The ASUS Gaming V16, or the ASUS Gaming line, in general, was born due to the large price gap left behind the ASUS TUF series. TUF has become more of a premium brand, inching closer to the ROG line as more innovations and technologies become available to the brand. This, in turn. left the “budget” segment open in ASUS’ lineup. Enter the ASUS Gaming V16, the entry-level gaming brand, and we have the ASUS Gaming V16 V3607VU as our first review unit under the ASUS Gaming V3 series.
ASUS Gaming V16 Specs and Price
| Series | CPU | GPU | Display | Memory | Storage | Color | SRP |
| ASUS GAMING V16 V3607VM-RP524W | Intel Core 5 210H | RTX 5060 | 16:10 FHD, 16-inch IPS, 144Hz Refresh Rate | 16G DDR5 | 512G SSD | Matte Black | PHP 74.995 |
| ASUS GAMING V16 V3607VU-RP196W | Intel Core 5 210H | RTX 4050 | 16:10 FHD, 16-inch IPS, 144Hz Refresh Rate | 16G DDR5 | 512G SSD | Matte Black | PHP 62,995 |
| ASUS GAMING V16 V3607VU-RP076W | Intel Core 5 210H | RTX 4050 | 16:10 FHD, 16-inch IPS, 144Hz Refresh Rate | 8G DDR5 | 512G SSD | Matte Black | PHP 59,995 |
The ASUS Gaming V16 comes with an Intel Core 5 210H paired with either 8GB or 16GB DDR5-5600 memory and a 512GB SSD. GPU configuration varies on the Gaming V16 with either an RTX 4050 or RTX 5060. Our specific sample is the ASUS GAMING V16 V3607VU-RP196W, an variant that has 8GB more RAM than the base Php 59,995 model for a Php 3,000 premium.
ASUS Gaming V16 V3607VU – A Closer Look
The ASUS Gaming V16, unlike the X16, has a brand-new chassis design specifically for the V16 SKU. It comes with a Matte Black finish with a silky texture – a mix between Vivobook and TUF Gaming.
Unlike TUF and ROG laptops which have either a long vent strip cutout or an almost mesh back, the ASUS Gaming V16 has a very minimal cutout, which lets you see the two copper heatpies of the ASUS IceCool thermal cooling system.
Port selection is considerably limited for a gaming laptop, but is good enough for a normal laptop. On the left, you have the DC-in port, one HDMI 2.1 port, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, and one 3.5mm combo jack. The right has one more USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port.
The bandwidth doesn’t compensate for the lack of ports, as all USB ports are limited to 5Gbps peak speeds.
The ASUS Gaming V16 doesn’t have RGB lighting on its keyboard. Instead, it has a Turbo Blue zone lighting. It has a relatively large touchpad despite being a gaming laptop – a trait taken from ASUS’ Vivobook line.
Both the WASD and arrow keys are translucent to highlight the gaming appeal and showcase the Turbo Blue lighting. That said, the cramped keyboard, especially the half-sized arrow keys, makes it a little uncomfortable for gaming. However, having a full-sized keyboard makes it ideal for productivity and won’t make you feel that you need an external keyboard.
ASUS still applies its signature large trackpad to the Gaming V16, despite the ASUS Gaming V16 being a gaming laptop and an “entry-level” one.
ASUS Gaming V16 V3607VU Display and Camera
The ASUS Gaming V16 sports a 16-inch 16:10 1920x1200p 144Hz IPS Display. The listed specs fit the bare minimum for what we would call a gaming laptop as a high refresh rate 1080p display is becoming common even for productivity laptops.
With the Gaming V16, ASUS did not disclose its color gamut in any of its marketing materials, meaning the display is a huge compromise in keeping the price of the Gaming V16 relatively low. Our SpyderX Display Analysis tool measured 65% of sRGB, 49% AdobeRGB, and 48% DCI-P3. It’s the first time in a long while that we’ve seen an ASUS laptop have subpar color accuracy. The peak brightness of 326.2 nits makes it capable of outdoor and highly lit environment usage.
ASUS has managed to include a privacy shutter for the 1080p webcam.
The camera quality is about as good the webcam found on the ASUS Zenbook A14 that we recently reviewed.
Benchmark Setup and Test Methodology
Gadget Pilipinas’ testing philosophy is to provide detail-oriented results as accurately as possible so that our readers can replicate our tests, given that these conditions are met. Different benchmarking apps and sequences are used depending on the tested component or device.
We use CapFrameX 1.7.2 Beta as our primary FPS capture and analysis tool for all our gaming benchmarks. The latest build version of Windows 11 Pro and WHQL-certified drivers are used for our benchmarks. Readings such as temperatures and power draws are recorded using HWINFO64, and OCCT Enterprise.
