The 3070ti is priced at $2299 in the US at newegg. I think that’s excellent. It performs better than last year’s 3080, which was priced higher. The AMD Strix G17 version would likely be cheaper and even better bang for buck.
I will have a separate article on that subject based on a similarly specced Scar 15.
LorryM
February 8, 2022 at 11:10 am
Actually, last year's full-wattage 8GB 3080 Max-P laptops such as MSI GP66 and Eluktronics Prometheus 16 were priced at $2000 USD. So 3070Ti is very expensive, especially considering that Lenovo Legion 5 Pro 3070 was on sale for $1300 USD for the majority of the year and it's not a big jump in performance.
Fair enough, but you should factor in inflation and the fact that this is a brand new series currently listed at MSRP. It will get discounted down the road.
Lakshay Kakkar
February 5, 2022 at 4:46 pm
Maybe you got a defective one as far as thermals are concerned? Because as per techtesters YT channel, scar 15 can sustain 117W at 91c in cinebench, and 78c max on gpu while gaming.
Update: I had a look at their results, and it seems that the GPU in their unit is only running at around 125W average on Turbo, while on our Scar 17 it runs at 145-150W. this would explain the difference in findings.
idk. I'm also working on the Scar 15 right now and the results are a little different, but not those that you mentioned. It's hard to compare results without knowing their testing methodology.
Okay. Also I had the Zephyrus S17 2021 edition for a week, and it could do 130W on the cpu no problem, in Cinebench. I had seen your review of the S17, and both of your 3080 and 3060 models were running way hotter. Right out of the box, mine sustained 90W at 75C in cinebench and I overclocked it to make use of the thermal headroom as well. And on the GPU side, turbo mode was 83C max and manual mode with max fans brought it down to 77C (combined stress test). So it does seem that there is a lot of variance on Asus laptops when it comes to thermals.
And seeing good cooling from a THIN s17 makes me wonder why a thicker machine like the Scar 17 has worse cooling than the S17, makes no sense to me at all. Looking forward to your scar 15 review.
Please also forward my request to Asus to allow for some tuning like undervolting, that is just so important on Intel laptops these days.
are we talking 130W sustained in Cinebench or peak power for the first loop on the S17? Because the Scar 17 can do 135W peak, which is the PL1, but the sustained power drops once the heat builds up.
Also, for what is worth, the overall thermal design of the Zephyrus S17 is superior, even if that's a slimmer laptop.
Lakshay Kakkar
February 6, 2022 at 5:22 pm
Yes, my S17 could actually sustain 130W indefinitely in Cinebench (not just the first loop) with CPU maxing out at 92C, at 4.7 GHz and -80 mV undervolt with maxed out fan speeds. Testing was done in a room temp of 26C, and resulted in a Cinebench score of 15.7k. (Actually Armoury Crate's manual mode caps the CPU power at 65W, so I used a third party tool called 'atrofacgui' to change the fan curves for turbo mode itself, and it essentially turned into a beast and created around 10-15W more thermal headroom, would otherwise stabilize at the throttle limit at 125ish W). Also I think the GPU Fan on the S17 was a tad bit bigger than CPU fan, don't you think? As I noticed that the GPU heatsink fin stack was much wider at the rear compared to the CPU fan.
Unfortunately my S17 got bricked due to an infamous 311 BIOS update (many who updated to the latest BIOS had their S17 bricked), so I had to send it back, otherwise it was a fantastic machine.
Yes indeed. I was myself surprised at how good the S17 was at handling CPU only thermals, that too sustained. I have a leftover recording of Cinebench's last 4-5 minutes of the 10 minute loop which I've uploaded as unlisted on Youtube, and my temps barely average in the mid 70s at 90W, unlike the 92C that you're getting. Take a look:
I had seen your review before buying the S17, and I was prepared to see 90C stuff and so on, but no. I was surprised that it was running quite cool. And then I checked others on reddit, and they are reporting good temps on theirs too. It definitely sounds strange that review units have inferior performance than retail ones, maybe Asus becomes careless at times.
Ha, thanks. Those are some excellent temperatures. I've tested two S17 models and both were very far from what you are getting in that post.
I cannot explain why the differences are so big compared to my reviews. Sure, my samples are usually early-production units with early software, but even so, the difference is huge.
Tanishq Hooda
February 6, 2022 at 4:57 am
So what would you say to buy This laptop or Msi GE76 Raider?
hey man, did you decide in the end which one to get out of the ge76 or the scar? I'm currently in similar situation considering either GE76 i7 12700 3070ti qhd, or scar 17 i9-12900H with 3080ti, both similar price
I have the 12th gen GE76 and although it's a great machine in many ways the fans make a grinding/whining noise at low speeds which is extremely distracting — I use it for coding as well as gaming, so this is a big deal to me. Anyway, I decided to send it back. I've had good experience with Asus laptops in the past so I think I'll try this one next.
