We managed to get our hands on yet another one of MSIs gaming laptop models which is the Stealth A16 AI+, we’ve heard really good things about this years model and enquired about reviewing one for a while to see how MSIs budget range gaming laptops have been going for performance and specs lately, so today we’ll be running this laptop through our tests and benchmarks to see what sort of performance results we’ll get.

Take a seat, grab some popcorn – lets dive in!

We received the powerful ultra-thin and light gaming Laptop from MSI, their STEALTH 15 A11UEK. What exactly do the latest 11th gen i7-11375H and a 70W RTX3060 performance bring to the table? Check out the video below! Please ‘like’ and subscribe to my channel, and don’t forget to click the ‘bell’ icon to get the latest video updates.

We have a raffle at the end of the video, please take part, thank you!

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 RTX3060 laptop version with up to 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM, and the new technologies that come with the new generation of graphics cards are as follows:

The new Resizable Bar
According to Nvidia, it is a standardised PCIe interface technology that can be found on many of the latest CPU and motherboard platforms. 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 transfer them, 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 RTX3060 laptop version, where the Intel Core i7-11375H is designed for 35W TDP up and the RTX3060 laptop version is 70W 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 learning. 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 RTX30 series laptop version, it brings up to a 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.

So let’s dig into the details.

Product Specification

MSI Stealth 15M A11UEK Tech Specs from Official Website
HERE

Product Unboxing

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

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

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

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

The AC adapter has an output of 20V 7.5A, a total of 150W, and manufactured by Delta

The weight of the AC adapter is 0.475KG plus the power cable

Product Analysis

The main look of STEALTH 15M

The thin-bezel design

The Keyboard with single-zone anti-Ghost RGB keys

The Keyboard backlight

The benefits badge

The 11th 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 – Symmetrical design with a medium-sized opening area

The laptop left side – Power jack, Micro SD card reader, 1 x Type-A 3.2 Gen2, 1 x Audio Combo port, Battery/charge indicator

The laptop right side – 1 x Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 with DP, 1 x Type-C Thunderbolt™ 4, 1 x Type-A 3.2 Gen2, 1 x HDMI(4K 60Hz)

The opening angle of this laptop is 180 degrees

The laptop weight: 1.743KG, around 2.22KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
MSI STEALTH 15M is using a high refresh rate FHD 144Hz IPS-Level panel, manufactured by LG Philips, model: LP156WFG-SPB3(LGD0625)

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.10, Maximum △E≈2.11, RMS 0.29
After calibration, we have a 97.1% of sRGB, 66.9% of Adobe RGB, and 68.8% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 11th gen i7-11375H with Nvidia RTX3060 Laptop version

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 11th gen i7-11375H with Intel Iris Xe

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

CPU-Z CPU snapshots

CPU-Z RAM snapshots

HwINFO Memory detail

GPU-Z Intel Iris Xe Snapshot

GPU-Z Nvidia RTX3060 Laptop Snapshot

HwINFO SSD Detail
1TB Kingston 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 | 5,464

3DMARK – Port Royal | 3,710

3DMARK – Time Spy | 6,066

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 2,869

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 14,492

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 7,590

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 3,994

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing feature test | 16.43 Average FPS

3DMARK – Mesh Shader feature test | OFF: 55.67 FPS, ON: 199.75 FPS

3DMARK – VRS: Tier 1 | OFF: 336.94 FPS, ON: 487.21 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS v1.3 | OFF: 28.02 FPS, ON: 46.70 FPS

AIDA64 CACHE

AIDA64 GPGPU

FURMARK FHD ｜ 72 Average FPSw

CPU-Z Benchmark | Single-Thread: 620.6, Multi-Threads: 2930.4

BLENDER Benchmark

7ZIP 128MB Dictionary Size

VRAY Benchmark

X264 Benchmark

TxBENCH SSD Benchmark

Gaming Benchmarks
Final Fantasy XV | High-Quality @ FHD | 5,648

GTAV | Very High @ FHD | 4xMSAA + TXAA | 96 FPS Average

The Witcher 3 | Ultra @ FHD | 69 FPS Average

CS:GO | Ultra @ FHD | 160 FPS Average

Cyberpunk 2077 FHD Settings

Cyberpunk 2077 FHD + Without Ray Tracing High/Ultra Performance | 32-35 FPS Average

