Disclaimer: One of our former writers also works for an external PR agency that introduced us to MSI Public Relations.
MSI have announced three 10th Gen Intel powered laptops; the GS66 Stealth, GE66 Raider, and the Creator 17.
With most of us stuck in our homes and a lot of us working from home, now seems like a great time to pick up a new laptop. MSI has been making gaming laptops for years, has announced its newest line of gaming series and creator series laptops equipped with the latest 10th generation Intel Core processors.
The Gaming series goes all the way up to an i9-10980HK processor (8 core 16 thread CPU @ up to 5.3GHz) down to the i7 10750H (6 core 12 threads @ up to 5GHz).
While the 10th gen parts are still on the 14nm process node they do clock up higher and should be slightly more power efficient than last generation. Intel claims it’s up to 50% faster compared to the last generation but generally a cherry picked-number though the 5-15% range should be expected. MSI’s own in house testing says it’s about 15% faster than last year’s models.
These laptops feature high refresh rate panels (Up to 300Hz), and Nvidias Geforce RTX SUPER GPUs which are a refresh of last generation that should perform a bit faster and cooler, which will be an improvement over last gen laptops.
MSI GS66 Stealth
The GS66 Stealth is MSI’s attempt to have a laptop that isn’t flashy and is screaming gamer. This laptop is designed with a minimalist style in mind, something to be a bit more professional to bring to and from the office. This is built for those looking for something they can game on, as well as bring into a meeting.
The laptop features the largest legal battery to travel with worldwide (99.9Whr), as well as up to a 300Hz 1080P IPS display, a new cooling design, and a strengthened hinge design. The latter of which typically is an issue with gaming laptops over time.
Though this writer’s favorite feature is the support for easier upgrading RAM and SSDs (Dual M.2 ports), the fact that there is a second M.2 port makes it easier to upgrade storage without having to wipe your Windows install. This may not be an issue for many enthusiasts, but plenty absolutely dread doing an OS re-install.
MSI has also increased the cooling capacity of the new cooler; which uses 7 heat pipes, and three fans with an increased number of blades to increase the airflow by 15%. This is important, especially if you are going to have laptops that have up to 8 cores and high end graphics like in this one.
The MSI GS66 Stealth launches April 15th starting at $1,599.
MSI GE66 Raider
The GE66 Raider once again features up to a Core i9 CPU, but does feature the larger full sized Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super. It also has the same display and large battery as the Stealth, though this one will also have MSI’s Mystic Light RGB under the keyboard for those that love RGB.
The laptop also features a aluminum body that is designed to be more ergonomic, with ridges on the bottom to allow for better grip when moving it, and an easier to open hinge that can be opened with a single finger.
In addition to those features over the Stealth model, it features a full range of I/O with 3 USB 3.2 Type C ports. One of those is a hybrid Display port 1.4 port along with a single HDMI and Mini Displayport, 3 USB type-A ports, and a full sized SD Card reader in case you wanted to use this as a mobile workstation.
MSI also worked with Colie Wertz, who did the concept art for the recent Star Wars series The Mandalorian, for a special edition Dragonshield Edition of the GE66 Raider, for those who want an even flashier gaming laptop.
The Raider also features a larger cooling system with less fans and heat pipes, but larger and thicker overall to increase cooling to accommodate the larger GPU. Also MSI has beefed up their built in speakers across both models.
The MSI GE66 Raider launches April 15th, starting at $1,799.
MSI Creator 17
The MSI Creator 17 is geared at the professional market, and is more of a desktop replacement laptop for the professional than the gamer.
While still touting the hardware to game, this model has a 4K display (the world’s first laptop with a Mini LED display) which tries to bring color accuracy partially due to HDR1000 standards (1000 Nits of brighness, 10 bit image), a 100,000:1 contrast ratio, a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, and weighing in at around 5 and a half pounds and under an inch thick.
This is alongside an 8 core CPU, which honestly is much better equipped for these types of workloads, and is much more targeted at the types of creative professionals who buy Macbook Pros. What’s more, it also features the same dual M.2 SSD slots like the other models. Though sadly, there seems to be no SATA 2.5 inch HDD/SSD support.
Some of the other changes here include the function keys being changed to suit productivity tasks better than gaming ones, as well as their creator center. This allows you to prioritize which applications use certain amounts of the PC’s horsepower when either plugged in or on battery.
Things like limiting certain programs to use certain cores, or to prioritize certain tasks over others in a way that seems more user friendly. It is also more robust than the task manager.
The MSI Creator 17 launches April 15th starting at $1799.
Niche Gamer’s Take: While pricey MSI has generally been good gaming laptops and the hardware these include are nothing to scoff at. The ones highlighted to me are are some of their higher end models and with the performance levels makes this rather impressive.
Modern hardware has done a good job in closing the gap from the desktop though things like cooling, battery life and other factors. MSI says they have been vastly improved as well, as things they touted like their dragon center’s Gaming mode.
This apparently will prioritize system resources and free up memory, as well as change the color profile on the display. I am somewhat skeptical on the claims, but am excited to see when hardware companies try to make gamer’s lives a bit easier.
Images: Press release
