ASUS ROG Strix SCAR G533Q# Owner's Lounge

https://rog.asus.com/laptops/rog-strix/2021-rog-strix-scar-15-series/

There's, it seems, four models for the G533 this year. Some have begun shipping to consumers.

I got mine last Friday and I absolutely adore it. Paid $1999 from Newegg, but that listing has since gone inactive.

Specs:


Operating System Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 3.20 GHz

Memory 16 GB DDR4 (2x8GB 3200 @ 22CL)

Storage 1 TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD (Some OEM SKHynix, Pretty fast, but def PCIe Gen3)

2 x M.2 slots support either SATA and NVMe

Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Max-P (115w + 15w TGP)

Video Memory 8 GB GDDR6

Dimensions (W x D x H) 13.94" x 10.20" x 0.89"-1.07"

Screen 15.6" 165 Hz IPS (QHD 2560 x 1440p)

LCD Features 165 Hz 3 ms, IPS-level, 300 nits, anti-glare display, Adaptive-Sync

Operating System Windows 10 Home 64-bit

Weight 5.07 lbs.

LAN 10/100/1000Mbps

WLAN 802.11ax Wireless LAN (Intel AX200)

Bluetooth Bluetooth 5.1 (Dual band) 2x2

Ports
USB 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C with Power Delivery and Display Port
3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
HDMI 1 x HDMI 2.0b
Audio Ports 1 x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack

Built-in array microphone

Audio Tech:
AI mic noise-canceling
Dolby Atmos Software
Smart Amp Technology
Speaker 2 x 2W tweeter
2 x 4W speaker with Smart Amp Technology

Keyboard Optical Mech Keyboard Per-Key RGB

AC Adapter 240-watt AC Adapter

Battery 90 WHrs, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion

Date First Available February 10, 2021



The other versions that exist seem to have downgraded GPU or Upgraded GPU/CPU/RAM Combo, with the best one being about 10~15% better with the 5900HX/3080 16gb/32GB of RAM (Same speed)

Some benchmarks I have already taken:

https://i.imgur.com/nkWAYBq.png - Time Spy

https://i.imgur.com/MURDjDu.png - Cinebench R20

I've noticed a kind of disturbing thing - despite the system running pretty amazing, when the ROG Boost Dynamic Boost thing kicks in or changes, frames can sometimes drop dramatically. Specifically referring to the TGP changing, when the GPU goes up to 130w because the CPU is only eating 30w or less. Occasionally, when the CPU spikes to 35 or more wats, the GPU dramatically reduces power and clocks, which causes frame drops and it is noticable. i have most severely noticed this in Cyberpunk 2077 and Horizon Zero dawn - specifically happens most often in areas crowded with NPCs, which isn't shocking.

Temps - i haven't done any serious recording but I have noticed according to HWinfo neither the GPU nor the CPU EVER thermally throttle. I saw the CPU hit 103c, but HWinfo never reported that it was thermally throttling. GPU only ever got up to 83c at max, which was nice to see.

TGP - random observation - have seen the GPU spike up to 165w of power consumption before. I wasn't paying attention so i have no idea how long it was there, but WHILE it was there, the clocks was 2053Mhz on core. recorded by HWInfo. Pretty heckin neat.

Am wondering what the potential for modding on this system is. Seems like it's ripe for it.

Question - is there any sort of Throttlestop/undervolting/power control for Ryzen 5000 CPUs yet? I tried Ryzencontroller but it was not very helpful.

p.s. I have never made one of these OPs before but very eager to get discussing this system. Been waiting for somebody else to do it, didn't happen so please let me know if I messed anything up!

 

Other thoughts randomly :

The speakers sound amazing

The keyboard is the loudest laptop keyboard I have ever used but it is also the best one I have ever used. numpad on the tp is kinda testy, don't like it.

lack of ability to force function keys to be media keys is annoying, least if there is a way, i haven't found it.

the power profile function has two keys, one function key and one dedicated button, neither seem to work extremely well and I usually just wind up having to open the armory crate to set it. Armory crate does work pretty nicely though.


immediately reloaded win 10 pro onto the system when I got it. Setup was painless but there were a bunch of firmware updates.

