So let’s dig into the details.

Product Specification

MSI GP76 LEOPARD Tech Specs from Official Website
https://au.msi.com/Laptop/GP76-Leopard-10UX

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is the MSI classic black background with their logo

On the top of the box is the slogan of MSI “True Gaming”

Opening the package we can see the laptop, AC adapter, and a plastic bag with the user manual and warranty card, etc

The AC adapter has an output of 20V 11.5A, a total of 230W, and manufactured by Delta

The power header has a special flat design, the same as GE76’s

The weight of the AC adapter is 0.77KG plus the power cable

Product Analysis

The main look of GP76 Leopard

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The thin-bezel design

It has the same keyboard as the GE76 from Steelseries. The touch is easier to trigger than before and the rebound is crisp, making it difficult to press by mistake

The Keyboard per-key backlight

The benefits badge

The 10th Gen Intel and Nvidia RTX Logo badges

The 240Hz display benefits badge

The 720p camera on the top of the B cover is next to the built-in directional noise reduction microphone

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

Since the GP76 uses a similar housing design to the GE76, the IO at the rear of the machine has been retained. The IOs allocation on the back is thicker display and power cable connectors, which is much more convenient for the user and effectively avoids the thick cables that difficult to bend being allocated to the left and right sides and blocking the hands.

The laptop rear side – Symmetrical design with a large-sized opening area
1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 with DP1.4, 1 x 2.5Gb Ethernet port, 1 x HDMI (supports 4K @ 60Hz), Power jack

The laptop left side – Kensington lock port, Battery/charge indicator, 1 x Type-A 3.2 Gen2, 1 x Audio Combo port, 2W side speaker

The laptop right side – 2 x Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, 2W side speaker

The laptop weight: 2.8KG, around 3.57KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
MSI GP76 LEOPARD is using a high refresh rate FHD 240Hz IPS-Level panel, manufactured by Sharp, model no. LQ173M1JW05(SHP14EC)

This is a wide-angle screen with a 100% sRGB colour gamut and a 3ms high-speed G to G response time. Many manufacturers that focus on the top of the gaming laptop choose this panel.

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.09, Maximum △E≈1.45, RMS 0.24
After calibration, we have a 106.7% of sRGB, 73.5% of Adobe RGB, and 75.6% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Software & Hardware Introduction

The Steelseries control panel
Main Menu

Per-key RGB and function setup

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 10th gen i7-10750H with Nvidia RTX3070 Laptop version

HwINFO Network detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX201 with Bluetooth v5.1

LAN Card – Intel I225V 2.5Gb LAN

CPU-Z snapshots

CPU-Z RAM snapshots

HwINFO Memory detail

GPU-Z Snapshots

HwINFO SSD Detail
1TB Samsung PM981a PCIe Gen3 SSD

HwINFO Battery Detail

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the benchmark, we have changed the power plan to the ‘Ultimate Power Performance’ in Win10. All tests are based on the ‘Extreme performance’ mode in the settings of MSI Dragon Centre

Cinebench R15 Single & Multicore

Cinebench R20 Single & Multicore

Cinebench R23 Single & Multicore

PCMark10 | 6,072

3DMARK – Port Royal | 6,500

3DMARK – Time Spy | 10,189

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 4,912

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 21,500

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 12,559

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 6,843

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing feature test | 16.07 Average FPS

3DMARK – Mesh Shader feature test | OFF: 64.05 FPS, ON: 364.48 FPS

3DMARK – VRS: Tier 1 | OFF: 638.28 FPS, ON: 945.69 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS v1.3 | OFF: 30.13 FPS, ON: 43.51 FPS

AIDA64 CACHE

AIDA64 GPGPU

FURMARK FHD ｜ 165 Average FPS

CPU-Z Benchmark

BLENDER Benchmark

7ZIP 128MB Dictionary Size

VRAY Benchmark

X264 Benchmark

TxBENCH SSD Benchmark

Gaming Benchmarks
Final Fantasy XV | High-Quality @ FHD | 10,527

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided | Ultra @ FHD | 103.4 FPS Average

GTAV | Very High @ FHD | 4xMSAA + TXAA | 113 FPS Average

The Witcher 3 | Ultra @ FHD | 128 FPS Average

CS:GO | Ultra @ FHD | 310 FPS Average

Cyberpunk 2077 FHD Settings

Cyberpunk 2077 FHD + DLSS Ultra Performance | 59-77 FPS Average

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64 and FURMARK.

Test room temperature: 23℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 37℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 34℃±2℃

With Auto FAN profile and non-OC settings:
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.85GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 92℃±2℃

Under the AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is running normally @ 4.17GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 80℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 4.17GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 85℃±6℃
The GPU temperature is around 74℃

The cooling efficiency of this 6 heat pipe heatsink is really high, it can steadily keep the CPU and GPU temperature down without turning on Cooler Boost mode, allowing the game to run smoothly.

Overclock test
Test room temperature: 24℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 47℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 43℃±2℃

With Cooler Boost FAN profile and Full OC settings:

3DMARK Time Spy OC | 10,933 +7%

3DMARK Time Spy Extreme OC | 5,357 +8%

3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme OC | 13,375 +6%

3DMARK Fire Strike Ultra OC | 7,340 +7%

3DMARK Fire Strike Ultra OC | 7,340 +7%

3DMARK Port Royal OC | 7,044 +8%

3DMARK Mesh Shader OC | 375.48 +3%

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.99GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 74℃±22℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is running normally @ 4.17GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 73℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is running normally @ 4.17GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 74℃±10℃
The GPU temperature is around 66℃

The thermal snapshots under the MAX pressure test(AIDA64 + Furmark)
Front – Top of the C panel | It’s around 39-42.8℃ on both side of the vents and 36.3℃ on the average of the keyboard

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 37.8℃ crossing the CPU and GPU between the two exhausting fans and around 48-50℃ on both two vents

Rear – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 48-58℃ on both sides of the vents

Sides – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 47-60℃ on both sides of the vents

AC adapter – It’s around 48.3℃ average on the surface and the hottest spot is 55℃

Under Cooler Boost mode, the noise level is around 56.4dBA

Disassembling analysis

The back panel with its large number of cooling holes is easy to take out, just remove all the screws on the back

The D-Panel

The main inside look
The intuitive design makes it extremely easy to upgrade, just disconnect the battery and handle a few screws to easily add a hard drive and replace the memory

The C-Panel inside looking

The 2 x 2W Speakers left and right

The Touchpad inside looking, the controller is using S910ZB from Synaptics

Battery, 4160mAh manufactured by Simplo, 4-cell 61.2Wh

The powerful 6 heat-Pipes Cooler Boost 5 heatsink, the same model used as GE76.
The exhausting fans are PABD1A010SHL(DC 12V 0.6A) and PABD1A010SHR(DC 12V 0.6A) manufactured by Aavid Thermalloy

