Users familiar with the ROG (Republic of Gamers) laptop product line have likely noticed the two distinct design philosophies: one represented by the lightweight, high-performance gaming models such as the ROG Zephyrus, ROG Strix, and ROG Scar, and the other embodied by the original ROG GX series and the ROG Zephyrus S, which epitomizes the heavy metal style and extreme performance gaming.

Recently, based on the eighth-generation Core processors, the lightweight gaming models like the Zephyrus, Strix, and Scar have all launched updated versions. Meanwhile, the heavy metal style products, particularly the ROG Zephyrus S, which was previously “legendary,” has also transitioned to the new eighth-generation Core processor platform, officially launching the monster-class ROG Zephyrus S GX701 equipped with an i9 processor and GTX 1080 graphics card. The legend returns!

As the world’s first gaming laptop equipped with a 144Hz refresh rate screen, the ROG Zephyrus (G7AI) garnered applause from the industry and hardcore gamers when it debuted in 2017. With a design style distinct from lightweight gaming laptops and hardware configurations that are nothing short of extreme, the ROG Zephyrus gaming laptop was unparalleled in the market at that time. After a year of market presence, following the rollout of Intel’s eighth-generation Core processors, the ROG Zephyrus gaming laptop began its “heart transplant,” naturally leading to the arrival of the ROG Zephyrus S GX701.

As the successor to the first-generation ROG Zephyrus gaming laptop, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 maintains a complete inheritance in appearance and mold design. The chassis retains the bio-armored design style, closely resembling the bold aesthetics of the GX700 and GX800, providing a strong heavy metal armor feel, akin to a cold Gundam.

▲ The top features the camera, fill light, and microphone input hole.

On the A-side, the integrated metal material combined with brushed technology creates a cool, fashionable, and technological feel. At the same time, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is also very meticulous in corner processing, with every corner chamfered or beveled, ensuring user comfort while maximizing the smoothness of the design, especially when touched, providing an excellent hand feel.

▲ The design lines of the hinge and corners are highly consistent with the first-generation Zephyrus.

In the keyboard area on the C-side, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 maintains absolute consistency with the previous generation, featuring a black soft-touch material cover and silver brushed metal trim that creates a striking visual contrast. Of course, the matte touchpad and large left and right buttons remain a hallmark of the Zephyrus series.

▲ The top row of function keys greatly facilitates player usage.

In terms of the keyboard, the top row of function keys has been perfectly retained, allowing players to easily access the ROG Gaming Center, quickly record videos, connect Xbox controllers, control volume, and synchronize Aura lighting. The keyboard still features the familiar RGB lighting and island-style design, maintaining the same excellent feel as the previous generation Zephyrus gaming laptop.

Like the ROG Zephyrus gaming laptop, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701, designed for gaming and eSports, is equipped with a fast wide-angle screen that supports a 144Hz refresh rate and NVIDIA G-SYNC technology. Gamers should be aware that the gray-to-gray response time of ordinary wide-angle screen panels is usually over 25ms, which often leads to ghosting, as pixel colors take time to shift to the next frame; the image thus becomes blurred, affecting gameplay, especially in precision-required situations—such as aiming in “PUBG” or “CS:GO.”

▲ The ROG Zephyrus S GX701 features a 144Hz esports-level refresh rate, achieving over 72% NTSC color gamut coverage, which is quite impressive for a laptop. With the adjustment of ROG Game Visual, players can also define more detailed screen display settings.

This 17.3-inch screen is based on an FHD anti-glare panel equipped with NVIDIA G-SYNC technology, achieving a 144Hz refresh rate with a response time as low as 7ms! This allows players to enjoy smooth visual performance on a gaming laptop, eliminating issues like screen tearing, latency, ghosting, or noticeable interruptions.

At a 144Hz refresh rate, fleeting details will not escape the eyes of ROG Zephyrus S GX701 players, allowing them to respond immediately to on-screen situations—gaining an advantage in action, first-person shooters, racing, real-time strategy, and sports games. Moreover, NVIDIA G-SYNC technology synchronizes the screen refresh rate with the GPU’s frame rate, ensuring fluid visuals.

If you receive the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 for the first time, you might be puzzled by the two 280W power supplies included in the packaging—could one be a backup? Not at all! As mentioned earlier, while the appearance of the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 basically inherits that of the previous generation, there are significant differences in the configuration of the rear ports.

