if you’re looking for a premium filling Windows laptop that’s powerful looks great and is portable the Zephris G14 it’s got to be on your list but there are two issues that you need to be aware of before buying one firstly the G14 it gets warm even in very light use like browsing the web if you are someone like me who finds a warm feeling laptop uncomfortable this one it just isn’t for you secondly the G14’s RTX 5070 Ti it is underfed wattage and underperforms that’s when compared with other laptops with this GPU in fact on the GPU specifically just like all gaming laptops in 2025 this one it kind of got screwed by Nvidia the RTX 5060 and 5070 it only has 8 gig of VRAM which just isn’t enough to run modern titles on the screen’s native resolution at least not without a further performance hit so you kind of need to buy the RTX 5070 Ti version or the 5080 but be careful if you’re considering a 5080 it’s likely even more power throttle than the 5070 Ti look I’m not saying don’t buy a G14 it’s a very good laptop i’m just saying know what you are buying there is a massive sacrifice by getting a laptop that’s so small with so much hardware packed into it well with that synopsis out of the way here’s Sierra with all the details our configuration of the Zephris G14 comes with AMD’s mid-tier Ryzen 9 HX 370 processor and an Nvidia RTX 5070Ti which falls between the 5070 and 5080 this config also has 32 gigs of RAM and 1 TB of storage before completing our whole suite of tests we like to make sure to test each mode to see how performance might differ and choose which mode to focus on starting with Cinebench we tested all four stock performance modes through Asus’s Armory Crate and we were very impressed by this laptop you do get less fan noise in its silent mode but the Ryzen 9 HX370 CPU still performs very well here it also draws less power unfortunately the keyboard deck still gets quite warm in some spots where your hands might be like the center keys and palm rest this is despite the fact that it’s doing a better job of keeping the processor cooler in this mode it does throttle its performance less than the larger Zephris G16 did in silent mode though so that’s kind of interesting to see in a smaller form factor makes us think that the G16 could use some additional tuning however this Cinebench graph for the G14 really makes it evident that feeding this processor more than 50 watts starts to have diminishing marginal returns we found this a bit disappointing as the wattage limits for CPU and GPU are tied together unless you utilize manual mode so that’s what we decided to do in our time spy testing we also utilized the third party software Ghelper to see if that made a difference as many people claim it does here you can see that our custom manual mode performs the best but we don’t think that Max fans and the additional heat over G-Helpers profile makes for a very enjoyable gaming experience g-helpers turbo mode also does better than ASUS’s stock turbo while keeping the laptop cooler so that’s cool to see even though it only improves performance by about 2% another point of note here is that you can see that on average the G14 doesn’t appear to be able to draw more than 90 W of power between the CPU and GPU for this test in actual gaming it does draw more you’ll see it hit around 115 W max this is still less than what the manufacturer states for peak power draw please be aware of this when looking at gaming laptops in general we’ve noticed this delta a lot particularly in smaller ones given that most people will just run Asus’s turbo mode and won’t bother with manual or G-Helper that’s what we’re going to show you moving forward this is also in line with the other laptops we are going to compare it to which are at their highest stock performance modes we just wanted to let you know that there are options for better performance if you’re down to do some customizations now the biggest negative about this laptop is its constant warmth as Josh said this laptop gets warm to the touch in every performance mode available even on the left palm rest which is important for gamers who are right-handed the G14 does stay cooler than last year’s versions during gaming tests though which is impressive with its better hardware it’s also pretty comparable on the keyboard deck to similar machines such as a MacBook Pro 14 during CPU performance use it does get warmer on the underside though overall we feel it’s never too hot to use but it is uncomfortable for people like Josh who are sensitive to a warm laptop just keep that in mind and be aware that it can even get warm in lighter use like web browsing and office productivity tasks you can see on screen it’s significantly warmer in light use than a MacBook Pro 14 and a ProArt PX13 with its one major con out of the way let’s talk about how it performs versus other laptops in the same category starting with CPU performance specifically we’ll start with Geekbench which is a benchmarking software that tests a variety of common performance tasks you may actually do on your laptop like unzipping a file here we see the new G14 with AMD Zen 5 performs much better than last year’s Zen 4 version this goes for both single and multi-core it doesn’t perform quite as well in multi-core as Intel’s newest AeroLake H processor in the Zephris G16 but that is a larger laptop with better cooling it does beat that one in single core though you can also see a large gap here to AMD’s newest HX 3D processor and Apple’s M4 Pro let’s check out Cinebench next which tests raw CPU power other than the MacBook Pro we just mentioned the new G14 does perform the best among thin and light laptops in multi-core although Intel’s Aerolake H single core performance does come back to beat it here the M4 Pro does very well still but both 14s are now beat out by the new HX3D processor in the much larger and bulkier Stricks G16 not only is that laptop bigger but it also feeds its processor almost twice as much wattage as this one for that better score you may be thinking this comparison is therefore unfair but we do have a couple good reasons for including it firstly we want to show people how well the 570 Ti can perform in a thicker chassis because it’s the same card that the G14 has second we want to show that just because this G14 processor says HX on it does not mean it