Edit:

Link to the one I bought for posterity - though it may not come back into stock for a long time.

https://www.newegg.com/black-asus-r...inment/p/N82E16834235645?Item=N82E16834235645

 

thanks for the topic i also received my laptop recently i already managed to tweak it. but the cpu really needs to be undervolted or at least tdp control not working properly on my laptop. at least in Armory crate for me. it doesn't matter where i put the slider in manual mode it keeps using cpu at full speed
i wounder if anyone else have this issue.
this is my first Asus laptop before i was using MSI. what i love in MSI is that the bios can be tweaked and cpu can be undervolted . also you can change the ram timing. but in asus bios it's so simple and useless. i hope there will be some advanced tweaks or unlocked menus to tweak the ram timing.

 

here is my timespy score https://www.3dmark.com/spy/18498681

 

That is a very impressive graphics score. 12k Damn.

I wonder what the disparity between our two systems is.

Is that perchance misreading your 3080 as a 3070 lololol? jesus.

 

Seriously, I thought it looked a bit insane.

Just happened to spy Gizmislip's 3080 1 min review benchmarks

https://i.imgur.com/I5X4UZ1.png

Your 3070 scores higher than the 3080 in that video lol

 

Have you guys tried Ryzen Master ?

https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/ryzen-master

Not sure if it works on mobile CPU’s and never had a chance to try it myself.
How loud to fans get when gaming ? Any significant improvement in gaming when in Turbo vs Performance mode?
I prefer my laptops on the quieter side and loosing a couple of FPS in performance mode ( which I hope and I’m guessing ) and having less obnoxious fans vs Turbo mode and sounding like a hair dryer.
Why do they have the stupid cut out under the screen ? Does it serve a purpose?
Lastly does a laptop cooler help lower temps when gaming and help making the fans not as loud?
Sorry for all the questions but would greatly appreciate if someone could help me answering some of the questions I have .
Thanks

 

Whelp --> https://i.imgur.com/n60sF01.png

Fans get pretty loud - i feel like they are quieter than the zephyrus g15 that just came out, but i guess i didn't specifically compare the db - i know when you put it into silent mode they stay at zero db /off more often than the zeph g15 did for sure.

Turbo is better than performance mode for sure. seems to control when the TGP swaps more frequently and gives the GPU/CPU the go ahead to run hotter and eat more power in general. its v nice.

I was wondering about the cut out too - but there is actually an RGB light bar there that casts a nice illuminance of RGB across the back and palmrest - its quite aesthetic - though i have all my external lights disabled lol its really really pretty as hell when they are all going.

laptop coolers usually help lower temps but i have not found them to be seriously better than just like lifting your back end up a half inch or so to improve airflow lol

these threads are for questions so ask away! if i can help i will!

 

Have you found a way to undervolt the cpu?

what tweaks did you apply? is that how you managed the obscene TS graphics score? lol seriously that is so high,.

 

I actually flashed my vbios to 125 watt from MSI GP66, that's why tdp a little bit higher. Also I managed to overclock the gpu +175 on core and +1500 on memory. The card runs a little bit hotter compared to original vbios. But never hit 80 its around 75-78, also am using a cooling pad.
The only thing I hate is that the cpu can't be down clocked or power limited within the armory crate.

 

Damn a guide on how you did this would be cool. I probably won't risk it until a year from now when stock is not an issue but that sounds incredible.

 

Can you share both the vBIOS and the Nvflash you used? I actually tried to flash my G15 3070 vBIOS last week and it was a no go. It will not flash, giving an board id mismatch and stops the flash.

 

I sent you the details in PM

 

u can control using power setting in windows. might need simple regedit

 

Can you tell how loud and annoying the fan noise is on performance and turbo modes? Is it acceptable or not? Cause I read conflicting opinions about how "quieter than average" the fans are.
Also, what are the cpu temperatures in-game? I've seen many videos with real-time performance and temps in many games (both recent and not), and the cpu always stayed around 75-78-80° max, and it seems quite strange to me.

I'm actually interested in its big brother, the G733Q rather than the 15,6" version, so maybe some things will be different, but your opinions might still help in absence of an owners thread for the 17" version.

 

I actually feel like the fans in mine are quieter than the fans in the GA503 I briefly owned. But that could also be a pitch thing. Higher pitched fans annoy me, these seem deeper in pitch

The temps on my unit are not the most amazing. 80-85/90 is more average during gaming, at least in games that leverage the CPU heavily. This is in Turbo Mode. I haven't done any manual tweaking at all.