Jatin Goyal
February 6, 2022 at 10:45 am
Please test the Scar 15 (whenever you review it) with 100% max fans speeds too. I want to see the maximum cooling capability of the laptop, as I generally wear headphones while gaming so noise is not a problem for me.
I'm interested in seeing the 100% speeds as well. The Scar is so close to 87C limit, that any headroom gained by the use of max fans is a blessing for laptop's longevity, and worth compromising acoustics for a cooler laptop (provided it sheds off another 2-3C and takes it down to 80C), though headphones are also good for covering the fan noise.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for providing comprehensive and indepth reviews, I have read almost all your gaming laptop review articles since the 2020 ROG models. I have one suggestion, please also include 'core differentials' (the difference between the temp of hottest core and the coolest core) while running Cinebench. It gives an idea of how good the thermal paste application is – as the higher the core differential (say one core peaking at 95c, others at 75C is a poor thermal paste application or bad heatsink), the worse it is.
Will also consider logging CPU per core with Cinebench. Can't promise for the Scar as I've already ran the CPU tests, but will keep in mind for the future.
Hexaae
February 7, 2022 at 9:07 pm
<<Still, if there’s one more thing missing here: GSync support on the internal monitor>>
How sad… Can't buy it without g-sync :(
Because G-Sync is a must-have feature for me, especially for old games and retro-gaming (emulating old consoles and computers like Amiga, MAME and so on).
G-Sync (or FreeSync) is the only tech able to play smoothly at strange Hz refresh rate of old systems (55.7Hz, ~50Hz PAL, 57.2Hz etc. used by Amiga and some MAME games for examples).
Having the gfx card video frames in sync with the screen grants the perfect smoothness, instead of waiting for VBlank or other solutions like fast-sync (not compatible with <60Hz BTW).
Yes, G-Sync for me is still a must-have feature.
got it, thanks. Few laptop screens are GSync compatible anymore these days, most likely because of licensing costs and duration with Nvidia.
hexaae
February 8, 2022 at 12:57 am
This video I've found on YT also summarize the concept (but you have to see it with your own eyes, how much better MAME games, for example, run with g-sync on): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CeZ0xbtfDo
Yeah, the mid brightness is a potential drawback for me as well. Unfortunately, there are no 17-inch panels with fast refresh/response, wide gamut, and higher brightness at this point.
I believe there were many 16 inch (500nit/P3/QHD/165Hz) and 17 inch (600nit/P3/4K UHD/120Hz) gaming laptops from last year from Lenovo, Asus, Dell, Razer and MSI. The most popular Asus were Zephyrus M16 and Zephyrus M17, granted they were expensive. Hopefully there are more options this year at lower price points that are capable of HDR content consumption.
I'm only referring to 17-inch high-refresh. If you consider 17-inch 4K 120Hz high refresh, then yes, there are some options there. Pricey and mostly on the 3080 configurations. I prefer some sort of QHD 165+Hz with 500+ brightness and 100% DCI-P3, and I don't think there's such a panel for now
In this regard – what will be Your preference – Lenovo legion 7 with 165Hz QHD 500+ nits and 3800 vs this one with its dim display and 3070Ti? I am asking as Legion 7 with 3080 is available now and I am looking for a fast laptop for video editing and some gaming.
Two things to consider:
1. Do you need the 100% DCI-P3 gamut coverage, or are you OK with 100% sRGB only (on the Legion?).
2. Do you need the extra CPU processing power on the 12th gen i9?
I'd decide based on these two. The Legion 7 is one of the best performance laptops out there, but only available with a standard gamut panel and older hardware at this point
STAGEMAN
February 10, 2022 at 7:43 am
is this available as of right now can you give me a link please?
Andrei did you experience any stuttering's with this laptop at higher loads? seen a review and couple people reporting that the scar 15 has major stutters in games possibly due to too much power needed vs what it was supplied, so the solution was to limit PL1 and PL2… And since I'm considering the scar 17 I wonder if this applied here too, thanks
Not that I remember. Can you point to some links where they detail the issue?
The system is designed to run at a maximum CPU+GPU combined power, which means that if too much power is allocated to the CPU for any reason, that would subtract from the GPU and cause a drop in graphics performance, but should not cause stuttering. High CPU temperatures caused occasional stuttering on older Scar models, but they seem to be better with the 2022 gen. Still, if the CPU does run at abnormally high power, that could cause overheating and perhaps stuttering. We'd need to find out what's causing the CPU to run at that power, though.
