Hello AAL(Amd Advantage Laptops)!

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Yeah... i know... post Ryzen All AMD laptop is nothing new... with MSI Alphas and Bravos available in the market for a certain period of time, it's nothing new.

However, this year, it's getting exciting as few more other makers jumps into the red pool! HP, Lenovo, as well as others... the market is going to be fun, when the all red blood competes with half greenish " alien " blood!

 

I hope it doesn't mean soldered down RAM and WLAN adapters like Intel EVO.

 

Well... AMD don't make WiFi adaptors for sure.
However we can't really stop laptop makers from making "all in one" system as the demand for slimmer products are going up north. Some Ryzen-H high performance CPU based systems already arrived with soldered RAM configurations.
The ThinkBook 16pro is one of them.

 

more interested in their zen3+, stacked cache will probably be amazing.

 

Hopefully they dont fail like the DELL G5 SE did but then again that was Dell's fault.

Im more interested in Fidelity FX Super Resolution

and since its compatible with Nvidia GPUs it'll give GTX users new life!.

 

to be fair, other makes from other manufacturers have their fair share of heating issues with the 4000 series CPUs in their systems which can be point fault to poor internal heat dissipation designs as well... that some users have to employ regedit hacks to their CPU to keep their system operation temperature down.
so... Dell‘s fault is kind of subjective...

 

First detailed benchmark results on the RX 6800M from Hardware Unboxed.



Straight rasterization performance puts the 6800M right between the RTX 3070 and 3080 at 1080p and 1440p in most titles. However, due to AMD's wider "dynamic boost" range, minimum frame rates tend to be a bit better. It also looks like the tighter vertical component integration means Ryzen/Radeon laptops will come in significantly cheaper than their NVIDIA-equipped counterparts. HUB says the Asus model they tested will range in price from around USD$1,550-$1,750, which makes it a no-brainer if you're after the most bang for your buck. This is, of course, provided NVIDIA-specific features aren't high your priority list.

The lynchpin for all this will be how FSR stacks up to DLSS in terms of performance, visual quality, and game support.

 

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-ro...-crippled-by-stock-ram-and-lack-of-gpu-switch
Looks like poor RAM timings are holding back the ASUS ROG G15, and replacing them with good RAM would make the laptop less competitively priced. AMD's Advantage program probably should have a criteria for RAM timings if the performance delta between bad RAM and good RAM is noticeable.
Enduro also plays a role into the performance as well; would be interesting to see how many Advantage laptops will have a MUX switch or dedicates the laptop screen to the dGPU.

 

Looks like the lack of a MUX and the slower RAM is really hurting performance of these systems. H/T Jarrod's tech on Twitter.

 

A lot of laptops can handle the 4000 series well but the DELL G5 SE failed hard because its poor cooling design

This thread is a good example of it.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...rmance-explained-by-notebookcheck-net.808983/

Just wow.

AMD is really going hard at Nvidia and the price is great!. Most ASUS laptops dont have a MUX which makes no sense in 2021. Its still crazy that cheap RAM really holds back the true performance of Ryzen.

 

Fairly comprehensive look at FSR performance and image quality courtesy of HUB.



There are no direct comparisons between FSR and DLSS since there are no games right now that support both. At 4K, the ultra quality and quality modes are surprisingly good and can provide a nice performance uplift. With 1440p, it seems only the ultra quality preset is really worth it while at 1080p it's pretty useless. The balanced and performance settings look pretty bad regardless of resolution.

It's definitely a more promising start than DLSS 1.0 had, but it remains to be seen if FSR will start seeing broad adoption in more popular games.

 

Upcoming games like FC6 will have it and also RDR2 and current games will soon have it as well!.



Tbh Im pretty excited about it and it'll give GTX and older GPUs some new life!.

 

Jarrod's Strix G15 Advantage review just dropped.



Aside from the lack of a webcam or MUX, what bothers me is the FreeSync range not extending below 60 Hz. I've always thought that was a key selling point of variable refresh rate technology - to reduce lag and stutter when performance goes below 60 fps. Even going down to 48 Hz, which is where a lot of desktop FreeSync monitors bottom out would have been good.

 

Maybe the WQHD panel can go down to 48hz?

I am disappointed that it only supports S0 suspend instead of the more standard S3. They could have at least made it a bios option for those who prefer their notebooks to not randomly wake up and cook in their backpacks.

Linux support is also meh since every keystroke triggers the shutdown button. It can be overridden via a kernel driver but then you have dropped keystroke limiting to a max of 20wpm.. It also has trouble with managing the 6800m power state because of smartshift forcing the GPU to sleep via firmware, similar to issues the Dell G5 SE had with Linux for a good 6 months. Maybe 5.14 will fix it but so far I do not know for sure.

