The ASUS Scar 15 gaming laptop has made the jump over to AMD’s Ryzen processors and
it’s got a new design for 2021, but is there more to it than just flashy RGB lighting?
Let’s find out in this review.
My configuration is specced quite high with 8 core Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, 32 gigs of
memory, and a 1080p 300Hz screen powered by Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics.
There are quite a few different specs available for this laptop though, you can find examples
and updated prices down in the description.
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Back to the laptop.
The overall design of the Scar 15 looks quite similar to previous models with plenty of
RGB lighting, though there are some interesting changes.
The metal lid has a black finish while the plastic interior is mostly black, while the
right half of the keyboard deck is translucent you can kind of see the insides.
The back plastic corner piece clips in and can be removed and swapped between three different
finishes, all three of which are included in the box with the laptop.
Overall build quality feels quite decent, there’s only minor flex to the keyboard
deck, though the screen has a bit more wobble to it, but it doesn’t shake around or anything
when actually using it.
The laptop alone weighs 2.3kg or 5.1lb, then 3kg or 6.7lb with the 240 watt power brick
and cables for charging.
The dimensions are similar to many other 15” laptops, it’s not thin, but I wouldn’t
say it’s thick, just standard gaming laptop size.
Mine has a 15.6” 1080p 300Hz screen, but it’s also available with a 1440p 165Hz option
too.
Both panel options have FreeSync, but there’s no option of disabling optimus for a speed
boost.
The colour gamut is fine, just not super impressive or anything, and the brightness gets to a
little over 300 nits at maximum, but expect different results with the 1440p option.
The ASUS Armoury Crate software, the control panel for the laptop, gives you the option
to enable or disable panel overdrive which affects screen response time.
Overdrive is enabled by default, and I measured the average grey-to-grey response time at
about 3.8ms.
There’s a link down in the description if you need an explanation on what all of these
numbers mean.
With overdrive instead disabled, we’re looking at around a 6.7ms response time now, however
there was now no overshoot or undershoot, both of which were present with overdrive
enabled.
When we look at how it compares against others, it’s one of the better results that I’ve
tested so far.
We’re after a 3.33ms response time for all transitions to occur within the refresh window
for a 300Hz panel, so we’re not under this on average.
There wasn’t any backlight bleed in my unit, but this will vary between laptops and panels.
Although there’s no cameras it does still have microphones, and this is what they sound
like.
The mechanical keyboard has per key RGB backlighting which illuminates all keys and secondary key
functions.
It’s got 3 levels of key brightness and 1.9mm of key travel, I really liked typing
with it.
The keys are clicky feeling and were great to use, here’s how it sounds to give you
an idea of what to expect.
So yeah a bit louder than non mechanical alternatives as you’d expect, but I think the trade off
is worth it, though I could see it being a little annoying for others if you’re in
a super quiet environment like a library or something.
You’ve got far less chance of accidentally mispressing the power button as it’s above
the keyboard on the right, and there are extra function buttons above on the left including
volume adjust, microphone mute, the fan icon lets you cycle between performance modes,
while the ROG logo is a shortcut to the armoury crate software.
The precision touchpad is quite large and works great, it feels accurate and I enjoyed
using it.
You can hold down on the top right to enable the numpad, but when in this mode the regular
touchpad cannot be used.
On the left from the back there’s an air exhaust vent, two USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports,
and a 3.5mm audio combo jack.
The right just has the key stone, and an air exhaust vent here too.
The keystone is this red key on the side which uses NFC and is held in by magnets, basically
you can customize things on the system like lighting and performance profiles and bind
them to the keystone, then when you connect it everything automatically changes to your
settings, so I only really see it being useful if you’re sharing the laptop with other
people.
It can also be used to unlock a hidden encrypted drive, so you can store, uh, stuff.
The rest of the I/O is on the back between two air exhaust vents, from left to right
we’ve got a third USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A port, USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port, HDMI 2.0b output,
gigabit ethernet port facing the preferred way and the power input.
