Asus TUF Gaming FX505DV review (AMD Ryzen 7, Nvidia RTX 2060 90W)

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Specs Sheet
Design and exterior
Keyboard and trackpad
Screen
Hardware and performance
Noise, heat and speakers
Battery life
Price and availability
Final thoughts
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By Andrei GirbeaAsus TUF Gaming FX505DV, last updated on April 8, 2020

Asus TUF Gaming FX505DV

Summary: Its competitive pricing is what primarily puts this laptop on the map, as the most affordable RTX 2060 notebook you can find in most countries. Despite that, this is a well-built device with a fast RGB keyboard, a 120 Hz IPS screen, and the ability to perform alright with daily use and FHD gaming. The Devil lies in the details, though, which include a washed-out panel and high CPU/GPU temperatures in games, but also a performance toll that the AMD platform takes over an Intel-based computer with the same kind of graphics power. All these are explained in the detailed review below.

Our score: 4 / 5
Price when reviewed: from $1099

THE GOOD

well made and fair looks, but get rid of the stickers
get's an IPS 120 Hz display
fast and comfortable keyboard
performs alright with daily use and is a fair budget option for FHD gaming
runs quietly with daily use, no coil whine
excellently priced

THE BAD

no card-reader or USB-C
subpar panel quality, dim and rather washed out
high CPU/GPU temperatures with games
the AMD platform allows no room for tweaking and limits the gaming performance compared to Intel/RTX 2060 models
48 Wh battery and only average runtimes

Table of Contents

Specs as reviewed
Design and exterior
Keyboard and trackpad
Screen
Hardware and performance
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others
Battery life
Price and availability
Final thoughts

Two years ago Asus launched an entry-level gaming line called TUF Gaming, a value-oriented class of gaming notebooks meant for those looking for solid performance at a lower budget.

Last year they completely redesigned it. This year they further updated the configurations and made them even more price-competitive, by opting for a mix of AMD Ryzen and Nvidia Turing hardware, without sacrificing important aspects like a fast refresh-rate IPS screen, an RGB keyboard or a chassis built to last.

Some corners were cut in order to meet the lower price point, and among those are the speaker quality, and a lower-gamut 120 Hz screen and a lower-grade thermal module, compared to what you’re getting on the higher tier Asus ROG lineups.

We’ve spent time with two different configurations of the Asus TUF Gaming FX505, the FX505DU based on an AMD Ryzen 7 3750H CPU and Nvidia GTX 1660Ti graphics, and the FX505DV variant based on the same processor and Nvidia RTX 2060 graphics. The review down below gathers our thoughts on the higher performance RTX 2060 variant, with the strong points and the quirks you should be aware of if you’re interested in getting one for yourself.

We’ve also compared the two variants in a separate article, available over here.

Specs as reviewed

	Asus TUF Gaming FX505DV
Screen	15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 px, 120 Hz, IPS-level, non-touch, matte, Panda LM156LF-GL panel
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 3750H, quad-core
Vide0	Radeon RX Vega 10 + Nvidia RTX 2060 6GB 90W (GeForce 441.41)
Memory	32 GB DDR4 2400 Mhz (2x 16GB DIMMs)
Storage	512 GB SSD (M.2 PCIe x2, Micron) + empty 2.5″ bay
Connectivity	Gigabit LAN (Realtek RTL 8168/8111), Wireless AC (Realtek RTL8822BE), Bluetooth 5.0
Ports	1 x USB-A 2.0, 2 x USB-A 3.1, HDMI 2.0, LAN, mic/headphone, Kensington Lock
Battery	48 Wh, 230 W charger
Size	361 mm or 13.21” (w) x 262 mm or 10.31” (d) x 26.8 mm or 1.05” (h)
Weight	4.8 lbs (2.2 kg) + 1.77 lbs (.8 kg) for the charger and cables, EU Version
Extras	AURA single-zone RGB backlit keyboard, webcam, DTS headphone output

Asus offers the AMD/Nvidia based FX505 lineup in a few different variants, with Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 processors, various amounts of RAM and storage, and either the GTX 1650 4GB (FX505DT), the GTX 1660Ti 6 GB (FX505DU) or the RTX 2060 6GB (FX505DV) graphics chip. All these are also available with 17-inch displays, as the TUF Gaming FX705 variants.

Design and exterior

There are very few and subtle differences in terms of build and design between the 2018 and 2019 FX505 lineups, so I’ll direct you to my previous article for my in-depth thoughts on these aspects.

In fewer words, first of all, the 2019 Asus TUF FX505 is available in three exterior variants: Gold Steel, Red Matter and Stealth Black, and ours is the latter. This the cleanest looking of them all and also doesn’t’ get a lit ASUS logo on the lid, but it is still plastered with stickers all around the interior that you should peel of as soon as possible.

This Stealth Black variant is also entirely built out of plastic, but it’s good quality plastic and feels reliable and nice to the touch. Asus went with a fairly compact form-factor, although not as thin or light as their Zephyrus G variant. The screen is pushed up by a hefty chin, but the other bezels are slim and on-par with what you can expect from a 2019 computer.

