MSI Titan 18 HX vs. Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 2024 - Mini-LED madness!

hello there my fellow notebook afficionados today we will dial it up to 11 since we got two of the fastest notebooks you can currently get in the studio and we will let them go head-to-head to find out which one is worth their insane price tag in one corner we got the refreshed Asus RG strick scar 18 and while the chassis remains mostly the same as it was in 2023 Asus upgraded the massive 18in panel to a QHD plus 240 HZ mini LED variant its formidable opponent will be the completely redesigned MSI Titan HX and with a much sleeker if still massive chassis a trade speed 4 resolution with its very own 4K 120 HZ mini LED panel so sit back get some coffee have your checkbook ready and let us see which one of these behemoths can sit on the throne to rule all other gaming notebooks regarding their specifications both machines are actually very similar which is going to make this comparison very interesting both 18 in come with Intel's new flagship the I9 4900 HX and full Voltage laptop RTX 490s the MSI has the upper hand in the memory and storage Department with a pretty insane 128 gigs and a pair of nvme 2 TB ssds in rate zero the car has to make do with a more modest 32 gigs of ddr5 5600 RAM and a single 2 TB SSD as I have mentioned already in the display Department it speed versus resolution while both notebooks are treating you with a mini LED backlight I have complained about the design language of OG stricks lineup last year already so I will keep it short here despite the price point you are getting a mostly plastic body that collects fingerprints like nothing else and the overall styling is textbook gaming laptop but not really in a good way that said chassis rigidity is mostly all right with acceptable Flex all around and just a little bit of screen wobble which I would be will willing to forgive considering the large panel MSI on the other hand is showing off how it's supposed to be done to put together a gaming and Performance Machine without making it look like a 12-year-old fever dream and they cleaned up the original Titans design considerably the two-tone chassis looks almost classy in my opinion and build quality is simply outstanding since this one is built like a proper tank the seamless trackpad with its edgo Edge class top below the keyboard is a nice visual treat and overall I would not mind taking this one on assignments for work at all the RG can score some extra points when it comes to weight though since the plastic construction does save some overall heft but since there aren't too many backpacks that can easily fit an 18-in notebook right now chances are you are not carrying around either one of these monsters a lot anyways both notebooks are equipped almost identically in the iio department even though I personally prefer the layout on the Titan a little more the r is packing its power connector the 2.5 GB E port HDMI 2 2.1 a funo 4 a USBC 3.2 Gen 2 and the audio combo port on the left side which does not quite make for the cleanest of all setups if you take advantage of everything on the right you get an additional pair of usba 3.2 gen 2s the Titan is putting the bigger connectors on the back and here you can find the power connector the HDMI 2.1 and the network check which is also the faster 2.5 GB variant the right side of the chassis is home to a pair of funbot 4S alongside the audio port and a single usba a 3.2 Gen 2 and the very generous selection is complemented by another pair of usba 3.2 gen 2s and a fullsize SD Cod reader on the opposite side of the massive chassis unfortunately the transfer rates of the card reader Arch is plain average on the other hand the scar has to make do without one so I guess it's still a win for the MSI if you do not want to take advantage of any wired network connections the Titan has the edge with a more futureproof 557 card this will not really make a difference today though since you require routers aren't quite mainstream just yet and while the RG can receive files a lot faster its transmit rates are even slower than its direct competitor chances are you might pair either one of these with an external webcam or maybe even a proper camera for streaming and you definitely should while the Titan has the edge with a 2 megapixel Shooters colors and brightness are a little off and the 720p variant in this tricks without even Windows hello support well let's simply not talk about it when it comes to upgrades and maintenance the OG is giving you the usual options for bigger notebooks with a pair of sodm and nvme slots and while the Titan might sacrifice one of the nbme slots of its predecessor from 2023 you still get free in total and it also remains one of the only notebooks on the market with four sodm which enabled the insane Ram config of our review sample in the first place it might be pretty Niche but for me as a video creator that needs a somewhat portable machine having dead much RAM for some very intense multitasking is simply a dream contr I am usually a fan of asus's keyboard and in general and with quite a bit of travel and a very pronounced and satisfying pressure point the Trix is offering lots to like in this regard as well but it goes up against the mechanical switches of the Titan and if you or your significant other can live with the much more audible key presses it's simply not a competition unfortunately not all the keys are getting the lowprofile Cherry treatment and the num block once again comes with still very good membrane switches considering that you will most likely use either one of these with a mouse MSI definitely went for form over function with the seamless RGB illuminated trackpad and by the way the flickering is only picked up by the camera and is not visible to the naked eye it mostly works all right but you do get the occasional tracking error here and there especially if you click and drag the OG might come with just a plain old physical track bit but during everyday usage it worked much more reliably in general regarding the displays both notebooks dial it up to 11 once more and isus adds a mini LED backlight to their super fast QHD plus 240 HZ panel and the MSI boasts the only 18in 4K 120 HZ 6x10 mini LED screen on the market right now the subjective impression of both panels is simply excellent and it will be very tough to pick a clear winner here the resolution Difference by the way is not quite a big deal yes things are definitely a little clearer on the Titan but with most applications you will most likely not notice anything unless you have both