The HDMI port connects to the integrated Radeon graphics while the Type-C port offers DisplayPort
support and connects directly to the Nvidia graphics, I’ll show how this affects performance
in games soon.
The Type-C port can also be used to charge the laptop.
The front has a little plastic bit sticking out in the middle to help with opening the
lid, and it’s easy to open with one finger, it felt well balanced on my lap.
The plastic interior feels extremely smooth so it’s quite easy to clean off fingerprints
and dirt which show up pretty easily.
There’s also a light bar that runs along the front, and a little on the left and right
hand sides, just like last year’s model, however the new 2021 model also adds a little
light bar below the screen on this little section where there’s a gap.
The logo on the lid also has RGB lighting, and all of it can be customized through the
ASUS Aura Creator software.
Underneath has a large rubber foot section to the right up the back, but despite this
it’s still got holes in it for airflow, as we can see here.
You need to be careful when opening it up.
There are 11 phillips head screws, the four down the front are shorter than the rest and
the one down the front on the right doesn’t come out and instead creates a gap to help
you open it.
There are two ribbon cables attaching the bottom panel to the motherboard which are
used for the light bar.
I could see this being very easy to break if you’re not aware and just pull off the
panel, personally I much prefer MSI’s GE76 design as the light bar is part of the chassis.
Inside we’ve got the battery down the front, two memory slots in the middle just above,
two M.2 storage slots above on the left, and the WiFi 6 card is hidden below the installed
SSD.
The speakers are underneath down the front on the left and right sides, and they sound
amazing for a gaming laptop, plenty of bass though not quite as clear at max volume despite
not getting super loud, but still well above average, and the latencymon results were good
too.
Like most other ASUS gaming laptops, it plays this sound on boot.
Fortunately it’s possible to disable it either through the Armoury crate software
or BIOS.
The BIOS has the same layout as other modern ASUS laptops, so just most of the basic options
without too much customization available.
The Scar 15 has a 4-Cell 90Wh battery.
I’ve tested it with all RGB lighting off, background apps disabled and screen set to
50% brightness.
The ASUS Armoury crate software gives you the option of enabling iGPU only mode.
This will disable the Nvidia discrete graphics to help improve battery life.
You can manually enable it through the software, or also choose for it to enable automatically
when you unplug.
The software will also lower the refresh rate of the screen down to 60Hz when you unplug
to help save battery.
This results in the screen flashing black briefly while it changes.
In my YouTube playback test I didn’t find the iGPU mode to make too much difference
here, just 11 minutes longer runtime, but hey still an improvement, and this could be
larger if your system has other apps installed that frequently call the GPU.
The Scar 15 is stacking up well when compared to other gaming laptops, one of the better
results I’ve recorded, especially with this higher tier hardware inside, lasting for 9
hours and 44 minutes in the YouTube playback test.
The MyASUS software also lets you change between these options to prevent the battery charging
to 100% which can help increase battery life span.
Let’s check out thermals next.
There are plenty of heatpipes inside, and the Ryzen processor is cooled with liquid
metal.
The ASUS Armoury Crate software lets us change between different performance profiles, which
from lowest to highest are silent, performance, turbo and manual.
Turbo mode applies the following overclock to the GPU, but this can be modified in manual
mode.
Manual mode also lets us modify fan speed as well as CPU power limits.
I’ve done most of my testing with manual mode for best performance.
The idle results down the bottom were warmer compared to most others, which does result
in warmer keyboard temps than average, as you’ll see soon.
I’ve run stress tests with both the CPU and GPU loaded up to represent a worst case,
as well as playing an actual game.
The GPU, represented by the green bars, was hitting thermal throttle limits in performance
mode with the stress tests going, otherwise the CPU in the blue bars appears to be hitting
limits in turbo and manual modes prior to using the cooling pad, link for the model
I’m using is down in the description.
The temperatures with this game running were cooler compared to the worst case stress tests
which is generally the case.
These are the clockspeeds for the same tests just shown.
