Asus ROG Zephyrus S17 review (GX703HS model – i9, RTX 3080, QHD)

30 Comments

  1. Oliver

    July 18, 2021 at 2:11 am

    Best review out of all the written/video reviews.

    • Cezary

      August 16, 2021 at 1:12 pm

      Hi Guys, great review, just a question though are you planning on reviewing the MSI Creator Z16 model at some point? Many thanks

      • Andrei Girbea

        August 16, 2021 at 1:20 pm

        not as of right now.

      • Cezary

        August 16, 2021 at 1:25 pm

        damn, that's a shame, really love the depth of your reviews and was hoping you will at some point as its one of my favourites to get in the coming weeks

      • Andrei Girbea

        August 16, 2021 at 1:31 pm

        Getting our hands on MSI laptops to review is a bit challenging these days. I will ask for a sample, but slim chances they would get us one.

      • Cezary

        August 16, 2021 at 1:56 pm

        fair enough, thanks for trying though, much appreciated <3

  2. Gunter Spranz

    July 19, 2021 at 6:52 am

    I am impressed with the thermal capabilities and the relatively low noise.
    I have a MSI GP76 11UG and had to repaste the bad factory job already to reach more than 60 Watt TDP (now 80 turbo/low 70ties balanced).

    That said, there are some no-gos for me in that laptop:

    – Soldered RAM
    – Bad positioning of ports (I very much prefer ports at the back)
    – Only one external monitor (I have a dual 27" WQHD setup)
    – No TS or XTU

  3. Martin

    July 19, 2021 at 1:06 pm

    Thank you very much for this objective in-dept review, was waiting a long time for this. Already recommended this website to my circle of friends. Hopefully as early adopter I will not have so much bad luck when it comes to the QC, to be honest, at this price point we should expect flawless Hardware. Software issues can be fixed but not the coil whining and display bleeding. If you allow me a question in regards to the performcane with DaVince Resolve 4k Editing w/o proxy & optimized media. Is the dGPU capable to do so? Many thanks!

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 19, 2021 at 3:33 pm

      Hi, thanks for the kind words. I haven't tested Resolve and I don't have experience with it. It's not part of my testing set for now, but I plan to add it in the near future. Perhaps someone else can pitch in with a reply.

  4. Andrei Bota

    July 20, 2021 at 1:34 pm

    Question:
    On the 4k version can you force from the bios the nVidia GPU to bypass optimus and thus directly link nVidia GPU to the panel so you can get the max framerate just like when connecting a monitor to the USB 3 (not Thunderbolt) port?
    Or by doing so, it would still pass through IPG???

    I bought and returned the 165Hz, 3060 version. It had tons of dead pixels and bleeding.

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 20, 2021 at 1:57 pm

      Good question. As far as i know, there's no MUX on that model and everything goes through the iGPU. Check out Jarrod's review on Youtube of the 4K model, I think he touches on this aspect there

      • Andrei Bota

        July 22, 2021 at 10:25 am

        Thanks! I've seen his videos but it's still not clear if it would be possible to completly disable optimus from bios and bypass iGPU. Perhaps when you have time can you try this and try out a 4k game on laptop then the same game outputted through the USB3 TypeC (not TB4) to a 4k screen?
        If Zephyrus 4k model doesn't have a MUX, then they bottlenecked the laptop which is really silly.
        Only if you have time brow! Otherwise I'll try to contact Asus support one day. Thanks for the in depth review.

      • Andrei Girbea

        July 22, 2021 at 12:24 pm

        I would have tried in the first place, but I no longer have the 4K model to test.

  5. Kurt

    July 22, 2021 at 9:19 am

    How does the S17 compare to Asus Strix G17 Advantage?

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 22, 2021 at 9:20 am

      in which way? if you're interested in the performance, you'll find the G15 Advantage benchmarks on the site so you can compare.

  6. Lakshay Kakkar

    August 1, 2021 at 5:45 pm

    You mentioned that XTU and Throttlestop don't work on the S17. But can you please check, if disabling the overclocking lock in the BIOS makes any difference to XTU/Throttlestop support for the S17?

