ASUS ROG Strix 16 is an amazing beast!

[ethonkent]

Ive had the ROG Strix 16, RTX 4080, Intel 13650HX (cheapest 4080 with ASUS) for a few days now and it’s absolutely blowing my mind away! I know ASUS are pretty controversial this year with coil whine, BIOS faults, random crashes etc., but I wanted to post my positive experience to balance it all out. Not a single crash, no coil whine, just pure enjoyment. Laptop is as smooth as warm butter on toast, can handle all the games I’ve played on my 4K 60hz TV (MW2, Ultra- 90-100 fps; Forza 5, Ultra- 60fps capped by game; Jedi Fallen Order - 60 fps capped by game, Ultra; more to try). Cinebench 18103 on Turbo mode. RGB kicks ass; design is slick AF; lighter than my previous Dell G15 to carry for work etc. The temps during gaming have been the most impressive! Never crossed 72C and average around 45-60 c under all loads even with 4K. For work and productivity (coding and heavy dev work including virtualisation and containers) amazing performance with absolute zero lag in any task. It’s honestly the best money I’ve spent on a device ever. Couldn’t be happier!

[MasterC]

Have you sent the laptop to any of our service centers to check if there's anything abnormal?

[Rosemary]

I haven’t. I’m still not sure if it’s intended behavior or not for it to throttle slightly under load. It doesn’t sound possible for my gpu to be at 45-60 under all loads like the post owner said since it’s sitting at 50 idle. Silent mode i get 68-70.

[Raibex87]

I don't think this is unusual for ASUS laptops.  Buying a cooling pad typically lowers temperatures greatly due to the very small amount of ventilation on these laptops (because of the short feet not giving hot air underneath a chance to escape).  I have a TUF laptop and it doesn't even come close to reaching the advertised TDP when on a flat surface, but using a cooling pad lowered temps by 13 C and increased power draw by 15 W.

[Rosemary]

I guess you are right, other than some software issues i have no problem with the laptop. I guess ambient plays a bigger factor than i though, to get the max performance you need around 20-15 ambient if i understand  it correctly.

[MasterC]

I have to apologize as I did not consider the fact that this laptop is featuring our new Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal, that's why you should get "up to 15% cooler", under similar testing conditions as yours (25°). The temps are too high, and I suggest that you send to our service center. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Rosemary]

What is the expected temperatures under load at 25 degrees ambient for scar 16 4080, can you share it if there is any sharable details? I just want to make sure that it’s actually considered faulty before sending it.  Taking a look at reviews from smaller channels they also seem to be  having similar thermals like i do and it seems like this is how the laptop is designed. Here is another review from notebook check with g16 4080 which also uses liquid metal and same cooling with scar 16, same specs except the ram (review is also done at 25 degrees ambient after i asked the reviewer): https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Strix-G16-G614JZ-laptop-review-Clear-the-stage-for-the-RTX-40...

[pepe999]

Sorry, I’m on linux so don’t give a toss how the steel works under Windows. My lappy is below 50 degrees for the usual stuff but haven’t tested it under a heavy load yet. Anyway I’m happy as this is waaay better than my old G5 with 3060. 

[Rosemary]

You shouldn’t care about it unless you get performance issues, thats how it should be. That was the case for me too never checked temps once until i got performance problems and had to check temps. 

[pepe999]

Same laptop here and overall satisfaction so far. A new QHD 240Hz LCD is on the way to replace the stock FHD screen and then I'm ready to unleash the beast on a new 4K TV and X-Plane 12. I'm also about to replace the stock Micron 500GB SSD with a Samsung Pro 990 1TB. Already running linux Manjaro on a Samsung Evo 970 500GB. 

[OmegaSW]

Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 (2023) Review: Incredible gaming performance - Reviewed (usatoday.com)

Temperatures in the mid 90s is normal for high end laptop CPUs, and according to the the article, the i9-13980HX ran up to 96C with their test, and AMD's 7945hx ran at 95C, so it doesn't matter if you go with Intel or AMD. If it bothers you or worried about preserving the CPU, just switch to silent mode, and you will be in the mid 80s under load, and only use performance and turbo only when you actually need it. I'm playing Diablo 4 in silent mode and using DLSS to compensate. It works great.