The overall moulding is similar to the Pro 17  version, with an all-metal body and Macbook-like design

So let’s dig into the details.

Product Specification

2021 RAZER BLADE BASE 15 Tech Specs from Official Website
CLICK HERE

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is 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 859g plus the power cable

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 BASE 15
The dimensions of this laptop are 355 x 235 x 20mm

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

The specification badge

The 2K 165Hz screen badge

The thin-bezel design

The single-zone 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 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 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 1Gb Lan Port, 1 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2), 1 x Type-C(3.2 Gen2, 20V PD3.0), 1 x Mic/Headphone combo jack

The opening angle of the screen is approximately 120°

The laptop weight: 2.11KG, around 2.96KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
RAZER BLADE BASE 15 is using a 15 inchs QHD 165Hz panel from Chi Mei, model:N156KME-GNA(CMN152A)
d

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.06, Maximum △E≈0.54
After calibration, we have a 132.9% of sRGB, 95.9% of Adobe RGB and 98.6% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware Introduction

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

HWiNFO64 WIFI & LAN detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1
LAN Card – Realtek RTL8168 1Gb LAN card

HWiNFO64 Ram detail

HWiNFO64 Smart Battery detail

CPU-Z snapshots

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 | 5,850

3DMARK – Port Royal | 5,485

3DMARK – Time Spy | 8,374

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 3,949

3DMARK – Mesh Shader(4K) | OFF: 57.15 FPS, ON: 312.47 FPS

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing(2K) | Average 23.49 FPS

3DMARK – VRS Tier2(2K) | OFF: 104.98 FPS, ON: 153.25 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS(2K) | OFF: 25.46 FPS, ON: 62.93 FPS

FURMARK @ 2K ｜ Average 78 Fps

CPUZ Benchmark

AIDA64 Cache Benchmark

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

7ZIP Benchmark

X264 Benchmark

VRAY Benchmark

BLENDER Benchmark

TxBENCH

Gaming Benchmarks
The Witcher 3 @ 2K Ultra | Average 68 FPS

Final Fantasy XV Benchmark @ 2K HQ | 6902 High

Deus EX Mankind divided @ 2K Ultra | Average 64.0 FPS

GTAV @ 2K Very High | Average 73 FPS

CSGO @ 2K Very High | Average 185 FPS

Cyberpunk 2077 @ 2K Ultra RT with DLSS | Average 50 FPS

Thermal Tests

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

Test room temperature: 25℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 48℃±3℃
GPU idle temperature: 44℃±3℃

Fan setting is kept in ‘auto’ mode

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 2.68Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 57℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 3.46Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 62℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & FURMARK test
the Intel i7-10750H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 3.39Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 79℃±10℃
The GPU temperature is around 66.8℃±10℃

Since Razer doesn’t have a built-in overclocking setting in Synapse, we didn’t continue with the measurement. When we switch the setting to Creator mode, the CPU’s power limitation wall is unblocked, very similar to the Pro 17’s Performance mode.

The thermal snapshots under FULL pressure test
Front – A panel | It’s around 35.6℃ in the middle, around 50℃ next to the 2 exhausting vents

Front – C panel | It’s around 48℃ in the middle of the keyboard, around 62℃ next to the 2 exhausting fans, the temperature of the elbow part is about 43℃

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 50℃ in the middle of the panel, around 45-62℃ at the exhausting vents

AC adapter – It’s around 57.7℃ in the middle and average of 52℃

Test room noise level: 36.6dBA±1dBA
Under silence mode, the noise level is around 38.9dBA

Under lightly use mode, the noise level is around 47.9dBA

Under maximum fan speed mode, the noise level is around 54.9dBA

The cooling performance of this new RAZER BLADE BASE 15 is in ‘Average’ condition. Because the Base model’s bespoke cooler has only three heat pipes, unlike the Advanced model, which uses the Vapor Chamber cooling system, and has to take into account the cooling of the RTX3070, the power and temperature walls have been set very conservatively, but unfortunately, the C-Panel is still very hot, and the wrist part is noticeably hot, not to mention the middle of the keyboard and the part near the air vents, which is even hotter.

