This article is my detailed review of the 2025 Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 series, the highest-tier 16-inch performance laptop offered by Asus this generation, meant for serious workloads and gaming.
This is the more compact version of the ROG Scar 18 discussed above, available in a smaller 16-inch chassis and with a 16-inch mini LED display. These aside, though, the two models are identical in design, build, ergonomics, and general functionality, with a few other minor differences resulting from chassis size.
Compared to the previous Scar 16 generations, which I’ve tested over the years, the 2025 model brings a refined and cleaner design, updated IO and inputs, latest-gen hardware, and improved cooling. On top of these, it still offers a beautiful mini LED matte display and fairly punchy speakers, a combo still fairly rare among gaming notebooks even at this level.
This review unit is the Scar 16 G635LW model, with a Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, 32 GB of memory, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 graphics. That allows us to discuss this configuration and compare its capabilities against the Ultra 9 + RTX 5090 configuration tested in the Scar 18. You’ll find the comparison quite interesting.
Before we proceed, be aware that I’m testing this laptop about a week into its launch, thus, drivers and software are still early, and some things can still change later on with updates. Keep that in mind if you’re reading the article later in the year.
Specs sheet as reviewed – Asus ROG Scar 16 G635 gaming laptop
2025 ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 16 G635LW
Display 16-inch, 16:10, non-touch, matte,
Processor Intel Arrow Lake HX,
Video Intel Graphics + Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop 16GB graphics (up to 175W with Dynamic Boost)
Memory 32 GB DDR5-5600 RAM (2x DIMMs)
Storage 1 TB SSD (SK Hynix PC801 drive) – 2x M.2 PCIe 5.0 slots
Connectivity WiFi 7 (Intel BE200) 2×2 with Bluetooth 5.4, 2.5Gigabit LAN
Ports Left: power, 2.5G Lan, 2x USB-C with Thunderbolt 5, 1x USB-A 3.2 gen 2, HDMI 2.1 FRL, audio jack
Battery 90Wh, 380 W power adapter and 100W USB-C charger, USB-C charging up to 100W
Size 354 mm or 13.94” (w) x 268 mm or 10.55″ (d) x 23 – 31 mm or .9″ – 1.21” (h)
Weight 2.81 kg (6.2 lbs),
Extras clamshell 16-inch format with 135-degree screen angle,
Asus offers the 2025 Scar 16 series in three variants, all with the same Ulta 9 processor, various amounts of RAM and storage, and three RTX 5000 dGPUs to choose from:
ROG Strix SCAR 16 G635LX – Ultra 9 + RTX 5090 24 GB;
ROG Strix SCAR 16 G635LW – Ultra 9 + RTX 5080 16 GB;
ROG Strix SCAR 16 G635LR – Ultra 9 + RTX 5070Ti 12 GB.
The LW tested here in the mid-specced model and arguably the better value in performance for cost. Well, at least as much as any of these new Scars are better value, given the massive price increase between generations.
Design and construction I’ve already shared my thoughts on this new chassis in my review of the Scar 18, and this here is the same design, just more compact and lighter.
This is a full-size 16-inch laptop and still weighs about 2.8 kilos (6.2 lbs), so it’s not that lightweight or that portable. If something powerful and more portable is what you’re after, then look into the updated ROG Zephyrus G16 or the new 2025 Razer Blade 16. You’ll also want to account for the charger in your backpack as well, at 1 kilos, although you could just leave that at home and grab a smaller USB-C charger for travels (over here this comes with two chargers, but only ships with the main 380W charger in most markets). Nonetheless, this Scar 16 is still mid-sized for a high-performance 16-inch laptop and smaller than the 18-inch models available out there .
I appreciate the new all-black color scheme of this series, with no translucent parts and limited graphical markups, unlike on the previous-gen variants. Just keep in mind the main chassis is still made out of plastic, not metal. The only metal part is the lid. It’s a good quality plastic, but doesn’t feel quite as nice as metal. And since it’s black, it smudges easily and retains finger oils, so rubbing this clean takes considerable effort.
On the other hand, having plastic on the armrest allows this laptop to feel cooler to the touch with games and sustained loads, as you’ll see in another section further down. This is an important detail for a device of this kind.
I also like the new RGB lightbar that goes all around the chassis, at the bottom. At first, I thought it was perhaps too much, but it grew on me after a little while. The big RGB ROG logo on the lid, on the other hand, is definitely too much for my liking. But at least all these can be controlled individually in the software, and switched off if needed; by default, they’re all tied to the keyboard’s RGB setting.
There’s also an Anime Matrix array section on the lid with this generation, the same technology seen on past Zephyrus models. It’s weird that Asus decided to give up on the Matrix on the latest Zephyrus redesign, but brought it back here with the Scars. For me, it’s a nice-looking gimmick, but a gimmick nonetheless, which will be forgotten into oblivion behind the display. This, as well, can be switched off.
Now, as far as general ergonomics go, this chassis is still hit and miss and doesn’t address some of my nits I had with the previous Scar generations. In fact, it even makes some things worse.
