The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D: The Best Gaming Laptop for 1440p Gaming
What’s better than a top-tier gaming processor? A top-tier gaming processor with 3D V-Cache technology. That’s right, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D is the first Gaming Laptop to use AMD’s latest Ryzen 9 7945HX3D chip, which pairs a whopping 16 cores with a boost clock of up to 5.4GHz to deliver fantastic performance.
We’ve already seen some great results from the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D, particularly in the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D benchmarks compared to its predecessor, but how does it perform in a real-world gaming environment? Well, it’s mighty impressive, and it’s the best gaming laptop for those who want to play at 1440p.
You might want to take a look at our best gaming laptop list if you’re after something a little different, as the Scar 17 X3D shares a lot in common with previous models in Asus’s Scar lineup. The laptop does feature a slightly newer design than the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17, with a thicker deck and thinner bezels. That said, we’re not talking about a redesign on the level of the Asus ROG Dominator GT3.
While the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D’s design isn’t particularly unique, it’s still a good-looking laptop. There are also plenty of customization options, with customizable light bars and an RGB keyboard, all sitting on a deck made of soft-touch plastic.
If you’re looking for a 17-inch laptop that’s ideal for productivity tasks, you may want to look elsewhere. Asus has opted for a 16:9 display on the Scar 17 X3D, which doesn’t provide as much screen real estate as 17:9 and 18:9 displays. The bezels on three sides of the screen are also quite thin, whereas the bezel on the bottom is fairly chunky.
Still, the screen looks great, and it performs well in games. It’s a 1080p display, but it’s also an IPS panel, which means it’s better than most gaming laptop 1440p panels. In addition, it’s also brighter and has a higher contrast ratio than the previous model. The viewing angle is also wide enough that you can comfortably play games with a friend sat alongside you.
The deck is the part of the laptop that’s likely to be least popular among prospective buyers. It’s made of soft-touch plastic, which feels nice to the touch, but it’s also not the most comfortable surface to rest your wrists on. I’m not particularly sensitive to this, but I can imagine that some people will find it less comfortable than a brushed aluminium deck.
There are plenty of options for moving your mouse around the deck, including two large rubber strips on the back and two narrow strips on the front. There are also two pairs of tiny feet on the left and right edges, giving you the option of placing the laptop on its side.
Asus has opted to put the ports on the left and back sides of the laptop, which leaves the right side free for mouse movement. It’s a similar approach to the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17, but the company has simplified things by removing the USB Type-C port. Instead, there are two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports and a full-size Ethernet port.
The Scar 17 X3D’s performance is where it really shines. The laptop uses Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 mobile GPU, which is AMD’s most powerful mobile gaming processor. It’s an excellent combination, and in tests, the laptop performs admirably.
In games like Control, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Far Cry 6, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D delivers high frame rates, with fps that’ll put a smile on your face. The laptop also performs well in more demanding games like Insurgency: Rage 2 and Metro Exodus, where it outperforms Intel-based systems.
The Scar 17 X3D also delivers strong 1440p performance, with fps that’ll make you question whether you really need a GTX 4420XTX. The only game where it struggles a little is in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, where the fps feels a tad lower than in other games. PC Game Spotlight’s resident Witcher 3 expert Phil Nixon has more to say about this in his full review.
At the end of the day, the X3D chips are more suitable for gaming workloads than productivity ones. That’s because the focus on latency reduction means the chips don’t perform as well in other workloads. The good news is that this isn’t going to be a problem for most people, and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D will still excel in many productivity tasks.
Despite the excellent performance, the Scar 17 X3D doesn’t always outperform its Intel-based rivals. In the Control benchmarks, for example, the Alienware m18 delivers slightly higher fps than the AMD-powered laptop. This is something we’ve also seen in other AMD laptop benchmarks, as the MSI Titan GT77HX also manages to outperform the Scar 17 X3D.
On top of all that, the Scar 17 X3D is also a capable performer in benchmarks, achieving good scores on Geekbench 5. The scores aren’t significantly higher compared to the previous model, but they’re still among the best scores you’ll find across all systems.
The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D gets our recommendation as the best gaming laptop if you want to play at 1440p. It’s also a fantastic performer in benchmarks, and it’s got great productivity performance, too.
