ASUS - TUF Gaming 17.3" Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX3050 Ti - 512GB SSD - Eclipse Gray

This Laptop is genuinely awesome! I would not say I'm the most intense gamer, but I do enjoy gaming. Every game I've thrown at this bad boy has been handled with ease. No lag, no stuttering, full HD, and extremely satisfying. I've played Genshin Impact, GTA V, Phasmophobia, TemTem, and Plants Vs. Zombies Battle for Neighborville. Genshin was played on best settings at 60fps with no problem! and GTA was started up with no issues and played with zero lag or stutter; I'm not sure what the fps was but it looked great so take that for what you will lol. On top of it performing well, it just looks rad as heck! RGB keyboard, and an awesome casing that looks rugged but stylish. I did upgrade the RAM to 16GB which I definitely recommend, especially if you want to game and listen to music. and as for "bottlenecking", I haven't noticed anything tbh. This is a laptop for under 1k that you can comfortably game on. If you want 4K gaming at 120fps invest in something more expensive or get an Xbox.

Great Computer. For the 799 price it is very good. But the 8GB memory is not enough for most gaming, you will need to add one more ram. It doesn't come with a 2.5 inch HDD slot.

If you are looking for a gaming laptop, this Asus TUF Gaming Laptop featuring the 11th generation Intel Core i5 11260H is the one to get. The laptop features a beautiful crystal clear matte 17” 144hz screen that is easy on the eyes running on an Nvidia GeForce 4GB 3050Ti GPU, 8 GB of DDR4 3200 MHz ram and 480GB of NVMe SSD (SK Hynix) storage. The laptop also features a backlit LED keyboard, DTS Surround sound, Wifi 6 capabilities, Thunderbolt 4 with USB-C (for video, high-speed data transfer) and best part - a really good thermal solution that actually works. The laptop is also clearly one of the more easily expandable laptops that I have seen in a while, with an extra memory slot available, and a second NVMe SSD (M.2 2280) storage connector. The biggest issue with gaming laptops is the amount of heat a laptop generates when gaming or doing intense work. The heat generated during gaming will throttle the CPU processor in speed, and to an extent your GPU processor, making frame rates drop and ruining the experience of the game. During the last few days, I have been extensively gaming, far more than normal. Everything from CS:GO to Forza 7 to Age of Empires and Battlefield V. I even managed to play a bit of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. It helps that the laptop comes with a free one month pass to Microsoft XBox Game Pass, making downloading and trying out new games a breeze. Talking about thermals, I never saw the 6 cores, 12 threads of the CPU go past 85c in gaming, Which I think is very respectable, the CPU in no way seemed to throttle down. Even the GPU temperatures were between 78-82c depending on the game being played. The cooling solution on this laptop does work. There are air intakes on the top above the keyboard and on the bottom, and I could feel the heat coming off the exhaust vents in the back and on the side. Temperatures that soar during gaming, quickly came down when games were turned off. One could always add a laptop cooling pad to the bottom to improve airflow and cooling should the need arise, as the laptop standoffs are rather tiny and would only be effective on a hard surface. The initial setup experience of the laptop was quick and easy. There was no bloatware to remove. The “MyAsus” app registered my laptop, and then applied updates to the firmware BIOS and graphics subsystems. I also updated Windows 10 to the latest iteration. After poking around the Asus TUF Aura app to change the fan speed and colours to my preference, I got to gaming. The initial gaming experience was less than satisfactory, with constant screen tears and frequent freezes. It seemed to do it in everything from Rocket League to CS:GO. Knowing that the Nvidia driver did an upgrade during the initial setup and update process, I checked the version of the driver, and it was 462.xx, the latest drivers (at the time of the review) were 471.41. So I downloaded the latest drivers from the Nvidia website and installed them. The latest drivers definitely fixed the stuttering issue and improved overall gaming performance. Rocket League was smooth as ever, and my kill ratio in CS:GO was no longer affected by dropped frames. The beauty of this laptop is that one could really game on the go. There is plenty of video processing and CPU power to game without being plugged into an outlet. Though overall gaming time is about 90 minutes at best with a fully charged laptop, the fact that the ability exists to game on a laptop without being hamstrung by lack of frag time is admirable. In the past, gaming laptops were just that, tethered to a wall for power because they were energy hogs. I’d say, this laptop isn’t very far from that - as the power brick is a 20V, 180W, 9 Amp power supply. That is far more than I expected for a laptop, but given the power consumption on the video card, you will need the power to drive the laptop operations. I did notice a slight performance hit when gaming on battery vs. when plugged in. CS:GO overall frame rates fell from an average 100+ fps to 60-70 FPS, which is still completely acceptable for smooth gaming action. Talking about gaming on the go, the build quality of this laptop is good. While I am not completely impressed by its ability to pick up oils from my hands on to the plastic, the overall build quality is very good. There are stickers in the box that you can adorn your laptop to solve the problem. This laptop is not light, I’d say about 7 pounds or more, but it is built to a MIL-Spec - and should hold up to the daily grind and more. My final impression of this laptop is nothing short of a “must buy” rating. Sure, you could pay more for a faster processor, or more ram or storage space, but given that you are going to have to upgrade or add the storage and ram anyway, the cost differential between a higher-priced laptop with upgraded components and this one is rather large. For gaming, you will want a 17” matte screen, a keyboard feel that is springy and yet tactile, good processing power for the GPU and the CPU to drive your games. Storage and RAM are always things that require upgrading. Given that most games are in the 100’s of gigabytes in space, the 480 GB SSD will be one thing that will need quick augmentation to be able to install your games properly. The 8 GB of ram is also barely adequate these days, but it’s plenty to get you started, and upgrades can be done rather easily. As a launchpad for gaming on the go, this laptop is the one to have with plenty of CPU processing power and a modern GPU. Pros: * 17” Matte Screen * Excellent thermals for gaming and laptop performance * A fantastic keyboard that has good springy action and tactile feel. I wrote the review on the laptop as the keyboard is so good for a typist. * USB 3.1, USB4 & Thunderbolt 4 with USB-C + HDMI Out Cons: * The webcam, seriously - even though it’s 720P it is quite low quality, it could be so much better given how prevalent gamers stream on platforms like Twitch. * Gaming battery life, though normal use its fine * Weight of the laptop * No way to set the LED keys to map the colours for the game keys to only light up. * Should have come with a mouse, hard to game without a mouse.

