*** ASUS ROG G703GX-XS71 Owner's Lounge ***

Specifications:

Display

17.3" FHD (1920x1080), 144Hz 3ms IPS-Level, 72% NTSC, 100% sRGB, 300 nits, Anti-Glare Wide-Viewing Angle w/ G-Sync Technology

Video Graphics & Memory

NVIDIA GeForce® RTX 2080 w/ 8GB GDDR6
Processor Support

and
Heat Management

Intel® 8th Generation Coffee Lake Core™ i7-8750H 6 Core - 12 Thread Processor, 2.2 GHz (Max Turbo Frequency 4.1 GHz), 9MB Smart Cache

Optional:

Gelid GC Extreme – 8.5 W/mK Thermal Conductivity, Non-Electrically Conductive

Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut – 73.0 W/mK Thermal Conductivity, Electrically Conductive

Fujipoly Extreme Thermal Pad – 11.0 W/mK Thermal Conductivity, Non-Electrically Conductive


Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

Chipset Mobile Intel HM370 Express Chipset
System Memory (RAM)
16GB DDR4 2666MHz System Memory (1 x 16GB) - 4 Memory Slots

Optional:

Expandable up to 128GB DDR4/2666MHz System Memory

Hard Drive

512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD + 1TB Firecuda Hybrid SSHD

Optional:

Asus ROG HyperDrive Extreme (3x PCIe NVMe in RAID 0)

Up to 3x 2TB PCIe NVMe x4 M.2 SSD in RAID 0, Up to 2TB 2.5" HDD or 4TB 2.5" SATA III SSD

Optical Drive

None

Optional:

External DVDRW or Blu-Ray Read-Write/8x Super Multi Combo Drive

Card Reader
SD

Video Camera Built-in HD 2.0MP (720p) Web Camera
LAN/WLAN

Intel® Wireless-AC 9560 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n 2x2 NGFF w/ Bluetooth 5.0

Input/Output
1x Microphone-in jack;
1x Headphone-out Jack;
1x RJ45 LAN - 10/100/1000 Mbps/2.5G
1x HDMI 2.0;
1x mini Display Port 1.3;
1x Thunderbolt 3 (SP)
3x USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen.2);
1x USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen 2)

Audio
2x 2W (34*11mm) Tweeter

2x 4.5W (28Φ) with Smart AMP Woofer

ESS Smart Amp

Keyboard and Touchpad ROG AURA Sync RGB Illuminated Chiclet Keyboard Per-Key
Battery 8 Cells Battery, 96WHrs
AC Adapter
Output :
20 V DC, 14 A, 2x 280 W + converter box
Input :
100 -240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal

Dimension & Weight
424 x 320 x 47.5 ~ 50 mm (WxDxH), 16.7 x 12.5 x 1.87 ~ 2.0 inches

10.35 lbs, 4.7Kg

 

Got one of the little monsters on the way. Should arrive tomorrow or Friday. Can't wait for that new laptop smell that's so addictive. Can't believe how much I paid for this thing.

If anyone wants to see any details, close-up shots or whatever, just ask. I need to get my post count going so I can sell my G751JY (980m)

 

please post your benchmarks and temps if you can and impressions about the screen and keyboard

 

I will. Delivery took a bit longer than expected, I should get it tomorrow by the end of day if UPS is accurate.

I haven't been around the current benchmarking scene. What are the programs to use nowadays? Any specific version of 3D Mark or is there anything else? Also, for fps/temp monitoring, what's the recommended software?

This is coming from amazon, not re-pasted or anything.

 

I got this beast on wednesday (from Best Buy) It is completely stock. Added 16gb RAM for total of 32gb (Dual channel). Was cross shopping this laptop against MSI Titan and Area-51m. The pricing vs features on this laptop was better than the other two. So far no regrets.

