Asus ROG Zephyrus G15/M16 2022 Discussion Thread

[saturnotaku]

Thought it would be prudent to have a thread discussing the 2022 refresh for the ROG Zephyrus G15 (GA503) and M16 (GU603) laptops. Links in the previous sentence go to the model lineup and specifications. The ones below are for the M16 that's currently for sale at Best Buy.

 

Core i9 | RTX 3070 Ti | 16 GB RAM | 1 TB SSD | $2149.99

Core i7 | RTX 3060 | 16 GB RAM | 512 GB SSD | $1649.99

 

At MSRP, the 3060 model is coming in cheaper than last year's, which was $1849. Part of this is likely due to the fact that it uses a 1920x1200 165 Hz screen instead of the 2560x1600 one from the 2021 version. The 3070 Ti is another one that can be added to NVIDIA's lie that such laptops would be available for $1500. The overall form factor for both laptops is largely the same as it was last year with the same port layout. The G15 finally gets a webcam, and both have Windows Hello IR support, along with a MUX switch. Half the RAM remains soldered to the motherboard on all models. Note that the $2149 M16 is a 2x8 GB configuration, not 1x16 GB as stated by Asus reps. Best Buy tends to get unique model configurations that you won't find elsewhere so this is something to keep in mind. 

 

And now for G15 options and pricing from Best Buy. All have the 6900HS CPU and 2560x1440 165 Hz screen. Sucks that the 3080 model still only has 16 GB of RAM so you're paying a $400 price premium just for the GPU. I'm most intrigued by the 3070 Ti model as it's $150 cheaper than its Intel counterpart. I'm seriously tempted to pick it up, though I'm not entirely thrilled about the prospect of losing my 16:10 aspect ratio screen.

 

Ryzen 9 | RTX 3060 | 8 GB RAM | 512 GB SSD | $1619.99

Ryzen 9 | RTX 3070 Ti | 16 GB RAM | 1 TB SSD | $1999.99

Ryzen 9 | RTX 3080 | 16 GB RAM | 1 TB SSD | $2399.99

 

 

 

[jlp0209]

Just pulled the trigger and bought the M16 3070 Ti model, should deliver tomorrow. Got BB Totaltech membership since I get $140 back in rewards for using my BB credit card. Cheaper over 2 years than paying for just their warranty.

 

Looking for something lighter than my Legion 5. I posted in the Lenovo forum that I snagged a Legion 7i w/ Intel 11800H and RTX 3080 from the Lenovo outlet. Received it two days ago and the box shows that exact spec. Powered it on and thought something looked slightly different but couldn't put my finger on it. Looked at device manager, and it is the last gen i7 10780H and 2070 Super model! Unreal re: my terrible luck with Lenovo! Time to move on to a different brand for now. 

 

Only system comparable to the M16, for now, seems to be the new Blade 15, but that thing is overpriced and I hate Razer as a company. 

 

Anyway, I see that there are already Asus and MSI 3070 Ti 125-150w vbios posted. The device ID's look to be the same from what I've seen. I have an old Alienware 330w power supply that *should* work with the M16 from what I've read on the voltage and amps (it is 19.5v and 16.9 A I believe, don't have it handy at moment). In case the flash works and I need more power. I am curious if flashing the vbios will work to eek out some more performance, especially since you lose adaptive sync when in dGPU mode. Will post my results if a flash is possible. 

 

Why did you get rid of your M16, I thought you liked it? I read your BB review, nicely put btw. 

 

[saturnotaku]

8 hours ago, jlp0209 said:

Why did you get rid of your M16, I thought you liked it? I read your BB review, nicely put btw. 

 

 

The more I used it, the more little annoying things took their toll. The least was some weirdness with Armoury Crate. For seemingly no reason, the OSD showing what performance mode the laptop was in would flash at random. It happened at least three times during the course of my ownership, and no amount of updates fixed it. I wish there was a way to turn that off completely. Moving up the annoyance ladder were idle temps when connected to my external monitor. There was no way to get the laptop to stay below 60C without having to leave it in turbo mode with a manual fan curve. The problem there was that I couldn't get the fan hysteresis to work in a smooth way. The straw that ultimately broke the camel's back was the port layout. I have a Razer Barracuda X headset, which uses a USB-C dongle as a receiver. When connecting it to the laptop, it would block the other Type-C port, prohibiting its use. Also, because the USB-A port is right next to them, an adapter was impractical. 

