The PC components market has been disrupted by new releases fromNvidiaand AMD, namely theRTX 5000 seriesand theRX 9070XT. We have yet to see these GPUs in mainstream gaming laptops, but that shouldn’t stop you from buying the last generation’s hardware, which is heavily discounted nowadays. Once these laptops with the latest GPUs are released, they will be expensive and maybe even hard to come by.
If you don’t want to wait a fair bit and spend top dollar on the latest and greatest tech, then snagging something a bit older yet capable is a wiser choice. Currently, theAsusTUF Gaming A16laptop is discounted to under$1300from its MSRP of $1799. Those familiar with Asus know that its Republic of Gamers (ROG) lineup offers more flamboyant and premium products. In contrast, the TUF series focuses on delivering the best value from the brand.
Specs For The ASUS TUF A16
The laptop gets a16” 2650×1600 IPS LCDrunning at165Hz, which is highly color accurate and offers a vibrant picture. Powering the machine is anAMD Ryzen 97940HX processorwhich crushes any game thrown at it and doesn’t bottleneck the powerfulNvidia GeForce RTX 4070. The GPU features8 GB of GDDR6 VRAMand draws up to 140 W of power.
Laptops do not receive the full-blown graphics card that is used in a PC due to space and heat constraints, so the 8GB module is perfectly fine. The laptop is mostly made of durable plastic while the lid has a metal construction which feels premium to touch. With all the cutting-edge hardware, the laptop has some heft to it, weighing 5lbs. Commuting to work or school with this unit of a laptop might be a concern for some.
This GPU can handle gaming at 1440p with ease even if you crank up the textures and details. The laptop manages to squeeze out 123 FPS inShadow of the Tomb Raiderand 102 FPS inFar Cry 6,while keeping the temps low. These results are without enabling DLSS, which will come in clutch in ray-traced games.
Alternatively, if you want to hook up a 4K monitor, then the prowess of DLSS 4 will deliver astonishingly high framerates at a slight expense of render quality. Such a competent GPU can effortlessly conduct video and photo editing workloads along with running resource-intensive programs.
The laptop comes with 16GB ofDDR5 memoryrunning at 5200 MHz, which isn’t user-upgradeable. However, the 1TBPCIe Gen4 SSDcan be upgraded in the future. A 90Wh battery provides power to the laptop and can be fully charged in 1 hour 45 minutes, which is enough for daily usage.
You get an HDMI 2.1 port, two USB-C 3.2, and two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports on the laptop, making it perfect for power users. The USB-C ports support dGPU DP 1.4 and power delivery. In terms of connectivity, the device supports dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. Overall, the Asus TUF Gaming A16 laptop has all the ingredients for a formidable mid-range gaming laptop. The RTX 4070 serves as the sweet spot for 1440p gaming with high to ultra settings.