Cyberpunk 2077 FHD + Ray Tracing Ultra Performance | 36 FPS Average

Cyberpunk 2077 FHD + Ray Tracing Ultra + DLSS Performance | 42 FPS Average

Thermal Tests

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

Test room temperature: 21℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 47℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 46℃±2℃

When we disassembled the laptop, we noticed that the thermal paste was a bit insufficient, so we cleaned it up and replaced it with a better one. Then, the standby temperature becomes this:
CPU Idle temperature: 38℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 38℃±2℃

With Auto FAN profile and non-OC settings:
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.50GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 87℃±13℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is running normally @ 4.29GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 79℃±9℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & FURMARKwwwww GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.75GHz
The GPU clock is average @ 740Mhz
The CPU package temperature is around 87℃±13℃
The GPU temperature is around 75.3℃

Overclock test
Test room temperature: 21℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 42℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 42℃±2℃

With Cooler Boost FAN profile and Full OC settings:

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.49GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 89℃±7℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is running normally @ 4.29GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 66℃±5℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & FURMARK GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is running normally @ 3.87GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 74℃±10℃
The GPU temperature is around 62.9℃

3DMARK Time Spy OC | 6,616 +8.3%

3DMARK Time Spy Extreme OC | 3,188 +10%

3DMARK Fire Strike OC | 15,390 +5.8%

3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme OC | 8,194 +7.4%

3DMARK Fire Strike Ultra OC | 4,396 +9.1%

3DMARK Port Royal OC | 4,035 +8.1%

3DMARK DirectX Raytracing OC | 18.43 Average FPS +10.9%

3DMARK Mesh Shader OC | 210.64 +5.2%

3DMARK VRS Tier 1 OC | 513.63 FPS +5.1%

3DMARK DLSS v1 | 51.65 FPS +9.6%

The thermal snapshots under the MAX pressure test(AIDA64 + FURMARK)
Front – Top of the C panel | It’s around 61.8℃ in the middle of the vents and 45℃ on the average of the keyboard

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 65℃ crossing the CPU and GPU between the two exhausting fans

Rear – A panel | Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 65℃ on both sides of the vents

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

AC adapter – It’s around 51.8℃ average on the surface and the hottest spot is 58.5℃

Under Idle mode, the noise level is around 38.2dBA

Under normal fan mode under pressure, the noise level is around 52.9dBA

Under Cooler Boost mode, the noise level is around 61.4dBA

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 thin and light design of the motherboard is covered with a full sheet of insulating stickers to prevent the metal back cover from being deformed by pressure and thus causing a short circuit, a clever design but one that makes upgrading and replacing accessories more difficult. Firstly, the sticker is very sticky and leaves adhesive marks on the motherboard, and secondly, the sticker is very fragile, especially on the WIFI antenna, where the irregular and thin corners are easily broken during removal

The C-Panel inside looking

The 2 x 2W Speakers left and right

The Touchpad inside looking, the controller is using 3338OC-3100 from ELAN

Battery, 4600mAh manufactured by Simplo, 3-cell 52.4Wh

The powerful 6 heat-Pipes Cooler Boost 5 heatsink
The exhausting fans are BS5405HS-U4W(DC 5V 1A) and BS5405HS-U4X(DC 5V 1A) manufactured by A-POWER

The Motherboard front and back main looking

The M.2 SSD & Mini PCIe Slots

The Intel i7-11375H CPU with PCH

The Nvidia GPU chip, GN20-E3-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX 3070 Laptop with 6GB GDDR6, based on GA104 die

The Intel JHL8040R Thunderbolt™ 4 I/O Controller chip

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

The Intersil 95861IRTZ Single Rail 5-phase PWM Controller

The ENE KB9548GF Keyboard controller IC

The ALC233 Audio chip from Realtek

The RTS5260 card reader controller chip from Realtek

The 75DP159 HDMI IC Control Chips by Fortune Cats

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

The EC chip MX25L25673GM2I-08G, 256Mb FLASH NOR chip from Macronix

SSD: 1TB Kingston OM8PCP31024F NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen3 x 4)

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 8GB: M471A1G44AB0 – CWE

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

SUMMARY

Overall, the MSI Stealth 15M is very small and compact, with a thickness of 15.95mm and a weight of only 1.75kg, which is comparable to traditional high-end thin and light laptops, so it is easy to carry around in a backpack. Of course, to reduce the size of the body, the screen must adopt a narrow bezel design. Unfortunately, it is not very sturdy and flexes significantly when pressed, which is why the motherboard is covered with a large area of insulating tape. The top half of the body bends very easily with a little pressure.

