Benchmarks: System and Gaming
Aorus's v3 revision has proven to be superior to the original X3 Plus in most regards thus far, but it's in the graphics department that there's a distinct gulf in class. According to 3DMark's Fire Strike benchmark, the GTX 970M offers a 55 per cent performance improvement over last year's GTX 870M. That's a significant leap and we see similar gains in our standard Aliens vs. Predator test.
Full-HD Gaming Performance - 1,920x1,080 (Average FPS) |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game | Quality Settings | Aorus X7 Pro |
Aorus X3 Plus v3 |
|||
(2x GeForce GTX 970M 3GB) |
(GeForce GTX 980M 8GB) |
(GeForce GTX 970M 6GB) |
(GeForce GTX 870M 6GB) |
(GeForce GTX 860M 2GB) |
||
| BioShock Infinite | Very Low Quality | 285.8 |
224.2 |
197.5 |
168.6 |
121.6 |
| Low Quality | 245.7 |
184.2 |
152.9 |
124.7 |
90.0 |
|
| Medium Quality | 218.5 |
156.2 |
129.6 |
101.0 |
73.1 |
|
| High Quality | 192.3 |
142.4 |
115.9 |
86.1 |
61.4 |
|
| Max Quality | 126.9 |
86.7 |
70.7 |
51.4 |
35.6 |
|
| Total War: Rome II | Low | 259.8 |
229.1 |
179.0 |
127.5 |
90.3 |
| Medium Quality | 241.1 |
210.0 |
172.8 |
121.9 |
85.3 |
|
| High Quality | 197.0 |
173.5 |
146.7 |
104.3 |
72.5 |
|
| Very High Quality | 135.4 |
110.1 |
88.8 |
60.3 |
44.0 |
|
| Extreme Quality | 72.1 |
57.4 |
46.2 |
29.4 |
21.6 |
|
Further examining the laptop's gaming credentials, we've run a couple of games at varying resolutions to see what the GTX 970M can handle.
There's a lot of gaming potential on offer, and these are without doubt the best framerates we've seen from a sub-14in laptop. At 1080p you'll be able to crank quality settings to maximum in most games and still maintain a smooth experience.
Native Gaming Performance - 3,200x1,800 (Average FPS) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game | Quality Settings | Aorus X3 Plus v3 |
Aorus X3 Plus |
(GeForce GTX 970M 6GB) |
(GeForce GTX 870M 6GB) |
||
| BioShock Infinite | Very Low Quality | 114.4 |
79.8 |
| Low Quality | 76.5 |
55.2 |
|
| Medium Quality | 55.4 |
42.8 |
|
| High Quality | 47.9 |
36.8 |
|
| Max Quality | 30.6 |
22.3 |
|
| Total War: Rome II | Low | 80.8 |
59.5 |
| Medium Quality | 76.7 |
55.4 |
|
| High Quality | 69.6 |
49.5 |
|
| Very High Quality | 40.1 |
27.6 |
|
| Extreme Quality | 19.2 |
12.2 |
|
But can the GTX 970M deliver more than just 1080p? Maybe. Re-running the benchmarks at the laptop's native 3,200x1,800 resolution delivered reasonable results. Framerates become choppy with everything dialled-up to maximum, but dropping quality settings to medium or high is enough to deliver smooth gameplay.