The chassis is designed to meet MIL-STD-810G standards, which means it should handle the daily hassle well. In fact, I haven’t heard any complaints about the FX series’ chassis and exterior reliability, but I’d still be careful and put this in a sleeve when carrying it around. The screen is built well, but there’s still some flex in the lid cover, which you’ll also notice in the keyboard and main deck. I doubt these would bother you with daily use, but the quality is nonetheless a step down from the higher tier gaming notebooks available these days.

The FX505 is also fairly practical, with a spacious palm-rest, a blunt front lip and corners, and grippy rubber feet on the bottom. The hinges are stiff, though, so you’ll need both hands to lift up the screen and adjust its angle; they also don’t allow it to lean back flat, but only to about 145 degrees. The speakers fire through narrow cuts on the sides, and the back edge is reserved for the exhaust.

Speaking of that, it’s worth noting that there are fairly limited air-intake cuts on the bottom, despite the fact that the design suggests otherwise. Fresh air mostly comes in from the back edge, right side and the cuts at the top of the keyboard, perhaps in an effort to create a channeled airflow and prevent dust from getting inside. A more open back might have helped with thermals, though, as you’ll see in a further section.

The IO is entirely lined on the left side, leaving the right edge completely free of any ports. It includes USB-A slots, LAN and HDMI, but not USB-C and no card-reader.

Keyboard and trackpad

The 2019 versions of the TUF FX505 line are available with a single-zone RGB Aura keyboard.

It’s the same from last year’s TUF Gaming FX505/FX705 models, with a pretty standard layout, but cramped arrow keys and a narrower NumPad section. The WASD keys are made from clear plastic, which allows the illumination to shine through, and RGB illumination is implemented, controllable through the AURA subsection in the Armoury Crate control software that comes preinstalled.

The keys are coated with a rubbery finish that feels very nice to the touch, and the overall typing experience is alright, quick and quiet.

That aside, Asus implemented a fairly deep stroke (1.8 mm) keyboard here, which means the keys have a deep actuation point. At the same time, though, these keys are also fairly shallow and don’t offer much feedback, and the combination of these two traits means that you can’t intuitively know for sure if they properly registered the click. I’m not accustomed to this sort of behavior and it took a hit on my accuracy. I’d reckon I could get used to it in time, but there are nicer keyboards out there.

The clickpad works fine. It’s a fair-sized plastic Synaptics surface with Precision drivers and it handles everyday swipes, gestures, and taps smoothly and reliably. The physical clicks are clicky and responsive, but also annoyingly loud and clunky, and the surface rattles with taps, even with gentler ones, so overall this clickpad won’t do well in quiet environments.

As for biometrics, there are none on this laptop.

Screen

Asus offers with 2019 FX505 variants with IPS-level 60 or 120 Hz screens, both with mid-level brightness and contrast, but fairly low color coverage. Our configuration comes with the Panda LM156LF-GL03 120 Hz panel we’ve also seen on the Zephyrus G GA502, while lower-tier models ship with the 60 Hz Panda LM156LF panel analyzed in this article.

Back to the 120 Hz panel, it’s actually not bad for an entry-level gaming laptop. Yes, it’s not as bright, color-accurate or as fast as the 144 Hz 3ms options out there, but it’s good enough for the average user as long as you mostly keep it indoors, and the 120 Hz refresh rate helps reduce some of the unwanted tearing and artifacts in games.

Here’s what we got in our test, with a Sypder4 sensor:

Panel Hardware ID: Panda LM156LF-GL03;
Coverage: 64% sRGB, 44% AdobeRGB, 45% DCI P3;
Measured gamma: 2.13;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 208 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 1000:1;
White point: 7000 K;
Black on max brightness: 0.20 cd/m2;
PWM: No.

For some reason, this implementation was dimmer than I expected and dimmer than on the GA502, so perhaps there’s a degree of variation you need to account for when shopping for this laptop.

At only a little above 200-nits in our tests, this panel is alright for daily use, but you’ll struggle with it in brighter environments, both indoors and outdoors. Color accuracy is also poor and washed out compared to the screens available in slightly more expensive gaming notebooks. You should definitely use an external screen for color-accurate work, and you might even find the colors dulls with everyday use and movies.

On the more positive side, at least this screen is fast, doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment, paints deep blacks, and is fairly uniform in color and brightness.

More details about this Panda 120 Hz panel are also available in this article.

Hardware and performance

Our test model is the top-tier Asus TUF Gaming FX505DV configuration in the 2019 FX505 lineup, with the Ryzen 7 3750H processor, 32 GB of RAM in dual channel, M.2 PCIe x2 SSD storage and dual graphics, with the 90W version of the RTX 2060 6GB chip, alongside the Radeon RX Vega 10 chip within the AMD CPU.

