The MSI Alpha 15 gaming laptop uses the new Radeon RX 5500M graphics, so let’s find
out just how hot this runs, see how it performs and find out if anything can be done to improve
thermals.
I’ve got the A3DDK version of the Alpha 15, so there’s an AMD Ryzen 7 3750H CPU,
the new Radeon RX 5500M graphics, 16gb of memory in dual channel, and a 1080p 144Hz
screen with FreeSync. There’s also a cheaper A3DD model with small changes, you can find
updated prices to both linked in the description.
Air is pulled in underneath the machine through the large mesh area towards the back, it’s
then exhausted from the left and right corners out the back, and back left corner, there’s
no exhaust on the right side so your mouse hand won’t suffer. Inside there are 7 heatpipes
in total, but only two are shared between processor and graphics.
The MSI Dragon Center software can be used to swap between different performance modes,
I’ve tested silent, balanced and extreme performance here. Basically I only found these
modes to adjust fan speed, silent mode lowered the GPU power limit, but otherwise there were
no other differences. I’ve also tested with the fan on the default automatic speed, or
with cooler boost enabled which maxes out the fan speed.
Thermal testing was completed in an ambient room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius, so
expect different results in different environments. No undervolting has been done here, as that’s
not currently possible with the AMD Mobile platform.
At idle it was on the warmer side.
The rest of the results are from combined CPU and GPU workloads, and are meant to represent
worst case scenarios as I ran them for extended periods of time.
The gaming results towards the upper half of the graph were tested by playing Watch
Dogs 2, as I find it to use a good combination of processor and graphics. The stress test
results shown on the lower half of the graph are from running the Aida64 CPU stress test
with only the stress CPU option checked, and the Heaven GPU benchmark at max settings at
the same time to fully load the system.
With the stress tests going in silent mode the GPU was hardly much warmer, however the
CPU rises to its highest temperature of almost 81 degrees, which honestly doesn’t seem
too bad compared to most Intel based laptops I’ve tested which easily surpass 90 degrees,
but to be fair the 3750H does have a lower 35 watt power limit. The balanced and extreme
profiles were basically the same, and notice the GPU temperature rise up compared to silent
mode now as the power limit is boosted to 85 watts. With max fan speed enabled the temperatures
drop back a couple of degrees, then adding a cooling pad helped more with this. Similar
patterns were observed while playing an actual game, however compared to the stress tests
the temperatures were lower overall and well within reason, no problems here with regards
to heat and there was no thermal throttling.
These are the average clock speeds for the same tests just shown. We can see that silent
mode is basically going to be useless for GPU based workloads, the 5500M seems to be
capped at around 20 watts so it’s performing badly in this mode. In basically all other
modes the clock speeds of both the CPU and GPU are quite similar, as there’s no throttling
observed. Thermals were fine as we just saw, and AMD’s uProf tool showed the CPU was
always running at the max 35 watts, and the GPU was at 85 watts outside of silent mode,
so performance should be pretty consistent.
Here are the CPU clock speeds while under a CPU only stress test, so the GPU is idle.
Again there’s minimal difference between the different modes. Temperatures lower as
we step up the performance mode, but that’s just a result of the associated fan speed
increase, which you’ll hear soon. In all cases the 3750H was sitting at its 35 watt
limit according to AMD’s uProf tool.
Here are some Cinebench results from different laptops to get an idea of the how MSI Alpha
15 stacks up. The performance from the 3750H was in line with other laptops that I’ve
tested with this same CPU, and the i5-9300H in the Lenovo L340 was only just ahead. It’s
worth noting that the L340 capped the power limit to 35 watts, same as the 3750H. I found
this quite interesting, sure the TDP limits aren’t directly comparable for different
reasons, but with similar power budgets we’re seeing similar performance. To be fair though,
most laptops will run the i5-9300H at 45 watts so in most cases it will do better than what
I’m showing here, but I thought this was interesting as more of an apples to apples
comparison.
To see how the different settings actually affect gaming performance I’ve tested Shadow
of the Tomb Raider with the highest setting preset using the game’s benchmark tool.
Like we saw earlier, there was basically no difference between balanced and extreme modes.
Silent mode on the other hand was completely unusable, as we saw earlier the GPU is capped
heavily making this mode terrible for graphically intensive tasks like gaming.
If you want to see more gaming benchmarks from the Alpha 15, check the card in the top
right where I’ve tested 21 games at all setting levels.
As for the external temperatures where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle it
was in the low to mid 30s, pretty standard. In silent mode with the stress tests going
it gets to around 38 in the center. In balanced mode the fans are louder now, but the GPU
is also being put to work, so it’s a bit warmer at around 42 now. The results were
quite similar in extreme mode, no surprises there given balanced and extreme performed
about the same. With the fans now at max speed it’s only a couple of degrees cooler, so
probably not worth the extra fan noise trade off.
Speaking of, let’s take a listen to those fans.
At idle it was completely silent, no fan noise at all. With this stress tests in silent mode
it was on the quieter side, but again the GPU doesn’t perform well here so it’s
going to be far less useful for graphical based workloads. In balanced mode the fan
speed picks up and is about on average compared to most gaming laptops I test, and it was
basically the same in the extreme performance mode. Enabling coolerboost for max fan rose
it up to 55 decibels, so on the louder side now.
Overall the Alpha 15 was running on the cooler side when under these workloads, most likely
due to a result of the Ryzen CPU which has a lower power limit compared to most Intel
based laptops that I’ve covered. Performance is lower as a result, but in terms of thermals
there were absolutely no issues here. We could improve things a little by raising the fan
speed, but as it was performing and running fine I probably wouldn’t bother considering
the noise level increase. It’s looking like the Ryzen 7 3750H and Radeon RX 5500M combination
in this chassis are running well. It’s likely that if the 5500M was paired with an Intel
CPU then it could be a bit of a different story. The extra heat from the Intel CPU combined
with some shared heatpipes would transfer some of the extra heat over to the graphics,
so it will be interesting to test that out in the future if it becomes available.
It may be possible to further improve temperatures by swapping the thermal paste, however as
this is a review unit that I have to send back I’m not able to change the paste, otherwise
the next reviewer will unknowingly report different results due to what I’ve done.
Changing the settings through Dragon Center, raising fan speed or using a cooling pad are
much easier for most people to do than changing paste anyway, and as we’ve seen these tweaks
did help improve performance and temperatures with the Alpha 15.
Let me know what you thought about the thermals from the MSI Alpha 15 gaming laptop down in
the comments, and if you’re new to the channel you’ll definitely want to get subscribed
for the upcoming full review to see everything this machine has to offer.