ASUS’s Scar 17 is the most powerful gaming laptop I’ve ever tested!
I mean just check this out.
AMD’s new Ryzen 9 7945HX processor easily gets the best multicore score I’ve ever
seen from any laptop so far.
Unlike the best Intel laptops, there isn’t a mix of high performance and efficiency cores,
it’s all big cores with AMD, but Intel’s 13th gen still gets the win when it comes
to single core performance.
The Scar 17 is still the best performer even if we unplug the charger and run the test
on the battery, impressive stuff, but it’s not all positive.
This new 16 core CPU is so power hungry that it’s one of the worst battery life results
I’ve ever measured, lasting for just 2 hours and 38 minutes watching a YouTube video.
Apart from the newer CPU and GPU, the Scar 17 in 2023 uses the same body as last year’s
Scar 17 SE.
The combination of RTX 4090 graphics and Ryzen 9 7945HX constantly put it at the top of our
game tests too.
Out of the three games we regularly use to compare with tested at three different resolutions,
so 9 results, the Scar 17 was only beaten twice, by ASUS’s own Scar 18 with Intel
Core i9 processor and the same RTX 4090 graphics.
The screen’s colors look pretty good too, and it’s got advanced optimus with G-Sync.
Unfortunately it doesn’t get super bright, and although I think 300 nits at maximum is
good enough, it also kind of sucks for such a high end laptop.
The screen response time was decent, but not all transitions fell within the 4.17ms refresh
window.
It’s slightly slower compared to last year’s Scar 17 SE with a 1080p 360Hz panel, while
this year’s Scar 18 is one of the better results so far, only beaten in a meaningful
way by OLED screens.
Despite the slightly slower screen, the Scar 17 was much closer to the 18 in total system
latency, which is the amount of time between when you click the mouse and when a gunshot
actually shows on the screen.
Generally I’ve found this year’s RTX 40 series laptops to do very well here, but last
year’s Scar 17 SE was actually a little faster.
The internal layout is the same as last year’s scar too, despite the new 16 core AMD processor.
Unfortunately this means it still has the annoying ribbon cables connecting the bottom
panel to the motherboard, so be careful when opening it.
Although the 7945HX supports DDR5-5200 memory according to AMD’s website, the Scar 17
only seems to ship with DDR5-4800 memory, however I confirmed that it can run faster
5200 sticks if you’ve got them.
And the 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD performs very well.
Just like all ASUS gaming laptops, there are different performance modes, while only manual
allows us to control things like CPU power limits, fan speeds, and maximum GPU temperature.
Let’s check out thermals.
The CPU and GPU were a little warm when sitting there idle.
The rest of the results show the different performance modes with a combined CPU and
GPU stress test running, so worst case results.
Manual mode was tested with the fans maxed out, but the CPU was still thermal throttling,
at least until we added a cooling pad, which lowered the temps a bit.
The one I test with is linked below the video.
If we instead close the lid, well it’s back to CPU thermal throttling, but it’s only
a little worse compared to leaving the lid open, as the clock speed difference wasn’t
actually that much lower.
The cooling pad gets us about 100MHz higher clock speed over all 16 cores.
Interestingly silent mode hit the highest CPU clocks, and this is because the RTX 4090
laptop GPU was power limited to just 55 watts.
The GPU runs much higher in the other modes, maxing out at 170 watts even with the CPU
fully loaded up, a powerful result.
Performance in an actual game wasn’t that different between performance, turbo and manual
modes.
Silent was way lower though, and considering performance mode was about the same temps
as turbo, it’s not that balanced.
The integrated graphics aren’t as good as other Ryzen laptop CPUs this year, because
AMD figures that the 7945HX will always be paired with higher powered discrete graphics.
Although the internals can definitely get warm, even with liquid metal on both the CPU
and GPU and vapor chamber cooler, the exterior stays cool to the touch, even under combined
CPU and GPU stress tests.
The fans don’t get too loud either, let’s have a listen.
I mean 53 decibels isn’t exactly quiet, but many other top specced laptops I’ve
recently tested are more like 57 to 60, which is a fair bit louder.
Top-end CPU and GPU means a great experience in content creation workloads too.
The only exception is Adobe Premiere, which always seems to suffer when there’s an AMD
processor involved.
Presumably due to the Radeon integrated graphics, as Intel’s iGPU enables Quick Sync.
It might also just be that the 610M graphics don’t perform well, as we saw in the game.
Unlike last year’s Intel based Scar 17 SE, this year’s AMD one had an excellent latencymon
result, and the speakers also sound great.
The Scar series consistently have some of the best sounding out of any gaming laptop.
Great, so AMD’s 7945HX CPU offers super high performance, but is it worth the price?
Pricing and availability will change over time, so check out the link below the video
for updates, and if this laptop goes on sale we’ll be sure to add it to the gaminglaptop.deals
website.
We update that every day so you can get the best deal on your next gaming laptop!
At the time of recording, the Scar 17 with the same specs that I’ve tested here goes
for $3500 USD on Amazon.
And it does seem to be a fair bit less compared to ASUS’s Scar 18 with 4090 graphics, but
Intel processor.
The lower tier RTX 4080 option is available for $600 less, but I mean if you just want
the CPU, you can get the 7945HX in ASUS’s Strix G17 but with lower tier RTX 4060 graphics
for $1800 USD.
A bit pricey for a 4060, you’re definitely paying for that beast of a CPU here.
If you need the best possible multicore performance in a portable package, then ASUS’s Scar
17 with Ryzen 9 7945HX is worth considering.
Just don’t expect good battery life, which has traditionally been the norm from Ryzen
based gaming laptops.
But that seems to change here with the 16 core chip.
As for everything else about the Scar 17 like ports, RGB lighting, keyboard, touchpad and
more, well again, apart from the new CPU and GPU, this year’s Scar 17 is the same as
last year’s Scar 17 SE.
So check out last year’s review if you need any of those other details.
Or check out this one instead where I’ve compared the 7945HX in this laptop against
Intel’s i9-13980HX in the ASUS Scar 18.
That video will answer once and for all who makes the best laptop CPU this year, Intel
or AMD?