On the positive side, the rubber feet keep the laptop sturdily anchored on a flat surface, and the hinges hold the screen well in place, without it wobbling with general use. Then, the armrest area is plenty spacious, and Asus finally got rid of those awful status LEDs placed just under the screen on past models. In fact, the entire area under the display has been redesigned and looks much cleaner now, with just some grills for the tweeters. There’s still an always-on light on the Power button, though; they didn’t get rid of that one.
I’ll also mention that the redesigned internal cooling module moved all the exhausts to the back edge, behind the display. That leaves the left edge entirely available for ports, while there’s still a subtle grill on the right, but that’s for air intake. All that means the ports are positioned further towards the back on the left edge, and not in the middle, which could allow for a slightly cleaner setup when connecting peripherals.
The IO still includes most of what you’d want on this sort of laptop, with full-size HDMI, USBs, LAN, and USB-Cs with Thunderbolt 5.0 support. They’re all on the left side, except for all the USB-A ports that are placed on the right edge. There’s still no card reader or lock.
But Asus redesigned the power plug with their latest ROG models, replacing the rounded plug with a square plug. Thing is, this new plug connects straight into the laptop, while the previous rounded plug head had a 90-degree angle that allowed much better cable routing. You could easily hide the power cable near the chassis with the previous design, while this new plug just sticks out to the side. It might not seem like a big deal to you, but I noticed it immediately and just bothers me, being used to the previous design that was simply ergonomically superior. I’m curious what the reasoning is behind this new plug, which is also implemented in the Zephyrus models.
And there are two more aspects I noticed during my time with these new Scars. First, there’s no longer a knob on the screen, which makes picking up the screen to open up more difficult. You might even have to use two hands for it.
And then there’s the front lip, which is unnecessarily sharp and bites deeply into the wrists in certain use cases. I didn’t feel them as badly on this smaller chassis as on the 18-inch Scar, but they’re still there and still potentially uncomfortable. I know many other laptop manufacturers put sharp edges on their products, including Apple on all their MacBooks, but it’s something I resent – and it’s just worse on bigger and thicker devices than on ultraportable models.
Drawing the line, I have mixed feelings about this Scar 16 redesign. It looks nice and the build quality is solid, but ergonomics are rather a one step forward, two steps back situation, and I was just expecting something else. The sharp front lip, the new charging cable, the limited screen angle, the always on light in the power button – these could be different. What do you think?
I’ll leave you with some pictures of the Scar 16 and Scar 18 2025 models, to better showcase the size difference between them.
Keyboard and touchpad – updated for this generation The keyboard on this 2025 Scar 16 looks identical to the one in the previous 16-inch Scars, with the same layout and font design.
It’s a full deck of keys without a NumPad, but with a set of media keys at the very right. Those are a wasted opportunity IMO, and would have been more useful as dedicated functional keys; instead, Asus maps Home/End and PgUp/PgDn as secondaries for the arrows, to keep things consistent between their lineups. At least the arrow keys are full-sized, although squashed between other keys.
However, the typing experience is excellent here; the feedback is a little different from the older Scars, with stiffer actuations that require a little more force. Using this keyboard for a few days, I was able to type even quicker and more accurately than on the 2023 Scar 18 that I use daily. So I’d say this is one of the better classic-style laptop keyboards in this space. And is much quieter than the mechanical implementations available from some other brands.
Other than that, keep in mind that these plastic black keycaps smudge fairly easily, and so does the black frame in-between the keys. That means you’ll need to wipe them clean every few days or so.
There’s RGB lighting on these keys, with bright LEDs and per-key control. No complaints there.
The touchpad is a large matte glass surface, larger than on previous Scars. Palm rejection works fine and the general use experience is fine as well, but the physical clicks in the corners are stiffer and clunkier than on my Scar.
For what that’s worth, this touchpad doubles as a virtual NumberPad by pressing the NumLock area in the top-right corner. It works, but is mostly a gimmick imo.
That aside, I still struggle adapting to the size of this surface. Having used the touchpad on my Scar for so long without a mouse, my hands are used to positioning and clicking in a certain spot, while here the clicks happen further to the sides. You’re not going to have this issue, though.
One final aspect to add here is biometrics, with the camera supporting IR on this 2025 Scar. I don’t have any biometrics on my older Scar.
Screen – Nebula mini LED panel, with HDR The display on the 2025 Scar 16 is a QHD+ 2560 x 1600 px mini LED matte panel, with a 240Hz refresh rate and 3ms response times, something Asus calls an ROG Nebula HDR display.
The panel is a refreshed iteration of the mini LED panel offered on the 2023 and 2024 Scars, still made by BOE (model name BOE0CDC – NEW160QDM-NM8).
You can set this screen on single-zone lighting, in which case it acts like a good quality IPS with consistent backlighting and uniformity, or on multi-zone lighting, which activates zone dimming. This mode is ideal for video streaming and gaming, with increased contrast and darker blacks than on a regular IPS.
For some reason, my testing setup doesn’t seem to work on this laptop, so I can’t give you the usual readings.