 

Seems like a not-insignificant number of people who ordered the Strix G15 are getting machines with 6800M GPUs that are not being detected by Windows.

Best Buy user reviews

 

Possibly a liquid metal related issue, I saw this thread here (and images from a user in the comments):

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLapt...5_5900hx6800m_review_a_note_to_asus/?sort=new

https://public.fotki.com/cmacclel/asus/

So it seems that it may actually be safer to remove the factory liquid metal and repaste with traditional paste. The factory application may be a ticking time bomb.

 

Someone posted pics in the HUB Discord. If it is indeed the LM, that’s all the more reason for me not to use it.


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Isn't the AMD side/version of MUX is referred to the Smart Shift?

 

Anyway, i've a very poor impression on ASUS heat dissipation design.
I'm looking forward to the Lenovo Legion release of AAL which is now taking orders from appointed retailers. Pretty price hefty, as it seems they're jackin up the price, riding on the success of AMD fame...

 

No. Smart Shift is AMD’s version of NVIDIA Dynamic Boost.


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FWIW the Asus G15 AA cooling system is a significant upgrade over the cooling system of the Dell G5 SE or MSI Alpha/Bravo from last year. With the G5 SE in particular you could repaste and still have thermal issues afterwards. There was not much that could be done to actually make it a comfortable gaming laptop. Then with the MSI Alpha/Bravo most of them had poor quality screen. 60% sRGB on a $1400MSRP? Neither were really great options.

The Lenovo specs on the 6600M Legion seem decent. If it can compete with the 3060 in price and performance it should do well, even if a RAM upgrade is needed. Hopefully it includes a MUX. Seems like the 15.6 inch WQHD 16:9 panels are not available in any listed configs yet.

 

Here is some additional confirmation that Asus is doing something wrong at the factory when it comes to their LM application process. Someone bought an M16 and detailed what was wrong and how they fixed it:

https://old.reddit.com/r/GamingLapt...s_zephyrus_m16_liquid_metal_reboot_replacing/

This should serve as a cautionary tale to any buyer who would be unwilling or unable to take their laptop apart to fix Asus' errors.

Surprised to see that only the 6600M will be offered. Makes me wonder if we will see a Legion 5 Pro or Legion 7 with 6700M and/or 6800M options. And why in God's name are they still sticking with that garbage 120 Hz 1080p panel?

 

Its possible that because the laptop comes with a mid-range dGPU, they don't expect the FPS to reach, or hit more than 120 Hz at 1080p... and to be fair, laptop GPU's can hit above 100 FPS mark depending on the game and hw used, but, 120 FPS can be a stretch for a LOT of games (unless you play slightly older ones... in which case a higher resolution and higher refresh rates would be desirable along with more accurate colors and much higher nits).

Beyond the refresh rate and resolution, is there something wrong with that particular panel?
Does it have bad color reproduction and low brightness (those are fairly common for OEM's to use anyway - which IS a shame because mobile phones get better treatment).

 

The 120 Hz panel is only 250 nits max brightness and has very high response times. A 144 Hz 300 nit option is available. Actually I think there will be 2 plus a 1440p option so there is no reason why the bad one should still exist.


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I agree.
I also think 300 nits is a bit low for today's standards, is it not?
Lenovo had Zen 2 APU only laptops with panels that went to 400 or 500 nits if I'm not mistaken.

 

The Legion 5 Pro is 500 nits peak but brightness drops off a cliff thereafter. It’s not a nice linear progression downward like on my Dell XPS 17.


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I don't think we will see another 6800M laptop this year, but would be happy to be proven wrong. AMD engineering resources is probably stretched too thin to support that many models being developed. I will just be happy if they do release the Asus Strix G713 AA with WQHD and the full numberpad. In theory it uses the exact same motherboard as the G513 AA and just needs a longer vapor chamber to fit the larger chassis. If it has to be repasted with non-liquid metal and RAM swapped then whatever.

No idea why Lenovo offers that 120hz. It is also an option on the Nvidia version too but seems to only be on the lowest end config: https://psref.lenovo.com/Detail/Legion/Lenovo_Legion_5_15ACH6H?M=82JU00AWUS

 

Apparently FSR can be used even on older and non supported GPUs

Its a bad screen not just the low brightness but its color accuracy as well, Other manufacturers uses the same screen for their budget gaming laptops as well like the HP Pavilion, Acer Nitro and etc.

 

I don’t see why it couldn’t be used on any GPU considering it’s just a dumb single-frame spatial filter with no temporal information, similar to simple postprocess AA methods like SMAA 1x and FXAA.

 

https://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-rx-...arks-leak-out-appears-as-a-radeon-rx-6700-xt/

It sounds like MSI is prepping a 5900HX + 6700M laptop based on this post. The performance seems to be significantly less than the 6800M.

