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A monstrous combination of high-end components, with very little compromise.
Its great to see a high-end gaming laptop coming in at the $2K mark, let alone one with a powerful combo of an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX and Nvidia RTX 3080 under the hood. This 2021 Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 (opens in new tab) being a penny shy of two grand bodes well for us portable gamers; as we usher in the next generation of laptops, the lappys of last year are looking a little more affordable.
Asus just came out with its 2022 line of Strix Scar gaming laptops (opens in new tab), and those are something to behold, for sure. But the fact this is a 2021 model doesn’t mean you have to compromise, particularly with it being a fantastic $2,000 at Newegg (opens in new tab) right now. That’s $400 saved on an immense, portable gaming machine, and compared to the $3K or more you’d be looking at for newer models, that’s a win.
Sure, you’re not getting Intel’s beastly 12th Gen CPU inside, and as such won’t get the benefit of 32GB of DDR5 memory like a few of the newer models come with, but 16GB of DDR4-3200 should be more than sufficient for most use cases, and that 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 5900HX is still a tip-top chip.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 | Nvidia RTX 3080 | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX | 16GB DDR4 RAM | 1TB SSD | 15-inch | 1080p | 300Hz IPS | $2,399.99 $1,999.99 at Newegg (save $400) (opens in new tab)
For less than $2K it’s hard not to scream about this gaming laptop. It’s a killer spec, and although it may not match the 2022 models when it comes to memory speeds and storage capacity, there’s little else to complain about.
Unless you’re going to have masses of resource-hungry, CPU grinding programs all hogging the show at once, you should be fine with this laptop.
And while you’re only looking at 1TB of storage, against the 2TB of newer models, there’s a spare M.2 slot for anyone willing to do a little DIY upgrade. It might be an idea, considering game install sizes (opens in new tab) today. Check out the best NVMe SSDs for gaming (opens in new tab) if you’re going to take the leap.
What’s more, this machine not only comes with a 300Hz IPS screen that’ll make the most of that mega hardware combo, it comes with a fancy opto-mechanical keyboard, to boot. It’ll be heavier that expected, but an absolute joy to type on, and much more responsive for gaming than your average laptop keyboard.
It’s certainly one for speedy gaming with a 1080p screen, but that means you’ll have no trouble playing top triple A games at high graphics settings, while still getting close to the 100fps mark.
I might be a bit of a ROG fangirl, honestly, and it’s hard not to recommend these laptops even when they’re over $2,000.
Screw sports, Katie would rather watch Intel, AMD and Nvidia go at it. She can often be found admiring AI advancements, sighing over semiconductors, or gawping at the latest GPU upgrades. She’s been obsessed with computers and graphics since she was small, and took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni. Her thirst for absurd Raspberry Pi projects will never be sated, and she will stop at nothing to spread internet safety awareness—down with the hackers.
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