Laptop Review: ASUS TUF Gaming FA506IV-HN294T

The ASUS TUF Gaming A15 FA506IV-HN294T is powered by the 8 core AMD Ryzen 9 4900H processor and an RTX 2060 with 6 GB of VRAM. The display here is the 144Hz FHD (1920x1080p) panel. Other specs include 16GB RAM and 1TB HDD + 512GB SSD. This is a great laptop if you are a professional creator, engineer, and gaming. 

Design and Ports

The chassis of the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 FFA506IV-HN294T is entirely made out of plastic and has a black textured finish with a single red stripe. The design here is not a beautiful one but it has tuff design except for the lid which wobbles a little. The display maintains a modern design with thin 7mm bezels.

Ports: 

• 1 x 3.5mm COMBO audio jack
• 1x Type-A USB2.0
• 2x Type-A USB 3.2 (Gen 1)
• 1x Type-C USB 3.2 (Gen 2) with display support DP1.4
• 1x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
• 1x HDMI support 2.0b

Keyboard and Trackpad

The Asus TUF Gaming A15 FA506IV-HN294T has a chicklet style backlit keyboard. The WASD keys are transparent and get a little extra RGB backlight. The arrow keys are a bit small with the num pad being a little narrow. Overall you will have a good experience while typing and Gaming. The trackpad on the other hand has a smooth matte surface though it lacks a little precision. The dedicated mouse buttons on the bottom quite clicky and tactile and it is always better to have dedicated buttons.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 4900H

The AMD Ryzen 9 4900H is a High-End processor for Gaming laptops. It has 8 cores and 16 Threads with a 7nm Zen2 architecture. The AMD Ryzen 9 4900H has a base clock of 3.3 GHz and the clock speed can be boosted to up to 4.4 GHz.  AMD has specified a TDP of 45 watts, therefore the Ryzen 9 4900H  is only suited for bulkier Gaming Laptops with good cooling solutions. 

Performance

When compared to its previous generation, the AMD Ryzen 9 4900H sees almost 2x improvement performance. The AMD Ryzen 9 4900H has a 14 percent higher base clock (400 MHz) and a 5 percent higher boost clock (200 MHz) when compared to Ryzen 7 4800H. When compared to its intel counterpart the 4900H is comparable to i9-10980HK.

RAM and Storage

The RAM and storage of the FA506IV-HN294T are configured at 16GB and 1TB HDD + 512GB SSD. The 16GB DDR4 RAM runs in Dual-channel at 3200 there are 2x SO-DIMM slots both occupied. The max limit for memory support here is 32 GB. The 512 GB storage here is an M.2 NVMe SSD and the 1TB HDD here occupies the 2.5 Inch SATA bay. 

Display: 144Hz FHD (LM156LF-2F01)

The FHD panel on the Asus TUF Gaming A15 FA506IV-HN294T has a 144Hz Refresh rate and doesn’t suffer from and noticeable issues such as backlight bleeding and PWM flickering. The display here has an average color coverage and below-average brightness and suitable for outdoor use.

Display Specs:

• Panel Model Number: LM156LF-2F01
• Coverage: 66% sRGB | 49% AdobeRGB | 49% DCI P3;
• Measured Gamma: 2.33;
• Max brightness: 250 Nits;
• Contrast Ratio: 1200:1;
• Colour Temperature: 6485K;
• Black on max brightness: 0.15 cd/m2;
• PWM Flickering: No;
• Response Time: 25 ms

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile

The RTX 2060 is based on a 12 nm manufacturing process with a TGP between 80 – 90 Watts. The 6 GB Graphics Card comes with a GDDR6 memory which is clocked at 14 GHz with a 192-bit memory interface that creates a bandwidth of 336 GB/s and comes packed with features such as DLSS ( Deep Learning Super Sampling ) and Ray tracing which creates more realistic lighting and shadow effects The RTX 2060 can be seen in both mid-range and high-end laptops and is a fast gaming graphics card. The RTX 2060 mobile is based on its desktop counterpart but with a 30 percent reduction in clock speeds and a 50 percent reduction in power consumption. The RTX 2060 Mobile performance is similar to that of the GTX 1070 Desktop variant and is just slightly better than the GTX 1660Ti Mobile. The RTX 2060 Mobile is best suited for Gaming at 1080p with ultra settings but we don’t recommend the use of ray tracing for most games.

How is the Asus TUF Gaming A15 FA506IV-HN294T for Gaming?

The Asus TUF Gaming A15 FA506IV-HN294T with its RTX 2060 Graphics and 144Hz display capable of handling most AAA games at Ultra settings. The following are the benchmarks for Nvidia RTX 2060 mobile.

Fortnite

• Low (720p): 144 FPS
• Mid (1080p): 144 FPS
• High (1080p): 110 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 85 FPS

PUBG ( PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds)

• Low (720p): 130 FPS
• Mid (1080p): 100 FPS
• High (1080p): 90 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 65 FPS

GTA V

• Low (768p): 144 FPS
• Mid (768p): 144 FPS
• High (1080p): 110 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 55 FPS

CS:GO (Counter Strike: Global Offesnsive)

• Low (768p): 144 FPS
• High (1080p): 144 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 144 FPS

League of Legends 

• Low (768p): 144 FPS
• Mid (1080p): 144 FPS
• High (1080p): 144 FPS

Overwatch

• Low (768p): 144 FPS
• Mid (768p): 144 FPS
• High (1080p): 144 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 120 FPS

Apex Legends

• Low (768p): 144 FPS
• Mid (1080p): 110 FPS
• High (1080p): 95 FPS
• Ultra (1080p): 90 FPS