A heavy, glowing machine has arrived to test a familiar human wish: to have the best of whatever we chase, and to pay for it in weight and coin. Asus has built a seventeen-inch gaming laptop around AMD's new mobile chip, whose stacked cache lets it outrun a rival that costs more, and a reviewer has found it dazzling in play while noting that it is ill suited to the ordinary work of an office and a commuter's back. The verdict reads as a turn in a longer rivalry, where a new idea in chip design presses on an older giant, and where the question of whether the cost is worth it remains, as it alwa
Asus ROG Strix Scar X3D Review: AMD's 3D V-Cache Laptop Chip Leads Gaming, but at a $3,700 Price
A gap you'd expect from a GPU upgrade, not from the CPU alone
Mark
Why does a $3,700 laptop matter to people who won't buy it?
Mimi
Because the reviewer says it's a statement, aimed at Intel. The chip is the story, not the chassis.
Mark
What's the headline number?
Mimi
Up to 20 percent faster than MSI's Titan GT77 HX, which has Intel's Core i9-13980HX and the same RTX 4090.
Luke
Worth noting that's across the titles he tested, and it's one reviewer's benchmarks. Up to 20 percent isn't an average.
Mark
And the cause?
Mimi
3D V-Cache, stacked cache on the CPU. Games lean on it; office work much less.
Luke
He credits the cache, but the review doesn't isolate it with a controlled test. It's an explanation, not a measured result.
Mark
What about heat?
Mimi
Mid-80s Celsius, keyboard never hot, but in a huge 17-inch body.
Luke
Right, and 15-inch cooling is untested. Nobody knows yet.
Mark
Who should buy it?
Mimi
Someone who wants frame rates above all. Battery was 3.5 hours of office use, and the webcam is 720p.
Der Puls
- A six-pound, RGB-lit laptop costing $3,699.99 has stormed into the gaming market, and its reviewer felt the weight on his back long before the frame rates impressed him.
- AMD's 3D V-Cache, a first for mobile chips, lifted the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D up to 20 percent ahead of MSI's Intel-based Titan GT77 in tested games.
- Frame rates soared past 500 in Counter-Strike at native resolution, yet battery life lasted only three and a half hours and the 720p webcam drew sharp complaints.
- The machine is landing as a luxury niche pick for pure performance seekers, while Intel is being pressed to answer and the untested cooling of smaller 15-inch X3D models hangs in the air.
A heavy, glowing machine has arrived to test a familiar human wish: to have the best of whatever we chase, and to pay for it in weight and coin. Asus has built a seventeen-inch gaming laptop around AMD's new mobile chip, whose stacked cache lets it outrun a rival that costs more, and a reviewer has found it dazzling in play while noting that it is ill suited to the ordinary work of an office and a commuter's back. The verdict reads as a turn in a longer rivalry, where a new idea in chip design presses on an older giant, and where the question of whether the cost is worth it remains, as it always does, a matter of what a person values most.
The Asus ROG Strix Scar X3D is a seventeen-inch laptop, over six pounds and covered in RGB lighting. Our reviewer carried it to the office in a backpack and came home with a sore back. Still, he judges it the most powerful gaming laptop money can buy.
The reason is inside: AMD's Ryzen 9 7945HX3D, announced only weeks before this review. It pairs sixteen cores with a boost up to 5.4GHz and 144MB of total cache. The review unit, with an RTX 4090 and a 240Hz QHD screen, costs $3,699.99.
The chip's advantage is the story. The reviewer found it beat MSI's pricier Titan GT77, built on Intel's Core i9-13980HX, by as much as 20 percent in the games tested. Much of that credit goes to AMD's 3D V-Cache, which stacks extra cache onto the processor. Games lean heavily on that cache, while office work gains far less, so he advises against buying this for productivity.
Cooling held up, with the CPU mostly in the mid-80s Celsius, though the fans grow loud in Turbo mode. The panel, keyboard and ports earned praise. The drawbacks are the grainy webcam, a battery that managed three and a half hours of office use, and the steep price.
