ASUS ROG Strix G17 Gaming Laptop Review

3ptechies Team

Laptops, like ASUS ROG Strix with diagonals of 17 inches are a relative niche story. It was 6-7 years ago that engineers were able to make the frames around the display so thin that the overall dimensions began to approach 16-inch models. And 15 to 13-inch, by the way. The same applies to the weight – three kilograms could only be an excuse if it was a spaceship. And by the way, a joke about the fact that a 17-inch laptop, let alone a gaming one, should come with a suitcase on wheels or a personal transporter.

And so, inside the difficult year of 2022, we will try to decide whether a gaming model with a 17″ display is not “too much” for everyday work with texts and tables and whether the back does not break after several hours of traveling with it. You will probably already understand everything about the possibilities in games after reading the specifications. We will briefly describe what is installed in ASUS ROG Strix and outline the features of some components. Let’s pay attention to ergonomics, because long-term ownership is associated with a complex of impressions from use. In some places, we will compare it with the ROG Strix G513 model , which has the same design, but with a 15.6″ display.

Design

ROG Strix G17 received a chassis that has been used in the ROG Strix line of gaming laptops for several years. The practice of long-term use of successful design (technical and aesthetic) with minimal additions is clear to us. Expediency is key here, not design for design’s sake.

This year only some new decorative changes were made. On the cover outside and inside near the keyboard, instead of the small symbols “R”, “O”, “G” there are now triangles. The logo on the lid has been illuminated. But it is only white because the backlight of the display matrix is used. Therefore, its brightness depends on the selected brightness of the screen.

When the lid is closed, there is an open gap between the lid and the superstructure on the lower half of the notebook. Through it, you can see the LEDs of the display, the battery, the drive, and the activity of the airplane mode. The grid in the superstructure on top has randomly spaced, at first glance, holes. In the corner there is a panel of Armor Caps in the color of the starry sky with the inscription “ROG”.

From the middle of the superstructure there are holes for microphones. They support intelligent noise reduction technology to record clear sound during communication.

There is no webcam here. For several years now, the company has decided not to spoil cool and expensive models with VGA cameras, allowing gamers to purchase advanced models on their own.

The bottom of the case consists of two planes — perforated and solid, which are implemented at different levels. The legs, on which the device is placed, form a small rise of the body with a wedge. The rear longitudinal legs, gray with the slogan “For those who dare” and acid yellow with the call “Back on top” are the shortest. The legs closest to the user protrude the most beyond the plane of the base, compensating for the rear ones in height. In this way, the ventilation from below has more space for air intake.

There are a couple of designer Easter eggs, some of which we know from past generations. The two rubber spacers on the bottom have the numbers “18-15-07 06/06” and the inscription “Republic of Gamers”. The numbers 18-15-07 are the place of the letters “R”, “O”, “G” in the alphabet, and 06/06 – the year and places of the creation of the ROG brand.

Ergonomics

The layout of the case, the location of the ports, the keyboard, and the screen are really convenient and it is not surprising that this design is not the first year we have seen it. In it, mobile systems of both medium and medium-higher levels were “assembled” more than once.

The display cover has a small maximum opening angle due to the peculiar design of the loops inside the superstructure, so sometimes when working “from your knees” the deviation may not be enough. Nevertheless, it seems to us that such situations do not occur often, especially with 17-inch laptops.

Connectors are placed on the left and rear side. The right is released for the hand with the mouse. However, the air from the ventilation in the turbo mode warms the hands quite noticeably there.

On the left end there are two USB Type-A version 3.2 Gen 1 and a hybrid connector with the possibility of connecting a headset with a microphone.

The back has “stationary” connections – power, Ethernet, full-size HDMI, two USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 1, which support Display Port with G-Sync and Power Delivery. The holes are fairly well spaced, so connected cables and devices won’t interfere with each other.

In the more compact model, instead of the second USB-C, there was another USB Type-A, and this seemed to be a more relevant solution. In the 17-inch model, it is quite sad that a healthy laptop has only two USB Type-A ports. We will not consider the lack of a memory card reader as a disadvantage, because this is a game solution. Although I would like to have it in the 17-inch model.

This number is explained by the available buses for connecting interfaces. A pair of USB-C and a pair of USB-A of the latest revisions with high bandwidths take over all the possibilities that the motherboard connection can provide. Therefore, a larger number can be expected in future generations, when new motherboards will be used.

The island-type keyboard is familiar from the models of this line. It supports synchronization and individual backlight setting for each key.

