ROG Strix Scar 16 RTX 5080 review: High-end gaming at a high-end price

The ROG Strix Scar 16 is the highest-end RTX 5080-based design from Asus this generation. A massive laptop with tons of RGB built into it, the device promises desktop-level performance in a portable form factor. The 16-inch variant is also priced at an eye-watering $3,299, which ranks it among the costliest gaming laptops ever. The Scar lineup is known for high-end components throughout with zero compromises on build quality, and the latest devices reflect that philosophy, but in a more streamlined form factor.

I spent a couple of weeks with the 5080 Scar 16 G635 and tested it in a variety of gaming and synthetic benchmarks. Read on to find out how it compares against the 5080 Zephyrus G16 and the 18-inch Scar 5090.

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The ROG Strix Scar 16 RTX 5080 brings high-end hardware to a 16-inch design

The 16-inch RTX 5080 Scar 16 is designed for high-end gaming performance (Image via Asus)

The RTX 5080 Scar 16 G635 is only available in a 16-inch form factor. It bundles a 2560 x 1600 display, which isn't OLED, unlike the Zephyrus G16. However, it's IPS HDR-compliant with miniLED-based dimming zones and 240Hz. Given the compact size of the laptop, this ensures sufficient sharpness.

Moreover, you get the 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX chipset with the device. It clocks up to 5.4 GHz to maximize the underlying silicon. The GPU has been overclocked as well, going up to 1550 MHz at 175W. That's a 25W dynamic boost based on the workload.

On the 5080 Scar, you get 32 GB of DDR5-5600 dual-channel memory, unlike the 5090 that ships with 64 GB. 2 TB of storage has been standardized across the lineup, with the Asus bundling a Gen 4 SK Hynix drive.

Like the 18-inch Scar, you also get toolless access to the internals, allowing for effortless SSD and RAM upgrades. You get a large 380W brick with the laptop, which hints at the significantly power-hungry hardware under the hood.

Here's the full specs sheet of the device:

Specification	Details
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (Arrow Lake-HX, 8P+16E/24T, up to 5.4 GHz)
Graphics (GPU)	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, ROG Boost up to 1550 MHz @ 175 W (1500 MHz + 50 MHz OC, 150 W + 25 W Dynamic Boost)
Memory (RAM)	32 GB DDR5-5600 (dual-channel)
Storage	2 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
Display	16" 16:10 ROG Nebula HDR Mini-LED, QHD+ (2560×1600), 240 Hz, 3 ms, 100% DCI-P3, ~2304 dimming zones, 1100 nits HDR / 500 nits SDR
Cooling	ROG Intelligent Cooling: vapor chamber, tri-fan design, sandwiched heatsink, Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal
Upgradability	Tool-free access: Q-latch design for RAM, SSD, and fans
Special Features	AniMe Vision customizable lid display, full-surround RGB Aura light bar, MUX switch with Advanced Optimus
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 7 (2×2 802.11be), Bluetooth 5.4, 2.5 Gb Ethernet, FHD IR camera with Windows Hello
Operating System	Windows 11 Pro
Weight	Approx. 2.8 kg (6.2 lbs)

The high-end features of the device come at a steep premium, however. It starts from $3,299 in the US market and ₹379,900 in India.

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A closer look at the ROG Strix Scar 16 RTX 5080 laptop

The ROG Strix Scar 16 bundles a decent keyboard and trackpad (Image via Sportskeeda)

The ROG Strix Scar 16 is significantly different from the 5090 in terms of certain design challenges. Besides a smaller display, you also get a more well-integrated keyboard and a larger touchpad. The latter has an integrated numpad that can be activated with a swipe. This is a neat feature that was crucially missing from the higher-end device.

The Scar 16's display is as good as LCDs get (Image via Sportskeeda)

The LCD display is as good as IPS gets, but it significantly trails behind the OLED bundled with the Zephyrus. Moreover, the bezels are more noticeable than the Zephyrus' minimal design.

