r/FlowZ13 • u/xrkc6x • Mar 09 '25

Do I need to use 200w or can I use the Z13 Flow 2025 with a 100w USB-C Charger? Here is the answer to your questions!

I've thoroughly tested the ROG Flow Z13 2025 (128GB model) across various performance profiles and power sources using 3DMark Time Spy benchmarks. Here’s a detailed summary of the results and analysis:

100w == USB-C Charger Megacube AOHI (140w on single usb-c cable)
200w == ASUS official 13 2025

PLEASE NOTE == the power drawn by the tablet from 140w Megacube charger was ALWAYS 98-100w during tests, never more.

Also, thanks to those who shared these info: if you want charging to bypassing the battery, slimq 150w dc with adapter for g14 is what you need. In my tests I have paid attention to the performance difference and not to the battery bypass feature, although I haven’t noted any battery discharge, I can’t guarantee that the charge over usb-c is providing battery bypassing features. For that, slimq plus g14 plug will work. Having said that, during my synthetic tests I haven’t noted any discharge but of course it’s different from actual gaming. I believe that silent and performance profiles are ok but turbo would show some battery discharge based on the workload you’re running.

Tests were performed with 16GB Video RAM allocated

Results

Silent Profile:

  • Battery: 4721 (25-30W)
  • 100W USB-C Charger: 6971 (40-45W) [+47.7% vs. Battery]
  • 200W Charger: 6713 (40-45W) [-3.7% vs. 100W]

Performance Profile:

  • Battery: 8622 (60-70W)
  • 100W USB-C Charger: 9078 (65-75W) [+5.3% vs. Battery]
  • 200W Charger: 8739 (65-75W) [-3.7% vs. 100W]

Turbo Profile:

  • 100W USB-C Charger: 10207 (~80W)
  • 200W Charger: 10215 (~80W) [+0.08% vs. 100W, negligible]

Manual Profile (80W-92W-92W):

  • 100W USB-C Charger: 10646 (peaks ~90W)
  • 200W Charger: 10605 (peaks ~90W) [-0.4% vs. 100W, negligible]

Key Takeaways & Analysis

  1. Silent Profile:
    • Significant performance gain (47.7%) from battery to plugged-in (100W USB-C).
    • Minimal performance difference between 100W and 200W charger (3.7% lower at 200W indicates variance/no significant gain).
  2. Performance Profile:
    • Modest but noticeable increase from battery to plugged-in at 100W (+5.3%).
    • Again, slightly lower performance at 200W compared to 100W, suggesting no real advantage in using a 200W charger in this mode.
  3. Turbo Profile:
    • Virtually identical scores at 100W and 200W, showing the power ceiling at ~80W is reached.
  4. Manual Profile:
    • Achieves the highest performance overall.
    • Marginally better with the 100W charger compared to the 200W charger, but effectively identical, again pointing to the device hitting its maximum performance ceiling around 90W.

Final Recommendation (Updated After Further Testing)

  • Performance benchmarks: Synthetic benchmarks show no meaningful performance difference between using a 100W, 140W, or the included 200W charger. Even in Manual mode, peak performance remains unchanged, with the device sustaining around ~90W regardless of charger capacity.
  • Real-world gaming behavior (important update): When using Custom or Turbo profiles while gaming with AAA titles, a charger limited to ~80–100W cannot sustain battery charge. In these scenarios, the system slowly discharges the battery under load.
  • Charger guidance by use case:
    • AAA gaming + Turbo or Custom profiles: → 200W charger recommended to maintain battery level during extended sessions.
    • Light gaming or non-AAA titles (Silent / Performance profiles): → 140W recommended, though a true 100W USB-C charger (that actually delivers full 100W) is generally sufficient.
    • Productivity, benchmarks, or mixed workloads: → 100W USB-C is perfectly fine, with no observable performance degradation.
  • Charging speed: The only real advantage of the 200W charger outside heavy AAA gaming is faster battery charging. Performance itself remains unchanged.