We benchmarked the ASUS Gaming V16 V3607VU together with its different power settings found in the MY ASUS Software – Standard, Performance, and Fullspeed. The main purpose of benchmarking power profiles is to show how aggressive or conservative the manufacturer is in terms of thermal management. These profiles will affect the CPU and GPUs’ boosting behavior in terms of duration and max clock speed, which will translate to higher scores and stable frame rates.
As part of our 2024 laptop benchmark methodology revamp, we’ve changed how these profiles are tested. Synthetic and Productivity benchmarks include all of the power profiles. We decided to drop the silent or power-saving profile for gaming benchmarks as these lowest profiles generally produce unplayable frame rates, especially at 1440p and above resolutions. Moreover, games are tested at the laptop’s native resolution(in the V16’s case, 1200p) as we expect most, if not, all, gamers to game on the laptop’s native resolution.
For more information, read our Benchmark Methodology article.
ASUS Gaming V16 V3607VU Synthetic and Productivity Benchmarks
OCCT Benchmark
OCCT is a popular benchmark and stability testing tool among overclockers, enthusiasts and system integrators
CINEBENCH 2024
Maxon’s Cinebench benchmark is one of the most iconic benchmark applications used by reviewers and enthusiasts. The latest Cinebench 2024 uses the latest rendering architectures, including Intel’s Embree ray tracing technology and other advanced features from AMD and Intel that allow users to render the same scene on the same hard.
PCMark10
From the same developers of the popular game benchmarking tool 3DMark, PCMark 10 is a benchmarking app for measuring a whole PC’s performance. It covers a wide variety of tests to reflect common tasks performed in a modern workplace. We selected PCMark 10’s extended benchmark and reported both the overall score and Digital Content Creation Score.
V-RAY 6
V-Ray Benchmark is a stand-alone version of V-Ray developed by Chaos Group. It is designed to test the CPU and GPU by rendering sample scenes at a fixed amount of time. V-Ray is a plug-in mostly utilized by 3D computer graphics software applications mainly for industrial design, product design, architecture, film, and video game production. V-Ray is not limited to 64-threads as it supports multi and mega-threading.
SuperPI 32M
SuperPI is a single-threaded benchmark application that lets the CPU calculate Pi(π) to the nth digit. In this benchmark, we selected the Pi calculation to 32M, the highest available for the app.
wPrime 1024M
wPrime is a benchmark tool similar to SuperPI, but the former takes on finding prime numbers using Newton’s Method. The benchmark is set to calculate 1024 million prime numbers, and the performance is measured according to calculation time.
GeekBench 6.4
Geekbench is a multi-platform benchmark used to gauge CPU performance and compare them across Windows, Mac, and Mobile. Geekbench 6 is the latest version and doesn’t rely on memory more than the previous Geekbench 4, making it a great tool to measure both single-core and multi-core CPU performance.
Blender Open Data Benchmark
Blender is a widely used, free, open-source 3D creation suite. It supports the whole 3D pipeline process from modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, and even motion tracking. Blender has become a standard for CPU benchmarks with the BMW27 and Classroom Scene most used. This prompted the company to release Blender Open Data Benchmark in 2018, a benchmark-specific version allowing users to run a preset benchmark and share the results online like 3DMark.
3DMark Firestrike and TimeSpy
3DMark is the go-to benchmark for gamers because of the ability to share and compare results online. We test GPUs both in DX11 Firestike and DX12 Timespy to get a gauge of the performance.
CORONA RENDERER
Corona Renderer is an unbiased photorealistic render available for Autodesk 3Ds Max, Maxon Cinema 4D, and as a stand-alone application. Its popularity, similar to Blender, led Chaos Group to develop a benchmark version of the app which runs using Corona Renderer 1.3. Workstation systems, especially CPUs, can utilize Corona Benchmark as up to 72 threads can be used in the benchmark, making it very suitable for CPUs with various price segments.
BapCo CROSSMARK
Crossmark is one of the few native cross-platform benchmark tools available for Windows, Android, Linux ChromeOS, iOS, and macOS. It measures overall system performance and system responsiveness using models of real-world applications making it a great comparison point across multiple platforms.
OCTANE 2.0
Octane 2.0 is a benchmark that measures a Javascript engine’s performance by running multiple tests representing different use cases of JavaScript applications. While Google Octane is retired and no longer maintained, it is still a good representation of today’s dynamic, interactive web applications. Our Octane 2.0 benchmark is run on Microsoft’s latest Chromium-based Edge browser.
ASUS Gaming V16 V3607VU SSD Benchmark
The ASUS Gaming V16 is equipped with a WD PC SN5000S. It’s a QLC rated at 6,000MB/s read and 4,200MB/s write. Write speeds fall down to near HDD levels once the buffer is full as seen in our quick 1GB CystalDiskMark benchmark.
