ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop, 15.6 Full HD IPS-Type, AMD Ryzen 7 R7-3750H, GeForce RTX 2060, 16GB, 512GB SSD, Wi-Fi 5, Windows 10

I’ve been testing this laptop out for a few days now, and overall it’s been great. My usage for this is 70% regular computer work (business, light Photoshop, web browsing, etc.) and 30% gaming when I travel as I have a full size gaming rig at home.

I bought the FX505DU, which has the 3750H and the 1660ti.

I like the form factor and aesthetics of the device, it doesn’t have much flex or “creakiness” to it, and it looks great sitting on a desk.

The RGB keyboard is a great touch, but wouldn’t allow me to change the color until I downloaded an extra piece of software. It cycles through all the colors by default. Other than that everything worked right out of the box and the performance has been very good. The 1660ti is a beast and has destroyed anything and everything I’ve thrown at it in 1080p.

The 3750H cpu has been good as well, though as expected with Ryzen in some CPU intensive games it gets more than it can handle.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a great example. I can play at ultra at 1080p with a locked 30FPS framerate, but if I attempt to get a steady 60fps on any settings, including the lowest, there’s just too much going on and it can’t do it, even with plenty of GPU headroom. Athens just melts it. Having said that Athens pushes my desktop 9900k, so I don’t consider it a negative, just something to keep in mind if you’re wanting 1080p60 on everything.

The only other games I’ve tested so far are:

The Witcher 3: Steady 60fps on ultra (had to dial back one setting, “foliage” to high, and no hairworks). Great experience.

Doom 2016: All ultra locked 60 fps using less than 50% of the GPU and CPU. This title can play at 100fps, but it gets too choppy in some high intensity spots, so I lock it to 60 for a smoother experience.

Thermals are great, GPU never exceeded 71c at 100% usage, no throttling that i was aware of. Make sure fans are on Turbo, which can be done with a touch of a button on the keyboard, which is awesome.

The noise levels during normal usage are fairly quiet, and I appreciate that it has a silent fan setting that can dial things back in case you don’t want to let everyone in the classroom or office know you’re rocking a gaming rig.
Noise levels during gaming were loud, but I’ve certainly heard much worse from other gaming laptops. I also appreciate that the top of the laptop doesn’t get hot, even after prolonged gaming sessions, so you can rest your hands on the keyboard without discomfort.

The screen is decent, nothing amazing, but perfectly serviceable, especially considering the price. The 120hz refresh rate is nice for regular usage, but in gaming I’ve found that the CPU can’t get many games past 80-90fps before hitting it’s limit, so I’ve been staying with a locked 60.

Also be aware this screen doesn’t have any type of adaptive refresh rate (Freesync/Gysnc) so make sure to use Vsync and a frame rate limiter if you want locked frame rates as very few newer games can hit the native 120.

This model comes with 2 drives, an SSD and a mechanical hdd. I replaced the hdd with a Samsung Evo ssd, and it took about 5 minutes. The entire bottom comes off the machine after removing all the bottom screws and carefully popping the bottom panel off. I recommend using a plastic separator tool to avoid damage, the tabs were a bit too snug to pop off with just fingers. You also have access to the fans and ram in case you ever need to service and/or clean the dust out.

Other than McAfee there isn’t much bloatware and the preloaded Asus apps work fairly well.

The keyboard and track pad are both comfy and work well. The track pad may turn some people off because it doesn’t have separate left/right buttons, but it’s large and responsive which is all that I look for.

Overall I’m very satisfied with this laptop. It looks great, performs very well, especially considering the price, and feels very durable. My one criticism is the lack of adaptive refresh rate tech, but at this price point that’s wishful thinking.

Great laptop, definitely recommended.

The unit I purchased is TUF Gaming 2019 FX505 DU- Ryzen 7 3750, GTX 1660ti with 120hz Monitor

Within a week of usage, it is fair to say the monitor color is very good for the price. Along with the new 1660 ti, it maintains decent frame rates (~65 FPS) on Metro exodus even at 120hz. The cooling system keeps the computer at around ~75 degrees Celcius during the stress test with relatively low fan noise. The AMD CPU can be overclocked and does not bottleneck the GPU.

My only concern is the Western Digital NVME SSD that contains the OS. It is not as fast as NVME drives from Samsung, Crucial and I am not sure about the longevity of the drive due to past experiences with less popular brand components. But for the price, it is easy to overlook these small issues.

Overall, with the GPU performance compared to the GTX 1070, CPU rivaled most Intel i7s and the inclusion of a high refresh rate screen, the new Asus TUF Fx505DU transformed the definition of the entry-level gaming laptops.