This is a retail unit, identical to the ones you’ll find in stores. It runs on the latest software, drivers and BIOS (308) available as of early-December 2019.

The Ryzen 7 3750H platform is what makes the FX505 configurations different than most others. This is a quad-core, eight-thread processor with a TDP of 35W and performance that matches the existing 45W Intel Core i5 (8300H, 9300H) in most scenarios, but is no match for the six-core i7s. It also integrates fairly capable Radeon Vega RX 10 graphics, although that’s negated by the existing Nvidia chip, so the competitive pricing and lower energy demands remain the platform’s advantages over the existing Intel options.

As far as the Nvidia graphics go, the FX505DV gets a full-power version 90W version of the RTX 2060 chip, pretty much what you’ll also get on the higher-tier Asus ROG Scar III and MSI GE65 Raider gaming notebooks. I definitely wasn’t expecting that in a budget notebook. We’ll get to the performance in a second, in the meantime, keep in mind that the gaming experience is highly impacted by having dual-channel memory on this platform, so make sure to add an extra RAM stick if you get a configuration that comes with just a single stick out of the box (outs came with just one, but we upgraded the RAM for this review).

As for the included SSD, it’s a TLC drive from Micron and works at PCIe x2 speeds, so it’s not lightning fast by today’s standards, but still fast enough for the regular user. You can upgrade this if you want, but as far as I can tell the connection only supports PCIe x2 speeds, so don’t throw your money on a top SSD, rather stick with one of the value options out there.

All these components are easily accessible once you get past the back panel, which is held in place by a handful of Philips screws. Inside you’ll find the two memory slots and the two storage bays. The CPU and GPU are soldered on the motherboard and non-upgradeable.

As far as performance goes, this laptop handles everyday chores smoothly, while running cool and mostly quiet, although you’ll still hear the fans even with the most basics of tasks.

Asus offers three power profiles in the Armoury Crate app: Silent, Balanced and Turbo. You can keep the laptop on Silent with basic use, but the laptop stutters and struggles in this case, so I’d only recommend it for watching movies. Instead, you’ll most likely want to switch to Balanced for everyday multitasking, or Turbo for demanding loads and games. The logs below show what to expect in terms of performance and CPU/GPU/storage temperatures with daily chores like browsing, text-editing, Youtube or Netflix.

On to more demanding tasks, we’ll start by testing the CPU’s performance in taxing loads, and we do that by running Cinebench R15 for 10+ times in a loop, with 2-3 seconds delay between each run, with the laptop on the Turbo profile in Armoury Crate.

The Ryzen 7 3750H processor settled for clock speeds of 3.7+ GHz, temperatures of only around 67-70 degrees Celsius and scores of 770+ points, with a reported TDP of 18.5 W. That’s an error with the Hwinfo reporting tool, as it represents half of the designed 35 W TDP of the AMD CPU.

There are no methods of undervolting or tweaking this CPU, so we had to settle with what we could get with out-of-the-box settings.

The performance is limited on battery (on Balanced, as Turbo is disabled in this case), with the CPU being capped at 2.6 GHz and around 13W, which results in scores of ~480 points and temperatures of around 57-60 degrees Celsius.

We also ran some of our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time, and this unit passed it fine. Luxmark 3.1, on the other hand, fully loads both the CPU and GPU at the same time. The log below shows that the GPU performance is favored by this implementation, allowing the chip to run at full power and performance for the entire duration of the test, but the CPU is limited to around 20W and 1.8 GHz.

Next, we’ve included a set of benchmarks, for those of you interested in numbers. We ran them on the default Turbo profile first, and here’s what we got:

3DMark 11: 15343 (Graphics – 21349, Physics – 8429);
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 12794 (Graphics – 16142, Physics – 11436);
3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 5534 (Graphics – 6290, CPU – 3293);
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 3819;
Handbrake 1.3.1 (H.264 4K to 1080p encode): 21.39 average fps;
PCMark 10: 4316 (Essentials – 7695, Productivity – 6076, Digital Content Creation – 4667);
PassMark: Rating: 4014, CPU mark: 9766, 3D Graphics Mark: 8875.
GeekBench 4.4.2 64-bit: Single-Core: 4240, Multi-core: 13239;
GeekBench 5.0.1 64-bit: Single-Core: 974, Multi-core: 3660;
CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 776 cb, CPU Single Core 153 cb;
CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 1727 cb;
x264 HD Benchmark 4.0 32-bit: Pass 1 – 152.24 fps, Pass 2 –43.92 fps;
x265 HD Benchmark 64-bit: 74.76 s.

We also ran a few more tests on what we’ll further call the OC profile, with the CPU on Turbo and default settings, but the GPU overclocked in the MSI Afterburner app at +180 MHz Core and + 1000 MHz memory. Our sample became unstable at higher settings. I’ll also mention that the Asus GPU Tweak II app that we’re normally using in our reviews caused the computer to freeze in this case, that’s why we went with Afterburner instead.

