one, though.

Instead, the mid-range Zephyrus GA503QR and QM versions are the ones you should be after, as long as you still get the QHD screen. The 3070 Laptop model that Derek got is still available from Best Buy for 1799 USD in the US, and between 1800-2000 for other retailers, while in Europe the QR variant starts at 1899 GBP in the UK and 2000 EUR in Germany. As for the QM model built on RTX 3060 graphics, that’s right now roughly 200-300 USD/GBP/EUR cheaper than the QM.

I’d be especially interested in a Ryzen 5 5600HS + RTX 3060 configuration of this laptop, especially if the 5600HS performs in any way similar to the desktop Ryzen 5 5600. And that’s because that 6Core processor might run significantly cooler than the 8Core 5800/5900 models, which would address the issue with the hot running CPU and positively impact the fan noise as well. Hopefully, Asus will offer this sort of configuration in the near future, as they do not for now.

After a couple of weeks with the 3070 model, I have to say that I’m definitely impressed with the value of this machine.  For $1800 you get an impressively fast CPU, an RTX 3070, and 1TB of storage right out of the box.  Sure you could argue that it’s not the high-powered 3070, but even the other laptops out there with low-powered 3070s aren’t this inexpensive.  Add in the keyboard, trackpad, and screen which I thought were perfect and this becomes an incredible buy.  On paper, I was certainly excited to see what this machine could do, and it certainly came through for the most part.

But even with all that, there were a couple of things that I found tough to swallow.  First off is the fan noise, which I found to be incredibly loud and was definitely contributed to by the octa-core CPU.  The only way I could resolve this was to cripple it by disabling the CPU’s Boost.  Ultimately if I were to keep this laptop, that’s exactly how I would leave it permanently.  But then why am I paying for such a nice CPU – I might as well have a hexacore Intel CPU which could be tuned properly to run cooler.

Next is the build quality, which I found to be a little on the cheap side.  The plastic magnesium casing Asus used causes some frequent creaks when handling.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the worst I’ve seen.  But I definitely noticed it and in a negative way.  On top of that, I found the hinge and lid to be a little on the flimsy side, with a plastic bezel that makes it feel cheap as well.  After handling some of the original “Zephyrus” models, I expected better.

The biggest red flag to me is the quality control.  All buyers should spend some “quality” time testing everything about this laptop, while they are still in their return window.  My issue was the lockups my machine experienced while hitting play from paused media in Netflix and Amazon.  This required a hard reset to resolve and having to run in dGPU mode to prevent.  I also had a faulty fingerprint reader that almost never worked.   While troubleshooting these issues online though, I was alarmed by the various other issues people were having.  Blown speakers were fairly common.  BSOD, faulty screens, and severe backlight bleed were also reported.  Best Buy’s reviews are littered with these complaints as well.

At the end of the day, if I had a machine with no bugs I would certainly want to keep this one.  It’s one of the best laptops out there at this size and price range.  For me though, the lockups are a good excuse to return it and evaluate my other options out there.  Another contributing factor for me is the fact I already have a Razer Blade 15 with a 2080MQ.  Performance-wise, the G15 is only a mediocre upgrade for me, especially considering I disabled boost on the CPU to avoid the noise.  So the tradeoff would be a much better screen, better speakers, and a slightly better keyboard for inferior build quality, loss of CPU FIVR control, no biometrics(or webcam at all) and soldered RAM.  Add in my bugs and I’m going to have to pass for now.

While I’ve only used my G15 sample for about two weeks now, I 100% agree with Derek’s conclusion above. On paper, this Zephyrus G15 is an incredible-value 15-inch portable laptop, with the fastest hardware available in this segment as of early 2021, good inputs and IO, excellent speakers, big battery, and what I consider to be the best multi-purpose display available right now.

All these are available in a well-priced package as long as you’re after the 3070 and 3060 configurations, both here in Europe and in North America. The 3080 is expensive and not what I’d go with, given the little performance gains this delivers, as shown in our tests.