▲ Dual power adapters ensure stable operation of the GTX 1080 and Core i9-8950HK under load.

It is evident that the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 has replaced the custom-shaped power interface used in the previous generation with two standard round power ports, indicating that the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 will require dual power support. After all, the six-core, twelve-thread Core i9 processor is quite a power-hungry beast, and combined with the full-powered GTX 1080 graphics card, the dual 280W power supply configuration is the safest and most necessary approach.

In terms of ports, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is also very well-equipped. In addition to standard USB 3.1 Type-A ports, the presence of HDMI and mini DP ports provides more possibilities and flexibility for video output. Additionally, there is a Type-C Thunderbolt 3 port on the chassis, creating a good environment for connecting triple displays. The Thunderbolt 3 port also lays the foundation for faster data access and exchange in the future.

Compared to the previous generation, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 has undergone significant optimizations and upgrades in its cooling structure due to the upgrade from the Core i7-7700HQ processor to the eighth-generation Core i9-8950HK. Both the core count and frequency have seen a leap in performance.

Opening the bottom cover of the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 reveals a luxurious cooling module structure featuring dual fans, four exhaust ports, and eight heat pipes. Each of the CPU and GPU sections is allocated four heat pipes to enhance cooling efficiency. Moreover, to satisfy the cooling requirements of the Core i9 as much as possible, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is designed with four exhaust ports at the rear and on both sides, aided by 12V voltage turbo cooling fans, allowing for rapid heat exchange and significantly improving cooling performance.

▲ Rear exhaust ports, one on each side.

It is also worth noting that the ROG Zephyrus S GX701’s turbo fans operate at 12V voltage, providing higher speeds, pressure, and airflow compared to the standard 5V cooling fans used in most products. The airflow for heat exchange is improved by 42.5%, which is crucial for enhancing cooling performance. Naturally, the increase in speed also leads to higher noise levels under full load; however, during actual testing, the fan noise of the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 was found to be somewhat loud, albeit within an acceptable range.

▲ The cooling fins are very thin, effectively increasing the heat exchange area and significantly enhancing overall cooling performance.

In terms of fin design, although the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is quite a “big guy,” it still adopts a 0.1mm ultra-thin fin design. The direct benefit of using ultra-thin cooling fins is that it provides a larger heat exchange area within the same volume of the cooling module, achieving a 16% increase in cooling area. Additionally, the application of ultra-thin fins reduces resistance to airflow, facilitating faster and more efficient heat exchange.

The ROG Zephyrus S is equipped with the Core i9-8950HK, featuring six cores and twelve threads, with a base frequency of 2.9Hz and a maximum single-core turbo frequency of 4.8GHz, along with a maximum six-core turbo frequency of 4.3GHz, significantly outperforming its predecessor. Furthermore, the eighth-generation Core processor has enhanced support for DDR4 2666 memory, delivering even better performance.

▲ From the CPU-Z and GPU-Z parameters, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is undoubtedly a performance “monster.”

In comparison to the Core i9-8950HK, its sibling, the Core i7-8750H, also features six cores and twelve threads but operates at lower frequencies, with a base frequency of just 2.1GHz and turbo frequencies of 4.1GHz/4.1GHz/4.0GHz/3.9GHz for single-core, dual-core, quad-core, and six-core, respectively. Additionally, the Core i7-8750H has 9MB of L3 cache, which is 3MB less than the Core i9-8950HK, resulting in slightly inferior performance due to the frequency differences.

▲ Dual-channel 32GB DDR4 2666 memory.

Regarding the graphics card, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is equipped with a full-powered GTX 1080 graphics card, not based on Max-Q design. However, this GTX 1080 graphics card is unique as it features a non-reference GTX 1080 chip. Through the ROG Gaming Center, you can set the graphics card performance mode to “Extreme,” at which point the GTX 1080’s base frequency will directly increase to 1682MHz, while the Boost frequency will soar to 1871MHz, surpassing even the desktop version of the GTX 1080 in both parameters and performance.

In terms of storage, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 we tested uses a top-tier Samsung SM961 paired with two Intel 760P drives, forming a RAID 0 with a total capacity of 1.5TB. ASUS has also specially employed HyperDrive Extreme connection technology for these three SSDs, directly connecting them through the CPU’s built-in PCIe lanes, avoiding limitations imposed by the DMI 3.0 bus’s maximum 4GB/s bandwidth when connected via the PCH, thus fully unleashing the speed characteristics of RAID 0.

