Asus ROG Chimera G703GI (i9 8950HK, GTX 1080, Full HD) Laptop Review

Because Asus made almost no changes to the case, we will not cover the case, connections or input devices in detail. For more information on these subjects, please see our review of the old G703.

One small but important difference, however, is located on the back of the laptop. While the Kaby Lake variant only needed one power connection (330-watt power supply), Asus' Coffee Lake version comes with two 280-watt power supplies. Together they weigh a hulking 1.67 kg (3.68 lbs) and can be a little bothersome in practice. On a positive note, all of the USB ports now support the modern 3.1 Gen 2 standard.

The G703GI's competition consists of other 17-inch hexa-core gaming laptops with GeForce GTX 1080 cards, including the Aorus X9 DT, the MSI GT75 8RG and the Schenker XMG Ultra 17. These laptops appear in our tables as comparison devices.

Note: The optional overclocking (Turbo Gear Mode "Extreme" in the Gaming Center) was only activated for our tests under load. The idle tests were carried out in "Standard" mode. Due to the intense level of noise generated by the fan when set to maximum (Fan Overboost "Overboost"), this should not be considered a legitimate option. The setting was turned on when we received the device, but we deactivated it for our tests. We used the "Balanced" mode instead.

Although their labels look nearly identical, Asus did in fact choose a somewhat different panel for the company's new G703 (AUO B173HAN03.2 instead of the AUO B173HAN03.0).

The panel's brightness distribution proves to be a bigger issue. Our test device exhibits halation along the edges of the screen—a circumstance unbefitting of a laptop in this price range, at least at this intensity. Unfortunately, this problem affects numerous high-end laptops. There is hardly anything to criticize when it comes to color-space coverage: 90% sRGB and 60% Adobe RGB are more than sufficient for a gaming laptop.

Before we take a look at the laptop's performance, here are a few screenshots from various tools that demonstrate the capacities of the components.

Even so, Intel deserves great respect for the Core i9-8950HK's performance. With 1312 vs. 932 points, the new G703 races ahead of the predecessor's Core i7-7820HK (8 MB L3 cache, 2.9 to 3.9 GHz, overclocked in factory default to 4.3 GHz) by a margin of just over 40% in the Cinebench R15 multi-core test.

Unfortunately, the hexa-core CPU cannot maintain its full turbo over longer periods. In our Cinebench loop, the performance dropped by about 15% from the second run onward. Even in the first run, the Core i9-8950HK's clock speed fluctuated between 2.9 and 4.8 GHz, whereby it reached an average of 4.3 GHz. It is worth mentioning that most of the Coffee Lake laptops we have reviewed to this point have not been able to maintain their turbo's full potency—though the loss is not always so substantial.

Speaking of potency: The 17-inch laptop offers outstanding system performance. In both PCMark 10 and PCMark 8, our test configuration takes first place among the comparison devices. No wonder, given that the G703GI has the most RAM and the largest number of solid state drives.

Nor did Asus make any compromises when it comes to storage space. 3x 512 GB should be plenty, even for large game and film collections. But as if that were not enough: As secondary mass storage, the manufacturer also tucked a 2 TB Seagate SSHD under the hood. Adding up the capacity of each drive, we arrive at a luxuriant 3.5 TB. The German series models are only endowed with a maximum of 2.5 TB (2 TB Hybrid + 2x 256 GB SSD).

The front runner from Nvidia's Pascal generation serves as the laptop's graphics card. The GeForce GTX 1080 is designed for passionate gamers who want to enjoy modern titles at maximum settings. The DirectX 12 model already performs impressively in the benchmark show-jumping course.

In order to coax every last ounce of performance out of the system, in Turbo Gear Mode Extreme the GPU is overclocked by exactly 100 MHz, jumping from the standard 1582 MHz up to 1682 MHz. However, this increase in speed does not always show up in the benchmark results. While the G703 rushes past the competition in 3DMark 11, in the 3DMark 13 Fire Strike test we see no difference compared to laptops with non-overclocked GeForce GTX 1080s.

We ran the heavyweight RPG The Witcher 3 for around an hour to test how the 17-inch laptop manages under sustained graphics load. Thanks to its automatic GPU boost—inspired by Intel's Turbo Boost—in 3D mode the GTX 1080 climbs high above its baseline. An average of 1898 MHz is an excellent result and ultimately points to the G703's efficient cooling system.

Because Asus chose to restrict the display to a Full HD panel with 1920x1080 pixels, the GeForce GTX 1080 rarely reaches its limits. The IPS screen's 144 Hz is not always fully utilized at maximum settings, but at (very) high details the number often exceeds 100 fps—as examples like The Witcher 3 and Far Cry 5 prove. 

The G703 would also be able to run many games smoothly at 2560x1440 pixels (i.e. on a WQHD display). Things only start to get shaky for the GTX 1080 in the 4K range, as they do for every current graphics card—whether for laptops or desktop PCs. Once a CPU has a certain number of cores and/or threads at its command, it no longer plays a definitive role in determining performance power. As a result, the Core i7-8750H is also perfectly suitable for avid gamers.

Under load, the high-end laptop's behavior is noticeably more pleasant than those of its competitors. While the MSI GT75 8RG and the Aorus X9 DT reach a disruptively loud 57 dB (max. 61-62 dB @stress test) in The Witcher 3, the ROG Chimera goes about its work at 51 dB (53 dB @stress test). Even at this lower noise level, gamers who are sensitive to bothersome sounds will still be better off with a headset here.

In 3D mode, the components get considerably hotter. After 60 minutes under full load with the tools Furmark and Prime95, the GeForce GTX 1080 warmed to around 80 °C (176 °F). The Core i9-8950HK first heated to almost 100 °C (212 °F) but proceeded to lower its clock frequency from 4.8 to 3.0 GHz due to the high temperatures.

As to be expected, the G703GI needs a lot of energy. The combination of powerful hardware and a lack of graphics-switching causes the device to use a considerable amount of energy even in idle mode, though 29-46 watts is reminiscent of the competition.

But the G703GI really gets down to business under load. At 156 to 314 watts, the 17-inch laptop is one of the hungriest devices on the market. However, we still cannot understand why the computer needs two 280-watt power supplies. According to our measurements, a 330-watt model or a 180-watt duo would have been enough.

Because the ROG Chimera was designed as a desktop replacement, long battery life was not on the list of priorities. As a result, it is entirely unsurprising that the 17-inch laptop quickly runs out of steam without its power supply. Even at minimum display brightness, the device shuts off after 3 hours in idle mode. Around 2 hours for surfing the Internet over Wi-Fi at medium brightness is nothing to boast about either. If the brightness is set to maximum and the system is confronted with 3D applications, the 71 Wh battery does not even last 60 minutes.