Asus TUF FX505DU mini review

Just a mini review of this cheap budget laptop.

This laptop is currently one of the cheapest gaming laptops on the market with a GTX 1660 Ti.

But what is the laptop like?

Chassis
Plastic, but the good kind, it does not have cheap feel to it.
Keyboard on the other hand is not the best, when you press a button you can see nearby buttons bend. But I have seen worse.

Speakers
Mediocare but okay I guess. It support DTS with headphones though.

Performance
GTX 1660 Ti has the performance of a GTX 980 desktop card and is slightly slower than a much more expensive rtx 2060, so it is pretty good for a budget laptop.
The Ryzen 7 3750h on the other hand only has the performance of a 7700hq, so a 8750h can beat it easily.

Temps
Factory paste is not good and needs a repaste. Temps after paying 10 mins with factory paste :




Screen
Asus is using a Sharp lm156lf-gl panel which has 120 hz refresh rate, about 20 ms response time and around 60% sRGB color reproduction which makes it pretty mediocare.
However the thing that saves it is a tech which is not very common in this price range...the built in screen supports FreeSync!
It can be enabled after installing the AMD driver because the Vega 10 built in the CPU is responsible for handling the panel and the Nvidia card only boost performance, like with Optimus.
AMD driver reports a FreeSync range of 48-120 hz which actually makes it better for games with low fps than the Helios 500 which costs twice as much because the range there is 60-144 .




This is pretty neat stuff, I do not know why Asus is not promoting this, this laptop is the first hybrid laptop with AMD FreeSync screen and Nvidia high performance vga.

Price
Best part is that all this only costs 1100 USD.
Depending on country and shop you may also get free goodies.
For example here in Hungary Asus Hungary is giving free stuff for this laptop.
These include 17" backpack, headphones, mouse and mousepad with a total value of around 200 USD.

 

Interesting thing is that FreeSync is hidden with the AMD driver from Asus website, however it will be enabled with driver from AMD's website.

 

Interesting stuff, thanks for this

 

Okay, the System came with BIOS 301, so I installed BIOS 305 to see if it was just a fluke and Asus removed it in the latest BIOS or not...the answer after running the FreeSync demo:

 

Hey there,

Do you know the exact model numbers of the items above, shipped with the laptop? Thanks.

 

Awesome that it has freesync! Did you get single or dual channel ram? Care to do a test of single vs dual channel if you can?

 

g-sync working in hybrid mode on With a AMD\Nvidia-combo? That must be a first Does it work flawlessly in games as well? One big problem With G-sync-laptops is poor batterylife since g-sync must be disabled in hybridmode since Intel iGPU don`t support it. If the Ryzen With iGPU and Nvidia dGPU supports this it`s awesome!

 

Not GSync, FreeSync (technically the same, just from different company)

 

Yeah, I know, what I meant is if switching between iGPU and dGPU dont disable adaptive sync that must be a first on a notebook

 

I’ve recently purchased this machine in Hungary (FX505DU) and love it for most bits. For the price the performance is very impressive, and I got the free mouse, pad, headphones and backpack as well.

On the negative side though:
- Drivers on the ASUS portal are rubbish: AMD scripted install fails, ROG Armoury fails to recognize the video card, AURA stuck in rainbow mode, and other minor issues requiring extensive workarounds to fix them
- I experience sudden irrational frame drops in games. From stable 70-80 the frames drop to 10-15 for 5 seconds then it’s restored to 70-80 again. It’s very ad hoc and varies from game to game, some examples:

Fallout 4: 90 frame average, frame drop occurs once per hour
Battlefield V: 70 frame average, frame drop occurred 3 times in 7 hours
Assassins Creed Origins: 60 frame average, frame drop occurred 2 times in 10 hours
Ryse Son of Rome: frame drop from 80 to 15 every 2 minute (restored after 5 seconds)
Crysis 3: frame drop from 80 to 15 every minute (restored after 5 seconds)
Doom: stable 60 frame, no drops in 8 hours
Apex Legends: stable 70 frame, drops in 10 hours

It’s a noticeable with the older titles, but I sometimes experience it with recent ones as well, thus I’d like to get to the bottom of the problem. All drivers are up to date, I experience the problem both in balanced and turbo mode as well; as I get consistent 70-80 frames the problem shouldn't originate from in-game settings.

Anyone else experiencing the same?

 

hey man thanks for your review, could you please give some info about the following:
- any backlight bleeding on the screen ?
- in idle fans are annoying ?
- battery life ?

I am very interested in buying this model too..

 

Back light is minimal, the 120 Hz refresh rate is really good, every movement is silk smooth. In idle the fans are very silent, keeping the noise to minimal, though opening Chrome will have them immediately up to speed. While gaming the fans are loud, but honestly I don't care as I'm using headphones. Battery life is not so great, 90 mins reliably, but again this is not a problem for me as I use them plugged in.