Moving on to the keyboard, the laptop does a good job here. Typing feels like a breeze, much better than both the Zephyrus and Scar 18 alternatives.

The speakers on the device are decent for some background noise, but I won't recommend them for gaming or music. This isn another aspect where the Scar gets a downgrade over the Zephyrus.

The Scar 16 bundles a ton of RGB for gamers (Image via Sportskeeda)

Coming to the most anticipated feature, RGB, the laptop doesn't disappoint. Besides halo lighting around the device's contours, you also get a large ROG logo that lights up beside an Anime Vision panel, a multi-LED lit wide strip that can be customized to display any animation of your choice from within the Armory Crate software.

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Performance benchmarks

CPU test

The ROG Strix Scar 16 is a seriously performant machine (Image via Sportskeeda)

Let's start things off by testing the Core Ultra 9 275HX bundled with the Scar 16. We recorded benchmark scores in Cinebench R23 via Benchmate. The Intel chip got a single-core result of 2,170 points with multi-core hovering around the 33,170 mark. This easily ranks it among the top desktop chips in the market, just slightly behind the Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X3D.

Moving on to our second CPU test, 3DMark CPU Profile, we notice a similar pattern. While the 275HX in the 5080 Scar is slightly slower than the same chip in the 5090 alternative in few-core tests, it edges the higher-end device in the full-threaded benchmark. This is remarkable given that the 80-class laptop is a 16-inch model while the 5090 Scar is an 18-inch.

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GPU tests

We start things with 3DMark Fire Strike, an age-old gaming benchmark based on the now-legacy DirectX 11 API. The 5080 laptop GPU beats the one in the Zephyrus by a healthy margin here. Comparing it against its desktop alternatives, the GPU edges behind the RTX 4070 and RX 7700 XT. It significantly trails the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB, a $420 mid-range GPU. The difference with the 5090 laptop GPU is even larger.

Next up, we test 3DMark Time Spy, a DirectX 12 benchmark. The 5080 laptop GPU regains some ground here as it beats the 5060 Ti and the RTX 4070 desktop GPUs by a large margin. Its performance is comparable to the RX 9070 XT and RTX 5090 laptop here, which is respectable. Moreover, the Scar's GPU also edges out the 4080 laptop consistently, reversing the trend we observed with the Zephyrus.

Ray tracing is one of the strongholds of Nvidia. Unsurprisingly, the 5080 laptop clusters among the top results in our list, beating the 5060 Ti desktop by 36%.

Moving to DirectX 12 Ultimate results, we tested 3DMark Steel Nomad. Since this is a newly released test with real-time ray tracing, mesh shading, and more, all modern cards struggle. The 5080 laptop's extra VRAM comes in handy here, but scores significantly trail the RX 9070 and 9070 XT GPUs. Moreover, the extra thermal and power headroom on the Scar ensures the Zephyrus stays a massive 40% behind, which is concerning given these devices, at least on paper, pack a similar Core Ultra 9 and 5080 combination.

The Blackwell cards also have access to DLSS multi-frame generation, which multiples framerates by 4x in the 3DMark DLSS feature test. The base framerate to multiply from heavily matters here, as the Zephrus stays significantly behind.

Coming to more DirectX 12 Ultimate tests, the 5080 laptop GPU scores 5,572 points in Speed Way. We note a similar trend here as the Scar outperforms the 3080 Ti, the RTX 4070, and the Zephyrus by significant margins.

3DMark Port Royal is a ray tracing test where the similar patterns continue, confirming our initial hypotheses about gaming performance differences between the 5080 Scar and its peers and desktop alternatives.

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Gaming benchmarks

Now that we've reviewed performance in synthetic benchmarks, let's look at how gaming performance stacks up on the 5080 Scar. Here's a look at framerates achieved by the laptop in some of the latest and most demanding titles. All benchmarks were recorded at 1600p with the device set to the Turbo power setting. Results for free-roam titles have been averaged over 3 runs to avoid variance (as gameplay is largely non-deterministic in such tests).

