9.0 Score
Pros
- 12th Generation Intel HX Processor is Amaze-balls
- What a powerful machine with RAID 0 and RTX 3080 Ti
- The most powerful Strix Scar for 2022 ever Made
Cons
- I mean, this is an Endgame machine - what Cons were you expecting?
Okay, the thing about ROG Strix Scar Series in general is that they are an amazing monstrosity of a laptop when you compare every successor to its predecessor. This year, when we reviewed the ROG Strix Scar, aesthetically you don’t see a lot of change but from a specification standpoint, it sure was different – in a good way. There was one processor we didn’t see powering the gaming laptops and that’s the HX Intel Processor. But the ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE G733CX answers that question.
ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE G733CX Review
Keeping things Short and Sweet
The ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE G733CX shares a lot of similarity with the ROG Strix Scar 15 G533Z we reviewed back in March 2022. There aren’t many differences in terms of the design as it retains many things for the past two generation – like the solid hinges, the replaceable and customizable edge plates, RGB light as if a Christmas tree came to life and the design language of the ROG brand. But there is one element that’s been added specifically to the ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE G733CX.
Aesthetically: Now you see it, now you Don’t
Unlike the Strix Scar 15 G533Z, the ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE G733CX has a rather interesting design choice to make it “Special Edition” – in fact, there are very limited unit available anyway. Inside the box, ROG includes a black light, which essentially works like a UV light to show invisible ink.
So, once you do shine this flashlight on the ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE G733CX body, you will see the “cipher” come to life with that neon fluorescent colours popping up beautifully. While it may seem like a gimmick which it sure is, this laptop is a good party trick of a laptop. Better yet, a great fit in rave or any kind of clubs.
Specification and Performance
Performance wise, this laptop is a monster in its own way – and while the specs, most of it at least, may seem same with the normal Strix SCAR – this ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE is about to blow your mind as it is the epitome of peak performance on a Strix SCAR gaming laptop ever made.
- 12th Generation Intel Core i9-12950HX Processor with 16 cores, 24 threads
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 16GB GDDR6 VRAM
- 32GB DDR5 4800MHz SO-DIMM (2X 16GB)
- 1TB+1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen4 Performance SSD in RAID 0
Now the ROG Strix Scar 17 SE has performance we have not seen before – in fact, it throws so many things out of the way, showing no mercy at all. That said, during our benchmark, we used the usuals like Cinebench R23 and 3DMARK respectively. On top of that, we did some game benchmark to show that how well it puts up with any title you throw at it.
In Cinebench R23, we saw this processor go through zero to psycho with its performance, no bars hold – hitting scores high as 18350 points in multicore and 1843 points in single core. In comparison to the Scar 15 we reviewed, that’s a good 8000 points more in multicore whereas the single core scores were in a similar ballpark.
In 3Dmark CPU Profile, the scores were once again great with multicore performance hitting a good 8 806 points and the consistent frequency MHz at a range of 4000 to about 5000Mhz respectively. When you do move on to other benchmarks like the more graphical intensive ones, the RTX 3080 Ti truly shines with scores hitting in ranges of 6000 to all the way up to unbelievable 50 042 in Night Raid – to which you can see the benchmark scores below.
Finally, we didn’t bother playing games in the lowest settings – so, we decided to crank all our games to the highest settings: from Ultra-to-Ultra Nightmare, depending on games we played with, this was an epic machine to play it on.
And as you can see, there’s no stopping this laptop from performing like a monster that it is. One of the things that impressed us, furthermore, are the thermals during the time we played games on this particular laptop – it only hit about a peak temperature about 82 degrees tops in our review condition. There was once it did spike to about 95 in CPU specifically, and the GPU still retained about 87 degrees – otherwise, the thermals were well handled.
The Vapor Chamber cooling that comes equipped with the ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE G733CX has got to be one of their pinnacles in proper cooling unlike certain brand that has a specific obsession over one too many copper heat pipes.
Conclusion
ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE G733CX is it, the pinnacle or should I say the epitome of a powerful laptop in existence and at the price of RM 17,999 it does exactly that. Only if your purse strings are tied, then chances are, its better to resort to the less powerful Scar we reviewed but if money isn’t an option, given that its just about a grand difference, get the Special Edition. That RAID 0, the HX 12th Generation processor and RTX 3080 Ti makes it a worthwhile of an experience, in fact – being stuck with this in quarantine, which I did – was so well worth it.