I really should just sit down and dedicate a few hours to just testing every single little thing on this dumb thing I just have so little time for that lmao

 

Whelp - Armory crate was giving me ****, Couldn't select Turbo or Manual mode any more, So I tried to use windows 10 to 'reset it' or 'repair it' and then the system started acting kinda weird, external monitors would go blank, system would freeze up. So I thought okay better just uninstall it. After uninstalling Armor Crate, those issues went away.... but now Armory Crate will not re-install. Gets hung up at about 60% on "Installing Armoury Crate Service / Armoury Crate Lite Service... "

tried a bunch of things and i'm pretty annoyed rn.

Things tried
- using the armory crate un-install tool
- making sure the armory crate installer can get through windows firewall.



Had to do a system restore - ****s sake that was an unpleasant experience.

 

I think i've narrowed this bug down to when I use my system off type C charging. I could be wrong but every single time I use type C charging, armory stops giving me the option to access Turbo and Manual mode until I re-install armory crate, which did not go well last time. So i guess I won't be doing that any more for awhile. Kinda sucky because I didn't wanna have to lug the heavy charger around every where lol

Oh well

Just something to be aware of using type c charging on this system may bug armory crate. hopefully they fix it in the future.

My GA503 didn't do this - but it did occasionally panic and try to claim the charger wasn't plugged in correctly, which was also weird.

 

Found something to undervolt mobile Ryzen

https://github.com/FlyGoat/RyzenAdj/releases

 

Finally got faster RAM

Gonna play with overclocking tonight when I get home.

https://i.imgur.com/8CMgyoe.png

Think I can probably hit 11k graphics w/ this after some tweaking in timespy.

Sure wish Throttlestop worked on these.


This is the kit I used for this: HX432S20IBK2/32

 

The program above works on a 4500U laptop , maybe you can give it a try and see if it works undervolting

 

Just a bit anxious about using unvetted software like this. Especially with shortages the way they are atm. If it breaks, there's no more for months.

 

3200/cl20 ram
+300 mem, +200 core

Topped out at 80c, could def do better but i'm also not sure I want to. Damn the CPU in this runs so flipping hot!

 

Hi all,

Got my G533 today and need some help. It has an adaptive sync display. I’m familiar with G-sync where you disable vsync in games and tearing is removed. How does it work with adaptive sync? Are there any settings I need to change? How do I know it’s enabled and working?

thank you
Mario

 

Been kinda curious about this - since as far as I am aware, it's really just AMD Freesync, or some generic version of it.

I think the deal is that it might be selectively supported in some games, but not all?

It's really not as good as G-Sync from my observations, but none of the games I've played on it push beyond 165hz@1440p so it's also not really a problem.

 

Nvidia has a G-Sync Pendulum Demo. I've used it in the past to make sure I had G-Sync working. Since my g15 doesn't have G-sync, I decided to try the demo out with AMD Freesync turned ON and turned OFF (you can turn it on and off in AMD Radeon Software). The pendulum is noticeably smoother with it on, at least in my eyes.

 

it is enable by default in amd control panel.

 

Interesting. It's in the AMD control panel but affects the nvidia GPU as well?

 

I got the Asus Strix SCAR 15 G533QS with the RTX 3080 because the RTX 3070 would not be available here until April.
Performance wise this thing is a beast, I noticed there was a firmware update for the RTX 3080 that I did I dunno what Asus did but during benchmarking it always hit 130~W during full utilisation even with the CPU running at 80W power draw, GPU would sometimes even reach 140W, thats either something wrong with HWinfo or its something Asus changed.
Temps for the GPU stayed at 70 degrees regardless how long I did a burn test, on the CPU would stay at 90 constantly this is with burn test on both GPU and CPU at the same time with fan speed set to 100%, thats impressive cooling for such a wimpy looking heatsink, its better cooling than my Alienware M17x R4 LOL.

I ran some 3DMark stuff just to see what I could expect.

FireStrike - No Mux, No Manual OC, Turbo Mode
Graphics Score 27 932 | Physics Score 25 720 | Combined Score 12 844

TimeSpy - No Mux, No Manual OC, Turbo Mode
Graphics Score 11 256 | CPU Score 10 014 | Combined Score 11 050​

FireStrike - Enduro Bypass, No Manual OC, Turbo Mode
Graphics Score 30 118 | Physics Score 26 426 | Combined Score 13 359

FireStrike - Enduro Bypass, Manual OC +150MHz Core +250MHz on Memory, full fan speed.
Graphics Score 31 061 | Physics Score 27 081 | Combined Score 13 340

