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

My current gaming laptop just died last week so a replacement with a better & bigger LCD, newer graphics card is surly welcomed. Also looking at good heat management, decent typing experience, good amount ports and adequate sound from speakers. The Asus Tuf F17 affordable gaming laptop manages to strike the right balance between performance and value. It has strong 1080p performance, tough build quality, and large selection of ports that will win over the majority of folks. Games & Performance, since gaming is the main reason why most are buying this laptop let’s address it first, while this gaming laptop does not have the most powerful tech GPU wise but does offers excellent performance with modern games at this price point. Note: I added additional 8 gigs of ram for a total of 16 gigs: Crucial RAM 8GB DDR4 3200 MHz & another SSD. This was easy to do on this model with the extra open ram and SSD slots very accessible on mother board. This laptop offers a free trial to Game Pass so you can try out games and see how they play. Even if you’re not interested in a long-term subscription, you can try out full games for free before buying them. Gaming benchmarks on a few games (All games tested in 1080p) Control (Medium settings) DLSS On: 84 FPS AVG “GAME PASS” Control (Medium settings) RTX On, DLSS On: 52 FPS AVG “GAME PASS” Doom Eternal (High settings) DLSS (Balanced) On: 97 FPS AVG “GAME PASS” Microsoft Flight Simulator 2021 (Recommended medium settings w/60 fps lock) 64 FPS AVG “GAME PASS” Doom 2016 (Ultra settings) 80 FPS AVG “STEAM” Latest Geforce Game Ready Driver ver 471.41 release date 07/19/21 was used. Geekbench 5 (Single Core) 1381 Geekbench 5 (Multi Core) 5977 PC MARK 10 score: 5758 [PCMark 10 test simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. It is used to test overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet jockeying, web browsing, and videoconferencing.] As you can see, the graphically demanding game like Control runs at 84 fps (frames per second) with DLSS. A bit of tweaking with settings, you’ll get it to play over the magic 60fps mark, while still looking fantastic and on some newer games like Doom Eternal you have to set the textures to medium while leaving everything else on high because the 3050ti vram is 4GB and the game requires more vram with high textures. With less graphic intensive games, like Apex Legends or Fortnite, you’re going to be able to really take advantage of the 144Hz screen for fast and responsive gameplay. Having premium technologies like ray tracing & DLSS options on an entry level video card is awesome, some games do benefit visually and have increased framerates, these options future proofs your system since many game developers will add these features in newer games. General performance is quite good while system boots up in 11 seconds and the intel 11th Generation Core i5 is capable of multitasking various programs and more intensive tasks. The Asus Tuf is quick and responsive as I had 15 tabs open in Brave Browser, converting videos with Handbrake and watching YouTube at the same time with no noticeable slow down. (I should note that adding additional ram is a factor in this also) CPU temp stays around 60C during general tasks like browsing, watching videos etc. Laptop bottom only gets slightly warm compared to prior laptop that got hot during these tasks, so air flow with vent design seems good. Gaming CPU temp was 68-72C on heavy loads, laptop gets hot under load but not too bad. Under regular task the fan noise is barely noticeable and does not get very loud at all on load. After initial Windows setup I went to the MyAsus App which informed me of a Bios update, after installing new Bios and reboot had no problems, went to the Geforce Experience App to update video drivers and had an issue of them not installing properly, got the blue screen of death. This was my fault because I should have update Windows first before the video drivers. After the long process of Windows update Geforce video drivers updated without issue. The Asus Tuf laptop emphasis build quality and durability at the forefront of its design. The result of this gives you a well-built and sturdy laptop with stiff hinges, metal on top of LCD screen and no flex on the keyboard while depressing keys. It has a modern industrial look to it that’s certainly a design that doesn’t dispute the fact that this is a gaming machine, but it’s not completely overdone with bright flashy colors either and if you’d like to give it some more of a gamer’s look, the Asus TUF comes with a sheet of stickers. I should add that this laptop, although bigger, is lighter (5.73 lbs) than my last 15 -inch laptop. The laptop is thicker than other laptops (which I prefer due to better air flow & heat dissipation) and this design also allows a decent number of ports, with an Ethernet port, HDMI, two standard USB ports and a USB-C port on the left-hand side, along with a port to plug in the power supply, while on the right-hand side there’s another standard USB. The matte IPS LCD screen on this laptop is 1080p (1920x1080) with max brightness around 270 nits with 144HZ refresh rate, 127 ppi, 16.9 aspect ratio and Adaptive Sync. Videos, games and browsing all look good but screen does not have a wide color gamut so colors may not be as accurate as some other screens. Display test results: Contrast 831:1 - sRGB color space 60% - Adobe RGB profile 47.3% - DCI-P3 color gamut 40.1% - Response time 27 ms. I do enjoy having a bigger 17-inch though since a larger screen is good for the type of work I do, and gaming of course benefits from this as well. My last laptop also did not have a webcam so the fact that this does with a decent quality 720p one is a bonus since now I can do work Zoom calls in my living room. Typing experience is excellent with keystrokes having good travel, clicks are precise with keys being spaced out nicely and comfortable, plus the added number keys really helps me work wised. Typing noise is at a minimal except for some keys like the space bar which has a clicky and audible feedback. I got use to typing on this keyboard right away. RGB light are nice also and are controlled via the Armory Crate App, backlight brightness on keys can be made very bright or low if you wish. Touch pad is responsive, good gestures and two finger scrolling (Windows Precision Drivers) but is a lot smaller than the larger trackpads I am used to and picks up the oils from your fingers rather easily. The Wi-Fi 6 card is just phenomenal with speeds up to 473 Mbps blowing away my prior laptop that only got 270 Mbps. Wi-Fi connection has been stable with no drops. Battery life is around 5.30 hours with general web browsing and YouTube viewing with battery saver mode enabled, battery type is a Li-Ion 3 cell 48WH. The battery life is not really a deal breaker for me since using it at home mostly. Sound does not get very loud even on max with sound quality just being average, I tried tweaking the sound options in Armory Crate App in effort to increase sound and didn’t notice any difference. Final thought & gripes, great laptop for gaming and light to medium productive work. The 17-inch laptop serves well as desktop replacement but still portable enough for Lan parties. Everything is just better with a bigger screen, more real estate on web pages and gaming. Gaming performance is not bad with card having certain tech options that future games will utilize. This is a quality build device with a good typing experience that can handle modern games. Overall, this is a killer system for gamers on a budget who wants a bigger screen and gaming is a primary concern regarding this laptop for me, so I can overlook some of the short comings. Gripes: I was expecting a bigger battery on such a large laptop and not the supplied 3 cell 48WH so battery life is a little below average, Touchpad kind of small for my taste, average speakers, colors on screen not very accurate, no Micro SD card 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.