 

Yeah thats true. Its great for everyone that has older GPUs

I might test it with my old 750m laptop just for kicks

 

In that case, a good middle ground of say 400 nits might be better?

 

I would say it's more a problem of Lenovo's brightness adjustment tuning rather than of the panel itself. Like I said, the XPS 17 offers a super bright screen, but when you turn it down, it lowers in nice, steady increments, giving the user more fine-grain control.

 

First AAL from the house of the blue, HP

base on the benchmarks screenshots,
graphic performance seems to be fell in between RTX3050i and RTX3060​

 

This review comes with proper Chinese subtitle,
that members here can utilize the YouTube auto-translate** to English for your viewing pleasure.

The benchmarks from the review shows it is compared to the same OMEN from HP
with Intel 11800H+RTX3060 combo.
Reviewer shares that at the current stage, AAL from HP is a little buggy that
the GPU driver from AMD needs to be updated but not available from both HP and AMD official support site.

**(However, do take note that Youtube Auto-Translate may not be able to do the job correctly
when certain Chinese grammar may not align with English grammar)​

 

Here's a english version and the HP OMEN 16 is available at Bestbuy




Reviewer stated that its a bit buggy on the software side especially with smartshift. According to his game benchmarks its a bit stronger than the RTX 3060 and its closer to the performance of the RTX 3070 Max-P.

 

I picked up a MSI Delta 15 for testing this week. It has a 5800H and 6700M. The chassis is made of aluminum, closest to their Stealth 15m model, just with different ports. The weight is pretty light, and its 240W Delta AC Adapter is also quite light and small. This model has a very muted look and could easily fit into a business environment.

Performance is great for its size. The 5800H seems to be a little lower than others even with SmartShift. The 6700M is on par with a 110W 3070. Fan noise is not that bad under load, but surface temperatures get pretty hot, especially on the right side of the keyboard. There is no MUX switch, and both video outputs (HDMI, USB-C) are directly connected to the 6700M. The power button glows white when the 6700M is off, and orange when it is on, so it is easy to tell if an application needs to be closed if you are trying to conserve battery.

As far as upgrading goes, this model has two memory slots and two M.2 storage slots. It shipped with two Samsung 3200 CL22 x8 single rank 8GB sticks, as well as a 1TB Micron 2210 SSD. The motherboard is flipped so access to the memory, and repasting will be harder to do. An Intel AX210 wifi card was included, a good thing too since this does not have wired ethernet.

The display is a Sharp 240hz IPS panel, and does cover 100% sRGB, but be careful because MSI also offers a 144hz 60% sRGB panel (probably the same one on last years Alpha 15).

This model supports an unlocked bios, via the standard MSI key command, including the function key. There are options in AMD CBS/PBS like configuring memory timings, SmartShift and suspend modes. No, there is not any option to undervolt the 5800H from what I have found.

Strix vs Delta? I like the cleaner look of the Delta. It is about 20% worse performance from what I can tell, for slightly more money. It is probably a better Linux candidate as well since the keyboard does not drop keystrokes and the unlocked bios may help with incompatibility issues. Oh, and it has a webcam which is nice.

Legion 5 Pro vs Delta? Size is pretty similar but the Delta is definitely lighter. Performance is somewhat close even without a MUX gaming on the internal display. For noise the Legion is better, but the Delta is not bad either. For build quality the Legion is slightly better.

 

Where did you find one in stock? All the usual haunts I check don't even have a listing for it.

 

Ordered via Best Buy Online.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-de...ssd-16gb-memory-black/6468118.p?skuId=6468118

 

Don't know how I missed that. It doesn't appear to support charging over USB-C, though, so that's unfortunately a no-go for me.

 

Yeah no power delivery on either of the USB-C ports. I checked with a 96W Apple USB-C charger. That being said the 240 power brick is about the same size as two of the Apple chargers side by side. Certainly much smaller than the 300W Lenovo charger.

 

The first all-AMD Legion 5 has been benchmarked in games:



Performance is looking good so far. The MUX really seems to help here as at worst it's comparable to the RTX 3060 in non-ray tracing or DLSS scenarios. At best, it can run with MUX-less RX 6700M and in some cases even the 6800M.

Lenovo appears to have some limited stock available of this model with 32 GB of RAM, a 1 TB SSD, and Windows 10 Pro(!) for $1,386+tax after using the coupon code "GAMINGEXTRA10." Note that the usual code "EXTRAFIVE" cannot be used in tandem. Plus you can get an extra 6% cash back from Rakuten. I decided to give it a shot. Hopefully the fan noise and thermals will be better managed than the last non-Pro Legion 5 I tried.

Legion 5 Gen 6 AMD (15") - Phantom Blue | Lenovo US