side by side as per usual Asus gives you full control of the backlights behavior and allows you to toggle between single zone multis Zone balanced and multis Zone strong for the highest possible contrast ratio the single zone setting is more in line with what you would get from a traditional IPS and makes for much more natural colors and contrast in certain content creation work floors in general red all brightness is pretty amazing for both machines in SDR it is pretty much a tie but in HDR the r has the edge with above 1,400 nits just be aware that the full HDR brightness is only available in the notebook's dgpu mode otherwise the scar maxes out below 800 Nets but let's finally talk about performance that is after all probably why you would want one of these massive desktop Replacements in the first place and while given the pretty insane power levs both notebooks can provide to Intel's Flagship CPU performance is quite Bonkers for a still somewhat portable machine while the Titan can score the lead in a direct multi-core C bench drag race the score has the edge in our performance rating which is a combined score out of several different tests in both multi-core and single core scenarios in our PC Mark tests the Titan can secure the throne over the 18-in competition but our scores are very close together here and in general both notebooks will be able to handle everything that you could think of with ease I was daily driving each of them for a little bit for our video production and in resolve timeline performance was exceptional and render times barely left me time to get a coffee in between that said as I mentioned earlier the Titan has the tremendous Advantage when it comes to storage and memory I often work on resolve and after effect side by side for our comparison crafts which can easily eat up more than 32 gigs of RAM resulting in choppy playback for the R so if you are a content creator in video editing or even CGI that for some reason needs a desktop replacement the Titan should definitely be on your short list SSD speeds are pretty nuts for the rate zero array in the MSI and the massive 18 in can maintain those speeds without a problem that said if you really really notice the difference between the Titan and the RG in most common use cases is pretty doubtful so it's just something for the spec sheet and the marketing department with their rjx 490 laptop gpus both notebooks deliver almost exactly what you would expect from Team Green's mobile Flagship with a slight Edge for the MSI again opting for balanced instead of the maximum turbo profiles for either one results in a similar drop off in our testing in our 108p rating the Titan has to lead over the scar once more but again if you would really notice that during game play and if you would even play anything in full HD on these displays to begin with well I guess that is up to you to give you some additional insight into what to expect from more recent games and in higher resolutions we tested a few more games for you and as you can see the Titan comes out on top once again even though the difference especially in higher resolutions will hardly break your gaming experience on the RG if you want to take advantage of everything modern game engines can deliver in terms of rate racing or even path tracing dlss and frame generation are your best friends for smooth frame rates on both machines 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YouTube with their very own chatbot and all of this happens locally on your very own personal machine with their newly announced Nvidia app you also get all of your GPU settings drivers and even GeForce now in one streamlined application which is not only a lot faster and easier to use but also comes with a ton of additional features if you want to find out more make sure to follow the links in the description below and if you're going to get shopping right away check out notebooks spiger selection of available studio notebooks and now back to our regular content for the 2024 Titan I opted for a massive Vapor chamber to cool down the powerful core components while ogi is relying on a classic heat pipe setup overall I would say that this score has the edge when it comes to noise especially in its balance profile but it's not that far off and both notebooks are clearly audible when you push them hard as always we recorded some noise samps for you so you can get a more subjective impression if you want to dive deeper into chassis and internal temperatures or want to see the results from our stress test please check out our written reviews on the website this what I this [Music] again while you will hardly carry either one of these around very often the r absolutely smokes the MSI in our battery tests more than 7 and a half hours in our Wi-Fi test can even compete with much smaller notebooks and that is despite the more power hungry mini LED display the Titan is not doing too bad for such a large notebook though with a little over 4 hours all right folks it is time to wrap it up for today to say it right away both 18 Ines are very very expensive machines but the Titan is pretty insane even in the Realms of high-end fully featured gaming machines that said the RG might be significantly cheaper while offering pretty much the same performance pretty solid noise behavior and an awesome display with some typical Creature Comforts that you can only get with asus's mini LED panel but its overall look and feel does not really match its price tech the Titan on the other hand feels like a full-on tech showcase offering everything you can get in a notebook right now while taking advantage of the large chassis for some pretty excessive RAM and storage configurations so while you can of course get this just for gaming if you got the cash to spare for me it falls much more in the workstation category and as a video creator that needs to be on assignment all the time for example you got pretty much everything with this one as a full package the Titan delivers deskto level performance a large and pretty awesome screen you can have all of your files with you without having to rely on external drives a lot and the chassis is sturdy enough to live on the road with ease but please folks let me know what you think and if you would consider either the SCAR or the MSI that should be it for today please leave your like and Sub on your way out thanks a ton for watching and I will see you all in the next one take care m

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Id: irPpKkScj4I

Length: 15min 8sec (908 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2024