GPU




Screen
Screen is excellent with 1080p resolution and 144hz with 3ms refresh rate. I had to return my Strix Scar II with RTX 2070 due to bad backligh bleed. This has the dreaded ips glow, but it does not look as bad as shown in picture below. The screen could have been better if it had higher resolution than 1080p.



Keyboard

It is a chiclet style keyboard with good travel distance. No flex on the chassis and built solid. The keyboard is of high quality and has per key rgb lighting which can customized by Aura tool. For some reason, Aura tool breaks after the windows update. I had to manually reinstall the Armoury crate service and reinstall the tool. Even then, sometimes it does not let me customize until I close it and reopen it again. It is annoying sometimes. Luckily, I don't change the keyboard colors often.



Benchmarks

This laptop comes with the single channel RAM of 16gb. I have added another 16gb RAM and having dual channel increases performances in gaming and benchmark. During 3dMark benchmark run, I never saw the gpu or cpu temp go over 85c.




Having dual channel helps during gaming. So far only tested out Shadow of Tomb Raider. With single channel I got around 73-75 fps. Having dual channel RAM increased my fps to 103. Temps occasionally reached to 95c but averaged around 85-88c. It could do better with some modifications like repasting etc. So far no complaints

 

Does repasting void the factory warranty?

 

Repasting does not void warranty if done right.

 

How do things look for you when Gsync is enabled, especially with fast movement like rotating the camera in something like tomb raider or assassins creed odyssey?

I’m on my third unit and considering returning it and giving up all together on the model. They all had horrible ghosting when Gsync is enabled, worst I’ve ever seen. Threads on nvidia and rog websites seem to indicate that it’s a common problem with these 144hz Asus laptops.

Pretty bummed, I really liked it aside from this. Suppose I’ll give the GT75 a try.

 

It looks normal to me. I did not see any ghosting with Gsync enabled. I am planning on returning it due to bad bleeding. I am thinking of exchanging it for another or possibly return it and get Area 51M. I like this laptop so much but this is my second asus I have returned in a month due to backlight bleed. Previously bought Strix Scar II with RTX 2070 and had to return it due to bad backlight bleed.

 

It's here!

So far it seems to be working fine. Arrived pretty late last night so I didn't have that much time to mess with it. Only thing I updated the nvidia drivers but I think I'm missing something, there seems to be just a few options. Can't find the usual g-sync settings, can't find that optimus thing where you can switch which graphics adapter is active, etc. Is there anything else that needs to be installed for this? On my 751JY I have way more settings there

 

To switch to Optimus, you need to go to Armoury Crate. There you can switch between Optimus mode and dedicated graphics mode.

Did you find any backlight bleed in your laptop? I am planning on doing an exchange.

 

I'll try when I get home. I just replied in the other thread about the backlight. How can we check it consistently so we can compare our screens?

 

I am also not sure if I have ips glow or backlight bleed. I used this YouTube video to look for any bleed or glow



I used different brightness level to check for bleeding.

 

Am I correct to assume all the nvidia settings like g-sync options should appear in nvidia control panel once I mess with the Optimus setting in Armoury Crate?

 

I am not sure about that. This is ROG-exclusive software that lets you switch between optimus or dedicated graphics mode.

 

One more question, did yours also come with nvidia DCH drivers installed?

When I installed the latest drivers, I could only use the DCH version. If I tried 'normal' drivers it fails at the compatibility check. Is this how it's supposed to be?

Edit: any way to disable the laptop startup audio chime?

 

Mine did not come with nvidia DCH drivers installed. So I am not sure what to tell you. I just went to Best Buy and did an exchange. Hoping the replacement does not have backlight bleeding as previous one.

Startup audio chime can be disabled by going into Armoury Crate. It’s in the main menu where you see cpu and gpu information...

 

Cool, let us know how it turns out.

Interesting with the drivers. Wonder why some are set up differently. Mine is from amazon (didn't say which specific vendor, just sold by amazon).