What’s interesting is that the Scar 16 is still one of the few modern 16-inch high-performance laptops offered with 2025 specs and a matte mini LED display, as many alternatives have migrated towards an OLED (latest Lenovo Legion Pro, Acer Predator Helios). This aspect might kill this Scar for some of you, but it will also make it the prime choice for others, as both technologies have their pros and cons. Personally, I prefer a good matte display, even if the content doesn’t look quite as good as on an OLED. But there’s no flickering, no burn-in, and no image grain on light backgrounds. And I just don’t care about HDR on a laptop.
Follow these links for more details on OLED laptops and mini LED laptops .
Hardware and performance Our test model is the mid-specced configuration of the 2025 Asus ROG Strix Scar 16, code name G635LW, built on an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, 32 GB of DDR5-5600 memory, 1 TB of fast SSD storage, and dual graphics: the Nvidia RTX 5080 16GB dGPU and the iGPU integrated within the Intel processor.
Before we proceed, keep in mind that our review unit was sent over by Asus and runs on the software available as of early-April 2025 (BIOS 313, Armoury Crate 6.1.14.0, GeForce 572.83 drivers). This is a zero-day software package, thus, aspects can change with future updates.
Spec-wise, this 2025 ASUS ROG Strix Scar 16 is built on the latest Intel and Nvidia hardware available to date.
Spec-wise, this 2025 ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 G835 lineup is built on the latest Intel and Nvidia hardware available as of Spring 2025.
The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is one of the top mobile processors in Intel’s Arrow Lake HX (15th-gen) platform, with 24 Cores and 24 Threads. The Core Ultra 9 285HX offered in some competing products is the same CPU, with minimal higher Turbo speeds.
Much like past Core i9 HX processors, this is still a hybrid design with 8 High-Performance Cores (Lion Cove) and 16 Efficiency Cores (Skymont), which work together or separately in the various activities.
However, this Arrow Lake HX platform implements updated cores, and there’s no longer HyperThreading supported by the Performance cores. Hence, the platform only offers 24 Threads and not 32 as in the past, but the overall performance of this hardware in sustained multi-threaded loads is improved significantly over the Raptor Lake i9-14900HX and i9-13980HX processors. Furthermore, the design and thermal module of this Scar 16 generation allow the processor to consistently run at 150-175W of sustained power in demanding CPU loads, on the Turbo and Manual profiles. That’s higher than on past Scar models, which averaged around 135-150W in similar tasks.
For the GPU, the 2025 Scar 16 series is available with Nvidia Blackwell Geforce RTX 5000 chips, either 5090 24GB (175W), 5080 16 GB (175W), or 5070Ti 12GB (140W). This configuration is the mid-range 5080 model, but we’ve also tested the 5090 in the larger Scar 18. We’ll have a dedicated article comparing the two RTX chips.
There’s still a MUX on this chassis, GSync support on the main display, as well as either regular Optimus or Advanced Optimus.
For memory and storage, the laptop comes with two accessible memory DIMMs and two M.2 2280 SSD slots with support for up to PCIe 5.0 drives. This review configuration comes with 32 GB of DDR5-5600 memory and a fast 1TB SSD drive. It’s unclear to me whether the platform supports up to 96 GB of RAM via the two slots or 128 GB would work as well. Arrow Lake HX supports up to 192 GB, but that’s on devices with 4x RAM slots. I asked Asus for clarification, but haven’t heard back yet. I don’t have two 64 GB DIMMs to try out myself.
Accessing and upgrading the components takes seconds and is a tool-less process. You slide a small latch to the left to unlock the back panel, and then just slide the panel up and out. Inside, the SSDs are hold in place with Q-latches instead of regular screws, so there’s no need for a screwdriver to get them out. And there’s unrestrained access to the RAM slots. This design doesn’t give access to the motherboard or the actual cooling module, you’ll need to further take out the back chassis for that. But the fans, battery, SSDs, and RAM slots, they’re all within reach in mere seconds.
Specs aside, Asus offer their standard power profiles in the Armoury Crate control app: Silent, Performance, Turbo, and Manual, with various power settings and fan profiles between them, summarized in the following table.
Silent Performance Turbo Manual
CPU only, PL1/PL2 TDP
65/100W
90/120W
135/175W
140/175W
GPU only, max TGP
D-Notify, ~55W
160W
175W
175W
Crossload
85W, 30 + 55 W
195W, 45 + 150 W
230W, 55 + 175 W
255W, 80 + 175 W
Noise at head-level, tested
35 dBA
~42 dBA
~48 dBA
~52 dBA, max fans
Before we jump to the performance section, here’s how this laptop handles everyday use and multitasking on the Silent profile, unplugged from the wall.
Performance and benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX + Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test.
The Core Ultra 9 275HX processor runs at between 150 to 175W of power on Turbo mode. The scores end up at over 5700 points, with temperatures around 95 °C and fan-noise levels of ~48 dBA.
Manual mode with the fans set to max speeds ramps up the noise to 52 dBA, with a tiny impact on the performance and temperatures around 90 °C. The CPU ends up scoring around 5900 points in this mode, 3-4% higher than on Turbo.
The Performance mode keeps the fans quieter at sub 42 dBA, and the CPU mostly runs around the PL2 setting of 120W, with temperatures around 80 °C, and scores of around 5000 points. That’s about 80-85% of the scores on Turbo.