In terms of cooling, the large cooling vents at the bottom, as the brand’s high-end thin and light gaming laptop, Cooler Boost 5 cooling technology must be standard, providing 2 fans + 6 heat pipes, cooling performance far more than the average thin and light laptop, bringing powerful performance release for the hardware.

In terms of expandability, the MSI Stealth 15M doesn’t disappoint either, with a micro SD card reader and full-size HDMI video output to meet office needs and a new Type-c Thunderbolt™ 4 interface that not only supports 40Gbps high-speed transfer bandwidth, 8K monitor video output, external discrete graphics docking station, and 100W PD charging but also backwards compatibility with older versions of USB devices.

In terms of gaming performance, MSI Stealth 15M can not only play popular gaming MMOs like League of Legends and CS:GO without any stress, but can also meet medium to high special effects to run smoothly against 3A titles like Tomb Raider, GTAV and Cyberpunk 2077, truly achieving the perfect balance of portability and high performance, an experience that traditional This experience is something that traditional thin and light laptops and ordinary gaming laptops cannot achieve. Pricing is not bad at AU$2,799.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 87.5/100

EPIC REWARD: DESIGN AWARD

MSI STEALTH 15M A11UEK OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

The MSI Stealth 15M A11SEK laptop features an all-aluminium chassis, Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics card in addition to an 11th-generation Intel i7-1185G7 mobile processor, an IPS screen with up to 144Hz refresh rate, two DDR4-3200 memory slots with up to 64GB support, one PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD slot with a maximum capacity of 2TB capacity. According to MSI’s published figures, the Stealth 15M has a thickness of 15.95mm and a weight of 1.78kg. For comparison, the Razer Blade 15 advanced 2020 that we just recently tested is 17.8mm thick and 2.14kg weighs. In this case, what makes the MSI Stealth 15M much thinner and lighter?

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Specification

MSI Stealth 15M A11SEK Tech Specs from Official Website
https://us.msi.com/Laptop/Stealth-15M-A11SX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with a yellow recycled carton but the internal packaging has a black background with a textured hexagonal ring design

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

The AC adapter is 150W Slim design with 473g around weight plus 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 Stealth 15M

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The thin-bezel design

The chiclet designed keyboard has a tight feel with no loose corners

The Keyboard single-colour backlight

The benefits badge

The 11th Gen Intel and Nvidia Logo badges

Large openings are the key to the lightweight design at the expense of strength

The 720p IR HD 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 – Symmetrical design with a medium-sized opening area

The laptop right side – 1 x Type-C(USB4 / DP / Thunderbolt™4), 1 x Type-A(USB3.2 Gen1), 1 x (4K @ 60Hz) HDMI

The laptop left side – Power jack, 1 x micro SD Card Reader(UHS-III), 1 x Type-A(USB3.2 Gen1), 1 x Mic/Headphone combo jack, 1 x battery charging indicator

The opening angle of this laptop is 180 degree

The laptop weight: 1.64KG, around 2.1KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
MSI Stealth 15M is using an FHD 144Hz BOE NV156FHM-NX4(BOE0910) IPS-level panel

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

Frankly, this screen with only 56.3% sRGB coverage is quite basic, but 144Hz refresh rate is better for gaming. We are using the DisplayCAL with Datacolor Spyder 4 Elite to calibrate this panel.