The results are a bit strange, with the stress tests running performance mode actually drops
back in CPU speed in exchange for a boost to the GPU, something that isn’t happening
with the game running, it could be dynamic boost messing around.
There are otherwise only small differences between turbo and manual modes.
The GPU was basically maxing out with the stress tests running while the CPU was able
to surpass 60 watts, a great result, though with the game running the CPU seemed to be
limited to 45 watts.
Higher power limits can clearly be hit in the stress tests but we’re not seeing it
in the games.
I think this is simply because the clockspeeds we just looked at were basically already hitting
maximum in this specific game.
This isn’t usually the case in this test, but maybe I need to move to a newer game.
The only reason I haven’t yet is this one hasn’t been a problem so far and it means
all my past results are comparable.
Here’s how an actual game performs with these different modes in use.
There’s basically no change at all between performance and manual modes, while silent
isn’t even reaching half the frame rate.
In fact I wouldn’t consider the performance in watch dogs earlier in silent mode as playable.
Here’s how the different modes perform in Cinebench R23.
Again not too much of a difference between performance, turbo and manual modes in both
single and multi core.
The multi core CPU performance in this test is the best score I’ve recorded so far,
and the single core result is well up there too.
Makes sense, the 5900HX is the best Ryzen mobile processor I’ve had so far.
We’re not losing too much performance when running on battery power relative to other
laptops either.
The G15 takes the lead now, but the Scar 15 is still close to the top with these same
machines.
The keyboard was in the low 40s when idling in silent mode, most others are around 30,
so a bit warmer as a result of the above average idle temps noted earlier.
It’s only a little warmer with the stress tests running as the fans get louder.
Performance mode was similar again, cool wrist rest and only a little warm in the middle.
Turbo mode was cooler now as the fan speed also increases, then manual mode is cooler
still as the fans are even louder now, let’s have a listen.
At idle there were two different levels, it was either silent or the fan had a light pulsating
noise.
Performance mode wasn’t much louder than silent mode, then turbo is a fair bit louder
while manual mode pushes beyond this, ideally you’d want to be using headphones.
Now let’s find out how well the new Ryzen based Scar 15 compares against other laptops
in games, just use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested at different
times with different drivers.
I’ve tested Battlefield 5 in campaign mode at ultra settings, and the Scar 15 is highlighted
in red.
The result isn’t bad or anything, I mean it’s only just slightly under the desktop
replacement Alienware 51m, but I was expecting better from the 16 gig RTX 3080 graphics here.
The lower wattage 3070 in the Aero 15 is doing better, though it does have an Intel processor
and I did recently show that Intel is by no means out of the CPU gaming race just yet.
The XMG Neo 15 is Ryzen based but with 3070 graphics, and I suspect it’s much further
ahead because that one has a MUX switch and lets you disable optimus.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark tool with the highest
setting preset, and the Scar 15 drops down a couple of positions now relative to the
same selection of laptops.
It’s just a little ahead of the thinner ASUS Zephyrus G15 just below it which also
has RTX 3080 graphics, though half the VRAM and with a lower power limit.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the games benchmark tool at max settings.
The Scar 15 was lower this time around.
This test tends to be more CPU dependent, and I was expecting more from the 5900HX though
that wasn’t the case here.
The results don't really make sense to me either, given the 5900HS with the lower powered
3080 in the G15 was performing better here, though to be fair the G15 does have a high
CPU power limit for a HS chip.
The 3080 graphics paired with the 1080p screen are a bit overkill unless you’re a serious
esports player, but even then if that was your priority you’d be better served by
a laptop that actually lets you disable optimus, as that will give you a speed boost, especially
in esports titles.
We can see the difference this would make by attaching an external monitor to the Type-C
port, as this bypasses optimus.
In this game there’s a 12.5% boost to average FPS, a pretty decent improvement for such
a simple change.
I’ve also tested this configuration of Scar 15 in 13 different titles at all setting levels,
you can check out that video over here if you want to get a better idea of how well
it performs in games.
It’s also worth noting that you can flush custom VBIOS to this laptop to get better
performance in games.