OK, I looked at what he's saying around the 6 minutes marks, but:
1. This system is not designed to work at 210 W combined, but rather around 180W combined CPU+GPU power. His unit is showing abnormally high power draws at 210W, and I cannot explain why.
2. The CPU will never run at 95W in combined games on Turbo, as he's implying.
3. With Dynamic Boost, the GPU is designed to go up to 150W in games and other supported apps, leaving only around 30W for the CPU. These are the ideal conditions, not all games are going to work like this. In real-life, the GPU power varies between 125 to 150W in games, with the rest up to 180W applied to the CPU. See the performance logs in the article for more details (this and the Scar 15 review).
If the laptop doesn't work in this way on Turbo, then there's something wrong with the software on that unit. I don't know why his unit is running at 210W combined, but that's higher than the designed power draw and I expect it would overheat the components.
Cezary
April 4, 2022 at 4:49 pm
i see, that makes a lot of sense, didn't know that laptop has around 180W power limit which makes me consider the GE76 i7 a bit more with its 195W limit. Do you have some sort of info to back this up or is this based on your testing with your unit?
The results are based on my tests, as well as on official documentation from Asus (which I don't think is public)
I haven't tested the 2022 GE76. That does run the GPU at higher power, and I would expect 3-8% better performance. Based on past experience, the GE76 is much noisier at full-blat, though, and also heavier and more expensive. Up to you to weigh the pros and cons.
Cezary
April 5, 2022 at 3:23 pm
People were testing side by side and turned out that Raider was quieter overall and had better temps, also where I live Raider with i7/3070ti is cheaper by around 400$ than i9/3080 Scar and since performance is comparable I dont see the reason to spend more
Hello, Andrei Girbea ,
at the outset, a great review, I wanted to comment on what you wrote about my movie with the review of the 15-inch SCARA G533ZX version:
1.I had 3 of this model, additionally 7 people have reported this problem to me so far. In each laptope you can check the MAX CPU + GPU power consumption FURMARK + CB23 and here it is 210W. It's strange if they designed a new generation with lower power consumption, since the 2021 SCAR with the RTX3070 and the R9 had it at 220-230W.
2. I said that if I set the TDP to 95W (in manual mode) and not that in turbo mode it is 95W
3 I do not know how to relate to it because you are right but here if I did not block the TDP CPU, the TGP could drop to 100W. It is a software problem anyway.
Since I already have a few lptops from this generation (12GEN), I can draw some conclusions: In my models, which were the premiere models, the CPU dropped to a minimum of 3925Mhz and did not want to fall further despite the temperature, which led to overheating and activation of the protection.
For example, for other manufacturers, such as MSI or Gigabyte TDP i9 12 GEN, it drops to even 3600Mhz to maintain the temperature.
At the end, even today, a person wrote to me who said that after updating the chipset driver the problem ceased to occur. When I asked her to check if there was any TGP / TDP blockade, it turned out that the GPU, regardless of the settings, worked at MAX 115W even when the CPU was at 20-30W.
P.S. Try run Cyberpunk 2077 at ULTRA with DLSS MAXPREFORMANCE CPU is working at 85-90W
I no longer have this around, or any of the other Scars, so I cannot run other tests at this point. Also, I've run my tests on older BIOS versions, there's a chance things might have changed in the meantime.
1. What do you use for the measurements, just to make sure we're on the same page. Can I see some HW Info logs? CB23 + Furmark is not something I've tested, I prefer real-use scenarios such as games. You can find my logs in the article
2. Are you saying that you've set the CPU at 95W on Manual and it runs at 95W while the GPU is also active? That's not how the Manual mode should work. That's a PL upper limit, so if you're setting it at 95W, then the CPU should go up to 95W when required, but that doesn't mean it should be blocked at 95W in sustained gaming sessions. Again, can we see some HWinfo logs? You have mine in the article, for Turbo, Manual, and the other profiles
3. Interesting, and weird at the same time. Does this happen to the other 12th gen laptops? I've only tested the Asus/Acer units and haven't experienced the same. Sure, the CPU runs higher in some older games such as Far Cry 5 or Battlefield V, but not as high as you're saying. Also, Cypberpunk or Witcher are doing a good job at scaling down the CPU with Dynamic Boost, from my experience.
It's interesting that you're saying other buyers are experiencing the same issues. Perhaps there are some software bugs involved. I'd love to help figure these out, but as I said, I no longer have these Scars around to retest.