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.17, Maximum △E≈2.52, RMS 0.41
After calibration, we have a 57.3% of sRGB, 39.5% of Adobe RGB and 40.6% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

The MSI CLICK BIOS
Main Menu

Main Menu – System Information

Main Menu – Storage Information

Advanced Menu

Advanced Menu – USB Configuration

Advanced Menu – UEFI BIOS Update

Boot Menu

Security Menu

Security Menu – Trusted Computing

Security Menu – Secure Boot

Save & Exit Menu

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 11th gen i7-1185G7 with Intel iRIS Xe Integrated Graphics

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

CPU-Z snapshots

GPU-Z Snapshots

HwINFO Memory detail

HwINFO SSD Detail

HwINFO Battery Detail

The new MSI Dragon Center
MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Gaming mode allows user to manage games and mobile apps

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – User Scenario, allows user to change the performance profile and OC settings

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – General Setting, allows user to manage the keyboard and webcam settings

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Monitor, allows user to check the laptop status

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Game Highlights, allows user to manage in-game recording videos

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Mystic Light, allows user to control the RGB effects for the laptop

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Microsoft APP, allows user to update the latest APPs from Microsoft

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Noise Cancellation, allows user to change the Noise Cancellation status for both speaker and microphone by AI-Powered MSI AI Engine, this is a new feature

MSI Dragon Center – Home screen – Duet Display, allows user to do easy-managed screen capture settings via second display and connect an iPhone by using MSI mirroring software cooperate with Duet. Unfortunately, we connect the iPhone to the laptop but nothing happens on both sides

MSI Dragon Center – My Device – Allows user to register the MSI Member and products

MSI Dragon Center – Support Screen – System Info, allows user to check the laptop serials and other information

MSI Dragon Center – Support screen – Live Update, allows user to update the latest drivers and BIOS, EC

MSI Dragon Center – Support Screen – Microsoft APP, allows user to update the latest core APPs from Microsoft

MSI Dragon Center – Tool Screen – Battery Master, allows user to choose the battery health option to enhance the battery life

MSI Dragon Center – Tool Screen – Backup, allows user to create recovery USB or ISO backup

Run-time Benchmark Test

Unfortunately, we cannot change the power plan to the ‘Ultimate Power Performance’ in Win10. All tests are based on the ‘performance mode’ in the settings of MSI Dragon Centre.

Cinebench R15 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R15 Extreme Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R20 Single core & Multi core

PCMark10 – Intel Iris Xe graphics | 5,564

3DMARK – Port Royal | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 3,016

3DMARK – Time Spy | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 1,627

3DMARK – Time Spy | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 5,306

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 2,495

3DMARK – Fire Strike | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 4,382

3DMARK – Fire Strike | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 12,569

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 2,020

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 6,469

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 3,275

3DMARK – Night Raid | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 16,041

3DMARK – Sky Diver | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 14,941

3DMARK – VRS: Tier1 | Intel Iris Xe graphics | OFF: 201.74 FPS, ON: 225.03 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | OFF: 23.01 FPS, ON: 39.45 FPS

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing Feature Test | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 10.39 FPS

AIDA64 CACHE

AIDA64 AES

AIDA64 FP32 Ray-Trace

AIDA64 FP64 Ray-Trace

AIDA64 JULIA

AIDA64 MANDEL

AIDA64 PHOTOWORXX

AIDA64 QUEEN

AIDA64 SHA3

AIDA64 SINJULIA

AIDA64 ZLIB

AIDA64 GPGPU | Intel Iris Xe graphics

AIDA64 GPGPU | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

CPU-Z Benchmark

VRAY | Intel Iris Xe graphics

VRAY | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

X264 FHD Benchmark

X265 HD Benchmark

TxBENCH
The MSI stealth 15M is using the Kingston OM8PCP3512F-AI1 512G SSD with PHISON PS5012-E12C-10(PCIe 3.0 x 4)controller
Sequential Read/Write (up to): 2,000/1,600 MB/s

Furmark @ FHD | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 36 FPS Average

Furmark @ FHD | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q | 81 FPS Average

Final Fantasy XV | Lite-Quality @ 720P | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 3926 Standard | Playable

Final Fantasy XV | high-Quality @ FHD | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided | Low @ FHD | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 31.9 FPS Average | Playable

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided | Ultra @ FHD | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

GTAV | Basic @ FHD | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 48 FPS Average | Playable

GTAV | Ultra @ FHD | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

The Witcher 3 | Low @ FHD | Intel Iris Xe graphics | 56 FPS Average | Playable

The Witcher 3 | Ultra @ FHD | Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q

