Gaming Laptop Analysis

Is the ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz good as a gaming laptop? Good

Processor - This Ryzen 5 5600H 6-Core 3.3GHz processor in the laptop is an excellent gaming CPU choice for 2023 gaming. The 8 cores that this processor has is excellent and very capable for today and future AAA gaming.

Graphics Card - This laptop graphics solution can certainly run a number of new 2023 releases and is a good 2023 laptop GPU choice for gamers. This laptop has 6GB of VRAM available. This graphics solution has a good amount for today’s gaming.

System Memory - The 16GB is an excellent amount of system memory for modern gaming in 2023.

Screen Size - This laptop’s 17.3" is an excellent screen size for modern gaming in 2023. While it is not essential to have a big laptop for gaming, having this size of physical screen space, to see your games and the in-game menus, will become quickly apparent.

Refresh Rate - Gaming laptops might well be capable of getting high frames per second nowadays, but sometimes the laptop comes with a 60Hz refresh rate. This refresh rate is the number of times an image can be displayed by the screen. So if your graphics card and processor can get 100 FPS in most games, it will only ever be displayed by the laptop as 60FPS because of the refresh rate of 60Hz. Look for 120Hz on a good gaming laptop, or 144Hz on an excellent gaming laptop With that in mind, we see that this laptop comes with an excellent 144Hz refresh rate for gaming. Of course, anything over 60Hz is good for gaming focused laptops.

GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q graphics card gaming performance in the ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz laptop

While it can be tricky to work out the best price to performance hardware for a gaming laptop, we will be looking at how well this mobile graphics card can run demanding games that are available today or coming out over the coming months.We will consider how well it can perform while gaming at Ultra graphics setting on a 1080p resolution, which is the native resolution for this laptop. We will also look at a few of the more popular games like, Grand Theft Auto VI or Star Citizen. Coming loaded with the GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q, this laptop is capable of beating 490 games at their minimum system specs and 310 games at their recommended system specs. This is when looking at today’s top 500 most demanding games.

Comparing ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz to today’s best price to performance laptop ranges

During your research for your next laptop, you have probably seen that the laptops reviewed are often the top permutation of the range and even then they were reviewed some time back against games that were released around the time of the review. Today we will be working to provide an up to date value assessment on this ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz hardware performance against today’s games and then consider how it compares to all other laptops and how it sits within its own TUF A17 (2021) range.

We review performance and allocate a P2P rating out of 10 that will adjust over time as the prices for hardware adjust. This laptop is currently given a 0 for P2P. Today the ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz laptop sits at 8th place compared to all the other permutations of the TUF A17 (2021) range. Laptops placed nearer to 1st place in the P2P list of the model range will be better value for your money when looking at gaming laptops in this range.

It's good to see how this TUF A17 (2021) laptop compares to models outside of its own model range as well. If we look at the very best P2P laptop, the ASUS TUF A15 R7 4800H GTX 1660 Ti 16GB RAM 512GB M.2, our laptop has % performance difference when comparing its price to performance rating. That top laptop currently has a listed price of $999. Moving to the 2nd position of the P2P ranking list sits the MSI Bravo 15 R7 4800H RX 5500M 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop, where it has a price of $1049. Our TUF A17 (2021) laptop currently has % Price to Performance rating against this 2nd best model.

How does the ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz laptop compare to the best CPU performance focused laptops and today’s most popular games?

CPU performance is always going to be something we are interested in, when looking to buy a new laptop. So if we compare this TUF A17 (2021) laptop to a CPU focused laptop, we will pick today’s top CPU performing laptop at the cheapest price point, then we can use this as a good measuring point for our laptop in question. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 R9 4900HS RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 is today’s best performer in the laptop CPU department. It has a Ryzen 9 4900HS 8-Core 3.0GHz processor in it, which currently has 22% better performance than our laptop’s Ryzen 5 5600H 6-Core 3.3GHz.

A snapshot today of performance for our processor, we can currently see it beating 469 of the 500 most demanding games available right now. This is considering their recommended system requirements. For a the top 500 Minimum system specs this is 500 games.

But the real test is seeing how well the laptop CPU performs against today's popular games. Our Ryzen 5 5600H 6-Core 3.3GHz compared against recommended processor requirements for Grand Theft Auto VI delivers 21% better performance while against Star Citizen it’s 21% better and finally compared to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) it has a performance difference : 13% better.

How does the ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz laptop compare to the best graphics card performance focused laptops and today’s most popular games?

Wondering how strong this laptop is in the GPU department, then let's have a look at it compared to one of the current best GPU performing laptops available today and this should show us the relative graphics performance of our review model. A good laptop to compare against, that is GPU focused, would be the MSI GT76 Titan i9-10900K RTX 2080 Super 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K. This showcases one of the laptops for the current cheapest price, while still housing one of the most powerful laptop GPUs. It comes with a GeForce RTX 2080 Super 8GB graphics card slotted inside it, which can deliver 45% better performance when compared to our GPU, GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q from our review laptop.