Al principio el equipo no me convencía del todo, cuando comencé a usarlo fue cuando noté el potencial qué tiene, el equipo es ligero para lo que ofrece (2.2kg) los hay más ligeros pero no en esta categoria y rara vez se calentará con un uso cotidiano. El rendimiento de la batería es algo relativo, pues varia con ofimática en alrededor de 6 horas, con multimedia alrededor de 3 horas, y con juego, en lo personal prefiero usarla conectada dado a que ofrece un modo turbo, el cargador es algo grande pero es justificado por los requerimientos. La memoria RAM es DDR4, decidí agregar otros 8gb y así aprovechar el modo dual channel. Tiene una bahía de 2.5 pulgadas para un SSD o disco duro, en la misma caja incluyen los tornillos necesarios para fijación, el puerto m.2 que tiene es NVMe, pero la unidad solo es SSD, alcanza velocidades de 900/800 MB/s. El pero que puedo poner es el plástico qué cubre la totalidad del equipo, pero el efecto de cepillado le agrega un toque especial.

What a great laptop for its built quality and performance. But you need to tweak a few things to maximise gaming performance:

– Purchase another 8GB memory for dual channel
– Set UMA buffer size to be auto in BIOS (this gives 2GB video memory in case it needs). You can use 512M if you want.
– In GeForce control panel, use GTX for both 3D settings and PhysX.
– In power options, set everything to be max performance for both battery and AC (3 options in total).
– Install latest AMD and GTX drivers, and upgrade to Windows 1903 latest update that resolved a power option related bug that can limit CPU performance.

Enjoy the awesome laptop from ASUS.

I wrote a very thorough review here. I am unbiased and was even an ASUS skeptic going in. My last computer was slow and 10 years old, so that might account for some my satisfaction. I did one review after 2 days, an update after a month, and one more after 3 months. I wrote such an in depth review because I love this laptop so much, I want others to have it. I believe that as of right now it is the best bang for your buck at the $1000h CAD range. I did a month of heavy research before buying. Be aware, I have the FX505DT variant. Ryzen 7 3750 cpu. GTX 1650 gpu. I almost got the ACER Nitro, and I am glad I chose this based on my experience and reviews of both the TUF and Nitro. Anyway, the review…
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Ok, so I’ve only had this thing a couple days, but so far it has preformed amazingly. If anything changes in the future I will update this review. I have the version with the GTX 1650 GPU and the Ryzen 7 quad core 3750 CPU. The laptop came with very little bloatware. Any bloatware installed was easily removed via add/remove programs. The drivers came mostly up to date, or very close to being up to date. The only game I have ran on here so far is Civilization VI, but it runs that perfectly smooth on maxed settings. It feels like I am playing on console. I know, it’s not the most resource intensive game in 2019, but still, I am impressed with how effortlessly this game runs. The MyASUS app for driver updates is garbage. I’d recommend manual driver upgrades from manufacturer sites, or use trustworthy software if you must.

I am also getting torrent download speeds of up to 10 mbps, while my old computer maxed out at 3 mbps. I am not sure if this is related to the WiFi receiver or something else, but it’s nice not having my internet connection bottle necked any more.

Everything else runs really smoothly, and very quickly. I honestly have not had a single issue with performance yet.

Okay, cons… maybe the trackpad. The left and right buttons are not individual buttons, it is all one wide button. It also really picks up smudges. Also, when clicking on the touchpad itself the whole thing sort of clicks down and feels a bit cheap. I like my trackpad to feel solid when I tap on it. It is very large surface area though and is responsive. Honestly, this is a minor issue for me.

Also, the speakers aren’t very loud. They sound good though, just quiet. The battery doesn’t last super long, but that’s ok for me. Also, it only comes with 8 gb of ram, but that is a cheap and easy upgrade.