I own a G733ZX and I recommend NO ONE to buy this machine. The latest BIOS updates (both 313 and 314) have capped the 12900H CPU TDP to only 70W in PL2 (turbo) and 34W in PL1 (continuous) which is way below the Asus specs (135W and 80W) and the Intel default specs for the CPU. If you own a ROG Strix Scar 17 2022 DO NOT UPDATE the BIOS unless you want to lose a lot of performance. Fortunately, I have been able to revert to the previous BIOS with the ASUS EZ Flash Utility, but it is a risky and long procedure. Very bad Asus with this move, which is clearly deliberate trying to contain the high temps. Technical support is also useless. So I guess this is my last Asus.
I don't understand the need for the MUX. It is a gaming laptop and should be designed and sold as such. If this were a "Creator" or other such laptop that wasnt for gaming then I could see where you would want a concept that switches between integrated and GPU. I want everything I use the laptop for to go through the GPU as they always have. And now having experienced it I surely wouldn't have paid 3K for this design. You cannot disable the integrated Intel Iris Xe on the Internal monitor at all. The only way to use the GPU as fully dedicated is by having an external monitor. The graphics are horrible unless you are playing a game and even then I am not 100% sure that the laptop is using the GPU for the game as the graphics do not look amazing for all the tout of an Nvidia GPU. Not to mention no where on any retailer do they fully explain this concept. This alone is enough for me to disagree with you and every other reviewer praising ASUS for this.
I don't understand that's bothering you, especially the part about "graphics are horrible". The MUX works the way it's supposed to on dGPU mode, pushing the signal from the Nvidia card to the display controller and then to the internal display, and having the option for hybrid mode when using the laptop unplugged is something some will appreciate.
Perhaps you can explain? Or perhaps you should do a little more research on how a MUX works?
I recently got the laptop and was baffled by the temperatures of the CPU & GPU at first (this was my first proper gaming machine). Then I searched everywhere to check if this was normal and finally came across your article, this is very well written and answers a lot of questions I had. In my experience, the best combo was CPU in Turbo and GPU in Ultimate mode where CPU remains between 75-85 while GPU around 82. I will try the custom profile you have set up like you mentioned I'm uncomfortable with GPU being near those temperatures.
Thanks and Regards.
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Table of ContentsThe Best Premium fanless laptops and ChromebooksFull-size fanless laptopsFanless ultrabooks and Windows ultra-portablesFanless Windows-running Mini laptops In this article, we’re discussing fanless laptops and silent Windows ultrabooks...
Mul
February 3, 2022 at 5:34 pm
Did ASUS answer you why are they designing laptops with annoying status LEDs?
Do they plan an option to turn them off in BIOS?
Andrei Girbea
February 3, 2022 at 5:56 pm
This Scar is a 2021 design, this year they just tweaked the hardware. I hope next year they'll dump those LEDs.
Anon Darrk
February 5, 2022 at 5:48 am
The 3070ti is priced at $2299 in the US at newegg. I think that’s excellent. It performs better than last year’s 3080, which was priced higher. The AMD Strix G17 version would likely be cheaper and even better bang for buck.
Andrei Girbea
February 5, 2022 at 1:55 pm
thanks. better than I expected!
Anon Darrk
February 6, 2022 at 5:29 am
Will you check the performance in gaming on USB charging alone? I heard Asus tweaked their profiles.
Andrei Girbea
February 6, 2022 at 4:07 pm
I will have a separate article on that subject based on a similarly specced Scar 15.
LorryM
February 8, 2022 at 11:10 am
Actually, last year's full-wattage 8GB 3080 Max-P laptops such as MSI GP66 and Eluktronics Prometheus 16 were priced at $2000 USD. So 3070Ti is very expensive, especially considering that Lenovo Legion 5 Pro 3070 was on sale for $1300 USD for the majority of the year and it's not a big jump in performance.
Andrei Girbea
February 8, 2022 at 11:19 am
Fair enough, but you should factor in inflation and the fact that this is a brand new series currently listed at MSRP. It will get discounted down the road.
Lakshay Kakkar
February 5, 2022 at 4:46 pm
Maybe you got a defective one as far as thermals are concerned? Because as per techtesters YT channel, scar 15 can sustain 117W at 91c in cinebench, and 78c max on gpu while gaming.
Update: I had a look at their results, and it seems that the GPU in their unit is only running at around 125W average on Turbo, while on our Scar 17 it runs at 145-150W. this would explain the difference in findings.
Andrei Girbea
February 5, 2022 at 5:42 pm
idk. I'm also working on the Scar 15 right now and the results are a little different, but not those that you mentioned. It's hard to compare results without knowing their testing methodology.
