As we all know, although the hardware configuration of the previous generation of Tianxuan is sufficient and the price is more reasonable, there are many places that can be upgraded and improved. Asus is bound to want to regain the right to speak in the field of high-end game in 2022, so the ASUS Tianxuan 3 released at the beginning of this year has undergone a reborn "stack upgrade":
1) The entire series is equipped with 12th generation Core processors and high-frequency DDR5 memory with large and small core design
2) Upgraded four air outlets + five heat pipe heat dissipation, can play 140W full power consumption RTX3060 unique performance (RTX3050/3050Ti version for three air outlet + four heat pipes, 95W full power consumption)
3) The whole series supports "dual display and three modes" graphics card switching, which can maximize the performance of independent graphics cards and extend battery life
4) Full range of high color gamut (100% sRGB/100% DCI-P3) + high refresh rate screen (144Hz/165Hz)
Author's Summary:
In our opinion, judging from the asus SkyChoice 3 leaflet alone, we don't seem to see any slot points, and after we actually hand and test, we found that in addition to its lighting effects and product appearance/texture is not as cool as the ROG game book, we still can't pick out a little fault with it - in terms of performance and game performance, I am even willing to call it "affordable ROG esports game book".
Test model configuration:
Here are the detailed measured results:
First, the basic running points & baking machine
The processor uses Intel 12th generation Core i7-12700H processor, Alder Lake architecture, 6 large 8 small total 14 cores 20 threads, turbo up to 4.7GHz, L3 cache up to 24MB.
Measured, CineBenchR23 single-core and multi-core running scores are up to 2% and 50% higher than the previous generation of the same level of i7-11800H, respectively, the increase is very amazing, and the performance has fully surpassed the desktop-level i7-10700 processor.
Although in terms of CPU, Intel has brought a huge increase in performance of 12th-generation Core processors this year, but the GPU has not yet ushered in a leapfrog upgrade. The graphics card is still the GeForce RTX 3060 discrete graphics card, but this time the power consumption can be increased from 115W to 140W through the NVIDIA DynamicBoost function (10W higher than the previous 130W full power version), so the performance has finally been improved by about 4% year-on-year.
In terms of heat dissipation, ASUS Tianxuan 3 has been upgraded from the previous generation of three air outlets and four heat pipes to four air outlets and five heat pipe designs (RTX3060/3070 version), which is somewhat similar to the structure of ROG Magic, except that it is missing a heat pipe and liquid gold heat conductive agent.
To further improve heat dissipation, the bottom of Choice 3 has been optimized for a larger opening area to provide a larger inlet air volume.
Remove the 12 screws to lift the backplane and see the luxurious 5 heat pipe dual fan cooling combination inside.
Thanks to the upgraded heat dissipation configuration, the CPU power consumption can be maintained at about 90W after 15 minutes of single baking cpu at room temperature 26 °C, and the full power consumption of 140W can be maintained for 15 minutes after the GPU is baked for 15 minutes.
When double-baked, the CPU is about 33W, the GPU is about 127W, and the total thermal power consumption is about 160W, which is much better than the 135W total thermal power consumption of the previous generation of Tianxuan 2. And for this price point of the game book, the total thermal power consumption of 160W is already very good. Moreover, the maximum noise of 52 decibels also proves that Tianxuan 3 is a very good model for noise suppression.
So how does it actually perform in the game? Let's move on.
Second, "dual display three-mode" graphics card switching test
It is worth mentioning that Sky Choice 3 also solves another slot point of the previous generation of Sky Choice through the "dual display and three modes" graphics card switching - it must be connected to the external display to achieve the unique direct connection function.
The "Solo Output" mode can be switched through the Altron Center
Asus Tianxuan 3's new "dual display three-mode" graphics card switching refers to the ability to freely adjust according to different use scenarios: in the unique display output mode, all screen rendering can skip the nuclear display, directly output to the screen, in a high-frame environment, can efficiently and give full play to the performance advantages of the unique display; the integrated display output mode can improve battery life; mixed input is a mode that takes into account performance and endurance, when running the game, the independent graphics card is responsible for rendering, but all the rendered screens are transferred to the screen after taking the nuclear display channel. Therefore, there will be some impact on game performance.
Mixed output: 249FPS
Unique output: 341FPS
Through actual measurements, it was found that "unique output" has a more obvious performance improvement effect for high-frame games, for example, after turning on the "unique output" mode in the game "CS:GO", the game frame rate can be increased by about 37%.
Therefore, the author recommends that you open the "unique output" mode to play the game in the case of long-term connection to the power supply to maximize the GPU performance.
