The MSI GF72VR 7RF and GF62VR 7RF are fairly similar gaming laptops, but which should you
get?
In this video I’ll discuss the differences between them and help you decide which you
should pick.
The most obvious difference between the two is that the GF72VR is a 17 inch laptop, while
the GF62VR is a smaller 15 inch laptop, however despite this size difference the laptops are
otherwise very similar.
Starting with the specs, both have a quad core Intel 7700HQ CPU with 16GB of DDR4 memory
running at 2,400MHz.
They both also have an M.2 SSD for the OS, 256gb in the 17 inch and 128gb in the 15 inch.
There’s also an additional 1TB hard drive for extra space in both.
For the graphics both have an Nvidia 1060, which powers the 1080p wide view panel, however
the 15 inch laptop has a 60Hz screen while the 17 inch has a 120Hz screen.
So in terms of specs both laptops are very similar, with the exception of the refresh
rates and SSDs.
The overall design is also basically the same, the lids are a black brushed metal and feature
the MSI logo, while the insides are a grey brushed plastic with Steelseries RGB keyboards.
Underneath there are similar air intakes too, which exhaust air out the back from the left
and right corners.
In terms of IO starting on the left both have a kensington lock, gigabit ethernet port,
USB 3.0 type A port, HDMI port, mini DisplayPort, another USB 3.0 type-a port, a USB 3.1 Gen
2 type-c port, and 3.5mm headphone and mic jacks, so they’re both exactly the same.
It’s the same story on the right, both have a USB 2.0 type A port, a built in SD card
reader, and the power input.
In terms of screen quality I found the 17 inch model actually reproduced colours a little
better than the 15 inch.
As mentioned, one of the key differences between the two laptops is that the 17 inch one has
a 120Hz screen, while the 15 inch has a 60Hz screen, but we’ll see later in the benchmarks
that this is mostly pointless.
As the GF72VR is a 17 inch model, it’s larger and weighs around 500 grams more, and as you’d
expect takes up more space.
That extra size and weight surely means a bigger battery or better cooling, right?
Both laptops have the same 41 watt hour 6 cell battery, I found this interesting and
assumed the 17 inch would have a larger one, but this was not the case.
With the screen on half brightness, background apps disabled, and just watching YouTube,
the 15 inch model lasted for 2 hours and 17 minutes, while the 17 inch lasted slightly
less at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
While playing the Witcher 3 at medium settings and capped to 30 FPS, the 15 inch lasted 35
minutes, while the 17 inch lasted 37 minutes, so we can see both are fairly similar in terms
of battery, which is to be expected as they have the same battery and very similar hardware
specs.
As for the cooling and noise, while testing with an ambient room temperature of 25 degrees
celsius at idle the 17 inch laptop was actually running a little warmer despite in theory
having more cooling space.
Both laptops were also producing about the same amount of noise at 37 decibels and I
could hardly hear both.
For comparison, here’s what the temperatures at idle on the keyboard area looks like, we
can see that the 15 inch laptop is just a few degrees warmer, despite the internals
being cooler.
With the CPU and GPU both under 100% load the temperatures rose quite a lot, with both
CPUs maxing out at 95c and throttling around 20%, the GPU on the 17 inch is a bit warmer
too again showing that overall it’s running warmer despite in theory having more cooling
space.
Both laptops were also making about the same level of noise at 54 decibels.
In general we can see that the keyboard area of the 17 inch laptop is getting a bit warmer,
but they’re not far apart.
I’ll only include a few game benchmarks here, as they both have the same specs and
the results aren’t that far apart.
All numbers shown are the averages of three runs.
Starting with the witcher 3 we can see that the 15 inch GF62VR is a little ahead in all
instances.
Shadow of war is fairly similar, with the smaller GF62VR again slightly ahead of the
larger GF72VR.
The Battlefield 1 results are much closer together, at all setting levels we almost
got the exact same 1% low frame rates while the averages aren’t far apart.
Watchdogs 2 was also fairly close together, however interestingly in 3 of the 5 tests
the larger GF72VR came out ahead.
If you’re after more detailed benchmarks of either laptop check my full review videos
in the description.
I’ve said in the past that the 1060 is a great sweet spot for 1080p 60 FPS gaming on
high settings.
This is why I don’t really understand the 120Hz display on the 17 inch model, to reach
frame rates that high you’d either need to be playing less resource intensive games,
or the games I’ve tested on the lowest settings.
Even at the lowest settings we can see that we’re only able to get to around 90 FPS
anyway.
If you’re fine with that and plan on playing less demanding games that can get to 120 FPS
on a 1060, then by all means go ahead, but personally if I was getting a 120Hz display
I’d probably be looking at a laptop with the 1070 as a minimum to better take advantage
of the higher refresh rate, at least in the games that I test and play.
The SSD in the 17 inch is larger and faster, offering over double the write speed compared
to the SSD in the 15 inch model and is also 256gb compared to 128gb in the 15 inch.
Now perhaps the most important difference, the price.
In Australia the 15 inch GF62VR is $1,916 AUD at the time of recording, so about $1,500
USD, while the 17 inch GF72VR is $2,237, so around $1,750 USD.
When it comes down to it you’re paying around $300 AUD or $250 USD extra to get a better
SSD and a larger screen at 120Hz, which I’d argue in many cases you won’t even be able
to take advantage of unless you’re playing less demanding games, so if you’re doing
that you’d need to decide if the extra $300 is worth it to you to get this, as otherwise
the laptops are essentially the same in terms of specs, design, battery life, and cooling,
with the only other key difference being that the 17 inch model also weighs around 500 grams
more, potentially making it less portable.
So which of these two MSI laptops would you guys pick?
The smaller GF62VR or larger GF72VR?
Personally I’d probably go for the 15 inch, but let me know what you guys thought down
in the comments, and leave a like on the video if you found the information useful.
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one.