Here’s what we got in this case:

3DMark 11: 15611 (Graphics – 22453, Physics – 8193);
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 13209 (Graphics – 17292, Physics – 10615);
3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 5886 (Graphics – 6733, CPU – 3438);
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 4076;
PassMark: Rating: 3894, CPU mark: 9755, 3D Graphics Mark: 9019.

The OC profile leads to a 5-10% increase in GPU scores, but also causes CPU scores to drop in most cases, due to the fact that the CPU reaches high temperatures and is thermally forced to clock down. Unfortunately, the AMD CPU cannot be undervolted, unlike the Intel-based variants, which would have helped address these limitations.

That aside, the OC profile has a small impact over the CPU/GPU temperatures in demanding loads, but those are already running high to begin with. Overclocking pushes both to 85-95 degrees Celsius in demanding loads and games, as you’ll see down below, which are uncomfortably and arguably unsafe hot levels.

Finally, we also ran some Workstation related loads, on the same Turbo profile:

Blender 2.82 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 8m 2s (UV);
Blender 2.82 – BMW Car scene- GPU Compute: 1m 21s (CUDA), 37s (OPTIX);
Blender 2.82 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 25m 32s (UV);
Blender 2.82 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute: 5m 25s (CUDA), 2m 53s (OPTIX);
Luxmark 3.1 – Luxball HDR – OpenCL CPUs + GPUs score: – (UV);

Let’s look at some gaming results. We ran a couple of games representative for DX11 and DX12 architectures on the Standard Turbo profile, as well as on the OC Turbo profile (with the overclocked GPU). Here’s what we got:

TUF FX505DV – RTX 2060 90W	FHD Turbo	FHD Turbo OC	FHD Balanced OC	FHD Silent OC
Battlefield V (DX 12, Ultra Preset, Ray-Tracing OFF)	78-84 fps	82-92 fps	80-90 fps	18-22 fps
Battlefield V (DX 12, Ultra Preset, Ray-Tracing ON, DLSS OFF)	36-48 fps	40-50 fps	40-50 fps	10-14 fps
Far Cry 5 (DX 11, Ultra Preset, SMAA)	72 fps	72 fps	69 fps	36 fps
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (DX 11, Ultra Preset)	138 fps	138 fps	140 fps	36 fps
Red Dead Redemption 2 (DX 12, Ultra Optimized, TAA)	57 fps	58 fps	57 fps	19 fps
Rise of Tomb Raider (DX 12, Very High Preset, FXAA)	61 fps	65 fps	66 fps	crashed
Shadow of Tomb Raider (DX 12, Highest Preset, TAA)	65 fps	64 fps	66 fps	18 fps
Strange Brigade (Vulkan, Ultra Preset)	crashed	–	–	–
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (DX 11, Ultra Preset, Hairworks On 4)	68-92 fps	68-96 fps	64-94 fps	20-28 fps

Battlefield V, The Witcher 3 – recorded with Fraps/in-game FPS counter in campaign mode;
Far Cry 5, Middle Earth, Strange Brigade, Red Dead Redemption, Tomb Raider games – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
Red Dead Optimized profile based on these settings.

It’s interesting that while the OC profile showed a noticeable increase in the GPU benchmarks results, the real-life results almost blend in with actual games. That’s even more surprising as the logs actually show the GPU running at higher clocks on the OC profile, but also at higher temperatures, which bottlenecks the results over longer gaming sessions.

The HWinfo logs below show the CPU and GPU speeds and temperatures in Farcry 5, Shadow of Mordor and Witcher 3 on the Default Turbo profile, which keeps the fans running at 5700+ rpm and noise levels of 47-48 dB at head level on our review unit.

Overclocking the GPU has an impact on the GPU’s average clock speed, as well as on the CPU and GPU temperatures. These were already hot to begin with, and are further pushed by 1-4 degrees on this profile.

Gaming on Balanced pushes the CPU/GPU temperatures even further, with a minor effect on the performance and a small positive impact on the overall noise levels, which drop to about 44-45 dB.

Gaming on Silent quiets down the fans to only about 38-40 dB at head-level, but also greatly limits the performance and even causes crashes with some titles.

Gaming on Battery/Balanced is hardly an option either, as the CPU and GPU are capped just like in the previous scenario.

I’ll also add that we haven’t noticed any stuttering on this TUF FX505 version, unlike on the 1660Ti variant we’ve reviewed in the past. I can’t tell for sure if Asus completely addressed this issue with the more recent BIOS, that’s why I’d recommend you to thoroughly test your unit within your return period. If stuttering still occurs, disabling the iGPU and making sure everything runs through the Nvidia chip should help, as suggested in this video.

