The ASUS Scar II is a good gaming laptop, but how hot does it get? I’ll be taking
a detailed look at thermals, overclocking, and seeing how much we can improve performance
by undervolting, boosting power limits and raising fan speed.
I’ve got the GL504GV version here, which is the 15 inch version with an Intel i7-8750H
CPU, Nvidia RTX 2060 graphics and 16GB of memory running in dual channel. The Scar II
is also available with RTX 2070 graphics, so expect different results with that configuration.
On the bottom of the laptop there doesn’t appear to be many vents for air flow, however
there is also an intake vent above the keyboard. There was also a heatpipe shared between the
processor and graphics, so a change in temperature of one of these will affect the other.
The ASUS Armoury Crate software provides different modes, silent, balanced and turbo. Balanced
mode is essentially stock settings, and gives us a 35 watt TDP limit on the CPU while under
a combined CPU and GPU workload, while turbo mode boosts this to 45 watts and also raises
the fan speed to help with cooling.
Thermal testing was completed in an ambient room temperature of 23 degrees Celsius, so
expect different results in different environments. I’ve tested idle down the bottom with the
silent profile, and the temperatures were fairly cool. Gaming was tested by playing
Watch Dogs 2, as I find it to use a good combination of processor and graphics. The stress test
results are from running the Aida64 CPU stress test and Heaven benchmark at the same time
to fully load the system. We can see that any time turbo mode is engaged the CPU temperatures,
shown by the blue bars, increase. This is because the TDP limit raises to boost performance,
and we’ll see how this helps improve clock speed in the next graph. The Thermaltake Massive
20 cooling pad was tested at the top of the graph, and only slightly helped with temperatures,
I suspect due to the small air intakes underneath the laptop. I’ll also note that there was
no thermal throttling from any of these tests.
These are the average clock speeds for the same tests just shown. With the gaming tests
it was possible to boost CPU clock speed by 300 to 400MHz by enabling turbo mode, though
there’s no change to GPU clock speeds here as turbo mode doesn’t perform any GPU overclocking,
something I noted that it did do in the Zephyrus S. With turbo mode and the -0.1v undervolt
applied to the CPU it was almost possible to reach the full 3.9GHz all core turbo speed
of the i7-8750H. With the stress tests running we were still about 300MHz behind this maximum
possible speed, and the cooling pad at the top of the graph doesn’t change the clock
speeds here as there was no thermal throttling, power limit throttling was the issue here.
Despite this we’re still able to get a fair improvement with turbo mode and undervolting.
These are the clock speeds I got while just running CPU only stress tests without any
GPU load. With the Aida64 stress test running it was possible to hit the 3.9GHz all core
turbo speed of the i7 with a combination of CPU undervolt and boosting the power limit,
max speed wasn’t possible in this test with just one or the other. I’ll also note that
raising the power limit of the CPU was only possible in CPU only workloads, increasing
the limit did nothing in combined CPU and GPU workloads, it would max out at 45 watts,
which is why power limit throttling was preventing higher clock speeds in the combined tests
shown previously despite there being some thermal headroom. Here are the temperatures
from the same tests just shown, no change with the undervolt applied, while boosting
the TDP raises the CPU temperature by 15 degrees Celsius, but then undervolting brings it back
7 degrees at the max 3.9GHz speed.
To demonstrate how this translates into performance I’ve got some Cinebench CPU benchmarks here.
There’s no difference to the single core results, as this isn’t enough load to cause
any throttling. The results otherwise closely match the CPU only clock speeds just shown
before.
Here are the GPU only clock speeds while under a graphical only stress test with turbo mode
in use, as well as the improvements seen by applying a manual 140MHz overclock to the
GPU core with MSI Afterburner, although it was power limit throttling even at stock,
which seems to be the case with most RTX laptops I’ve tested so far. This is why there was
no temperature difference between stock and overclocked.
So how do these performance boosts actually translate into games? I’ve tested with the
exact same Windows, Nvidia and game updates installed, the only changes were the ones
listed here.
