Asus ROG Strix Scar 17chat_bubble_outlineFrom real comments

Multiple users report CPU/GPU temps in the 90s Celsius, thermal throttling, and difficulty keeping the system cool even on demanding titles, with one calling stock cooling terrible.

@CO8848_2

Why people keep talking about those bad ideas I don't know. 49090 in a laptop that is not portable, fans going off like nuts, heated keyboards and thermal throttling. And you over pay for specs that cannot be fully realized because the thermals.launch

smart_display

July 14, 2023

@andrzejzoedz7738

Hello. You make great stuff However, I have a question about this laptop I've seen temperatures of 98 degrees with Dead Space Did these frame drops happen only in this one game? Can you in good conscience recommend this laptop?launch

smart_display

July 12, 2023

@user-bw8kb6yk1s

My laptop the same as reviewed here, I’m playing hell let loose on ultra settings 1440p. \nIn the middle of the match laptop restarts, that happened 4 times. \n😢\nI also play rdr2 , and I noticed that laptop gets very hot on the surface. \nI’ve tried to reach the support service, they were on the day off.\nJust in case someone from Asus sees my comment, I’m ready to provide the serial number of my laptoplaunch

smart_display

May 7, 2023

@lupuslucius99

Very interesting review... Personally, with regard to the materials, I prefer to have more metal finishes, at the expense of a greater weight, on such a machine, in which portability is compromised by the generous size, considering the price not cheap, compared to the choice of materials. Bad that Asus still insists on not finding a better implementation for the front rgb strip (the cables are very delicate and the risk of ruining the connectors by disassembling the cover, and 'high). A little' poor webcam compared to what offers the competition, but at least this year 'have put' put! Too bad for the touchpad, and the high temperatures of the CPU, which I expected to behave thermally better, given the better efficiency, compared to Intel. Well that at least there does not seem to be any annoying coil whine noise.launch

smart_display

April 8, 2023

Commenters repeatedly call the roughly 300-350 nit non-HDR panel disappointing given the $2800-4000+ price, unfavorably comparing it to cheaper laptops with OLED screens.

@Bavanity

No function key lights\nWhy Asus? Really, the $0.50c saving for an extra light strip is that important?\nAlso (hi Stephen btw), how come you are not showing CPU frequency in Afterburner?\nOh, just saw it's only 350 nits/Non HDR - unlike the intel models. SO weird of Asus. That's a deal killer like it was on the Alienware. Oh well.\nNo windows hello kills it even more. Even their 6500$ laptop doesn't have that (the Intel version with 64Gb ram and 2x1TB drives, crazy instead of 1x2TB).\n\nSo far the MSI GT77 is still my favourite but I refuse to buy it without advanced optimus and G-sync, especially at that insane price. Also the LED has some response time issues in some spectrums, which is a problem for me. \n\nI really might have no choice but to settle on the Razer, even after the nightmare I had with them last year (REALLY bad, a story for another time if you're interested, it's shocking really).\n\nBut it's the only one that has everything I want, Windows IR, HDR, 4090, 2TB ssd in one drive. I am a bit disappointed it's not 64GB ram and no numeric keypad even on 18\" but it's by far the closest to anything so far for me, even if the wattage limits are slightly lower. It still performs great and the screen is perfect for my needs, near 600 nits IPS with true 3.3 ms response in all areas, that's great.\nThe only other one that might be of interest is the Clevo, but every day I hope for a review and never find one.\nThe one I am talking about is this in Australia:\nhttps://www.metabox.com.au/store/Prime-XR-Range\nChassis is the X370SNW-G\nIt has EVERY feature I want, even a 4K G-sync 144hz panel as an option which I'd probably get with the 4090. With 64GB ram and 2TB SSD price comes to about the Razer 18. So not cheap.\nThey are claiming 330W of sustained air cooling which means if the GPU is 175 watts then the CPU can theoretically get 155 simultaneously. I find it hard to believe hence why I want a review.\n\nThoughts? G-sync, a 4090 and HDR are a must for me. If I am going to upgrade I want a huge difference to my 2021 legion 7i RTX 3000 and I am certainly not going to go backwards from a 500 nits HDR screen with Dolby Vision which is brilliant for Netflix. I also want windows hello like my Razer 15 used to have.\nMine also passes latencymon.. *What happened to you testing the audio latency Stephen?*\n\nThe Alienware M18 is the right price and also has EVERYTHING bar a top tier screen. If they update that it will be my choice for sure. Again I don't want to go back to 300 nits non HDR screens under any circumstances. I have my Lenovo on full brightness 80% of the time as it is! It's so hard as so many are so close, but for 6 grand and upwards in AUD, I don't want to compromise! The Legions are crap this year unfortunately.launch