 

This is going to sound insane, but I picked up a Blade 15 today. MicroCenter put the Advanced model with i7 11800H, RTX 3060, 1440p/240 Hz QHD G-Sync screen, and 1 TB SSD on clearance for $1599. There was a problem as soon as I took it out of the box in that it wouldn't sit flat on any surface. I seem to have fixed it by removing and reseating the bottom panel. This was a nerve-racking prospect as with previous Blade laptops, I would always strip at least one screw, but thankfully that didn't happen. One part that was particularly appealing was the fact that it was running Windows 10 out of the box. NIB laptops that still use it are getting increasingly rare outside the workstation-class. 

[jlp0209]

11 hours ago, saturnotaku said:

 

The more I used it, the more little annoying things took their toll. The least was some weirdness with Armoury Crate. For seemingly no reason, the OSD showing what performance mode the laptop was in would flash at random. It happened at least three times during the course of my ownership, and no amount of updates fixed it. I wish there was a way to turn that off completely. Moving up the annoyance ladder were idle temps when connected to my external monitor. There was no way to get the laptop to stay below 60C without having to leave it in turbo mode with a manual fan curve. The problem there was that I couldn't get the fan hysteresis to work in a smooth way. The straw that ultimately broke the camel's back was the port layout. I have a Razer Barracuda X headset, which uses a USB-C dongle as a receiver. When connecting it to the laptop, it would block the other Type-C port, prohibiting its use. Also, because the USB-A port is right next to them, an adapter was impractical. 

 

This is going to sound insane, but I picked up a Blade 15 today. MicroCenter put the Advanced model with i7 11800H, RTX 3060, 1440p/240 Hz QHD G-Sync screen, and 1 TB SSD on clearance for $1599. There was a problem as soon as I took it out of the box in that it wouldn't sit flat on any surface. I seem to have fixed it by removing and reseating the bottom panel. This was a nerve-racking prospect as with previous Blade laptops, I would always strip at least one screw, but thankfully that didn't happen. One part that was particularly appealing was the fact that it was running Windows 10 out of the box. NIB laptops that still use it are getting increasingly rare outside the workstation-class. 

 

That's really funny that you got a Blade 15. Hope it works out, I do like the laptop just not Razer. I may end up buying the new Blade 15 once it hits the Microsoft store if the M16 doesn't work out. I don't use an external monitor or USB-C dongle at  the moment so hopefully I can avoid heat and connectivity issues. That's my favorite part of my Legion, ports aplenty, I'm at my office and have my printer, scanner, label maker connected via USB, with my phone charging on USB-C. I'd need to get a dock if I stick with Asus or if I get a Blade. 

[jlp0209]

Received the M16 today with i9 CPU and RTX 3070 Ti. There's a dead pixel in the middle of the screen so it is already packed up and ready for return. But I did some testing prior to packing it. The build quality is very nice, screen is gorgeous, and keyboard + touchpad are very good. The fans are incredibly loud on Turbo mode, which I'd normally use when gaming. You CAN undervolt the i9 CPU in the system bios which is really nice. It gives you the option of a plus or minus 80mv. I settled on -70mv. It does help when under a gaming load, I also use a laptop stand for optimal airflow beneath the laptop. I saw no problems with CPU temps as long as the fans were on full blast, which isn't ideal. This was just with 3dmark.

 

I tried flashing the vbios with the two available vbios out there, one from Asus and the other Clevo. No dice, tried every version of Nvflash. Too bad because those vbios were 140w and 150w. 

 

I was not at all impressed with performance. I ran Timespy with a +100/+200 OC on the GPU and system set to Turbo mode. My Legion 5 with 140w flashed 3070 beats it, runs quieter and cooler. We are talking +1000 points in graphics score (11,469), linked in sig. 