    • Andrei Girbea

      August 2, 2021 at 9:39 am

      i don't have this around anymore and haven't tried it when I did. I'd expect it won't allow XTU/Throttle though

  7. Arturo

    August 1, 2021 at 10:12 pm

    Hi Andrei,

    Again, a spectacular review, well done! I was able to get my hands on the 3080 QHD variant. So far, I am astonished with the performance. I even got a 12,530 score on TimeSpy! The only issue I’m having with this machine is with Manual mode.

    For some strange reason I can’t have a “fanless” curve on the GPU. The points on the rpm vs. temp graph don’t seem to work past the 2nd point. In other words, despite me wanting the fans to kick in during load at, say, 60°C the fans won’t kick in at all; that is unless I bring the points prior to that desired 60° mark up to the same rpm. This leaves me with virtually all points except the 40° one fixed at the “load” rpm I chose and it’s very weird. The CPU configurator works just fine but the GPU one doesn’t do anything unless I set the 2nd point t to the “load” fan speed.

    Did you experience something similar? I’m sorry if I did a poor job at explaining my issue but it’s hard to put into words. I would hugely appreciate it if you could try to replicate my issue. I don’t know what to do and I’ve been struggling for days.

    • Andrei Girbea

      August 2, 2021 at 9:39 am

      I don't have a lot of experience with the Manual mode, but I do find it rather finicky and have had issues settings things exactly as I wanted. I'd probably play around with the settings until you can find something that works and is as close as you desire. Not sure what else you could do about it

    • Lakshay Kakkar

      August 5, 2021 at 1:46 pm

      What is the max GPU temp that you're getting on your S17 with max fans? Please tell.

      • Arturo

        August 20, 2021 at 6:52 pm

        Hi, didn’t realize you were asking me..sorry about that. The GPU runs relatively cool, in fact cooler than on the Scar 17.

        At Max RPM ,on both fans, I got around 67-70°C; however when I brought down the CPU fan speed to match the GPU for equal pressure across the entire system I noticed a 1/2° improvement. Hope this helps!

  8. Franc

    August 20, 2021 at 5:39 pm

    As they well commented in Notebookcheck, we must see how reliable the mechanism is in the medium and long term. It is anyone's guess.

    • Andrei Girbea

      August 20, 2021 at 6:20 pm

      Similar mechanisms have been used in the Zephyrus DUO laptops for a few years now.

  9. Jayanth

    August 23, 2021 at 10:28 am

    is there a way to increase the TDP for the laptop?

    • alanyu

      September 18, 2021 at 8:31 pm

      Yes. Enable overclock in BIOS and use XTU to do that, and also you can undervolt.

      • Lakshay Kakkar

        September 19, 2021 at 5:02 pm

        Do you have the S17 as well? If yes, what is the max cpu wattage that you can manage on the S17 without throttling?

  10. Frederico Sergio

    January 29, 2022 at 2:37 am

    Question: how can I connect 2 monitors via USB-C dGPU? I'm buying a GX703HS model. Tks

  11. hexaae

    March 21, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    I have a question about 4K laptop screens: do the 1080p or 1440p resolutions look blurry and interpolated on a native 4K display (more than a native 1080 or 1440 screen I mean)? Because thinking of gaming at 4K is still prohibitive…

    • Andrei Girbea

      March 21, 2022 at 5:37 pm

      Yes, to some extent, but the slight fuzziness is IMO not that noticeable with gaming. It is more noticeable with static interfaces in the browser and various apps, especially at FHD resolution.

  12. Ibrahim

    October 27, 2022 at 9:20 pm

    I got Zephyrus S17 RTX 3060 and Core i7 one. I had bought for good design and for performance but I cannot say design is good. Outside of case is good but internal keeps fingerprints and soils. In addition, as you mentioned that couldn't close lid due to cooling system is really annoying.

    But, most importantly problem with fans. They are just crazy! Works anormally. 1900RPM and 0RPM in 2 seconds. It's really headache.

    I didn't face as in this review that screen issues. I have never experienced backlight bleeding or panel annormality

    Conclusion: If I rewind time, I wouldn't buy this laptop at all!

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