ASUS ROG Strix 16" G16 Gray 2025

The Ryzen 9 8940HX puts this laptop in the 92nd percentile for CPU speed, which is nuts at this price. You get an RTX 5070, 32GB RAM, and brilliant port selection. It's heavy (14th percentile compactness) and the 8GB VRAM may bug you later, but as a desktop replacement, it's a killer deal.

The ASUS ROG Strix G16 comes out swinging with a Ryzen 9 8940HX that lands in the 92nd percentile for laptop CPUs in our database, making it one of the fastest you can buy right now. Pair that with 32GB of DDR5 and an RTX 5070, and you're looking at a machine that chews through gaming and creator workloads without breaking a sweat.

But there's a trade-off: this thing is heavy. At 2.31kg and with a footprint that puts it in the 14th percentile for compactness, it's anything but portable. The 300-nit 165Hz display is fine, though it sits at the 73rd percentile, so don't expect OLED-level pop. For under $2,000, the raw grunt is the real story.

The standout is the CPU. The 16-core Ryzen 9 8940HX, peaking at 5.3GHz, posts scores that make even some high-end desktops blush. In our benchmarks, it outperforms 92% of all gaming laptops, which translates to compile times and rendering tasks finishing noticeably faster than the crowd. Multitasking heavy dev environments? It barely flinches.

GPU performance is strong but not chart-topping. The RTX 5070 8GB sits in the 88th percentile, so it'll push 165fps in esports titles and handle AAA games at FHD+ without drama. The 8GB frame buffer is the limitation here—you'll feel it at higher resolutions or in VRAM-hungry games. Still, with 32GB of DDR5 RAM (87th percentile) and a Gen4 1TB SSD (81st percentile), the whole system feels snappy. Port selection is a 96th percentile highlight—two USB-C, two USB-A, HDMI 2.1, and Ethernet cover every base.

At $1,926, the Strix G16 packs a top-shelf CPU and a solid GPU into a price that undercuts many competitors. You're getting 92nd percentile processor performance and an 88th percentile GPU—something most sub-$2K rigs can't match. The trade is in portability and VRAM, but if you want raw compute per dollar, it's hard to beat.

Against the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, you'll often find similar GPU muscle but sometimes with 12GB VRAM for a bit more cash, which is better future-proofing. The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro is far more portable but its integrated graphics get humbled by the Strix. Apple's MacBook Pro M4 Max runs circles around it in single-core tasks and battery life, but at nearly double the price. The MSI Prestige and HP ZBook Ultra G1a are thinner but trade away gaming punch. For a desktop replacement that stays put, this ASUS lineup hits a sweet spot—just know the 8GB VRAM will age faster than the competition with more memory.

Skip this if you need a travel laptop. At 2.31kg and 14th percentile compactness, it's a pain to slide into a bag every day. Also, if you play VRAM-heavy games at higher resolutions or plan to keep this for 4+ years, the 8GB frame buffer on the RTX 5070 could become a bottleneck. And if battery life is a dealbreaker, look elsewhere—there's no magic here with this much hardware.

If you need a powerhouse that stays on a desk and don't mind schlepping a heavy laptop occasionally, the Strix G16 is a tremendous value. Its CPU performance is elite, and the RTX 5070 eats 1080p gaming for breakfast. The catch is the 8GB VRAM and the bulk—but for $1,926, you're getting a lot of speed. Just pair it with a good external monitor to really unlock it.