Lakshay Kakkar
February 6, 2022 at 4:12 am
Okay. Also I had the Zephyrus S17 2021 edition for a week, and it could do 130W on the cpu no problem, in Cinebench. I had seen your review of the S17, and both of your 3080 and 3060 models were running way hotter. Right out of the box, mine sustained 90W at 75C in cinebench and I overclocked it to make use of the thermal headroom as well. And on the GPU side, turbo mode was 83C max and manual mode with max fans brought it down to 77C (combined stress test). So it does seem that there is a lot of variance on Asus laptops when it comes to thermals.
And seeing good cooling from a THIN s17 makes me wonder why a thicker machine like the Scar 17 has worse cooling than the S17, makes no sense to me at all. Looking forward to your scar 15 review.
Please also forward my request to Asus to allow for some tuning like undervolting, that is just so important on Intel laptops these days.
Andrei Girbea
February 6, 2022 at 4:13 pm
are we talking 130W sustained in Cinebench or peak power for the first loop on the S17? Because the Scar 17 can do 135W peak, which is the PL1, but the sustained power drops once the heat builds up.
Also, for what is worth, the overall thermal design of the Zephyrus S17 is superior, even if that's a slimmer laptop.
Lakshay Kakkar
February 6, 2022 at 5:22 pm
Yes, my S17 could actually sustain 130W indefinitely in Cinebench (not just the first loop) with CPU maxing out at 92C, at 4.7 GHz and -80 mV undervolt with maxed out fan speeds. Testing was done in a room temp of 26C, and resulted in a Cinebench score of 15.7k. (Actually Armoury Crate's manual mode caps the CPU power at 65W, so I used a third party tool called 'atrofacgui' to change the fan curves for turbo mode itself, and it essentially turned into a beast and created around 10-15W more thermal headroom, would otherwise stabilize at the throttle limit at 125ish W). Also I think the GPU Fan on the S17 was a tad bit bigger than CPU fan, don't you think? As I noticed that the GPU heatsink fin stack was much wider at the rear compared to the CPU fan.
Unfortunately my S17 got bricked due to an infamous 311 BIOS update (many who updated to the latest BIOS had their S17 bricked), so I had to send it back, otherwise it was a fantastic machine.
Andrei Girbea
February 7, 2022 at 11:34 am
Are you sure we're talking sustained performance? Because this is what I got on my unit: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/stress-cinebenchr15-turbo-v2.png and it's very far from 130W sustained. I have not yet tested any i9 laptop that could handle real 130W sustained in Cinebench R23 loop, not even the Predator Helios 500 could do it.
Lakshay Kakkar
February 7, 2022 at 5:16 pm
Yes indeed. I was myself surprised at how good the S17 was at handling CPU only thermals, that too sustained. I have a leftover recording of Cinebench's last 4-5 minutes of the 10 minute loop which I've uploaded as unlisted on Youtube, and my temps barely average in the mid 70s at 90W, unlike the 92C that you're getting. Take a look:
https://youtu.be/xqLOAvFio5Y
I had seen your review before buying the S17, and I was prepared to see 90C stuff and so on, but no. I was surprised that it was running quite cool. And then I checked others on reddit, and they are reporting good temps on theirs too. It definitely sounds strange that review units have inferior performance than retail ones, maybe Asus becomes careless at times.
Andrei Girbea
February 7, 2022 at 5:38 pm
Ha, thanks. Those are some excellent temperatures. I've tested two S17 models and both were very far from what you are getting in that post.
I cannot explain why the differences are so big compared to my reviews. Sure, my samples are usually early-production units with early software, but even so, the difference is huge.
Tanishq Hooda
February 6, 2022 at 4:57 am
So what would you say to buy This laptop or Msi GE76 Raider?
Cezary
April 2, 2022 at 10:51 am
hey man, did you decide in the end which one to get out of the ge76 or the scar? I'm currently in similar situation considering either GE76 i7 12700 3070ti qhd, or scar 17 i9-12900H with 3080ti, both similar price
Ben
April 4, 2022 at 9:21 pm
I have the 12th gen GE76 and although it's a great machine in many ways the fans make a grinding/whining noise at low speeds which is extremely distracting — I use it for coding as well as gaming, so this is a big deal to me. Anyway, I decided to send it back. I've had good experience with Asus laptops in the past so I think I'll try this one next.
Jatin Goyal
February 6, 2022 at 10:45 am
Please test the Scar 15 (whenever you review it) with 100% max fans speeds too. I want to see the maximum cooling capability of the laptop, as I generally wear headphones while gaming so noise is not a problem for me.