Silent mode keeps the fans barely audible at sub 30 dBA, with the power dropping to only around 45W sustained after a few loops – that’s lower than the 65W PL2 theoretical setting. The scores stabilize at around 3300 points, about 60% of what this device can do in Turbo mode, with temperatures in the low 70s °C.
I also tested Performance mode with the laptop plugged in via the 100W USB-C ROG charger. That only allows sustained power of 50-65W, with scores of around 4000 points.
Performance mode unplugged from the wall, on battery power, returns similar findings, with 4000 points and 50-65W of power.
All these are illustrated in the graph below.
Overall, this hardware is impressive. Turbo-mode performance offers the highest scores of any mobile platform tested so far, with only Dragon Range Ryzen HX chips potentially beating them. And the Performance and Silent modes showcase how well this hardware scales down in power, even if Silent mode doesn’t work as well as on the Scar 18, where it settled at 65W sustained.
To put these findings in perspective, here’s how this Core Ultra 9 275HX implementation fares against other performance laptops in this test.
We’re looking at 15-20% higher scores than the most powerful implementations of i9-14900HX and i9-13980HX platforms. But only about 5-7% higher scores than on the older Ryzen 9 HX hardware, hinting at the 2025 Dragon Range hardware outmatching it. Haven’t tested the Ryzen 9 9955HX yet.
I’ll also keep in mind that these 2025 Scars run at higher sustained power than the previous generations, and that impacts the results as well. We’ll look more in-depth into it in a separate article.
We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and Blender – Classroom. The sustained power settles closer to the PL1 limits in this heavier load: ~175W on Manual, ~150W Turbo, ~115 on Performance, and ~40W on Silent (again, lower than expected).
We also ran the 3DMark CPU test on the Turbo, Manual and Silent profiles.
Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit passed it just fine both flat on the desk and raised up on a stand, without any notable differences between the two modes. That means there’s no performance throttling with longer-duration sustained loads here, unlike on the previous G634 chassis. More on this in the gaming section down below.
Next, we ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks, on the Turbo profile with the GPU set on Standard mode (Advanced Optimus) and with the screen set at the native 2560 x 1600 px resolution.
Here’s what we got:
3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 15471, 16 – 13646, 8 – 8656, 4 – 4998, 2 – 2543, 1 – 1298;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike (DX11): 37204 (Graphics – 45949, Physics – 47263, Combined – 13546);3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 13719;3DMark 13 – Time Spy (DX12): 20515 (Graphics – 21697, CPU – 15679);3DMark 13 – Speed Way (DX12 Ultimate): 5665;3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad (DX12 Ultimate): 4916;3DMark 13 – DLSS: 30.14 fps DLSS Off, 120.80 fps DLSS On;
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 12550;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 30903;
Aida64 Extreme, memory test – ;PCMark 10: 9402 (Essentials – 11299, Productivity – 10948, Digital Content Creation – 18232);GeekBench 6.2.2 64-bit: Multi-core: 19650, Single-Core: 3006;CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 5938 cb, CPU Single Core 326 cb;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 14865 cb, CPU Single Core 829 cb;CineBench R23: CPU 38338 cb (best single run), CPU 36553 cb (10 min run), CPU Single Core 2223 cb;CineBench 2024: GPU – pts, CPU 2131 pts (loop run), CPU Single Core 135 pts.
And here are some workstation benchmarks, on the same Turbo profile:
Blender 3.6.5 – BMW scene – CPU Compute: 1m 02s;Blender 3.6.5 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 10.00s (CUDA), 5.24 (Optix);Blender 3.5.6 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 2m 30s;Blender 3.6.5 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute: 18.80s (CUDA), 10.59s (Optix);Blender 4.3.2 – BMW scene – CPU Compute: 1m 03s;Blender 4.3.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 10.25s (CUDA), 5.44 (Optix);Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 2m 40s;Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute: 19.20s (CUDA), 10.75s (Optix);
Puget Benchmark – Adobe Photoshop (26.1) – tba;Puget Benchmark – Adobe Premiere (25.1.0) – tba;Puget Benchmark – Davinci Resolve (19.1) – tba;
SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 215.08;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 103.92;SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo: 118.92;SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 70.89;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 670.18;SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical: 59.19;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 38.24;SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 490.93V-Ray Benchmark: 26618 – CPU, 2930 – CUDA, 4110 – RTX.
These are solid results for a high-performance laptop.
On the CPU side, single-core results are within 5% higher than on previous i9 HX platforms, while in multi-threaded loads improvements are within 10-15%. Gains are observed in sustained workloads as well, such as Blender and some of the Specviewperf apps.
On the GPU side, the 5080 scores roughly 10-15% higher than a similar full-power RTX 4080 Laptop implementation, roughly on par with 4090 configurations, and about 10-15% lower than a 5090. But these differences vary between benchmarks and tests, and are actually reduced more in real workloads.
Of course, these don’t account for all the specifics of the Blackwell platform, so choosing one of these newer 5080 laptops over an older model is not as simple as just comparing numbers.
