ROG Zephyrus G14 vs ROG Strix Scar 3 (2019, i7-9750H) - Help me choose

[LigmaBean]

Hi, this is my first post so I apologize for any repetition or confusion. I am purchasing a laptop that I want to game on and work on through college. I chose a laptop because it's portable and can work where I work. I had a budget of 1 to 2 thousand US dollars and wanted something that wouldn't become obsolete even if NVIDIA 30 series cards start appearing in laptops. The ROG Zephyrus G14 and the ROG strix scar 3 looked appealing, they both have good gaming performance but I didn't want to compromise my work ability to be able to run the newest Microsoft flight sim at above 60 fps. I'm not sure what my work load will look like but lets just say I would want to edit videos for montages and maybe a little 3D CAD. The Zephyrus G14 was perfect for the Work and game, with the 8 core Ryzen 9 4900HS paired with a NVIDIA rtx 2060 Max-Q it would work fine, but with the Max-Q it was limited and even took some work to get Oculus link to work by disabling the APU. On the Scar 3 it seemed a little heavy and the specs were lower for a higher price, The 2019 model with the i7-9750H and the rtx 2070 (non-MaxQ) would have better gaming performance with the drawback of lower render performance, along with a shorter battery life and almost full budget at just $1800 US I wasn't sure the compromises on work were worth the higher price tag and slightly better gaming performance (about 51% better on average). When the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS is paired with the rtx 2060 Max-Q I don't know if that improves the gpu's performance or not, or if it would be better to get slightly longer render times to have better gaming performance. What I'm asking is is the lower gaming performance or the lower work performance a higher disadvantage.

[Zando_]

I'm confused by the wording, do you already have one/both of these laptops, or are you starting from no laptop and trying to choose? 

[LigmaBean]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

I'm confused by the wording, do you already have one/both of these laptops, or are you starting from no laptop and trying to choose? 

Starting from no laptop with reviews from other people. There hasn't been any direct one on one comparison video because they aren't really comparable so It has been hard for me to tell which one would be better for me.

[LigmaBean]

just to help a bit the ROG Zephyrus G14 is around $1500 US and the ROG Strix Scar 3 is around $1800

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, LigmaBean said:

Starting from no laptop with reviews from other people. There hasn't been any direct one on one comparison video because they aren't really comparable so It has been hard for me to tell which one would be better for me.

Ah. Well, which do you do more, game or allcore rendering tasks? How important is battery life? Those seem to be the main differentiators between the two laptops. 

[RhysMusique]

Well it totally depends on whether you want a gaming laptop that you can use for work, or a work laptop that's fairly handy for gaming. In any case, I'd go for the machine with the better GPU. 3D CAD uses a fair bit of GPU, and probably will depend slightly more on GPU that CPU. If you're going to be doing Finite Element Analysis or Flow Simulation, get the better processor and look at getting as much RAM as possible.

 

Regarding using Microsoft Flight Sim at 60FPS, not even a 3950X and 2080Ti in a desktop can do that at the moment, so there's little to no hope of you achieving that.

[LigmaBean]

Yeah, well for battery life it seemed the tests were done on different tasks, the G14 had 10 hours of browsing, but the reviews I've seen state the Scar 3 has 4 hours of gaming life. I think that I would game more but I haven't started college yet so my schedule might change heavily. Battery life isn't as important to me as I'm coming from a laptop that has an almost dead battery.

[LigmaBean]

Just now, RhysMusique said:

Well it totally depends on whether you want a gaming laptop that you can use for work, or a work laptop that's fairly handy for gaming. In any case, I'd go for the machine with the better GPU. 3D CAD uses a fair bit of GPU, and probably will depend slightly more on GPU that CPU. If you're going to be doing Finite Element Analysis or Flow Simulation, get the better processor and look at getting as much RAM as possible.

 

Regarding using Microsoft Flight Sim at 60FPS, not even a 3950X and 2080Ti in a desktop can do that at the moment, so there's little to no hope of you achieving that.

The ROG G14 has more ram and a better CPU,  but the Scar 3 has a better GPU

[LigmaBean]

Another option is the ROG Scar 3 2020 model which has a i7 10875H and a rtx 2070 super

[LigmaBean]

Just now, LigmaBean said:

Another option is the ROG Scar 3 2020 model which has a i7 10875H and a rtx 2070 super

Forgot to include the price, it was just under $2200 US

[RhysMusique]

Just now, LigmaBean said:

The ROG G14 has more ram and a better CPU,  but the Scar 3 has a better GPU

So what kind of CAD will you be doing? If it's pure design and no simulation, I'd go for the better GPU as this will serve you a little better in more games in your free time. The 60fps on MSFS target isn't realistic with a laptop at the moment so I think you should forget about that. Other games, however, will be great with the intel processor and RTX 2070. 
 

If you're going to be relying on your laptop for heavy work with a lot of simulation and computational modelling, go for the AMD laptop as it's better at multithreaded loads.

[LigmaBean]

8 minutes ago, RhysMusique said:

So what kind of CAD will you be doing? If it's pure design and no simulation, I'd go for the better GPU as this will serve you a little better in more games in your free time. The 60fps on MSFS target isn't realistic with a laptop at the moment so I think you should forget about that. Other games, however, will be great with the intel processor and RTX 2070. 
 

If you're going to be relying on your laptop for heavy work with a lot of simulation and computational modelling, go for the AMD laptop as it's better at multithreaded loads.

It really might vary, I will need to run autodesk Inventor and autocad, I believe one class required Fusion360 and on Inventor there was simulation and rendering though I believe it is more design based. The 60 fps was more of a joke, that game needs to get some work done. I think I will get the ROG Strix Scar 3 as it seems it has quite a bit fewer compromises when it comes to my work load and gaming. Should I get the i7-9750H with the rtx 2070 for $1800, or continue saving for the 2020 model with i7-10875H and rtx 2070 super?

[RhysMusique]

37 minutes ago, LigmaBean said:

It really might vary, I will need to run autodesk Inventor and autocad, I believe one class required Fusion360 and on Inventor there was simulation and rendering though I believe it is more design based. The 60 fps was more of a joke, that game needs to get some work done. I think I will get the ROG Strix Scar 3 as it seems it has quite a bit fewer compromises when it comes to my work load and gaming. Should I get the i7-9750H with the rtx 2070 for $1800, or continue saving for the 2020 model with i7-10875H and rtx 2070 super?

The 10875H is a much better processor than the 9750H. More cores will help you with any simulation work you do. So I'd save up and buy that model. The 2070 Super is a modest upgrade on the 2070 too, so it seems like the best option. Spend a little more now and you won't have to spend as much in future replacing it a year or two earlier imo.