Andrei Girbea
February 6, 2022 at 4:07 pm
Ok, will consider it. It's not going to be a lot different than 90%
Lakshay Kakkar
February 6, 2022 at 5:34 pm
I'm interested in seeing the 100% speeds as well. The Scar is so close to 87C limit, that any headroom gained by the use of max fans is a blessing for laptop's longevity, and worth compromising acoustics for a cooler laptop (provided it sheds off another 2-3C and takes it down to 80C), though headphones are also good for covering the fan noise.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for providing comprehensive and indepth reviews, I have read almost all your gaming laptop review articles since the 2020 ROG models. I have one suggestion, please also include 'core differentials' (the difference between the temp of hottest core and the coolest core) while running Cinebench. It gives an idea of how good the thermal paste application is – as the higher the core differential (say one core peaking at 95c, others at 75C is a poor thermal paste application or bad heatsink), the worse it is.
Andrei Girbea
February 7, 2022 at 11:37 am
Noted on the 100% speeds.
Will also consider logging CPU per core with Cinebench. Can't promise for the Scar as I've already ran the CPU tests, but will keep in mind for the future.
Hexaae
February 7, 2022 at 9:07 pm
<<Still, if there’s one more thing missing here: GSync support on the internal monitor>>
How sad… Can't buy it without g-sync :(
Andrei Girbea
February 7, 2022 at 9:21 pm
why? please explain
Hexaae
February 8, 2022 at 12:46 am
Because G-Sync is a must-have feature for me, especially for old games and retro-gaming (emulating old consoles and computers like Amiga, MAME and so on).
G-Sync (or FreeSync) is the only tech able to play smoothly at strange Hz refresh rate of old systems (55.7Hz, ~50Hz PAL, 57.2Hz etc. used by Amiga and some MAME games for examples).
Having the gfx card video frames in sync with the screen grants the perfect smoothness, instead of waiting for VBlank or other solutions like fast-sync (not compatible with <60Hz BTW).
Yes, G-Sync for me is still a must-have feature.
Andrei Girbea
February 8, 2022 at 11:02 am
got it, thanks. Few laptop screens are GSync compatible anymore these days, most likely because of licensing costs and duration with Nvidia.
hexaae
February 8, 2022 at 12:57 am
This video I've found on YT also summarize the concept (but you have to see it with your own eyes, how much better MAME games, for example, run with g-sync on): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CeZ0xbtfDo
LorryM
February 8, 2022 at 10:59 am
Great review, as always. I am disappointed by the lack of HDR 600nit screen brightness in 2022, when it has been available on laptops for 7 years now.
Can't wait for you to test one of the new MiniLED HDR laptops.
Andrei Girbea
February 8, 2022 at 11:03 am
Yeah, the mid brightness is a potential drawback for me as well. Unfortunately, there are no 17-inch panels with fast refresh/response, wide gamut, and higher brightness at this point.
LorryM
February 8, 2022 at 6:33 pm
I believe there were many 16 inch (500nit/P3/QHD/165Hz) and 17 inch (600nit/P3/4K UHD/120Hz) gaming laptops from last year from Lenovo, Asus, Dell, Razer and MSI. The most popular Asus were Zephyrus M16 and Zephyrus M17, granted they were expensive. Hopefully there are more options this year at lower price points that are capable of HDR content consumption.
Andrei Girbea
February 8, 2022 at 6:44 pm
I'm only referring to 17-inch high-refresh. If you consider 17-inch 4K 120Hz high refresh, then yes, there are some options there. Pricey and mostly on the 3080 configurations. I prefer some sort of QHD 165+Hz with 500+ brightness and 100% DCI-P3, and I don't think there's such a panel for now
alex
February 13, 2022 at 1:54 pm
In this regard – what will be Your preference – Lenovo legion 7 with 165Hz QHD 500+ nits and 3800 vs this one with its dim display and 3070Ti? I am asking as Legion 7 with 3080 is available now and I am looking for a fast laptop for video editing and some gaming.
Andrei Girbea
February 14, 2022 at 1:28 pm
Two things to consider:
1. Do you need the 100% DCI-P3 gamut coverage, or are you OK with 100% sRGB only (on the Legion?).
2. Do you need the extra CPU processing power on the 12th gen i9?
I'd decide based on these two. The Legion 7 is one of the best performance laptops out there, but only available with a standard gamut panel and older hardware at this point
STAGEMAN
February 10, 2022 at 7:43 am
is this available as of right now can you give me a link please?
Andrei Girbea
February 10, 2022 at 10:06 am
not yet.
Fran
February 10, 2022 at 9:39 am
A 300Hz QHD display is also available.
Andrei Girbea
February 10, 2022 at 10:07 am
source? I'm not aware of a 300Hz QHD
TheBrownPaul
February 13, 2022 at 6:47 am
You mentioned an upgraded Helios 500. Do you think Acer will make it and release it?
