ASUS TUF FX505DU review

[ntab Configuration]
The Asus TUF FX505DU was released on April 2019, as one of the few gaming laptops entirely based on AMD technology.
Price-wise, the laptop hovers between $900 and $1100 and can be easily found at most major on-line retailers, including Amazon.com.

Configuration specifications:

Display	15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 @ 120Hz, Matte, IPS-type Sharp LM156LF-GL
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 3750H
Memory	8GB DDR4 2667 Mhz (1 x 8GB)
Video card	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6 (TU116M)
Wireless card	RealTek RTL8822BE Wireless 802.11ac
Storage	256 GB M.2 PCIe SSD
Battery	48 Whr (46 Whr usable)
Operating system	Windows 10 Pro
Full specifications here

The unit was provided by a local retailer. We used the machine as Asus delivers it. We did not do any enhancements or changes to it except for installing the operating system.
[ntab Build quality]

Physical size:

Width:	360 mm / 14.2 inches
Depth:	265 mm / 10.4 inches
Height:	Front: 25.55 mm / 1 inch Rear: 27.63 mm / 1.05 inches
Laptop weight:	2.230 kg / 4.92 lbs
Charger weight:	620 g / 1.36 lbs
Laptop + charger weight:	2.850 kg / 6.28 lbs

The laptop chassis is almost entirely made out of hard plastic. Only some minor decorations are made out of aluminium. Fortunately, the plastic is hard enough to provide a decent amount of sturdiness without any noticeable chassis flex. The display and keyboard deck have a brushed aluminium-like surface, which, while pleasant to the touch, is regrettably a fingerprint magnet.

Access to the laptop’s internal components is relatively easy. It requires the removal of eleven Phillips head screws from the bottom panel and then, by using a prying tool, gently lifting the bottom panel away from the main chassis. Once removed, most components are readily accessible.

With the bottom cover removed, the laptop reveals plenty of upgrade options and a cooling system designed for intense gaming.

There is

one M.2 SSD slot;
two RAM slots (if the laptop comes with 8GB of RAM, only one slot is used);
one 2.5-inch storage bay;
a PCIe slot for the Wi-Fi card, hidden under the M.2 SSD;

**ASUS TUF FX505DU without bottom cover**

We also liked that the display lid can be lifted with only one hand. Most gaming laptops are not that easy to unfold. However, having a lighter display lid also meant that there is some flex to it, though nothing serious by our standards.

We did not have any significant issues typing on the FX505DU keyboard. The travel time felt well adjusted (no noticeable resistance), and our typing speed met our expectations. The large palm rest also helped for an overall better typing experience.

The layout of the FX505DU includes a narrow zone for the numpad and arrow keys. While having a numpad is always welcomed, we found that going from a full-sized numpad to a crammed one is annoying and requires time to adapt. However, this is a laptop, so compromises are to be expected.

Regarding illumination, the keyboard has a single zone RGB backlit. The backlit felt pleasant and did not have any adverse effect on our typing experience. However, having the WASD keys coloured white created confusion when typing fast and we would have preferred if Asus left them black.

The webcam was a big disappointment. We did not have high expectations from it given that its maximum resolution is only 1280 x 720 (720p or 0.9 MP). However, whether we took photos or videos, all the colours were washed out and blurry. For anyone planning on streaming from this laptop, an external camera is highly recommended.
On the positive side, we were pleased with the microphone’s recording quality. We could not hear any distortions in our recordings.

[ntab Ports]

For a gaming laptop, the ASUS TUF FX505DU comes with a pretty small variety of ports and all of them are on the left side of the laptop.

There is:

one RJ45 LAN connector;
two USB 3.0 Gen1;
one USB 2.0;
one HDMI port;
a standard 3.5mm jack combo for microphone and headphones or speakers.

Considering this is a gaming laptop, three USB ports can be quickly filled just by adding an external mouse, a keyboard and a USB flash drive. Of course, the port limitation could be resolved by buying a USB port hub.

[ntab Display]

The display in this unit is the Sharp LM156LF-GL.

Asus deserves praise for putting a display with a 120Hz refresh rate in a budget gaming laptop like the TUF FX505DU because a higher refresh rate usually makes for a smoother gaming experience. Most similarly priced laptops come with a 60Hz display.

For users to take advantage of the higher refresh rate, games need to run at 60+ fps. Unfortunately, unless the graphics settings are tunned down, the GTX 1660 Ti will have a hard time reaching 60fps in most modern titles. However, older and most competitive on-line games should be able to reach over 60fps even on high settings, thus benefiting from this display.