▲ The test sample used in this article consists of two Intel 760P SSDs and one Samsung SM961, forming a 1.5TB high-speed SSD RAID 0 system.

▲ CrystalDiskmark testing.

In actual testing, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701’s 1.5TB RAID 0 SSD achieved read speeds exceeding 9000MB/s and write speeds over 3500MB/s in the CrystalDiskmark sequential read/write tests, demonstrating theoretical performance that far surpasses desktop NVMe SSDs. Additionally, to pursue greater capacity, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is also equipped with a 2TB Seagate SSHD, providing players with both extreme read/write performance and ample storage space. The officially mass-produced version of the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 gaming laptop will also feature a RAID 0 system made up of two Intel 760P SSDs, ensuring an extraordinary experience for players.

During testing, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 showcased astonishing hardware capabilities. The top configuration of the ROG Zephyrus S GX701, equipped with the Core i9-8950HK processor, performed exceptionally well in the Cinebench R15 benchmark, achieving over 200cb in single-core performance and nearly 1500cb in multi-core performance, undoubtedly leading the current laptop market and surpassing the eighth-generation flagship Core i7-8750H by approximately 20% to 30%. This performance is comparable to that of the desktop-level flagship Core i7-8700K, and may even slightly exceed it.

▲ Cinebench R15 testing.

Next, let’s look at the graphics card’s performance. In the 3DMark FireStrike Ultra test, even in standard mode, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 scored 5176 points, matching the score of the desktop GTX 1080 graphics card, with a performance gap of less than 3%. After switching to “Extreme” mode in the ROG Gaming Center, the non-reference GTX 1080’s performance was fully unleashed, with the same FireStrike Ultra test score exceeding 5500, a nearly 10% performance increase, leaving the standard desktop GTX 1080 behind.

▲ During the 3DMark test, both the CPU and GPU remained relatively stable, with no significant throttling. However, under high CPU load, the processor’s temperature was slightly high, which is an inevitable consequence of high frequencies and multi-core usage.

In actual gaming tests, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 also delivered impressive performance. In the DirectX 12 game “Shadow of the Tomb Raider,” at 1080p with maximum graphics settings, the average frame rate reached over 140fps, while at 4K resolution with maximum settings, the average frame rate was also above 50fps—this score was achieved in “Standard” mode. After switching to “Extreme” mode, the aforementioned frame rates immediately increased to 145fps and 54fps, respectively.

▲ 3DMark testing.

For comparison, a typical desktop gaming rig with a GTX 1080 graphics card can only achieve less than 50fps at 4K resolution and maximum settings in “Shadow of the Tomb Raider.” For the popular online game “PUBG,” the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 handles it effortlessly, easily achieving an average frame rate of over 100fps, maintaining very smooth frame rates even at 2.5K and 4K resolutions.

It can be said that for the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 gaming laptop, all current 3D games can achieve very smooth gameplay at 1080p resolution and maximum graphics settings—there is no game that can challenge it, which is the essence of its legendary status.

In addition to its powerful performance, to fully enjoy the ROG Zephyrus S GX701, you must also be aware of its unique features. In terms of audio, like its predecessor, the Zephyrus S GX701 is equipped with an ESS Sabre amplifier, providing 32-bit, 384kHz sound output, offering an 8x sampling rate higher than CD quality for a richer and more detailed auditory experience.

To enhance the player’s audio experience, Sonic Studio III delivers better 7.1 surround sound, allowing players to gain a realistic and accurate 3D audio gaming experience through standard stereo headphones. Even without headphones, the audio experience provided by the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is equally impressive—the two high-frequency speakers located at the bottom of the screen direct high-frequency sound waves towards the user, while two large global speakers inside the chassis reflect sound away from the desktop, increasing volume and depth.

Additionally, the smart amplifier technology protects the speakers while boosting game volume by 200%, expanding dynamic range and bass. The newly designed ROG Gaming Center interface is not only more integrated and cooler but also surpasses the previous version in functionality. For instance, players can easily adjust fan performance to control noise and power consumption; thus, fan speeds can be increased during graphically intensive gaming sessions and decreased during low-demand tasks, allowing for quieter operation.

Overall, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 significantly enhances performance compared to its predecessor, particularly with the introduction of the Core i9 processor and RAID 0 storage system, making it a highly recommended choice for hardcore gamers who prioritize performance over portability.