Andrei Girbea
February 14, 2022 at 1:25 pm
I hope so. It's just my supposition at this point.
Christia
February 22, 2022 at 4:04 pm
Where can I buy this laptop?
Cezary
March 30, 2022 at 8:05 am
Andrei did you experience any stuttering's with this laptop at higher loads? seen a review and couple people reporting that the scar 15 has major stutters in games possibly due to too much power needed vs what it was supplied, so the solution was to limit PL1 and PL2… And since I'm considering the scar 17 I wonder if this applied here too, thanks
Andrei Girbea
March 30, 2022 at 10:30 am
Not that I remember. Can you point to some links where they detail the issue?
The system is designed to run at a maximum CPU+GPU combined power, which means that if too much power is allocated to the CPU for any reason, that would subtract from the GPU and cause a drop in graphics performance, but should not cause stuttering. High CPU temperatures caused occasional stuttering on older Scar models, but they seem to be better with the 2022 gen. Still, if the CPU does run at abnormally high power, that could cause overheating and perhaps stuttering. We'd need to find out what's causing the CPU to run at that power, though.
Cezary
April 2, 2022 at 10:57 am
sure, here's the link, it's in polish i think, but the guy added English subtitles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkr3g38AUSM
Andrei Girbea
April 4, 2022 at 9:06 am
OK, I looked at what he's saying around the 6 minutes marks, but:
1. This system is not designed to work at 210 W combined, but rather around 180W combined CPU+GPU power. His unit is showing abnormally high power draws at 210W, and I cannot explain why.
2. The CPU will never run at 95W in combined games on Turbo, as he's implying.
3. With Dynamic Boost, the GPU is designed to go up to 150W in games and other supported apps, leaving only around 30W for the CPU. These are the ideal conditions, not all games are going to work like this. In real-life, the GPU power varies between 125 to 150W in games, with the rest up to 180W applied to the CPU. See the performance logs in the article for more details (this and the Scar 15 review).
If the laptop doesn't work in this way on Turbo, then there's something wrong with the software on that unit. I don't know why his unit is running at 210W combined, but that's higher than the designed power draw and I expect it would overheat the components.
Cezary
April 4, 2022 at 4:49 pm
i see, that makes a lot of sense, didn't know that laptop has around 180W power limit which makes me consider the GE76 i7 a bit more with its 195W limit. Do you have some sort of info to back this up or is this based on your testing with your unit?
Andrei Girbea
April 4, 2022 at 4:58 pm
The results are based on my tests, as well as on official documentation from Asus (which I don't think is public)
I haven't tested the 2022 GE76. That does run the GPU at higher power, and I would expect 3-8% better performance. Based on past experience, the GE76 is much noisier at full-blat, though, and also heavier and more expensive. Up to you to weigh the pros and cons.
Cezary
April 5, 2022 at 3:23 pm
People were testing side by side and turned out that Raider was quieter overall and had better temps, also where I live Raider with i7/3070ti is cheaper by around 400$ than i9/3080 Scar and since performance is comparable I dont see the reason to spend more
Andrei Girbea
April 5, 2022 at 5:04 pm
Oh, that's quite a price difference. Give it a try, then. Curious about your feedback
Rafal
April 7, 2022 at 11:05 pm
Hello, Andrei Girbea ,
at the outset, a great review, I wanted to comment on what you wrote about my movie with the review of the 15-inch SCARA G533ZX version:
1.I had 3 of this model, additionally 7 people have reported this problem to me so far. In each laptope you can check the MAX CPU + GPU power consumption FURMARK + CB23 and here it is 210W. It's strange if they designed a new generation with lower power consumption, since the 2021 SCAR with the RTX3070 and the R9 had it at 220-230W.
2. I said that if I set the TDP to 95W (in manual mode) and not that in turbo mode it is 95W
3 I do not know how to relate to it because you are right but here if I did not block the TDP CPU, the TGP could drop to 100W. It is a software problem anyway.
Since I already have a few lptops from this generation (12GEN), I can draw some conclusions: In my models, which were the premiere models, the CPU dropped to a minimum of 3925Mhz and did not want to fall further despite the temperature, which led to overheating and activation of the protection.
For example, for other manufacturers, such as MSI or Gigabyte TDP i9 12 GEN, it drops to even 3600Mhz to maintain the temperature.
At the end, even today, a person wrote to me who said that after updating the chipset driver the problem ceased to occur. When I asked her to check if there was any TGP / TDP blockade, it turned out that the GPU, regardless of the settings, worked at MAX 115W even when the CPU was at 20-30W.
