Gaming Laptop Analysis

Is the ASUS ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 i9-10980HK RTX 2080 Super Max-Q 32GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K good as a gaming laptop? Excellent

Processor - This processor is an excellent 2021 hardware component for running modern AAA games. This CPU comes with 8 cores, which is excellent providing it extra resource to chew through game processing when required.

Graphics Card - With the GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q graphics card this is an excellent gaming GPU for 2021 AAA gaming AAA games often want a lot of VRAM from graphics cards. This laptop GPU has 8GB of VRAM, which isexcellent for modern gaming.

System Memory - This laptop system memory is excellent at meeting today’s 2021 system requirements demands and with its 32GB of RAM it will certainly meet the requirements of games into the near future as well.

Screen Size - This laptops screen dimensions create a good balance between portable and visually suitable, when considering your next gaming laptop. With 17 inch currently being the more preferable for gaming, a lot of people will prefer the smaller form factor on offer with this 15.6" screen. For the optimum gamer laptop we aim for 17 inches to deliver better in-game viewability. But of course that makes the laptop physically bigger and less portable. The choice, is yours.

Refresh Rate - I personally wouldnt consider getting a gaming laptop with a screen panel that had a refresh rate of 60Hz. The refresh rate number is the number of times an image can be displayed to the screen by the laptop's own screen. So if I had paid more money for a good graphics card and CPU and RAM then even though the hardware might be able to get 150FPS on Ultra settings in the latest games, the laptop screen would only display 60FPS. The more FPS capable of being displayed to screen the smoother and sharper the response of the game you are playing. An ideal minimum refresh rate amount would be around 144Hz for a great gaming laptop, but you can certainly get some with even higher refresh rates than that. Refresh rates are tied to the laptop’s screen. This laptop has an ok refresh rate for modern gaming but at 60Hz it could restrict FPS if the laptop was capable of delivering more than the refresh rate.

GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q graphics card gaming performance in the ASUS ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 i9-10980HK RTX 2080 Super Max-Q 32GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K laptop

Gamers looking at laptops will be needing to carefully consider the performance of the machine in relation to modern, often demanding, games. So getting the mobile graphics selected correctly is key to identifying the best price-to-performance laptop for you. We will take a look at the hardware and graphics card in this laptop in relation to how well it can deliver frame rates when running modern demanding or popular games like, Far Cry 6 or New World. We will consider the laptop when it runs these games in ultra graphics settings while gaming at its native 4K screen resolution. With the GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q inside this laptop, this graphics card solution will be capable of meeting 499 games at their minimum system requirements and 476 games at their recommended system requirements of the top 500 most demanding games around today.

Comparing ASUS ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 i9-10980HK RTX 2080 Super Max-Q 32GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K to today’s best price to performance laptop ranges

When we factor in all variations of hardware and prices that the ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 laptop comes with, it gets very difficult to understand what value each permutation of this laptop will offer. To help us compare laptops based on their direct gaming value and capabilities, we defined a price to performance rating and allocated it to every laptop we review. Because as you have no doubt discovered during your research, it is very difficult to compare laptops for value against all other laptops. Even within their own model range. As soon as you adjust a single component and the laptop price shifts, what has that done to the gaming value of your laptop and is it still ok value for money? So we use a P2P rating to standardise the way we can look at all laptops. Of course laptops have tonnes of other values that are breathed into them when they are designed and they are not just about price to performance. But this is certainly a good way for us to help see the bigger picture, especially for a gaming laptop.

With a P2P rating of 1.2 today the ASUS ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 i9-10980HK RTX 2080 Super Max-Q 32GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K. Our value to performance rating score will auto adjust as new hardware capability improves and prices drop. Here we look at how our version of this ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 laptop compares against the other laptops in the range. This laptop is currently 2nd in this range for hardware value. Laptops closer to the 1st position of the model range represent the better gaming performance bang for your buck.

