ASUS Scar 18 (2024) - There’s Only 1 Reason to Buy This

ASUS’s Scar 18 gets a Mini-LED screen this year! As well as other changes, like  Intel’s latest 14th gen processor. But this is ASUS’s most powerful gaming laptop, it is not cheap, and the new Mini LED  screen increases the cost even more! So let’s find out if this maxed out configuration  I’ve tested is worth almost $4000 USD! But not everyone has a budget that high, which is why this part of the video is sponsored  by Gigabyte’s new Aorus 16X gaming laptop! With the latest specs and a fresh de

sign, the  Aorus 16X is ready to dominate the latest games. Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 40 series laptop  GPUs offer DLSS 3 in supported games, which uses the tensor cores and AI to  deliver a smoother gaming experience. And Gigabyte’s new AI Nexus features give  you access to AI boost, which automatically increases FPS in games, AI power gear, which  increases battery life based on your workload, and AI generator, an offline text to  image generator for creators to bring their visions to life - or if

you just want  to make your next viral meme in a flash! Check out the sponsored  link below to find out more. Alright back to the Scar 18 and let’s  get straight into that Mini LED screen. Color gamut is excellent, but not actually  that much better compared to last year’s panel. Contrast is much better with Mini LED  though, as the 2000+ zones can dim individually. The ASUS Armory Crate software gives you three different options to  control how the zones operate. With multi zone enabled, it get

s  over 1000 nits bright in SDR mode, as per the green line - an excellent result. This means it’s brighter compared to most other  laptops. The others nearby are all Mini LED too, and it’s more than twice as bright compared to  last year’s Scar 18. That panel is still used in the 2024 Scar 18 too if you don’t  spend more for the Mini LED option. Screen response time is quite good with panel  overdrive enabled. For a 240Hz panel we want transitions to occur within the 4.17ms refresh  window, and

on average we’re not far from that. It’s a fast screen, but the non Mini LED  version of the Scar 18 was a little faster, granted this can vary a bit between panels.  Practically, I’d say this difference is small enough that it won’t matter for most  people anyway. Both screens are fast. The total system latency is the amount  of time between a mouse click and when a gunshot fire appears on the screen  in Counter-Strike 2. Unfortunately I don’t have data for last year’s Scar 18,  as we moved fr

om CS:GO to CS2 recently, but regardless, this year’s Scar 18 was  providing one of the fastest results so far. This year’s Scar 18 has the same sized battery as  last year, but last year’s Scar lasted for half an hour longer in the YouTube video playback test.  That was with both screens normalized to 200 nits, which seems to indicate that the  Mini LED panel may use more power. On the spec sheet, Intel’s new Core  i9-14900HX processor has a 200MHz higher single core clock speed compared to  th

e 13980HX found in last year’s Scar 18. Despite that, last year’s version had a slightly  higher single core score, though it’s less than one percent ahead. This can vary a bit based on  the silicon lottery, as we have other 13980HX chips with lower single core scores. Last year’s  Scar 18 was also 3% ahead in multicore score, so the difference is only small, but 14th gen not  having a clear win makes it feel a bit pointless. Performance lowers if we unplug the charger and  run off of battery po

wer instead. Last year’s Scar 18 was still a little ahead in multi  core performance, but strangely the 14th gen chip was now scoring higher in single  core. This happened in Cinebench 2024 too, and we’ve seen it with a few laptops recently.  I’m not sure why, but it’s reproducible. It’s using the same Wi-Fi card as last year, but  I found this year’s performance a bit better. My data from last year’s Scar 18 is almost a year old  though, so perhaps Intel Wi-Fi drivers improved. Alright, we need

to talk about the game  results. In a combined CPU and GPU stress test, I found that this year’s Scar 18 would  max the GPU out at 150 watts. Whereas last year’s Scar 18 went up to 170  watts in the exact same workload. Now that said, it does seem to vary based on  the workload being run, because with the games that we’re about to look at the 4090 in this  laptop was still able to max out at around 175 watts - at least at 4K. That wasn’t the  case at lower resolutions where the CPU took more of