In a way, though, Asus might force some of you to go with this top-tier QS configuration, and that’s because some of the RAM is soldered on the motherboard on this laptop. The 3080 model tested here comes with 16 GB of soldered RAM, so you can add an extra 16 GB DIMM for a total of 32. However, Derek’s 3070 model ships with 8 GB of RAM, and as far as I can tell, that’s the case with most 3060/3070 configurations, which means those can realistically top-up at 16 GB of usable dual-channel memory, even if that DIMM should support up to a 32 GB stick of RAM. Now, 16 GB are enough for daily use and gaming, but some of the more demanding workloads that this sort of hardware could tackle might benefit from 32 or even 64 GB of memory, and 32 is only possible on the more expensive 3080 configurations, while 64 is not on any models.

I’m not going to go again over the other bits and details mentioned throughout the article, but I will also warn you of the potential quality issues in the build quality, panel bleeding/uniformity, poped speakers, and software faults. Make sure you thoroughly test every little bit about this laptop within your return period.

I will take a deeper dive into the performance and thermals you should expect with this laptop, and why I think the best-buy would be a Ryzen 5 5600HS model with the RTX 3060/3070 graphics, even if that’s not even an option right now.

That’s mostly because the hardware, and especially the AMD processor, runs hot with demanding loads and games in this laptop. On top of that, if you’re looking to squeeze the best performance this can deliver, you’ll have to use the Turbo profile, which also causes the fans to ramp-up rather aggressively, at 48+ dB at head-level.

I’ve mentioned that I do prefer having a more aggressive Turbo profile if that helps lower the internal/external temperatures and extend the components’ long-term lifespan, but the thing is the CPU still runs hot in some activities on this laptop even with the noisy fans, at 90+ C on average. Plus, much of the internal heat spreads onto the exterior chassis, heating up the areas in the middle of the keyboard and the back panel, but also the screen’s bezel and the display itself, as the thermal system is designed the blow the hot-air into the screen.

Limiting the CPU’s Boost and using the laptop on Performance, with the non-overclocked GPU, is the sweet-spot in terms of performance, thermals, and noise-level, at least based on my tests. But that means you’re buying a beefy 8Core processor and an overclocked GPU, but can’t properly benefit from its capabilities, so at least you should try to spend the least on the configuration you’ll end up. Hence, my recommendation to look into the Zephyrus G15 GA503QM models, preferably with the QHD screen and preferably with a 5600HS processor if ever available (not an option right now), which I’d expect to run at much cooler temperatures in this chassis.

Of course, you’ll still have to test for the hidden flaws and accept this laptop’s other quirks, such as the awkwardly placed IO and status LEDs, the creaking chassis (which BTW is made out of magnesium, not plastic, as it might seem) and the exhaust that blows into the screen.

Now, as far as alternatives go, there’s no other similarly-sized performance laptop built on AMD 5000 hardware and RTX 3000 hardware right now. You can find those in larger devices, though, such as the Asus ROG Strix/Scar 15 laptops or the Lenovo Legion 5Pro/7 when available, plus a handful of other options build on Togfang barebones (and sold by Eluktronics, XMG, Schenker in various markets, etc). If you’re looking for top performance in a 2021 laptop, that’s what I’d go with, as these larger notebooks can better handle the thermal requirements of a Ryzen 9 5000 processor and are paired with higher-power graphics chips as well.

Anyway, that’s pretty much my review of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QS. Awesome on paper, but flawed in a couple of ways that might just not make it right for you in real-life. Hence, my final score ends-up at 4/5 for the RTX 3070 models, a no-go on the RTX 3080 configurations, and a possible full recommendation for those 3060 variants with a 6Core processor, if ever available. Looking for your thoughts on the series down below.