is AMD’s highest performing chip currently available this may be confusing as Intel’s highest tier processors in chunkier gaming laptops are labeled HX and their mid-tier ones like in the Zephris G16 are labeled with an H they’re always keeping us in business now let’s get into GPU performance where comparisons to the stricks G16 will be more relevant starting with 3D Mark Wildlife which is a synthetic gaming benchmark that allows us to compare to Mac OS here we see that the 5070 Ti and the G14 underperforms by about 15% compared to the higher wattage one in the STS the new G14 also does about 34% better than the 4070 version this makes sense as it’s a generational jump as well as a step up to the next GPU tier the MacBook Pro’s 20 core integrated graphics fall just above the 4060 in last year’s G14 so not really a competition there moving over to Port Royal a rate tracing benchmark the G14 does quite well compared to our 4070 model from last gen while still underperforming its GPU’s full capabilities as seen in the Stricks G16 by about 14% in Steel Nomad a 4K gaming benchmark we see every laptop on our graph do pretty poorly with the G14 barely beating 30 FPS we do not recommend any of these for 4K gaming you’d want a larger bulkier laptop with a 5080 or 5090 like the Legion or Omen we reviewed recently lastly we’ll look at Time Spy which is a 1440p gaming benchmark and therefore a little closer to these laptops native resolutions here the G14 does very well for its size and our 5070 Ti model handily beats out the 4070 version from last year another important thing to note is that the 5070 Ti in our stricks G16 performs better than the 5080 in the thinner lighter Zephris G16 even when you isolate just the GPU which should theoretically perform better this highlights the issue of actual sustained power draw versus manufacturer stated wattage a thicker chassis with better cooling can allow the GPU to reliably pull more wattage versus a thinner one moral of the story it’s very hard to know what performance you’re getting from a gaming laptop without testing it the name of the GPU and manufacturer stated power limits don’t tell you the full story so let’s move away from synthetic benchmarks now and look at how the new G14 performed in actual games you’ll notice these FPS graphs are in a different order and that is because they are arranged by GPU and then FPS results here you may also notice here that we lock the resolution at 2560 x600 even though that is not the native resolution of the G14 this is so we can compare to other gaming laptops whose native resolution usually matches that your FPS numbers may be lower if you run games at the G14’s full 2880 x800 resolution so keep that in mind too last disclaimer is that we won’t be showing you how the old G14 performed because there wasn’t a 4070 Ti version of that laptop our best performing 4070 in a 14-in chassis was in the Predator Helios Neo4 it’s a thicker laptop and is likely able to sustain its higher power draw like I just explained so we feel that is a fairer comparison to show you now let’s get into it starting in Final Fantasy Dawn Trail we see the new G14 perform reasonably well 1% lows are a little low considering they are just below 50 FPS but 74 average frames per second is pretty playable in an MMO you can once again see where it’s losing out on its full performance when comparing to the stricks G16 compared to the Predator it certainly performs better we are seeing a big improvement of 42% in 1% lows next we’ll look at Forza Horizon 5 which is a bit of an easier game to run here we see a very comfortable 80 fps for 1% lows and 112 for average the stricks still does much better here but it’s nice to see that you’d have a comfortable gaming experience in a modern racing game such as this one now let’s check out Monster Hunter Wilds where we do utilize DLSS resolution scaling we found that DLSS being on at all even if just resolution scaling leads to worse 1% lows we’re actually putting together a video to go over this finding soon when we look at average FPS instead this one may look low but it’s actually impressive that it can run at all on ultra plus we think you’d be completely fine on medium settings for this game the G14 also keeps up with the 5080 and the Zephris G16 that one underperforms at its lower wattage you’ll notice the Predator Helios Neo14 didn’t make it onto these graphs at all and that’s because the game glitches if you have 8 gigs or less of VRAM on ultra another great reason to get the 5070 Ti or 5080 version of this laptop rather than a lower tier GPU this isn’t the case in every game right now but a lot of modern AAA titles are starting to require more VRAM to function properly at high settings it’s pretty disappointing that Nvidia hasn’t raised the amount in the lower cards to compensate for this onto Cyberpunk you can see that G14 does well in average FPS but as we said the 1% lows do suffer this is still a pretty solid jump up from the 4070 though around 50% when we switch over to DLSS frame gen on as well we see the difference between the G14 and the Neo narrow a bit to around 37% but it’s still a good amount better the 1% lows remain just as low here which means your gaming experience might not be as smooth as on bigger bulkier hardware like the Stricks G16 or even the Legion Pro 7i that one does a great job with 1% lows in this test overall we feel you’re getting a pretty good gaming experience out of this version of the G14 with the 570 Ti especially if you lower the settings a bit in more demanding titles just keep in mind what we’ve said all 570 Ti are not equal even if the wattage appears the same the last performance benchmark we want to talk about is Premiere Pro as these laptops are widely beloved by creators luckily the G14 does very well here beating out the prior version by 46% which likely accounts for both the generational and GPU tier jump it still doesn’t perform at its full capabilities like we see in the Stricks G16 but it keeps up with the 5080 and the Zephris G16 at least so that’s pretty impressive a lot of creators might be debating between the 14 and 16in versions of these laptops so it’s nice to see that they won’t lose a lot in the smaller form factor another big factor is battery life which the G14 does make improvements on over last year firstly we