smart_display

May 2, 2023

@Cerbyo

4000 dollars!???!?! How do I justify that much purely for performance especially when it looks the way it does. I'd get tired of looking at it after a week. The display and other basic features are lackluster compared to what you can get for 2000, no? JUST PERFORMANCE is worth 2000$ in and of itself? Really??? Would anyone care getting 300 frames instead of 200 frames if you get a much nicer display to see those 200 frames? I'm open to the idea I'm missing something here. I had to spend 20minutes just determining what all the different STRIX models are....it has an inferior G series to confuse people into buying lesser products it seems.launch

smart_display

April 21, 2023

@vladdank9158

~300-350 nits at this price range is kind of a joke coming from Asus honestly.\nLooking to see how Lenovo will price theirs.launch

smart_display

April 20, 2023

@setzer-j6s

Stephen, I'm disappointed you didn't praise the lack of blocked vents. Its an asus tradition at this point. It helps ''airflow'' and is clearly superior to normal large vented laptops. \n\nJoking aside, great review as always. I would just add that for a $2800+ machine, its display is highly disappointing. Its worse than the $1400 gigabyte aero 16 with its 4k OLED. Didn't nvidia advertise the rtx 4080 and 4090 as 4k cards? Ah wait, this isn't a rtx 4080, this is just a 4070 named a 4080. Thats why it can't do 4k gaming and hence the lack of 4k oled panels paired to it. Wish we got at least glossy panels. Matte coating on these laptops is horrendous for content creation as its not really color accurate. \n\nIts not the laptop's fault, but any laptop packing a rtx 4000 series GPU is an immediate disappointment to me. They literally have lower TDP's than turing, worse performance uplift than pascal and even worse pricing than ampere. Nvidia combined the worst of turing and ampere and rolled it into lovelace.launch

smart_display

April 9, 2023

Commenters repeatedly balk at prices from roughly $2800 up to $4000+, feeling the display, battery, and materials don't match the premium cost.

@Cerbyo

4000 dollars!???!?! How do I justify that much purely for performance especially when it looks the way it does. I'd get tired of looking at it after a week. The display and other basic features are lackluster compared to what you can get for 2000, no? JUST PERFORMANCE is worth 2000$ in and of itself? Really??? Would anyone care getting 300 frames instead of 200 frames if you get a much nicer display to see those 200 frames? I'm open to the idea I'm missing something here. I had to spend 20minutes just determining what all the different STRIX models are....it has an inferior G series to confuse people into buying lesser products it seems.launch

smart_display

April 21, 2023

@vladdank9158

~300-350 nits at this price range is kind of a joke coming from Asus honestly.\nLooking to see how Lenovo will price theirs.launch

smart_display

April 20, 2023

@setzer-j6s

Stephen, I'm disappointed you didn't praise the lack of blocked vents. Its an asus tradition at this point. It helps ''airflow'' and is clearly superior to normal large vented laptops. \n\nJoking aside, great review as always. I would just add that for a $2800+ machine, its display is highly disappointing. Its worse than the $1400 gigabyte aero 16 with its 4k OLED. Didn't nvidia advertise the rtx 4080 and 4090 as 4k cards? Ah wait, this isn't a rtx 4080, this is just a 4070 named a 4080. Thats why it can't do 4k gaming and hence the lack of 4k oled panels paired to it. Wish we got at least glossy panels. Matte coating on these laptops is horrendous for content creation as its not really color accurate. \n\nIts not the laptop's fault, but any laptop packing a rtx 4000 series GPU is an immediate disappointment to me. They literally have lower TDP's than turing, worse performance uplift than pascal and even worse pricing than ampere. Nvidia combined the worst of turing and ampere and rolled it into lovelace.launch

smart_display

April 9, 2023

@gregsimpson621

I like this new Asus, has many pluses, but also has some negatives when one considers the price point. I wouldn't buy it at that cost, especially when it's mostly plastic. Good informative review!launch

smart_display

April 8, 2023

Several commenters criticize the mostly plastic chassis, sharp edges, flexing panels, and creaky hinges, saying quality has declined from earlier Asus gaming laptops despite high prices.