NVIDIA has released its newest graphics card, the NVIDIA RTX 3070 Founders Edition. Based on the current 3000 series card architecture we get a graphics card that is lower in price and lower in performance. With a suggested retail price of $499.00 USD, this makes the NVIDIA RTX 3070 FE very affordable for almost everyone. But the biggest question is can it handle the workload or our demanding games we like to play. Can we crank up the graphics to the max and not have to worry about slow down? Make sure you watch the video for more insight into the NVIDIA RTX 3070 Founders Edition.

The NVIDIA 3070 FE has all the same visual features that the 3080 and 3090 Founders Edition graphics card have. The new bold style is quite different than what we have seen in the past. With a more refined and sleeker look, it kind of gives you the feeling that you are looking at a luxury vehicle.

The top of the 3070 FE is just as sleek with a solid back cover over two-thirds of the card. The remainder of the card is taken up by a pass-thru cooling fan.

A closer look does show us that the air pass through the card and a good portion of the cooling heat pipes and fins. The air that does exit the card here will be pushed up towards the top of a PC case and should be helped along with the normal fans mounted at the top. Thus this will help minimize any warm air that could be sucked into an air cooler. If you are water cooling your CPU you have nothing to really worry about.

The fan located on the left side of the card is identical to the other one, but this cooling fan does the normal job of pushing the air out through the card and exit out the rear where the video connections are located. The RTX 3070 flow-through system is up to 16dBA quieter and has a 44% higher thermal performance than the RTX 2070 Founders Edition.

Connections to the NVIDIA 3070 FE is pretty normal with a single HDMI and three display ports. But the HDMI 2.1 — GeForce RTX 3070 GPUs (and all of the 3000 series cards) are the first available to feature HDMI 2.1 support with support for 4K@120Hz (4K120). HDMI 2.1 increases total bandwidth over HDMI 2.0b from 18Gigabits/sec to 48 and adds support for high-dynamic-range (HDR) supporting brighter images with higher contrast and more vibrant colors with better shadows and highlights.

The NVIDIA Ampere architecture Streaming Multiprocessor (SM) is the building block of the GPU, and it’s full of different Cores and Units and memory. One of the big changes in the NVIDIA Ampere architecture SM is with a 32-bit floating-point (FP32) throughput. NVIDIA designed a new datapath for FP32 and INT32 operations, which results in all four partitions combined executing 128 FP32 operations per clock. Does this help gaming? Yes. Graphics and compute operations and algorithms rely on FP32 executions, and so do modern shader workloads. Ray tracing denoising shaders benefit from FP32 speedups, too. The heavier the ray tracing rendering workload, the bigger the performance gains relative to the previous generation.

Let’s look at the numbers: RTX 3070 has 5888 CUDA cores—over twice the CUDA cores that the RTX 2070 has. It delivers 20.3 TFLOPs of shader performance plus dedicated RT Cores with the equivalent 39.7 TFLOPs of performance, for a total of 60 effective TFLOPs of performance while ray tracing.

With the release of the RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti cards, graphics cardmanufacturers are hoping to get their GPUs into the hands of eager gamers who’ve been left high and dry due to massive shortages and unfair price hikes. One of the more expensive RTX 3070Ti models on the market is the iGame GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Vulcan OC 8G-V from Colorful – not only is it a mouthful to pronounce, it’s also got some pretty snazzy features that might just make it a card worth splurging for.

For one thing, it’s got a screen attached to it. We’ve seen CPU coolers sporting LCDs before, but not so much with GPUs. Aorus did tack on a screen to their RTX 30xx cards last year, but Colorful really hits it out of the park with their version that’s bigger and offers much more control.

The argument to pay extra for a GPU with a screen on it may be lost on most people, but for those with interesting PC builds, it’s a great thing to show off. The screen is more than a gimmick as well, and be easily configured to show component temperatures or other system information as you see fit. The only thing you can’t do on the screen is play Doom on it – yet.