 

Hybrid mode: 10,537 overall score, 10,266 graphics score. CPU score 12,397. http://www.3dmark.com/spy/26557292

MUX / dGPU only mode: 10,864 overall, 10,492 graphics score. CPU score 13,596. http://www.3dmark.com/spy/26557425

 

On its own I'd be happy with the GPU score while in dGPU mode, but you lose adaptive sync which is a deal breaker for me. I was hoping for better performance in hybrid mode which is what I'd use for all of my gaming. This performance barely beats a 130w 3060. 

 

Overall this is a fantastic laptop despite the performance. Just isn't for me. Form factor, weight, looks, and 16:10 screen are great, in addition to what I stated above. If you need power in a light and portable package and don't care about adaptive sync, it could be perfect for you. 

 

Was worth a try! 

 

[saturnotaku]

18 hours ago, jlp0209 said:

Overall this is a fantastic laptop despite the performance. Just isn't for me. Form factor, weight, looks, and 16:10 screen are great, in addition to what I stated above. If you need power in a light and portable package and don't care about adaptive sync, it could be perfect for you. 

 

Was worth a try! 

 

 

Did you ever try putting the laptop to sleep? This was another annoying thing with my M16 - it would take forever to go to sleep. The Blade goes down in less than 10 seconds.

[win32asmguy]

20 hours ago, jlp0209 said:

Received the M16 today with i9 CPU and RTX 3070 Ti. There's a dead pixel in the middle of the screen so it is already packed up and ready for return. But I did some testing prior to packing it. The build quality is very nice, screen is gorgeous, and keyboard + touchpad are very good. The fans are incredibly loud on Turbo mode, which I'd normally use when gaming. You CAN undervolt the i9 CPU in the system bios which is really nice. It gives you the option of a plus or minus 80mv. I settled on -70mv. It does help when under a gaming load, I also use a laptop stand for optimal airflow beneath the laptop. I saw no problems with CPU temps as long as the fans were on full blast, which isn't ideal. This was just with 3dmark.

 

I tried flashing the vbios with the two available vbios out there, one from Asus and the other Clevo. No dice, tried every version of Nvflash. Too bad because those vbios were 140w and 150w. 

 

I was not at all impressed with performance. I ran Timespy with a +100/+200 OC on the GPU and system set to Turbo mode. My Legion 5 with 140w flashed 3070 beats it, runs quieter and cooler. We are talking +1000 points in graphics score (11,469), linked in sig. 

 

Hybrid mode: 10,537 overall score, 10,266 graphics score. CPU score 12,397. http://www.3dmark.com/spy/26557292

MUX / dGPU only mode: 10,864 overall, 10,492 graphics score. CPU score 13,596. http://www.3dmark.com/spy/26557425

 

On its own I'd be happy with the GPU score while in dGPU mode, but you lose adaptive sync which is a deal breaker for me. I was hoping for better performance in hybrid mode which is what I'd use for all of my gaming. This performance barely beats a 130w 3060. 

 

Overall this is a fantastic laptop despite the performance. Just isn't for me. Form factor, weight, looks, and 16:10 screen are great, in addition to what I stated above. If you need power in a light and portable package and don't care about adaptive sync, it could be perfect for you. 

 

Was worth a try! 

 

How did you measure undervolting working on it? Everyone seems to indicate that only the 12900HK can undervolt this generation.

 

The 16:10 1920x1200 165hz panel is really nice. It is a shame that it is regarded as inferior to the 2560x1600 option even though it allows for use without DPI scaling. I guess if they could bump its refresh rate up to 300hz then it could at least be appealing as an Esports option. It appears Lenovo will also offer it on their Legion 5 Pro paired with the 3050Ti. Maybe as a spare part it could be installed into the 3060/3070/3070Ti model. That would be much better than the Asus performance and noise wise even if it is heavier and with the comical 300W Lenovo brick.

 

Has anybody tried Windows 10 on these Alder Lake mobile models to see how they perform?

[jlp0209]

On 2/25/2022 at 1:23 PM, saturnotaku said:

 

Did you ever try putting the laptop to sleep? This was another annoying thing with my M16 - it would take forever to go to sleep. The Blade goes down in less than 10 seconds.

Sorry, I didn't try putting the laptop to sleep. 

 

On 2/25/2022 at 3:28 PM, win32asmguy said:

How did you measure undervolting working on it? Everyone seems to indicate that only the 12900HK can undervolt this generation.