 

Finally found the stupid setting hiding in Armoury Crate. I set it to discrete graphics (so that it uses only the 2080), reboot and all is well. All the usual settings appeared in nvidia control panel.

This thing is awesome. Today it spent all day downloading steam library games. Can't wait to test some now.

 

Got a chance to set up an HTC Vive last night on it. Works fine, no surprises here.

Only strange thing is that it wouldn't work with the standard hdmi port, it would only work with the mini display port. It's fine as I had a cable for this but it's strange. Maybe some setting somewhere for the hdmi port.

 

Forgot to mention, the 144Hz screen is awesome! I never had a high refresh rate screen before. When I use it in parallel with my work laptop (an older Thinkpad T460s), the difference is mind blowing. Even just moving the mouse on the Asus is incredibly smooth feeling.

 

Hello all.

I’m currently contemplating the purchase of an 17.3” ASUS ROG G703 GX Chimera series laptop (the one with the RTX 2080) from vendors who offer customization, repaste and display cherry picking services.
Considering that ASUS ROG has been using the same chassis, motherboard and intel chipset for the last couple of years I’m posting my query in all threads across the ROG G703 lineup for increased feedback and input from either owners or vendors regarding the customization I want to do. I guess this does not count against the Cross posting rule as I’m posting multiple times in the same forum and not across different ones?

Can the ASUS MOBO and the Mobile Intel HM370 Express Chipset handle DDR4 3200MHz SO-DIMM RAM (2 x 8GB dual channel), as in XMP keeping the system stable and reliable at those overclocked frequencies. This G.SKILL Ripjaws module is the laptop memory I’ve found with the tightest CAS latency timings 16-18-18-43 (tighter than most 2666 kits I’ve browsed), price of dual channel kit 200$. Or should I just stick to 2666 MHz as the mobile MOBO might be less capable than a desktop MOBO due to voltage and thermal limitations? Have any of the owners put 3200 Mhz RAM or Higher inside their ASUS G703 Chimera?

How easy is it for a vendor to acquire and swap the AUO B173HAN03.2 AHVA Display panel (6 bit, slower response time) for the AUO B173HAN04.0 AHVA Display panel (8 bit, faster response time)? Both display panels are 1080p, G-Synch enabled and have a refresh rate of 144Hz, so I guess they are plug and play for the ASUS G703 Chimera series. Comparison chart. Only thing that worries me is the presence of a MUX to switch of G-Synch and enable Nvidia Optimus for the GX model over the GI, would the MUX accept the newer 8-bit display panel and still work? Has any owner here upgraded their screen successfully?

I would greatly appreciate any answers to my queries.

Best regards.

 

Got to the fast train ride section in Metro last night and I haven't noticed anything bad with the fast sideways movement. Lots of details in the background and no obvious screen tearing or ghosting.

So far it seems to be working fine. I do plan on adding another 16Gb of ram, just need to find out what's currently installed in it so I can get the same kind and I want to get rid of the 1Tb SSHD which came with it.

 

I installed 16gb RAM in mine and the difference was huge in some games. You can go here to find the compatible RAM for the model. I bought mine from them and never had issue. My benchmark scores did not improve but in some games I saw +20 fps increase.

 

Cool, thanks, I'll do the same. Opened it up last night to check but the installed RAM in hidden somewhere, I could only see a pair of free slots. I'll put a 16Gb module in one of them.

 

What are CPU and GPU temps like on this new model? Anyone played around with undervolting?

 

Same screen issues with my exchange model. Decided to get area-51m instead. I really liked asus laptop performance. But 15% discount offer for area-51m was something I couldn’t ignore. So ordered one

 

I see a bit of light bleed on some screens but in games/windows I honestly don't notice it.
Are you sure there's something wrong with the ones you tried or maybe you just need to adjust your expectations about these types of panels?

