I nearly put my back out setting up the new Asus ROG G22CH-1490KF005W gaming desktop for review, and for the silliest reason. Ahead of arrival, I’d been briefed on the PC’s innards – it rocks an Intel Core i9 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, and 16GB RAM – and dived into the box expecting a hefty beast. I braced my legs, put my back down, and came up too fast with a compact little box a third of the size and weight I expected.
For what it offers, the new ROG G22CH is tiny. It’s a compact little pocket rocket that defies the limits of its size. While I didn’t look inside, I can only image there’s some wizard Tetris going on inside the machine to fit its many components in such a small package. It might be definitive proof that size doesn’t matter – because even with its modest stature, it proved to be an absolute beast in action.
You’ll pay a premium for this performance and design (it retails for around AUD $4,599 in Australia), but after two weeks with the G22CH, I can certainly see how it rises to meet its cost.
ROG G22CH-1490KF005W: Specs
Here’s the breakdown of the ROG G22CH provided to GamesHub for review:
- CPU: Intel Core i9-14900KF Processor
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX4070
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: 1TB
ROG G22CH: Performance
No Rest for the Wicked, the first game I fired up on the ROG G22CH, had performance issues at launch. Those on lower spec machines reported a cavalcade of quirks: frame rate drops, slow texture load in, and issues with gameplay smoothness. That news came as a surprise to me, as after a week of stomping through Isola Sacra fighting back against the Pestilence, it was all smooth sailing.
I took great pleasure in maxing out the game’s settings, not having the ability to do this on my current gaming laptop, and I was rewarded for my efforts. No Rest for the Wicked was a beautiful, deadly ride with smooth textures, snappy load-in, and zero lagging or frame rate drops throughout my adventures.
Likewise, my time with Resident Evil 2 was grand. Well, horrifying and traumatic every time the game’s Tyrant swung at me from around a darkened corner, but absolutely butter-smooth regardless. In this particular game, I maxed out as many settings as would allow with the PC’s RAM capacity – RE2 gives you a red warning if you go over the recommended settings – and enjoyed a very good-looking journey through parking garages and sewers.
The highest settings allowed for ample sweat beading, individual hair rendering, and plenty of oozing pus in the game’s darker environs. I made a point to specifically play this game, as my 2020 gaming laptop struggles with Resident Evil 2 to the point where it’s unplayable. The G22CH ate the game up, rendering new characters, regions and locales snappily and breezily, thanks to that i9/RTX4070 combo.
I find practical, personal anecdotes more helpful when it comes to assessing laptop and PC needs, but for those who enjoy a more quantifiable breakdown of performance, I did turn to my trusty Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Far Cry 5 benchmarks for tangible results. In performing these tests, I got the best FPS scores I’ve seen so far, after years of testing new machines.
Playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider on Highest settings and Ultra performance mode, the G22CH hit a 194 FPS average. Playing Far Cry 5 on Ultra settings, the G22CH hit a 173 FPS average. In both cases, the tests were also the smoothest I’ve seen, with snappy texture load-in, and zero lag to drag down the average score.
Fan Performance
All that said, it’s worth discussing one major bugbear with the desktop: its over-eager fans. While using it in standard fashion – web browsing, watching videos, editing videos – the fan is at a reasonable, medium hum that is steady enough to fade into the background. There’s also multiple modes to adjust this, allowing you to throttle down the fans if they’re particularly loud or annoying.
For the most part, these settings deal with fan noise well – though while pushing performance modes and RAM capacity on games like Resident Evil 2, the fans can approach booming volume, to the point where you may need headphones to drown out the aggressiveness of the thrum. I suspect putting the desktop below a desk will solve some of this issue, but it won’t completely fix it.
The strong fan is great for cooling, and I never noticed an egregious heat patch or warmth on the desktop, but keeping the chassis cool does come with a caveat when you’re looking to squeeze out the best performance from this machine.
ROG G22CH: Everyday Use
Realistically, you’ll want to use the ROG G22CH as a high-performance gaming machine, maxing out its capacity for the latest games – that’s the intended use, at least. But as a standard desktop PC, it’s also a solid companion in everyday use.
Its processor and graphics card are designed to rocket through the latest games, so using it in your day-to-day is a bit like riding a rocket to the moon. It’s snappy to start up, loads in programs immediately, and processes videos with a simple ease (which certainly came in handy for producing TikToks for GamesHub.)
Because the chassis is so small and portable, you can stick it on your desktop if you need (so long as you don’t mind a bit of fan noise). There are also other quirks that make it such a useful machine. For one thing, its Wi-Fi is super strong. It picked up significantly higher speeds than any other device in my house is capable of, which helped me highlight long-standing issues with reception.
It also just looks nice, with its rectangle form factor and muted “gamer” design making the device feel classy. The touches of RGB lighting on the front are neat and slim, and they provide a touch of fun without making the desktop feel too “loud” in design.
You likely won’t want to spend so much on a laptop if you don’t intend to game with it, but with hybrid capability, it’s worth noting it can effectively replace an entire home setup.
ROG G22CH: Verdict
Despite a loud fan, the G22CH impressed in my time with it. Its form factor is one of its core hooks, and I was enamoured by the compact box design – particularly as I was expecting something much bigger, and harder to manoeuvre.
As built, the price is a fairly high investment, but given its capacity, I feel the G22CH presents itself well, justifying its premium cost with smooth, lag-free performance of newer, demanding games. It tackled everything I had to throw at it with ease, and quickly proved itself to be a fuss-free desktop that wields its small size to great advantage. It’s not without quirks, but it performs admirably, regardless.
Four stars: ★★★★
Asus ROG G22CH-1490KF005W
Release Year: 2024
Price: AUD $4,599 from the Asus Store
An Asus ROG G22CH-1490KF005W gaming desktop was loaned to GamesHub for the purposes of this review. GamesHub reviews are rated on a five-point scale.
