The ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition took me on an all-AMD gaming tour
Back in 2006, I was fully on board the hype train for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The clunky old laptop that took me through college fell tragically short of that game’s minimum system requirements, so I built a new PC. At the time, there was one CPU that made sense for my needs and my budget: an AMD Athlon 64. I made so many good memories with that system that I often returned to AMD over the years as I upgraded. These days, AMD CPUs offer some of the best performance on the market, and the cutting-edge AMD Radeon RX 6800M GPU delivers enviable gaming horsepower.
All that gaming prowess made me eager to get my hands on the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition gaming laptop. Equipped with a Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU and the latest Radeon graphics, this system evokes the bang-for-the buck of my old AMD builds through its competitive performance and accessible price. Recently, I had the chance to test-drive the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition for play and for work, and I have the data to prove that this combo of an AMD CPU and GPU make for a winning team.
| ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition | |
|---|---|
| Where to buy (US) | Amazon Best Buy MichaelElectronics2 Walmart |
| Where to buy (CA) | Newegg Best Buy |
Sharp, customizable style
The ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition houses powerful components in a boldly styled chassis. From the dot matrix design that slashes across the lid to the ROG and AMD-themed Easter eggs cunningly hidden around the chassis, this laptop is a unique celebration of our partnership with AMD.
Opening the laptop’s lid reveals a desktop-style keyboard in a wide, comfortable layout. The translucent WASD keys direct my fingers to command position, while conveniently placed media keys sit in easy reach of my left hand. The extra-large precision touchpad makes everyday computing comfortable and easy.
The ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition gives me a range of options for making it my own. It starts with Aura Sync RGB LED lighting. The four-zone keyboard backlight and the wraparound light bar underneath the chassis offer a vibrant glow. Through the Armoury Crate app, I can easily synchronize this lighting with my other Aura Sync peripherals, and if I’m playing an Aura Sync-enabled game like Ghostrunner, those lights can respond in real-time to in-game events to give me an edge on the action.
I can further customize this laptop by swapping out the Armor Cap at the back left corner of the chassis. It’s held snugly in place with a magnet, so it’s easy to pop one off and slide in a replacement. There are three options inside the box, though I could also design and 3D print my own custom cap.
Ready for action
The ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition’s potent combo of an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU and a Radeon RX 6800M GPU proved its mettle in every game I played. ROG Strix machines are tuned for powerful esports performance, so I started with a pair of popular online shooters.
Call of Duty: Warzone
Few things make for a better Friday night than dropping into massive 150-player battles with a capable squad of friends. Call of Duty: Warzone checks all my boxes for multiplayer mayhem, so I dialed up its graphics settings to the max, including ray tracing, and plunged into action.
Right out of the chute, the G15 Advantage Edition showed that its AMD CPU and GPU deliver cutting-edge performance. In a modern esports title packed with players, this laptop produced frames at a fast and fluid rate, even with more demanding graphics settings than many competitive players select. Frame rates vary naturally over time based on the complexity of the scene being rendered, but my FPS counter stayed high even when the tide of battle plunged me into up-close and personal combat.
The 95th percentile FPS figure shows that 95% of all the frames produced during the benchmark were delivered at a rate above 107.5 FPS. That performance kept me on top of every moment as I scavenged for gear, fought for position, and worked with my squad to whittle down the competition.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Some popular esports titles run so quickly that average FPS can run into the hundreds when you’re playing on capable hardware. On some systems, that sky-high frame rate is merely academic, but the G15 Advantage Edition’s fast 300Hz display makes sure that I can use all those frames to my advantage.
The screen’s ultrafast refresh rate lets it display new frames at a dizzying pace, and the result is supremely smooth animation and responsiveness. CS:GO is a game of milliseconds. Often, I only have a fleeting moment to respond to an enemy passing through a doorway or peeking around a corner. The G15 Advantage Edition produces and displays new frames so quickly that I can always stay on top of the action.
The G15 Advantage Edition has other tricks up its sleeve to keep me competitive in online multiplayer, as well. Built-in Two-Way AI Noise Cancelation tech intelligently minimizes the background noise picked up by my microphone so that every word I speak to my squadmates comes through clearly. It does the same for their feed as well, freeing me from having to listen to the clatter of their keyboard and the hum of nearby appliances.