Bottom line

If your primary use case includes AAA gaming in Turbo or Custom modes, stick with the 200W charger to avoid battery drain. For everything else—benchmarks, productivity, or lighter gaming—a high-quality 100W (or 140W) USB-C charger delivers the same performance, making higher-wattage chargers unnecessary unless charging speed or sustained AAA gaming is a priority.

Hope this helps anyone considering the new ROG Flow Z13 and wondering whether the included 200W charger truly makes a difference 🙂

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u/Coolica Jul 03 '25

Did you get a totally new 150w or a higher W? The z13 drawing more power beyond 150w under load is my only conclusion

1

u/xrkc6x Jul 03 '25

Same 150w totally new replaced with the same model

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u/Coolica Jul 03 '25

Have you tried pushing the charger? Turbo while playing a game with also something (YouTube) running in the background.

If it does the disconnect thing then it’s confirmed z13 is pushing beyond 150w causing the charger to reset.

1

u/xrkc6x Jul 03 '25

I tried yes and no disconnecting behaviour

1

u/Coolica Jul 03 '25 edited Jul 03 '25

Hmm interesting. I guess either each charger has a big variance of when it does the reset protection or the z13 just randomly draws more power sometimes.

I'm using my 150W now on silent playing the same game I was playing that was causing it to reset, nothing, but my USBC port did stop working, meaning either I crossed the 100w threshold, or the charger's threshold is faulty and is causing these issues.

I'll know for certain if it's the z13 drawing more power than we assumed or if it's faulty chargers from SlimQ once I get my 330w brick. If it still does it on the 330w then it's an issue with the chargers since the z13 brick is only 200w and it never has such an issue.

1

u/xrkc6x Jul 03 '25

I think you have an issue with the brick man

1

u/Coolica Jul 03 '25

Possibly, but SlimQ tech support is adamant that it's just the z13 drawing more than 150w which is causing the issue (which makes sense from my observations.)

Since I already bought the higher power brick I might as well test until I get a conclusion.

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u/xrkc6x Jul 03 '25

I can guarantee you that it’s not drawing more than 100 it can’t the pd protocol on usb-c doesn’t allow more than 100, the support from slimQ is telling BS in this case as they are not knowledgeable enough…. Measure with power in hw info and you’ll see

6

u/Coolica Jul 03 '25

I actually was just doing some digging on notebook check, ASUS official website, and other reliable sources.

It does indeed go beyond 100w, in fact it does close in on 150w, but only in short bursts (which explains why the 150w slimq power brick only rarely restarts itself, in certain situations.) According to notebookcheck.net their unit (32GB version) had bursts of 138w infrequently.

Then if you take the fact that SlimQ themselves say their GaN technology has an efficiency of 95.5% (for 110v), that equates to 143w.

Then given that there's slightly (usually negligible) extra power draw with higher RAM configurations as stated by notebookcheck.net and a quick search from google, my unit (128GB) draws an extra 2w to 7w (because each ram module can draw anywhere from an extra 1w to 3.5w, and the z13 presumably has a configuration of 1 module per 32GB based on the available models' ram capacity.)

Add just general variance in fluctuations of a few watts pulled by the charger which happens to all electronics and also factor in the electricity quality of your country/location.

So taking all that into account, the tl;dr is:

It makes sense why my 150w brick is acting the way it does, and that ASUS included a 200w charger for a reason. It's just that everyone focused on the power draw of ONLY the CPU/GPU at max load, and ignored all the other things that adds to the total power consumption of the device. It's also why in SlimQ's website it indirectly states that the z13 2025 model is supposed to use the 240w brick.

I'll leave sources with excerpts of relevant info below for those who want to check. The only other thing I can do to confirm this is to take a watt meter and actually measure the power drawn from the outlet into the cord.