The Motherboard front and back main looking

The M.2 SSD Slots, both only support NVMe SSDs

The Intel i7-10750H CPU

The GPU chip from Nvidia, GN20-E5-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX 3070 Laptop with 18GB GDDR6, based on GA104 die

The PCH chip

The STM32F072 Mainstream Arm Cortex-M0 USB line MCU from STMicroelectronics

The ENE KB9028G Keyboard controller IC

The ALC298 Audio chip and ALC1306 Amp chips from Realtek

The Intel I225-V LAN controller chip

The 2 x USB Type-A expansion board, like the GE76, the GP76 also comes with an expansion board but cut out the SD card slot and control chip

The ribbon cable for connecting the expansion board and motherboard

SSD: 1TB Samsung PM981a NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen3 x 4)

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 8GB: M471A1K43DB1 – CWE

WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX201NGW, Wifi6 2.4G/5G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.1

SUMMARY

Overall, in terms of appearance, the GP76 uses a similar casing to the GE76, and also inherits many advantages from it: Supercar body with a modern feel, more space for cooling, and reasonable distribution of IO interfaces. All of these are effective in improving the user experience, and the full-size keyboard from Steelseries is also a big advantage of this laptop.

In terms of performance, the GP series had to be left open as it had to make way for the flagship GE series, after all, the positioning is different and the price will be much better. But the GP76 only uses an FHD 240Hz panel, which is obviously a waste of the vast majority of the RTX 3070 performance, and MSI also uses a full version of the 140W model, if you can match the 144Hz refresh rate of 2K panel, the overall experience will be perfect. In terms of heat dissipation, not to be outdone by the use of the same GE76 case and heat dissipation, GP76 for i7-10750H and RTX 3070 heat generation is completely stress-free. It should be noted that when the machine has a large power consumption, the charger’s heat dissipation should also be considered, after all, the 230W power rating is indeed a little less than adequate for this graphics card with 140W power consumption.

In terms of price, this laptop is currently JB-HIFI exclusive, AU$3389 for a 140W RTX3070 is very good value, because the current mainstream laptops equipped with RTX3070 are only Lenovo’s Savior R9000 series and Mechrevo’s Deepsea Titan X10 Pro, the former is not yet available, the latter only for the Chinese and North American markets.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 92/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD

MSI GP76 LEOPARD OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

So let’s dig into the details.

Product Specification

2021 RAZER BLADE PRO 17 Tech Specs from Official Website
CLICK HERE

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with a black recycled carton

All internal packaging has inflatable and shock-proof protection

The AC adapter manufactured by Shenzhen Hornor Electronics is 19.5V 11.8A 230W total with the specially designed header

The weight of the AC adapter is 765g around

The black internal box with a huge fancy golden Razer logo

Opening the box, we can see an eco-tag leading by Razer: #GoGreenwithRazer
In recent years, Razer has made a concerted effort to support the environment saving, and not to be as extravagant as other brands with their packaging. The first step is to reduce the size of the packaging, then is to keep the accessories simple, with no extra unnecessary accessories or cables available, and the last is to use as much recycled paper as possible for internal support to reduce the use of plastic. It has to be said that Razer didn’t do this out of sheer cheapness, but rather than buying accessories that may not be used once, Razer was able to cut costs and give back to its customers, while achieving a win-win situation.

The second layer is the accessories box with the familiar sticker, greeting card, support card, manual and a microfibre cloth

Product Analysis

The main looking of RAZER BLADE 17 PRO
The dimensions of this laptop are 397 x 261 x 20mm

The 10th gen Intel i7 and the THX®️ Spatial Studio sticker

The specification badge

The 4K 120Hz Touch screen badge

The thin-bezel design

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The Per-key RGB Keyboard keycaps are designed with no wobbling from side to side

The backlit of this keyboard is quite bright and level adjustable, fn-key welcome design

The 720p IR HD camera on the top of the B cover is supporting Windows Hello

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

The laptop rear side – The heat sink has a Macbook-like design and is completely invisible from the rear side

The laptop right side – 1 x SD Card Reader(up to UHS-III), 1 x Type-C(Thunderbolt™3,20V PD3.0), 1 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2), 1 x (4K @ 120Hz) HDMI 2.1, 1 x Kensington Lock port

The laptop left side – Power port, 1 x 2.5Gb Lan Port, 2 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2), 1 x Type-C(3.2 Gen2, 20V PD3.0), 1 x Mic/Headphone combo jack

The laptop weight: 2.94KG, around 3.7KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
RAZER BLADE 17 PRO is using a 17 inchs UHD 120Hz touch panel from AUO, model:B173ZAN03.3(AUOA988)

It’s a powerful touch screen with 3840×2160 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 1200:1 contrast ratio, and a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut.

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.07, Maximum △E≈1.53
After calibration, we have a 150.6% of sRGB, 103.8% of Adobe RGB and 106.7% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 10th gen i7-10875H with Nvidia RTX3080 Laptop

GPUZ

HWiNFO64 WIFI & LAN detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6E AX 210 with Bluetooth v5.2
LAN Card – Realtek RTL8125 2.5Gb LAN card

HWiNFO64 Ram detail

HWiNFO64 SSD detail

HWiNFO64 Smart Battery detail

CPU-Z snapshots

Razer wallpaper – Neon Arrows

Razer wallpaper – Razer Cityscape

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the test, we make sure the Ultimate Power Performance has been activated in Win10. All available updates for this windows version are patched already.

Cinebench R15 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R20 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R23 Single core & Multi core

PCMark10 | 5,475

3DMARK – Port Royal | 6,339

3DMARK – Time Spy | 9,796

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 4,544

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 19,797

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 11,966

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 6,587

3DMARK – Mesh Shader(4K) | OFF: 58.56 FPS, ON: 330.13 FPS

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing(4K) | Average 16.99 FPS

3DMARK – VRS Tier2 | OFF: 65.77 FPS, ON: 110.09 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS(4K) | OFF: 13.66 FPS, ON: 36.82 FPS

SPECviewperf 13

FURMARK @ 4K ｜ Average 46 Fps

CPUZ Benchmark

AIDA64 Cache Benchmark

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

7ZIP Benchmark

X264 Benchmark

VRAY Benchmark

BLENDER Benchmark

TxBENCH

Gaming Benchmarks
The Witcher 3 @ 4K Ultra | Average 47 FPS

Final Fantasy XV Benchmark @ 4K HQ | 4754 Fairly High

Deus EX Mankind divided @ 4K Ultra | Average 41.2 FPS

GTAV @ 4K Very High | Average 52 FPS

CSGO @ 4K Very High | Average 230 FPS

Cyberpunk 2077 @ 4K Ultra with DLSS | Average 48-54 FPS

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64 and furmark.

