Asus ROG Strix Scar III Review
With a swift 240Hz display and Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics, the Asus ROG Strix Scar III ($1,799.99 as tested) is built for competitive esports and MOBA gamers looking for every fast-twitch edge available to them. The 15.6-inch laptop is also a fireworks show of RGB lighting, so no one will mistake the Strix for anything but a gaming rig. My test configuration is the base model that features a six-core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and the full-power (not Max-Q) GeForce RTX 2060 GPU. Getting any variety of RTX graphics in an under-$2,000 laptop is a good deal, but gamers chasing frame rates at or near 240 frames per second (fps) to make full use of the 240Hz screen will need to pay more for a more powerful configuration. And as with many gaming laptops, fan noise can get ornery at times.
Mục Lục
Textures and Patterns and Lights, Oh My!
No matter from which direction you approach the Scar III, it’s not subtle. A strip of RGB lighting illuminates the front and side edges of the machine, and a large ROG logo glows on the lid. The keyboard features per-key RGB lighting that can be customized for individual games.
Even with the lights off, the Strix Scar III gives off a gaming vibe with its various textured and patterned surfaces and angled cutouts. The thin metal lid has a brushed aluminum texture that moves in one direction over two-thirds of the surface and in a different direction over the remaining third.
Likewise, the plastic keyboard deck features a checkered pattern, with two-thirds of its surface a dark gray and the other third a contrasting lighter hue.
Along the right edge sits a unique slot for what Asus calls a Keystone, a physical NFC key to which you can save game-specific profiles and other settings that you can take with you. The problem with this scenario is that you can take these settings and profiles only to other Asus ROG laptops with a Keystone slot, and the only other Keystone-compatible laptop I can find is Asus’ ROG Hero III.
The Keystone also unlocks the Shadow Drive, which sounds way cooler than it is. The Shadow Drive is a password-protected area of the hard drive that unlocks when you insert the Keystone—and after you sign up for an Asus account. The idea of a hardware key protecting your most valuable local data in the vein of a physical lock has some merit; the game-profile-portability aspect, less so. Considering that you probably keep game profiles on your mouse if you hop from one system to another with any frequency, the Keystone feels gimmicky at best.
The Keystone also works with Asus’ Armoury Crate app for customizing the laptop’s Aura Sync lighting, monitoring components, controlling the cooling fans, and more. It takes a little trial and error to figure out how the app is organized and best navigated. I was particularly lost when inserting the Keystone for the first time; it’s not intuitive how you go about saving game profiles and lighting settings to the key. Another quibble about Armoury Crate is that while it offers some lighting profiles from which to choose, you must use a separate app, Aura Creator, to customize the per-key backlighting.
A more concrete annoyance: the huge power brick you are forced to lug around with the Strix Scar III. It weighs nearly 1.5 pounds on its own, which when added to the 5.1-pound laptop will make travel onerous. To be sure, this situation isn’t unique to the Strix Scar III—the 15.6-inch MSI GE65 Raider weighs five pounds with a two-pound anchor of an AC adapter. The Scar III is bulkier than slimline gaming rigs such as the Razer Blade 15, Alienware m15 R2, or Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX502, but it’s not hugely thick: It measures 14.2 by 10.8 inches and is just under 1 inch thick.
Blink and You’ll Miss It
Unlike the Keystone key, the 240Hz display of the Strix is no gimmick. A refresh rate of 144Hz was tops for laptops until recently, when we started seeing 240Hz panels such as those of the MSI GE65 Raider and latest Asus ROG Zephyrus S, which give fast-twitch gamers an edge on the competition. The pricier Zephyrus S, however, is the only one of the three with a screen that supports Nvidia G-Sync to keep the GPU’s output and LCD’s refresh rate in sync for smooth, tear-free gameplay.
It’s a bit disappointing to miss out on such a useful feature, but the Strix Scar III’s display otherwise impresses. It has a fast 3ms response time, and colors look vibrant and accurate with good contrast, though I sometimes wished I could push the brightness up higher.
The screen bezels are so narrow that there’s no room to squeeze in a webcam; streamers will need to attach their own camera. There’s also a unique cutout below the display—the bezel extends to the keyboard deck on the left third of the screen but angles up to leave a gap for the remaining area. This gap allows the small vents in the Strix’s 3D Flow Zone to remain unblocked even when the laptop is closed. The 3D Flow Zone provides additional venting in addition to the two large vents on the back of the system and the large vent on either side. I appreciate the additional venting but don’t like the light that seeps through the gap, which can detract from the colors and contrast I’m able to see while gaming.