Before returning it, did you get a chance to play with the performance profiles from Armoury Crate? Asking because playing Metro last night I wanted to try to lower a bit the fan speeds and it didn't seem to want to use my manual profile. I'm assuming when it runs GPU intensive apps, it will adjust speed according to temps no matter what profile I select. Need to dig some more about this.

 

I understand backlight bleed is unavoidable. But the ones I got had more than what is considered normal bleed.

I haven’t returned mine yet. Will try out and let you know when I go home. I always had it set to turbo mode when gaming. Will try out today.

 

What software are you guys using to check temps/fps? I know Armoury Crate shows temps but it's not helping because as soon as I exit a game, temps and fan speeds go down. I'd like to have maybe an overlay or something with good logging.

I need to find a way to tune the settings. When playing a really GPU intensive game (only tested in Metro so far), it's a little too loud. Ideally I'd even be ok to lower some settings and lose some performance just to be able to keep the fan RPMs a little lower.

I'm assuming re-pasting would also help in that area as it would mean a bit lower temps so fans wouldn't stay so high all the time, right?

Is it too early to look for a disassembly guide/ service manual for the 703GX? Besides the actual GPU/CPU re-pasting, is there anything else that helps keep temps down?

 

I am using MSI Afterburner on mine. You can download it here

As for fan, did you try balanced mode? I use turbo mode because I often use headphones and the fan noise never bothered me. I tried using balanced mode yesterday testing out GTA V and had decent level noise (not too low or too high)

I was lucky with both my G703GX as my temps have never reached over 88c during gaming or benchmarks. It rarely spikes to 88c and maintains 85c (which I guess is ok) Other models have shown higher temps so Asus has been good to me.

Repasting will definitely help with temps and fan noise.

 

Cool, I'll check out MSI Afterburner. I've heard good things about it.

Yes, I've only tested Silent vs Balanced so far. Balanced plays fine Metro on Ultra settings but on Silent profile I do notice lower fps. I also normally play with headphones exclusively but being in the same room as my wife, I'm expecting the noise from the fans to be too loud. On the Balanced profile it seems quite louder than the G751JY (980m).

Most likely I will have to find something between Silent and Balanced for good performance and somewhat quieter operation.
For sure I'll repaste as well. Having it run even a few degrees cooler, will make a difference.

Until then I'll start gathering data with current settings, speeds, temps to have a good baseline in several games.

 

Got a chance to run some benchmarks last night. The results seem to be pretty consistent with what Aradhakr posted. Mine are a couple hundred points lower most likely because I haven't added a second 16Gb RAM module yet. Also, probably it matters, I had the balanced profile active while doing this.

GPU reported max temp of 80C and CPU max was over 95C for a little bit at some point.



I will collect more data in benchmarks and in games to make sure I have a good baseline report before I proceed with repaste and RAM upgrade. Also, the SSHD is going away. It'll get a new 1Tb NVME M.2 SSD.

...sorry for the crappy picture, I will stop using my phone for screenshots

 

Yep, the scores I got was in the same range before adding another 16gb RAM. Adding another RAM will increase your score. For some reason, my replacement device had better benchmark score than my previous one. I came so close to 10k score in Timespy ( 9988)

Updated scores from my replacement device

 

Cool. In which slot was your stock RAM installed when the laptop came? Did you have to move it to put it next to the one you added to have dual channel active?

Wonder if it's the same in all of them, they put the stock one in the slots on the 'backside' of the mainboard, the ones you can't access from simply opening the panel on the back with the one screw.

 

G703GX has 4 RAM slots. If you turn your laptop upside down, you should see a rubber cover. If you pull the rubber cover should expose the screw underneath. Removing the only screw and pulling the compartment cover will give you access to two empty RAM Slots, 2 M.2 card slots and 1 HDD slot. This gives you option to upgrade quickly without completely opening the laptop. To access pre-installed factory RAM, you need to open further which is not needed in this case.

I put the 16gb RAM in any one of the two empty slots. I need to remember to take it out before I return this laptop this weekend.

