The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023) is one of the most powerful gaming laptops in the market — decked with AMD’s Ryzen 9 7945HX, which debuts the Zen 4 chipset architecture and is very rightfully placed under the codename “Dragon Range”. This top-of-the-line offering from the chipmaker puts it toe-to-toe against team blue’s high-end 13th gen chips. The greatest from AMD is paired with the greatest from Nvidia, the RTX 4090, for a beastly output that every gamer craves.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023)
Rs 269,990
What Is Good?
- Excellent, mind-blowing raw performance on tap
- Great build quality, design
- Wide variety of ports
- Decent, fast display
- Good keyboard
- Great gaming performance
What Is Bad?
- Heavy and unwieldy
- Mediocre battery life
- Lacklustre trackpad
- RTX 4090 variant not available in India
The massive display and jaw-dropping component choices make this a very enticing piece of technology. While it looks all rosy, how does the laptop fare in our usage? Furthermore, if you are an out-and-about hardcore gamer looking for a desktop replacement, should you go for the Strix Scar 17? Find out in this detailed review.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023) Review: Pricing and availability in India
As is the case with all the laptops in the market, there are multiple SKUs of the Scar 17 too. The variant we are reviewing today is mated to an Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU. However, this particular variant isn’t available in India as of now.
There’s no word on availability, but you can opt for the Scar 17 with RTX 4080 GPU. This model can be grabbed from Amazon at Rs.2,69,990.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023) Review: Performance and Gaming
- The Ryzen 9 7945HX has 16 cores and 32 threads.
- The Scar 17 beats all other laptops we have tested this year in Cinebench R23 multi-core test.
Let’s get to brass tacks because that’s what you are here for. The most exciting thing about technology is that it improves over time; there’s never an end. Comparing the Scar 17 (2023) to last year’s Scar 17 SE (2022), we can see some generational differences. The Ryzen 9 7945HX is a beast at crunching numbers, which is quite evident from the benchmark numbers.
The chip is built on TSMC’s 5nm fabrication process. It’s also the first processor from team red to come with a total of 16 cores and 32 threads with a maximum clock speed of 5.4GHz, a massive upgrade from last year.
Additionally, the chip has 64MB of L3 cache. This gives it an upper hand against Intel’s i9-13980HX, which comes with 36MB of L3 cache. A larger L3 cache can help prevent the CPU from needing to ask the RAM for necessary data. The processor can go up to a total of 65W TDP under loads.
Moreover, the Scar 17 is packed to the brim with 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM running at 4800MHz, covering up the two slots at its perusal. You can also fill up 1 TB of NVMe M.2 SSD with as many games as possible.
The RTX 4090 GPU comes with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM and is rated at a TGP of 175W (with dynamic boost)
With all that said, you can surmise that the Scar 17 is a beastly laptop. Daily chores such as multi-tasking between multiple windows and using Chrome with a bunch of tabs were a piece of cake for it.
In Cinebench R23 tests, the Scar 17 outperforms all the laptops we reviewed in 2023. PCMark 10 returned an overall score of 8259, which is slightly higher than that of the Zephyrus M16. As for Geekbench 6, the laptop managed a score of 2625 and 14028 in single-core and multi-core tests, respectively.
In graphic-intensive tests such as TimeSpy, the laptop returned scores of 13157. As for 3DMark’s Port Royal, it secured an overall score of 9915. The built-in 1TB SSD registered 7386 MB/s and 6412 MB/s sequential read and write speeds, marginally lower than the Strix Scar 17 SE.
The Scar 17 can handle almost every AAA title thrown at it with absolute pizzazz. We played all the mentioned games at native resolution (1440p) with the graphics set to High, except for Death Stranding, wherein we set the preset to “Very High”.
Like every other gaming laptop from Asus, you get to see the Armoury Crate here too. It essentially allows you to tweak settings like overclocking the components, messing around with the RGB, and more.
We set the fan profile to “Turbo” throughout our gaming sessions. This meant the laptop stayed relatively cool, but at the cost of our friends thinking it was raining outside (the fans were running at full speed). Here are a few numbers:
| Games | Average Frame Rates (FPS) |
| Apex Legends | 132fps |
| Valorant | 289fps |
| CS:GO | 292fps |
| Death Stranding | 105fps |
| Dying Light 2 (Benchmark) | 143fps |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Benchmark) | 154fps |
To tame these beasts, the Scar 17 uses Thermal Grizzly’s Condocotnaut Extreme liquid metal on both the CPU and GPU. The same method was used last year. We did not notice a single hint of overheating.
The underside of the laptop reached a maximum of 43 degrees after an hour of gaming. The palm rest and keyboard area meandered around 33 degrees.
The laptop does not only aid gamers but also content creators. The PugetBench test for Premiere Pro returned an overall score of 780.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023) Review: Display and speakers
- The 17-inch display refreshes at 240Hz
- The panel is G-Sync certified, which should aid gamers
The Scar 17, as the name suggests, sports a tall and wide 17-inch QHD display which refreshes at 240Hz. The panel also has a response rate of 3ms, which should further aid gamers. It’s of the IPS standard and gets a peak brightness of 300 nits, which is still fine indoors where you’ll most likely be using the laptop.
