The ROG Strix Scar 16 is a mid-sized full-performance laptop that doesn’t aim to be compact or thin or lightweight, but instead aims at maximizing the performance and cooling capabilities possible in a 16-inch chassis. We test Windows PC graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics), and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Specs aside, Asus offer their standard power profiles in the Armoury Crate control app: Silent, Performance, Turbo, and Manual, with various power settings and fan profiles between them, summarized in the following table.

But if AI frame generation is the only place where the 4090 pulls ahead, it can be argued that these GPUs are a lot closer than Nvidia suggests in its marketing material. For you, that means you can save big and still get an awesome gaming experience. Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 performance Just like on the Scar 18, though, I noticed some coil whining on this sample, but only when launching any demanding load, in the 5-10 seconds before the fans start spinning. I haven’t experienced electronic noises with daily use, though. I also haven’t experienced persistent coil whining on the Silent profile, once the fans start spinning. Spec-wise, this 2023 ASUS Strix ROG Scar 16 is built on the latest Intel and Nvidia hardware available to date.Far Cry 5, 6, Metro, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;

The Core i9-13980HX is the top mobile processor in Intel’s Raptor Lake 13th-gen platform, with 24 Cores and 32 Threads. It is a hybrid design with 8 High-Performance and dual-threaded Cores, and 16 extra Efficiency cores, which work together or separately in the various loads. The design and thermal module of this Scar allow the processor to run at ~135-150W of sustained power in demanding CPU loads, on the Turbo or Manual profiles. I’ll also mention that Asus are still implementing status LEDs under the display, in the line-of-sight and most likely annoying when using the laptop at night or when watching movies. I sure wish they’d put them anywhere else. That leaves you with the Scar 17 and Strix G17 as the only 2023 models built on the previous chassis, but these are only available with AMD processors and Nvidia graphics. You are giving up on the 18-inch screens, though, and there are no mid-sized 15-inch variants available either. You’re also giving up on the updated tri-fan thermal module, but you’re getting an interesting vapor-chamber cooling module on the Scar 17. Hardware specs for the 2023 ROG Scars

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Armed with an Intel Core i9-13980HX processor, we expected impressive performance from the Scar 16, and it didn't disappoint. It was right in line with the 16-inch Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 8 in almost every test, which used a slightly lower-end 13th Gen Intel CPU. Naturally, all of the 13th Gen systems, including the ROG Strix Scar 16, jumped ahead of 12th Gen systems, like the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE and the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 7. This is clear in tests like HandBrake, where 13th Gen systems were more than a minute faster, and Cinebench, where scores were nearly doubled. On the Silent profile, the CPU runs at around 90W for a few loops, and then stabilizes around 65W, with barely audible fans (sub 35 dB) and temperatures in the low-80s C. The i9-13980HX scores ~3400 points in the Cinebench test on this profile, which is about 65% of the Turbo performance, and still an excellent score for a laptop platform, as you’ll see in a bit. The Turbo mode ramps up the fans to levels of ~50 dB with the laptop sitting on the desk. This is fine for a top-performance profile, but still very loud and you’ll ideally want to cover it up with headphones. The keyboard on the Scar 16 is an iteration of the rubber-dome design offered on past ROG full-size models, such as the Scar 15. There’s a 16-inch 16:10 matte display on the ROG Strix Scar 16 series, with either an IPS or a mini LED panel option.

Firing up the new rally expansion on Forza Horizon 5 shows the impressively rich color on offer here. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not OLED levels of looking at a portrait, but when speeding through the luminous greens and bright shades of the jungle and its plumage in first person, you can be fooled into thinking you’re gazing through the windscreen.

Verdict: A Close Second, With Points for Style

With the Asus set to its default Performance mode, it dished out a Geekbench multi-threaded score of 19,266 and a Cinebench R23 result of 25,152, making even the mighty Core i9-13800H look positively puny. And that’s just getting started. Switch up to Turbo mode and you can hit 30,867 in the Cinebench rendering benchmark, which is visibly fast enough to make your jaw drop and leave it hanging for a while. Don’t get me wrong. This is a thirsty gaming laptop — like “getting horny on main” levels of thirst, but one thing works to the Strix Scar 16’s favor here. First, it shares the same size 90 WHr cell as the Scar 18, so with a smaller display to power, it should logically last longer. While it could be argued that the RTX 4080 has less power dependency, it sports the same TGP as the 4090, so the differences here would be negligible.

Both the CPU and the GPU perform at 60-70% of their capabilities on Turbo, which are excellent results given how quietly the laptop runs. Gaming performance As for the RAM and storage options, the laptop still comes with two accessible memory DIMMs and two M.2 SSD slots. Our unit shipped with 32 GB of DDR5-4800 RAM in dual-channel and a single 2TB gen4 Samsung SSD. This generation of the ROG Scar is undoubtedly much more powerful than the previous Scar 15, and better cooled as well, thanks to the updated thermal module. Follow this link for updated configurations and prices in your region at the time you’re reading this article. Final thoughts- 2023 Asus ROG Strix SCAR 16 review We tested a couple of different types of games on the various available profiles at QHD+ and FHD+ resolution, all with the MUX set on the Ultimate GPU mode.

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Furthermore, I’d also set the display on HDR mode in Windows, which automatically enables multi-zone lighting and further enhances the image quality and brightness in supported content.