In conclusion, this AMD/Nvidia based platform is a fairly good all-rounder and gamer, as it allows you to run pretty much all the existing titles at FHD resolution and Mid to High graphics settings. The AMD platform bottlenecks the gaming results, though, and you’ll get 15-25% better results with an Intel Core-based platform and the same kind of graphics. Those are more expensive than this TUF, with the Asus ROG Strix G, HP Omen 15 and the Lenovo Legion Y540 as the closest competitors. However, you should also carefully consider the existing GTX 1660Ti models, they might be the better value options based on local prices in your country. We’ll further touch that in the Conclusions section.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

The FX505DV gets a more complex thermal module than what Asus put on last’s years Intel/Nvidia models, with two large fans (with dust exhaust channels) and several heatpipes. At the same time, this also needs to clear more heat than the 2018 models, and as you’ve seen in the previous section, it still barely copes with the components inside.

Both the CPU and the GPU run and high temperatures with games, around 85-90 degrees for the CPU and 80-85 degrees for the GPU. Those are high temperatures and most 15-inch laptops with same-level Intel/Nvidia specs run cooler. These internal temperatures don’t spread onto the outer shell, but they might also have an impact over long-term reliability, as heat and electronics don’t play well together. Asus claims to have properly tested these products, but I’d personally opt for an extended warranty, just to be on the safe side.

I was nonetheless expecting better CPU/GPU thermals given the design of the thermal module. Perhaps the limited intake cuts on the bottom have a saying in this, but the bigger issue is also the fact that there’s no way to tweak, undervolt or limit the AMD Ryzen 7 processor, as Ryzen Master does not support Ryzen mobile at this point. For comparison, Intel mobile processors can be tweaked with either XTU or Throttlestop, and that helps with temperatures and performance in most laptops, especially in those in the lower-tier such as this one, with the more limited thermal implementations.

As far as the outer case temperatures go, the TUF FX505DV only gets hot around the GPU side, on the back, so it’s comfortable to use in long gaming sessions. The fans spin fast and averagely noisy in games, at about 47-48 dB at head-level, and a little bit quieter with the laptop on Balanced, at 45-46 dB. As explained in the previous section, gaming on Balanced does cause the components to run a few degrees hotter, and it’s not something I’d recommend.

The fans are tamed down on Silent, but gaming on Silent greatly limits the performance, so it’s only possible in older and simpler titles.

With daily use, I’d recommend keeping the laptop on Balanced, as Silent tends to make the experience a little sluggish. The fans don’t shut completely off, but they do spin quietly and you’ll only notice them in a quiet room.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, fans at 36-38 dB
*Load Tweaked– playing Far Cry 5 for 30 minutes, fans at 47-48 dB

For connectivity, there’s Gigabit Lan and Wireless AC through Realtek chips, as well as Bluetooth 5.0. We’ve mostly used our sample on wireless, and it performed alright near the router and at 30+ feet away with obstacles in between, without drops or other issues, but didn’t reach the high speeds that some of the other laptops were capable with our setup.

The speakers on this unit were barely average in terms of volume, at up to 72-74 dB at head-level, and rather subpar in terms of quality. However, the driver did not install the Audio Wizard software on either of our FX505 samples, which normally helps with the volumes and quality, so I’d take our findings with a grain of salt, perhaps the output can be further improved if you can get that software installed. Even so, the actuals chambers are small, the sound comes through narrow cuts on the sides and is tinny, with little on the low-end, but alright mids and highs.

Hooking up an external set of headphones helps and covers the fans’ noise as well, but the output doesn’t seem to be very powerful and I’m not satisfied with the volume or the bass pushed into my pair of Legion H500s.

The camera is placed on top of the screen, flanked by microphones. It’s OK for occasional calls, but muddy and grainy, just like most laptop cameras in this price range.

Battery life

There’s only a 48 Wh battery inside the 15-inch TUF Gaming FX505, which is a bit small even for an entry-level gaming notebook by today’s standards, where most other options offer a 52-58 Wh battery.

The implementation is fairly efficient, yet not as efficient with low-power use and movies as the Intel/Nvidia options out there, so don’t expect more than 2-4 hours of use with this laptop.

Here’s what we got on our review unit, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~80 brightness).

15 W (~3+ h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Balanced Mode, screen at 80%, Wi-Fi ON;
11.5 W (~4+ h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 80%, Wi-Fi ON;
10.5 W (~4+ h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 80%, Wi-Fi ON;
20 W (~2h 30 min of use) – browsing in Edge, Balanced Mode, screen at 80%, Wi-Fi ON;
50 W (~1- h of use) – Gaming – Witcher 3, Balanced Mode, screen at 80%, Wi-Fi ON, fps limit of 40.

The TUF FX505DV configuration comes with a 230 W power-brick, fairly chunky and heavy, unlike on the 1660Ti variant that gets a more compact 180W brick. The battery fills up in about 1 hour and 30 min and there’s no support for USB-C charging.

Price and availability

The 15-inch Asus TUF Gaming FX505DV is widely available in stores worldwide as of late 2019.

It is listed at $1099 in most US stores, 1199 GBP in the UK and around 1199 EUR in western European countries, but you will most likely find it discounted in the months to come.