Thermal Tests

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

Test room temperature: 26℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 48℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 46℃±2℃

After we changed the thermal paste for both CPU and GPU
New CPU Idle temperature: 41℃±2℃
New GPU idle temperature: 36℃±2℃

With Auto FAN profile and non-OC settings:
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1185G7 is partial throttling down @ 3.59GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 86℃±5℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1185G7 is running normally @ 4.28GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 72℃±3℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1185G7 is partial throttling down @ 3.76GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 79℃±2℃
The GPU temperature is around 72℃

With Cooler Boost FAN profile and Full OC settings:

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1185G7 is partial throttling down @ 3.59GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 94℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1185G7 is running normally @ 4.28GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 65℃±1℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1185G7 is running normally @ 4.28GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 81℃±1℃
The GPU temperature is around 64℃

Under MAX pressure test(PRIME95 100% + Furmark), the Intel i7-1185G7 is partial throttling down @ 3.28GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 88℃±5℃
The GPU temperature is around 69℃

The thermal snapshots under MAX pressure test(PRIME95 100% + Furmark)
Front – Top of the C panel | It’s around 31℃ on both sides of the vents and 53℃ on the top middle of the keyboard

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 58℃ crossing the CPU and GPU between the two exhausting fans

Rear – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 56℃ on both sides of the vents

Under Cooler Boost mode, the noise level is around 61dBA

Overall, the cooling performance of this Stealth 15M is very impressive, thanks to MSI’s 6-Heatpipe cooling system! They seem to have put in quite a bit of work and effort to make such extreme cooling on an ultra-thin and light laptop, well done, MSI!

Disassembling analysis

The Ultra-thin D panel, the large aperture area reduces overall weight and increases the heat dissipation

The main inside look
The motherboard is fully covered with a black insulating tape to stop components that could be shorted by a bent back cover. However, this layer of tape is extremely sticky and has a complex adhesive surface that can be easily damaged. This increases the difficulty of further upgrades

After we took off the insulating tape, rams and SSD are on the back of this motherboard

The backside of the motherboard and the C Panel inside looking

Dynaudio Tech 2W Speakers left and right

Battery, 4600mAh manufactured by Simplo, 3-cell 52.4Wh

The Touchpad inside looking

The powerful 6 heat-Pipes heatsink
The exhausting fans are 2 x BS5405HS-U4W(DC 5V 1A) and U4X(DC 5V 1A) manufactured by A-power

The Motherboard front and back main looking

The 11th Gen INTEL i7-1185G7 CPU with Intel Iris Xe Graphics

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18E-G1-65-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q with 6GB GDDR6

Samsung GDDR6 VRAM

The Intel JHL8040R Thunderbolt™4 controller chip

The 75DP159 HDMI IC Control Chip from Texas Instruments

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

ENE KB9548GF Keyboard controller IC

Realtek RTS5260 PCIe UHS-III card reader controller chip

Realtek ALC233 Audio controller chip

Winbond 25Q80EWNIG Bios chip

SSD: 512G Kingston OM8PCP3512F-AI1 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

The first thing that can be seen is that gaming laptops have gradually evolved into thin and light office-level laptops, thanks to a new generation of CPU processor, more power-efficient and without the need to install heavy copper tube heatsink. The large openings in the case not only effectively reduce weight, but the rational design of the air ducts also allows for better heat dissipation. Unfortunately, this design inevitably reduces the strength of the case, so we have to settle for the next best thing.

Secondly, the 144Hz display panel used by MSI is not capable of handling graphics and image processing because of its low colour gamut, which is a waste of the 11th gen i7’s performance. At the same time, probably taking into account the price/performance ratio, MSI uses a PCIe Gen3 SSD, although a bit of a waste of PCIe Gen4 SSD slot, but support for Thunderbolt™4 makes external high-speed portable hard drives and external daisy-chain display possible, as a laptop positioned in the gaming, theoretically does not have any impact.

Again, the performance of Xe Graphic brought by Intel is really good, much stronger than the same run on the Summit engineering prototype we tested earlier and should be the result of the driver update optimisation. Gaming performance is still there, and despite the inability to enable advanced effects and high resolution, business laptops with this CPU should be able to do light gaming as well.

