The new MSI GS65 Stealth Thin gaming laptop’s got some nice specs, including Intel’s new
6 core i7 8750H CPU and Nvidia 1060 graphics, so let’s find out how well it performs in
a bunch of different games.
Just quickly before we dig into the benchmark results I wanted to mention that there’s
2 8gb sticks of DDR4 memory running at 2,400MHz in dual channel, the stock configuration present
in my unit.
The laptop is also available with a 1070 Max-Q if you’re after some additional power, as
mentioned this one has Nvidia 1060 graphics.
All testing was done at 1080p, the native resolution of the laptop’s display, with
VSync disabled.
With that out of the way let's check out some gaming results.
Starting out with Fortnite I was able to utilize the 144Hz refresh rate of the display at around
medium settings or lower, however I thought it still ran well even at max settings, even
the 1% lows at max setting are above 60 FPS although they can vary quite a bit as the
game greatly depends on what’s going on and what other players are doing, which also
means you need to take the results with a grain of salt.
Overwatch was also going quite well just playing with the bots, and at ultra settings we’re
already averaging above the refresh rate of the display and the 1% lows are still fairly
high too.
CS:GO was averaging well above what the refresh rate of the display could output, the 1% lows
drop down a lot in this test due to the smokes, but they’re still fairly high at around
60 FPS on lower settings.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, but again take the results with a grain of
salt, as like Fortnite it will depend on what’s going on in the game, so the results can vary
quite a lot, as shown by the 1% lows which are quite a bit lower than the averages.
I’ve tested Farcry 5 with the built in benchmark, even at max settings we’re averaging above
60 FPS and the 1% lows aren’t too far behind the average frame rates.
Dota 2 was tested using a fairly intensive replay, so this should be a worst case scenario,
realistically you’ll probably get better results than this while actually playing,
and even in this intensive test we’re always averaging above 60 FPS.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark and we’re seeing quite high
frame rates at all setting levels, and while the 1% lows are a fair bit behind realistically
they’re still quite high, so it should play great with the 144Hz screen.
Battlefield 1 ran well too, however although the average frame rates were fairly high the
1% lows can drop down quite a bit during intense fights, however to me it still felt nice and
smooth, the dips weren’t too bad for me although I’m used to playing with a 60Hz
monitor.
The witcher 3 doesn’t really need a high frame rate to play, and even on ultra settings
to me it played great, however we can improve the frame rates quite a bit by lowering settings
if needed.
Rise of the tomb raider was tested with the built in benchmark, and the results are alright,
averaging above 60 FPS even at max settings.
Ghost recon is a fairly resource intensive game, and was again tested with the built
in benchmark.
Although ultra settings are quite low, this is always the case in this game.
At very high or lower it was more playable.
Watchdogs 2 is another fairly resource intensive game, but is another that I personally think
doesn’t need a high frame rate to play.
I can play this with 40 FPS averages no problem as long as the 1% lows aren’t too low, so
to me it played well even at ultra settings.
DOOM was tested using vulkan, and to me this was another that felt nice and smooth even
at ultra settings with a 30 FPS improvement dropping down to minimum settings, but honestly
I think the game still looks pretty good even at minimum.
Shadow of war was another game tested with the built in benchmark and I think these results
are more than enough to play the game even with good settings.
Ashes of the Singularity was also tested with the built in benchmark, and again these are
alright results for this game on a laptop as this is a fairly intensive benchmark.
Overall I thought that the results from the MSI GS65 were fairly good, in some games we’re
actually able to make use of the 144Hz screen with lower settings, especially in the esports
titles.
If you’re after better results you could instead look at the model with the Max-Q 1070
as that’s also an option.
I haven’t yet tried undervolting or overclocking as this will vary between laptops based on
the hardware, but I’ll cover those in future videos, this is how the laptop performs out
of the box, which to be honest is probably how most people will probably end up using
it, so this is what you can at least expect at a base level.
So how do you guys think the MSI GS65 did in these games?
I’ve always thought the 1060 is a great choice for 1080p 60 FPS gaming and we can
see that here, some of the less demanding games are able to take advantage of the 144Hz
panel though so it really depends what you’re planning on playing with it.
In any case it can basically play any modern game quite well with good settings.
Let me know what you guys thought down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe
for the full review of the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 8RE gaming laptop as well as future tech
videos like this one.