MSI GS73 6RF ‘Stealth Pro’ 4K 006UK Laptop Review

The default MSI install is a little bloated. We are never happy to see Norton's or McAfee antivirus or security suites installed by default. There are much less intrusive, lower overhead packages available online, so the choice should be up to the end user entirely.

We also noticed some performance issues with the Windows 10 ‘Defender’ software after the Anniversary update was installed – it would randomly hog up to 30% CPU time. I found it problematic getting accurate CPU results with this software running at all, so we permanently disabled it using a REG file – you can read more HERE.

The system is running a 6700HQ processor (details HERE), with 16GB of DDR4 memory. This is a locked processor and it can't be overclocked. The 16GB of Kingston DDR4 memory is running at 2,400MHz with 17-17-17-39 2T timings.

I like the fact that the latest Pascal mobile hardware does not require a dedicated mobile driver to operate – simply install the latest relevant desktop driver for the GTX1060 from the Nvidia website and you are ready to play.

To test games in this review, we run various new game engines at 1080p with high image quality and then at 4k with the image quality settings reduced. The GTX 1060 is not designed for 4K gaming, but we want to see if it is possible at all.

We wanted to test at 1440p as well, but we found that the system we had for review only offers 2560×1600 (see image above). Sadly this looks slightly distorted on the MSI panel. We reinstalled the OS and installed different drivers to test – but 1440p never showed up. We sent an email to MSI about this to get confirmation that 1440p is supported but as yet we have not heard back.

In case it is an issue with our specific system, we tested 2560×1440 with an external monitor attached.

Comparison Mobile Systems (for specific synthetic test comparisons):

MSI GS60 6QE (Ghost Pro 4K) (6700HQ)
Razer Blade Pro (2015) (4720HQ)
MSI GT80 Titan (i7 4980HQ)
Razer Blade 14 Inch (2015) (i7 4720HQ)
MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K 2QE (i7 4710HQ)
MSI GT72 2PE Dominator Pro (072UK)
MSI GS60 2PE Ghost Pro 15.6 inch (Intel i7-4700HQ).
MSI GT70 2OC (Intel Core i7 4700MQ).
MSI GS70 2OD Stealth (Intel Core i7 4700HQ).
MSI GE40-20C Dragon Eyes (Intel Core i7 4702MQ).
PCSpecialist Inferno 11.6 inch (Intel Core i7 3630QM).
MSI GX60 (AMD A10 4600M).
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (featuring Core i5 3427U).
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge S430 (featuring Core i5 3210M).
PC Specialist Vortex III HD72 (featuring Core i7 3610QM).
Asus G74SX-91013Z (featuring Core i7 2360QM).
Dell XPS 14z (featuring Core i7 2640M).
AlienWare M18X (featuring Core i7 2960XM Extreme Edition).
MSI CX640 (featuring Core i5 2410M).
Intel Core i7 2600k desktop processor.
Intel Core i5 2500k desktop processor.

Comparison Desktop System (for some gaming tests).

Detailed specifications over HERE.
Asus GTX980 ROG Matrix Platinum (1,241 mhz core / 1,753mhz memory)
Asus R9 290 Direct CU II OC (1000 mhz core / 1,260 mhz memory)
Gigabyte GTX770 OC (1,137mhz core / 1,753 mhz memory)
Sapphire Dual X R9 285 (965 mhz core / 1,400 mhz memory)
XFX R9 280X DD (1,000 mhz core / 1,500 mhz memory)
Asus Direct CU II GTX 760 OC (1,006mhz core / 1,502mhz memory)
Asus GTX750TI Strix OC Edition (1,124mhz core / 1,350mhz memory)

Software:

3DMark 11
3DMark
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
Cinebench R15 64 bit
FRAPS Professional
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
SiSoft Sandra
CrystalDiskMark
Steam VR Benchmark
Cyberlink MediaEspresso 6

Games:

Gears Of War 4
Grand Theft Auto 5
Hitman
Rise Of The Tomb Raider
Ashes Of The Singularity
Metro Last Light Redux
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Total War: Warhammer
Deus Ex: ManKind Divided

Other Hardware:

Fluke IR Thermal Imaging Camera
Fuji XT2 Camera.
Sennheiser HD800S Headphones (Review HERE).
Razer Mamba 16,000 dpi mouse.

All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.

Game descriptions edited with courtesy from Wikipedia.

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