His verdict is clear: buy it if frame rates are all you want. If battery, portability or the webcam matter, look elsewhere. The larger message is aimed at Intel, and the next test will be whether 15-inch X3D models can keep this performance cool.
The Asus ROG Strix Scar X3D is a 17-inch laptop, over six pounds and almost an inch thick, covered in RGB lighting. The Verge's reviewer carried it to and from the office in a backpack and reported that his back did not thank him. It is also, in his judgment, the most powerful gaming laptop money can buy.
The reason is the chip inside: AMD's Ryzen 9 7945HX3D, which Asus announced only a few weeks before the review. It has 16 cores, 32 threads, a boost clock up to 5.4GHz, a 55W-plus TDP and 144MB of total cache. Asus called it the world's fastest mobile gaming processor. The review configuration adds 32GB of RAM, a 1TB drive, an Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU and a 240Hz QHD screen, and it costs $3,699.99.
The central claim is about how far ahead it is. The reviewer says the X3D beat MSI's Titan GT77 HX by as much as 20 percent in the games tested. That MSI is a more expensive RTX 4090 machine built around Intel's flagship Core i9-13980HX. A gap that size, he notes, is what you would expect from a GPU upgrade, not a change of CPU alone. His benchmarks at native QHD resolution: Red Dead Redemption 2 at 123 frames per second, Horizon Zero Dawn at 173, Assassin's Creed Valhalla at 142, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 133 with ray tracing on and 196 with it off. At FHD, Red Dead reached 149 and Tomb Raider hit 212 with ray tracing and 283 without. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ran at 545 fps native and 692 at FHD, a figure he says is not a typo and is higher than any gaming laptop he has seen on any game.
He credits AMD's 3D V-Cache, which stacks extra cache onto the processor. This is the first mobile chip to use it, and it carries more cache than AMD's current desktop X3D lineup. He describes cache as the CPU's pocket: fast to reach, but small. Games lean on it heavily, while office work and other productivity tasks benefit far less, so he says this is not a machine to buy for an office.
Cooling holds up. Asus pairs Conductonaut Extreme thermal paste with a vapor chamber covering 43.3 percent of the motherboard, 84-blade fans, four heatsinks, 0.1mm fins and anti-dust tunnels. The CPU stayed in the mid-80s Celsius with only occasional spikes, and the keyboard never felt hot. The fans are audible in Turbo mode, and Silent mode is the quieter option. He cautions that the big chassis gives that hardware room, and how the chip fares in smaller 15-inch laptops is still to be seen.
He likes much else. The 2560 x 1440 panel covers 100 percent of sRGB, 87 percent of Adobe RGB and 99 percent of P3, and it peaked at 368 nits in testing, brighter than average for a gaming laptop. The keyboard is among the best he has tested this year, quiet and bouncy, with per-key RGB and a numpad. Ports include two USB-A on the left, and at the back two USB-C, HDMI, ethernet and power. Both USB-C ports support G-Sync, one supports 100W power delivery, and the laptop has 2.5G LAN and Wi-Fi 6E. He would like some ports on the right side.
The drawbacks are the webcam, the battery and the price. The webcam is a grainy 720p unit, which he finds hard to accept at $3,699.99. General office use in Silent mode lasted three and a half hours, about an hour and a half less than the MSI's bigger battery. Battery gaming was better: 54 minutes of Red Dead Redemption 2 without a stutter. The 330W charger reached 60 percent in 37 minutes. Setup asks for two mandatory agreements and nine optional ones.
His verdict is blunt: AMD brought 3D V-Cache to mobile and beat the competition handily. Buy it if frame rates are your only priority. If you care about battery, portability or the webcam, look elsewhere. The larger message is aimed at Intel, with 15-inch X3D models the next test.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
Buy the X3D if frame rates are your sole priority; if you care about battery, portability or webcam quality, look elsewhere.— The Verge's reviewer (paraphrased)
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