This configuration comes with the Ryzen 7 3750H processor, the Nvidia RTX 2060 GPU, the 120 Hz screen, 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD in most regions.

The 2019 FX505 models are also available in other configurations, as the extremely competitive FX505DT with a Ryzen 5/GTX 1650 configuration, or the FX550DU with Ryzen 7 and GTX 1660Ti graphics. All these are available in either 15 or 17-inch versions, and you can find out how the 1660Ti and 2060 variants fare against each other from this comparison.

Follow this link for updated configurations and prices in your region at the time you’re reading the article.

Final thoughts

Its competitive pricing is what primarily puts this laptop on most maps. In fact, in most regions, this is the most affordable RTX 2060 notebook you can find in stores, and it’s not even a regular RTX 2060, it’s the 90W OC variant you’d normally get on much more expensive gaming notebooks like the Asus ROG Scar III or the MSI GE65 Raider.

For that kind of money, you’re also getting a well built and compact chassis, a 120 Hz IPS display and an RGB keyboard. At the same time, though, you’ll have to settle for an all-plastic construction, a fairly dim and washed out panel and only average battery life and speaker quality.

However, there’s more than meets the eye about this product. This 2019 FX505 lineup is based on an AMD Ryzen hardware platform, and as you’ve seen in our test, that takes its toll on might matter most for some of you: the gaming experience. That’s why the FX505DV trails Intel Core i5/RTX 2060 80W configurations by 10-15% with stock settings, and up to 20-25% with tweaks and overclocks. The gap widens in this latter case because the FX505 runs hot and the AMD platform doesn’t allow for undervolting or any of the manual control that you’re getting with the Intel Core ix hardware.

It’s important to understand these aspects when shopping for one of these lower-priced gaming notebooks, as the devil lies within these small details. That means you might get a better performer if you’re willing to spend a little more, but also if you’re willing to go with what might on-paper look like a lower-tier GTX 1660Ti computer. Asus offers it’s own GTX 1660Ti variants of the FX505, as well as the portable Zephyrus G GA502, but go through our review, there’s more than meets the eye with that one as well. Other competitive options in this niche are the Asus ROG Strix G, Acer Predator Helios 300, Dell G3 Gaming, Lenovo Legion Y540 and HP Omen 15, each with their particularities and traits, but also all based on Intel/Nvidia hardware.

As for the RTX 2060 alternatives, those will most likely go for 100-300 USD/EUR/etc. more than a similarly specced TUF Gaming FX505, and it’s up to you if that difference is worth it or not. Among the competitive such options, the Legion Y540 and the HP Omen 15 are the ones worth mentioning here.

Bottom point, the TUG Gaming FX505 checks many of the right boxes you should expect in a budget-friendly gaming notebook, but it’s drawdown by the AMD platform’s particularities and its subpar display. That’s why I expect this to become even more competitively priced in the months to come, especially after Asus launches its AMD Renoir-based follow-up, rumored for early 2020, which should address most of the complaints.

This sums up our review of the Asus TUF Gaming FX505DV, and we’d love to hear your thoughts about it in the comments sections below. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any feedback or questions about it.

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Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com. I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.

26 Comments

Arturo

February 5, 2020 at 9:26 pm

I bought the model FX505DV NH74 (ASUS – 15.6" Laptop – AMD Ryzen 7 – 16GB Memory – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 – 512GB SSD – Stealth Black)

May I add a second SSD in this version? I want to add an 1T SSD. this is the SSD:

ddtech.mx/producto/unidad-de-estado-solido-ssd-m-2-gen-3-x4-1tb-addlink-s68-ad1tbs68m2p

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- Andrei Girbea
  
  February 5, 2020 at 9:36 pm
  
  Does it come with an M.2 or a 2.5" SSD? If it comes with an M.2, then no, you can't add another M.2. See the picture of the internals, it shows the M.2 and the 2.5" storages
  
  Reply
  - Aquib
    
    March 10, 2020 at 11:52 am
    
    Should i buy this or go for a fx505gt which has Gtx 1650 120 hz display 16 gig ram and a i7 9750h 9th gen
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    March 10, 2020 at 1:46 pm
    
    This
Emmanuel

February 25, 2020 at 8:05 pm

I love this kind of attention to detail.

Reply
SR

March 18, 2020 at 8:59 pm

I bought this laptop (FX505DV-NH74) without really reading reviews, based solely on the less than $1k price tag. I've only had a few hours to play with it, but the first thing I want to complain about is that when I popped open the back cover (which is a bit of a pain to get open with all the plastic latches on top of the several screws) one of the pem nuts broke in the lower right corner. Pretty aggrevating, but I guess shouldn't be an issue as I don't plan on constantly opening the back cover. I just put in my 2TB HDD and closed it back up.

