ASUS TUF Dash F15 (FX516) review – the new RTX graphics cards look promising
Last year, ASUS was one of the first manufacturers (if not the first) to trust AMD and their Ryzen 4000 processors. And it turned out to be a success. You could have snatched a rather affordable unit with supreme computational performance, which was something unseen to this day. And as they continue to do that in 2021, with AMD’s even more powerful Ryzen 5000H CPUs, they did a slight detour.
This is how the TUF Dash F15 (FX516) was born. Instead of the extremely powerful AMD processors, it includes something bold from Intel – the Core i7-11370H – the first quad-core high-performance Core i7 in a while. The idea behind it is pretty simple – it needs to deliver the ultimate gaming experience. As Intel has figured, four cores should be plenty for a gaming rig, and all you need is a commendable single-core performance in most games. Well, we are sure going to check that.
In addition to the intriguing new CPU, ASUS has included another new component. This time, it comes from NVIDIA, and it’s in the shape of an RTX 3070. The laptop can also be purchased with an RTX 3060, and a GPU that is yet to be disclosed (we believe it’s going to be an RTX 3050 of some sort). Keep in mind that this year, NVIDIA decided that they won’t be giving their graphics cards a Max-Q or Max-P moniker, so you have to rely on reviews like this one, to know how much power has the manufacturer decided to supply (spoiler alert – the RTX 3070 in this unit reaches a maximum of 85W, sitting in the lower part of the power graph).
Additionally, this device comes in a plethora of display options, starting with a 60Hz 1080p panel, going through 144Hz and 240Hz units of the same resolution, and maxing out with the all-long-awaited 1440p panel, sporting a 165Hz refresh rate.
So, let’s pop the box open, and see what did we get.
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-tuf-dash-fx516/
Contents
Video Review
Specs Sheet
- HDD/SSD
- up to 2000GB SSD + up to 1000GB HDD
- M.2 Slot
- 2x 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 See photo
- RAM
- up to 40GB
- OS
- Windows 10 Home, Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Pro
- Battery
- 76Wh, 4-cell
- Body material
- Plastic / Polycarbonate
- Dimensions
- 360 x 252 x 19.9 mm (14.17" x 9.92" x 0.78")
- Weight
- 2.00 kg (4.4 lbs)
- Ports and connectivity
- 3x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- 1x USB Type-C
- Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
- HDMI
- 2.0b
- Card reader
- Ethernet LAN
- 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
- Wi-Fi
- 802.11ax
- Bluetooth
- 5.1
- Audio jack
- 3.5mm Combo Jack
- Features
- Fingerprint reader
- optional
- Web camera
- Backlit keyboard
- Microphone
- Array Microphone
- Speakers
- 2x 2W, DTS: X Ultra
- Optical drive
- Security Lock slot
- Kensington Lock