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MSI GS65 is a thin and light laptop that is powered by a combination of Intel 8th Gen. CPU and Nvidia GTX graphics, but we know that’s not going to be the focus of your attention. For one thing MSI has adopted a black and gold colour scheme, rather than the usual black and red, and for another, just look at that screen. It measures 15.6-inches on the diagonal but looks much smaller as it has a tiny bezel – around 5mm in thickness. When the laptop is running you will also appreciate the way the 144Hz refresh rate almost breaks new ground. We say ‘almost’ because we saw the same refresh-rate with the Gigabyte Aero 15X so yes, we’re excited by GS65 but you need to know we have seen some of these features before.
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Specification:
Screen Size: 15.6-inch
Screen Type: FHD 1,920×1,080, 144Hz, 7ms, Narrow Bezel, IPS-Level
Backlight: LED
Processor: Intel Core i7-8750H Processor 2.2 GHz-4.1GHz, 9MB Cache
Memory: 16GB DDR4-2666MHz, dual channel
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060, 6GB GDDR5
Storage: 256GB Samsung NVMe SSD
Wireless: Intel Wireless-AC 9560 and Bluetooth 5
USB Ports: 3x Type-A USB 3.1 Gen2, 1x Type-C USB 3.1 Gen2
Display outputs: 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x Mini Display Port.
Dimensions: 357.7mm x 247.7mm x 17.7mm
Weight: 1.8kg
Operating System: Windows 10 Home
We had a solid plan to review the MSI GS65 Stealth 8RF with GTX 1070 Max-Q, however that plan came off the rails. First we ran a preview of the MSI GS65 and then we waited for MSI us sent us a full retail version of the laptop for our review. In the meantime we reviewed the Gigabyte Aero 15X which shares a large number of features with the GS65. When we finally got to benchmark the GS65 8RF we were slightly disappointed as the results were consistently below those of the Aero 15X.
We had some back and forth with MSI and they decided the smart move was to send us the GS65 8RE with GTX 1060 graphics which caused a certain amount of delay as we had to wait for stock to arrive. It also meant that your man Waldock had to test a second laptop ,but on the plus side of the ledger KitGuru has been able to test two SKUs of GS65 along with the Aero 15X. Has anyone else managed that? We don’t think so.
The main impression you get when you sit in front of the GS65 is that the huge bright screen fills the lid from edge to edge. In fact the screen is mid-sized, however the tiny bezel is a real winner, the ‘IPS-level’ technology looks good and the high 144Hz refresh rate means there is no chance of judder or blur at any time. In addition the chassis is thin and light, which is always desirable, however it feels a bit slab-like and doesn’t exude the feeling you get when a chassis has been milled from a billet of aluminium. The vented cover behind the keyboard flexes to an alarming extent and when you flip the laptop over you can clearly see the bottom cover is screwed in place.
The ports and connectors are arranged on the left and right hand sides where everything is within easy reach, although you don’t get an SD card slot. Added to that, the laptop feels good to type on although it has to be said the keys have very little travel. The SteelSeries keyboard is a decent size (MSI has chosen to ditch the NUM pad) and the touchpad is located centrally just where you would hope to find it. While the RGB keyboard is pleasant enough when you set it to a single static colour, the moving Rainbow pattern won't be for everyone.
Testing and Performance
Testing and Performance overview
Switching from the original 8RF to the replacement 8RE was interesting as you simply cannot tell the difference between the two models in day-to-day use. It would be nice to be able to claim the dual channel DDR4 made the 8RE more snappy and responsive or that GTX 1070 Max-Q in the 8RF loads your browser faster but in the great scheme of things they behave the same. Having said that, the test results convince us that the combination of GTX 1070 Max-Q with dual channel DDR4 would be a clear winner.
During our testing we were disappointed by CPU performance. Stress tests showed the CPU running at a mere 2.8GHz on all cores with clear signs of throttling, however when you use the laptop as a regular gaming machine it performs absolutely fine. Specifically, when you run a single thread in Cinebench R15 the clock speed is 4.1GHz, while a multicore run operates at 2.8GHz. A stress test such as AIDA64 reduces the CPU clock speed to 2.7GHz.