 

The 16:10 1920x1200 165hz panel is really nice. It is a shame that it is regarded as inferior to the 2560x1600 option even though it allows for use without DPI scaling. I guess if they could bump its refresh rate up to 300hz then it could at least be appealing as an Esports option. It appears Lenovo will also offer it on their Legion 5 Pro paired with the 3050Ti. Maybe as a spare part it could be installed into the 3060/3070/3070Ti model. That would be much better than the Asus performance and noise wise even if it is heavier and with the comical 300W Lenovo brick.

 

Has anybody tried Windows 10 on these Alder Lake mobile models to see how they perform?

 

I didn't measure the undervolt, I took the bios' word for it and saw slightly lower temps in benchmarking. The display on the BB 3070 Ti model that I had was the 2650X1600 screen. Hadn't tried Windows 10 on it, sorry. 

[mujtaba]

On 2/24/2022 at 9:02 AM, saturnotaku said:

 

The more I used it, the more little annoying things took their toll. The least was some weirdness with Armoury Crate. For seemingly no reason, the OSD showing what performance mode the laptop was in would flash at random. It happened at least three times during the course of my ownership, and no amount of updates fixed it. I wish there was a way to turn that off completely. Moving up the annoyance ladder were idle temps when connected to my external monitor. There was no way to get the laptop to stay below 60C without having to leave it in turbo mode with a manual fan curve. The problem there was that I couldn't get the fan hysteresis to work in a smooth way. The straw that ultimately broke the camel's back was the port layout. I have a Razer Barracuda X headset, which uses a USB-C dongle as a receiver. When connecting it to the laptop, it would block the other Type-C port, prohibiting its use. Also, because the USB-A port is right next to them, an adapter was impractical. 

 

This is going to sound insane, but I picked up a Blade 15 today. MicroCenter put the Advanced model with i7 11800H, RTX 3060, 1440p/240 Hz QHD G-Sync screen, and 1 TB SSD on clearance for $1599. There was a problem as soon as I took it out of the box in that it wouldn't sit flat on any surface. I seem to have fixed it by removing and reseating the bottom panel. This was a nerve-racking prospect as with previous Blade laptops, I would always strip at least one screw, but thankfully that didn't happen. One part that was particularly appealing was the fact that it was running Windows 10 out of the box. NIB laptops that still use it are getting increasingly rare outside the workstation-class. 

Is the USB-C port connected to the GPU?

[saturnotaku]

3 hours ago, mujtaba said:

Is the USB-C port connected to the GPU?

 

The front-most port, which is USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps is. The Thunderbolt 4 port next to it uses the Intel integrated graphics.

[mujtaba]

The single USB-C port on the Asus Tuf A17 (2020 I think) is connected to the Nvidia GPU and is a little picky (e.g. not all USB-C docking stations work on it).

[serpro69]

Just ordered G15 ( RTX 3060, Ryzen 7 6800HS, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD ) for my lady.

 

Is there anything that is a "must do" for Asus laptops before you start settings things up? E.g., on Dell I usually take a backup image of all partitions that come from factory before doing anything else; and then I do a full wipe and a clean dual-boot installation of Win10/Linux. Should I take backups of factory partitions on Asus as well? Or can I just do a wipe right off the bat? Anything else that's a absolute "must do"?

[saturnotaku]

Wiping the SSD is unnecessary and on an Asus laptop could actually cause issues with some of the functionality with the Armoury Crate software. Use Windows' built-in utility to create a recovery drive.

[serpro69]

On 11/22/2022 at 3:52 PM, saturnotaku said:

Wiping the SSD is unnecessary and on an Asus laptop could actually cause issues with some of the functionality with the Armoury Crate software. Use Windows' built-in utility to create a recovery drive.

 

That sounds a bit odd. Are you forever stuck with the stock OS that came from factory and can't do a fresh windows installation? And by saying "unnecessary", you mean the stock OS doesn't come any bloatware that should be killed right off?

Is there no possibility to install Armoury Crate (and have it functioning normally) on a fresh windows installation? 

 

Also, I'm planning to install Fedora on it, and I can't see how I'd do that w/o wiping the drive first (probably won't do dual-boot for now because the SSD is only 512 GB).