The angular, asymmetrical design of the display bottom is repeated on the spacebar, which is wider on its left side, though this is entirely ornamental. On the whole, the keyboard feels responsive with a snappy 2mm of travel, but the plastic keyboard deck flexes a bit under heavy typing. A row of media keys sits above the keyboard; you’ll find keys for volume and mute along with a key for controlling the cooling fans and another to launch the Armoury Crate app.
The touchpad felt accurate, but its surface was a bit too glossy for consistently smooth mousing. When the laptop got warm, I felt a bit of friction under my fingertip while swiping and gesturing. More of a matte finish would lessen the resistance. The touchpad does offer a neat trick—it can be turned into a numeric keypad, with a red numeric grid appearing when you hold down your finger in the top right corner.
The system’s stereo speakers provide some of the best audio I’ve heard in a laptop. They fire from the sides and are shockingly dynamic, with good separation between highs and mids in the mix with something resembling a bass response. And the sound stays free from distortion at max volume. These are not your typical tinny laptop speakers. Games sound immersive without headphones, and the speakers provide enough thump for music playback.
The Strix Scar III provides ample connectivity, but not where you’d expect it. Instead of on each side of the laptop, the ports are located on one side and around back. The right side of the system is devoid of ports aside from the cutout slot for the Keystone dongle.
On the left side, you’ll find three USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports and an audio jack.
Around back are an HDMI port, a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port with DisplayPort support, an Ethernet jack, and the power connector…
The array of ports will cover the needs of most users, but my one complaint as a right-handed gamer would be that the USB-A ports are on the wrong side, forcing me to loop my mouse cord around from the left of the system.
Plenty of Performance
As I said, my $1,799.99 test unit (specifically, model G531GV-DB76) is the entry-level model in the Strix Scar III series, equipped with a 2.6GHz (4.5GHz turbo) Core i7-9750H processor, 16GB of memory, a 6GB GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, and a 1TB NVMe solid-state drive. A $2,299.99 model steps up to GeForce RTX 2070 graphics, while the $2,499.99 flagship features a Core i9 CPU and 32GB of RAM.
For our performance benchmarks, I compared the Scar III to other gaming laptops that feature either a Core i7 or Core i9 processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics. The Dell G7 15 features the same CPU, GPU, and memory allotment as my Asus. The MSI GE65 Raider flaunts an Intel Core i9-9880H and GeForce RTX 2070 graphics. The Acer Predator Triton 500 and Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (OLED) feature Core i7 CPUs and Max-Q versions of the GeForce RTX 2080 GPU.
The Scar III is certainly overqualified for general Windows use, but even with entry-level RTX 2060 graphics, it gets loud as its cooling fans go from a whir to a roar to keep the high-power components cool under heavy loads. Thankfully, you are given some control over the fans, which allows for quieter operation when merely web surfing or office working.
Productivity, Storage, and Media Tests
PCMark 10 and 8 are holistic performance suites developed by the PC benchmark specialists at UL (formerly Futuremark). The PCMark 10 test we run simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, Web browsing, and videoconferencing. The test generates a proprietary numeric score; higher numbers are better.
PCMark 8, meanwhile, has a storage subtest that we use to assess the speed of the boot drive. This also yields a proprietary numeric score; again, higher numbers are better.
The Strix performed as expected on PCMark 10, topping the 5,000-point mark (anything over 4,000 is an excellent score) but finishing behind the Core i9-based MSI laptop. It outpaced two of the three other Core i7 contenders; the Acer did surprisingly well.
Next is Maxon’s CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to make use of all available processor cores and threads. Cinebench stresses the CPU rather than the GPU to render a complex image. The result is a proprietary score indicating a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads.
Unsurprisingly, the GE65 Raider was able to put its two extra CPU cores to good use in this test. Although Cinebench is highly CPU-dependent, we can’t help but think the GPU has some effect on the test as well, after seeing how the two Max-Q systems finished well off the pace of the three machines here with full-throttle GeForce RTX graphics.
Cinebench is often a good predictor of our Handbrake video editing trial, another tough, threaded workout that’s very CPU-dependent and scales well with cores and threads. In it, we put a stopwatch on test systems as they transcode a standard 12-minute clip of 4K video (the open-source Blender demo movie Tears of Steel(Opens in a new window)) to a 1080p MP4 file. It’s a timed test, and lower results are better.
The Scar III finished in the middle of the pack in our Handbrake test, with the Predator again posting a surprisingly competitive score despite having a Core i7 processor that’s a generation behind the others.