I won’t be doing that in this video as this is a borrowed review unit and it’s not without
its risks, but if you do want to see what the performance differences are in games with
the higher GPU power limit, then you can check out this video by GizmoSlipTech.
Now for the benchmarking tools, I’ve tested Heaven, Valley, and Superposition from Unigine,
as well as Firestrike, Timespy and Port Royal from 3DMark, just pause the video if you want
a detailed look at these results.
Adobe Premiere was tested with the Puget Systems benchmark.
The results from the Scar 15 are the best I’ve seen from this newer version of the
test.
Despite the larger GE76 having a higher GPU power limit, it’s coming in slightly lower,
presumably due to the Intel processor given most of the top results are Ryzen based.
Adobe Photoshop generally depends more on processor performance, and again the result
from the Ryzen 9 5900HX is great here too, only a little behind the 5900HX in the clevo
chassis at the top.
DaVinci Resolve is more GPU heavy, and although this laptop has the 16 gig RTX 3080, the power
limit isn’t as high as others, so the processor is clearly making a difference here too.
Outside of gaming it’s clear that the Scar has an edge in content creator workloads.
I’ve also tested SPECviewperf which tests out various professional 3D workloads.
The drive speed for the 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD was great for both reads and writes, and as there’s
a 2nd M.2 slot you could add another drive if you want.
I booted an Ubuntu 20 live CD to test Linux support.
Out of the box the speakers, keyboard, touchpad and WiFi worked fine, but the shortcut keys
to adjust keyboard and screen brightness didn’t work by default.
Let’s discuss price, you can check the links in the description for updated prices, as
these will change over time.
At the time of recording, the configuration I’ve tested here is listed at $2700 USD
on the ASUS website, though the 3070 model is $500 less and will probably still perform
very nicely.
There’s also a cheaper version with the 3080 but lower 5800H CPU, though this one
also has lower memory, the point is there are options.
Alright so with all of that in mind, let’s summarise both the good and the bad to help
you decide if the ASUS Scar 15 is a gaming laptop worth considering.
ASUS have started to deliver what everyone was asking for last year - high end Ryzen
gaming laptops.
The specs in my unit are on the higher end of what’s available, however the gaming
performance wasn’t quite where I’d expect, probably because of the inability of disabling
optimus, but at least it has FreeSync.
Outside of gaming though, as we saw earlier in the content creator workloads and in Cinebench,
the CPU performance from the Ryzen 9 5900HX is next level.
It can run hot depending on the workload even with the liquid metal, though that’s with
a worst case stress test.
Actual games didn’t seem too bad and we’ve got the option of customizing fan speed to
improve things.
The 1080p screen is decent for gaming, it’s got fairly low response time and ok brightness
and colours, though the 1440p option might be better for maximizing the 3080 graphics
in my unit.
I’d probably go for the 1440p option, especially if I was considering the larger 17” model,
but that’s just personal preference.
Overall the build quality is good, and there’s plenty of RGB lighting if that’s your thing,
but even if it’s not you can customize it or turn it off.
Battery life was great and it’s got Type-C charging support.
The mechanical keyboard and touchpad were both great to use.
My only real complaint outside of it not letting us disable optimus are those two ribbon cables
that connect the bottom panel to the motherboard.
I have heard of people breaking the connectors by taking the bottom panel off who weren’t
aware of this, and if others like MSI can pull off a light bar without these, then I’m
sure ASUS can get it sorted too.
Other than that, I’m sure the lack of camera will be a deal breaker for some.
So although I’ve got the Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, you can still save some money and get
the Ryzen 7 5800H, which is still an 8 core chip.
I’m going to be comparing both of those CPUs in an upcoming video, so make sure you’re
subscribed for that future comparison as it should give you a good idea if whether or
not it’s worth paying the extra money.
Otherwise you can check out how well this gaming laptop performs in 13 different games
in this video over here, or come over and join us in Discord and get behind the scenes
videos by supporting the channel on Patreon.