 

Your CPU temps are concerning, TJ Junction is 100C! is your laptop repasted with quality thermal paste or liquid metal, or just stock paste?

 

Not repasted, all stock so far. Also this is the model with 8th Generation Coffee Lake Core i7-8750H not the one linked above.

What's "TJ Junction"?

 

I'm getting worried.

There may be a problem here, I don't think it's just me that this thing is louder than it's supposed to be. Ran another benchmark session, this time by playing Far Cry 5 for a while (about an hour I'd say).

It ran fine of course but all the time the fans were way too loud but I could only feel real heat coming out of the right side. Left exhaust was just warm. Sure enough, the graphs show very high CPU temps, almost constantly above 95C. On the other hand, GPU never exceeded about 70C.

Is the CPU really a bottleneck here? Even in Far Cry? It must be the reason why it keeps the fans going way too fast. I can run this game on my 980m just fine and it's nowhere near as loud as this. Or it's just me and this is how it's supposed to work?

I know, I'm playing with headphones all the time but that's not the point. My most important requirement besides top end GPU, was quiet operation, well, of course not silent but not as loud as this thing.

I need some advice. What non invasive setting could I check or change? I have about a week or so to decide if I want to return it and go back to the drawing board.

 

Far Cry 5 is CPU intensive game. Even area 51m laptop has issues with fan noise so I guess it is normal for laptops with powerful configuration. I am not sure about the temps you are getting. Did you notice any thermal throttling? When I played Battlefield V for 1 hour straight, I can see my temps spiking to 88c and sometimes 90c but I did not see any reduced clock speed in CPU.

I decided to go with area 51m due to desktop processor configuration which is also replaceable (if needed) Now with 17% off in Dell US, the price is similar to G703GX. Maybe you can try looking into it and see if that works out for you? Nothing against G703GX but for similar price you are getting a laptop with desktop grade processor.

 

Yeah, I've been looking at the 51m too but decided with the Asus for a number of reasons: I've had similar models from them before, I like how it looks, I like the keyboard more, and I could get it much faster.

Haven't checked for throttling, I will try to see tonight. Basically I have to watch the frequency? It should go down at some point where the temps are high? I wouldn't even mind if it slows down as long as I could make the fans a little more quiet.

I'm assuming a little bit of undervolting/underclocking should help here. I've been digging around MSI afterburner and found how I am supposed to change the points on the freq/voltage graph. The way I set them up here seems to work fine, I even got about 150 more points in 3dmark but it's the same for CPU temps. Is there a way to do a similar thing for the CPU, to lower the clocks a bit?



Also, I wonder if there's a way to control the fans manually. So far in MSI Afterburner the slider/button is greyed out. Don't know why or what I should use for this.

 

Yes, when cpu reaches the maximum temp it will throttle. When I was playing battlefield V, I never noticed my cpu throttling as my temps fluctuated. My cpu clock speed was constantly running at 3912 Mhz and sometimes 4105 Mhz. Maybe it would throttle if I was gaming for several hours together which I have not checked.

Did you try playing games in medium settings? That might make a difference. I am not sure if MSI afterburner is fully compatible so that's why it might be greyed out.

You can also try ROG GPU Tweak II app from Armoury Crate. Go to Featured section and look for it there. This might give you some option with respect to silent profile.

 

Found out what T Junction means. These 8750 indeed have the temp before throttling set to 100C. I was getting close on some of the spikes during benchmarking but I'm not sure it actually reached that high.

I want to try more and more to repaste and see if it makes a difference.

 

I've found something interesting.
TLDR - asus bundled software is crap
- please see my question at the bottom


There's a high chance that Asus has completely garbage software and armoury crate isn't working properly.
They have 3 default profiles and a fancy color graph which changes when I switch from one to another and shows what's supposed to be different.

Silent (low clocks and fans)
Balanced (medium clocks and higher fans)
Turbo (highest CPU/GPU clocks and highest fan speeds).