The thing is as this being a new ASUS model, I got a 2 month buyers guarantee as part of the promotion here in Hungary, where I can return it and get my price back. Yesterday evening I decided to go forward with it. I've been testing it for two weeks now, and the frame drops I mentioned earlier should not be happening. I've read the same problem come up for other people as well, it's the thermal throttling on the AMD processor most likely originating from the poor quality thermal paste. I could go forward with repairs under guarantee but it's simply unacceptable that a 1000 USD laptop behaves like this after two weeks. Crysis 3 is the perfect game for testing this, it runs amazing for 2 minutes, the frames drop to 5 for a couple of seconds, it goes back up to 80, then the process repeats. It's a 6 year old game...

On paper the specs should be more than enough to handle anything with high settings, the poor assembly however prevents this. If you decide to go forward with the purchase make sure the dealership allows returns under guarantee and test the machine extensively. I hope you'll get well functioning model. I'll have the machine for 1-2 days before returning it, I can test a couple other things if you'd like.

 

I have this laptop and it is true you can have AMD freesync active with the Nvidia GPU.

Its really nice and at the price point, 120 Hz + adaptive sync is unheard of. Its really hard to go from my 9900k/2080ti 165Hz G-Sync desktop setup but this laptop does a great job in comparison.

I cant stand most 60Hz non Gsync/adaptive sync laptops.

Thermals are great, I got about a time spy GPU score of nearly 6000, which is equivalent to most stock desktop GTX 1070. You can get the 1660 Ti up to about 2000 mhz core roughly. I did OC scanner and it gave +147 Mhz result. Mine had Samsung VRAM and I did OC it to +400 mhz in afterburner I think. I did not push the limits on the core or memory yet.

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/7482400

The CPU scores almost the same as a Ryzen 5 1400 or a little more than a i5-6600k. So certainly it will be fine for gaming. You should be able to take advantage of the 120 Hz screen in most games. Intel would be about 10 FPS better though in most cases due to the the better IPC, but then you get all the throttling and undervolting that comes with a 6 core laptop chip so its a wash. It can do 60+ FPS maxed on all but a handful of games (like AC odyssey, poorly optimized). A lot of games like Rainbow six siege will easily run 100+ FPS maxed out and youll be able to use that sweet 120 Hz screen to its potential.

My only real complaint is the fact that the keyboard seems to be stuck in rainbow mode and nothing I do fixes it. Does anyone here have a fix, or even seen it EVER work correctly (changing lighting modes)?

Its not the worst thing in the world since I got Freesync so I can overlook it, but still it should be mentioned to prospective buyers.

For about $1000-$1100 its a great value if you consider the Freesync support.

 

So I figured out how to fix the keyboard back-lighting situation.

The entire "asus aura sync" area of the "Armoury" app does not work.

Rather, you must click the xbox/gamepad controller icon in the armory app and then click "SYSTEM" and then click the "Lighting" tab.

You will then find a much more basic interface with 4 options "Static, Breathing, Strobing and Color Cycle". You will be able to set the color here as well for the "Static" option.

Now you can do what you want with the keyboard and make custom colors or set it to static.

 

Much thanks for the review. Very helpful. I just picked up one while in China. It has 8gb ram, and a 512 gb nvme. No hdd. Where would you advise getting the drivers for AMD? Should I get them from the manufacturer or the AMD website? I'm worried about the driver stability in this machine


I also wanted to ask if it would be OK to upgrade the RAM to two sticks of ADATA 2666 mhz with cl 19 timings. I am going to take out the stick already in it.

 

Go to AMD's website and chose the right options to download the correct driver.

It doesn't matter what RAM you choose you will not be able to run faster than 2400Mhz.

 

Much thanks for the reply. The RAM is SkHynix 2666mhz cl17 timing. As you said, it runs at 2400 MHz.

My question is , how much difference due the RAM timing make?

I bought a 16 GB adata kit (2 x 8) at cl19. Should I use that or try to find another stick of ram at cl17?

 

Lower is better, but with the RAM running at 2400 Mhz it may run at CL17 automatically. You can use HWinfo64 to see what timings the ram support at what speeds.

So at 2666 it might be cl19 but at 2400 mhz might be cl17. The ram is already running pretty slow, I would not worry about the difference honestly.

On something like my 9900k rig I would care.

 

Hey! I had a gaming session with the laptop attached to my TV, and played Arkham Knight, and then I noticed the same framerate drops as you. The youtube reviewers OwnOrDisown and JarrodTech reviewed these machines and both did not notice any throttling. Then in Afterburner I saw that the CPU had hit 98 degrees.