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 bespoke 3 heat pipes copper heatsink, the slim copper sheet makes this heatsink look very weak

The main exhausting fans are DFS5K121142621 EP(DC 5V 0.5A) and DFS501105PR0T EP(DC 5V 0.5A) manufactured by FCN

Battery, 4221mAh manufactured by Shenzhen BYD, 4 cells 65Wh

The Main motherboard front and backside

The 10th Gen INTEL i7-10750H

The GPU chip from Nvidia, GN20-E5-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX3070 Laptop with 8GB GDDR6 VRAM from Samsung

The PCH Bridge chip

The PCIe SSD slot

The ITE IT8390E-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 ALC256 operational amplifier IC chip from Realtek

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

SSD: PM981a 512GB m.2 NVMe SSD by Samsung

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 8GB: M471A1K43DB1 – CWE

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

SUMMARY

Overall, we were impressed with this new 2021 Razer Blade Base 15 model laptop. Externally, the body is made of all aluminium and feels great to the touch, the downside is that it is prone to fingerprints. Performance-wise, the RTX 3070 Laptop GPU is a credit to the new Ampere architecture that doubles the RT Core capability and doubles the Tensor Core as well. This greatly enhances a gamer’s experience when ray tracing is turned on. The 2K 165Hz refresh rate screen and RTX 3070 can be considered a perfect match, not wasting the GPU’s performance at all, while the near 100% Adobe RGB and DCI P3 colour gamut transform this laptop into a productivity tool. A wide range of ports allows for not only external professional monitors and TVs but also professional design development with Razer’s docking station. In terms of price, Razer’s AU$3,399 is too expensive compared to similar products such as the i7-10870H Gigabyte Aero 15XC and MSI GP66 10UG which are priced at around AU$2,799 and AU$2,999 respectively. Of course, Razer’s products have always been a touch more expensive than other brands in the same category, which comes from the brand’s popularity and the recognition of Razer by the general public. Razer has released a number of new peripherals over this period of time, so stay tuned as we’ll be updating them one after another.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 85/100

EPIC REWARD: DESIGN AWARD

 

2021 RAZER BLADE BASE 15 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

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

MSI has still maintained a light-weighted design with a thin-bezel design, and the black matte colour scheme is looks even more upmarket.

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Specification

GS66 Stealth 10SE Tech Specs from Official Website
https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GS66-Stealth-10SX/Specification

Product Unboxing

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

The inside package is the general GS series black box with thick foam protection

The AC adapter is slim design, 20V 9A 180W and manufactured by DELTA and the weight of the AC adapter and power cable is 368g in total

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

Product Analysis

The MSI GS66 top and bottom look

The main look of GS66

The thin-bezel design

The total thickness is around 18 mm and the opening angle of this laptop is 180°

Although the keyboard still does not contain the numeric area, the feel of the material is still very good

The Per-key RGB Keyboard backlight

The FN key activated mode on

The touchpad by Synaptics has a large-sized modern design

The touchpad inside look

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

The Intel 10th Gen & Nvidia RTX logo sticker

The MSI GS66 Stealth benefit badge

The audio system is still using Dynaudio

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

The laptop rear side – Not symmetrical, but square vent design gives this laptop a tough industrial aesthetic

The laptop right side – Ear/Mic port, 1 x USB3.2 Type-C Gen2, 2 x USB 3.2 Type-A Gen2, 1 x 2.5Gb Killer LAN port

The laptop left side – Power jack, 1 x Type-C (USB3.2 Gen2 / Thunderbolt?3) with PD charging, 1 x (4K @ 60Hz) HDMI, 1 x Type-A USB3.2 Gen2

The laptop weight: 2.2KG, 2.56KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Hardware & Software Introduction

AIDA64 CPU details

The screen panel is LQ156M1JW03, 15.6″, 240Hz 3ms FHD IPS-level, 100% sRGB, manufactured by Sharp

The Realtek ALC298 audio details

AIDA64 LAN and WIFI detail
LAN chip – Rivet Network Killer E3100 2.5Gb LAN
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1

CPU-Z CPU snapshots

CPU-Z RAM snapshots

GPU-Z snapshots

MSI Dragon Center – Gaming Mode, allows user to turn on/off gaming acceleration

MSI Dragon Center – User Scenario, allows user to change the performance profile

MSI Dragon Center – General Settings, allows user to change key functions for OS

MSI Dragon Center – System Monitoring, allows user to check the machine details

MSI Dragon Center – True Color, allows user to adjust the view modes and fine-tune the screen colour

MSI Dragon Center – Ambient Link, allows users to customise their environment colour with MSI Mystic Light management system

MSI Dragon Center – Battery Master, allows user to check and switch the battery performance

MSI Dragon Center – Live Update, allows user to check and update the hardware driver

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the test, we make sure the Ultimate Power Performance has been activated in Win10

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is nearly no difference in single-core speed compared with an i7-10700 on a desktop

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

VRAY Benchmark

PCMark10 Benchmark: 4,846

3DMark Time Spy : 5,876

3DMark Time Spy Extreme : 2,738

3DMark Fire Strike : 14,079

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 7,047

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 3,584

3DMark Port Royal : 3,273

3DMark API

FFXV Benchmark @ HQ FHD

HALFDEAD 2

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this workstation using AIDA64.
Test room temperature : 25℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 52℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 39℃

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 30%
The CPU package temperature is around 96℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 43%
The CPU package temperature is around 97℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 23%
The CPU package temperature is around 96℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 72℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 33%
The CPU package temperature is around 96℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 73℃±2℃

These results are definitely not normal. We suspect that because the machine is an engineering sample, which may have a contact problem caused by bumps during transportation. We disassembled the machine and reinstalled the whole heatsink and re-applied the thermal grease with an industrial graded Xinyue 7921, then turned on the Cooler boost function.