Apart from the high refresh rate, the display uses IPS-type technology with decent viewing angles and narrow bezels. Unfortunately, it has a limited colour coverage of only 60% sRGB and a maximum brightness of only 250 nits at best. Consequently, we can not recommend this laptop for photo editing or any other activity that requires colour accuracy. We also did not notice any serious backlight bleed, which is rather common among IPS-type displays with high refresh rates.

Here we provide a link to our calibrated display profile. Because each display is unique, this profile will not perfectly match other displays of the same model. Still, using this profile should give better overall colours.

[ntab Benchmarks]
We ran several synthetic and workload related benchmarks on the machine.
All benchmarks were run on Windows Pro version 1903. It is important to note that since version 1903, Microsoft introduced a new event scheduler, which significantly improves the performance of AMD Ryzen processors like the one in this laptop.

3DMark Time Spy: Graphics Score [5400], CPU Score: [2998]	3DMark Fire Strike: Graphics Score [13902], CPU Score [7724], Combined Score [4571]
3DMark Sky Diver: Graphics Score [30896], CPU Score [8193], Combined Score [15271]	3DMark Cloud Gate: Graphics Score [40861], CPU Score [6642]
VRMark Orange Room Average frame rate: 115.26 fps	VRMark Blue Room Average frame rate: 36.96 fps
VRMark Cyan Room Average frame rate: 14.94 fps
PCMark 10 Score: [3832]
Cinebench R15 benchmark	Geekbench 4 Score: Single-Core [3886], Multi-Core [11463]
Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme Score: 2983	Blender BMW27 test: CPU [11m 07s], GPU [15m 06s]
Crystal Disk benchmark	Premiere Pro render test (10 minute 1080p footage)

[ntab Gaming benchmarks]
All benchmarks were run on Windows Pro version 1903. It is important to note that since version 1903, Microsoft introduced a new event scheduler, which significantly improves the performance of AMD Ryzen processors like the one in this laptop.

Game	FPS min	FPS average	FPS max	Settings
Apex Legends	46.5 fps	75.4 fps	96.1 fps	Ultra (no motion blur and v-sync)
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	12 fps	27 fps	45 fps	Ultra High (no v-sync)
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	12 fps	28 fps	44 fps	Very High (no v-sync)
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	12 fps	30 fps	47 fps	High (no v-sync)
Devil May Cry 5	64.4 fps	84.2 fps	100.9 fps	Ultra (no motion blur and v-sync)
Fortnite	25.2 fps	53.2 fps	61.7 fps	Ultra (no motion blur and v-sync)
Forza Horizon 4	50.7 fps	63.5 fps	74.1 fps	Ultra (no v-sync)
Grand Theft Auto 5	28.3 fps	45.1 fps	65.0 fps	Ultra (no motion blur and v-sync)
Metro Exodus	5.16 fps	34.1 fps	59.8 fps	Ultra (no v-sync)
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds	16.7 fps	57.2 fps	85.9 fps	Ultra (no motion blur and v-sync)
The Witcher 3	32.7 fps	43.5 fps	60.9 fps	Ultra (no motion blur and v-sync)

Despite the low frame rates on Ultra settings there were no big dips or stuttering.

[ntab Temperatures]

All our temperature measurements were done at an ambient temperature of 27° C (81° F).

The cooling system is designed with two fans and three heat pipes, with two of the heatpipes being shared by the processor and video card. During our heavy load (or heavy gaming) testing, the air from the right side exhaust consistently exceeded 70° C (160° F). Therefore, we suspect that while doing intensive tasks, using the mouse on the right side of the laptop close to the exhaust may become unpleasant.

Under heavy load, the keyboard got rather hot, especially on the centre-right side of the laptop. As the laptop’s internal temperature increased, the fans started to spin, gradually increasing their speed. With the fans running at full speed, the keyboard temperature got uniformly hot. Fortunately, the palm rest and touchpad remained close to room temperature with no significant temperature variations between idle and heavy load.
Given the temperature distribution, we could say that the laptop’s surface should be ok for long sessions of heavy gaming.

**CPU clock rates after AIDA64 CPU stress test**

The processor stress test was done using AIDA64 (CPU, FPU, cache) and ran for 10 minutes. Fortunately, we did not see any noticeable dips in the clock rates. Throughout the test, the Ryzen 7 3750H frequency hovered between 3.2 and 3.9 GHz. At the end of the test the processor settled at 3.3 GHz with a constant temperature of 89.5° C and only a brief spike to 91.1° C. For long term stability and reliability, it is recommended for processor temperatures to be kept under 90° C. Thus, regarding processor only intensive loads, the Asus FX505DU faired rather well.