@SassyPants-00

The quality of Asus laptops has dropped a lot. Once again, I own Asus gaming models from 10 years ago and the build quality is much better than the cheap plastic that they sell very expensively now.launch

smart_display

February 28, 2024

@gregsimpson621

I like this new Asus, has many pluses, but also has some negatives when one considers the price point. I wouldn't buy it at that cost, especially when it's mostly plastic. Good informative review!launch

smart_display

April 8, 2023

@lupuslucius99

Very interesting review... Personally, with regard to the materials, I prefer to have more metal finishes, at the expense of a greater weight, on such a machine, in which portability is compromised by the generous size, considering the price not cheap, compared to the choice of materials. Bad that Asus still insists on not finding a better implementation for the front rgb strip (the cables are very delicate and the risk of ruining the connectors by disassembling the cover, and 'high). A little' poor webcam compared to what offers the competition, but at least this year 'have put' put! Too bad for the touchpad, and the high temperatures of the CPU, which I expected to behave thermally better, given the better efficiency, compared to Intel. Well that at least there does not seem to be any annoying coil whine noise.launch

smart_display

April 8, 2023

@avetruetocaesar3463

They took ancient Scar 17 chassis with the worst aspects of every Asus Strix laptop in recent years, and produced the cheapest & ugliest looking hunk of a machine of the year imaginable. Bottom of the barrel keyboard and deck; plastic interior and bottom for a fingerprint magnet, with sharp edges and corners that hurt your skin; chassis that flexes, bends and sometimes even cracks around the ports; creaky hinges and wobbly display; unoccupied interior space that could be used to house a bigger battery, a better designed main board, better cooling or expanded PCI-E interface. Lenovo have also taken the same route for their Legion laptops and turned their Legion Pro line-up into not-so-Pro. And both Asus and Lenovo have kept the prices low considering the hardware you get, especially in comparison to top of the line Intel machines.\n\nI hate these manufacturers who treat their customers like dirt, simply because people don't want to pay the same Nvidia & Intel taxes they pass onto the customers with inflated prices, and want to buy the best they can offer on AMD platform. Why is it that 99% of AMD laptops, regardless of the tier of a product and branding, have the worst build quality than the rest? If I'm to pay a hefty price for a top-tier desktop replacement, I wouldn't want to think like I'm treated different from Intel & Nvidia owners from the same company, with the same branding, similar pricing and such.launch

smart_display

April 7, 2023

Several owners report very short battery life under gaming load, ranging from about one to three hours, far below what they'd expect for the price point.

@anderzytolga

7 hours? no, aim lucky if this thing gets me a single hour on battery, its power hungry aflaunch

smart_display

July 7, 2025

@jayyy88

too bad the battery life in this scar 17 is so much worse compare to scar 18 and it's still using the old scar design not the new one they used on scar 18.launch

smart_display

April 8, 2023

@lars2894

3 hour battery life and 300 nits display are my biggest gripes especially for this egregious price.\n\nBump that up to 7 hr battery + 500 nits display and yeah, i'll consider spending $3000 on a \"premium\" performance laptop.launch

smart_display

April 7, 2023

Buyers report dead or stuck pixels, screen bleed across multiple units, and a defective unit that wouldn't boot properly out of the box, suggesting inconsistent QC.

@danielbull5597

I've bought 2 of these now and each one has really bad screen bleed all over the monitor. Didn't you notice this on the one you reviewed? It seems to be a design flaw, as it has appeared in 2 seperate laptops for me. Unless I'm just the unluckiest person in the world?launch

smart_display

August 7, 2021

@Tindreal

Bought 3 of these and all had 1 dead or stuck pixel. Sent it all back. The 300 hz panel is beautiful and super fast, however the quality control is garbage.launch

smart_display

May 11, 2021

@chrisrossi6719

I bought this laptop before my birthday October 15th 2020 but when I unboxed it and turned it on after downloading the ARMOURY crate the screen went black and didn’t work unless plugged into the hdtv. Contacted asus and tried to get into bios and the computer wouldn’t do it, so the tech suggested either sending back in or refund it. I returned the whole thing minus the 3 year warranty and now giving it another try should be here by Wednesday. I will be making sure they didn’t send me the same one as before. I took pics of the serial number and all important information and will compare just in case they try to do the switcharoo. Other than that the computer was awesome, can’t wait to download a game and try it out!!!launch

smart_display

November 2, 2020

Owners report random reboots in APU/desktop mode, AMD Adrenalin driver bugs, and crashes tied to updating graphics drivers, with one calling it great hardware ruined by bad software.

@user-bw8kb6yk1s

My laptop the same as reviewed here, I’m playing hell let loose on ultra settings 1440p. \nIn the middle of the match laptop restarts, that happened 4 times. \n😢\nI also play rdr2 , and I noticed that laptop gets very hot on the surface. \nI’ve tried to reach the support service, they were on the day off.\nJust in case someone from Asus sees my comment, I’m ready to provide the serial number of my laptoplaunch

smart_display

May 7, 2023

@lucal7756

Have the same PC but... desktop mode is unusable for me: it just reboots by itself watching YT videos on the AMD 610M APU (also in a factory reset minimal env without any software installed)! 😞On dGPU seems stable. Have you ever experienced that? Still don't understand if it's a faulty unit or AMD Adrenalin video drivers are crap and cause these sudden reboots... No crashes, it randomly reboots all of a sudden in APU mode.\nEDIT: downgrading Adrenalin 23.4.1 --> 23.3.2 seems to have worked, finally stable... 🙏🏻🙏🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻launch

smart_display

April 13, 2023

@iseptimus

Have this laptop, fully loaded 360Hz version). Can't play Doom Eternal without disabling the AMD graphics. Can't update the AMD graphics driver without bricking Windows (updating would fix the issue). Shit software on great hardware. Avoid. ASUS are not fixing this and it will effect more than just Doom Eternal ongoing.launch

smart_display

October 11, 2021

Users note the absence of a Thunderbolt port, no SATA 2.5-inch support (only dual M.2 slots), and no function-key backlighting or Windows Hello on some configs.

@Bavanity

No function key lights\nWhy Asus? Really, the $0.50c saving for an extra light strip is that important?\nAlso (hi Stephen btw), how come you are not showing CPU frequency in Afterburner?\nOh, just saw it's only 350 nits/Non HDR - unlike the intel models. SO weird of Asus. That's a deal killer like it was on the Alienware. Oh well.\nNo windows hello kills it even more. Even their 6500$ laptop doesn't have that (the Intel version with 64Gb ram and 2x1TB drives, crazy instead of 1x2TB).\n\nSo far the MSI GT77 is still my favourite but I refuse to buy it without advanced optimus and G-sync, especially at that insane price. Also the LED has some response time issues in some spectrums, which is a problem for me. \n\nI really might have no choice but to settle on the Razer, even after the nightmare I had with them last year (REALLY bad, a story for another time if you're interested, it's shocking really).\n\nBut it's the only one that has everything I want, Windows IR, HDR, 4090, 2TB ssd in one drive. I am a bit disappointed it's not 64GB ram and no numeric keypad even on 18\" but it's by far the closest to anything so far for me, even if the wattage limits are slightly lower. It still performs great and the screen is perfect for my needs, near 600 nits IPS with true 3.3 ms response in all areas, that's great.\nThe only other one that might be of interest is the Clevo, but every day I hope for a review and never find one.\nThe one I am talking about is this in Australia:\nhttps://www.metabox.com.au/store/Prime-XR-Range\nChassis is the X370SNW-G\nIt has EVERY feature I want, even a 4K G-sync 144hz panel as an option which I'd probably get with the 4090. With 64GB ram and 2TB SSD price comes to about the Razer 18. So not cheap.\nThey are claiming 330W of sustained air cooling which means if the GPU is 175 watts then the CPU can theoretically get 155 simultaneously. I find it hard to believe hence why I want a review.\n\nThoughts? G-sync, a 4090 and HDR are a must for me. If I am going to upgrade I want a huge difference to my 2021 legion 7i RTX 3000 and I am certainly not going to go backwards from a 500 nits HDR screen with Dolby Vision which is brilliant for Netflix. I also want windows hello like my Razer 15 used to have.\nMine also passes latencymon.. *What happened to you testing the audio latency Stephen?*\n\nThe Alienware M18 is the right price and also has EVERYTHING bar a top tier screen. If they update that it will be my choice for sure. Again I don't want to go back to 300 nits non HDR screens under any circumstances. I have my Lenovo on full brightness 80% of the time as it is! It's so hard as so many are so close, but for 6 grand and upwards in AUD, I don't want to compromise! The Legions are crap this year unfortunately.launch

smart_display

May 2, 2023

@christopherwisniewski252

great video :) no fluff...love it. I cannot believe they don't have a Thunderbolt port in this though. Also ONLY the x2 M.2 SSD slots? No SATA for a 2.5\"? That's a little funky....launch

smart_display

August 17, 2021

@KenWright22

Just bought this and I don't see how to add an SATA SSD (like a Samsung 860 QVO) to this system. Do I need to buy the connector and chassis for it? My last RoG came with the connector and chassis so was easy to install. I'm confused on this one. I can't find a video showing this. Or does it only support NVMe / M.2?launch

smart_display

December 25, 2020

One user warns that binding an account to the Keystone dongle sends data to Asus on every boot, and that unbinding requires a full factory reset with a different PC name.

@acprivateinfo1420

KEYSTONE WARNING! Do not \"bind\" your account to the keystone (the small, red, magnetic, side dongle) unless 1) you'll never want to unbind it, and 2) you don't mind it sending information back to Asus every time it's plugged in or the PC is booted. Asus tech support said the only way to unbind the account is to factory reset the PC and give it a different name--as if that's a viable option. My keystone is sitting in it holster pinned to the wall as an ornament, for now, until Asus decides to release us from its tyranny. 🤨launch

smart_display

July 25, 2022