This is how it should be but their little graph turns out to be a dirty liar. Basically they put the highest CPU speeds (4GHz) on the balanced profile too while the fans don't go as high as they do on turbo, so of course things heat up too much:



And yes, it throttles hard. This is how it looks after about an hour of Far Cry. CPU gets easily to 99C and the speed starts bouncing.



Moving on with testing and looking for a way to fix this, I've started reading about and setting up ThrottleStop.

One cool test I could do so far it disable turbo on the CPU so it's working at only 2.2GHz. The whole thing is whisper quiet and FarCry works just fine. Haven't checked the FPS difference but this is just a test. With turbo off, the CPU never got higher than 65C with the fan much less loud.




Of course there's a performance hit (almost 1000 points less in 3dmark) so my plan is to have a profile where I set it somewhere in between. I don't need to go all the way to 4Ghz but somewhere around 3-ish it would be perfect. Thing is, so far I haven't figured out how. For some reason I can't change the multiplier in ThrottleStop. I mean I can change it but nothing happens. Any ideas if there's a hidden setting or this may be locked somehow? Any other way to get it to work at a specific speed?

 

Good news! Made some progress and found a way to set this thing up properly.

I cannot believe how utter garbage is the software included with Asus. Moving on, just needed to say that again

ThrottleStop is awesome. For now I've set it up so the max speed of the CPU is at 3.1GHz and a bit of undervolting (-70mv for core/cache and -40 for igpu, I know, I can go a bit further safely).

It runs great, the fans don't go crazy at all and it won't go past about 75C even under heavy load. This is with stock paste, I can imagine I'll be able to go even a bit higher after repasting.

Tomorrow is benchmarking day. I've got Grizzly Kryonaut on the way and some good thermal pads to replace the stock ones. It's not hard to take it apart, I will post before and after data and pictures along the way.

 

Thank you for the info. 75c is excellent. Let’s see how it does after repasting.

I saw a YouTube video few days ago with complete tear down for G703GX. I am guessing you might have seen it already

 

Yes, I already had ordered the new paste and was planning on doing it blindly. I was very happy to see that video pop up exactly when I needed it
The paste is here but I'll wait until tomorrow. I'm still collecting benchmark data and temp/usage readings from before repasting.

On a more sad note, looks like Asus is really being complete di** with this laptop. They've locked most setting out from the bios. Thanks to unclewebb for pointing this out to me, the undervolt settings did not work. The sliders do work, but they do not actually change anything. This also must be locked out by Asus, along with multiplier changes and other options. For now I'm glad I was able to at least change the max multiplier so it does run at 3.1GHz max. We'll see, hopefully in the near future someone smarter than me will find a way to unlock it.

 

Well slap my tits and call me Shirley, this Kryonaut Thermal Grizzly actually seems to work.

I'm getting almost 10 degrees C cooler readings now. The stock paste Asus had seemed already dry and way too much.


Here's the inside in all its glory. Not difficult to open, just need to pay attentions to remove all the screws and use a proper thin plastic pry tool.


Coolers off:


They used some sort of plastic (maybe kapton) to protect around the die and apparently applied so much stock paste that it got squished under it. I couldn't be bothered to clean this up now. Maybe on the next application. I know Kryonaut won't last long...


I'm not even sure I got the most 'fresh' Kryonaut Paste. I went with the spread-a-thin-layer method and it seemed to be pretty dry, almost too dry. I don't know if that's how it's supposed to be (back in the days, arctic silver was way more ...liquid when applying).

 

Here's a couple temp readings. Will follow up and get some more these days, but in any case, it's looking good.

Windows idle before repaste:


Windows idle after repaste:


3dMark before:


3dMark after:

 

The temps are great and makes a huge difference. Thank you.

Will you be trying out gaming now? Maybe extended sessions to see if the temperatures are stable without any throttling issues.