We report numbers at native resolution without ray tracing (termed "No DLSS + No RT"), native resolution ray-tracing (termed "No DLSS + RT"), Quality upscaling with ray-tracing (dubbed "DLSS + RT"), and, finally, with Quality upscaling, ray tracing, and frame generation set to 4x (termed "DLSS + RT + FG").

Game	Setting	0.1% Low	1% Low	Avg FPS
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle	No DLSS + No RT	15	72	91
	No DLSS + RT	16	31	37
	DLSS + RT	16	63	82
	DLSS + RT + FG	11	49	210
Cyberpunk 2077	No DLSS + No RT	7	8	78
	No DLSS + RT	18	25	44
	DLSS + RT	25	52	79
	DLSS + RT + FG	35	42	229
Monster Hunter Wilds	No DLSS + No RT	20	37	77
	No DLSS + RT	19	33	67
	DLSS + RT	21	35	72
	DLSS + RT + FG	19	44	118
Counter-Strike 2	No FSR	57	112	282
	FSR	73	130	375
Forza Horizon 5	DLSS + FG	76	124	192
	DLSS	108	114	142
	No DLSS + RT	97	105	127
	No DLSS + No RT	110	118	140
Black Myth Wukong	No DLSS + No RT	5	30	43
	No DLSS + RT	10	18	27
	DLSS + RT	30	33	50
	DLSS + FG + RT	3	33	74

Note: All settings were set to the maximum, DLSS set to Quality

Here's the geometric mean FPS for every setting combination we tested:

• No DLSS + No RT → 80.1 FPS
• No DLSS + RT → 51.8 FPS
• DLSS + RT → 69.5 FPS
• DLSS + RT + FG → 178.4 FPS

Native gaming at 1600p without ray tracing is competitive; however, performance with ray tracing turned on suffers. If you're looking for high framerates (>100), turning on DLSS frame generation is necessary. In fact, turning on Nvidia DLAA with frame generation set to 3x gives the best experience, as it maxes out image quality while keeping FPS competitive.

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CPU thermals and power draw

Next, let's study the power draw characteristics of the Scar 16. The 275HX drew a maximum of 145W when stressed with AIDA64, staying well below the 160W maximum turbo power limit. On average, the chip stayed around the 122W mark.

Thermals are never the strong suit of laptops. Even with the improved Arrow Lake formula and the generous thermal design of the Scar 16, the laptop throttles when tortured with AIDA64. The chip thermal throttled to about 20%, with the highest temperatures settling around 94°C.

The RTX 5080 laptop GPU stayed around the 86°C mark when stressed with Furmark 2. The memory junction ran even cooler at 74°C. While the average GPU temperatures stay the same on the Zephyrus 5080, the memory junction ran significantly hotter at 86°C.

The Scar 16 maxes out the 5080's power draw limit. On average, the GPU draws 160W with a maximum spike of 173W. Here's the characteristic when stressed with Furmark.

In comparison, the Zephyrus drew a maximum of 120W before settling around 107W, undervolting to maintain the 86°C safe thermal limit. This explains the significantly lower performance we logged with the device.

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Value and conclusion

The ROG Strix Scar 16 offers desktop-grade performance but at a steep premium (Image via Sportskeeda)

While the ROG Scar 16 G635 is a high-end device designed for high-end gamers, it is cheaper than the 5080 Zephyrus. However, there are certain philosophical differences between the devices: while the Zephyrus targets a more compact form factor with a MacBook-like design, the Scar is gamer-focused with a bulky design and tons of RGB.

However, in sustained stresses (like training AI models or running long inference loops), the Scar 16 offers significantly more stability and thermal management. To test this, I ran InternVL3 8B inference on the laptop on a 15k dataset, which it handled with ease. This wasn't the case with the Zephyrus as it thermal throttled and shut down halfway through the test.

Most importantly, the Scar 16 costs less than the Zephyrus. If you're looking for a portable workstation for more than just gaming, the Scar is the ideal choice. It's 16-inch form factor makes it easier to work with as compared to the 5090 alternative.