Manual Mode – max power, 50+ dBA noise Manual mode allows for a multitude of CPU/GPU power customizations and fan settings. What I did is max the CPU 175W PL1 and PL2 limits, and overclocked the GPU at +100 MHz Core and +200 MHz Memory. I also set all three fans to their max RPMs and placed the laptop on a stand to improve airflow into the fans and underneath the chassis. At max, the fan noise reaches 51-52 dBA at head level.
Here’s what we got.
3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 17067, 16 – 14046, 8 – 9109, 4 – 4974, 2 – 2536, 1 – 1297;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 38033 (Graphics – 48631, Physics – 48978, Combined – 12808);3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 13926;3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 21104 (Graphics – 22173, CPU – 16578);3DMark 13 – Speed Way (DX12 Ultimate): 5756;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 13274;CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 37837 cb, CPU Single Core 2240 cb;Blender 3.6.5 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 2m 28s.SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 216.35;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 104.58;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 677.75;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 38.51;SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 503.40.
These results are generally within 1-5% of Turbo mode. Opting for this kind of maxed-out Manual mode doesn’t make that much sense, given the noticeable increase in fan noise and minimal performance gains.
Performance Mode – mid power, 42 dBA noise Performance mode is the mid-level balanced profile that keeps fan noise fairly low at ~42 dBA, with a limited impact on power levels and general performance.
Here’s what we got in this case:
3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 14812, 16 – 12522, 8 – 8783, 4 – 4964, 2 – 2532, 1 – 1295;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 36946 (Graphics – 47656, Physics – 44647, Combined – 12549);3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 13154;3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 19850 (Graphics – 20678, CPU – 16181);3DMark 13 – Speed Way (DX12 Ultimate): 5310;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 11890;CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 33379 cb, CPU Single Core 2191 cb;Blender 3.6.5 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 2m 45s.SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 207.89;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 101.64;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 651.54;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 37.91;SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 479.56.
These results are only within a few percent of Turbo mode in CPU loads, including longer sustained tests such as Blender. The GPU runs at 135-150W TGP in this mode between applications, and that means it delivers roughly 90-95% of the performance on Turbo. All these with quieter fans, and internal temperatures mostly similar to Turbo mode.
Silent Mode – still plenty fast at <35 dBA noise Silent mode limits the CPU/GPU power limits in order to keep noise levels at sub-35 dBA and temperatures in check.
Here’s what we got:
3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 11779, 16 – 10242, 8 – 7304, 4 – 4680, 2 – 2449, 1 – 1228;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 22666 (Graphics – 25561, Physics – 40057, Combined – 9064);3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 6391;3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 9996 (Graphics – 9476, CPU – 14518);3DMark 13 – Speed Way (DX12 Ultimate): 1782;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 5995;CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 23859 cb, CPU Single Core 2156 cb;Blender 3.6.5 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 3m 47s.SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 131.07;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 65.20;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 421.86;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 34.44;SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 252.36.
The CPU performs at about 60% of its max capacity and the GPU at less than 50% of what it can do on Turbo, as it is limited to a TGP of only 55W. On the other hand, fan noise is barely audible at sub-35 dBA and even sub-30 dBA in lighter loads, and internal temperatures are excellent, around 70 °C and lower. That means you could create a more powerful Custom Silent mode using the Manual profile, with temperatures in the mid to high 70s, still sub-35 dBA noise levels, but improved performance. I’ll detail that profile in a separate article.
Performance Mode on PD power This ROG generation still supports only up to 100W of power via PD, and that means the laptop performs fairly similarly to Silent mode discussed above on PD power. It also pulls power out of the battery in combined sustained loads, both in benchmarks such as Specviewperf and in games.
That means that even if Silent, Performance, and Turbo modes are available with a 100W ROG PD charger connected, in reality, there’s no performance difference between modes, but only a slight difference in fan speeds, fan noise, and internal temperatures. And since the laptop only supports up to 100W of PD power, connecting a 140W PD charger doesn’t change things in any way.
Here’s what we got on Performance mode with 100W PD power.
3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 12465, 16 – 10557, 8 – 7315, 4 – 4634, 2 – 2504, 1 – 1295;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 23357 (Graphics – 26274, Physics – 33513, Combined – 10218);3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 5148;3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 9555 (Graphics – 8949, CPU – 15516);3DMark 13 – Speed Way (DX12 Ultimate): 1854;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 5766;CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 25786 cb, CPU Single Core 2196 cb;Blender 3.6.5 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 3m 37s.SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 115.51;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 68.70;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 417.75;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 35.54;SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 265.28.
These results are close to Silent mode on main charger, a little lower on the GPU side.
The battery doesn’t discharge with daily use and CPU loads, but it does with combined loads and benchmarks such as 3DMark and Specviewperf.
— updating with gaming performance
Ultra 9 + RTX 5080, vs. Ultra 9 + RTX 5090, i9 + RTX 4080 performance Here’s a brief comparison of these results on the Ultra 9 275HX + 5080 175W Scar 16 configuration against the Ultra 9 + RTX 5090 specs in the Scar 18 and a previous i9 + RTX 4080 175W Scar 16. We’ll get more in-depth on this in a separate article.