Three or five mainstream game tests
Then the following game data are measured after opening "Enhanced Mode" and "Unique Mode".
Horizon 5
Horizon 5 is a very memory and memory game, at 1080P resolution/ultra high quality settings, the RTX 3060's 6GB of video memory will be enough, and the memory also uses nearly 12GB.
Fortunately, the game frame rate still gives a big surprise, in most scenes can maintain a frame rate of more than 90FPS, the play is still quite smooth.
Tomb Raider Shadow
In this game, we tested it through the included Benchmark, and at 1080P, the highest image quality, the game frame rate can reach 79FPS, which is only 13 frames away from the previous generation of RTX 3070 Edition Choice 2, and the performance is already quite good. And we can see that The GPU usage of Sky Choice 3 reached 99% when running this game, indicating that the CPU performance is quite powerful and will not become a bottleneck for GPU performance.
《CS：GO》
This game can almost be seen as a game that competes with CPU performance, which is very sensitive to CPU performance, and the stronger the CPU performance under the same picture quality settings, the higher the game frame rate.
At the highest image quality of 1080P, the game frame rate can exceed the 300FPS mark, which can also make the 165Hz high refresh rate screen fully played.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is mainly used to test the fluency of the light chasing game, in 1080P resolution, the highest picture quality + medium light chasing + DLSS setting, the game frame rate is about 60FPS.
《Control》
Control is also a game that supports ray tracing effects, 1080P resolution, high image quality + high light tracking + DLSS mode, the game frame rate is about 100FPS.
Fourth, external viewing analysis
The A side has not changed much, and the color matching style is still the classic eclipse gray and magic blue. The eclipse ash on hand is more low-key and introverted. The A-side is still a typical mech element design of the Sky Choice series, and the four sides are embellished with round "rivets" for a metallic feel.
Considering that the GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card is rarely able to run games above 240FPS, Asus changed the screen configuration of The Choice 3 to a 15.6-inch 2.5K high score, a 165Hz high brush, 100% DCI-P3 high color gamut all-round gaming screen (DCI-P3 is the color gamut standard applied to digital cinema, which is larger than the sRGB color volume, so the viewing effect with dci-P3 color gamut screen is better).
The 3050/3050 Ti models are 1080P resolution, 144Hz, 100% sRGB conventional gaming screens.
According to the actual measurement, the maximum brightness of the screen of the machine at hand is 322 nits, the contrast ratio is 1040, and it covers 100% P3 and 100% sRGB color gamut.
The color accuracy results are as follows:
The average ΔE= 1.21. It can be seen that the color and color accuracy of ASUS Sky Choice 3 are good, and it can truly restore the color, and even use it as a display for professional work such as drawing.
Asus Sky Choice 3 has more changes in the details, and it has to be said that ASUS has made a lot of optimizations and adjustments to the mold design. For example, the C-side brushed design has become a frosted design; the sunken keyboard has become flat, more simple; a four-way indicator light has been added to understand the operating status of the whole machine at any time; the split trackpad has become a larger integrated trackpad; the "L" type spacebar has become a "one" type space bar...
Four-way LED
The C-side also adds a row of shortcut keys to control the speaker volume, microphone switch and access to the Ultron Center page.
shortcut key
In terms of interface, USB Type-C is changed from one to two, corresponding to the unique display and nuclear display output, which is convenient for external displays in different modes, of which the core display also supports Thunderbolt 4, and the single display port supports DisplayPort 1.4 (supports 4K 120Hz).
The HDMI interface standard has been upgraded from 2.0 to 2.0b, supporting 4K 60Hz output, and corresponding to a unique display output, and finally no longer needs to be transferred through Type-C.
Upgrade Recommendations & Summary:
Sky Choice 3 has a total of two memory modules, the fuselage is equipped with 16GB DDR5-4800 memory as standard, the maximum expansion is 64GB, for most games, the current 16GB memory is already enough, unless there is a need to do virtual machines and other needs.
In terms of hard disks, the fuselage has a total of two M.2 interfaces, one of which is equipped with a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and the other M.2 interface supports self-installation, and also supports the formation of RAID 0.
Judging from the results, ASUS Sky Choice 3 has undergone a reborn upgrade, focusing on the shortcomings of the previous players to complain about, cpu, GPU performance is close to its own flagship brand, and in terms of pricing, it has given players more benefits.
At present, the machine will start to be snapped up at 22:00 on February 11, providing Jingdong White Strip 6 interest-free, single single send 100 yuan E card benefits. If you are a player who pursues an all-round + high-performance product, then Asus Sky Choice 3 is really a good choice.