While trying to set it up to my liking and play some COD: Modern Warfare, I found all of the graphics settings are set to make it run with the Radeon Vega and NOT the Nvidia RTX 2060 which is the reason I bought this thing in the first place. It looks to me like you can't run the laptop panel with the Nvidia, but instead that is only there to run an external monitor. Am I correct on this? I have not played with the Armoury Crate app yet, just with the GEForce Experience and GEForce apps so far. I played through a few games of MW last night, a couple on the laptop display and a couple on an external display, and I'll say the gaming experience was 10x better on the external display. I was able to get about 60fps externally, but the GPU was running 80-85C the entire time which worried me. On the included display it was topping out around 50fps, though I don't remember looking at the GPU temp at that time. It was also a bit laggy on the laptop display. I was pretty disappointed in the performance to be quite frank. I just built a desktop PC with nearly the same specs and using the same external monitor and I see 120fps with GPU temps that never exceed 60C even after hours of play. I know there's a lot of thermal dynamics that go into effect here, but it's essentially the same GPU and GPU RAM in both rigs and I'd expect a little bit of a closer experience.

I guess long story short, this is my first foray into a decent gaming laptop. I expected more than what I got, but for the sub $1k price point should I be content? Or should I send it back and spend a couple hundred more on something that will give me closer to 100fps on MW? Are there settings I should be looking at that I haven't come across yet with this notebook?

Also, as a side note, I think the panel I got on my laptop is different from any listed in your review. It says I have a "144 Hz FHD IPS-Type". I can't find a model number or anything. In the NVIDIA control panel when I try to select use the NVIDIA GPU for everything, it shows that the Radeon Vega is running the display and there's nothing I can do to change that.
(My whole description:
ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop
15.6" 144 Hz FHD IPS-Type
AMD Ryzen 7 R7-3750H
GeForce RTX 2060
16 GB DDR4
512 GB PCIe SSD
Gigabit Wi-Fi 5
Windows 10 Home
FX505DV-NH74)

and last but not least, thanks for such a detailed review. I love all of that technical information.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  March 18, 2020 at 9:07 pm
  
  1. Of course you can run games with the Nvidia GPU. Try to Force Modern Warfare onto the Nvidia chip from Nvidia panel, should work.
  2. You can use HWinbfo to find the panel details. There's a single 144 Hz option as far as I know
  3. The article includes logs and details on how to weak the performance. Compare them with your results and then decide if this is what you need or not.
  
  Reply
slow21

March 29, 2020 at 2:33 am

battery life performs really bad. if it's easy to remove the battery like other laptops, i'd remove the battery.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  March 30, 2020 at 10:23 am
  
  what do you mean by "performs bad"?
  
  Reply
kaerubingo

March 30, 2020 at 2:30 pm

Hello, I just read your review and it makes me more confused.
Actually I am an Asus fan, so when it comes to gaming laptops with my budget around $1000, my eyes lay on ROG G531GU-I566G2T with i5-9300 and Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti 6GB. But after I read your review with the same budget I get this with RTX 2060 6GB.
So I like to ask, which one do you think better? The ROG or TUF one? And why you think that the best.
I also like if you give me recommendation other than Asus but cover my budget. Maybe it can Lenovo, Acer or MSI and also the reason why you think that the best with that budget?

Your answer really appreciate.

Thank you

Reply
- SR
  
  March 30, 2020 at 6:06 pm
  
  I would suggest looking elsewhere. I'm returning my purchase and trying to NOT have to pay the $150 restocking fee to Newegg.
  My reasons for the return:
  First was the broken pem-nut when I opened the back cover using the Asus instructions. I think that it was already broken before I tried to open it as the plastic didn't look like a new break as it looked a little faded already. I can't prove it though.
  Second is that this thing runs REALLY hot. Really hot. I had it shut down on my a couple of times sitting on my desk. And you get no warning, it just shuts down.
  Third is the noise of the fans. They are extraordinarily loud. With all the noise, I would think they'd do a better job cooling, but they don't. The GPU is running at 80C+ nearly the second I start a game with moderate settings. I was able to make it run a little bit cooler by playing on an external monitor, closing the lid of the laptop, and turning it upside down. Still, it only dropped to 75C but was even louder.
  Fourth, the touchpad was very sluggish and would lock up constantly while just browsing the web with Chrome or MS Edge.
  Last, and not as big of a deal, but the battery on this thing drains stupid fast. Even on their economy settings. I had to plug in after about an hour of web browsing. I didn't realize the monitor didn't dim automagically when unplugged like my old laptop did, so I'm sure you could double the battery time on it by tweaking settings, but still…only an hour.
  
  I guess I was looking for a little more quality, but under the $1k price point it's going to be very tough to find. I ended up spending a couple hundred more and getting a MSI GE75-9SE Raider. It's got a current gen CPU (i7 9-series), and mostly the same specs as this Asus rig. I've been VERY happy with that thing. It runs cool, is much quieter, looks nicer, and the control over the RGB down to the single buttons is pretty fun to play with. It's also a bigger monitor (17.3"), so even though it was slightly more expensive, I think it's an even better deal than this one. I don't think I'll look to Asus again for a Laptop. I'll still search them out for new Motherboards and maybe power supplies.
  