the power, and that’s just how dynamic  boost works, shifting power between CPU and GPU. Cyberpunk 2077 was tested with our own custom  test run, and I’ve got the Scar 18 shown by the red highlight. The performance is great  at 1080p compared to most other laptops, but it’s only just slightly ahead of last  year’s cheaper Scar 18. The Scar 17 was a fair bit ahead due to AMD’s 3D V-Cache. This  year’s Scar 18 didn’t quite have the same lead at 1440p. The difference compared to last year’s  versi

on is still within the margin of error, but there are more 4090 laptops ahead now. It’s  the lowest result at 4K from any RTX 4090 gaming laptop tested so far. Even Razer’s Blade 18 with  lower tier RTX 4080 graphics isn’t far behind, and the Scar 18 was actually running the 4090  at 174 watts in this test, so full power. Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with  the game’s benchmark. At 1080p it’s one of the better results, only beaten  by the Scar 17 with AMD’s 3D V-Cache, or a smaller water cool

ed laptop. It’s the  same deal at the higher 1440p resolution, except that last year’s Scar 18 is exactly the  same now. Last year’s Scar was a little behind at 4K this time, a bit different to what we  saw earlier in Cyberpunk. Let’s not forget I’m not testing with features like DLSS either,  so higher FPS is possible than what I’m showing. Control is a GPU heavy game, even at 1080p,  so the lower minimum GPU power limit may help explain why this year’s scar is the lowest RTX  4090 result. It’s

the same deal at 1440p too, and also 4K, where it’s slightly  behind last year’s Scar and only a little ahead of the ASUS ROG Ally with RTX  4090 eGPU connected. At the end of the day, there’s only a 5 FPS gap between  the worst and best 4090 result here, nothing major, but when you’re spending  top dollar you probably want the best. Here are the 3DMark results if  that’s something you care about. Pricing and availability will change over  time, so check the link below the video for updates and

current sales. And if the Scar  18 has a good sale, we’ll be sure to add it to our gaminglaptop.deals website. We update that  everyday to include all of the latest sales, so make sure that you check it out regularly  to save money on your next gaming laptop. At the time of recording, the lower  specced RTX 4080 configuration starts from $2600 USD, so $100 more compared to last  year’s model with 13th gen CPU. But if you want the Mini LED screen then it’s an extra $400  compared to the same thi

ng but without it. Meanwhile the higher tier RTX 4090 version  that we’ve looked at in this video is $3900, or 30% more money, granted you get  double the SSD space. Still though, when you consider that at 4K an RTX 4090  laptop is 15% faster than an RTX 4080 laptop, it’s hard to justify. And the difference  on average is even less at 1440p. So this difference is a bit more realistic,  unless you plan on connecting a 4K monitor. Basically, you’re paying a whole lot  more for minor improvements t

his year. So diminishing returns are in full effect.  At least without any current sales running, but again check the link below  the video as that will change. Even spending more money for the Mini LED  upgrade might not be worth it for a lot of people. You’re spending $400 or 15%  more money for a screen that basically has the same color gamut as last gen and is  actually slightly slower in screen response time. But it does have more than double  the brightness and better contrast. So it does

look a bit better. But is that  worth $400 to you? Maybe, maybe not. But considering that last year’s Scar 18 had  better CPU performance, better battery life, and comparable FPS in games, if  not slightly ahead in many cases, I can only conclude that it’s literally only  worth buying this year’s Scar 18 with Mini LED screen if you want the brighter screen with  better contrast. That’s what it comes down to. Otherwise just save the money and buy a last  gen Scar 18 from 2023 with 13th gen proces

sor. Everything else about the Scar 18 has been  covered in last year’s detailed review. It just wasn’t worth covering absolutely everything  all over again in this one. There’s no point, because everything else like the design, keyboard,  touchpad, ports are all exactly the same as last year’s model. So check that one out next to  find out everything else about the Scar 18!