ASUS Gaming V16 V3607VU Gaming Benchmarks
RETURNAL
Returnal is one of the most technologically advanced game since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Released last April 2021 on PS5 and February 2023 on PC, it uses Unreal Engine 4 and supports multiple technologies such as Ray Tracing, DLSS, VSR, and FSR.
COUNTERSTRIKE 2
CounterStrike 2 or CS2 is the successor to the now-retired CSGO and now uses the Source 2 Engine – the same engine used on DOTA 2. CS2 is a great FPS game to test out CPU performance. Our benchmark process uses the replay function of the game.
DOTA 2
Dota 2 is a good repesentation among F2P titles especially MOBAs and RTS as it lands on the demanding side of the spectrum. Its gameplay and quality of life updates are far more frequent than most F2P titles thanks to its vast popularity. Our benchmark sequence is based on a replay of OG vs. Gaimin Gladiators in the ESL ONE Berlin Major Finals Game 4 from the team fight that happened from 23:00 to 24:00.
F1 23
F1 23 is the official video game of the 2023 Formula One and Formula 2 championships developed by Codemasters. F1 2023 is the sixteenth installment in the franchise and uses the Ego Engine 4.0. F1 233 is a good representation of racing games thanks to its realistic graphics and fairly demanding spec requirements as well as support for Ray Tracing and the latest upscaling technologies such as DLSS, XeSS, and FSR.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably the most hyped game of 2020. Developed by CD Projekt Red, the dystopian open-world, action-adventure RPG sports is one of the most demanding titles to date. Cyberpunk 2077 also supports three Ray Tracing settings as well as DLSS which makes the game a great tool to measure Ray tracing performance for both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.
ASSASSIN’S CREED: MIRAGE
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the latest Assassin’s Creed game from Ubisoft, making it the thirteenth major installment in the franchise. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 game engine and is the very first AC game to support the latest upscaling technology, such as XeSS, FSR, and DLSS.
ASUS Gaming V16 V3607VU Temperatures
Cooling is not an issue on the ASUS Gaming V16 as both the Core 5 210H and RTX 4050 didn’t reach their TJMax temps regardless of power profile. That said, there’s clearly more performance that could be extracted with the RTX 4050, only peaking at 75.9°C on the full speed profile.
ASUS Gaming V16 V3607VU Battery Life
ASUS has equipped the Gaming V16 with a 63Wh battery. Paired with the improved efficiency of the Core 5 210H and you get an almost all-day battery life. Under the power saver profile, we got a 9-hour and 53-minute battery life result. The V16 can definitely double as a productivity laptop with its near ultrabook-level battery life.
Conclusion
While ASUS claims to have engineered a new laptop slash SKU for its ASUS Gaming line, the ASUS Gaming V16 still feels like an ASUS Vivobook laptop but with a discrete GPU. It embodies the ASUS TUF line in a way that its cooling and framerates aren’t compromised in the whole system, but that’s where it ends as far as the similarities with the TUF line are concerned. While the temperatures are nothing to worry about, the erratic framerates across the different power profiles show that there’s much optimization left. Normally, it’s the middle profile or full speed profile that garners the best performance in either gaming or productivity, but the V16’s results are all over the place – there are some cases where the more silent profile yields the highest test score where a higher power consumption and faster speed would’ve netted the faster full-speed or performance profile the advantage.
At the 16:10 1920x1200p resolution, the ASUS Gaming V16’s Core 5 210H and RTX 4050 combination is a relatively capable combo to run games. That said, users would have to compromise on graphics fidelity if they want to take full advantage of the 144Hz display. Since we’re at the display, it’s quite frustrating to see a low-quality display on the Gaming V16, as we’ve seen much better, color grading-ready displays on ASUS’ laptops that are far cheaper than the ASUS Gaming V16.
Priced at Php 62,995 for the Intel Core 5 210H, 16GB DDR5, 512GB SSD, and RTX 4050 configuration, the ASUS Gaming V16 is an arguably decent gaming laptop for its price point. Its compromises, particularly the display and connectivity, are so obvious that most users who are looking to buy a gaming laptop for school or gaming would find the ASUS Gaming V16 an ideal choice. But those who want to make the V16 double as their professional video and/or photo editing laptop outside of gaming and work should invest in a laptop with a much better display.
The ASUS Gaming V16 is a good start for a new gaming line as it offers what the Vivobook line lacks without stepping into the TUF category in terms of features. That said, the GPU alone isn’t enough to define the new ASUS Gaming line and set itself apart from the Vivobook series, especially when you also consider the budget gaming laptop series from competing brands. That said, we look forward to what the ASUS Gaming brand will grow to in future releases.
Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.