Was anyone able to fix this issue with a repaste or will we have to use throttlestop to undervolt or underclock the thing?

 

Are you sure you have the model with the AMD Ryzen chip? It does not get hot at all and currently there is no way to tweak or undervolt it.

You can increase the fan speed/fan profile with the turbo option on the keyboard (FN + fan icon). I did quite a bit of benchmarking and never saw the CPU get anywhere close to that.

Played many hours of dead by daylight with the GPU OC'd moderately as well, temps were great.

 

Much thanks for that reply.I will check out the RAM timings

 

Thanks a lot for the quick reply. And I bought the laptop after the detailed reviews by those youtube channels (they seem to be very thorough and honest reviewers). However, since I bought the laptop while in China, could I have gotten a shoddy paste solution? Thee guy I quoted also mentioned these regular drops. The behaviour seems consistent with throttling CPU. This laptop should not throttle. I did the Turbo thing and it reduced the frequency of the drops. Maybe it only happens on an external display when perhaps the APU also comes on, and then the temps jump.

 

Its possible you have a bad paste job, and ive not seen those FPS drops. Granted ive only really played dead by daylight and done benchmarking.

I would log the CPU and GPU frequency + temps and see what you can find out. Even with CPU intensive games, it seems unlikely it would get that hot. Its only a 35 watt 4 core chip. Those temps are what I expect from 6 core intel CPU's that have not been undervolted.

 

This is very strange. I just played through a very hectic session of the game, and there were no strange fps drops anymore. This doesnt make sense as the temps were still very high. Yet, no throttling this time. I'm beginning to think there may be some other issue.

Can't figure out what might be the issue here.

 

Kingston HyperX 2400 runs at cl14, that might give a bit if performance improvement

 

Hey guys,

Can anyone please post temps of them playing resource intensive games?

I'm in the high mid to high 80's for CPU and early 80's (about 81) for GPU (1660ti). What are you all getting?

 

Picked up this laptop two days ago in AU. Still sorting it out.

Very impressed for the price.

No games yet, but have seen some 1-3 second "stutters" both on the desktop and in Unigen Heaven 4.0. Windows not handling Ryzen threads properly ?

Temperatures seem reasonable though: 33°-40° on the desktop, maxing at GPU 75° / CPU 60° in Heaven. Will try undervolting the GPU and see what happens.

ps: can now confirm that it really does do FreeSync with both the integrated Vega 10 and the discrete 1660ti.

 

I've got a few tips...

1. install amd and nvidia drivers
2. The fan selection coincides with power level - if you set it to silent then the battery will run on power save.
3. Use msiafterburner to undervolt the gpu
4. You can enable the monitor to run 1440/4K
5. If you want to control the lighting on the keyboard install aura core
6. Install a 2nd ram stick to run in dual channels

Really impressed so far - mine rubs far cry 5/f1 2019 at 1440p at 60fps.

 

The stutters on desktop seem to be from the nvme rather than the CPU. They come and go and I cannot reproduce them.

During gaming, If you turn on Afterburner, you will see that is when the CPU throttles to 400 MHz due to heat. I fixed mine through a repaste. Not very difficult. Remember that the wifi cards wire goes over one of the heatsinks, so you will have to remove the nvme drive and then the wireless card to remove the whole heatsink assembly.

Although your temps imply that you probably don't need a repaste. Please compare with my scores.

Here are my scores after repaste.

The lower one is on Performance Mode (selected through Armory Core app) and the higher one was on turbo mode. My CPU temps were also in the 80s so I think i will have to repaste again.

Much thanks for the tips.

 

I have 1x16GB single channel, so these Unigen Heaven benchmark results are not the best the machine can do:

Silent:
FPS: 74.4
Score: 1873
Max GPU Temp: 74C

Performance:
FPS: 105.1
Score: 2649
Max GPU Temp: 78C

Turbo:
FPS: 105.3
Score: 2651
Max GPU Temp: 72C

Silent mode also had occassional stutters, but these did not happen in Performace or Turbo. CPU and GPU temperatures were pretty similar. The CPU sat at 1400MHz in Slient mode, then sat on 3900 MHz, or occassionally 25-50 MHz below that in Performance and Turbo.

Image and motion was beautifully smooth with FreeSync on.

 

Your temps are pretty good. Mine definitely needs another repaste as I think I messed mine up. With dual channel (2 x 8gb), I get

FPS: 121
Score: 3048
and very high temps. I hit 102 degrees in seige today...with the rear end of the laptop lifted up a little off the ground.

But its a great little machine.

 

I forgot to mention: those were on a cooling pad ... that was not turned on. So probably a similar thermal situation to your elevated rear.