P.S. Try run Cyberpunk 2077 at ULTRA with DLSS MAXPREFORMANCE CPU is working at 85-90W
Andrei Girbea
April 8, 2022 at 9:50 am
Hi Rafal. Thanks for getting in touch.
I no longer have this around, or any of the other Scars, so I cannot run other tests at this point. Also, I've run my tests on older BIOS versions, there's a chance things might have changed in the meantime.
1. What do you use for the measurements, just to make sure we're on the same page. Can I see some HW Info logs? CB23 + Furmark is not something I've tested, I prefer real-use scenarios such as games. You can find my logs in the article
2. Are you saying that you've set the CPU at 95W on Manual and it runs at 95W while the GPU is also active? That's not how the Manual mode should work. That's a PL upper limit, so if you're setting it at 95W, then the CPU should go up to 95W when required, but that doesn't mean it should be blocked at 95W in sustained gaming sessions. Again, can we see some HWinfo logs? You have mine in the article, for Turbo, Manual, and the other profiles
3. Interesting, and weird at the same time. Does this happen to the other 12th gen laptops? I've only tested the Asus/Acer units and haven't experienced the same. Sure, the CPU runs higher in some older games such as Far Cry 5 or Battlefield V, but not as high as you're saying. Also, Cypberpunk or Witcher are doing a good job at scaling down the CPU with Dynamic Boost, from my experience.
I did run Cyberpunk on my units, the logs are in the article: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/gaming-cyberpunk-turbo.jpg I use Ultra and DLSS on Quality. Let me see your logs.
It's interesting that you're saying other buyers are experiencing the same issues. Perhaps there are some software bugs involved. I'd love to help figure these out, but as I said, I no longer have these Scars around to retest.
Rafal
April 7, 2022 at 11:09 pm
Forgive the second post but I do not see the editing option, as far as I know in the 17-inch version and with the R7 6800H this problem does not occur
Samuel
May 18, 2022 at 7:14 pm
I own a G733ZX and I recommend NO ONE to buy this machine. The latest BIOS updates (both 313 and 314) have capped the 12900H CPU TDP to only 70W in PL2 (turbo) and 34W in PL1 (continuous) which is way below the Asus specs (135W and 80W) and the Intel default specs for the CPU. If you own a ROG Strix Scar 17 2022 DO NOT UPDATE the BIOS unless you want to lose a lot of performance. Fortunately, I have been able to revert to the previous BIOS with the ASUS EZ Flash Utility, but it is a risky and long procedure. Very bad Asus with this move, which is clearly deliberate trying to contain the high temps. Technical support is also useless. So I guess this is my last Asus.
dan doyle
May 19, 2022 at 6:35 am
Does this support USB charging of the laptop so I don't have to lug around the AC adapter brick around the world?
Andrei Girbea
May 19, 2022 at 10:03 am
It does. You would have known that if you would have read the article…
Scot
June 21, 2022 at 11:26 pm
I don't understand the need for the MUX. It is a gaming laptop and should be designed and sold as such. If this were a "Creator" or other such laptop that wasnt for gaming then I could see where you would want a concept that switches between integrated and GPU. I want everything I use the laptop for to go through the GPU as they always have. And now having experienced it I surely wouldn't have paid 3K for this design. You cannot disable the integrated Intel Iris Xe on the Internal monitor at all. The only way to use the GPU as fully dedicated is by having an external monitor. The graphics are horrible unless you are playing a game and even then I am not 100% sure that the laptop is using the GPU for the game as the graphics do not look amazing for all the tout of an Nvidia GPU. Not to mention no where on any retailer do they fully explain this concept. This alone is enough for me to disagree with you and every other reviewer praising ASUS for this.
Andrei Girbea
June 22, 2022 at 9:53 am
I don't understand that's bothering you, especially the part about "graphics are horrible". The MUX works the way it's supposed to on dGPU mode, pushing the signal from the Nvidia card to the display controller and then to the internal display, and having the option for hybrid mode when using the laptop unplugged is something some will appreciate.
Perhaps you can explain? Or perhaps you should do a little more research on how a MUX works?
Chief
July 4, 2022 at 11:23 pm
Hi.did you include the HD textures for far cry 6 benchmark?
Mohan
December 19, 2022 at 4:30 pm
I recently got the laptop and was baffled by the temperatures of the CPU & GPU at first (this was my first proper gaming machine). Then I searched everywhere to check if this was normal and finally came across your article, this is very well written and answers a lot of questions I had. In my experience, the best combo was CPU in Turbo and GPU in Ultimate mode where CPU remains between 75-85 while GPU around 82. I will try the custom profile you have set up like you mentioned I'm uncomfortable with GPU being near those temperatures.
Thanks and Regards.