  Reply
Yosrii

April 1, 2020 at 12:47 am

Hello
Thanks for your hard-working I've got a question I saw some benchmarks for the same laptop and it got only 30-40 fps on ultra mood and another games like NDF and others with 30fps too so what is the problem ??

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  April 1, 2020 at 12:45 pm
  
  how can I answer that?
  
  Reply
David

April 29, 2020 at 5:10 am

I take it 80-85c is fairly standard for the FX505DV?
And mine has – Windows – Silent – Performance – Turbo..

Performance and turbo for gaming right ? Turbo does sound like a jet plane however. Headphones yes but don’t want the thing to collapse after a few months. Not used to gaming laptops.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  April 29, 2020 at 10:21 am
  
  YOu can log temperatures with HWinfo and see how your unit does. Turbo is what I'd recommend for gaming if you can cope with the noise.
  
  Reply
  - David
    
    April 29, 2020 at 1:09 pm
    
    I’m guessing fan noise is fine as it’s expected with this model range.. and 80-85c is normal at load
Victor Arhire

April 30, 2020 at 7:49 pm

I have this laptop for 4 moths now, i use it with a laptop stand with 4 fans and in games the CPU/GPU does not go over 80 degrees Celsius. It is a good laptop, best one at this price with RTX 2060.

Reply
Grayson

May 7, 2020 at 8:10 pm

Thanks for your review! It was definitely the best one out there I found for this laptop.
So I bought this thing about a month ago, and its generally underperforming compared to the results you showed. For example, I run Battlefield 5 with low settings on and can only muster about 45 frames in the campaign mode. However, in benchmarks mine seems to be running just as expected with similar results to yours. Could the discrepancy between the in game performance of my model and the one you tested be due to the ssd and RAM upgrades you made? I saw you said "the gaming experience is highly impacted by having dual-channel memory on this platform, so make sure to add an extra RAM stick if you get a configuration that comes with just a single stick out of the box". Do you think that upgrade would be really so crucial to make a 30 frame difference and such a drastic difference on what settings I can run on?
(Also, I have all the same settings on otherwise you listed such as turbo mode and making sure the GPU is configured right in the Nvidia control panel).
Thanks!

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  May 7, 2020 at 8:19 pm
  
  You can use HWinfo and log the GPU performance with games. If that's similar to my unit, than everything works fine. Dual-Channel RAM makes a very big difference on this laptop and it's definitely something I'd recommend. The SSD doesn't make much difference in games, it just helps with loading times.
  
  Reply
  - Grayson
    
    May 7, 2020 at 9:49 pm
    
    Yeah everything seems to be the same, so the reason for the discrepancy is probably the ram? If so, what do you recommend looking into so far as options for that?
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    May 8, 2020 at 11:28 am
    
    I'd go with the same stick that you have installed already. Use hwinfo to find more about it
  - David
    
    May 8, 2020 at 3:37 am
    
    I’ve found if go into Nvidia Panel and Mark most games to 60fps or 48fps depending on the game. You lower CPU temps and fans speeds massively. For most games difference is negligible. Change CPU speed in power to 99%. I’m usually between 70-80 for most high end gaming now.
dfdr

May 24, 2020 at 8:41 am

where can i change cpu speed?

Reply
Mike

June 23, 2020 at 10:13 pm

I’ve had this laptop for almost 9 months now and so far I’ve been contented with its performance. Definitely a bang for the buck. Question though, I run it on demanding games like COD: MW and use it sometimes for rendering (Lumion 9): Is it normal for the GPU temperature to go as high as 85-87•C? I’m a little bit worried on the electronics, looking at the long-term aspect.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  June 24, 2020 at 10:30 am
  
  yes, this thew FX series runs hot. In theory, the GPU can handle that kind of temperatures, but heat and electronics don't play well together longterm. I'd look into investing in a cooling pad, or at least raise the laptop's back end from the desk when playing games by a few centimeters, see how that impacts the temperatures.
  
  Reply
SR

June 24, 2020 at 5:21 pm

This is the major reason I sent mine back. It actually had shut itself off on me a couple of times mid-game because the GPU overheated. The fan noise was out of control, and I just couldn't be satisfied long term with that. The way I found it worked best was with a separate monitor, while the computer case is closed and sitting upside down so the fans are blowing upwards. They didn't seem to work as hard, so they weren't as loud, and my GPU temp hovered around 80C. GPU hovered around 86C when opened and operating normally, and that really was with only moderate settings for the game (COD:MW).

The MSI Raider GS75 I picked up instead runs 10x better with very similar specs. My GPU has never gone over 75, and normally operates at 65C with near max settings (I turn off Ray-Tracing—COD just isn't ready for it). The fan noise is easily 6dB less. The chassis looks cooler IMO too, but that's just my opinion. I did like the style of the Asus too.

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Asus TUF Gaming FX505DV review (AMD Ryzen 7, Nvidia RTX 2060 90W)

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