Today’s performance comparison for all games shows our laptop GPU can currently meet or beat 310 game’s recommended system requirements when we put the 500 most demanding games into a list. With a list of 500 Minimum system specs put ina similar most demanding order this changes to it being able to run 490 games.

Recommended graphics requirements for modern games increase all the time, so we thought we would compare the performance of our laptop graphics card to some popular games of today. First off there is Star Citizen and our laptop GPU delivers 44% better performance compared to that game’s requirement. Next we have Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) in which we see our laptop graphics has 10% worse performance compared to the game's video card specs. And then there is 10% worse performance when we put our laptop gpu against Grand Theft Auto VI recommended specs.

The ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz has a 1080p screen resolution, should I get a 4K resolution gaming laptop instead?

This laptop has a 17.3" physical screen size with a native resolution of 1920x1080. So should you instead be thinking of picking up a 4K monitor rather than this ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz’s 1080p panel? A 4K laptops will likely run with 60Hz screen refresh rate, so should the laptop’s hardware be able to get good frame rates at 4K resolution and due to the refresh rate the laptop would max out at 60 frames per second as its screen would not be capable of delivering any higher. Modern games in Ultra graphics settings are also normally too demanding for a 4K resolution anyway. This review laptop has 144Hz refresh rate versions available.

Dropping a game’s resolution down from the laptop’s native 4K resolution to a more sustainable 1080p or maybe 1440p, would certainly deliver extra frames and improve stability. So there is always that option if the experience is unplayable due to low frame rates. But know that this action comes at a price. Dropping from a monitor or laptop panel’s native resolution immediately reduces in-game visual definition across all the game’s graphics. It basically makes the game look blurry. Not an ideal situation if you just bought your new 4K gaming laptop. And if your laptop does have the power to run some of the modern games in 4K Ultra, you are likely to want to enjoy them on a larger than 17inch laptop panel. So at a later point perhaps buy a dedicated monitor for your desk that isnt 60Hz restricted, for those games, thus keeping your laptop for mobility.

The primary 4K use would most likely be streaming movie and TV content at that resolution, assuming you have access to these services in 4K. At which point perhaps its enough of a selling point for you to consider a 4K laptop..

At the moment our advice would be, stick to the 1080p laptop panels for now. Your laptop remains portable and 4K laptop’s just aren't quite there yet. The 4K needs to be a no brainer but at the moment you will still have to lower resolution in game to get playable but sub par visuals that still can't raise above 60FPS.

Today’s best 1440p desktop monitor for a laptop is - ASUS ProArt Display PA278QV 27 inch 1440p 75Hz 5ms IPS

Here is today’s best priced 1440p gaming monitor that could accompany the ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz, ASUS ProArt Display PA278QV 27 inch 1440p 75Hz 5ms IPS that is currently priced at $311.99. To help provide some further information into this desktop monitor price trends we saw it cost a recorded low of $229.99, which we tracked on 9th Mar 2021.

Today’s best 4K desktop monitor for a laptop is - Asus Predator XB273K 27 inch 4K GSYNC IPS 1ms 144Hz

Why not grab a monitor like the Asus Predator XB273K 27 inch 4K GSYNC IPS 1ms 144Hz 4K screen. It is currently coming in with the best price tag in the 4K range of monitors that we are watching, at $618 and has a 144Hz refresh rate. During these recent weeks we have price tracked this 4k monitor and noticed that it has increased its price by $618, so keep an eye out for deals, as this great value monitor might still be found for cheaper. To give a bit more info about this monitor we saw it cost its lowest of $549.99, which we recorded on 13th Nov 2020.

[Note - check that monitor display connectors are compatible between a monitor and a laptop before purchase]

If you are looking to view 4K streaming content, while keeping yourself mobile with your laptop, then maybe a 4K resolution panel would be a better experience than the normal 1080p. In general, we think it's probably not worth the extra money for any visual gains you might not spot, without a direct comparison, especially if you are thinking to game on your laptop as well.

Paying extra for 4K gaming in a laptop is not really a good investment of your cash at the moment. We would put our extra cash in to a 1080p with better graphics card or maybe a nice mouse or headset. Because with the 4K laptop you may be sad when having to drop your favourite modern games screen resolution to get an ok frame rate. Or perhaps lowering the graphics setting to increase 4K FPS up to a stable and playable amount, only to hit a 60FPS ceiling due to the 60Hz 4K panel limit.

Today's Best Priced Mouse and Headset for ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz laptop

The gaming mouse with today’s best price to value that would go well with the ASUS TUF A17 (2021) R5 5600H RTX 3060 Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 144Hz laptop is the Kayinuo M738 Gaming Mouse 3200DPI wired 6 Buttons. Its current price is $12.99. Price watching this mouse shows that it has had a price drop by $32.26 during the past couple of weeks, which gives us more reason to select it to go with today’s laptop. Another point of reference for this mouse, is that our lowest recorded price for this mouse was on 15th Aug 2020 where it was costing $11.99.

Incidentally our price track research shows us that a good gaming headset is the Corsair HS45-7.1 Surround. Its price tag today is $36.99 and is topping our price tracking charts as a best value headset. For reference, the lowest price recorded by us so far for the headset is $34.99 on 28th Nov 2019.