MSI’s new GP76 is the new budget friendly option of their GE76,
so let’s see how well this new GP model performs in games.
My GP76 has a 6 core Intel CPU, 16 gigs of memory in dual channel, 17” 1080p 240Hz
screen and Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics. The RTX 3070 graphics run up to 125 watts with the CPU in use,
but it can boost up to 140 watts thanks to dynamic boost when the processor isn’t hit as hard.
It is available with both lower and higher specs though,
you can find examples and check updated prices with the links in the description.
The GP76 lets us disable Optimus after a reboot, which results in
increased gaming performance compared to laptops that don’t offer this feature.
Unfortunately there’s no G-Sync, but it does have resizable BAR support.
MSI’s Dragon Center software lets us modify performance modes, and I’ve done all testing
with the highest extreme mode enabled and cooler boost enabled, which sets the fan to full speed
for best results. This doesn’t apply any GPU overclocking by default, but that is
easy enough to do through the software and I’ll show you the performance boost this offers later.
For now let’s get straight into the gaming benchmarks and see how the GP76 compares against
other laptops. After the games we’ll check out things like overclocking and screen response time,
and of course you can use those timestamps below to time travel to a relevant section.
I’ve tested Battlefield 5 in campaign mode at ultra settings, and the GP76
is highlighted in red. It’s giving me the second highest average frame rate I’ve ever recorded from
any gaming laptop in this test, very impressive stuff considering the specs. It’s only beaten by
MSI’s GE76 with higher tier CPU and GPU, and the GE series is basically the better version of the
GP we’re looking at in this video, so I’d probably expect it to do better even with same specs.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark tool with the highest setting
preset. The GP76 drops down a little when compared to the same selection of laptops.
It’s just 3 FPS behind the Neo 15 just above it with the same wattage RTX 3070 graphics,
though that laptop has an 8 core Ryzen processor. Regardless it’s
still pretty impressive that the GP76 is beating the Alienware 51m below it,
that’s a thicker and more expensive desktop replacement machine with an i9-9900K CPU.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the games benchmark tool at max settings.
The GP76 lowers a bit more now compared to the other laptops tested. Generally I’ve found this
test to depend more on the processor, so the 6 core i7 is likely the reason it’s a
bit lower compared to others. Every machine ahead if it has more cores, some even have
lower power limit GPUs, so that confirms that the processor difference is key here.
Now that we’ve got an idea of how MSI’s GP76 gaming laptop compares against others at max
settings with these specs, we’re going to take a look at how it also performs
in 13 games at all setting levels, as lower settings are just an easy way to boost FPS.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in little China with the street kid life path.
The highest ultra setting preset is easily above 60 FPS, and even with the ray tracing
ultra preset we’re close to 60 thanks to DLSS, so absolutely playable while looking great,
though you could of course get higher FPS with lower settings should you prefer.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the games benchmark. There’s basically
no difference between low and medium settings in this test, so might as
well use at least medium and get some quality back. High settings were still above 100 FPS,
while even maxed out at ultra was above the 60 FPS sweet spot, a great result for this game.
Call of Duty Warzone was tested with either all settings at minimum or maximum,
as it doesn’t have predefined setting presets. With these specs even max settings were running
perfectly fine with the 1% lows above 100 FPS. Minimum settings weren't offering that
much of a performance boost here, just a 13% improvement to average frame rate.
Control was tested with ray tracing in the green bars, with ray tracing
plus DLSS enabled in the red bars, which offers a significant performance boost,
and at stock in the purple bars, which also sees a boost at low and medium settings,
however it’s quite similar to ray tracing plus DLSS with the high setting preset. Ray
tracing without DLSS is actually playable here, still above 60 FPS maxed out, but yeah DLSS is
definitely worth using in this game as it still looks good and offers big performance gains.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the game's benchmark. This is a relatively
new game that’s typically fairly resource heavy,
however the great specs in my GP76 are hitting 80 FPS in this test even with max settings,
while medium would push us beyond 100 FPS if higher is your target.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was tested in the Sydney landing challenge. The frame rates don’t
look great here, but that’s pretty standard for this game, and like many of the AAA titles tested
I’d argue that you don’t exactly need the magical 60 FPS to play the game without any problems.
Watch Dogs Legion was tested with the games benchmark. It was just possible
to hit above 100 FPS at both low and medium setting presets here,
while ultra was above 60 FPS, so no problem here either.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and as an esports title it’s
not too surprising to see much higher frame rates here compared to the other games tested so far.
High settings gets us average FPS close to the screens refresh rate, while low settings almost
pushes the 1% low to this level for ultra smooth gameplay at the expense of quality,
which to be fair is likely what many people prefer in a competitive game like this.
Speaking of esports titles, I’ve also tested CS:GO, and this is a game that
heavily benefits from the ability of disabling optimus which is why we’re
reaching around 400 FPS in this test even at max settings. Laptops that are limited
by optimus would generally be closer to 300 at this point regardless of the specs.
Rainbow Six Siege also hits fairly high frame rates without issue. I
had to take averages from 4 test runs at each setting preset here, more than I usually use,
as there were more inconsistencies than usual here. Generally this game is quite consistent,
so this was pretty stange, but regardless of the differences,
max settings are still reaching frame rates higher than the screen’s refresh rate.
The Witcher 3 is an older game that I’ve pretty much tested since the start of the channel 6
years ago, so there’s plenty of data available if you want to compare. Anyway no problems running
at max settings, but we could get big gains simply by lowering one level from ultra to high settings.
Battlefield V was tested in campaign mode, and as we saw earlier this game
was giving us one of the best results out of all laptops I’ve ever tested. Here’s
how the other lower settings are doing, so lower levels will help you get more
out of the 240Hz screen should you want to prioritize frame rate over visual quality.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark tool and was also doing
quite well relative to other laptops tested. There’s not that much to be gained by using
lower setting presets here, so I’d stick to higher settings so things look nicer.
Overall gaming performance here is great,
as you’d expect with these specs and the option of disabling optimus combined,
but what sort of gains can we get by overclocking the GPU through MSI’s software?
I was able to get a little extra 3% boost in Shadow of the Tomb Raider,
not that you really need extra at these high frame rates, but it’s definitely possible.
Undervolting may give an extra boost too, it’s possible to enable that
through MSI’s advanced BIOS, I’ll check that out in the upcoming full review.
MSI’s Dragon Center software lets us enable or
disable panel overdrive which affects screen response time.
Overdrive is enabled by default, and with it enabled we’re looking at one
of the best screen response time results I’ve ever recorded at just under 3.3ms.
We need 4.16ms for transitions to occur within the refresh window,
and this was happening with all measurements, so excellent results.
With overdrive disabled the average grey-to-grey response time increases to 6.2ms,
however there’s less overshoot and undershoot now,
so depends what your priority is but at least you’re given the option to change it.
Here’s how these results compare against other gaming laptops. Like I said,
one of the best results I’ve recorded, only beaten ever so slightly by MSI’s GE75 just ahead of it,
while the older GP75 is only slightly behind. Most MSI laptops tend to have
the overdrive option which gives them a boost over the competition.
The GP76 is also available with different screens though, like a 1080p 144Hz option,
so expect different results based on panel selection. Personally I think
at 17 inches a 1440p high refresh panel would have made more sense,
but this is what MSI sent over and it does still offer a great gaming experience.
Make sure you’re subscribed for the upcoming full review video where I’ll cover absolutely
everything about this machine including thermals and more, and join our Discord
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