Finally, We have to say that MSI has done a really good job of cooling this time. It’s a bit noisy with Cooler Boost on, but who doesn’t have a headset for gaming? In overclock mode, as long as the CPU doesn’t call the AVX instruction set on a large scale, it’s hard to thermally downconvert, and even if it does, it’s only by a very small margin, and the player may not even feel it.

MSI has not announced the price of the laptop, but we have reason to believe that the price of this main thin and light laptop should not be too outrageous, after all, not equipped with per-key RGB and Steelseries certified keyboard and low colour gamut of the high refresh rate screen. Hopefully, MSI will surprise us with the price.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 92/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD

MSI Stealth 15M A11SEK OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Product Specification

GS65 8RF-212AU uses the latest Intel 8^th Gen i7-8750H processor with a 15.6” Full HD IPS screen, 144Hz refresh rate. Graphics card is Nvidia GTX 1070 Max-Q platform. Memory uses DDR4. In addition, MSI provides a 180W Slim power adapter, which is a good decision.

Product Analysis – A/D Panel
The outer packaging is still the classical MSI style – Laptop case and PSU box

PSU box

The gaming grade laptop usually come with a super-big-and-silly-brick power supply, MSI seems to be the first manufacturer to respond, the size of this power brick is significantly reduced, especially the thick-less design, which will benefit users to carry out more convenient.

The power adapter is 180W, super slim design.

The laptop protector bag has the classic MSI dragon shield logo printed on

On the top case, only with a golden MSI dragon shield Logo but nothing. Very impressive and clean. The material of A panel is full aluminium, very comfortable touch feeling.

All edges are chamfered and with golden anode process.

Side hinges and cooling vents are also adorned with gold

The laptop length is around 360mm, width is around 245mm, full height is around 25mm

There is no I/O at the front of the laptop

The back side of the laptop is full of intake heat sink

The left side of the laptop has a Kensington lock port, the heat outlet tunnel, the Killer ethernet port, 2 x USB 3.0 ports and audio ports.

The right side of the laptop has a USB 3.0 port, a USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 output, a mini-dp output, a HDMI output, a charging port and heat outlet tunnel. However, the one important thing that we need to pay attention is the right side I/O design is not really suit for user who using mouse at the right side of the laptop, especially when user is actually using an external monitor and also plug the ac adaptor. The thick and not right-angle designed HDMI cable will be easy to block the mouse movement.

D panel is back of the laptop, nearly half of the area is cooling purposes. There are two anti-slip rubber pads has been implemented at top and bottom. The left and right speakers are DYNAUDIO certified, quality is just average.

Product Analysis – B/C Panel
The super-slim designed bezel is the eyeball catcher, the left and right edges are only 5mm thick, top edge is around 9mm and 30mm of the bottom edge.

The top of B panel also has a build-in HD webcam(30fps@720p) and microphone

The bottom of B panel has printed the MSI logo

The C panel has integrated a full-size SteelSeries RGB backlight keyboard, which has a solid tactile feel.

The power button is located in the middle which has a nice looking golden circle around it.

The heat outlet grid has the same design as the back panel.

The touchpad has the same design as the power button.

The laptop could flip up to 180 degrees horizontal. And the total weight is only 1.88kg (4.1 lbs)

Screen Analysis
We are using Spyder4 Elite professional colorimeter during the evaluation test session. All test results are based on 120nit/6500K colour temperature.

GS65 uses a model ‘B156HAN08.0’ IPS 144Hz and 74% Adobe RGB panel from AUO

After calibration, we can find out the panel is around 74% of Adobe RGB, 69% of NTSC and 96% of sRGB. ΔE≈1.41

Before the calibration

After the calibration

As we mentioned before, GS65 is a gaming grade laptop, so we didn’t test the further panel attributes such as Gray Ramp, Luminance Uniformity for Brightness or White Balance etc.

Flash rate test

We are using the famous UFO test
link: https://www.testufo.com/framerates
the setting is : 3 UFO, black background and 3840 px/s

Performance Testing
Win10 and MSI Dragon Center are pre-installed into the laptop

Turbo Mode is the overclocking function.