Unfortunately, the Scar 17 and Scar 18 series miss out on the Nebula HDR display from Asus, which is limited up to 16 inches — and that’s a letdown. It covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and is G-Sync certified.
Despite the absence of mini-LED goodness, the display produced accurate, detailed and vibrant colours. The panel is adequate for consuming content, and of course, for gaming. It also has support for Dolby Vision.
Accompanying the display is an average set of speakers; at this point, it’s not even a surprise. The same mediocrity also plagued last year’s model. That said, you are more likely to wear headphones while gaming.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023) Review: Design and build quality
- The laptop weighs 3kg
- It has an RGB strip underneath for extra essence
The Scar 17 is pretty much like a golden retriever going on a walk outside, the cute furry little doggo is bound to attract eyes, and the same can be said for the Scar 17. It has all the frills and is not afraid to flaunt it. Asus hasn’t changed much on the design front, and honestly, we have no complaints. After all, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. The laptop retains the traditional clamshell design with a matte finish on the lid.
The huge ROG logo on the lid can glow with white outlines and look subtle. Lifting it with one hand is also possible, partially because of the webcam area that helps get a good grip. A 720p webcam is a new addition to the Scar 17 series. The output is average.
The laptop weighs 3kg, so carrying it around in your backpack is a bit of a task, especially when you take into consideration the huge charger too.
The lid is a smudge machine, so always keep a micro-fibre cloth handy. It’s made of robust materials, while the keyboard deck is entirely made of plastic to balance the weight (and cost).
Because of its heavy and wide chassis, the laptop does not follow the same design mechanics as the Zephyrus M16 with the ErgoSense approach. It’s not worrisome as the vents on the left and right side and the intake at the rear take good care of the laptop.
The hinge is quite sturdy and does not wobble even while furiously typing/gaming. The underside of the Scar 17 holds in place a bunch of rubber grips to keep the laptop steady on a surface. The vents on the underside have a criss-cross pattern that the company likes to call dot-matrix.
No gaming laptop is considered full without integrating flashy RGB lights, and the Scar 17 handles it quite well. An RGB strip, on the bottom side of the laptop, near the palm rest, can help light up your gaming dungeon. And well, the keyboard does not miss out on any of that action.
Speaking of which, the keyboard deck is quite wide and incorporates a full-size keyboard, which means you get access to the Numpad. There are a bunch of media keys at the top, but sadly a dedicated mute key is not a part of that cavalry. Four physical LED indicators are also provided, just above the entire deck.
The keys are pretty tactical, with a decent amount of travel. We are writing most of this review on the Scar 17 itself. The per-key RGB lights can be controlled via the Armoury Crate. You get a bunch of presets, and all of them are fun. What’s not fun is the lacklustre trackpad.
For the record, trackpads have been notoriously mediocre in gaming laptops, and the Scar 17 joins the bandwagon. There have been multiple times wherein it did not input our actions, especially when trying to scroll on Chrome or File Explorer.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023) Review: Port selection
- Two USB-A ports on the left side are very useful while using a mouse
- It comes with an RJ45 port
The laptop’s left side features two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. The right side of the laptop is devoid of any ports, and this is where we think adding another USB Type-C port or a full-size microSD card reader would have been helpful.
The rear side is home to an HDMI port, a 2.5G ethernet jack, a DC in, and two USB Type-C ports that support DisplayPort output.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023) Review: Battery and charging
- It is powered by a 90Wh battery
- The included charger is rated at 330W and is quite bulky
The Scar 17 packs in a 90Wh battery pack, which lasted us for about two hours and 20 minutes under the Silent profile with the discrete GPU enabled. We ran the same usage pattern in the Silent mode while using the iGPU — the laptop lasted 30 minutes more. It’s no surprise that a gaming laptop comes with below-average battery life.
Besides, running it off the wall is more than ideal with such power-hungry components. The included wall charger is rated at 330W. Our big gripe with the charger was its plug, we had to carry around an extension to use this in our office. You can run the laptop off of a USB Type-C port at 100W in case you forget the charger back home.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023) Review: Verdict
The ROG Strix Scar 17 is the best example to showcase the raw power of the Ryzen 9 7945HX, and it has been pretty fruitful. The benchmarks and overall performance prove that impressively.
This mated to the RTX 4090, will help the gamer in you to try out all kinds of AAA titles without any fuss.
And more importantly, the cooling system keeps your heating issues at bay. At its asking price, the laptop as a whole is of great value. But it makes a sacrifice or two. The exclusion of a Nebula HDR display and the below-average battery remain the Achilles heel of the Scar 17.
Regardless, if you are in the market for a desktop replacement to fulfil your gaming needs, this one should be on the top of your list.
Since the RTX 4080 SKU is available on the market, you should see almost the same numbers on it with some disparity, of course. So, don’t be disheartened by a missing 4090 variant.
