ASUS TUF A14 - Strix Halo Deserved Better

[00:03] mainstream laptops with AMD's extremely popular Strix Halo processor, and about time. Strix Halo is an APU combining a very powerful CPU with a powerful integrated GPU. Compared to Intel's new Panther Lake X chips, which are similar,

[00:17] Strix Halo actually performs better. It delivers a low-to-mid-range gaming performance in modern titles, similar to say a full power 5050. Now, Panther Lake on the other hand, it's similar to a low wattage 5050. But, Panther Lake laptops,

[00:31] they can give you better battery life. Anyway, back on the TUF itself, it's some time now, and actually won our best 14-in gaming laptop last year. That's because it's just very comfortable to

[00:43] use. It feels noticeably cooler under load, and it's also lighter and thinner than most competitors. It also has solid battery life for a gaming laptop. And with this iteration, it's just the processor that's really changed. But,

[00:56] ultimately, and unfortunately, this config is just way too darn expensive. At the time I filmed this section, it was going for $2,200. You can buy last year's model with a more powerful dedicated GPU on sale for

[01:08] $1,500. That's $700 less. I don't know what ASUS's pricing team is smoking here. I'll just link last year's model down below, as right now that's obviously what you should buy. Also, since the TUF

[01:21] with Strix Halo has 32 gig memory, not the max 128, it kind of loses some of the secret sauce of Strix Halo. You see, that chip, it's really appealing to AI developers, as they can assign a lot of memory to the GPU and run large models.

[01:35] You can't really do that with 32 gig. So again, I'm not sure why anyone would buy this config. Perhaps it's cheaper where you are, or something will change. here, so I'm going to hand over to her for our full review. Thanks, Josh. Let's

[01:50] start with gaming performance, since this is a gaming laptop. The Ryzen AI Max Plus 392 processor in it has the Max 40 core GPU that Strix Halo can come with. In Time Spy, it lands above other integrated GPUs like the Arc B390 and

[02:04] Intel's brand new Panther Lake X chips, but it falls behind the Nvidia RTX 5060 in last year's tough and Lenovo's budget lock 15. When we look at Port Royal, a the worst. This is likely because this

[02:18] GPU does not have ray tracing cores like its competitors. In Steel Nomad light, processors, it performs very well, beating out both the MacBook Pro chips we're comparing it to here. Let's now take a look at some games. We actually

[02:31] have two different settings that we test games on, high-end and low-end. High-end uses higher in-game settings at 2560 by 1600. Low-end is mid-range in-game settings at 1920 by 1200 resolution. This processor's performance sits right

[02:46] on the edge between those two options. It's native screen resolution is 2560 by 1600, but when we tested it at that resolution in Cyberpunk, we didn't get great results, around 40 FPS even with upscaling on. So, we decided to run the

[03:00] rest of the test on low-end settings as that would be our recommendation for the smoothest gameplay experience. Plus 1920 by 1200 resolution for gaming Plus 1920 by 1200 resolution for gaming on a small 14-in screen is totally fine.

[03:12] in our graphs may change based on which laptops we tested with these settings. In Cyberpunk, this tough average 90 FPS with 1% lows, almost hitting 60. These results are good, but fall behind our Flo Z 13, which has the highest end

[03:27] Strix Halo 3095 chip. Same GPU, but more powerful CPU. This tough is also way year's tough and the full wattage 5060 in the Legion 5i. nice improvement. It's now beating the Flo Z 13, but it's still not as good as

[03:43] the full wattage 5060 in the Legion or last year's tough. Looking at Marvel Rivals, which is a more demanding game, the tough falls behind. This one surprised us as we thought Marvel Rivals was a more CPU demanding game, and the

[03:55] CPU in this year's TUF is more powerful than last year's. This is our hypothesis. During gaming, manufacturers reduce power fed to the CPU to allow the GPU to consume more. Perhaps the less powerful Ryzen 7 processor in last

[04:08] lower power levels. Moving on to Forza Horizon 5, which is a game that does a good job of taxing both the CPU and GPU at the same time, the TUF does very well. It pulls slightly ahead of the Flow Z13 and ties with the

[04:21] dedicated 4060 in the 13-in Pro Art. Let's now take a look at thermals during gaming. This year's model stayed cooler on the keyboard deck than last year's, which is a win. In fact, it's one of the coolest feeling laptops we've tested.

[04:34] Plus, the fan noise is quieter than last year's model. The Panther Lake Dell XPS and Asus ExpertBook are really the only laptops that stay quiet here, but those are more thin and light laptops, not gaming ones, and they do perform worse

[04:46] as I showed you. Anyway, all of this was on the TUF's highest stock performance mode. Looking at the A14 running Forza on each of its performance modes, we see a modest drop in performance for a big drop in fan noise. If you game on

[04:58] performance mode, not turbo. If you decide you want to try out manual mode, we actually saw a minor drop in performance from turbo. Same goes for G Helper, a third-party performance tuning app for Asus gaming laptops. Here we saw

[05:11] another minor drop in performance from turbo. Next, we'll look at CPU Halo processors shine. Please note, though, the 392 chip in our TUF has 12 Zen 5 CPU cores, rather than the 16 in the highest-end Strix Halo 395 processor

[05:26] from last year's Flow Z13. Regardless, in Geekbench, this laptop rivals the multi-core performance of Apple's M5. This is especially good, considering MacBooks tend to do really well in this test. The TUF score is also a whopping

