ROG Magic 15 experience: create creativity with Wenneng code, and play smoothly with Wuneng 3A
Is a 1.9kg laptop heavy? Is the 19.9mm notebook thick?
Don't worry about answering me first, if I tell you, this notebook is equipped with AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS processor and is equipped with Nvidia GeForce RTX3070 8GB Max-Q graphics card.
Then, looking back at the 1.9kg and 19.9mm data, do you feel completely different? Combining high performance with lightness can easily cause this sensory "contrast".
The laptop with these features is the 2021 ROG Magic 15.
Last year, ROG launched a new "Fantasy" series. This series focuses on "lightweight" and "high-performance", and the design has some "fashionable" characteristics. In addition, ROG officially gave "Magic" an all-rounder positioning.
Low-key is not like ROG
When it comes to ROG, the first thing that comes to mind is the nickname "The Eye of the Prodigal". One is the price, and the other is the eye with RGB light effects.
ROG will incorporate the Logo into the design of many products. For example, the ROG Moonblade wireless mouse in hand is a typical ROG style, and the logo will emit cool RGB lighting effects.
On the other hand, ROG Magic 15, the body has neither RGB lighting effects, nor a huge eye logo, a low-key and simple style.
In detail, the A side of ROG Magic 15 adopts a bevel design from top left to bottom right, dividing the A side into two parts. Except for the small nameplate printed with "REPUBLIC OF GAMERS EST.2016", the lower part is a large area of white space.
The upper part did not retain the light display matrix that appeared on the previous Phantom 14, instead it was replaced by the "phantom prism light effect". The original LED dot matrix lighting effect has been replaced by a passive reflective dot matrix. Under the reflection of light, there will be colorful light effects set off.
But when you are indoors, or at the right angle of light, ROG Magic 15's A is similar to other notebook products and looks very simple. Originally, the previous generation of "Phantom" series was lower-key than traditional ROG products. The new generation made some detailed changes on the A side to make the 2021 Phantom 15 more pragmatic.
The changes in details actually reflect the product positioning of the ROG Magic series. It wants to cater to consumers who need high-performance laptops, not just for gamers.
In terms of appearance, the 2021 ROG Magic 15 is not wrong even if it is held for business occasions. During the time I was experiencing Magic 15, I participated in two "creative meetings." Magic 15 didn't make me act out, nor did it attract the attention of my colleagues. It hides it quite well.
The B side of ROG Magic 15 is equipped with a 15.6-inch 2K resolution (2560 x 1440) 16:9 matte screen. This screen supports a high refresh rate of 165Hz and has a response time of 3ms. The color gamut can reach 100% DCI-P3, and the color calibration will be done at the factory.
The B side is designed with three narrow sides as a whole. It looks thick and the chin is still eye-catching. However, the Phantom 15 adopts the design of tilted feet with a sinking shaft, which can hide some chins and is more conducive to heat dissipation.
It is also worth noting that the Phantom 15 and the entire Phantom series are not equipped with a front camera, so if there is a need, after starting the Phantom 15, an additional webcam may be required.
The most eye-catching part of the Phantom 15's fuselage is ROG's four-outlet heat dissipation design. Enough air ducts are reserved on both sides of the fuselage and under the screen. Therefore, the expansion ports of the fuselage are all on the lower side, near the palm rest, and the richness of the expansion ports is comparable to "omnipotent".
The whole machine has two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type C interfaces, supporting PD 100W charging and 4K 120Hz independent display output; two USB 3.2 Gen1 Type A interfaces; one HMDI 2.0b interface, supporting 4K 60Hz mixed output, and one RJ45 gigabit network interface , A 200W DC power interface, a 3.5mm headphone jack and UFS expansion card slot, not equipped with a standard SD card slot, which is a pity.
Although the Magic 15 is equipped with a 15.6-inch screen, the keyboard area on the C side is not equipped with a small keyboard, and it is still a standard laptop keyboard configuration. However, the positions of the various buttons are not so crowded, and with the 1.7mm keystroke, it has a good percussion experience.
In addition, Phantom 15 has the volume adjustment button, microphone button, and "Ultron Center" four buttons separately designed on the top of the keyboard, making it easier to adjust. The touchpad under the keyboard is also routinely upgraded, increasing the area by 20%, and the experience is a bit macOS.
The main unit has a total of 6 speakers, located on both sides of the keyboard and near the palm rest, including two trebles and four basses, supporting Dolby Atmos. When I watched a movie with the Phantom 15 for the first time, the sound effects from the speakers on the fuselage were really amazing. Although I was watching a feature film, the dialogues, narrations, and soothing background sounds still have a good sense of presence. . After watching this movie, I'm already holding the phantom 15 and waiting for the edited version of "Justice League" on March 25.
The design of the 2021 ROG Magic 15 has not changed much. Most of the details are modified. The overall is more low-key and concise. It can be used for many occasions. It is "all-round."
Have a heart of "pretend to be a pig and eat a tiger"
Before talking about the specific performance, let's take a look at the specifications and configuration of this Magic 15:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS with 8 cores and 16 threads;
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX3070 8GB Max-Q;
- Memory: Samsung 16GB DDR4 3200MHz;
- Hard disk: Hynix 1TB solid state hard disk;
- Network card: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200;
- Battery: 90Wh.
The 2021 ROG Magic 14 and Magic 15 are equipped with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS processor using the Zen 3 architecture. Although AMD’s new 5000 series CPU still uses the 7nm process, the architecture has been re-optimized. The 8 cores can share 32MB. L3 cache, there is no communication delay problem of Zen2, and the multi-core performance is improved by nearly 20%.