Even the arrangement of ports on the G15 Advantage Edition fits my playstyle for FPS titles like CS:GO. I tend to play these games with low mouse sensitivity, so I need all the space I can get on the right side of the laptop for large mousing motions. Since the laptop’s I/O is entirely on the rear and left side of the machine, I never get my mouse inadvertently tangled in a cord in the middle of the action.
Doom Eternal
The ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition proved itself as an esports contender, and it also met the challenge of playing the latest AAA games at high graphics settings. To test its mettle, I took it on a rampage through Doom Eternal, one of the fastest-paced shooters around. The game recently received a graphics update that added ray tracing, and I made sure to enable those breathtaking effects to put the G15 Advantage Edition’s Radeon RX 6800M GPU to the test.
Even with most visually stunning and immersive graphics technologies enabled, the G15 Advantage Edition still puts together a fast and fluid performance. Ray tracing brings the many metallic and glass surfaces of this richly detailed game to life with realistic reflections. Best yet, I can still enjoy a highly fluid experience even with these demanding settings.
Resident Evil Village
When I settle down in my den for a few hours of gaming time, I often connect my laptop to an external display. The ROG Strix XG27AQM on my desk combines a richly detailed 2560x1440 resolution with a refresh rate that I can overclock all the way up to 270Hz. Putting a game up on its 27” panel really draws me into the action.
Resident Evil Village proved to be a perfect title for the big screen. The XG27AQM’s higher resolution brought out the fine detail in the game’s textures. The marble ceilings of Lady Dimitrescu’s opulent castle, the rusted machinery of Heisenberg’s factory, and the dilapidated ruins of the village all came alive at 1440p.
Rendering a game at a higher resolution makes a GPU work a bit harder simply because there are many more pixels to paint, yet the G15 Advantage Edition’s Radeon RX 6800M handled that increased workload with aplomb. It achieved an average frame rate of 124.5 FPS, even at the game’s Max preset at 2560x1440.
AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) tech gives me an easy way to bump up those numbers. With this technique enabled, the game renders at a lower resolution and then upsamples each frame to my target resolution. There are several FSR settings so that gamers can fine-tune whether they want to emphasize performance or image quality. To my eye, FSR Ultra Quality provides the best balance of visual fidelity and increased performance. At this setting, FSR boosted frame rates by nearly 15%, proving its value for mitigating the performance penalty of playing at 2560x1440. The tech works whether you’re using an NVIDIA or AMD GPU, so give it a whirl if you’re hunting for a performance boost in Village.
Microsoft Flight Simulator
The latest generation of Microsoft’s long-running Flight Simulator series debuted last year with stunning graphics, hyper-realistic gameplay, and the entirety of Earth for digital aviators to explore. It quickly earned a reputation for being one of the most demanding games on the market to play. A recent performance update smoothed things out for many users, but it remains a tough challenge for GPUs.
Even at the game’s high-end preset, the G15 Advantage Edition proved up to the task of smoothly rendering this complex simulation. Flight Simulator also showcases the value of the Operating Modes in the laptop’s Armoury Crate app. Operating Modes allow me to tune the laptop’s performance and cooling system for the task at hand. Performance Mode is my go-to setting, as it gives me great frame rates in games while keeping fan noise reasonable.
Turbo Mode gave me an undeniable performance boost in this game. With Turbo enabled, the G15 Advantage Edition automatically overclocks the Radeon RX 6800M to give me its full performance potential. The laptop’s fans have to spin a bit faster to keep the overclocked GPU within its AMD-specified operating range, but the additional noise never made it past my headset.
Silent Mode prioritizes quiet operation over all-out performance. It helps me be a considerate neighbor when I’m playing in a room with other people. While Flight Simulator didn’t run quite as quickly in Silent Mode as it did in Performance or Turbo Modes, it was more than playable. It did temporarily drop below 60FPS during my benchmark, but since the G15 Advantage Edition has a display equipped with FreeSync Premium tech, that’s really not the problem that it used to be. A FreeSync display synchronizes its refresh rate in real time with the GPU to maintain fluid animation with very low latency. I don’t have to be militant about keeping my frame rate above 60 at all times to avoid jarring breaks in fluidity, as I had to with old fixed-refresh-rate displays and Vsync. With the G15 Advantage Edition, I get a great gaming experience even in the most demanding games without having to fuss with settings.