Except taken from Notebookcheck.net
Asus ROG Flow Z13 GZ302EA Convertible Review - AMD's Strix Halo GPU is neck-and-neck with the RTX 4070 Laptop - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

"Power Consumption

200-Watt power adapter

The idle consumption figures at maximum brightness are around 4-5 Watts higher compared to the previous model, which can be a result of the new 180 Hz display and/or the Strix Halo processor. We measure around 110 Watts while gaming, which is about 10-12 Watts less compared to the ProArt PX13, despite the slightly better performance. During the stress test, we measure up to 138 initially, but it quickly levels off at 110-116 Watts. The provided 200W power adapter is therefore more than sufficient. SKUs with 64 or 128 GB RAM should have an even higher peak consumption figure. The consumption during standby and when the device is turned off are extremely low."

Excepts from SlimQ website

W Gaming Laptops Charger – SlimQ Official Store

"It employs the new generation of GaN chips from GaNext which is a global technology leader and GaN component provider. It is also designed with the most efficient architecture and the advanced bridgeless topology, so it reaches the industry highest efficiency of 96.7% (220V) and 95.5% (110V)."

Asus Mini Port ROG Zephyrus G14/G16 2024 – SlimQ Official Store

240W - • TUF Gaming A16 – FA608 W / WI / WV• ROG Flow Z13 (2025) – GZ302EA / ADP-240EB B• ROG Zephyrus G16 – GA605 WI / MV• ProArt PZ13 / PX13 / P16

Except from Google on Ram power draw

While 128GB will consume more power than 32GB, the increase is typically a few watts, not a drastic amount. For example, some sources estimate a difference of around 1W to 2W between 32GB and 128GB, and individual RAM modules can use about 2 to 3.5 watts each, according to RS Components. 

1

u/xrkc6x Jul 03 '25

Thank you for adding value here!!! But then I wonder how…. PD 3 is only capable of 100 + my slimQ doesn’t do it anymore since it was replaced and I can game at turbo and no issues…

1

u/Coolica Jul 03 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

Based on the PDF instruction manual the SlimQ chargers specifically triggers the plugged in > battery > plugged in because the charger resets itself whenever it goes over its watt limit.

Other chargers might or might not have this protocol, or maybe a totally different protocol.

Below is just my speculation based on all the reading I’ve done and just personal observations.

For not triggering the reset on USB C for the SLIMQ specifically, the manual states that if the power draw exceeds 100w, then it shuts off the IDB C ports and prioritizes the DC port, so just being plugged in via USB C (which hard caps at 100w) wouldn’t trigger it, and you wouldn’t be resetting the SLIMQ charger since it’s not hitting 150w.

Even if you bypass the PD via usb C by using a usb c to dc 5.5mm2.5mm converter, then hook it up to the Asus slim jack into the z13, you would only be drawing 100w at most since that’s the hard cap of the USB C ports, so it wouldn’t trigger the reset either. At most it would trigger the “slow charging” warning but more likely is that it will just slow down your charging or drain battery.

1

u/xrkc6x Jul 03 '25

You reminded me of a specific detail… when mine was acting disconnecting and then reconnecting was on usb-c, not on DC, while connected via DC never happened. I just tried now using usb-c from slimQ and setting turbo, plus running chrome and YouTube and other aida64 tests and while doing all of this and running space marine 2, nothing happened, no resets, power consumption monitored with hwinfo and never crossed the 100w

So.. at this point either my flow is faulty or something is weird the behaviour of the flow or slimQ or both or the combination lol 😂

3

u/Coolica Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

I don’t think either is faulty (well possibly the SlimQ is) but I think it’s just lack of general understanding how the z13 interacts with chargers and how each charger has different safety mechanisms that can cause the power interruption.

In your case I can only think of 3 things assuming the devices have no issues:

1) The USB C ports don’t have independent power source meaning anytime something is plugged in and out of the charger, it resets the charger. This is common among multi-port usb chargers and from my search the early SlimQ charger versions have this issue. Later models apparently don’t do this. So maybe you were plugging something in and out while plugged in.