Next was a 20-minute video card (GPU) only stress test using Unigine Superposition. Again the Asus FX505DU kept the temperatures well under control.
The maximum temperature reached by the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti core was 81° C.

For the combined load test, the system ran both the AIDA64 CPU stress test and the Unigine Superposition GPU stress test, at the same time, for 20 minutes. Most gaming laptops struggle with this test, but the Asus passed it without a problem. At the end of the test, the GPU reached a maximum of 86° C, and the CPU stopped at 91° C while maintaining its previous maximum load frequency of 3.3 GHz.

Finally, the system was put through a full stability test with AIDA (CPU, FPU, cache, System memory and GPU) to push the machine to its limits. The GPU temperature stayed again at a decent 86° C, but the processor struggled to keep a high boost speed. The maximum frequency the processor was able to achieve was 2.7 GHz with a constant maximum temperature of around 90° C.

[ntab Noise]

Even under heavy load, the ASUS TUF FX505DU was pretty silent compared to other gaming laptops. The system idle noise emission was around 26-27 dB, and under heavy load, it reached about 40-45 dB near the fan exhaust. Occasionally, the fans would ramp up while gaming but nothing too severe as they quickly stabilised their rpm, usually within 2 minutes. Asus provides a variety of fan control options, including Asus Armoury Crate software, BIOS features and the possibility to install third-party software, like SpeedFan. Using any of these options, it may be possible to eliminate the ramping and throttling behaviour of the fans.

[ntab Sound quality]

The sound quality was decent, but the lack of a subwoofer or a dedicated low-frequency speaker made the music listening experience quite faint. For a better sound experience it is recommended to use headphones.

[ntab Battery life]

Since most laptops are used on battery for mundane office activities and web browsing, the laptop was tested using a simulated continuous browsing session. The session involved browsing emails/news, social media and multimedia websites, just like an average person would do.
The level of brightness was set according to visibility and usability. If the brightness was set under 80%, the laptop would have became too dim for an enjoyable experience, so the test was done at a brightness level of 80% (160 nits).
Although the battery is officially rated at 48Whr, it is not uncommon among laptops to come with a small wear level. Its final real capacity was 46Whr.

With its 46Whr battery, the laptop lasted just 3h and 10 minutes .
At 20% battery life, the battery saving mode was activated.

If the brightness is set at a much lower level, then it is likely to get close to 4 hours out of the Asus FX505FU. However, the ambient light would need to be very dim for the laptop to be usable.

Charging the laptop from 5% to 100% took almost 1 hour and 20 minutes.

[ntab Conclusion]

Pros:

120Hz display
Decent gaming performance
Temperatures stay under 85°C while gaming
Easy to unfold with one hand
Large-sized touchpad
No noticeable chassis flex

Cons:

All ports are on the left side
Right exhaust blows hot air on the mouse area
The display has low colour coverage (60% sRGB)
Battery life is not that great
Fingerprint magnet
8GB RAM version is single channel. Adding another 8GB memory stick is highly recommended for increased system performance.

Overall we found the Asus FX505DU to be a decent budget gaming laptop, with a few nice perks, like the 120Hz display. The low battery life does not make it particularly suitable for students, unless they want to lug the charger with them. The reduced display colour coverage also makes it unsuitable for content creation. It is a laptop designed for gaming on a budget, and that is where it shines without any noticeable issues.

Other notes:

When the laptop is starting Windows for the first time, it might also do some system updates, which may include BIOS updates. Therefore it is highly recommended to have the laptop plugged in when starting it for the first time.

[ntab Buy]

Asus offers the FX505 in a large variety of versions. We included most of them in the links below.
If you plan on buying an FX505 and want to support our website and our work, please consider buying the laptop using one of the links we included here. Thank you!

Amazon:
FX505DY – Ryzen 5 3550H, Radeon RX 560X, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
FX505DT – Ryzen 7 3750H, NVIDIA GTX 1650 4GB, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD + 2TB SSHD
FX505DT – Ryzen 5 3750H, NVIDIA GTX 1650 4GB, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD
FX505DU – Ryzen 7 3750H, NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB SSHD
FX505DU – Ryzen 7 3750H, NVIDIA GTX 1650 4GB, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD + 1TB HDD
FX505DV – Ryzen 7 3750H, NVIDIA RTX 2060, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD
FX505DV – Ryzen 7 3750H, NVIDIA RTX 2060, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD
FX505DV – Ryzen 7 3750H, NVIDIA RTX 2060, 16GB RAM, 2TB SSD