ASUS ROG GR6: A Console-like SFF PC
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Benchmarks
Test Setup and Performance
We’ll be putting the ROG GR6 through a series of synthetic and real-world benchmarks to assess its overall system performance and gaming capabilities.
As a mini-desktop system packed with hardware usually found in notebooks, the ROG GR6 straddles the line between both categories. As a result, we’ll be comparing it against the ASUS ROG G20AJ to see how it stacks up against a full-fledged, and of course pricer, desktop from the same brand. In addition, we’ll be pitting it against a series of high-end gaming laptops from the likes of ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI to see how it performs against actual notebooks. Unfortunately, we don't have a notebook with a GeForce GTX 960M to compare it against, so we've instead chosen notebooks running a GeForce GTX 970M, 980M, and dual 965Ms to give you an idea of how much performance you'll gain as you go up the price ladder.
Here is a full list of the benchmarks used:
- PCMark 8
- 3DMark 2013
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- Tomb Raider
And before we dive into the results, here’s how the specifications of the Aftershock Tremor stack up against the compared systems:
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Optical Drive | — |
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Video | — |
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ASUS ROG G751JT | MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro | Aorus X5 | |
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Optical Drive |
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Connectivity |
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Audio |
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Miscellaneous | — |
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PCMark 8
PCMark 8 tests overall system performance in areas like word processing, creative workloads, and web browsing. It can be taken as a general indicator of how the system performs in everyday workloads and tasks.
As expected, the ROG GR6 fell quite far behind the other tested systems because of its use of a low-power mobile processor and the lack of any solid state storage. It was around 28% behind the second slowest system, the ASUS ROG G751JT, in PCMark Home. The ROG G751JT is outfitted with a quad-core Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor, and the latter CPU’s higher clock speeds (2.5GHz base frequency, 3.5GHz Turbo frequency) and HyperThreading capability probably helped it pull ahead along with a slightly better main hybrid hard drive.
In fact, all the other test systems are equipped with either Intel Core i7 desktop or mobile processors, and the ROG GR6 is the only one to be equipped with a low-power Core i5 CPU. The better multi-tasking capabilities of the Core i7 CPUs help boost overall system performance in PCMark 8, which is why the ROG GR6 lags behind by so much. It does narrow the gap in the less demanding Work benchmark, so we see that it’s mostly the CPU holding back the performance.
If you’d like a real-world yardstick for the GR6’s system performance, its scores are actually much closer to ultrabooks that use the same processor, like the Dell XPS 13.
3DMark 2013
The ROG GR6 again trailed behind in 3DMark Fire Strike, but its performance was a lot closer to the ASUS ROG G751JT this time. Gaming-related workloads are usually more dependent on GPU performance, so the GR6 did not suffer as heavy a performance penalty this time.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M on the ROG G751JT was approximately 18% faster than the GR6’s GeForce GTX 960M. But while it might be relatively close to the ROG G751JT, it couldn’t hold a candle to the more powerful configurations on the other systems. The full-fledged desktop graphics card on the ROG G20AJ totally blew it away, coming in at a whooping 138% faster, more than double the performance. Even the MSI GT72 2 QE Dominator Pro and its NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M was almost 111% quicker.
So if the GR6’s small form factor appeals to you, do bear in mind the performance penalty you’ll be paying in relation to other gaming systems. On the bright side, if we were to compare the performance to other mid-range gaming laptops like the ASUS ROG G501 and the Aftershock SM-15 (both use the same GeForce GTX 960M GPU found on the ROG GR6 machine), the GR6 actually fared slightly better.
Tomb Raider
The ROG GR6 handles Tomb Raider quite well, delivering more than playable frame rates at both Normal and High settings. That’s very decent, but the other systems again race ahead of it. The closest system was once again the ROG G751JT, which was almost 62% faster than the GR6.
In fact, Tomb Raider clearly fails to challenge most of the other systems at 1080p, as frame rates hovered comfortably in the 100s range at High settings. Because of its less powerful GPU, the ROG GR6 was the only system to end up with frame rates below 100.
But hard numbers aside, the figures on Tomb Raider show that the GR6 should be alright in delivering fairly high frame rates in less demanding MMO games like Dota 2 and League of Legends. Once more, we noticed that the GR6 actually performs better than some of the mid-range gaming notebooks using the same GPU.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is quite a demanding game that will tax even the most capable GPUs, especially at Ultra settings with HD Textures enabled. Memory bandwidth is key here, and as expected, the ROG GR6 failed to keep up with the rest of the pack.
As it stands, Shadow of Mordor works better as an illustration of what you can reasonably expect from the ROG GR6 should you try to run similarly demanding games on it. It also provides a clearer picture of the performance gap between the GR6 and the other systems, so you can better match it to your needs.
However, the ROG GR6 actually didn't do too badly on absolute terms, if we ignore how it performs relative to the other test systems. At a 1080p resolution and Ultra settings, it achieved just over a 30fps average, a fairly playable result. However, we did record a minimum frame rate of 5.30fps, so you will likely experience some notable stutter as frame rates dip during more demanding scenes.
Things improved on High settings, with a 44.55fps average and a minimum frame rate of 25.93fps, still in the playable range. From the looks of it, the ROG GR6 is capable of delivering a playable experience at 1080p resolutions, provided you run at less demanding graphical settings.
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