FireStrike - Forcing Enduro off, Manual OC +150Mhz core +250MHz on Memory, full fan speed.
Graphics Score 31 246 | Physics Score 26 061 | Combined Score 13 034

TimeSpy - Forcing Enduro off, Manual OC +150Mhz core +250MHz on Memory, full fan speed.
Graphics Score 11 739 | CPU Score 9 852 | Combined Score 11 411
​

During the full fan speed, GPU stayed at max 70 degrees while CPU hit max 90 degrees as mentioned above even in 3DMark, again pretty impressive but if you keep it at Turbo mode, it will not run fan speed at 100% unless either GPU or CPU hit around 90 degrees, all things considered the fans stay relatively quiet during gaming compared to just 100% fan speed which sounds loud to the point it will in fact obscure a lot of the low volume game sound if you use the speakers, headphones are definitely a must if you want to have a good experience at full fan speed.

I have not done these tests with a Notebook cooler which I have ordered but waiting for stock, so I will definitely try some when I get one.

I have also ordered some quality 3200MT/s 16GB memory sticks that runs at CL16 timing, fastest timing I could find for 3200MT/s and 16GB, should improve the CPU performance by a few percentage compared to the stock factory CL22 memory which is pretty slow timing. Too bad there is no way to do custom timings on the laptop.

I also want to try flash MSI GE76's RTX 3080 155W vBIOS, I noticed my GPU would achieve 140W power several times during the run, I think its because I had both the 240W Adapter and a 100W USB-C Adapter plugged in to the laptop at the same time, the 100W USB-C runs through my Docking station, the extra power being fed to the machine may meant the GPU might have had more headroom? Or it could be a reading error, I noticed it would stay at 140W for a long period of time at the most demanding scenes in 3DMark.

TimeSpy yields some suspicious results, it refuses to start on my second monitor, it will only run if I turn the switcheable graphic in Armoury Crate to Automatic, if I put it on OFF it refuses to run even on internal display.
Its funny, only TimeSpy show this issue, so its bad software, about 12 games ran without issues, FireStrike ran fine.

When I look at other results from people who also have Asus laptops with RTX 3080 they achieve on avg 13k~ Graphics Score in TimeSpy, so something is wrong for me when I run it.
In FireStrike however I am only 3000~ from a 155W RTX 3080. Considering my RTX 2080 Ti did avg 36400 score, thats pretty cool. But it all depends if the VRM can can actually supply my GPU the 155W if I flash it to that.

 

My G533 has an annoying whine when the fans are at 2200-2300 rpm. I'm not familiar with manual fan profiles but would like to set the minimum speed on mine to around 3000 rpm. Is there a way to see what values the Performance profile uses so I could re-create it but with a higher minimum rpm? Or any other way to do this?

 

My G533QR is currently running BIOS version G533QR.311 but MyASUS has been offering G533QR.313 for a week or so now.

However the latest BIOS on the ASUS Product support website for this system is only G533QR.309 (2021/02/17).

I've been bitten by BIOS upgrades before so reluctant to upgrade when I'm not having any problems, especially as I can't find G533QR.311 to download and re-install if things go badly wrong. There also doesn't seem to be any 'release notes' so no idea what problems are being addressed or how urgent they might be.

I'm relatively new to ASUS so is there any more information available on the BIOS versions and any experience with G533QR.313?

 

I've got no idea what the BIOS update does either but my performance in cyberpunk seemed to go up a bit - it applied fine though.

 

I have the 313 bios installed. Performance-wise it is fine but no software will give me any info about my memory. Today I swapped the stock one with dual rnak modules, but both hwinfo and cpu are completely blank. Not sure what is going on, it happened with stock ram too.

 

Thanks for the info on 313. I think I'll wait a while longer as I'm not seeing any real issues.

On the memory front, HWINFO64 v7.00 shows my stock 16GB RAM ok.



Would have preferred 32GB but no option available at the time. Hopefully supply will improve soon so I can upgrade.

 

I've got 313 installed and my memory info shows up fine as well.

That is very odd costal.

 

Went back to bios 309 from Asus' website, and the spd info is now displayed properly on cpu-z. No way to make use of xmp profiles on asus laptops though, which is kind of sad.

 

You must order this absurdly expensive RAM
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BGLKD4M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It DOES run at 3200/CL20 on my system

 

Can confirm costalolstrax findings,i upgraded to the kingston hyperx ram and cpu-z and hwinfo showed nothing.I also downgraded from 313 to bios ver. 309 and now can read memory ok.

