ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) Gaming Laptop Review: Pretty And Powerful
The 2024 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 however, adds some additional wrinkles. This machine gives users the option to configure the discrete GPU to operate in a hybrid mode (NVIDIA Advanced Optimus), which switches between the Ryzen 9 8945HS's integrated Radeon 780M iGPU and the GeForce RTX 4070 dGPU, depending on the workload, or in an always-on discrete mode that keeps the GeForce powered up and directly connected to the display to provide the best performance. Unless otherwise noted, all of our benchmarks were run with the always-on discrete graphics mode enabled, though we did also test AMD's integrated Radeon 780M iGPU in one series of tests as well.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
The ATTO disk benchmark is a fairly quick and simple test which measures read/write bandwidth and IOPS across a range of different data sizes. While we don't typically compare these results across multiple machines, it's useful to gauge whether a particular notebook's storage subsystem is up to snuff.
The the 2024 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 supports up to 7GB/sec PCIe Gen 4 speeds, as you can see, the SSD ASUS went with, a WD Blue SN560 drive, only was able to hit about half that bandwidth, at around 4.5GB/s for reads and 3GB/s for writes. This is a bit of a shortfall and the system is capable of more, but with the exception of heavier duty content creation workloads, many users probably won't mind the still solid performance on tap here.
Speedometer 2.0 Browser Benchmark
We use BrowserBench.org's Speedometer test to gauge our web experiences, which takes a holistic look at web application performance. This test automatically loads and runs several sample web apps from ToDoMVC.com using the most popular web development frameworks around, including React, Angular, Ember.js, and even vanilla JavaScript. This test is a better example of how systems cope with real web applications, as opposed to a pure JavaScript compute test like JetStream. All tests were performed using the latest version of Chrome.
We should mention that this test is influenced by browser updates, and we don't have all of these machines on hand indefinitely to continually re-test. That said, we don't think the ranking would have changed all that much and the 2024 ROG Zephyrus G14 takes the top position, with its Ryzen 9 8945HS processor surprisingly beating out the MSI Prestige machine equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 165H, which typically chalks up superior performance in bursty light duty workloads like this.
Cinebench 2024 Rendering Benchmark
This is the latest 3D rendering benchmark from Maxon, based on the Cinema 4D R23 rendering engine. We tested both single-threaded and multi-threaded tests on all of the notebooks represented here...
Here the 45W TDP Ryzen 9 8945HS CPU on board the G14 drops in a more middling performance that's right in-line with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H. Performance is good, but can't match the higher-powered machines or the upcoming Snapdragon X Elite.
Geekbench 6 Benchmarks
Geekbench is a cross-platform benchmark that simulates real world processing workloads in image processing and particle physics scenarios. We tested the notebooks featured here in Geekbench's single and multi-core workloads. It measures single-threaded performance allowing a single core to stretch its legs, and multi-threaded throughput to put all cores under a heavy load.
Our GeekBench scores with the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 once again show robust single threaded throughput and strong multi-core performance, though the machine did just miss the mark of the larger 16-inch MSI Prestige 16 laptop with likely more robust cooling and its Core Ultra chip.
PCMark 10 Whole System Benchmarks
PCMark 10 uses a mix of real-world applications and simulated workloads to establish how well a given system performs productivity tasks, including image and video editing, web browsing, and OpenOffice document editing. While these scores appear to be all over the place, the systems are sorted by their overall PCMark score, which is the third (gray) bar in each cluster.
3DMark Graphics And GPU Tests
3DMark has several different graphics tests which focus on different types of systems. We start with Time Spy, which was 3DMark's headline benchmark until just recently. This test presents a pretty significant challenge for the system's CPU and GPU using the DirectX 12 API...
The new 14-inch Zephyrus G14 hangs tough here, despite its physically smaller profile, compared to other machines equipped with a GeForce RTX 4070. Note that Turbo (fan) mode also gets us a nice lift in performance versus the default balanced profile.
Lastly, the Port Royal test uses DirectX Ray Tracing (DXR) along with traditional rasterization techniques to illuminate a scene...
DXR hardware is a requirement for this test and here the field is more tightly grouped. Regardless, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 once again shows strength, especially when compared to the 13th Gen Dell XPS 15 with a similar GeForce RTX 4070 config on board. However, Dell didn't dial its GPU up to the 90 Watt spec of this 14-inch ASUS gaming laptop.
Middle Earth: Shadow Of War Tests
Middle Earth: Shadow of War is a fun and beautiful title set in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe. To test the game's performance relative to other systems, we set the resolution to 2560x1440 and turned the visuals up to the High preset. The frame rates here are the average reported by the built-in benchmark.
In the first of our actual game tests, we see a bit of a regression for the ROG Zephyrus G14, and it doesn't quite hold up to larger format 16-inch gaming-oriented HP Omen laptop with a similar RTX 4070 config. However, here it's perhaps more about CPU throughput as well, where the HP machine has a beefy Core i9-13900HX CPU on board, which is essentially a desktop equivalent SKU.
Shadow Of The Tomb Raider Benchmarks
The finale in the rebooted Tomb Raider trilogy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is easily the best-looking of the bunch. It's also brimming with Tobii eye-tracking hardware support, and leading-edge graphics technologies. To test this game out, we again turned the visuals up to their highest preset and tested at a resolution of 2560x1440.
In this game, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is back in the hunt, and keeps pace with similarly powerful notebooks while punching above its weight class.
F1 2021 Benchmarks
F1 2021 supports DirectX 12 with ray tracing, and it incorporates support for a number of AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and NVIDIA technologies (like DLSS). We tested the games with its Ultra High graphics preset, with ray-tracing and TAA enabled at a couple of resolutions to see what the machine could do...
Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is an action-adventure game where you play as Star-Lord and lead the rest of the Guardians from mission to mission. The game’s minimum requirements call for a Radeon RX 570 or GeForce GTX 1060-class GPU, but it also supports some of the latest graphics technologies, including DXR and DLSS.
AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS Integrated Radeon Test
The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS includes a integrated GPU called Radeon 780M with 12 graphics cores clocked at 2.8GHz. Aside from the discrete RTX 4070 GPU onboard this ASUS laptop, this iGPU solution provides a capable graphics engine for basic tasks and entry level gaming, so we put it to the test.
Performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS's integrated Radeon 780M GPU falls somewhere in between Intel's Integrated Arc GPU on the Core Ultra 7 165H and AMD's previous generation Radeon 680M IGP. Regardless, this is solid integrated graphics performance and a nice gain over AMD's previous gen platform for the ROG Zephyrus G14.
