ASUS TUF Gaming A14 (2024) Gaming Laptop Review: A Great Blend of Portability and Gaming Performance
In a world dominated by thick, bulky gaming laptops, ASUS is rewriting the rules. Enter the TUF Gaming A14—a sleek 14-inch powerhouse that dares to challenge the status quo. Designed to deliver serious firepower in a compact frame, it promises portability without compromise. Could this compact powerhouse be the perfect balance of performance and portability?
Table of Contents
TUF Gaming A14 Specifications
The Design
The TUF Gaming A14 laptop is similar to the A16 Advantage Edition we reviewed, featuring a minimalistic top cover with branding on the corner of a black-colored design on a dark grey laptop body. This time, it has a smaller footprint as it is a 14-inch laptop with dimensions of 31.1 x 22.7 x 1.69 cm.
Now the screen design eliminates the space on the bottom part, which now blocks the LED indicator when the screen is open. This change is both a good and a bad thing—it no longer distracts you while playing, but if your laptop freezes during a game, for example, you’ll need to look at the back of the laptop to check if it’s still blinking or if it requires a hard reset.
The keyboard, with its single backlight, offers spacious key placement, a notable improvement over the cramped layouts often found on laptops of this size. Additionally, the large trackpad provides smooth finger gliding but tends to attract fingerprints. The keyboard features media keys on the upper left side, including volume up and down, a microphone mute/unmute key, a dedicated Armoury Crate key, and a dedicated Copilot key. Overall, the keyboard delivers a tactile typing experience without any mushy feel.
The port selection on the TUF Gaming A14 laptop is decent. On the left side, it includes a DC-IN port, an HDMI port, a USB Type-C Gen 4 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. On the right side, there is another USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, and a microSD card reader slot. Personally, I would prefer a full-size SD card slot, as it is more commonly used with cameras. I believe a microSD card reader should be reserved for handheld PCs, where it is primarily used for storage expansion.
When it comes to durability, the TUF Gaming A14 boasts a US military-grade certification for its sturdiness, having passed the MIL-STD 810H tests. These tests include scenarios such as vibration, altitude, high temperature, low temperature, and shock. As a portable gaming laptop, it is designed to endure the rigors of daily use and withstand accidental bumps and knocks.
The Display, Webcam, and Speakers
The TUF Gaming A14 features a 14-inch 2.5K (2560 x 1600) resolution display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. It has an IPS panel with a refresh rate of 165Hz. The display also supports NVIDIA G-Sync and includes a MUX Switch with NVIDIA Advanced Optimus, which optimizes performance and battery life by seamlessly switching between the integrated GPU and the powerful NVIDIA discrete GPU.
We tested the display and obtained the following Color Gamut results: 98% sRGB, 73% AdobeRGB, 76% P3, and 68% NTSC. These results are quite close to the claimed 100% sRGB coverage.
Regarding the gamma, it measured 2.4 on battery power, which is slightly darker than the recommended Gamma rating of 2.2. However, this is acceptable, as a Gamma rating of 2.4 is suitable for darker viewing environments. When plugged in, the Gamma adjusted to 2.2, which is ideal for normally lit rooms.
For brightness, we recorded a range of 8.2 cd/m² to 188 cd/m² on battery power, which is exceptionally low, making outdoor usage under bright sunlight challenging. However, when plugged in, the brightness increased to a range of 22.2 cd/m² to 460.2 cd/m², which is more than adequate.
The TUF Gaming A14 is equipped with a built-in 1080p FHD IR camera, supporting Windows Hello for convenient sign-ins directly from the lock screen. The camera delivers decent quality for video calls, and an LED indicator light turns on to notify you when it’s in use. However, it lacks a dedicated privacy switch or camera shutter to disable the camera for added security.
As for the speakers, the laptop has two down-firing speakers located underneath, on both sides. They sound decent, but during gaming sessions in Turbo mode, the fan noise at maximum speed can overpower the speakers.
The Performance
The TUF Gaming A14 is equipped with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, which has a clock speed of 2.0 GHz. It is paired with an AMD XDNA NPU capable of delivering up to 50 TOPS. The AMD XDNA NPU is an AI-driven processing unit integrated into the processor, designed to handle AI and machine learning tasks more efficiently than the CPU or GPU alone. This results in better overall performance and improved battery life for the laptop.
The laptop is paired with 16GB of RAM (2 x 8GB LPDDR5X 7500), which is soldered on the board, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD. For graphics, it features a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU rated at 100W with 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The integrated graphics of the processor is an AMD Radeon 890M. For regular browsing tasks, the laptop uses integrated graphics, and when gaming, it switches to the NVIDIA GPU, which is why the display may blink when the graphics switch.
For our performance testing, we ran various benchmarking apps on the TUF Gaming A14, including synthetic and game benchmarks, to evaluate its performance.