Ultra 9 275HX + 5080 175W Ultra 9 275HX + 5090 175W2025 ROG Scar 18, BIOS 313 i9-13980HX + 4080 175W2023 Asus ROG Scar 16, BIOS 309
3DMark – Fire Strike 37204 (G – 45949, P – 47263, C – 13546)
38212 (G – 49229, P – 46690, C – 12950)
34816 (G – 44401, P – 44114, C – 11862)
3DMark – Port Royal 13719
15164
12014
3DMark – Time Spy 20515 (Graphics – 21697, CPU – 15679)
22472 (Graphics – 23646, CPU – 17538)
18550 (Graphics – 18818, CPU – 17169)
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme 12550
14325
11353
CineBench R23 (best run) 38338 cb – multi core,
38154 cb – multi core,
31852 cb – multi core,
Blender 3, Classroom scene – CPU Compute 2m 30s
2m 30s
3m 06s
Blender 3, Classroom scene – GPU Compute 18.80s (CUDA), 10.59s (Optix)
15.56s (CUDA), 8.91s (Optix)
21.09s (CUDA), 11.64s (Optix)
SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 215.08
236.49
181.88
SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 103.92
110.42
99.48
SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 670.18
689.74
492.89
As mentioned earlier, the Ultra 9 CPU is ~10-15% faster than the previous-gen i9s, while on the GPU side, the 5080 scores 10-15% higher than a 4080 and 10-15% lower than a 5090.
Gaming performance – Ultra 9 + GeForce RTX 5080 With benchmarks out of the way, let’s see how this ROG Scar 16 handles modern games.
We tested a couple of different games on the various available profiles at QHD+ and 4K resolution, with the GPU set on Ultimate mode (the MUX is manually set on dGPU only).
I’ve also disabled any automatic settings and optimizations in the Nvidia app, as otherwise, those messed up with my settings and sometimes led to poorer performance on the Turbo and Manual profiles. Manual mode includes a GPU overclock of +100 MHz Core and +200 MHz Memory, the fans set to max speeds, and the laptop placed on a stand to benefit cooling.
Here are the results:
Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 RTX 5080 Laptop 150-175W 4K Turbo, QHD+ Turbo, QHD+ Manual OC, QHD+ Performance, QHD+ Silent,
Black Myth: Wukong –
63 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
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–
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Black Myth: Wukong 48 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
86 fps (62 fps – 1% low)
86 fps (68 fps – 1% low)
82 fps (62 fps – 1% low)
38 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
Cyberpunk 2077 56 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
82 fps (50 fps – 1% low)
–
–
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Cyberpunk 2077 –
28 fps (22 fps – 1% low)
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–
–
Cyberpunk 2077 60 fps (26 fps – 1% low)
102 fps (44 fps – 1% low)
105 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
94 fps (42 fps – 1% low)
48 fps (22 fps – 1% low)
Far Cry 6 84 fps (72 fps – 1% low)
128 fps (100 fps – 1% low)
133 fps (104 fps – 1% low)
126 fps (98 fps – 1% low)
70 fps (60 fps – 1% low)
Horizon Forbidden West 54 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
84 fps (60 fps – 1% low)
88 fps (64 fps – 1% low)
78 fps (56 fps – 1% low)
40 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
Horizon Forbidden West 106 fps (90 fps – 1% low)
162 fps (128 fps – 1% low)
172 fps (138 fps – 1% low)
152 fps (126 fps – 1% low)
84 fps (62 fps – 1% low)
Red Dead Redemption 2 81 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
110 fps (58 fps – 1% low)
114 fps (60 fps – 1% low)
106 fps (56 fps – 1% low)
66 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
Resident Evil 4 –
140 fps (110 fps – 1% low)
146 fps (113 fps – 1% low)
130 fps (106 fps – 1% low)
66 fps (50 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 97 fps (78 fps – 1% low)
158 fps (114 fps – 1% low)
156 fps (118 fps – 1% low)
150 fps (112 fps – 1% low)
74 fps (52 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (v4.04) 112 fps (86 fps – 1% low)
139 fps (74 fps – 1% low)
140 fps (78 fps – 1% low)
138 fps (72 fps – 1% low)
76 fps (56 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (v4.04) 82 fps (70 fps – 1% low)
104 fps (80 fps – 1% low)
108 fps (84 fps – 1% low)
96 fps (74 fps – 1% low)
48 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
Cyberpunk, Horizon FW, Witcher 3, Resident Evil – recorded with MSI Afterburner fps counter in campaign mode;
Black Myth, Far Cry 6, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
Red Dead Redemption 2 Optimized profile based on these settings .
These games run smoothly at QHD resolution with Ultra settings on all profiles, including on the Silent profile. Activating DLSS greatly improves framerates, especially in the newer titles that support DLSS 4.0.
Compared to the 5090 configuration in the Scar 18, this 5080 model scores about 5-10% lower in rasterization runs and 10-20% lower when RT and DLSS are involved.
At the same time, these results are only minimally better than what we got with full-power RTX 4080 implementations for general rasterization. I was expecting better. We’ll discuss that as well in dedicated separate article.