I still give this laptop an easy 5 stars. I have never been as happy with a computer purchase.
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EDIT: Alright, had the laptop a month and I am even more pleased with it than when I started. I purchased an 8 gb RAM upgrade for only 35 dollars, and the performance has gotten even better. CPU usage is lower too as a result. I have gotten used to the trackpad, and I like it actually. It’s pretty good. Still the only gripe is the lackluster speakers. ASUS advertises the speakers like their magnificent for some reason, but they aren’t. That’s fine as I have them hooked up to my Logitechs anyway, I was never planning on listening to music on laptop speakers. I’ve had no issues, no glitches, no crashes, no freezes, barely any hangups. Once I accidentally forgot to close Forza 4 and started playing Witcher 3. It started stuttering occasionally, but was still playable with both games open, my memory maxed right out. Going from Win 7 to 10 has been nice too. Loved Win 7, and didn’t like Win 10 at first, but I gotta say, Win 10 is stable and reliable as hell. Very smooth OS.
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EDIT 2: Ok, now it had been three months. I love this laptop. I have run lots of games on it now. Metro: Exodus, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, The Outer Worlds, Apex Legends, Witcher 3, Forza 4, Farcry 5, Farmin Sim 19… With no problems. Assassin’s creed is notoriously CPU heavy, and it pushed my Ryzen 7 to the max. The game ran fine with a locked frame rate though on medium or high settings. All in all, smooth frame rates, quick loading, no overheating. I upgraded the RAM to 16gb which was cheap and has reduced CPU strain and allowed for more multitasking capability.

This can run any game out right now. Maybe not on max, but most games at least on high. CPU reaches it’s limit usually before the GPU does though, so this PC fairs better with GPU heavier games. Haven’t tried VR yet because I have no headset, so I can’t speak to that. Also I’m not snobby about framerates, I’m happy with 30 or more. This runs most games on high 50 or 60 fps, some 80ish, some over 100. I don’t hit 120 often, but also, I never dip below or rarely close to thirty during game play, and only on the most intensive games. They call it a beginner gaming laptop, but it can run any game I’ve thrown at it and gave me a great experience every time. If you are very particular about maxing settings, and getting super high FPS, or require 120 fps or more for competitive gaming, or have to have little upcoming graphical tweaks like ray tracing and eyeball reflections, running multiple GPU intensive apps at once, get something with more than 4gb of video ram. Otherwise this will please most gamers, beginner or otherwise. The Ryzen 7 3750h and Nvidia gtx 1650 are a fantastic match, and seem to communicate beautifully.

Another nice thing is the integrated AMD Vega graphics card. I thought it was unnecessary at first. It’s weak, but having two cards is nice. I let the AMD Vega handle minor things like desktop display and let the Nvidia handle applications. This should extend their lifespans. It’s also nice for dual display to let the VEGA handle one screen, instead of drawing off the GTX which can focus on one display instead.

The SSD that came with is small, 500gb, but is very quick and reliable. I still plan to upgrade my HD space with another SSD, 2.5 inch SATA for around $100-150 as there is an empty slot.

Another gripe, is only having 3 usb ports, none of them USB C, and all on the left side of the laptop. I ended up getting a USB Hub splitter dealie off Amazon that solved both these problems by reaching the other side and giving more slots. Still no USB C…

Power cable is built sturdy. The laptop itself seems sturdy despite it’s plastic casing.

Lots of reviews mention trouble changing the keyboard colour. But they addressed that in a recent update to the Armory software. Also, the Windows Store app “TUF Aura Core” allows you to tweak the LED colour anyway. Speaking of the keyboard, it’s solid! Feels nice, and the LED is cool.

CPU heat… The laptop will get in the 80’s occasionally, but only on certain apps, and usually only when loading. During gameplay it seems to cool down, especially with the fans on Turbo mode. In any case, I haven’t had any performance issues, warning, or glitches or any other problems associated with heat. These later Ryzens run pretty hot anyway. AMD themselves said these temps are normal and the cpu will shutdown if it’s at a dangerous level. The casing itself only gets slightly warm to the touch. I heard other models having heat issues, but this one seems to be fine after 3 months of heavy gaming.

8 months later:
I find the one weakness maybe haha. Video editing… It’s definitely manageable on GPU friendly software like Resolve. It doesn’t handle Premiere or Corel that well. Video editing software has not caught up with video quality it seems. Came a long way since Movie Maker days… But if you’re editing 4k video, or just doing a ton of video editing in general, this laptop might not give you a satisfying experience. I use Resolve though and runs more than smoothly enough for me. Video editing takes a lot these days, but I bet this PC at this price handles it as good as any other PC at this price.

Hope this review helped. Can’t say you will have the same experience as me, but this laptop, on my bed, right now Is AMAZING for $1000, and just in general.

Reviews for the Laptop (Will Update Periodically)

First Week:

So far I am really enjoying this laptop, it is mostly quiet, very light, and the battery lifespan is better then I expected. I can get about 4-6 hours of battery life depending on the situation. I haven’t played many games yet but it has been great as a work/school computer so far. The keyboard is also really awesome, although it doesn’t feel as nice as more expensive laptops. The screen resolution is really clear as well, and honestly, for the price, I feel like it was a great choice for myself.