We are almost done with the entire lineup of Republic of Gamers devices revealed in this year’s CES event. And today, we are going to show you the ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533. A laptop that promises to deliver extreme performance levels, thanks to the Zen 3 processors from AMD, and the new Ampere graphics cards from NVIDIA. More importantly, it is particularly interesting to see how would it perform against the competitions, since currently, the notebooks are probably the best way you can get your hands on the latest and greatest from team Green.
In order to try to be the best in a very competitive world, ASUS has done a couple of things. First, they offer blazingly fast screens. The “base” one here is a 1080p 300Hz panel, with the pricier option providing a slightly slower refresh rate – 165Hz, but a higher resolution – 1440p. As we saw in the ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503, it is probably the pinnacle of mobile gaming these days.
Additionally, they have applied liquid metal (from Thermal Grizzly) between the CPU die and the cooling interface, which will greatly improve the thermal efficiency. And perhaps something that will affect users the most – the keyboard. We’ll leave that for later though.
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-rog-strix-scar-15-g533/
Contents
Specs Sheet
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533 - Specs
All ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533 configurations
What’s in the box?
Inside the package, we found some paper manuals, the proprietory “Keystone”, a 240W power brick, and a couple of customization shrouds. By the way, ASUS offers you all of the details for 3D printing your own shroud on their Website.
Design and construction
This notebook shares the same design policy as its bigger brother – the ROG Strix SCAR 17 G733. It features a semi-transparent base, extremely sturdy chassis, and RGB all over the place – including an LED strip running in the front of the laptop, and a glowing ROG logo on the back. In terms of dimensions, the laptop is not the smallest out there, but this is expected because it has to incorporate a beefy cooling solution. Nevertheless, it weighs 2.30 kg and has a profile that goes from 22.6mm up to 27.2mm.
Its lid opens easily with a single hand. This reveals a matte surface display with extremely thin bezels around it. Unfortunately, ASUS doesn’t provide you with a Web camera, so you will need to get your own, should you want or need one.
Next, we go to the base, where we see something truly unique. Instead of the conventional mechanisms, ASUS went for optical-mechanical switches. They are still similar to the scissor ones, but the entire concept is different, as the detection of input happens through light. According to the manufacturer, this brings the latency down to only 0.2 ms and has a 1.9mm travel. In practice, they produce a satisfying click when you pass the detection zone, and they are incredibly comfortable to use. Keep in mind, that you have a lot less resistance than your Cherry switches, but it still feels better than 99% of the laptop keyboards out there.
Also, let’s not forget that this unit has large Arrow keys (something ASUS was very scared of in the past), Per-key RGB illumination, and a set of multimedia keys on the top. Two of which actually control the Armoury Crate and the performance presets.
As for the touchpad, you get a pretty large model, which employs the NumberPad technology, pioneered in the ZenBook series. It is comfortable to use, and although it lacks dedicated buttons, we find it good enough.
Now, this notebook comes with a set of four speakers – two 2W tweeters, firing towards yourself, and two 4W woofers firing downwards. And in terms of ventilation, the cool air enters the chassis from the bottom panel and some grills on the back shroud, while the heat exhaust happens from the back and the two sides of the notebook.
Ports
So, this notebook’s ports are located on the back, and on the left side of the device. First, the back houses the power plug, an RJ-45 connector, an HDMI 2.0b connector, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery support, and a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port. Then, on the left, you got two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports and an audio jack.
Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance
To take this laptop apart, you have to start by undoing 11 Phillips-head screws. One of them remains attached and lifts the edge of the bottom panel so that you can start prying from there.
Once again, we see a huge 90Wh battery pack, powering the laptop when it’s away from the wall.
Memory-wise, there are two SODIMM slots, which support up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM in dual-channel mode. As for the storage, you get two M.2 PCIe x4 slots.
Another important aspect here is the cooling solution. It comprises a total of six heat pipes, including one that cools the VRM and the graphics memory. Additionally, ASUS has supplied four heat spreaders.
Display quality
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533 in the configuration we tested has a 300 Hz Full HD panel – Sharp LQ156M1JW25 (SHP152C). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).
Viewing angles are excellent. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.
We measured a maximum brightness of 328 nits in the middle of the screen and 307 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 13%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6900K – slightly colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the main display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is good – 1000:1.
To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.
Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.
Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.
The yellow dotted line shows ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533’s color gamut coverage.
Its display covers 97% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.
Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.
We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.
Below you can compare the scores of ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).
The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.
The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.
Response time (Gaming capabilities)
We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.
We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 9 ms.
After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.
PWM (Screen flickering)
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness at any point. This means it is comfortable for long gaming sessions without harming your eyes in this aspect.
Blue light emissions
Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.
Conclusion
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533’s panel in the configuration we tested has a Full HD resolution, good contrast ratio, and comfortable viewing angles. Thankfully, its backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level, and it covers 97% of the sRGB color gamut. Interestingly, thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile the color accuracy becomes extremely high with an Average dE value of only 0.6. However, what is more, important for gamers, is that the 300Hz refresh rate of the panel is paired with blazingly fast pixel response times. This results in an extremely smooth image, which is helpful in high-paced games like shooters for example.
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Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS Sharp LQ156M1JW25 (SHP152C).
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Office Work
Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.
Design and Gaming
This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.
Health-Guard
Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.
Sound
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533s’s quad-speaker setup produces a very loud sound with high quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.