We also run a custom Adobe Photoshop image editing benchmark. Using an early 2018 release of the Creative Cloud version of Photoshop, we apply a series of 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test image. We time each operation and, at the end, add up the total execution time. As with Handbrake, lower times are better here. The Photoshop test stresses the CPU, storage subsystem, and RAM, but it can also take advantage of most GPUs to speed up the process of applying filters, so systems with powerful graphics chips or cards may see a boost.
We witnessed a second-place photo finish in this event, with the four Core i7 laptops finishing within five seconds of one another while the Core i9-based MSI was comfortably out in front.
Graphics Tests
3DMark measures relative graphics muscle by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. We run two different 3DMark subtests, Sky Diver and Fire Strike, which are suited to different types of systems. Both are DirectX 11 benchmarks, but Sky Diver is more suited to laptops and midrange PCs, while Fire Strike is more demanding and made for high-end PCs to strut their stuff. The results are proprietary scores.
The Strix Scar III finished in midfield in the less intensive Sky Diver test that primarily taxes the CPU. In the more GPU-dependent Fire Strike test, it fell to last place. These results show that full-power RTX 2060 graphics are less powerful than Max-Q RTX 2080 graphics. The RTX 2070-based Raider turned in the top Fire Strike score.
Next up is another synthetic graphics test, this time from Unigine Corp. Like 3DMark, the Superposition test renders and pans through a detailed 3D scene and measures how the system copes. In this case, it’s rendered in the company’s eponymous Unigine engine, offering a different 3D workload scenario than 3DMark, for a second opinion on the machine’s graphical prowess.
Another illustration of the limits of the GeForce RTX 2060 versus its RTX betters even when they are Max-Q-limited, with the Asus and Dell bringing up the rear.
Real-World Gaming Tests
The synthetic tests above are helpful for measuring general 3D aptitude, but it’s hard to beat full retail video games for judging gaming performance. Far Cry 5 and Rise of the Tomb Raider are both modern, high-fidelity titles with built-in benchmarks that illustrate how a system handles real-world gaming at various settings. We run these at both games’ moderate and maximum graphics-quality presets (Normal and Ultra for Far Cry 5, Medium and Very High for Rise of the Tomb Raider). The results are provided in frames per second. Far Cry 5 is DirectX 11 based, while Rise of the Tomb Raider can be flipped to DX12, which we do.
The Strix Scar III and Dell G7 15 were able to keep pace with the more powerful systems in the medium-quality tests, but were a step or two slower at top quality settings. If you are looking to maintain high frame rates without dialing back the eye candy, you’d do well to spend a bit more to move up the GeForce RTX ladder.
If you’re playing low-impact esports games or older titles, you may start to approach the refresh ceiling set by the 240Hz display, but with demanding AAA games like these, as you can see, the RTX 2060 isn’t going to get you close.
Battery Rundown Test
After fully recharging the laptop, we set up the machine in power-save mode (as opposed to balanced or high-performance mode) and make a few other battery-conserving tweaks in preparation for our unplugged video rundown test. (We also turn Wi-Fi off, putting the laptop in Airplane mode.) In this test, we loop a video—a locally stored 720p file of the same Tears of Steel movie we use in our Handbrake trial—with screen brightness set at 50 percent and volume at 100 percent until the system conks out.
Among gaming laptops, the Strix Scar III’s 6.5-hour runtime is impressive. It’s helpful that you are given control of the cooling fans, which not only helps with acoustics but also with battery life since constantly spinning fans are a power drain.
Match the Panel and the GPU
Unless you’re an esports player who doesn’t step up to games more demanding than the likes of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, we can’t recommend the entry-level configuration of the Asus ROG Strix Scar III we tested. Why spend for a 240Hz screen if the GPU can’t deliver frame rates to take advantage of that high refresh rate?
While, again, it’s tempting to get any variety of GeForce RTX graphics for under $2,000, I’d suggest hurdling over that price point for a Strix Scar III model with RTX 2070 graphics. We doubt you’ll do all that much with the gimmicky Keystone feature—even if you manage not to lose the tiny dongle—but the rest of the system holds some appeal for gamers, with its comfortable keyboard, stellar sound system, and aggressive styling highlighted by the colorful and cool RGB lighting. That said, once you get into that higher price tier, the Scar III starts to compete with machines like the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition, our Editors’ Choice for the catgeory.
Asus ROG Strix Scar III
3.5
(Opens in a new window)
Check Stock
$2,164.04
at Amazon
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MSRP $1,799.99
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The Bottom Line
The 15.6-inch Asus ROG Strix Scar III holds appeal for fast-twitch gamers, but teaming a 240Hz display with entry-level Nvidia RTX graphics is not one of its best moves.
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