The latest laptops from Asus are being “maxed out”. With the lineup of Strix gaming laptops, configurations will include Intel’s latest 13th-generation processors, AMD Zen 4 CPUs, and Nvidia’s 40-series mobile GPUs. Along with these next-gen upgrades, the Strix series – along with its updated sister series – will come with heaps of gaming optimizations, to boot.
At the top of the range is the Asus Strix Scar. Still essentially the same beastly desktop replacement we tested before, in 2023, it will come with a 16-inch or 18-inch, 16:10 panel and a name to match.
The top configuration of the Strix Scar 16 and Strix Scar 18 includes that from Intel recently announced Core i9 13980HX (opens in new tab) and a 150W RTX 4090 GPU (175W with dynamic boost). The rest of the specs match: panels with a maximum refresh of 240 Hz, 3 ms GtG and 2560 x 1600 resolution, up to 64 GB of DDR5-4800 RAM and maybe two 2 TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs if you’re lucky.
The Scar 17 is Asus’ latest AMD offering, featuring the Ryzen 9 7945HX, with the same beastly configuration as its Intel counterparts. The main differences between the Intel and AMD models are that the Scar 17 uses vapor chamber cooling instead of the edge-to-edge heatsink solution on Intel models.
These will come with “Conductonaut Extreme Liquid Metal” on both the CPU and GPU, which Asus claims will give the Strix G16 and Strix G18 5 degrees cooler temperatures than previous cocktails of the stuff. The Scar 17 will also benefit from this second-generation apparent miracle solution.
While Asus isn’t the first to experiment with liquid metal, it could be the first to get it right. Only time will tell, and we’ll let you know how that translates in the real world once we get our hands on it.
The RTX 4090/Core i9 13980HX model Strix Scar 18 costs £3,399, and should be here sometime in Q1 2023. We’ll have to wait for Q2 before Asus graces us with the rest of the Strix line-up, including the £3,300 Scar 16 and £3,800 Scar 17, as well as the upcoming Strix G16, G17 and G18.
Asus’ G-series includes the more affordable RTX 4050, RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 models, with the 17-incher again being AMD’s offering. These start at £1,499, £1,799 and £2,599 respectively. We are now awaiting US pricing and will update when we get our hands on the numbers.