Drivers
All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be downloaded from here: https://rog.asus.com/us/laptops/rog-strix/2021-rog-strix-scar-15-series/helpdesk_download
Battery
Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. The 90Wh battery pack delivers 15 hours and 4 minutes of Web browsing and 10 hours and 45 minutes of video playback.
In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.
For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.
We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.
CPU options
As far as we know, this notebook can be found with either the Ryzen 7 5800H or the Ryzen 9 5900HX – both extremely capable 8-core processors, based on the latest Zen 3 architecture from AMD.
Results are from the Cinebench 20 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
GPU options
And for the graphics, there are three options – the RTX 3060, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080, all having 115W TGPs with 15W of additional power through Dynamic Boost.
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Gaming tests
| Far Cry 5 | Full HD, Normal (Check settings) | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Ultra (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 105 fps | 103 fps | 97 fps |
| Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016) | Full HD, Medium (Check settings) | Full HD, Very High (Check settings) | Full HD, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 137 fps | 113 fps | 85 fps |
| Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Very High (Check settings) | Full HD, Ultra (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 100 fps | 89 fps | 68 fps |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) | Full HD, Medium (Check settings) | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Highest (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 107 fps | 106 fps | 91 fps |
Temperatures and comfort
Max CPU load
In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.
Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800H (45W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533 | 3.43 GHz (B+7%) @ 76°C | 3.35 GHz (B+5%) @ 80°C | 3.47 GHz (B+8%) @ 82°C |
| ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE (GX551) | 3.93 GHz (B+23%) @ 81°C | 3.82 GHz (B+19%) @ 86°C | 3.78 GHz (B+18%) @ 93°C |
| ASUS TUF A17 (FA706) 2021 | 3.42 GHz (B+7%) @ 74°C | 3.34 GHz (B+4%) @ 78°C | 3.35 GHz (B+5%) @ 84°C |
When we look at the clock speeds during Prime95 load, we see that today’s machine stays behind the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE (GX551), however, the latter works at significantly higher temperatures.
Real-life gaming
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min) |
|---|---|---|
| ASUS ROG Srix SCAR 15 G533 | 1616 MHz @ 80°C @ 130W | 1597 MHz @ 82°C @ 130W |
| ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503 | 1474 MHz @ 75°C @ 100W | 1475 MHz @ 74°C @ 99W |
| ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G733 | 1523 MHz @ 81°C @ 129W | 1515 MHz @ 83°C @ 130W |
Interestingly, the 15-inch model works at a slightly higher clock speed than its 17-inch sibling. Still, the distance to the 100W RTX 3080 on the ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503 is dangerously close, so we are not entirely happy with the cooling setup, even though we used the same Turbo setting on all three devices.
Gaming comfort
In terms of noise, you should expect a loud device, if you want to get everything out of your notebook (e.g. using the Turbo preset), however, as you go down the performance steps, the noise decreases proportionally.
Verdict
So, we have concluded our tests on one of the most powerful 15-inch laptops at the moment. What did we learn? Well, as we said, it has an enormous amount of performance. The liquid metal inside helps a lot with the temperatures, and for the next generation, we would like to see it applied to the graphics card as well. Interestingly, the variable refresh rate technology, combined with the beefy 90Wh battery pack delivers about 15 hours of Web browsing and 10 hours and 45 minutes of video playback, which was unheard of for a gaming notebook of this caliber a couple of years back.
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533’s panel in the configuration we tested has a Full HD resolution, good contrast ratio, and comfortable viewing angles. Thankfully, its backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level, and it covers 97% of the sRGB color gamut. Interestingly, thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile the color accuracy becomes extremely high with an Average dE value of only 0.6. However, what is more, important for gamers, is that the 300Hz refresh rate of the panel is paired with blazingly fast pixel response times. This results in an extremely smooth image, which is helpful in high-paced games like shooters for example.
We were also very surprised by the optical-mechanical keyboard which brings a similar experience to that of a true mechanical switch in a case that is no thicker than a conventional mesh unit.
Unfortunately, we didn’t see features like Thunderbolt connectivity (due to AMD limitations), as well as an SD card slot of any kind, which is petty.
However, there is another thing that we would like to address. Despite the fact that AMD completely stormed the desktop market and obliterated Intel in every given scenario (even gaming), this cannot be said about the laptop segment. We found that AMD is still lacking behind Intel when it comes to the pure gaming experience, with some RTX 3060 laptops outperforming RTX 3070s when paired with Intel CPUs. On the other hand, time will tell if this is due to driver optimizations, as we continue testing laptops equipped with the latest tech from AMD and NVIDIA, and of course, paired inside of other brands of laptops.
For now, we would advise looking at the more portable ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503, even though its graphics cards work at a TGP of 100W, compared to the 130W of this unit. Or wait for more manufacturers to release their gaming products to the public.
Pros
- Loaded with RGB
- 1080p 360Hz, and 1440p 165Hz IPS panel options
- Covers 97% of the sRGB color gamut and has an accurate color representation thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile (Sharp LQ173M1JW04)
- Doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment (Sharp LQ173M1JW04)
- Very quick pixel response times (Sharp LQ173M1JW04)
- One of the best hardware combinations up to this day
- Liquid metal thermal compound on the CPU
- Wi-Fi 6 support and two M.2 PCIe x4 drives
- Optically mechanical keyboard with very low latency and big Arrow keys
- Great battery life
Cons
- No Thunderbolt support (due to chipset limitations)
- No SD card reader
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-rog-strix-scar-15-g533/
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