Asus Zephyrus
Max-Q to the Max
It’s obvious from the get-go that this laptop uses Nvidia’s new Max-Q thermal efficiency/power regulation technology. Most of these laptops have a huge slab of flat plastic just above the keyboard, which is obviously where most of the cooling solution goes, allowing laptops like this to house a GeForce GTX 1080 yet remain less than 18mm deep, making it the world’s thinnest laptop with a 1080. There is a cost for this power efficiency though…
Nvidia describes Max-Q as a holistic approach to laptop building, taking into account cooling, power usage and frequency adjusting. We think that last point is most important though, as the frequency drops are not unsubstantial. A standard GeForce GTX 1080 mobile has a base frequency of 1607MHz and a Boost frequency of 1733MHz. However, the Max-Q drops this by a large margin. The base now tops out at 1290MHz, while the Boost is 1468MHz. That’s a 20% drop in base clock, and a 16% drop in Boost speed. The pay-off is much lower audio output, longer battery life, and a cooler all-round laptop.
There’s another trade-off though. The huge slab of plastic at the top means the keyboard has been jammed into a tiny spot down the bottom of the base. The keys don’t have a lot of travel, and lack the tactile feedback of better laptop keyboards. The touchpad has also been shrunk and shoved to the right, making it a little harder to get used to.
Even though this is a 15.6-inch laptop, it weighs just 2.2kg, making it remarkably light for the size. The screen is a 120Hz LED monster equipped with G-Synch, so even though there is a performance drop from the Max-Q design, the G-Sync tech helps iron out any minimum frame rate issues. Once again we see Intel’s i7 7700HQ CPU in action, which has four hyperthreaded cores that top out at 3.8GHz. Our review version was the top of the line model, which comes with a massive 24GB of DDR4 memory. There’s also an absolutely whopping 1TB SSD, which uses PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes for incredible performance.
Come benchmark time, it’s obvious to see that Max-Q does have a substantial impact on overall system performance. Given than this has top of the line specs with a GeForce GTX 1080, it’s around 15% slower than a standard GTX 1080 mobile equipped laptop. The flipside is that battery life should be better than usual, fan noise was barely noticeable and it ran nice and cool, with no risk of groinal-burns.
the pay-off is much lower audio output, longer battery life, and a cooler all-round laptop
Still, we think Nvidia and its system builders still have some work to do to refine the Max-Q technology, as currently the performance trade-off feels too high. Other than that, this is a powerhouse of a laptop, and comes with a stellar display and top of the line specs. Sure, it’s supremely expensive, but you’re paying for the latest in technology across the board.