The MSI GF63 appears to be a more budget friendly gaming laptop, but how hot does it get and
is there any throttling? In this video I’ll perform some detailed thermal testing and
find out how overclocking and undervolting can help improve performance and temperatures.
In my configuration here I’ve got the Intel i7-8750H CPU with Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q
graphics, so expect different results with the 1050 version.
Thermal testing was completed with an ambient room temperature of 23 degrees Celsius, so
expect warmer temperatures in a warmer environment. Also keep in mind there are heatpipes shared
between processor and graphics, so a change in one component may affect the other. It’s
also worth noting that both the CPU and GPU are cooled by just one fan, so let’s see
how well it does.
Starting at the bottom of the graph, at idle the temperatures are warmer than average,
shown by the light blue bars. The gaming tests were done with Watch Dogs 2, as I find that
to use a good combination of CPU and GPU. Continuing up in the green bar both the CPU
and GPU reach 91 degrees celsius with the fans at default speeds. By enabling cooler
boost mode to max out the fans, shown by the yellow bar, temperatures drop back significantly.
With the fans back at stock speed but with a -0.120v undervolt applied to the CPU, shown
in orange, it’s a little cooler compared to gaming at stock in the green bar. When
we combine the CPU undervolt with MSI’s cooler boost mode in the red bar we see the
coolest temperatures while gaming, with both the CPU and graphics in the mid 70s, a nice
improvement.
The stress tests were done by running Aida64 and the Heaven benchmark at the same time
in order to attempt to fully utilize both the processor and graphics. Continuing up
in the graph with the dark red bar I was seeing the combined CPU and GPU load limit the CPU
to a 35 watt TDP, and there was both thermal and power limit throttling taking place on
the CPU, and thermal throttling on the GPU. With cooler boost mode enabled with the stress
tests running, shown by the pink bar, there’s a big improvement to the temperatures. This
stops thermal throttling, but power limit throttling was still present. The CPU undervolt
with the fans at stock speeds, shown in purple, wasn’t enough to cool the components, and
then with the undervolt and coolerboost mode enabled together at the top of the graph in
the dark blue bar we get a little improvement in CPU temperature.
These are the average clock speeds for the same tests just shown. Again starting down
the bottom we can see that CPU clock speeds raise the most when the CPU undervolt is applied,
shown by the orange and red bars, as this helps reduce the power limit throttling. It’s
worth noting though that in all of these combined CPU and GPU tests the 8750H wasn’t able
to hit the full 3.9GHz turbo speed, although it does get very close in gaming with the
-0.120v undervolt applied to the CPU with the fans in coolerboost mode, shown by the
red bar. We also see improvements to the graphics clock speed when we turn coolerboost mode
on, and this is because the graphics were often experiencing thermal throttling with
the single fan at default speeds.
These are the clock speeds I got while just running CPU only stress tests without any
GPU load. Without the undervolt the power limit throttling was preventing a CPU only
stress test from reaching the 3.9GHz turbo speed of the 8750H, but this was possible
once undervolted, shown by the green bar.
To demonstrate how this translates into performance I’ve got some Cinebench CPU benchmarks here,
with the older 7th gen i7-7700HQ just down the bottom for comparison. While the CPU clock
speeds were closer together in the previous graph, the Cinebench scores between stock
and undervolted are quite different. This is because while running cinebench the CPU
TDP was not passing 35 watts, while under the Aida64 stress test it was running at 45
watts.
Here are the GPU only clock speeds while under a graphical only stress test, and we’re
seeing an improvement of around 126MHz with a manual 200MHz overclock applied, it didn’t
get further due to power limits.
So how do these performance boosts actually translate into games? I’ve tested with the
exact same Windows, Nvidia and game updates installed, the only changes were the ones
listed here.
Far Cry 5 was tested using the built in benchmark, the average frame rates at ultra settings
were 5.6% better compared to stock speeds, and there was also a little improvement to
the 1% low results at other setting levels, though results will of course vary between
games.
As for the external temperatures where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle it
was in the low to mid 30s around the keyboard. While gaming the middle of the keyboard gets
to 50 degrees, and up to 56 right up the back. Very similar results with the stress tests
running, and then a fair bit cooler once we enable cooler boost mode to max out the fans,
but let’s find out just how loud this gets.
At idle the fans were still slightly audible. While gaming and under stress test it was
about the same, and this was significantly quieter than most other gaming laptops I’ve
tested, but as we saw before the temperatures are suffering as a result with thermal throttling
taking place. With coolerboost mode enabled and the single fan maxed out it gets quite
loud, though as we saw earlier this improves the temperatures quite a lot.
Overall the performance was acceptable once you boost the fans and apply a CPU undervolt,
despite the single fan to keep it all cool. It’s definitely the i7-8750H that’s getting
the temperatures up there, I think the 1050 Ti Max-Q graphics are just suffering due to
the shared heatpipes. I’m not sure why MSI went with quieter fans at the expense of thermal
throttling out of the box, looking in the Dragon Center software it looks like the fan
is configured to only reach 55%. Although as you heard it was quieter than most other
laptops I’ve tested while gaming as a result, however I’d prefer it to be a little louder
and not throttle or run as hot, at least you’ve got the option of adjusting the fans for yourself
though, so you can improve this at the expense of more noise.
As this is the highest specced version of the GF63 laptop, the results shown here should
be a worst case scenario. The 8RC model is the same, but has 1050 graphics instead, so
it may run a little cooler as it’s not quite as powerful, it’s hard to say though as
most of the heat seems to be from the 8750H CPU.
These differences in performance shown aren’t hard and fast rules, there are different factors
which will vary results, primarily the temperature of the room you’re running in, application
of thermal paste, and even the specific hardware which comes down to the silicon lottery. You
may not be able to undervolt or overclock your hardware the same as me, it depends on
the chip and its specific power requirements, so don’t just blindly copy my settings and
do some testing to find out where your stable point is for best results.
While you could improve the temperatures by swapping out the thermal paste, that’s not
something I can test in a review unit. If I go ahead and remove the stock thermal paste
and replace my own, I can't put the old paste back, so the next reviewer would experience
something different from what you'd actually see with the product and unknowingly report
incorrect information due to what I’ve done.
Undervolting and raising the fan speed on the other hand aren’t physically intrusive,
and as we've seen it did improve temperatures and gaming performance a little in this particular
unit with no downside once you’ve got a stable undervolt.
Let me know how much of a performance boost you’ve found by undervolting your hardware
and what you thought of the improvements here, 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.