Let’s go over some performance and temperature logs.
Here’s Turbo mode, with the laptop flat on the desk.
The system averages around 215-220W of total power, with 150-165W on the GPU. Temperatures average around 85-90 °C on the CPU and 80-82 °C on the GPU. These are higher than on the Scar 18, especially on the GPU, but the 5080 just runs at higher power than the 5090 in that review unit.
Placing the laptop on a stand in order to improve airflow into the fans and underneath the chassis doesn’t impact performance and sheds 1-3 degrees of the internal temperatures. Much like with the Scar 18, this Scar 16 performs similarly flat on the desk or raised up on a stand.
Opting for Manual mode with max fans and an extra GPU overclock minimally improves framerates. The system still draws around 220W of power even in this mode, with the GPU still at 150-165W. The CPU and GPU temperatures are a few degrees lower than on Turbo, but the fan noise is louder as well, at 52 dBA.
Performance mode draws an average of about 180-190W of total power, with 35-45W on the CPU and 135-150W on the GPU. These translate in good framerates, within 10% of Turbo mode, with average fan noise at around 42 dBA and high temperatures: ~90 °C on the CPU and ~80-82 °C on the GPU, with the laptop flat on the desk.
Placing the laptop on a stand helps shed 1-3 degrees of the components, much like on Turbo.
Silent mode caps total power to around 85-90W, with 55W TGP on the GPU. As a result, framerates take a massive dip compared to the other modes, at about 40-50% of Turbo. That means you’re no longer getting 60+ fps at QHD+ resolution with Ultra settings on some of the latest titles.
Overall, though, this Silent profile could benefit from a higher-set TGP with still fine temperatures. At 55W, the GPU runs at around 65 degrees Celsius, so pushing that closer to 75-80 degrees would be possible. Something I’ll look into in a separate article.
Heat, Noise, Connectivity, Speakers, Camera This 2025 ROG Scar 16 implements an advanced thermal module design, with a vapor chamber, two high-capacity fans, and an extra smaller fan in the middle of the chassis, an ample heatsink that covers the entire rear edge of the laptop, and Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal on both the CPU and GPU.
This is a significant update over the cooling module in the previous Scar 16 G634 chassis, which relied entirely on heatpipes and didn’t include a vapor chamber.
At the same time, the vapor-chamber and rear heatsink are smaller than on the 18-inch Scar 18, due to the nature of the two chassis, which impacts internal temperatures.
So while this cooling module handles the hardware fine without throttling or any heat-induced performance loss, the CPU and GPU both run at higher sustained temperatures than on the Scar 18 – ~90 °C on the CPU and ~80 °C on the GPU. And that’s the case on both Turbo and Performance modes.
As far as the fan noise levels go with demanding loads, we’re looking at ~52 dB at head-level on the Manual mode with max-fans, 48 dBA on Turbo mode, 40-42 dB on Performance mode, and sub-35 dB on Silent mode.
With daily use, you’ll hardly hear the fans at all. They can stay idle with casual use as long as you use the laptop in Silent mode and the CPU temperatures don’t go over 50 °C, but for the most part, the fans will be active and spin quietly at under 30 dBA. You’ll still hear their woosh in a silent room at night, though. I haven’t noticed any coil whining or electronic noises on this unit.
Chassis temperatures keep low as well with casual use, in the low to mid-30s °C in the hottest spots.
*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Silent profile, fans idle or <30 dB
I haven’t tested Manual mode, but based on what we know from the Scar 18, expect minimally lower temperatures than on Turbo and fan noise of 52 dBA at head level.
Turbo mode ramps the fans to 48 dBA and still excellent temperatures: ~45 °C on the hottest part above the keyboard and around 25-30 °C at the keyboard level. That’s with the laptop flat on the desk. These are somehow lower than on the Scar 18, and I’m not sure why. The fans spin a little louder on Turbo on this Scar, but at the same time internals temperatures are higher and the chassis is more compact, so it should heat up more.
*Gaming – Turbo – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~47-48 dB
Thermal readings are more or less the same on Performance mode. This profile comes with quieter fans at around 40-42 dBA, and a slight loss in framerates. Overall, though, this mode is adequately balanced for a comfortable gaming experience.
*Gaming – Performance – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~42 dB
And finally, there’s Silent mode, with sub-35 dBA fan noise and a notable dip in framerates, at about 40-50% of what the laptop delivers on Turbo. But with barely audible fan noise and still fine thermals.
*Gaming – Silent – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at <35 dB
For connectivity, there’s latest-gen WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 through an Intel BE200 module on this device, which performed fine during all these weeks. 2.5 GB wired Internet is also available. The LAN port is on the left side of the chassis, near the power port.
Audio is handled by a set of four speakers, with two main bottom speakers and two tweeters that fire from under the display. Sound quality is alright, with good volumes (~85 dBA) and decent bass.
The webcam on this laptop is 2MPx, and supports IR with Windows Hello. The image quality is just as poor as on the Scar 18, though, and somehow a significant downgrade compared to the 720P camera in the older Scars. Not sure if that’s a software issue or what’s going on with these cameras.
