ASUS ROG Strix Scar II 17.3″

Asus’ premium gaming brand ROG – short for Republic of Gamers – includes a wide range of products, including several gaming laptops. The 17-inch Strix Scar II is a more conventionally-shaped laptop compared to, for example, the Zephyrus S GX701. But it’s also potentially more powerful in configurations with the more desktop-like GeForce RTX 2070, as opposed to the 2070 Max-Q.

ROG Strix Scar II 17.3″ Configurations

As is often the case with Asus laptops, there are many regional variations of the Strix Scar II. In North America, there are two main configurations based on either the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 (GL704GV) or the RTX 2070 (GL704GW). It’s important to note that the RTX 2070 version is not the Max-Q Design GPU with significantly lower performance, but the standard laptop version that is more similar to the full-size desktop GPU.

Both versions of the laptop use the same 6-core Intel Core i7-8750H processor. This CPU will be replaced in 2019 with the somewhat faster Core i7-9750H in the 2019 ROG Strix Scar III.

You usually get 16 GB of RAM as standard, with an option to upgrade to 32 GB. In terms of storage, there’s room for one M.2 PCIe/NVMe SSD and one 2.5″ SATA hard drive or SSD. The more expensive RTX 2070 model normally ships with a hard drive in addition to the 512 GB SSD, whereas the RTX 2060 model does not.

One option that is not configurable by any means is the 144 Hz 1080p IPS-type display.

ASUS ROG Strix Scar II 17.3″ Performance

Considering that neither the processor nor the native display resolution is configurable, only the graphics card (GPU) will affect gaming performance. Most of today’s more compact 17.3″ laptops use the power-optimized Max-Q versions of the RTX 2070, but this is not the case with the ROG Strix Scar II. The result is a larger difference when moving from the RTX 2060 to the RTX 2070.

The above scores are rounded-off averages from a range of representative benchmark runs (not this exact system). It is clear, however, that the non-Max-Q version of the RTX 2070 is practically on par with the RTX 2080 Max-Q.

Other Features

The ROG Strix Scar II’s keyboard does not have individually-backlit keys, but it’s divided into four zones with RGB backlighting. It sports one USB-C port, but it is not Thunderbolt 3 compatible.

Reviews

Notebookcheck (RTX 2070)

The ASUS ROG Strix Scar II GL704GW is an impressive 17.3-inch gaming laptop, but the RTX 2070 version runs so hot and loud that you may be better off with the RTX 2060 model instead.

KitGuru (RTX 2070)

On the whole the ROG STRIX RTX SCAR II is a well-rounded and high-performance gaming laptop that will tick most boxes.

GenTechPC (RTX 2070)