[05:39] 39% improvement over the lower-end Ryzen 7 chip in last year's model. Geekbench It just tests a bunch of common performance tasks. So, let's move over to Cinebench 2026, which maxes out the CPU. Here, the TUF A14 really shines,

[05:56] performance of a MacBook Pro 14 with the higher-end M4 Pro chip. AMD does need to work on Zen 5 single-core performance though, it's a bit lackluster. Anyway, part of the reason this laptop is performing so well is that it's

[06:10] pulling a ridiculous amount of power. It maxes at over 114 W and averages 98. This is one area where you can really see how far ahead Apple's M series chips are. They are so much more power efficient. Same with Intel's Panther

[06:25] Lake. Despite this extra power, it looks like the TUF's cooling solution is still doing a decent job of cooling the processor. It hits 95°C for some burst of power, but it averages at 70. These aren't bad numbers given at how small

[06:37] through it. When it comes to heat you actually feel during CPU tasks, this model is warmer than last year's, which makes sense as that one has a less powerful Ryzen 7 CPU and it's not activating its dedicated GPU. The new

[06:51] TUF isn't bad here though. It's about the same as it was in gaming, which is noise, it's around the same as last year's model, very loud at 55 dB when on its turbo mode. Of course, we tried the other modes, too. Performance mode drops

[07:05] the power fed to the CPU, resulting in a modest drop in performance, but you get keyboard deck temps. Just touching on creator tasks real quick, in Premiere Pro, the new TUF falls way behind laptops with an Nvidia GPU, but it does

[07:19] hold its own against the MacBook Pros. Lastly, let's test the laptop unplugged. When doing performance tasks, it is able to maintain 90% of its performance, way better than the Ryzen 7 model from last year, whose performance unplugged

[07:31] really shines is how long it lasts on battery for basic tasks. We ran our new TUF or battery test, no pun intended. This new TUF did really well. Over 9 hours is really good. That being said, Panther Lake is capable of better

[07:46] battery life in some laptops. The XPS 14, which also relies on an integrated GPU, lasts an additional 3 hours. And the Panther Lake lock has a smaller battery and a larger screen to power, and it tied with this laptop. For Linux,

[07:58] we booted up Fedora 43 and almost everything worked except for the speakers. This would probably be fixed with a full install and kernel update. All right, the rest of the TUF A14 is almost the same as it was last year. So,

[08:10] cons. I'll link our full review of last year's down below if you want more details. The TUF A14's pros are that it is super lightweight and very portable considering how much performance it packs. The keyboard is another highlight

[08:23] with an ample 1.7 mm of key travel and a satisfying click. Its trackpad seems to quieter click, but it is still mechanical. The screen gets nice and bright around 500 nits, and the display has a matte finish, both of which should

[08:37] help you combat reflections in brighter environments. Ports are also a positive with a decent selection for its size. On the left, we have its proprietary charging port, HDMI 2.1, a 40 gigabit USB-C port that supports 100 W charging,

[08:51] mic combo jack. On the right, we have another 10 gigabit USB-A port, a 10 gigabit USB-C port, and a microSD card reader. The speakers are also decent for a laptop this size. They get pretty loud and don't sound distorted. Although,

[09:06] they are still a bit muddy like most laptop speakers. Plus, they face downwards, so you may lose volume when using it on a blanket. Take a listen.

[09:26] the screen is an IPS panel, not an OLED. At this price point, that's just crazy. It just doesn't look as vibrant as other laptops because IPS panels can't display true blacks. The colors on the screen are also limiting for professional color

[09:40] work. It covers 98% of sRGB, which is good enough for most people, but only good enough for most people, but only 75% of Adobe RGB and 77% of P3. Back on boring and doesn't feel premium. It's essentially a value for money laptop

[09:54] with a premium price attached. So, no surprises, it just doesn't look or feel as nice as competitors. On that note, even though it is lightweight as I said, it's not as light as other laptops that don't have a dedicated GPU. This model

[10:06] actually weighs slightly more than last year's and way more than something like ASUS's own ExpertBook Ultra with its Panther Lake X chip. The 1080p webcam is another con for the TUF A14. It does have IR for Windows Hello, but the

[10:20] colors look quite a bit off. And here's how the webcam looks and sounds in normal lighting conditions in my office. I feel that it looks pretty grainy. So, what are the alternatives? At this price point, there are quite a few. If you

[10:34] we filmed this video, it was literally $500 cheaper. budget-friendly than that, the new LOQ with Panther Lake is awesome. It

[10:46] performs better in games and its larger 15.3-in screen is more immersive for gaming. Its main downside is that it is much If you want a more premium laptop than the LOQ and you're okay with the weight,

[10:58] step up to Lenovo's new Legion 5i with Panther Lake. It has an OLED screen. notification bell on so you'll be the first to find out. intensive games and could deal with a weaker GPU, a laptop with a Panther Lake

[11:13] X chip like ASUS's ExpertBook Ultra is a great alternative. Finally, if you are just looking at this for coding or creative work, we'd recommend considering a MacBook Pro over the TUF. You can get a new MacBook Pro 14 with an

[11:26] M5 Pro chip for the price of this laptop and it's just a more premium all-round showed you today, check out our website different retailers and let you set price drop notifications if something

[11:39] falls into your budget. Well, that's all we got for you today. I hope you like this video. We really are trying to get to 400,000 subscribers this year, so if I would really appreciate it. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day

[11:52] all have a wonderful rest of your day and we will catch you later.