 

Okay well confirming the opposite then

https://i.imgur.com/GYAFtQl.png

 

Hmm interesting,as i understand you have the Scar right?
My issues are on Rog strix G15G513 maybe thats why you are not having this issue (different firmware or maybe even different mobo vs the non scar) but at the same time bios version at least the version numbers seem to be the same.

 

It's funny that you mention that it is absurdly expensive, because that is actually cheaper than the one I have, but the JEDEC profile is the same as the xmp,DDR4-3200 CL20-22-22 @1.2V so it is actually better for locked down machines with no xmp support. https://www.kingston.com/datasheets/HX432S20IB2_16.pdf
Even if I buy 2 1x16gb it will still be cheaper. In fact I did buy one, because I have another 1x16gb stick around from an older laptop. I returned the new hyperx module because now they are single rank instead of dual, like my older stick, with worse timings. This is the kit I have https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B079L82S1Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The xmp profile is cl18, so it technically is a better kit than the hyperx, but there is no way to tweak it on our laptops, which means I wasted money on better memory to get the same lol.

So I actually have a few questions,
Did you upgrade your system from a 2x8gb? Is the cl20 2x16gb hyperx kit single rank as described on the spreadsheet? Did you see a significant performance uplift, over +1000 cpu score points on time spy?

Regarding the bios issue, the memory section of cpu-z and hwmonitor do show info, but if you want to see the spd info on, say cpu-z, you get nothing. I just upgraded again to 313 to confirm that it is not working. If only they allowed us to configure the memory timings on the bios like MSI...

 

Oh yes this might be the case.

But then again maybe not! ... I am able to see timing information but yes the SPD section of my CPU-z tab is blank. Some how I missed that. I do have the G533 tho! As you can see in my dxdiag shot there

it's so funny that you should say that because that RAM you have there was cheaper than the RAM i bought when I bought it. DAMN the prices of this ram fluctuates so much.

Any ways I'm kind of an idiot when it comes to RAM - I bought this ram because my pal who goes hard on it suggested it would be the best i could get because Kingston did something ****y to make it work in locked systems like ours

And I haven't run a whole lot of bench marks but I noticed an improvement in Cyberpunk by 5-10 fps, which i was like "Good nuff"

Sorry this system has just been performing so perfectly for me and my needs I haven't felt a strong need to do a bunch of benchmarks.


I do agree tho - i wish it had a propper MUX and the ability to control timings. It's a bit **** that they don't!

 

haha... I'm the idiot here, though, your friend was right! Your ram is better for our machines. There is a lot of talk about single rank vs dual rank and performance gains with dual rank. If you don't mind, I'd like to see your time spy results, especially for the cpu. You can download 3dmark on steam and leave it running the demo benchmark while taking a dump. Based on your performance increase on Cyberpunk, if you are playing with maxed out settings, I'd say dual rank does nothing and it is just some bro science we all bought into, which further justifies your choice of ram lol

 

https://i.imgur.com/NIpFyEK.png

This is pretty good I've learned - though it is with an OC on the GPU

Also sorry but the settings I use in cyberpunk are a bit customized for my eyes. I turn off a few bells and whistles, most notably, Ray tracing, though i do leave DLSS on because it's MAGICAL and I love it.

edit:
For posterity here is my pre oc pre upgrade scores

https://i.imgur.com/nkWAYBq.png

God damn I never noticed the disparity in the CPU score. Wild!

 

Thank you!
Did you run the tests on manual model with the cpu limits maxed out? The improvement you had in cpu scores seems to confirm that dual rank is in fact not relevant at all. The score before upgrading was using a 2x8gb kit of ram, right?

 

That's right, it was the default kit

and yes I guess it's also fair to say i probably did crank that bar all the way to the right.

 

I’ve started having problems with my G533QS. I first noticed it in WoW. What happens is I’ll be playing then suddenly get kicked out to the desktop. The game is still running so I click its taskbar icon to get back in. This repeats a few times until finally I get a graphics card error (something about 3D). At this point I have to kill it. This is using performance mode.I tried updating all drivers and am running the latest BIOS.

Any ideas? I’m still in the return period. Should I exchange for a new one?

 

tried DDU from safemode?

 

No but I do always use the clean install option with GeForce drivers

 

I mean DDU exists for a reason

Try it - and/or an OS reload. Which is a pain, def recommend a spare drive or create a temporary partition if you are brave enough lol

I guess my point is, you want to rule out software as much as possible.