Test room temperature: 24℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 47℃±3℃
GPU idle temperature: 42℃±3℃

None OC Test
Fan setting is kept in ‘auto’ mode
OC settings are kept in ‘Normal’ mode

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10875H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 2.3Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 56℃±4℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 3.11Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 60℃±6℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & FURMARK test
the Intel i7-10875H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 3.06Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 66℃±7℃
The GPU temperature is around 72℃±0℃

We opened the Intel XTU to look at the CPU’s power and temperature policy settings and found that both settings were activated.

OC Test
We manually maximised the fan speed to 4300rpm and change the performance to ‘BOOST’ and ‘HIGH’ mode

Test room temperature: 24℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 48℃±3℃
GPU idle temperature: 45℃±3℃

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is partially throttled to 3.21Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 78℃±15℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 80℃±0℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & FURMARK test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 86℃±5℃
The GPU temperature is around 70.6℃±1℃

We tested and found that this RTX 3080 Laptop was set to 100W TGP, and with Razer’s built-in overclocking software, we got a very good performance boost.

PCMARK10 OC | 6,719 +19%
– Essentials: 8,139 +6%
– Productivity: 9,102 +10%
– Digital Content Creation: 10,147 +30%

According to the detailed data, after overclocking, the display-related performance reaches a significant 30% increase, thanks not only to the heat control of the 30-series RTX cards but also to the cooling efficiency of the large area of cooling heatsink from Razer.

3DMARK Port Royal OC | 6,581 +3%

3DMARK Time Spy OC | 10,561 +7%

3DMARK Time Spy Extreme OC | 4,960 +8%

3DMARK Fire Strike Ultra OC | 6,922 +5%

3DMARK Mesh Shader OC | 335.54 FPS +2%

3DMARK DirectX Raytracing OC | 17.69 FPS +4%

3DMARK VRS Tier 2 OC | 114.49 FPS +4%

3DMARK DLSS OC | 38.43 FPS +4%

The thermal snapshots under FULL pressure test
Front – A panel | It’s around 40℃ in the middle, around 47℃ next to the 2 exhausting vents

Front – C panel | It’s around 39℃ in the middle of the keyboard, around 56℃ next to the 2 exhausting fans

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 44℃ in the middle of the panel, around 50-60℃ at the exhausting vents

AC adapter – It’s around 52℃ in the middle and average of 48℃

Under maximum fan speed mode, the noise level is around 59.3dBA

The cooling performance of this new RAZER BLADE 17 Pro is in ‘good’ condition. Of course, the CPU on this laptop is theoretically capable of unlocking the power and temperature walls. We tried to use Intel XTU to perform a voltage reduction operation on the CPU, but unfortunately, the voltage adjustment remained greyed out regardless of whether the latest or previous version was installed. We ended up trying to increase the power consumption of Turbo Boost. Under stress testing, the CPU derating problem was alleviated but still existed. We also used MSI Afterburner to overclock the graphics card further and found that this 3080 could boost the Core clock and Memory Clock again to a small extent and the cooling could be kept within manageable limits. Unfortunately, we were unable to test the limits of this laptop with an adjustable power supply due to the rated input of the AC adapter and the high heat generation, and the special connector used by Razer. Overall, the Laptop does retain some strength and we judge that Razer’s strategy should be to allow users to use the laptop with ease and not at its limits every day, which would not only add to the stress of using it but also give rise to distrust.

Disassembling analysis

The back cover of the Razer laptop is very easy to remove. After unlocking all the Torx screws, users can remove the back cover with a gentle downward push

The D-panel black plate

The main inside look

The C-panel inside look

The keyboard controller board adopted with NXP LPC11U37F solution, its ARM Cortex-M0 architecture is the same processor as the K70 series from Corsair and the KM870 mechanical keyboard from Gskill

The Left & Right Stereo speakers are THX Certified

The large-sized full copper heatsink

The main exhausting fans are EG75070S1-C470-S91(DC 5V 0.45A) and EG75070S1-C470-S91(DC 5V 0.45A) manufactured by SUNON

Battery, 4583mAh manufactured by Shenzhen BYD, 4 cells 70.5Wh
This battery has arguably been shrunk by around 15% compared to previous models, as a small set of turbofans are embedded in the middle to aid cooling

This set of auxiliary cooling fans consists of two EG50050S1-CF11-S9A(DC 5V 0.57A) manufactured by SUNON

The Main motherboard front and backside

The 10th Gen INTEL i7-10875H

The GPU chip from Nvidia, GN20-E7-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX3080 Laptop with 16GB GDDR6 VRAM from Samsung

The PCIe SSD slot

The PCH Bridge chip

The ITE IT8390VG-256 EC chip

The Intel Thunderbolt™3 JHL7340 controller chip

The USB Type-C bi-directional retimer chip PS8802 from Parade

USB Type-C & USB PD Controller chip TPS65987D from Texas Instruments

The ALC1306 operational amplifier IC chip from Realtek

The RTL8125 2.5Gb LAN chip operational amplifier IC chip from Realtek

The RTS5260 SD 6.0/UHS-III Controller chip from Realtek

The MP2949A Tri-Loop Digital Multi-Phase Controller chip from MPS

SSD: PM981a 1TB m.2 NVMe SSD by Samsung

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 16GB: M471A2K43DB1 – CWE

WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX210NGW, Wifi6E 2.4G/5G/6G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.2

SUMMARY

Overall, the Razer Blade Pro 17 laptop is indeed designed for gaming as Razer says, and is perfectly capable for most tasks. Configuration-wise, given the massive heat generated by i9, using i7 not only effectively keeps the price down, but gaming performance won’t be significantly affected either. With a 1TB NVMe SSD, 32GB 3200Mhz of RAM, RTX3080 Laptop graphics and a 4K 120Hz 106.7% DCI-P3 colour gamut touchscreen, this flagship configuration doesn’t require a large body design, as Razer’s minimalist design still maintains a Mac-like industrial style, understated, luxurious and substantial.

The Razer laptop is designed to be as thin and light as possible, with a full-size HDMI port, a full-size LAN port, an SD card slot and a USB type-c port supporting Thunderbolt™ 3 video output. And the inclusion of a WIFI6E network card allows this Laptop to support the latest 6GHz WIFI connectivity. Unfortunately, the keyboard design is somewhat scaled-down compared to the previous generation BLADE PRO 17, especially the directional keys, which were kept full size up and down in the previous generation, have been changed back to a narrow cramped design in this generation, making it easy for users with slightly thicker fingers to accidentally press down. The battery capacity has also shrunk considerably due to the auxiliary cooling fan module, with less than 2 hours of gaming life at 4K resolution makes users having to connect the charger to get full performance.

It’s also important to mention that both the second NVMe SSD slot and the dual-channel memory slot supporting up to 64GB are very easy to swap out, and with Razer’s own Core X docking station and third-party HQ VR devices, this laptop can be instantly transformed into a heavily immersive gaming station or professional design platform. Not only allowing users to play AAA games with high effects, but it is also a productivity tool that is comparable to professional graphics and audio workstation in terms of usability, expandability and portability.