Freedom from the power adapter
Some people prefer to have a separate gaming rig and ultraportable laptop, but there’s a lot of value in having one system that can do it all. The ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition has the battery life to carry me through a full day of work and entertainment. It’s only the PC I need from my morning web browsing and email to my after-hours gaming sessions.
To put the laptop’s large 90Wh battery to the test, I unplugged the power adapter at the 9AM start of my work day. Four hours later, after a typical morning of email, work in Google’s Workspace apps, and general web browsing, the battery still held 65% of its charge. Through the afternoon, my usage was a bit more varied, but the laptop more than kept up with me. I caught a few streams on Twitch and enjoyed some music on YouTube thanks to the laptop’s powerful pair of Smart Amp speakers. It wasn’t until 8:15pm, while I was playing some Jackbox Party Pack with friends, that the laptop warned me that I should plug the system in.
Recharging the ROG Strix G Advantage Edition is a quick and easy process. Fast-charging tech allows the battery to recharge to 50% in just 30 minutes. A 100W USB Type-C adapter is sufficient to power the laptop for everyday tasks, so I can travel lighter and charge all my devices from one adapter when the occasion calls for it.
Performance under pressure
Under the hood, the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition has a range of technologies that keep the high-performance components operating optimally, the exhaust fans spinning unobtrusively, and the laptop’s skin cool under my fingers. It starts with liquid metal thermal compound painted onto the surface of both the CPU and GPU. This compound transfers heat more effectively than traditional thermal paste, so you get the full performance of these chips.
To quickly transfer the heat produced by these components out of the chassis, we use a large yet thin vapor chamber. Substantial heatpipes connect the vapor chamber to four heatsinks with dense fin arrays, each with their own vents. These technologies work together so that when I enable Turbo Mode in the Armoury Crate app, ROG Boost has more headroom to push the CPU and GPU to the limit to give me higher frame rates.
A quick look at the CPU and GPU clock rates over time shows the stable, powerful performance that I can count on with the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition. A ten-minute run in Doom Eternal at 2560x1440 using the game’s Ultra Nightmare preset gave the Radeon RX 6800M GPU a good workout. The GPU load barely wavered from 100% over the entire run, but even under that intense load, the GPU hewed closely to its rated 2300MHz clock rate.
CPU performance proved similarly reliable in the same scenario. Doom Eternal is optimized to harness CPU resources more than many games on the market, so the Ryzen 9 5900HX had some real work to do. Even still, the laptop’s efficient cooling system let the CPU deliver sustained clock rates while I mowed down the hordes of Hell.
Even when I’m getting the most out of the AMD CPU and GPU by playing a demanding game, the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition makes sure I’m not distracted by excessive fan noise or a toasty-hot chassis. Its CoolZone keyboard has cleverly hidden venting that draws fresh air through the chassis right where my left hand rests while I’m gaming. An IR sensor monitors the surface temperature of the laptop to make sure it always stays comfortable for my hands. Put together, these technologies make sure that the laptop stays cool under my fingers, even a few hours into my Saturday night gaming sessions.
| ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition | |
|---|---|
| Model | G513QY |
| CPU | Ryzen 9 5900HX |
| Display | 300Hz/3ms FHD 100% sRGB |
| GPU | Radeon RX 6800M |
| Memory | 8GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 512GB SSD |
| I/O | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A 1x HDMI 2.0b 1x RJ45 LAN port 1x audio combo jack |
| Battery | 90Wh |
| Where to buy (US) | Amazon Best Buy MichaelElectronics2 Walmart |
| Where to buy (CA) | Newegg Best Buy |
Competitive and competitively priced
When I shop for a laptop or for DIY PC components, I’ve always thought first and foremost about value. I crave bleeding-edge gaming technology, but I want it for a great price. That’s what I get from the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition. Its price is close to mainstream gaming laptops, but the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU and AMD Radeon RX 6800M deliver more gaming performance than I’d get from the components in those more baseline options.
On top of all that, the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition offers compelling features that just don’t come standard on a typical laptop: liquid metal thermal compound on both the CPU and GPU, a highly customizable chassis, and a well-appointed display with a sizzling 300Hz refresh rate. This laptop is a clear and substantial step-up for gamers who value bang for the buck, but demand more than just the essentials.
My history with AMD CPUs and GPUs goes back a long way. In build after build, they kept me playing the latest games with my friends. The ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition carries on that legacy of performance and value. Grab an ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition of your own to experience its competitive gaming performance and compelling value.