The True Color mode is a quick selection for different use perposes

CPU-Z snapshot, Intel latest 8th Gen CPU

GPU-Z shows the graphics card is nVIDIA GTX 1070 MAX-Q, 8GB GDDR5

The pre-installed SSD is Samsung PM981 OEM M.2 NVMe, 512G

Run-time Benchmark Test
3DMark Time Spy : 5205

Time Spy Extreme : 2460

Sky Diver : 35 707

Fire Strike : 14 724

Fire Strike Extreme : 7442

Fire Strike Ultra : 3830

Cinebench R15 Test
OpenGL : 105.6 fps
CPU multi-core : 1133cb
CPU single core : 172cb

Battery Drain Test

We are using 3D benchmark software and a hardcore video to test the battery drain
3D Benchmark: 2 hours 47 minutes.
Hardcore Video: 5 hours 8 minutes.

Thermal and Noise Tests
Test room temperature : 24℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 55℃±4℃
GPU idle temperature : 48℃

AIDA64 Extreme full load stress test CPU&FPU: 91℃
Furmark full load stress test GPU: 80℃

The surface temperature during full load:

The back cover temperature during full load:

Then, we turned on the full fan speed ‘Cooler Boost mode’ via MSI Dragon center,

After max cooling mode has been switched on, CPU temperature has dropped around 10℃ for all cores.

Noise level when system idle: 38.5dB

Noise level when CPU and GPU Full loaded: 46.6dB

Noise level next to exhausting fan: 56.8dB

After switch on the full fan speed ‘Cooler Boost mode’,
From left side to right side, the noise levels are: 71.5dB, 72.4dB, 73.0dB, 74.6dB

Disassembling analysis
We are using the Wowstick electric screwdriver, the back cover is only locked with few of same size screws.

The left fan is from A-power, model: 16Q2-CPU-CW

Battery is 15.2V, 80.25Wh, total of 5280mAh

Some connectors and the ENE KB9028Q Embedded control chip, the upper side is GPU and CPU

Wi-fi Bluetooth card is Intel 9560NGW, AKA: Killer 1550i, it’s a wireless AC standard which using the m.2 PCIe interface, it is a powerful card that integrated Bluetooth 5.0 and the max theoretical networking throughput is up to 1.73Gbps.

Right side is the dual-fan for CPU and GPU, same model as the left one.

After removing all cable, screw, and connectors, the upper side of the motherboard can be taken out.

We can find the m.2 NVMe ssd slot and DDR 4 slots, we can fully put 2 of NVMe SSDs and 2 of DDR 4 SoDIMMs.
After the test, the SSD1 slot can take both M.2 SATA and NVMe SSD, SSD2 slot only support NVMe SSD.
The OEM DDR4 is from Kingston, model: KVR24S17D8/16, which is the low-voltage 1.2V 2400MHz CL17 DDR4
The OEM SSD is from Samsung, model: PM981(970EVO OEM), which is an M.2 NVMe SSD, 3D V-nand flash, 512G, the main controller is PHOENIX (960EVO/PRO is POLARIS), type S4LR020. Speed test is around 3GB/s read, 1.8GB/s write, random r/w IOPs is 270,000/420,000.

Summary
As a new generation of MSI GS series ultra-thin gaming grade laptop, GS65 has various of improvement compared to the previous product. First, the appearance design becomes more introverted and spiritual. The visual impact brought by the super-slim side frame is absolutely beyond our imagination, the 144Hz IPS panel has a huge improvement for the gaming experience, the control of weight and thickness has been extremally reduced. Second, the battery life has increased due to the 80Wh battery, and the full x4 speed, dual-slot of NVMe SSDs and DDR4 memory slots can also be easily upgraded and expanded. Third, the max cooling function cooperated with three turbine fans and heap pipes will effectively control the heat when hardcore gaming or other heavy loading purposes. In addition, the brick-looked power supply has been slimed after the thin treatment. Taken together, GS65 is both a gaming laptop and capable of any occasion outside uses. It’s lightweight and super easy to carry, and a very good and comprehensive laptop.

MSI GS65 8RF-212AU Official Website: https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GS65-Stealth-Thin-8RF