Cooling and noise
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Cooling and noise overview
In regular use the GS65 is an impressive laptop, however when you dig into the cooling performance you get a different picture as both the CPU and GPU run hot. We expect most laptops will push the CPU close to 90 degrees however the GS65 is clearly on the edge of throttling whenever it is under heavy load and can be pushed over the edge by a stress test.
The same is true of the GPU which runs at 85 degrees under load, however the fact that both GTX 1070 Max-Q and GTX 1060 GPUs in 8RF and 8RE versions operate at the same temperature was unexpected as we thought the GTX 1060 might run a bit cooler.
It is clear that MSI has chosen to run the fans in this laptop at speeds that keep the noise levels down, as opposed to Gigabyte Aero 15X which is relatively noisy. We are unclear whether the flipped motherboard design hurts internal temperatures, however our testing demonstrated that air flow on one side of the cooling system is doing something peculiar. On the left side of the laptop not much seems to happen while on the right side the fan is going like the clappers. You can clearly see in our video how exhaust airflow is operating and that it is highly asymmetric.
Battery life
Battery life overview
The 80.25Wh battery lasts just over four hours in a continuous loop of PC Mark 8 which equates to eight hours of real world usage. That is pretty impressive and while we have seen better battery life from especially good laptops we really cannot complain about those figures.
MSI’s new GS65 laptop uses a bold design that packs a six core Intel 8th Gen. CPU and a GeForce 10-series graphics chip inside a laptop that is both thin and light. Whether you buy this 8RE with GTX 1060 graphics or step up to the 8RF with GTX 1070 Max-Q you will certainly be the proud owner of an impressive laptop.
The snag is that the way you use your new GS65 will likely determine whether or not you are happy with your purchase. CPU intensive tasks such as video editing or 3D rendering perform poorly as the CPU throttles significantly and runs at speeds that are far too low. By contrast you will find that balanced tasks such as gaming work very nicely with frames rates that ensure a great experience.
Added to that, the 144Hz screen is very good so if you want a visual treat the GS65 is in a select class with a handful of other laptops that use a display panel with the same specification.
If you take the view that GS65 is a gaming laptop, rather than a workstation, you will likely be very happy. The problem is that some of us feel a £1900 laptop should be able to handle any task for the which the CPU and GPU have sufficient grunt, however the GS65 clearly has thermal problems when the laptop is working hard.
This may stem from MSI’s decision to flip the motherboard, or it may just be a result of them getting the combination of heat pipes and fans slightly wrong. The problem is that we cannot see any benefit from the inversion of the motherboard, while there are clearly problems as the upgrade path is fairly tricky. We doubt many users will insist on replacing DDR4-2400MHz with DDR4-2666MHz, however anyone who buys a GS65 with single channel memory will get a nasty surprise when they investigate memory upgrades with a view to going dual channel.
We also feel the second M.2 slot is pretty much redundant because, again, you have to dismantle the laptop to gain access. If the motherboard arrangement delivered a benefit to the customer then fine, but as things stand we only see problems.
On a minor note it would have been nice to see a SD card slot as it costs next to nothing and requires very little space. In a similar vein we have no idea why MSI saw fit to specify the 8RF with Killer Wi-Fi while this 8RE has Intel 9560NGW as both wireless solutions seem fairly similar.
Overall this is a sleek laptop with plenty to commend it, however it consistently falls short of the performance you get from the Gigabyte Aero 15X. Ordinarily we wouldn’t compare two laptops in the conclusion of a review but the fact is these two models have a huge number of features in common. We do not think Gigabyte did anything especially clever with the Aero 15X, which suggests that MSI might have got something wrong.
We love the 144Hz Full HD screen and the way it zips along thanks to the Intel 8th Gen. CPU and GTX 1060 graphics but those thermals are a problem that can hurt clock speeds.
More info on the MSI GS65 Stealth 8RE on the MSI website HERE.
Buy from Overclockers UK HERE for £1899.95.
Pros:
- 144Hz IPS-level display looks good.
- Very thin screen bezel.
- Impressively thin and light for a gaming laptop.
- Cooling system is reasonably quiet.
- Dual channel DDR4 helps performance.
Cons:
- CPU clock speed is slow under heavy load.
- GPU runs around 10 degrees hotter than we'd like.
- Chassis attracts fingerprints like crazy and is rather flexible.
- Flipped motherboard makes it tricky to upgrade either memory or SSD.
KitGuru says: MSI GS65 looks sleek and sophisticated but suffers from the heat.
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