The MSI GF63 gaming laptop is available for a pretty good price, probably why so many
of you have asked me to check it out, but how well does it perform in games? I’ve
benchmarked 15 different games at all setting levels to show you how well it runs and help
you decide if it’s worth it.
Just quickly before we jump into the benchmark results I’ll cover off the specs in this
laptop. There’s an Intel i7-8750H CPU, Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q graphics, and 8GB of memory
running at DDR4-2400 in single channel, so performance could be improved with a higher
speed dual channel configuration.
I was running Windows 10 with these Nvidia drivers, with the fans in cooler boost mode
for best performance, so let’s see how well it runs!
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and I found it to play pretty well with high
settings or below, which was still able to give me a solid 60 frames per second on average.
Overwatch was tested playing in the practice range, and as a pretty well optimized game
I was able to average above 60 FPS even with epic settings with the 1% low not too far
behind the average, and then even 100 FPS at ultra settings so it was playing very well.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode and not in multiplayer mode, as it’s easier
to consistently reproduce the test run. Low settings were needed in order to average above
60 FPS in my test, and it played pretty well.
Battlefield 1 was also tested in campaign mode, and comparatively performed quite a
lot better than Battlefield V. It still felt playable in my test at ultra settings at least,
with no real difference in terms of 1% low between setting levels.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and although this is a less optimized game
it was still playable at around low settings, with very low settings required to reach a
60 FPS average in my testing.
CS:GO was tested using the Ulletical benchmark, and although the frame rates aren’t quite
as high as the usual 200 FPS I see when testing this game with other laptops, we’re still
seeing pretty high results, easily playable no problems.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark, and again pretty much always
results in high frame rates. At ultra settings we’re almost getting 90 FPS with 60 for
the 1% low, and then up to 130 FPS at low settings.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and there wasn’t too much difference
between the setting levels in terms of 1% low, and not really that much difference with
the averages either, up to 50 FPS at low settings.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was another game that was tested with the built in benchmark,
and as a pretty poorly optimized game the frame rates we’re seeing aren’t that high,
but it was playable at medium and low settings, I don’t think the game needs a high frame
rate to play.
Dota 2 was tested using a fairly intensive replay, so this should be a worst case scenario,
these results are not the same as actually playing the game which would result in higher
performance. I did play a quick game with ultra settings just for comparison, and it
was averaging around 90 FPS with not much going on.
Watch Dogs 2 is a demanding game, but as it doesn’t seem to need a high frame rate to
play I have no trouble playing at very high settings, anything above 30 FPS as long as
the 1% low isn’t too terrible runs fine for me. Ultra was a bit choppy but anything
else was acceptable.
Ghost Recon is another demanding game and was tested using the built in benchmark, I’d
argue a higher frame rate is more preferable in this sort of game, but with the frame rates
seen at medium and low settings you should be able to play it well enough.
The Witcher 3 played great at anything below Ultra, most laptops don’t run too great
at ultra settings in this title, but at high or below it seemed fine, with above 60 FPS
averages possible at medium settings or lower.
DOOM was tested using Vulkan, and the game played smoothly even at ultra settings where
we still saw over 60 FPS averages with the 1% low not too much further behind, then up
to 80 FPS at low settings.
Shadow of war was tested with the built in benchmark, and we’re still able to average
close to 60 FPS with medium settings, and should still be playable around here or lower.
This was my first time testing a laptop with GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q graphics, and we were seeing
fairly decent frame rates in most games. Basically all games played well at low to medium settings,
while some better optimized games like overwatch ran well even maxed out.
I did think the i7-8750H was a little strange of a match up with the 1050 Ti Max-Q, the
i5-8300H probably would have made more sense and would likely result in a cheaper laptop
that would perform basically the same in most games. As mentioned earlier, results could
be improved by upgrading to a dual channel memory configuration, check the video linked
in the top right corner for a demonstration on how that can help improve games.
If you’re after up to date pricing on the MSI GF63 gaming laptop check the links in
the description.
I haven’t yet tested undervolting or overclocking, as this will vary between laptops based on
the hardware, but I’ll cover those in future videos along with detailed temperature testing,
this is just how the laptop performs out of the box in a number of different games, as
this is likely how most people will probably end up using it, but don’t worry though
I’ll definitely cover the more advanced in upcoming videos too.
So how do you guys think the MSI GF63 8RD gaming laptop did in these games? It’s doing
pretty well for a mid range laptop with around mid range graphics. Although it was still
capable of playing all these games with around low to medium settings no problem, a dual
channel memory configuration most likely would have helped it perform a bit better.
Let me know what you guys thought down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe
for the full review of the MSI GF63 gaming laptop as well as future tech videos like
this one.