In terms of price, AU$6,299 is flagship level pricing, Razer BLADE PRO 17 2021 is over $100 cheaper than the Alienware m17 R4 with the same configuration but only a 60Hz non-touchscreen display and 2933MHz RAM. We have to say that this model offers good value for money in the same price range.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 94.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD, EPIC EXTREME POWER

2021 RAZER BLADE PRO 17 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

The new generation of the GF65 Thin series is not much different from the previous ones. This time, the version we got comes with the Intel Core i7-10750H and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop, 6GB GDDR6 VRAM and a 15.6-inch IPS-Level 144 Hz refresh rate gaming screen.

So let’s dig into the details.

Product Specification

MSI GF65 THIN Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GF65-Thin-10UX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is the MSI classic black background with their logo

On the top of the box is the slogan of MSI “True Gaming”

Opening the package we can see the laptop main body directly

Underneath the laptop is a plastic bag with the user manual and warranty card etc.

The AC adapter has an output of 20V 9A, a total of 180W and manufactured by Delta

The weight of the AC adapter is 0.55KG plus the power cable

Product Analysis

The main look of GF65 Thin

The D-panel has large cooling openings, allowing a direct view of the internal cooler structure

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The thin-bezel design

The single-coloured keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard backlight

The 10th Gen Intel and Nvidia RTX Logo badges

The 720p camera on the top of the B cover is next to the built-in directional noise reduction microphone

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

The laptop rear side – Semi-Symmetrical design with a large-sized opening area

The laptop left side – Power jack and an HDMI (supports 4K @ 60Hz)port

The laptop right side – 1 x Headphone/Microphone combo port, 2 x Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, 2 x Type-C 3.2 Gen 1, 1 x 1Gb LAN port and a Kensington lock port

The laptop weight: 1.94KG, around 2.5KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
MSI GF65 Thin is using an FHD 144Hz IPS-Level, 45% NTSC panel, manufactured by AUO, model no. B156HAN08.4(AUOAF90)

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.17, Maximum △E≈1.86, RMS 0.39
After calibration, we have a 58.7% of sRGB, 40.4% of Adobe RGB and 41.6% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 10th gen i7-10750H with Nvidia RTX3060 Laptop version

HwINFO Network detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX201 with Bluetooth v5.1

LAN Card – Realtek RTL8111HS-CG 1Gb LAN

CPU-Z snapshots

16G(2x8G) DDR4 3200 So-DIMM memory

GPU-Z Snapshots
GPU-Z was not up to date at the time of our testing and was still at version 2.36 as of November 2020 and could not read all the information from the RTX 3060 laptop without problems, please refer to the details from HwInfo

HwINFO SSD Detail
2TB Samsung PM981 PCIe Gen3 SSD

HwINFO Battery Detail

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the benchmark, we have changed the power plan to the ‘Ultimate Power Performance’ in Win10. All tests are based on the ‘Extreme performance’ mode in the settings of MSI Dragon Centre

Nvidia driver version has been updated to v461.40

Cinebench R15 Single & Multicore

Cinebench R20 Single & Multicore

Cinebench R23 Single & Multicore

PCMark10 | 4,794

3DMARK – Port Royal | 4,198

3DMARK – Time Spy | 6,974

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 3,261

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 16,118

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 8,266

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 4,387

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing feature test | 17.72 Average FPS

3DMARK – VRS: Tier 1 | OFF: 375.07 FPS, ON: 543.04 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS v1.3 | OFF: 31.42 FPS, ON: 69.83 FPS

3DMARK – Mesh Shader | OFF: 55.43 FPS, ON: 226.41 FPS

FURMARK FHD ｜ 100 Average FPS

CPU-Z Benchmark

BLENDER BMW27 & Classroom

7ZIP 128MB Dictionary Size

TxBENCH SSD Benchmark

Gaming Benchmarks
Final Fantasy XV | High-Quality @ FHD | 7,777

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided | Ultra @ FHD | 72.7 FPS Average

GTAV | Very High @ FHD | 4 x MSAA + TXAA | 89 FPS Average

The Witcher 3 | Ultra @ FHD | 83 FPS Average

CS:GO | Ultra @ FHD | 319 FPS Average

Cyberpunk 2077 FHD Settings

Cyberpunk 2077 FHD + DLSS Ultra Performance | 75 FPS Average

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64 and FURMARK.

With Auto FAN profile and non-OC settings:
Test room temperature: 23℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 50℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 45℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.13GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 66℃±20℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.86GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 88℃±8℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.59GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 86℃±11℃
The GPU temperature is around 74℃

The temperature control of this laptop is ‘Everything under control’, MSI’s Cooler Boost 5 cooling system has a 6 wide heatpipe design with a pair of large-sized fans. The FHD resolution also takes a lot of pressure off this machine and is largely stress-free when running AAA gaming such as Cyberpunk 2077 with reasonable effects + Ray Tracing, the CPU usage is about 77% and the video memory usage is 8.9G. The cooling pressure is completely suppressed, but the Cooler-Boost enabled fan noise is on the loud side.

Overclock test
With Cooler Boost FAN profile and OC settings:
Test room temperature: 23℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 44℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 38℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.17GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 79℃±17℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is running normally @ 3.89GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 80℃±8℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.71GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 83℃±10℃
The GPU temperature is around 66℃

The overclocking options in MSI Dragon Center really add to the gaming performance of this Laptop, and with Nvidia’s 3rd generation Max-Q technology, Dynamic Boost 2.0 dynamically adjusts the power between the CPU and GPU to give the GPU the power it deserves, this resulted in a significant increase in the score we got in 3DMark.

3DMARK Port Royal OC | 4,539 +7.5%

3DMARK Time Spy OC | 7,457 +6.4%

3DMARK Time Spy Extreme OC | 3,471 +6.0%

3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme OC | 8,959 +7.7%

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing OC | 20.03 Average FPS +11.5%

The thermal snapshots under the MAX pressure test(AIDA64 + Furmark)
Front – Top of the C panel | It’s around 54.6℃ on the side of the left vent and 40.1℃ on the middle of the keyboard

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 39℃ crossing the CPU and GPU between the two exhausting fans and around 60-62℃ around the fans

Rear – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 66-76℃ on both sides of the vents

Sides – Left vent temperature | It’s around 70℃ on the left sides of the vents

AC adapter | It’s around 50℃

Under Cooler Boost mode, the noise level is around 59.5dBA

Overall, we have to say that the cooling efficiency of the Cooler Boost is not particularly strong, mainly because the two 5V fans are a bit weak and cannot be compared to the two violent 12V fans of the GE76, and most of the heat is not discharged in time, resulting in the upper part of the keyboard on the C side being extremely hot. According to the benchmark, the main source of heat comes from the CPU, while the graphics card does not generate much heat.

