Asus X550IU Review part 2 – Performance, Temperature, Power Consumption and Conclusion

Finding the barebones design and upgrade options that are relatively unattractive, many viewers are impatient with what makes the Asus X550IU different. Namely, the performance offered by AMD’s semi-conductor squad. The AMD APU FX9830 processor plus the much-anticipated RX 460 GPU chip, is no different from the Desktop version. Come on, take a look at the Asus X550IU part 2 review by pemmzchannel below.

Rocket Science in Bantam Class?

Display : 15.6″ (16:9) LED backlit FHD (1920×1080) 60Hz Glare Panel with 45% NTSC
Processor: AMD® Bristol Ridge FX-9830P
Memory : 8 GB DDR4 2133MHz SDRAM, 1 x SO-DIMM socket for expansion, up to 12 GB
Hard Disk : 1TB 5400RPM SATA HDD
Graphics : AMD Radeon RX 460, with 4GB, GDDR5 VRAM
Optical Drive : DVD/RW SuperMulti
Operating System: DOS
Webcam : HD Web Camera
Audio : ASUS SonicMaster Technology
Networking : Wifi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0,
Interfaces:
1 x COMBO audio jack
1 x VGA port
2 x USB 3.0 port(s)
1 x USB 2.0 port(s)
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
Battery : 4 Cells 44 Whrs Battery
Dimensions (PTL): 38.0 x 25.1 x 2.92 ~31.7 cm (WxDxH)
Weight : 2.45 kg with battery
Warranty: 2 year limited warranty by Asus Indonesia

We will first determine the direction of the target market that the Asus X550IU is after. If you look at the price, of course it is included in the price level that is desired by mobile gamers, especially in Indonesia. When this video was released, it was priced at 9.3 million rupiah on pemmz.com. With a fairly massive campaign spread across social media about the performance of the AMD Radeon RX 460 which is considered to be on the same level as the Nvidia Geforce GTX 960M, of course the price of 9 million was included rocket science in the gaming laptop market.

Also read: Asus X550IU-BX001D Review Part 1 – Design, Specifications, Display Panel and Upgrade Options

Asus X550IU CPU and GPU Positioning

AMD FX-9830 35 Watt – A Threat to i7 Notebooks?

Let’s look at the specifications of the AMD APU FX-9830 as the CPU of this Asus X550IU review unit. With a configuration of 12 Compute cores (4 CPU cores + 8 GPU Cores), which means the CPU itself is 4 cores, it’s a bit difficult to find the most appropriate comparison from the blue camp. But because he is in the flagship category, it seems he is eyeing the position of the Core i7 HQ series. Is it true that it offers the performance of Quad core i7 notebook standard voltage version or limited to i7 Low voltage?

From the benchmark test table above, it turns out that the performance of the AMD FX-9830 CPU is still below the ULV version of Core i7. Even compared to Intel core i5 6200U, it still lags behind at least 7%. Alright, in terms of performance per watt, which according to AMD got a significant increase, in fact we can’t prove it. FYI, this already uses the latest drivers, also the benchmark application used is the latest version.

AMD Radeon RX 460 4GB GDDR5 – The “Humble” Monster

Because the AMD Radeon RX 460 chip is in the new “citizen” category, of course there are some test badges that cannot be said to be 100% valid. But for the sake of database collection, we must continue to run the standard benchmark.

Starting from the 3D mark series. In version 08 or Vantage, the GPU positioning AMD Radeon RX 460 has not been able to step over the GTX 950M, this is mostly because the RX 460 is not very optimized for direct x10 based instructions. Once using the DX11-based instructions in 3D Mark 11, the score immediately shot away from the Geforce GTX 950M, even the Geforce GTX 960M. The same is true when testing 3D Mark Fire Strike. AMD Radeon RX 460 shows its might which is predicted to have Desktop performance. Finally, in the Resident Eveil 6 benchmark in-game test, the Radeon RX 460 again beat the Geforce GTX 960M even though the gap was only narrow. The impact of CPU performance that is not able to handle physX instructions in several scenes that display a lot of textures, had a significant drop in FPS.

Regarding the CPU’s ability to process textures, it was again proven in the Unigine Heaven test, which is rich in textures. In this test, the RX 460 must admit that it lacks “support” from the CPU. Even so, it is still much better than the i7 HQ + Geforce GTX 950M combination.

temperature

After we look at the CPU and GPU performance section, it is also mandatory to see how free the combination of the 35-watt APU FX and RX 460 runs on barebones approximately 30mm thick. Natural testing without making any preparations and settings as an illustration of a user who knows just to use it, it was concluded that this laptop, although a bit out of breath, was able to quell the emotional turmoil of the FX-9830 and RX 460. This is proven by being able to play with them. up to 1 hour without bottleneck indication.

However, this cannot be separated from the applicable TDP limit. For the RX 460 on this Asus X550IU review unit, it is limited to a maximum of 75 watts. Moreover, the GPU clock will be lowered from 1180MHz to 840MHz. Since each game has a different torture orientation, this conclusion may differ for each game type. Moreover, the use of gaming that is oriented towards torturing the CPU like GTA V.

Also read: Does the Device Overheat? Ideal Temperature for a PC or Laptop

When idle, the temperature detected in the AMD APU FX-9830 CPU die is in the 40°C range and the Radeon RX 460 is in the 53°C range. When starting to be put under pressure, the temperature of the FX-9830 accelerates very quickly. In a short time, it has touched the figure of 91°C. While the RX-460 is still relaxed at 71°C. After investigating, from Bandi cam recordings, the load on the CPU is always high. Even though the intensity of the torture he received seemed normal. It can be interpreted, AMD still needs to make many types of instructions in applications and games to better recognize the processor. That way, the processor more precisely calculates each set of instructions. To be able to sort out which instructions are light, which are heavy.

Power consumption

Let’s talk a little about the power consumption of this AMD APU and Radeon RX configuration. When idle in high-performance power management mode, it consumes about 40 watts. This figure is quite high for a notebook component configuration. Meanwhile, when testing the Unigine Heaven benchmark, the highest number was at 96 watts. The Radeon RX 460 used is indeed a desktop class. But what you need to remember, on the Asus X550IU review unit, AMD disables hybrid crossfire so you won’t find dual-graphic performance that can run automatically typical of AMD in this X550IU. For those of you who plan to be mobile, you should do manual config by making the Onboard R7 graphic on the FX-9830 as a global executor, to save power stored in its cute battery.

Conclusion

The ability of the AMD Radeon RX 460 in the Asus X550IU review unit is indeed worthy of thumbs up. With only a single channel configuration, its performance brings the GTX 960M, which is usually found on 15 million laptops, to its knees. What if we add it to dual channel? Whatever type of game you play, you can be sure it will run smoothly on this platform.

Well, if the duration of playing is a little short, pemmzchannel considers it reasonable for a laptop with mid-end components that are only equipped with a single fan. The best solution is to prepare a cooling pad to help increase the amount of fresh air that enters and push hot air out. And make sure you are diligent in doing maintenance, especially changing the thermal paste periodically.

So, if you’re asking which is better between the Asus X550IU and some products worth the same level, the answer is that Asus X550IU has a GPU that is much more violent than laptops in the 9 million price range. But back to the type of game or application you are using, CPU intensive, or GPU intensive. If you need more GPU capabilities, you don’t have to look left and right anymore, order directly at this Asus X550IU pemmz. Waiting for ya.

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