Now how does this laptop match to the top laptop for P2P today? The top laptop for P2P is the ASUS TUF A15 R7 4800H GTX 1660 Ti 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 and has a price of $999. This ASUS ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 i9-10980HK RTX 2080 Super Max-Q 32GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K laptop is currently 668% worse rating when comparing price to performance. How about we also look at the 2nd ranked laptop for excellent Price/Performance ratings, which is the MSI Bravo 15 R7 4800H RX 5500M 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 and has a recorded cost of $1049. We see our ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 laptop scores 570% worse against it for price to performance.

How does the ASUS ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 i9-10980HK RTX 2080 Super Max-Q 32GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K laptop compare to the best CPU performance focused laptops and today’s most popular games?

As one of the key focuses of any computer is the CPU we will want to know how well our ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 laptop performs in this area. A good way of gauging this is to put it in a comparison with the best priced CPU focused laptop available today, and then check out its relative performance against that top CPU laptop. We have chosen our comparison CPU focused laptop today as the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 R9 4900HS RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2, which comes armed with the Ryzen 9 4900HS 8-Core 3.0GHz laptop CPU. This top tier CPU is currently delivering 23% better performance when benched against our own review laptop’s Core i9-10980HK 8-Core 2.40GHz.

Interestingly we can see 474 games recommended system requirements are lower in performance than our laptop’s CPU performance capability. This is when we look at the top 500 most demanding games around today. For minimum system requirements in this same area the number is 500 games are worse than our cpu performance, again looking at the top 500 most demanding minimum system requirements.

Today’s games are getting more demanding so let's see how our gaming laptop performs against their recommended cpu system requirements. First off we have the New World which currently our Core i9-10980HK 8-Core 2.40GHz is 46% better next let's see how well it runs against Battlefield 2042. We can see it is 35% better. Ok finally lets see it against Far Cry 6. Here our laptop is 17% better.

How does the ASUS ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 i9-10980HK RTX 2080 Super Max-Q 32GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K laptop compare to the best graphics card performance focused laptops and today’s most popular games?

Looking for a new gaming laptop often leads us quickly to consider the sort of performance the mobile graphics card can deliver. Mobile graphics cards are often underpowered versions of their desktop equivalent, but still often very capable. To gauge the performance ability in this graphics department we compare our laptop to a GPU focused laptop that is around at the moment, to help provide us with a good graphics performance metric and comparison. The GPU focused laptop we picked for our comparison is the MSI GT76 Titan i9-10900K RTX 2080 Super 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K. Its got one of the best graphics cards found in laptops at the moment, which is the GeForce RTX 2080 Super 8GB. It delivers 23% better performance when benched against our own review laptop’s GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q.

Today there are 476 games recommended system requirements that are worse than our GPU’s performance capability, this is when we look at the top 500 most demanding games right now. This figure becomes 499 games, when we look at the 500 demanding games for minimum Graphics Card system requirements.

But the real test is seeing how well the laptop GPU performs against today's popular games. Our GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q compared against recommended graphics requirements for Far Cry 6 delivers 4% better performance while against New World it’s 69% better and finally compared to Battlefield 2042 it has a performance difference : 8% worse.

Today's Best Priced Mouse and Headset for ASUS ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 i9-10980HK RTX 2080 Super Max-Q 32GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K laptop

We price track a number of good value gaming mice and the one that currently stands out is the Kayinuo M738 Gaming Mouse 3200DPI wired 6 Buttons, which is currently available for $12.99. Today's best value and good quality mouse has enjoyed a price reduction of $32.26, and provides another reason for us to suggest it to compliment this laptop. Our lowest price tracked for this mouse was marked down at $11.99, which we spotted on 15th Aug 2020.

A good value gaming headset available at the moment, one that should go well with the ASUS ROG Zephyrus DUO 15 i9-10980HK RTX 2080 Super Max-Q 32GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K is, Corsair HS45-7.1 Surround with a price of $36.99. Checking our records our lowest tracked price for this headset was on 28th Nov 2019, which had it priced at $34.99.