Battery life There’s a 90Wh battery inside this 2025 Scar 16, the same size as on the 18-inch variant, and identical to all other ROG notebooks of recent generations.
Here’s what we got in terms of battery life on our unit, with the screen set on multi-zone lighting mode, brightness set at around 120 nits (~60 brightness), and 60Hz refresh (the system automatically switches to 60 Hz when unplugging the laptop).
25 W (~4 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;20 W (~4-5 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;30 W (~3 h of use) – Netflix 4K HDR fullscreen in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;18-22 W (~4-5 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON, RGB elements and Anime switch;30 W (~3 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON, RGB elements and Anime switched on;80 W (~1 h of use) – Gaming – Witcher 3, Performance Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON, no fps limit.
That’s not much. Somehow, though these runtimes are significantly shorter across the board than on the Scar 18 I’ve tested on the side. I already tested things twice, so not sure what’s causing the issue here – it probably has something to do with the early nature of these drivers. As far as I can tell, the battery runtimes on the Scar 18 are more realistic of what to expect from this platform. Here’s what we got on that Scar 18:
15-18 W (~5-6 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;15.5 W (~6 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;22 W (~4 h of use) – Netflix 4K HDR fullscreen in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;18-22 W (~4-5 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON, RGB elements and Anime switch;23-25 W (~4 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Silent Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON, RGB elements and Anime switched on;80 W (~1 h of use) – Gaming – Witcher 3, Performance Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON, no fps limit.
Asus pairs this configuration with a 380W charger, a dual-piece design with long cables, and a hefty power brick. In total, they weigh around a kilo, which is plenty, but still lighter than the 330W charger in the previous-gen Scars.
Over here, a 100W ROG USB-C charger is also included in the box with this configuration, but in most regions you’re only getting the main 380W charger. This PD charger is somewhat smaller and lighter, and useful for travelling, but the laptop doesn’t run at its full potential on USB-C power.
Price and availability- Asus ROG Scar 16 The ROG Scar 16 G635 lineup is listed in stores around the world at the time of this article, although it is not as widely available as the 18-inch model yet.
The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX + RTX 5090 configuration reviewed here is listed at $4299 in US stores, with 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage, while over here in Europe, you can get it for around 4500 EUR.
The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX + RTX 5080 configuration goes for $3299 in the US and 4000 EUR here across the pond, with 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage.
The 5090 model offers roughly a 10% increase in GPU performance, with a 25-30% higher price. So the 5080 is the better-value buy here. It’s still expensive compared to previous-gen Scars, but somehow that’s today’s reality, as only a few other 5080 notebooks sell for less on the US market.
Follow this link for updated configurations and prices in your region at the time you’re reading this article.
Final thoughts- 2025 Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 review The Asus ROG Scar 16 is the smaller variant of the Scar 18, with similar features and specs, but in a more compact and lightweight chassis. It runs at higher internal temperatures as a result and a little louder in fan noise, but doesn’t sacrifice performance or capabilities in any way.
The 2025 chassis is identical between sizes, with similar design lines and functionality. That means the front-lip is still shart, the screen still opens up to only 135-degrees and the new power-plug sticks out to the side. I wish Asus had put more thought into these details, which might not seem like much, but could kill the laptop for some. That’s especially the case for this 16-inch model, as the competition is tougher in this segment than for the Scar 18 in the 18-inch space .
What this laptop has on its side, aside from aesthetics and RGB/Anime Matrix, are the excellent inputs and the matte mini LED display. That’s not common with the 2025 generation, as some units are matte IPS only, and some have migrated towards glossy OLEDs. The Scar 16 is somewhere in between, with an excellent matte display, something many of you would want on this kind of notebook. Some will favor an OLED, though, and go towards a Legion Pro 7i or Predator Helios 16 instead.
As far as performance goes, the Ultra 9 275HX is 15-25% faster in sustained loads and tests over the Raptor Lake i9 HX processors, so an alright gen-for-gen upgrade. But on the GPU side, the 5080 is within 10-20% faster than high-power 4080 implementations in tests and workloads, and within 10% faster in games. Of course, for games, you get DLSS 4 as the key differentiator, with supported titles, which looks excellent and offers a massive boost in framerates over general settings without DLSS. But not all titles support DLSS 4.
And then there’s the price gap. 2025 notebooks are expensive. The 5090 model at 4K++ is a hard buy, and the 5080 is more interesting as it provides roughly 90% of the performance for 75% of the price. But even this one is expensive when compared to a previous-gen RTX 4080 laptop, especially as those go discounted today – you won’t find them for much longer in stock, though.
Bottom point, this Scar 16 is powerful, well-cooled, and well-built. But ergonomics aren’t spot on, and pricing is high, though more or less in line with other 2025 high-performance devices. At the end of the day, the mini LED display is probably going to make the difference over the competition, with this being the choice for those interested in a good matte display, and other options being the choice for glossy OLED fans. Those OLED models are cheaper as well, at least over here in Europe. Stay tuned for our reviews.
That wraps up my time with this 2025-gen ROG Scar 16. Get in touch below in the comments section with your feedback, questions, or any specific aspect that you might be interested in finding out about this series.
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Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com . I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.