Disassembling analysis

After removing all the screws that lock the D-cover plate, use a pick to slide into the backplate along the gap at the IO part, please note that the backplate needs to be flipped from the HDMI IO side, otherwise the USB IO side of the backplate will be damaged

The D-Panel front and back

The main inside look

The intuitive design makes it extremely easy to upgrade, just disconnect the battery and handle a few screws to easily add a hard drive and replace the ram

The C-Panel inside looking

2 x 2W Speakers

The Touchpad inside looking, the controller is using S910ZB from Synaptics

Battery, 4500mAh manufactured by Getac, 4-cell 51Wh

The powerful 6 heat-Pipes Cooler Boost 5 heatsink
The exhausting fans are PABD08008SH(DC 5V 1A) and PAAD06015SL(DC 5V 0.55A) manufactured by Aavid Thermalloy

The Motherboard front and back main looking

The M.2 NVMe only SSD Slots

The Intel i7-10750H CPU

The GPU chip from Nvidia, GN20-E3-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX 3060 Laptop with 6GB GDDR6, based on GA106M die

The PCH chip

The ENE KB9028Q Keyboard controller IC

The ALC233 Audio chip from Realtek

The 75DP159 HDMI IC Control Chips by Fortune Cats

SSD: 512GB Micron MTFDHBA512QFD NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen3 x 4)

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 8GB: M471A1K43DB1 – CWE

WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX201NGW, Wifi6 2.4G/5G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.1

SUMMARY

Overall, the GF65 Thin is an entry-level gaming laptop with a 10th gen i7, 16GB DDR4 and Nvidia’s latest 30-series graphics card, which can handle basically all competitive FPS and MOBA games without any problem, and most AAA games can be played smoothly under FHD resolution. Although this screen with only 58% sRGB colour gamut limits the productivity of many image and graphics processes, it can be solved by connecting an external professional monitor. In terms of cooling, although this GF65 overheated several times under stress testing, it didn’t actually affect gaming performance as the graphics card wasn’t hot. For the price, the $2,199 price tag is a bit high, and we wonder if it is influenced by cryptocurrency, but laptops with the new generation of graphics cards are generally more expensive. According to the latest news from Nvidia, they’ll be doing some restrictions on drivers and vBios to stifle hashing power to combat malicious snapping, so hopefully, that will end up improving the pricing of the laptop market.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 85.5/100

MSI GF65 THIN OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

The new 30 Series laptop graphics cards abandon the naming convention of the previous generation, dropping the Max-Q or Max-P logos and unifying them as Laptop versions. New features are integrated into the ‘3rd Gen Max-Q Technology’. The test product we got comes with Nvidia’s latest RTX3080 laptop version with up to 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM, 6GB more than the desktop version, and the new technologies that come with the new generation of graphics cards are as follows:

The new Resizable Bar
It is a standardised PCIe interface technology that can be found on many of the latest CPU and motherboard platforms, according to Nvidia. As you navigate the world of a game, GP video memory (VRAM) is constantly transferring the textures, shaders and geometry of the world with many small CPU to GPU transfers. As modern gaming resources become increasingly large, this can lead to a large number of transfers. With the help of Resizable BAR, the system can thus request resources on-demand and holistically transfers, so that the CPU can efficiently access the entire frame cache. Also, if there are multiple requests, the transfers can be performed simultaneously rather than sequentially. This technique can improve the performance of some games by up to 10%.

The new Dynamic Boost 2.0
This is a dynamic power balancing technology driven by AI. Unlike desktops, gaming laptops usually use a power adapter of around 120W-280W for portability, and this includes powering other components such as the display, SSD etc, so there is a total cap on the amount of power allocated to the CPU and GPU. When an application or a game is very GPU-intensive, the power consumption is called from the CPU to prioritise the supply to the GPU so that it can work at maximum performance. The new Dynamic Boost 2.0 adds a way to shift power consumption from the GPU to the CPU and even to the graphics memory, which is available on MSI GE76 with Nvidia’s RTX3080 laptop version, where the Intel Core i9-10980HK is designed for 45W TDP and the RTX3080 laptop version is 150W maximum, which means that with Dynamic Boost 2.0 technology, it is more flexible in its power deployment, and when the user needs a higher graphics resources, this technology will dynamically increase the power consumption of the graphics card to meet the demand.

The new DLSS AI Acceleration & Ray Tracing
Nvidia introduced DLSS, a technology that improves images through artificial intelligence. This algorithm is usually based on some kind of logical computational model, and the finer the results needed the more arithmetic power is naturally required, thus consuming more GPU resources. DLSS, on the other hand, generates images through a dedicated Tensor Core’s deep learning method that does not take up screen processing resources and supports real-time processing of deep learning models. And on laptops equipped with the Nvidia RTX3080 laptop version, it brings up to 2x performance increase at the same power consumption and support for VR. Besides, the new version of DLSS offers dynamic resolution support. If the game’s rendering engine supports the dynamic resolution, DLSS can be used to perform the advanced operations required to display the resolution, with the input buffer changing size from frame to frame while the output size remains the same. Also, the new Ampere architecture brings a new generation of Ray Tracing combined with DLSS technology that allows games and applications to achieve ideal results while optimising resource usage and getting the most out of every watt of power consumed.

With a huge wave of shortages due to lack of productivity, the Nvidia RTX3080 is extremely hard to buy. However, with the new laptop version released, users have another option to choose from. So what can we expect from the MSI GE76 with the new generation of 30 series graphics cards?

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Specification

MSI GE76 RAIDER Tech Specs from Official Website
https://au.msi.com/Laptop/GE76-Raider-10UX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is the MSI classic black background with their logo

On the top of the box is the slogan of MSI “True Gaming”

Opening the package we can see the laptop is wrapped with a thick foam protection

Underneath the laptop is a plastic bag with the user manual and warranty card etc.

The AC adapter has an output of 20V 14A, total of 280W and manufactured by Chicony

The power header has a special flat design

The weight of the AC adapter is 1.06KG plus the power cable

Product Analysis

the main body is warped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

The main look of GE76 Raider

The D-panel has large cooling openings, allowing a direct view of the internal fan structure

The rear end is integrated with a wealth of IOs in a very popular sports car streamline design, which is very stylish and technologically advanced

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The thin-bezel design

Steelseries has redesigned the structure of this keyboard, shortening the switch distance, reducing key effort and strengthening the keycap support structure. The touch is easier to trigger than before and the rebound is crisp, making it difficult to press by mistake

The Keyboard per-key backlight and the stylish RGB edge bar

The benefits badge

The 10th Gen Intel and Nvidia RTX Logo badges

The 2.1 configuration from Dynaudio provides very good acoustics, and the 2W Woofer adds to the richness of the bass

The 1080p FHD camera on the top of the B cover is next to the built-in directional noise reduction microphone

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator. The entire RGB light bar occupies the whole front section

MSI has brought back the Rich IO design in this generation of the GE76, which means that MSI is listening to user feedback and making positive changes to the design. The IOs allocation on the back is thicker display and power cable connectors, which is much more convenient for the user and effectively avoids the thick cables that difficult to bend being allocated to the left and right sides and blocking the hands.