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.

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.

I have a gaming PC and another gaming laptop as well as an Asus Tuff gaming monitor. This laptop is 17.3 inch which is the largest laptop I have. I personally find the built-in speakers acceptable for a laptop but I wish the screen would get a little brighter and the keyboard backlighting. The keyboard is top knotch quality as far as the keys go but I can not seeem to get them as bright as I would like. This laptop does very well with the games I play on it and I do appreciate the low lag high refresh rate screen. I love the Asus Tuff gaming series of equipment I just wish the screen and keyboard were a little brighter. I have it plugged in to the wall outlet and checked alll of the settings I just want it brighter. Other than those two complaints this laptop is very high quality and the keyboard feels outstanding and super high quality. My 27" 4k Tuff gaming monitor has no brightness issues so I will keep searching for settings and driver upfdates but I have gone through everything. It is a great-looking laptop with an outstanding feel to the keyboard. It performs well in games but to me it needs a brighter keyboard and a brighter screen to compete with other brands I have. This is in despite of the keyboard and build quality being top-notch and it being a great machine. I will keep .searching but I have tried driver updates and every possible setting option through all avenues of setting Right now it just barely gets bright enough for me to use it halfway comfortably. Which to me should not be an issue. It is a very well built machine and I love everything about accept for the lighting. Sorry but unless I find a way to increase it the settings or an update it fallls behind my other gaming laptop which is a 15.6 inch.

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.

The battery and the 4gb of vram really hold this thing back but its still a good laptop for gamers who can keep it connected to a power source.