Jokes aside, the Colorful RTX 3070 Ti Vulcan is an impressive card when it comes down to performance. You can quite comfortably run games at FullHD and 2K resolution at 120fps, and even tackle 4K gaming with the right settings. Yes, it’s going to come at a higher price tag than other similar GPUs, but if you’ve got the money for it, this certainly is a unique card to have in your PC any day.

By comparison, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founder’s Edition is available at $599 (£529, AU$959), and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founder’s Edition sits at $699 (around £505; AU$950). Of course, these cards are extremely hard to get by, so if you don’t mind the higher price tag, the iGame GeForce RTX 3070 Ti will scratch that itch for gaming performance that’s heading close to an RTX 3080.

The iGame RTX 3070 Ti is a big card, and you’ll need to ensure you have a lot of room – and three spare slots – to comfortably accommodate it. Measuring 323 x 158 x 60mm (LxWxH), it’s a beefy card to slot into your PC, so you definitely want to make sure you don’t have your CPU cooling pipes near this GPU or any other cabling. Colorful did include a special holder which you can screw onto the back of the card to support it better in a horizontal setup.

As with the previous generation, there’s also a USB-C port and an RGB header at the back of the card. You can use the included RGB header cable to connect the card directly to your motherboard so that it syncs with the rest of your RGB lighting, while the USB-C port has to be connected to a spare USB header on your motherboard with the included cable. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to upload custom artwork and graphics to display on the GPU’s screen.

Connectivity-wise, the card features one HDMI 2.1 port and three DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, along with a small button that you can press to overclock the base frequency from 1575MHz to 1860MHz.

Starting with 1080p gaming, the iGame RTX 3070 Ti performed exceptionally well. In games like Destiny 2 and Total War: Three Kingdoms, we regularly had 120-146fps throughout, while Final Fantasy XIV showed a whopping 206fps during its benchmark. There’s enough power here to easily tackle 1080p gaming – perhaps too much power, but even at the highest settings with other visual effects turned on, most games performed flawlessly and didn’t dip below 80fps.

For more invested overclockers, iGame’s control software allows you to tweak your settings more delicately with just a few clicks, making it easy to drill down to the clock settings that you prefer. Standard idle temperatures were around 40C, with the card going up to 72C during longer gaming sessions.

The end result is that the iGame RTX 3070 Ti is a great card for gaming, but its asking price is a bit of a worry. While it’s great for 1080p and 1440p gaming, gamers might find themselves holding back to splurge on RTX 3080 cards when they’re more readily available in the market, or opting to forgo the handy LCD screen in order to get a cheaper price. Still, if you’re missing a good GPU in your PC and you’ve got the money ready to burn, then this is definitely a card worth showing off in your rig.

Forget RGB lighting – how many GPUs have a screen attached to them? This small add-on actually comes in handy to easily monitor component temperatures – or just display some great artwork.

If you can save a bit more and get an RTX 3080, you’ll enjoy much stronger performance across all your games, and can even dabble in the realm of 4K gaming.Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Vulcan OC 8G-V: Price Comparison

We"ve seen many laptops discounted that often feature an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, a great card given the amount of performance it has for the price. But we"ve found a great gaming laptop that goes a step above with the RTX 3070.

As mentioned, it comes with Nvidia"s RTX 3070, one of the best GPUs you can get in a laptop right now. It"s not often you find the RTX 3070 at this price point. It"s paired with AMD"s Ryzen 7 6800H CPU which has 8 cores and 16 threads. That"s plenty for the latest games, or if you want to multitask with demanding apps such as media editing programs.

There"s also 16GB of memory and a 1TB NVMe SSD, which is plenty to get you started, and probably enough for the laptop"s life as you rotate games in and out over the coming years. ASUS" TUF models are made for increased durability and longevity, and this A15 is no different. There"s also a bigger trackpad and a more tactile, desktop-like keyboard, which is backlit of course. And with HDMI, USB-C and ethernet ports, you won"t have issues connecting multiple monitors or using the fastest intern