The laptop rear side – Symmetrical design with a large-sized opening area
1 x mDP v1.4, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 with DP1.4, 1 x 2.5Gb Ethernet port, 1 x HDMI (supports 4K @ 60Hz), Power jack

The laptop left side – Kensington lock port, Battery/charge indicator, 1 x Type-A 3.2 Gen2, 1 x Type-C 3.2 Gen2x2, 1 x Audio Combo port, 1W side speaker

The laptop right side – 2 x Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1 x SDXC reader (v5.0), 1W side speaker

The opening angle of this laptop is 120 degree

The laptop weight: 3.0KG, around 4.0KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
MSI GE76 Raider is using a high-end 4K UHD D 60Hz IPS-Level, 100% DCI-P3 (259ppi) Anti-Glare Wide View Angle panel, manufactured by AUO, model no. B173ZAN03.3(AUOA988)

Before the calibration, we have to use the MSI True colour software to adjust the screen colour and measure the brightness

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.13, Maximum △E≈1.88, RMS 0.30
After the calibration, we have a 151.7% of sRGB, 104.5% of Adobe RGB and 107.5% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Software & Hardware Introduction

The Steelseries control panel
Main Menu

Keyboard RGB and function setup

The Steelseries Aurora RGB bar setup

The MSI “LIGHT ‘EM UP” wallpaper

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 10th gen i9-10980HK with Nvidia RTX3080 Laptop version

HwINFO Network detail
MSI uses Intel’s world’s first WiFi 6E enabled M.2 wireless card in GE76 Raider. This M.2 wireless card still uses the popular 2230 type and supports both 802.11ac and 802.11ax protocols.

The biggest upgrade to the AX210 over the AX201 is support for the WiFi 6E standard, which is mandated by the FCC to allow WiFi 6E devices to operate in the 6GHz band, not just the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. This gives users a huge broadband and speed boost, increasing the number of bands available for WiFi by almost five times, with up to 1200MHz bandwidth channels available.

WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6E AX210 with Bluetooth v5.2

LAN Card – Intel Killer E3100X 2.5Gb LAN

CPU-Z snapshots

MSI has gone crazy and equipped this laptop with 64G(2x32G) DDR4 3200 So-DIMM memory

HwINFO Memory detail

GPU-Z Snapshots
GPU-Z was not up to date at the time of our testing and was still at version 2.36 as of November 2020 and could not read all the information from the RTX 3080 laptop

The latest version of HwINFO reads this new 30-series laptop card very smoothly

HwINFO SSD Detail
2TB Samsung PM981 PCIe Gen3 SSD

HwINFO Battery Detail

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the benchmark, we have changed the power plan to the ‘Ultimate Power Performance’ in Win10. All tests are based on the ‘Extreme performance’ mode in the settings of MSI Dragon Centre

Nvidia has released the latest graphics driver ver 461.40

Cinebench R15 Single & Multicore

Cinebench R20 Single & Multicore

Cinebench R23 Single & Multicore

PCMark10 | 6,207

3DMARK – Port Royal | 7,935

3DMARK – Time Spy | 11,933

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 6,060

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 23,145

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 14,846

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 8,382

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing feature test | 19.30 Average FPS

3DMARK – VRS: Tier 2 | OFF: 80.19 FPS, ON: 132.94 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS v2 | OFF: 36.09 FPS, ON: 83.93 FPS

AIDA64 CACHE

AIDA64 GPGPU

FURMARK 4K ｜ 69 Average FPS

CPU-Z Benchmark

BLENDER BMW27 & Classroom

7ZIP 128MB Dictionary Size

X264 Benchmark

TxBENCH SSD Benchmark

Gaming Benchmarks
Final Fantasy XV | High-Quality @ 4K | 5,695

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided | Ultra @ 4K | 46 FPS Average

GTAV | Very High @ 4K | 4 x MSAA + TXAA | 60 FPS Average

GTAV | Very High @ 4K | 8 x MSAA | 41 FPS Average

The Witcher 3 | Ultra @ 4K | 55 FPS Average

CS:GO | Ultra @ 4K | 178 FPS Average

Cyberpunk 2077 4K Settings

Cyberpunk 2077 4K + DLSS Ultra Performance | 47-58 FPS Average

Genshin Impact Very High @ 4K | 61 FPS Average

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64 and FURMARK.

Test room temperature: 26℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 51℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 50℃±2℃

With Auto FAN profile and non-OC settings:
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i9-10850HK is partial throttling down @ 3.72GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 77℃±20℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i9-10850HK is running normally @ 4.27GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 80℃±6℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i9-10850HK is partial throttling down @ 3.91GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 83℃±13℃
The GPU temperature is around 76℃

With Cooler Boost FAN profile and non-OC settings:
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i9-10850HK is partial throttling down @ 3.73GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 81℃±16℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i9-10850HK is running normally @ 4.27GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 76℃±3℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i9-10850HK is partial throttling down @ 4.04GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 88℃±7℃
The GPU temperature is around 75℃

The temperature control of this laptop is extremely good, knowing that the heat generated by the i9 is huge, MSI’s Cooler Boost 5 cooling system this time has a 6 wide heatpipe design with a pair of large-sized fans. Running daily games and slightly more stressful software is no problem at all. When running AAA gaming such as Cyberpunk 2077 with full effects + Ray Tracing, the CPU usage is only about 67% and the video memory usage is 7.7G. The cooling pressure is completely suppressed, but the fan noise is on the loud side.

Overclock test
Test room temperature: 26℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 51℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 41℃±2℃

With Cooler Boost FAN profile and Full OC settings:

This i9-10980HK has a lot of overclocking potential, but in practice, the CPU overheated so badly that we gave up on CPU overclocking and moved on to the GPU. We found that this laptop version of the 3080 actually had overclocking potential, but based on the fact that the power consumption was only 150W and there was no way to modify it, we managed to pull up 50MHz extra on both Core Clock and Memory Clock using MSI Afterburner.