After the modification,
Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 14%
The CPU package temperature is around 97℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 23%
The CPU package temperature is around 97℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 7%
The CPU package temperature is around 92℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 66℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 15%
The CPU package temperature is around 92℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 67℃±2℃

Under PRIME95 pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 25%
The CPU package temperature is around 88℃±2℃

The thermal snapshots under PRIME95 pressure test
Front – Top of the C panel

Front – Keyboard (Whole C panel)

Left – Vent temperature

Rear – Left and Right vent temperature

The Intel 10th gen i7 does generate a huge amount of heat, the previous cooling system easily suppress the 8th and 9th generations’ i7. This problem does not only happen on laptop CPUs but also desktop CPUs. This is indeed the biggest pain point of Intel’s new generation of Coffee Lake CPUs. After the test, we thought MSI’s new Cooler Boost Infinity+ was not that efficient for the 10th generation until MSI switches the whole heatsink module to their latest version.

Disassembling analysis

It’s extremely easy to disassemble the backplate

The main inside look

The laptop C panel internal looking

Battery, 6578mAh manufactured by Getac, 4-cell 99.9Wh

Samsung DDR4 2666 2 x 8GB Dual Channel : M471A2K43CB1 – CTD
SSD: Samsung PM981 512GB
WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX201NGW, Wifi6 2.4G/5G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.1

The Cooler Boost Infinity+ Heatsink: 7 Pipes

The exhausting fans are 2 x BS5005HS-U4Q(DC 5V 1A) and U3J(DC 5V 0.5A) manufactured by A-power

The main motherboard front and back look

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18E-G1-B-KB-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX 2060 with 6GB GDDR6

The 10th Gen INTEL i7-10750H CPU

The PCH chipset

The Killer E3100 2.5Gb LAN chip

The Killer Shield – is to optimise LAN connection, jitter control and electrical surge protection

The Sound card chip Realtek ALC298

The Realtek ALC1306 operational amplifier IC chip of sound card

The Dynaudio speaker 2 x 2W

The Sound level is around 94.3dBA with full volume

The power control chip STM32F072

The Intel Thunderbolt?3 chip T803A900

SUMMARY

As a gaming laptop, the MSI GS66 Stealth 10SE laptop has very powerful performance. The Intel Core i7-10750H processor is easy to deal with whether it is for gaming or creative needs. The Nvidia RTX 2060 graphics card has a good balance between performance and thermal control. It meets the performance requirements of various AAA game, but also has the support of Ray-Tracing technology. The 240Hz refresh rate IPS screen has good colour performance, and 3ms response time is also a great addition for e-sports players.

For laptop computers, it is usually difficult to have both size, performance and endurance together. In fact, MSI GS66 Stealth 10SE has made a good balance. Not only is it equipped with a 99.9Wh battery, but at 20mm, it’s not thick either. Under the battery life test, this gaming laptop will stand around 4 hours of in-game playing, while the daily work life is About 6 hours, it is basically consistent with its hardware specifications and battery size.

Of course, the Killer E3100 2.5Gb network card not only has strong performance but also supports Killer’s unique QoS function, which can prioritise gaming network data and reduces lag. The dual 2 watts Dynaudio sound effects also brings users an excellent sound experience

For heat dissipation, it is probably an unavoidable problem for thin and light laptops. The heat generated by the 10th gen i7 and i9 is terrifying, and this is not something that ordinary heat dissipation modules can solve. Just after our first bench feedback, MSI quickly responded and replaced the new version of their thermal module. This new version thermal module is currently built-into the on sales GS66 and WS66 workstations laptops. The heat dissipation performance is very good. For the latest stress test, please refer to our previous review article on WS66.

At present, the MSI GS66 gaming laptop has a variety of different hardware configurations. The processor range is from Core i7-10750H to Core i9-10980HK, the graphics card ranges from GTX 1660 Ti to RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q, and the screen refresh rate ranges from 144Hz to 300Hz. We believe that users with different needs will find their favourite model.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 91.5/100

EPIC PC REWARDS: EPIC RECOMMENDED

MSI GS66 Stealth 10SE OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE