Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 SE review - Fully equipped gaming laptop with RTX 3080 Ti

[Redaktion]

With the new ROG Strix Scar 17 SE from 2022, Asus offers a high-end gaming laptop with the best hardware currently available on the market. In addition to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, this also includes the Core i9-12950HX and a fast 240-Hz display.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Strix-Scar-17-SE-review-Fully-equipped-gaming-laptop-with-RTX-3080-Ti.669557.0.html

[NikoB]

 On the contrary, all manufacturers are moving in the right direction by moving key ports back. The ports on the left and right can of course be positioned optimally. And I wrote many times a long time ago that you should output 2 connectors with an audio jack - left and right. Plus, this allows you to quickly build a quad-sound in games from two pairs of active speakers via an analog connection without any receivers. Well, there is enough optical output for external dac/headphone amplifiers for high-quality music with galvanic isolation from the laptop power circuits. Why they stopped putting this, I don't understand - in old laptops of 2007-2008, optical spdif (combined with a headphone jack) was almost everywhere...

But the keyboard (although better than on the Acer 300, at least not spoiled by the numpad arrow to the right in place of insert - earlier Asus spoiled the numpad just like the rest of the Chinese) is still bad for fast blind typing - narrow numpad keys and cursor control arrows - what the hell, Asus?! There's plenty of room on the sides and height! Narrow row of keys Esc, F1..F2? Why, why? These shortcomings automatically destroy the effective fast touch typing of text and the use of a laptop as a workstation!

The screen is even lousier than in the Acer 300 from newest review - even worse contrast (poor only 1000:1!), almost the same shitty distribution of brightness (which is eliminated by the multi-row backlight of the panel and there are such ones on the market!) and bleeding. And the panel is even more slow in response, taking into account the declared level of "240Hz" relative to the fake "165Hz" in Acer.

i9 is suffocated here for a simple reason - it is immediately clear, as in Acer, that Asus deliberately saved on heat pipes (they are narrow and few of them), but of course not as bad as in Acer. As well as the size of radiators and coolers. As a result, we have a low performance of i9, BUT much better noise characteristics against the background of a terribly noisy (and at the same time wildly overheating power electronics, unlike this representative of Asus) of Acer 300.

Sadly, no one wants to make a universal laptop today. Always some stupid compromises here and there...

So far, the best on the market of the planet remains the same in 2022 - the long-crowned Legion 7 2022 series and exclusively models with AMD (although they are slower in terms of processor than versions with Intel, they are much quieter in an office load with good performance, and this is much more important for consumers ). The best balanced solution of 2022 as a versatile laptop for work and play. Well, except for the stupid case lighting for teenagers, which, it seems, can be turned off forever.

[LL]

Seems the CPU is almost only there to increase the price and the 3080ti have a comparatively mediocre result in Blender Optix. For 4000 euro screen should be brighter albeit it is nice to see companies now at least giving attention to colour reproduction in the so called "gaming" laptops, that we use for a lot different things.

[NikoB]

For 4000 euro screen should be brighter

For this price level there must be installing  4k panel as minimum as the best option for gamers which easily turns into fhd mode at the level of pixel sharpness. At 120-165Hz with a response of no more than 9ms on B2W/G2G. And with a native contrast of NOT less than 1500:1 in a (semi)matte variant. With full VRR support from 30Hz and above for smooth gaming and all video frequencies. HDR/DV (30 bit mode).

[Faspro145]

Ok AMD fanboy, some people need Thunderbolt.
I got the Asus Strix Scar G733ZW-XS96 with 12900h and 3070ti for $2100 from Micro Center...totally happy with it.
I would not trade it for the Legion 7.
Asus rocks

[LL]

Good for you Faspro145. Do you have some GPU benchmarks like Blender Optix results?

[NikoB]

Ok AMD fanboy, some people need Thunderbolt.
I got the Asus Strix Scar G733ZW-XS96 with 12900h and 3070ti for $2100 from Micro Center...totally happy with it.
I would not trade it for the Legion 7.
Asus rocks

L7 AMD version have TB4.0 port(USB40) with eGPU feature from 28 june 2022 (bios update).

[NikoB]

L7 AMD 6800H+6700M(10Gb GDDR6 and it faster then 3070Ti for newest games) have price 1750$ newegg. With 16Gb RAM/1Tb SSD.

From the point of view of noise outside of games during surfing and office work, this L7 AMD clearly outperforms the ROG Strix Scar 17 SE, especially with a hot i9 on board.

Is it better to sit in silence or listen to Asus coolers?

I have two Asus and Dell laptops side by side. On one, the coolers work in surfing and in the office, though quietly, but are constantly spinning (the noise in the full load is less than on Dell, but it is weaker in terms of filling and lighter, although in a metal case). Dell has complete silence in office workload and surfing (in always switched on from psu to maximum perfomance profile), but a wild howl in games and heavy workload, but I do not play or render scenes in Blender.

What do you think - what is more important for an ordinary consumer who surfs and works on laptops most of the time? Silence or coolness in games?

[NikoB]

See ark.intel.com/content/www/ru/ru/ark/products/228439/intel-core-i912950hx-processor-30m-cache-up-to-5-00-ghz.html
In our tested laptop, the i9 is suffocated by almost 37% in turbo(impulse) performance (only 115W/PL2 vs 157W by Intel datasheet)! Well, what's the point of paying for an i9 if all its advantages are lost in reality in this laptop from Asus?

If you're paying only $2100 vs 4000$ by MSRP, that still makes sense compared to the Legion 7, even with the increased noise. But more expensive is already nonsense.

[Lakshay Kakkar]

Well, the Scar 17 SE that is reviewed here is actually defective. I bought this laptop on Jarrod's Tech recommendation (review), which said the laptop scored 23k+ in Cinebench and sustained 155-160W under manual mode with fully maxed out fans. To my surprise, I got a bad unit too! Just sustaining 70W long term, core differentials were as high as 25+ C! Clearly indicates BAD LIQUID METAL application and/or poor heatsink mounting pressure. I mean, the score that I got in Cinebench R23 was a mere 16.9k - even a legion 5 pro with i7 12700H which has 2 fewer cores can beat this with ease. What a joke, when you are pricing this at 3500+ $, and subpar 1500$ laptops are outperforming the Scar 17 SE? Instantly returned it back to Asus. It doesn't matter what you do on paper, the performance should be visible upfront. NO EXCUSES citing quality control and what not. Thanks for the review Notebookcheck, give Asus some more flak.

[Gastredner01]

Can't give enough credit how much I appreciate the great vapor chamber cooling!
45.9db under full load with 150w plus 35w in stress test is a grat result for a RTX 3080 Ti with almost full performance. Every competitor performs much worse! Wish the Neo 17 would feature a vapor chamber as well combined with two big fans of instead of only one.

Fan noise under load is a critical factor to me! I hate to be forced to wear head phones. On desktops we get much more performance with much less fan noise and that's okay. It's physics. But considering this huge cooling disadvantage I hate when laptop designs are made even worse without the need for it by slimming them down so they sound like a yet engine!

Well done, Asus! But please stop this childish design language. It's not usable for anyone older than 12.

[NikoB]

45.9db under full load with 150w plus 35w in stress test is a grat result for a RTX 3080 Ti with almost full performance. Every competitor performs much worse!

This will become clear if this model survives at least 3 years under such loads, which is far from a fact.

But please stop this childish design language. It's not usable for anyone older than 12.

There is nothing childish about this model, except for the stupid backlighting of the case, but it also turns off, like in the L7. Of course, it was stupid to spend money on it, but apparently, like Lenovo marketers, Asus marketers see teenagers as the target audience, and moms and dads always pay money for their toys...but the fact that they are moving away from the inconvenient placement of ports on the side (more and more resembling the standard for workstations) and from unsuccessful keyboard options (spoiled or missing numrad and arrows) suggests that the idea is starting to remotely reach marketers that the target audience not kids at all... ;)

[SJG]

I bought a model recently and I can confirm it scores 22000+ on Cinebench so I'm not sure what's happening here.

[Tomo]

I bought a model recently and I can confirm it scores 22000+ on Cinebench so I'm not sure what's happening here.

I got about 17500 in performance mode and 20500 in turbo mode