Oh, and on the Silent profile the CPU was stuck at 1400 MHz ... but on Performance and Turbo it hit 3800 MHz without any throttling.

I did read the Amazon reviews of this (and related FX505 models), and it seemed as though about 10%-20% had real thermal issues. Looks like I got lucky and you did not - but a good paste job should fix that.

 

Yup. I got super annoyed by the horrendous temps. Did a proper repaste, and happy to report that temps are pretty decent, and in line with reviews. Tried my hand at undervolting but these newfangled GPUs have me confused so will do that at a later point. Loving the machine though.Pity that many will be (rightfully) annoyed by the terrible paste job and return the machine.

 

Undervolting ... how ?

I've tried Overdrive and Ryzen Master, but both report that this CPU (3750H) is not supported.

 

I'm sorry for the confusion. I meant the GPU (1660ti)

Btw, I just got a new BIOS update.

 

Ah, OK. Undervolted my GPU too.

Thanks for the heads up about the BIOS.

 

WARNING:

If you run MSI Afterburner, you may be halving your battery life.

Afterburner allows you to select either the Vega 10 iGPU, or the GTX 1660ti, as the "Master" GPU. If you select the 1660ti, Afterburner will wake it up every few seconds to check it's stats. On my FX505DU that gave a battery life of 3 hours or less.

Switching the "Master" to the Vega 10 gave a battery life of 6 hours, with no apparent impact on gaming.

 

Thanks for the heads up. It did worry me when afterburner kept turning the gpu on and off.

Btw, could you also please point me to which guide you used for undervolting the nvidia GPU?

Thanks in advance!

 

The basic process is:

1. start Afterburner, then click on "Settings"
2. make the 1660ti the "Master Graphics", for the moment
3. check "Start with Windows" and "Start minimized"
4. check "Enable Hardware control ..." "Enable low-level IO driver" "Enable low-level hardware ..." and "Restore settings ..." if not already checked
5. check "Unlock Voltage Control"
6. then OK
   
   
7. then hit Ctrl and f at the same time
   
   
8. you should now see the "Voltage Frequency Curve Editor"
9. Click and drag the voltage points as in this video:
   
   
10. I'd suggest that you start at high frequencies and move left, rather than low frequencies and move right as in the video, as in this image.
11. After you've dropped the max voltage by 100 mV or so, "Apply" these settings, and save them to a slot.
12. Then run Unigen Heaven. This pushes the video card pretty hard: if successful, you should see a small temperature drop, and if not, Windows will crash.
13. If unsuccessful, reduce your undervolt and test again. If successful, you may want to try a bigger undervolt. Remember to save your changes to a new slot.
14. When you are happy with your undervolt of the max frequency, try to make your curve smooth for the lower frequencies.
15. Finally, make the Vega 10 the "Master" GPU again

Good luck !

 

PS: managed to find some old 2x8GB DDR4 2400, and re-run Heaven benchmark. Now get 2960 or so, a big improvement.

 

By the way, after the new driver update to nvidia, the gpu keeps kicking in, tanking the battery life. Any idea how to fix this or have more manual control over this?

 

Much thanks for posting this

 

PSA:

PLEASE update your BIOSes. A recent windows update made the Asus TUF505DU BSOD (blue screen of death) every single time certain pages with rich elements were loaded, such as reddit, facebook, youtube etc.

A BIOS update was necessary to fix this.

https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ASUS-TUF-Gaming-FX505DD-DT-DU/HelpDesk_BIOS/

 

Can anyone share their 1660ti vbios?

You can easily make a copy with the button beside the vbios version in GPU-Z

A GPU-Z screenshot would also be appreciated.

 

Anybody still here?

 

Hey,

I tried to do it but GPU-z keeps crashing. I've sent a crash report, but let me know if there is any other way i can help

 

Thanks, I found the vbios on techpowerup.

Unfortunately It didn't work as expected.

I tried to flash this 80w vbios onto my father's Zephyrus G which uses a 1660ti Max-q but unfortunately it goes into some sort of safe mode which gives lower clocks than before.

 

That is a pretty cool idea, but I think nvidia and probably the manufacturer, must have limited it through hardware. I think you could OC it quite well. Btw, could you please let us know how much of a performance difference are you seeing with the max q compared to the full 80watt one?

 

Its within 10% not much difference.

The freesync is sweet though.

 

Hi, just ordered this laptop (Walmart has it for $799). Anyhow, curious if any of you have upgraded the RAM to DDR4 3200? Shows on the Crucial site as guaranteed compatible with this model.

https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/tuf-gaming-fx505du/CT14996817

I figured faster RAM would help alleviate any bottleneck that the CPU might have on the 1660 Ti GPU.