3DMARK Time Spy OC | 12,240 +2.5%

3DMARK Time Spy Extreme OC | 6,200 +2.3%

The maximum GPU Core clock is around 1995Mhz and Memory clock is around 1817.7Mhz during the OC benchmark

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i9-10850HK is partial throttling down @ 3.75GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 88℃±7℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i9-10850HK is running normally @ 4.27GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 68℃±6℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i9-10850HK is running normally @ 4.12GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 87℃±2℃
The GPU temperature is around 74℃

The thermal snapshots under the MAX pressure test(AIDA64 + Furmark)
Front – Top of the C panel | It’s around 41.6℃ on the side of the right vent and 40℃ on the middle of the keyboard

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 35.8℃ crossing the CPU and GPU between the two exhausting fans and around 46-47℃ around the fans

Rear – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 60℃ on both sides of the vents

Sides – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 60℃ on both sides of the vents

Under Cooler Boost mode, the noise level is around 59.5dBA

Overall, both the i9 and 3080 laptop have some overclocking potential, but due to power consumption and cooling limitations, there is not particularly much room for overclocking and the overall improvement is limited. Also, the cooling performance of this laptop is very impressive. MSI’s Laptop cooling system has always been an industry leader, from their GS series to GT top gaming series both use the ‘Cooler Boost’ cooling system. In this GE76 Raider, the Cooler Boost 5 can almost perfectly suppress the i9-10980HK and 3080 laptop chip. The Nvidia’s DYNAMIC BOOST v2 playing a key role in dynamically adjusting power consumption to keep the combined CPU and GPU heat generation well under control, with WHISPERMODE v2 technology, along with MSI Dragon Centre for intelligent control of fans to further heat dissipation management and reduce the potential time wasted by users on managing PC temperatures.

Disassembling analysis

The back panel with its large number of cooling holes is easy to remove, just remove all the screws on the back

The main inside look
The intuitive design makes it extremely easy to upgrade, just disconnect the battery and handle a few screws to easily add a hard drive and replace the memory

The D-Panel front and back

The C-Panel inside look

Dynaudio Tech 2W Speakers left and right

The Touchpad inside look, the controller is using S910ZB from Synaptics

Battery, 6578mAh manufactured by Getac, 4-cell 99.99Wh

The powerful 6 heat-Pipes ‘Cooler Boost 5’ heatsink
The exhausting fans are PABD1A010SHL(DC 12V 0.6A) and PABD1A010SHR(DC 12V 0.6A) manufactured by Aavid Thermalloy

The Motherboard front and back main look

The M.2 SSD Slots, both support NVMe and SATA SSDs

The Intel i9-10850HK CPU

The GPU chip from Nvidia, GN20-E7-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX 3080 Laptop with 16GB GDDR6, based on GA104 die

The PCH chip

The STM32F072 Mainstream Arm Cortex-M0 USB line MCU from STMicroelectronics

The ENE KB9028G Keyboard controller IC

The ALC298 Audio chip and ALC1306 Amp chips from Realtek

The ASMedia ASM3242 USB 3.2 2×2 Controller

The NCP81215P 4+2+1 Phase Controller for CPU power supply by ON Semiconductor

The TUSB46 USB Type-C DisplayPort ALT Mode 10-Gbps Linear Redriver Crosspoint Switch by Texas Instruments

The Intel Killer LAN E3100X controller chip

The additional card reader & 2 x USB Type-A expansion board

The Realtek 525QS Card reader controller chip

The additional card reader & 2 x USB Type-A expansion board

The ribbon cable for connecting expansion board and motherboard

SSD: 2TB Samsung PM981 NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen3 x 4)

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 32GB: M471A4G43AB1 – CWE

WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX210NGW, Wifi6E 2.4G/5G/6G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.2

SUMMARY

The GE76 Raider is currently in the top tier of gaming Laptops that can run smoothly at very high frame rates for even the most demanding games.

Configuration-wise, since the flagship 11th generation i9 CPU is not available yet, MSI has chosen to use 10th generation i9-10980HK with 64GB of DDR4 and a 2TB NVMe SSD, Nvidia’s latest 3080 Laptop graphics card, a Steelseries keyboard and Dynaudio speakers, this is a top-of-the-line configuration that is rarely found on a non-workstation laptop today. One of the biggest highlights of the Laptop is the wide range of ports, with full-sized HDMI, 2.5Gb LAN port, MiniDP, SD card reader and up to 5 USB ports turning the Laptop into an ace productivity tool. The FHD camera also gives a quantum leap forward in chat and video conferencing. Nvidia brings us more than just a simple port this time, with the new Max-Q technology bringing the benefits of AI deep learning to get the most out of every bit of power. The simple yet cool body design also gives ample freedom to upgrade configurations, with only the back cover opening up to replace or add hard drives and memory, making upgrades much easier.

On the downside, fan noise is a real issue, but who doesn’t have a decent gaming headset? Weight may also be an issue, but to be thin and light you have to sacrifice some performance, configuration and cooling, and the GE76 Raider is not positioned to be thin and light, so please don’t complain about its weight. Price-wise, at $7,199 it really isn’t for the average user’s wallet, and since it’s positioned at the top end, there will be people who will buy it. Such a Laptop can satisfy the top gamers’ request for portability, but it can also be used as a high-end productivity tool, whether it’s 3D modelling, music photo video post-production, or deep learning, the i9 with 3080 Laptop plus a huge 64G of RAM can easily handle it all. It’s truly a machine in your hand, and there’s nothing else you could ask for. Besides, there are other more cost-effective versions of GE76 series, such as i7 with RTX 3060 laptop version is only starting from $3499.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 95.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD, EPIC EXTREME POWER

MSI GE76 RAIDER OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

The processors are available in Core i7-1165G7 and Core i5-1135G7 versions, the former with 16GB of RAM and the latter with 8GB, both dual-channel LPDDR4x-4267 with Intel Iris Xe high-performance core graphics and up to 512GB NVMe SSD. According to Razer, the touch screen versions are using CORNING® GORILLA® GLASS 6, 100% sRGB colour gamut on all versions of the screen, Windows Hello function support, and Razer Chroma RGB per-key backlighting keyboard.

The version we got this time is the i7 with FHD 60Hz touch screen version. So let’s dig in.

Product Specification

RAZER BOOK 13 Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www2.razer.com/au-en/store/razer-book-13

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance

The outer packaging is packed with a black recycled cardboard

Inside the outer packaging, is the real package of the laptop, it has the same design with the outer packaging

The AC adapter has an ultra-slim design

The AC adapter is a total of 65W and manufactured by Shenzhen Hornor Electronics includes PD settings are:
5V 3A 15W total
9V 3A 27W total
15V 3A 45W total
20V 3.25A 65W total

The total weight of the AC adapter includes the power cable is only 0.29KG

Opening the box, we can see an eco-tag leading by Razer: #GoGreenwithRazer
In recent years, Razer has made a concerted effort to support the environment, and not to be as extravagant as other brands with their packaging. The first step is to reduce the size of the packaging, keeping the accessories simple, with no extra unnecessary accessories or cables available, and the last is to use as much recycled paper as possible for internal support to reduce the use of plastic. It has to be said that Razer didn’t do this out of sheer cheapness, but rather than buying accessories that may not be used by end users, Razer was able to cut costs and give back to its customers.