Separately, there are five keys on top that can be programmed arbitrarily. They are marked not only with the inscriptions “M1 – M5”, but also with icons to control the volume, mute the microphone, change power consumption presets and launch Armory Crate. Power presets are also on the F5 key, so this feature is a prime candidate for reprogramming. The size of the keys and their shape are good for games and work, the arrows have been slightly moved down, although they are not used so often in games.

Equipment

The display is built on a matrix based on IPS technology. It has a resolution of 2560×1440 and supports a frequency of 240 Hz and a response speed of 3 ms. This set is optimal for those who are more important to details, as there is a Full HD option and 360 Hz frequency support, which will be appreciated by cyber sportsmen. The display has 10 gradations of brightness and at the maximum value has an indicator of 337 cd/m ² .

Claimed coverage of 100% of the DCI-P3 color range and support for Dolby Vision HDR technology. The proprietary Armory Crate application has a GameVisual tab, where you can set the color temperature and choose one of eight preset display operation presets for different conditions.

The system contains representatives of the red and green camp brands. AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX is used, which belongs to the Cezanne family. It has 8 cores based on the Zen 3 microarchitecture with a clock frequency of 3.3-4.6 GHz and supports SMT (16 threads). The chip is manufactured using a modern 7-nm process at TSMC, and the letter “X” in the name indicates the processor’s overclocking capabilities.

The TDP of the chip in this case has a maximum value of 45 W. In addition to eight cores, this processor also has an integrated AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics card with 8 computing units and a frequency of up to 2100 MHz. The chip has 16 MB of third-level cache memory. For understanding, AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX is comparable to Intel Core i9 10 and 11 generations and according to a number of tests it is ahead of them by 5-9%.

Cooling uses ASUS’ signature thermal interface, liquid metal, an active cooling system with six copper heat pipes and two fans, and the ROG Intelligent Cooling software algorithm that monitors system performance. Indeed, you can start the cooling system at the maximum possible speed with one key press and wait a couple of seconds for the fans to spin up. In games like Cyberpunk 2077 at maximum speed, the processor temperature was 88-90°C. At the same time, you should make the sound on the speakers louder or use headphones. But such is the price of power.

At minimum load, the temperature inside the ASUS ROG Strix G17 case was at the level of 53 °C for the processor with a peak value of 59 °C, and 45 °C for the mobile NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070. During the stress test, the processor temperature rose to 92 °C, and the discrete graphics adapter – up to 80 °C. In this mode, processor throttling did not start.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 video card is almost a pre-top solution. It is equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 graphics memory with a 256-bit bus and is built on the GA104-770-A1 Ampere chip. TGP can be from 80 to 125 W. In this case, it is possible to transfer the graphics subsystem to the Ultimate mode, which leads to an increase in the base frequency from 1110 to 1210 MHz, and the dynamic frequency – from 1560 to 1660 MHz. The effective memory frequency increases from 14,000 to 14,304 MHz.

The performance of the mobile NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is enough to run modern games at maximum graphics settings in Quad HD resolution, but not always with a comfortable fps. If you want a stable 60 frames per second, you will have to lower the settings to a medium level. And for those who want to use the 240-hertz screen to the maximum in online games, low and medium-quality presets or a reduction in resolution are suitable.

Impression

Yes, we can say that ASUS ROG Strix G17 will cope not only with its inherent games but will also be comfortable for work and everyday use. This is facilitated by a large display and good ergonomics of the case. There are practically no issues before the layout, with the exception of an unrealized opportunity to install a few more ports. Modern communication adapters will allow the use of wireless networks of the new generation.

The performance of the laptop is at a more than decent level, and it would be strange to expect a different result. It can be safely considered as an ideal solution not only for games, but also for work in resource-intensive software. Having received an SSD with a PCI Express 4.0 interface and DDR5 memory, the G17 model is rightfully one of the most modern devices. Despite the increased dimensions for the 17-inch display, the cooling system can still work at maximum speed if necessary.

At high load, it makes a lot of noise, but this is a drawback of almost all powerful laptops and there is no way to get away from it. By the way, the consumption of new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4000 series video cards hints that the next generations of mobile PCs will need even more powerful cooling systems.

Given the ultimate equipment in the form of a Ryzen 9 5900HX processor and a GeForce RTX 3070 video card, as well as a good chassis, the ASUS ROG Strix G713RW laptop will become a long-term assistant and its moral obsolescence will not come soon.

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