And in some programs/games that emphasize single-core performance, the Zen3 architecture allows one of the cores to enjoy a 32MB cache, which greatly improves single-core performance.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS is similar to Ryzen 9 5900HX in terms of specifications, except that the former has a TDP of 35W and a Boost frequency of 4.4GHz, while the latter is 4.6GHz. It can be simply understood that 5900HS is the power and frequency-locked version of 5900HX.
The main purpose of CPU frequency lock and power consumption is to balance the power consumption and heat generation of the notebook. The thin and light design of the Magic 15 has higher requirements for heat dissipation, and some performance is used in exchange for a more balanced performance.
The same goes for the Magic 15 GPU. The Max-Q version of the graphics card is designed for notebook mobile platforms alone (down-conversion), and the original intention is also to balance energy efficiency.
In notebook computers and even some PCs, the performance and power consumption of CPU and GPU are not linearly increasing, but similar to diminishing marginal effects. After the performance reaches a certain level, it often appears that 50% of the power consumption is paid but only a 10% performance improvement is received, which is not worth the gain.
In the previous generation of Phantom series, ROG has set four performance options in the "Ultron Center", mute, performance, enhancement and manual. The 2021 ROG Phantom 15 still continues this "performance" personalization Set up.
The silent mode will mainly call the integrated graphics; the performance mode will try to control the power consumption below 100W; and the enhanced mode is basically the ROG overclocking mode of the GPU, and the frequency can be as high as 1390MHz. In this way, the manual mode is a customized "overclocking" mode, which allows players to manually "overclock" the power of the CPU, GPU, fan speed, and memory frequency.
▲ The PD protocol only supports up to 100W of power. For better performance, a 200W DC charger is a must.
But before overclocking, there are two points to be aware of.
- Magic 15 supports two modes: 100W PD fast charging and 200W DC charging. When charging the PD, the system only allows to turn on the "Mute" and "Performance" modes to prevent unbalanced power consumption. Only after the official DC charger is connected, can the Phantom 15's "high energy" demand be met. This design is almost divided according to performance requirements, PD meets daily work, and DC's 200W will release the stronger performance of Magic 15.
- In the "manual" mode, the system may be unstable, and there may even be the risk of damaging the hardware. Damages in this area are not covered by ROG's warranty. In a word, super and cherish.
In theory, this ROG Magic 15 can basically meet most of the 3A masterpieces, as well as the corresponding creativity and productivity needs. It is a real laptop with full-scene performance.
But you can overclock manually, and you still can't suppress the urge to die, especially when you run scores and try out "Cyberpunk 2077", a masterpiece optimized for scumbags.
Not much nonsense, directly on the score (the following running scores and game tests are tested at 2K resolution).
From the results of Cinebench R23 and 3D Mark Time Spy, it can be seen that when the power consumption and frequency are manually increased, the improvement of the CPU is very limited, but the GPU has been greatly improved.
The running score is just a reference. How will it perform in 3A game masterpieces and productivity scenarios?
First run a round of "Cyberpunk 2077" with enhanced performance and full special effects. This game is well-known for its poor optimization. It is used for testing, and the ceiling can be seen very well. During the game loading process, the frame rate is above 100fps throughout. After entering the game, cyberpunk did not disappoint me. The frame rate instantly dropped to 40fps. When you were driving around, with the appearance of a large number of textures, the GPU utilization rate soared to 99%, the temperature reached 68°C, and the frame rate was also Reduce to 33fps.
When I quit the game, manually pulled up the power and frequency, and then played "2077", the game crashed indefinitely. Even if the CPU power consumption and frequency are returned to normal, the game still cannot be opened normally, and it still crashes.
If Phantom 15 wants to play "Cyberpunk 2077", there may be a trade-off, either by reducing the resolution or reducing the special effects.
Later, I opened "Tomb Raider" again, whether it is enhanced or manual, the average frame rate is around 90fps, in some low-load scenes, the frame rate can reach 130fps. But in manual mode, the fluctuation of CPU and GPU is smaller.
In terms of productivity, the combination of AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX3070 8GB Max-Q graphics card is also a strong combination.
In video editing, a group of 4K 30P videos are processed, with three tracks, bgm added, no subtitles, no color grade, and the output is 4K 30P 80Mbps, totaling 3 minutes and 43 seconds. The latest Da Vinci 17 rendering took 5 minutes and 5 seconds, while the PR only took 2 minutes and 14 seconds.
For still photo processing, use Lightroom to process 313 Fuji X-T3 RAW format photos, load the official configuration colors, simply adjust the exposure, light and dark, the final output width is 2000 pixels, 300 pixels/inch resolution, the final export time is about 22 minute. When processing 29 40-megapixel Sony RAWs in the same way, it took 3 minutes and 40 seconds. (For comparison, it takes about 4 minutes and 40 seconds to process the same RAW photo with the Intel Xe core display.)
There are almost no shortcomings in the hardware configuration of the 2021 Magic 15. The previous generation of Intel QLC solid-state hard drives that have been criticized for delays has been upgraded on the new generation, and the read and write speed is no longer a shortcoming of the whole machine.
However, if it is stricter, the Magic 15 is equipped with asymmetric dual-channel memory. Take this one in my hand as an example. It has 8GB of memory onboard and an 8GB memory slot. For subsequent expansion, it can only be in the memory slot. Make a fuss. The frequency of the onboard memory is only 3200MHz, which may have some impact on the future DIY upgrade of the memory, but it is a bit consoling that the impact of the memory on the performance is relatively limited, and the asymmetric memory design is acceptable to me. .
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