Far Cry 5 was tested using the built in benchmark at 1080p. At ultra settings there was a 3%
improvement to average FPS with the CPU undervolted, power limit boosted, and graphics overclocked,
the best case scenario. The 1% low rose by 5.6%, I’m guessing due to that extra CPU
performance, so it is possible to get some improvements with simple tweaks. If you’re
after more gaming benchmarks with the ASUS Scar II, check the card in the top right where
I’ve tested 20 different games.
As for the external temperatures where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle with
the silent profile enabled it was cool, mid 20s in the center. While gaming or under stress
test with the balanced profile in use the wrist rest was still very cool, and the majority
of the keyboard stayed cooled too, barely getting to the high 30s in the center, and
mid 40s up the back. With turbo mode enabled and the stress tests going it was perhaps
just a tiny bit cooler, either way it was quite impressive at containing the heat.
As for the fan noise produced by the laptop, I’ll let you have a listen to some of these
tests.
The fan speed was constantly ramping up or down while under any sort of load, regardless
of the balanced or turbo profile in use. This may be annoying, it changes every minute or
so while under load between low speed and high speed, even if you manually set it to
100% this still happens. Despite this, at idle it was fairly quiet, with no fan changing
noticed here. While gaming or under stress test with the balanced profile it wasn’t
that loud, and dropped down fairly low at times. With turbo mode it did get quite loud,
but again would lower back down for a bit before going back up, personally I’d prefer
a constant speed somewhere in between.
Overall I think the Scar II is performing quite well. It’s not thermal throttling
and the temperatures don’t get quite as high as many other laptops with similar specs
that I’ve tested. This appeared to be due to power limit throttling that was put in
place for combined CPU and GPU workloads, which as we saw did reduce maximum clock speeds
by a little, which is always going to be a compromise to have a cooler machine. As we’ve
seen it is possible to improve combined workloads with undervolting and using turbo mode, while
CPU only workloads could be improved by boosting the power limit. Despite the small air vents
underneath it didn’t get too hot, likely thanks to the extra air vent above the keyboard.
I was surprised at how cool the keyboard area stayed during high load too, no problems there,
the only annoying thing was the fans constantly ramping up and down, perhaps a future BIOS
update will allow them to actually stick at 100%, which would further improve thermals
at the expense of system noise.
The 230 watt power brick also seemed to be adequate, I didn’t see performance loss
or the battery drain under heavy loads while plugged into the power. 230 watt bricks generally
seem to get paired with the RTX 2070, which is what ASUS also do with the Scar II, so
it was good we still get a larger brick than your typical 180 watts which seems to be more
common with the RTX 2060.
These differences in performance shown aren’t hard and fast rules, there are different factors
which will vary results, primarily the temperature of the room you’re running in, application
of thermal paste, and even the specific hardware which comes down to the silicon lottery. You
may not be able to undervolt or overclock your hardware the same as me, it depends on
the chip and its specific power requirements, so don’t just blindly copy my settings and
do some testing to find out where your stable point is for best results. For example my
i7 only got a -0.1v undervolt before becoming unstable, I’ve had other laptops that would
easily take -0.15v no problem, while there were others where -0.07 was too far.
It may be possible to further improve temperatures by swapping the thermal paste, however as
this is a review unit that I have to send back I’m not able to change the paste, otherwise
the next reviewer will unknowingly report different results due to what I’ve done.
Undervolting and raising the fan speed is much easier for most people to do, and as
we've seen it did improve performance in the Scar II gaming laptop. A cooling pad can help
a little too, though it doesn’t really seem to be worth it given the small air intakes
underneath, and the fact that there was no thermal throttling, so it won’t really help
improve performance anyway, just temperatures slightly.
Let me know how much of a performance boost you’ve found by undervolting your hardware
and what you thought of the improvements here, and course don’t forget to subscribe for
the full review of the ASUS Scar II gaming laptop as well as future thermal testing videos
like this one.