The ASUS Scar II with RTX 2060 graphics looks like a good gaming laptop and has been heavily
requested, so let’s find out just how well it performs games. I’ve benchmarked 20 different
games at all setting levels to show you how well it runs and help you decide if it’s
a laptop you should consider buying.
Just quickly before we jump into the benchmark results I’ll cover off the specs in my unit.
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 better results with that configuration.
I was running Windows 10 with the latest Nvidia drivers available, and just a reminder we’re
only looking at gaming performance here, if you’re new here get subscribed for the upcoming
full review.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode and not in multiplayer mode, as it’s easier
to consistently reproduce the test run. The purple bars show the results with ray tracing
disabled, while the green bars show RTX on. The RTX results were alright for medium and
low, at least for a laptop, and it actually played ok with RTX on at high and ultra, although
for a first person shooter game personally I’d want more FPS and stick to RTX off.
Battlefield 1 was also tested in campaign mode, and was performing very nicely, with
over 100 FPS easily possible at ultra settings, with medium settings allowing us to take full
advantage of the 144Hz 3ms response time panel.
Apex Legends was tested with either all settings at maximum, or all settings on the lowest
possible values, as it doesn’t have predefined setting presets. It played well even with
max settings, still perfectly smooth with fairly high frame rate, with 37% higher average
FPS possible at minimum settings.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark, and with ultra settings the
average frame rates were fair for this test with almost 60 for the 1% low, with of course
higher possible at lower settings.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and the results were ahead of the
newer Far Cry New Dawn just covered, again alright results for this test.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and due to a recent game update the replay
I’ve used is a fair bit different compared to my previous tests, so these results can’t
really be compared with my past results. Regardless even with max settings over 100 FPS was easily
possible in this well optimized game.
Overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range, as other
players, bots and even different maps in actual gameplay affect the frame rate and this allows
for consistent testing. The 300 FPS frame cap wasn’t hit here, however the results
are still extremely high, able to take advantage of a high refresh rate panel even at epic
settings.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built in benchmark, and the results at
highest settings were a little behind another RTX 2060 laptop I’ve tested, the Aorus 15,
though still good results and easily playable no problems.
Metro Exodus was tested using the built in benchmark, which performs worse than actual
game play, making this more of a synthetic test rather than indicative of actual game
performance, but does allow you to perform the same test run to compare.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and like always high frame rates were coming
out of this test, with 200 just possible with all settings at minimum and not much of a
drop with everything at medium.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark, and is a game I’ve found to
benefit from Nvidia’s new turing architecture. The frame rates are super high as expected,
however it’s worth noting I always use the defaults the built in presets set, so 50%
render scale and T-AA.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and over 100 FPS averages were possible at
ultra settings, although there wasn’t really much of a difference at the lower levels.
I did note that these results were ahead of the 2080 Max-Q in the Alienware m17, and I
used the exact same replay file, which seems to be due to throttling in the m17, but still
interesting that a 2060 can come out ahead.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark, and I was getting
above 60 FPS with very high settings, though still alright results maxed out as this game
doesn’t really need a high frame rate to play well, though higher is certainly possible
with lower settings.
Dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on,
and it was running very smoothly without any problems at all, not surprising given it runs
on just about anything.
Watch Dogs 2 is a resource intensive game, but despite this even ultra settings was able
to average 60 FPS, which is plenty given this is a game that I think runs perfectly fine
with a solid 30 FPS.
Ghost Recon is another demanding game and was tested using the built in benchmark. Lower
frame rates are expected with all but the most powerful laptops at ultra settings in
this test, however there was a fairly good improvement stepping down to very high or
below.
The Witcher 3 was also running well with hairworks disabled, with 100 FPS possible at high settings,
while low settings allowed us to make use of the 144Hz display, not that this game really
benefits much from a super high frame rate.
DOOM was tested using Vulkan, and is a game that I always fine to run extremely well on
modern hardware. With our nice specs here even maxed out we’re seeing over 130 FPS,
and up to 160 for the low preset.
Strange Brigade was another game that was tested with Vulkan, and was just below 100
FPS with ultra settings in the built in benchmark, though almost double was possible with low
settings. I’ve only just added this game recently, so I don’t have much other data
to compare with yet.
Shadow of War was tested with the built in benchmark, and is another game that I’ve
found to benefit from Nvidia’s new Turing architecture. The results were decent, with
over 100 FPS averages possible at high settings while still looking good.
Let’s also take a look at how the Scar II compares with some other laptops to see how
it stacks up, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested at different
times with different versions of Nvidia drivers.
In Battlefield 5 I’ve got the Scar II up the top shown by the red bar, and out of this
random selection of laptops it’s a little behind the other 2060 laptop I’ve tested,
the Aorus 15.
Here are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark, this time
the Scar II was ahead of the Aorus 15 with RTX 2060, this just goes to show it varies
by game.
These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest
settings, in this one the Scar II was behind the Aorus 15.
Overall I was happy with the gaming performance of the Scar II at 1080p, when I was updating
the data in my spreadsheet I was overwriting the old data from the Alienware m17 with 2080
Max-Q graphics, and in many cases the RTX 2060 of the Scar II wasn’t that far behind
due to throttling with the m17, but more on that in a future video. Basically with the
i7-8750H CPU, dual channel memory, and RTX 2060 graphics with 144Hz screen we’ve got
a nice gaming machine here. I’ll be covering thermal testing in an upcoming video, so if
you’re new here get subscribed for that.
So how do you guys think the ASUS Scar II gaming laptop with RTX graphics did in these
games? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments, and get subscribed so you don’t
miss the full review of the ASUS Scar II gaming laptop.