Custom PC - UK (2021-09)

VERDICT

An affordable and capable gaming machine, but the

price results in compromises in important areas.

OVERALL SCORE

77 %

PERFORMANCE

19 / 25

DESIGN

18 / 25

HARDWARE

19 / 25

VALUE

DASH^21 /^25

• Solid 1080p gaming ability

+^ Good CPU for everyday tasks

• 
  

  Reasonably robust,
  slim and light

  
  


• 
  

  Includes Thunderbolt 4

  
  

RUSH

-^ Weak version of the RTX 3070

• Not the best CPU
  for tough work
  -^ Mixed thermal performance
  -^ Weak speakers

BENCHMARK RESULTS

sec – that’s faster than a SATA drive, but you can get quicker
performance elsewhere.
The thermal results could be better as well. The GPU delta
T of 51°C is fine when running high-end games, but hot air
is ejected from the right-hand side, so your mouse hand
can feel toasty. The laptop’s underside is too hot for it to be
comfortable on your lap when gaming as well, and the metal
above the keyboard was warm. In a tricky work test, the CPU
peaked at a high delta T of 77°C and throttled to just under
4GHz, while external temperatures remained high. The fan
noise was noticeable and high-pitched here too.
It’s not all bad news. In mainstream games and esports
titles – and during everyday workloads – the Asus remained
far quieter than in our stress tests, and the underside was
cooler too.

GIMP IMAGE

EDITING

59,780

HANDBRAKE H.264

VIDEO ENCODING

318,804

HEAVY MULTI

TASKING

161,931

SYSTEM

SCORE

141,606

Meanwhile, the 15.6in, 1080p IPS display has a 144Hz

refresh rate with adaptive sync and a 3ms response time,

so it’s well suited to gaming – it’s smooth, fast and tear-free;

only the most demanding competitive gamers will want a

quicker screen.

It has decent image quality too. It covered 96.7 per cent

of the sRGB gamut with a delta E of 2.58 and a colour

temperature of 6,945K. The latter figure is a tad cool, so

the colours do lack a little vibrancy, but it’s not ruinous. The

brightness level of 284cd/m² is good enough for indoor use

and contributes to a decent, punchy contrast ratio of 1,136:1.

The Dash F15 lasted for just an hour and 20 minutes when

gaming on its battery, which is a normal result. Impressively,

though, it lasted for eight hours in an everyday work test.

Conclusion

The Asus TUF Dash F15 is one of the more affordable gaming

laptops around, and there are positives to find beyond the

price. It has the pace to tackle mainstream games and

esports titles, its CPU can handle everyday computing and it

has a decent screen in a relatively slim, light chassis.

In plenty of areas, though, the F15 is average. It has one of

the slowest RTX 3070 laptop implementations we’ve seen,

the CPU isn’t great in multi-threaded software and the Asus

has inconsistent thermal performance and underwhelming

speakers. Ultimately, you get what you pay for. The Asus is

a capable everyday laptop, but spending more will buy you

better performance and quality.

MIKE JENNINGS

99th percentile Average

1,920 x 1,080, Vulkan, Ultra Nightmare settings

DOOM ETERNAL

0 40 80 120 160

Asus TUF Dash F15 95fps 145fps

1,920 x 1,080, Ultra High settings, High anti-aliasing

ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA

0 40 80 120 160

Asus TUF Dash F15 39fps 59fps

1,920 x 1,080, Ultra preset, no ray tracing

CYBERPUNK 2077

0 40 80 120 160

Asus TUF Dash F15 36fps 54fps

1,920 x 1,080, Ultra settings, High RT, PhysX off, HairWorks off

METRO EXODUS

0 40 80 120 160

Asus TUF Dash F15 27fps 52fps