Great gaming laptop for the price. I'm not a hard cir gamers so I didn't need an expensive unit. This is perfect. Fast and a great price.

Initial thoughts are that this would definitely suffice as a gaming laptop. Haven’t ran into any issues with Shooters and Action Games. The 144hz screen is awesome!! This also doubles as a work computer. The biggest limitations out of the box will be storage. Rated at 512GB, 456GB formatted with 348GB available before installing. Playing the latest AAA Games especially anything from the Call Of Duty line will take at least 100GB, so you will fill up storage pretty quickly. Thankfully ASUS built-in a secondary M.2 port. 1TB drives have dropped in cost, but still a little pricey for larger ones. Thankfully it is pretty easy to upgrade/add Storage and Memory (extra slot as well) once you get the back cover off. About 10 screws holding the case on, however, ASUS went a little overboard with the snap locks. Typically I start in the front and work my way around, but the bottom cover wraps around the hinge and in doing my typical routine, broke some of the snap locks in that area. I’d recommend starting on the sides in the back and wrap around the corners to the back side; then work your way towards the front. While the build quality is definitely where ASUS had to cut some costs. The chassis is all plastic and the palm rest and trackpad are bad at attracting smudges; the keys too. The design is definitely geared toward the traditional gaming design and the RGB keyboard adds to the flair. It would be hard to call it a gaming computer if doesn’t have these features, it just goes with the territory. The ports are definitely put in strategic spots; single USB-A for a mouse on the right, mic/headphone jack on the left side closest to the front. I would like to have seen another USB-C, but at least it has 1. I will say that the I have not seen so much thermal cooling in a laptop before. The RAM has a thermal tape on both sides and so does the M.2..it’s literally wrapped in it. The dual-fans definitely have some decibels, but are not overly distracting. Most likely you will be wearing a gaming headset, ASUS does bundle its own software for tweaking the hardware specs and even its own Game Store, but it really is just pulling from Steam Store. I wouldn’t call it official overclocking, but it will let you set the processor to Turbo which makes it stay running at top speed. The software helps if you are looking at running different power profiles for battery life. It also has a nice battery save feature that lets set to maximum battery health where it won’t allow the battery to charger more than 60% for when the laptop will be used mostly as a desktop and always plugged in. Speaking of the battery, I was pretty shocked to see it was only 4220mAh in size it is 48Wh, so it can put out the juice, but if you plan on gaming while on battery, don’t plan on any extended sessions. There is definitely some room for them to add some more battery, but probably not a good idea given the amount of heat that could be expected. The laptop is definitely well ventilated, but I’m sure most will also leave this plugged in all the time, so a larger battery would end being a bit overkill. The charging block is a traditional circular plug, not the USB-C of modern slim laptops, however, its also pumping out 180W at 20.0volts and 9A, so it will definitely recharge at a fast rate. Battery life is going to be a mixed bag for you depending on what your use is unplugged, but the ASUS CRATE software that lets you tweak everything, automatically shuts down the Nvidia GPU, switches screen to 60hz and a few other settings to conserve battery. I’m not sure if this laptop is “The Ultimate Force” (TUF) ASUS brands it as, but I definitely think it holds its own. My only issue I ran into was some light bleed from the lower border of the screen mostly on the left and right sides. This is only noticeable in the darkest of scenes. I would like to have seen a 1TB drive and of 16GB RAM given this just a bunch of plastic (which does make it quite light). Given the shortages for chips, I think it is priced competitively and you wouldn’t be disappointed.

Ok let me start by saying that this laptop is fast…no no no , I mean fast. I play COD MW T 150 FPS on medium settings 1080p. I use this for my potable music recording studio, but I have a proble with it, and is that the battery only last about 2 hours fully charged and that’s with the keyboard lights off and screen lights dimmed out. I have 2 desktops one with a ryzen 9 5950x rtx 3060 ti for home music production and gaming And my second pc have a ryze 5 2600 exit 580, and let me tell you, this laptop destroy this pc. I like my laptop, but I want to love it, and the battery life kind of kill it for me, and now I have to carry an extra power bank witch is making my backpack less traveling friendly. Thank you best buy I got this on sale for $800. But more importantly thank you Asus.

Great computer for the price! We upgraded the RAM to 32 GB and added a 2nd PCIe SSD 1TB to our system. My son loves it! This was his first laptop. I liked it so much I bought one myself and did the same upgrades! Definitely recommend if you want a good mid-range gaming laptop!

Great entry into gaming PCs. CPU and GPU pair well, but the single 8GB stick of RAM is a bottle neck. With that said, a simple upgrade of RAM quickly solved that issue.