Cinebench R23
| Mode | CPU (Multi Core) | CPU (Single Core) |
| Turbo | 22433 | 1994 |
| Performance | 21862 | 1398 |
| Silent | 19225 | 1825 |
Geekbench 6
| Mode | Single-Core Score | Multi-Core Score |
| Turbo | 2844 | 13220 |
| Performance | 2824 | 13050 |
| Silent | 2823 | 12843 |
Geekbench AI
Unigine Superposition Benchmark
Benchmark was set to 1080P Extreme
| Mode | Score | FPS Min | FPS Avg | FPS Max |
| Turbo | 5750 | 27.29 | 43.01 | 52.24 |
| Performance | 5190 | 26.62 | 38.82 | 45.99 |
| Silent | 4312 | 25.34 | 32.26 | 43.55 |
PCMark 10
3DMark Benchmarks
| 3DMark Speed Way | |
| Silent | 1890 |
| Performance | 2292 |
| Turbo | 2620 |
| 3DMark Nomad | Score |
| Silent | 1637 |
| Performance | 2006 |
| Turbo | 2287 |
| 3DMark Storage Benchmark Score | Score | Average |
| Silent | 1505 | 257.26 |
| Performance | 1560 | 267.12 |
| Turbo | 1572 | 268.95 |
| 3DMark CPU Profile | Silent | Performance | Turbo |
| Max Threads | 8993 | 9916 | 10349 |
| 16 Threads | 8669 | 9555 | 9907 |
| 8 Threads | 6627 | 7010 | 7192 |
| 4 Threads | 3809 | 3884 | 3928 |
| 2 Threads | 2070 | 2065 | 2118 |
| 1 Thread | 1125 | 1151 | 1136 |
Games
We played games in Performance mode and achieved average FPS across all titles. The games were run at the native 2K display resolution. For Marvel Rivals and Valorant, we set the graphics to the lowest settings, as these are competitive games where high FPS is crucial. Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Benchmark and Shadow of the Tomb Raider were set to the highest graphic settings.
| Games | Avg FPS |
| Marvel Rivals | 96 |
| Valorant | 262 |
| Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Benchmark | 106 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 94 |
When you use it for daily tasks, it performs well even when set to Silent mode. It runs all apps exceptionally well without any sluggishness or hiccups, even with multiple Chrome tabs open while doing video editing on DaVinci Resolve or photo editing on Photoshop.
While gaming, you should set it to Performance mode, or ideally Turbo mode, to get the best performance from the laptop. However, even in Performance mode, it still delivers smooth gaming experiences across the titles we played, as shown in the table above.
In the benchmark tests we conducted, we found that it performs similarly to Intel laptop processors, such as the i9-13900HX in Performance and Turbo modes, and around the i7-13700H when running in Silent mode.
AI Performance
The integrated NPU performance has been boosted to 50 TOPS, compared to the previous generation Ryzen 9 8945HS, which only offered 16 TOPS. As of now, there are limited use cases for the NPU processor, as features like Co-Pilot+, seen in the ASUS Vivobook S 15 with the Snapdragon processor, are exclusive to those devices. Therefore, for most users, the NPU may not offer much practical use.
The normal Copilot, which you can easily access by pressing the Copilot key, is a Windows AI companion app that can assist you throughout your day. It is still available, but CoPilot+ offers enhanced features and additional capabilities like Image Creator, Live Caption, Recall, and many more. Aside from that, ASUS has not pre-installed or paired any additional AI software with the TUF Gaming A14.
Laptop Temperature
While using the TUF Gaming A14 in Silent mode, the keyboard surface remained cool, but the air blowing from the back of the laptop was already hot and became even hotter when switching to Performance and Turbo modes. In Performance mode, I noticed that the keyboard can get toasty during gaming. However, you can switch to Turbo mode to increase the fan speed and cool the laptop more effectively. I also want to point out that the laptop bottom becomes hot to the touch, making it uncomfortable to use on your lap. If you plan to use it on your lap, consider this as a warning.
| Mode | CPU Min | CPU Max | GPU Min | GPU Max |
| Turbo | 42.8 | 94.4 | 53.2 | 85.5 |
| Performance | 40.1 | 83.6 | 47.6 | 80 |
| Silent | 38.4 | 81.2 | 45.6 | 67.9 |
The Battery
The TUF Gaming A14 features a 73Wh battery, which can last up to 7 hours in a YouTube playback test. In our day-to-day use, we experienced approximately 3 to 4 hours of productivity and around 2 hours of gaming on a single charge.
When running on battery, you can enable Silent mode, which reduces the CPU’s clock speed to conserve power, or switch to Performance mode for standard operation. When plugged in, you can select Turbo mode, which boosts the laptop’s performance and ramps up the fan speed to properly cool the system.
The TUF Gaming A14 comes with a 200W AC adapter for power supply. Additionally, you can charge the laptop via its USB Type-C ports.
TUF Gaming A14 Verdict
The ASUS TUF Gaming A14 offers great performance for both gaming and everyday tasks. Powered by the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and NVIDIA RTX 4060, it handles demanding apps and games smoothly. The design is durable, and the display is vibrant, though not ideal for outdoor use.
Overall, it’s a solid portable gaming laptop. However, with a price of Php 104,995, it is positioned as a premium offering. Honestly, we are quite disappointed with the price exceeding 100K pesos, as we expected it to be priced around 80K to 90K pesos. Since the TUF Gaming A14 runs on the latest AMD Ryzen 9 HX 370 processor and RTX 4060 GPU, plus other features like a great 2K display with a high refresh rate and long battery life for a gaming laptop packed into a portable design, the price seems somewhat acceptable.
As of the time of writing this review, ASUS is running a special promotion that will continue until January 31, 2025. If you’d like to take advantage of this deal, visit the link here to learn more.