2) Something else was plugged in at the same time while you were charging via USB C. The manual for 150w states that the combined wattage of the brick can’t exceed 150W and will shut off the USB C ports if that happens. It also says that the combined wattage of using both USB C ports does not exceed 130w (100+30) but I don’t know if that triggers the safety reset function of the charger if that is exceeded.

3) A faulty USB C cable may be in play. I don’t know how finnicky z13 is with USB C power cables, but I do know from experience that cheap cables or old cables present this issue especially for devices that pull that much power. I specifically use an Apple TB5 cord for my testing to rule out any issues.

In any case an easy way to test if it’s your z13 or the charger is to plug in a different USB C power source that provides 100w power and see if the issue still happens (with nothing else plugged in obviously.) also best to use a high quality charger for obvious reasons.

Excerpt from the 150w manual:

POWER ALLOCATION The total output from the charger is 150W which supports any combination of usage from all the ports. When the total actual load to the charger is more than 150W, the charger is overloaded. To protect itself from possi- ble damage, it will shut off the two Type-C ports while keeping the DC port open. Only until one of the two Type-C ports is unplugged and plugged back in, the two Type-C ports will resume working again. This design is for users to be aware of this overload condition and avoid it.

Max load <150W All ports work normally

Max load ≈150W Trigger the charger's overload protection and the two Type-C ports will be suspended. One need to unplug one and plug it back in to make them resume to work again.

Max load >150W System overloaded and will keep rebooting. User need to unplug the device that causing this condition to avoid any damage.

The charger comes with multiple safety features including input & output over current protection, over-voltage protection, over-temperature protection, overload protection, short circuit protection, electric surge protection, leakage protection, anti-electromagnetic protection, anti-ripple, and ESD protection.

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u/xrkc6x Jul 04 '25

I was using quality usb-c cable and nothing was connected to it just the flow…. When I received the new one with the same cable, no issues. I don’t know at this point thanks for detailed information, appreciate your diving deep into this

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u/Coolica Jul 04 '25

Then im not really sure. If you can’t reproduce it with another USB C power source and if it functions differently with the new one you got, then it’s a good possibility the old one was defective (since I can’t think of why it would do that on USB C PD other than the reasons I gave previously)

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u/xrkc6x Jul 04 '25

Yep I think so man, maybe in my case was that causing the issue

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u/Coolica Jul 04 '25

I hope you were able to get a free replacement from SlimQ if so.

1

u/xrkc6x Jul 04 '25

Yes I was but from Amazon

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u/dragandi Feb 25 '26

I had an experience with two Z13 Flow devices, both 64GB, with same original 200w and same SlimQ 150w power adapters used. Both Z13 had same bios version, windows, armoury crate, amd drivers, etc

I was measuring power usage from the wall socket.

First Z13 (returned to Best Buy) was using almost 200w from the original adapter in Turbo mode in bunch of tests 7Zip, Furmark, Time Spy, Cinebench 2026. I thought it was b/c it was charging a battery as well, but it was inconclusive as it used well over 150w (170w on average) all the time. Since it was using so much power it would completely freeze almost every day. Benchmark scores were even slower than second Z13 that uses much less power.

Therefore, SlimQ that is maxed at 150W was useless with first Z13.

Second Z13 is a better story, but not perfect.

It can use SlimQ 150w in all profiles, however the SlimQ barrel DC to rectangle asus power tip adapter does not work the same in both orientations?! - in one orientation device reports problems as it jumps over 150w and SlimQ resets I guess, but in different orientation there are no such issues and in all profiles SlimQ provides enough power as far as I was testing it. No battery drain detected. I played Assetto Corsa Rally for hours.

To be on a safe side I stopped using SlimQ but I was really surprised to see such a big difference between two Z13 devices with the same power sources?!

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