don’t see a noticeable drop in CPU performance on battery at all which is really nice for those of you doing performance tasks unplugged like programmers this is the same as last year but the better CPU is carrying you further ahead as far as actual performance goes now we’ve recently revamped our battery testing as we feel that a video rundown is simply not realistic to how most people are using their laptops unless they’re on a long plane ride perhaps instead we now also run an Office productivity scenario which emulates basic Microsoft 365 usage such as Excel PowerPoint Word and Outlook until the battery dies here are our results for both of those on one graph not only does the G14 last 11 and 1/2 hours for super light use but it lasts nearly 8 hours for more realistic use which is pretty solid it’s much better than both prior G14s in light use and a little better for office use it makes sense that it’s not a huge gap here considering the screen and battery size are the same but it’s still a slight improvement on this graph you can see that the MacBook Pro still wins out which is to be expected now we’re going to get into look and feel and I just want to say I have last year’s version at home too nothing has noticeably changed to me that’s mostly for the better in this case as this was already a greatl looking little laptop it’s also very sturdy with virtually no screen or deck flex it feels very premium with its all- metal design it’s thin and light for what it is and the chassis looks so stylish especially in the lighter silver color with the white keyboard the only thing we really don’t like the look of is the slash lighting on the lid the 5070 Ti Config and above weigh more than last year due to their vapor chamber cooling and heftier hardware the 5070 and 5060 versions weigh the same as last year if you’re unaware there are two versions of the G14 this year if you get the 5060 or 5070 config the chassis is the same size as last year with the same three fan cooling solution if you get a 5070 Ti and above you get this thicker chassis which is to make room for the beefier cooling solution it’s thicker by about the thickness of the laptop’s lid so not much the edges of the laptop are squared off so they may cut into your wrists a bit without support but not as sharp as we see on the MacBook Pro 14 you can also open the lid with one hand when you do you’ll be greeted by a highresolution 2880 by800 OLED panel that goes up to 120 Hz refresh rate it’s a vivid screen with great color accuracy and similar brightness last year’s we would have liked to see it get over 500 nits to help combat reflections in brighter environments though since it is a glossy panel however we did not detect any PWM flickering or notice any screen door effect both of which are nice to see or rather nice to not see it also features advanced Optimus and G-Sync compatibility the keyboard is attractive as I said earlier but it also feels satisfying to type on it is less clicky than I normally like with a bit of a softer press to the keys but you may not mind that as much i still found it very comfortable and the softer presses helped it stay quieter the RGB backlighting is always a nice touch and although I couldn’t confirm if it was per key based off of ASUS’s included customization options it does appear to be there is a little bit of backlight bleed around the keys if you set the RGB color to be lighter it can be quite hard to find which key is which as the key characters start to blend into the light colored keyboard moving on to the trackpad it’s pretty basic it has a smooth texture that leads to tracking feeling natural my only nitpicks about the trackpad are that one the click is a bit loud and two due to its larger size you may experience palm rejection issues while typing i didn’t when I was typing normally but I don’t tend to place my hands that close to each other ports on this laptop are the same as last year other than the second USBC port on the right side it now supports charging just like the one on the left this gives you charging ports on either side which is nice to see overall there is an excellent selection of ports which you can see on screen right now our only nit is that it doesn’t offer Thunderbolt 5 when some competitors like the MacBook do 1080p webcam of the Asus Sephus G14 does offer Windows Hello but we feel it looks a little lower quality and a little orangey for its price range when it comes to the speakers the G14 actually has a pleasant full sound to it we were actually quite impressed here take a listen [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] for Linux we tested Fedora 42 on a live USB key it worked fully no issues everything functioned that includes things like speakers Bluetooth Wi-Fi brightness up and down webcam and so on for upgradeability you can replace the Wi-Fi 7 card single full-size M.2 SSD and battery memory is unfortunately soldered thanks Sierra look as I said the G14 is a mighty fine laptop but it does get warm and its GPU doesn’t get enough wattage so it underperforms at least the 5070 Ti model that we tested if you’re okay with those trade-offs I’d recommend going for that model as I said the 5060 and 5070 is starved for VRAM and the 5080 is probably even more starved for wattage that is of course if you can afford one if you can’t just save money by going with last year’s G14 on a heavy discount and replace it sooner than you would have otherwise hopefully Nvidia GPUs will be better by then me personally I try to get the larger Zephorus G16 over the G14 its screen is more immersive for gaming it feels much cooler to the touch and it’s still a pretty light and portable laptop if you are set on getting a 14-inch gaming laptop though and you are okay with waiting guys Asa just announced a bunch of new ones we will of course be getting them in for review so get subscribed with the notification bell on for that if you want to see our up-to-date laptop recommendations at any time make sure to check out our website bestlaptop.deals we have different recommendations there for different use cases we have a helpful price tracker and even call out when a laptop’s price makes it a good deal or a great one look we have a ton of laptops to go and review so as I always say go do something awesome with your day and I will catch you later