The second layer is the accessories box with the familiar sticker, greeting card, support card, manual and a microfibre cloth

Product Analysis

The main look of RAZER BOOK 13

The overall weight of the laptop body is only 1.38KG, plus the AC adapter and power cord together is 1.67KG in total

The 11th gen Intel i7 and THX Spatial audio sticker
The Intel EVO badge represents that this laptop has passed the Intel EVO platform certification

1080P with Touch screen badge

The thin-bezel design

The per-key RGB Keyboard keycaps are designed with no wobbling from side to side

The 720p IR HD camera on the top of the B cover is supporting Windows Hello
This time, Razer uses a 4 mics array with more directional radio and enhanced noise cancellation

The maximum opening angle is about 120 degrees

The laptop front side – Smooth design with power led indicator on the right corner

The laptop rear side – We don’t see any air vents

The laptop right side – 1 x Type-C(Thunderbolt™4,20V PD3.0), 1 x HDMI 1.2, 1 x Micro SD slot

The laptop left side – 1 x Type-C(Thunderbolt™4,20V PD3.0), 1 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2)，1 x Mic/Headphone combo jack

Screen Calibration
RAZER BOOK 13 is using a 13.4″ FHD Sharp LQ134N1JW48 touch panel

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.08, Maximum △E≈1.31
After calibration, we have a 103.4% of sRGB, 71.2% of Adobe RGB and 73.2% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 11th gen i7-1165G7 with Intel Iris Xe graphics

GPUZ – Intel Iris Xe graphics

HWiNFO64 WIFI detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1

HWiNFO64 SSD detail

HWiNFO64 Smart Battery detail

CPU-Z snapshots

RAM Detail – 16 GB LPDDR4X

Razer Desktop Wallpaper

Run-time Benchmark Test

Cinebench R15 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R20 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R23 Single core & Multi core

PCMark10 | 4,649

3DMARK – Time Spy | 1,680

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 5,020

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 2,356

3DMARK – Night Raid | 16,267

TxBENCH

BLENDER

7-ZIP

CPU-Z

X.264 Benchmark

X.265 Benchmark

The Witcher 3 @ FHD Medium | Average 36 FPS

GTA V @ FHD Normal | Average 59 FPS

Deus EX Mankind divided @ FHD Low | Average 31.3 FPS

CS:GO @ FHD High | Average 54 FPS

Genshin Impact @ FHD High | Average 58 FPS

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64, PRIME95 and furmark.

Test room temperature: 25℃±2℃
CPU/GPU Idle temperature: 40℃±2℃

We are adjusting the power mode to ‘Performance’ under Razer Synapse
Fan setting is kept in ‘auto’ mode

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1165G7 is partially throttling down to 3.32GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 99℃±1℃, Overheated

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1165G7 is running normally @ 4.07GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 89℃±11℃

Under AIDA64 CPU，Memory & GPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1165G7 is throttling down to 2.07GHz
The CPU/GPU package temperature is around 74℃±18℃

We adjusted the Fan setting to ‘Manual’ mode and left it in a maximum speed of 5500rpm

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1165G7 is running normally @ 4.09GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 88℃±11℃

Under AIDA64 CPU，Memory & GPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1165G7 is throttling down to 2.27GHz
The CPU/GPU package temperature is around 73℃±6℃

The thermal snapshots under PRIME95 pressure test
Front – A panel | It’s around 33℃ in the top middle of the panel, around 45℃ next to the 2 exhausting vents

Front – C panel | It’s around 45℃-51℃ in the middle and top middle of the keyboard, 37℃ around the touchpad

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 50℃-52℃ in the middle and the bottom of the panel, around 39℃ at the exhausting vents,

AC Adapter | It’s around 51℃ in the middle, around 45℃ average

The Noise level of maximum 5600RPM dual-fan spinning is around 47.7dBA

Overall, the Razer book 13 doesn’t do a very good job of controlling temperatures under heavy pressure. The lightweight design results in a thin CPU heat sink, and the heat spikes after the integrated graphics card starts up, especially when the AVX command set is called, the upper area of the keyboard is exceptionally hot. Also, that pitiful slim charger, which can act as a hand warmer under high loads. However, as a thin and light Laptop officially labelled as an “office machine”, there is no way users can expect this type of machine to meet the high standards of gaming machines. Daily office loads and light entertainment won’t put this Laptop under much pressure, on the contrary, it will be handled with ease and the user will not be frustrated by it.

Power consumption & Battery life

The power consumption of the Razer Book 13 varies from 3W to 8W depending on the brightness of the screen at idle. The Razer Book 13 also has a much longer battery life under WLAN conditions, it can reach almost 15 hours of real-world battery life.

With the original adapter, it takes about 90 minutes to charge from 0% to 100%. A nice detail is that the USB-C ports on both sides of the body support quick charging, users can easily choose their convenient sides.

Disassembling analysis

Opening the back panel is very easy, just unscrew some hexagonal screws. There are no disposable and fragile snaps on edges.

The main inside look

The back plate look

Interestingly, the inner part near the battery is covered with a whole sheet of aluminium to dissipate heat from the front surface of the battery

The full disassembled parts list

The keyboard controller board adopted with NXP LPC11U37F solution, its ARM Cortex-M0 architecture is the same processor as the K70 series from Corsair and the KM870 mechanical keyboard from GSkill

The Left & Right Stereo speakers support Dolby Atmos

The slim-designed full copper heatsink

The exhausting fans are 2 x DFS150305780T(DC 5V 0.5A) and DFS150005780T(DC 5V 0.5A) manufactured by FCN

Battery, 4762mAh manufactured by Shenzhen BYD, 4 cells 55Wh

A special feature is that the back of the battery is covered with a sheet of aluminium for easy heat dissipation, which is a very smart design. Combined with the back cover, it provides adequate heat dissipation to the battery and extends the usage

SSD: 256GB PM981a NVMe SSD by Samsung
It has to be said here that Razer is slightly stingy, 256G will be stretched in any usage environment

The Main motherboard front and backside

The 11th Gen INTEL i7-1165G7 with PCH chip together

The 16GB LPDDR4X NAND chip ‘K4UBE3D’ by Samsung with a particularly fancy angle arrangement

WIFI & Bluetooth on-board card: Intel AX201NGW, Wifi6 2.4G/5G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.1

The Intel Thunderbolt™4 JHL8040R controller chip

The 75DP159 HDMI IC control chip from Texas Instruments

The ALC298 Audio chip and ALC1306 Amp chip from Realtek

The Realtek RTS-5260 SD 6.0/UHS-III Controller & Card reader chip

The Screen and camera/microphone BTB socket

SUMMARY

Overall, although this is the first time Razer has made a non-gaming related laptop because they have a clear idea of what they are doing, bringing top quality hardware while putting more effort into polishing the details. If you compare it to the Blade series, the main difference is not in the discrete graphics, but the ‘level of refinement’.

The Razer Book 13 is a thin and light laptop with a focus on the business workforce, the attempt also revealed Razer’s ambition to enter the professional laptop area, with the Book series being the latest to hit the high-end office market.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 89/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED

RAZER BOOK 13 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE