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 version we got this time is the 1080P with 60Hz touchscreen, and Australia doesn’t have the 4K touchscreen version this time. So let’s dig in.

Product Specification

RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED 2020 Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-systems/razer-blade-stealth

Product Unboxing

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

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

All laptop and accessories packaging have inflatable and shock-proof protection

The AC adapter manufactured by Shenzhen Hornor Electronics includes PD settings are:
5V 3A 15W total
9V 3A 27W total
15V 3A 45W total
20V 5A 100W total

The weight of the AC adapter is 0.57KG

The black laptop 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, 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 looking of RAZER BLADE STEALTH 13 2020

The 11th gen Intel i7 and THX Spatial audio sticker

The specification badge

1080P with Touch screen badge

Thunderbolt 4 label, the right-sided USB type-c is actually the Thunderbolt 4 port

The thin-bezel design

The Single Zone 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

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

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

The laptop right side – 1 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2), 1 x Type-C(Thunderbolt™4,20V PD3.0)

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

The laptop weight: 1.48KG, around 2.05KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
RAZER BLADE STEALTH 13 2020 is using a FHD Samsung ATNA33XC01-0 touch panel

It’s an awesome OLED touch screen with 60Hz refresh rate that supports HDRX, and a 97.7% DCI-P3 colour gamut. Protected with Corning Gorilla Glass

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.07, Maximum △E≈0.59
After calibration, we have a 176.5% of sRGB, 121.6% of Adobe RGB and 125.0% 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 – Nvidia GTX1650Ti Max-Q & Intel Iris Xe graphics

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

HWiNFO64 Ram detail

CPUZ Ram detail – It shows Quad-channel and cannot detect any slot

HWiNFO64 SSD detail

CPU-Z snapshots

Razer Desktop Wallpaper

Razer Synapse
Razer Synapse – Dashboard, the laptop has been recognised by the software

Razer Synapse – Lightning – Controlling Razer Chroma RGB devices

Razer Synapse – Lightning – Razer Chroma Studio

Razer Synapse – Customise – Per-key RGB will allow users to set lightning profiles for different software and gamess

Razer Synapse – Performance – lets users manage the system performance, change the screen refresh rate and change monitor colour profile

Run-time Benchmark Test

Cinebench R15 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R20 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R23 Single core & Multi core

PCMark10 | 5,186

3DMARK – Time Spy | 3,370

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 1,525

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 7,880

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 3,891

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 1,848

TxBENCH

BLENDER – BMW & Classroom

7-ZIP

CPU-Z

FURMARK

The Witcher 3 @ FHD Medium | Average 35 FPS

GTA V @ FHD High | Average 60 FPS

Deus EX Mankind divided @ FHD Medium | Average 59.1 FPS

CS:GO @ FHD High | Average 105 FPS

Genshin Impact @ FHD High | Average 57 FPS

Thermal Tests

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

Test room temperature: 23℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 46℃±3℃
GPU idle temperature: 31℃

Fan setting is kept in ‘auto’ mode
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1165G7 is partially throttoling down to 3.07GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 90℃±3℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1165G7 is running normally @ 4.09GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 76℃±7℃

Under AIDA64 CPU，Cache & FURMARK GPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1165G7 is throttoling down to 2.6GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 80℃±10℃
The GPU temperature is around 76℃±0℃

The thermal snapshots under PRIME95 pressure test
Front – A panel | It’s around 33℃ in the top middle of the panel, around 53℃ next to the 2 exhausting vents

Front – C panel | It’s around 44℃ in the middle and top middle of the keyboard, around 51℃ next to the 2 exhausting fans

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 50℃ in the middle of the panel, around 57℃ at the exhausting vents

The Noise level of maximum 5600RPM dual-fan spinning is around 52.1dBA

Overall, as a 13-inch machine, the Razer Blade Stealth 13’s temperature control is okay, but based on the overall thermal architecture design and small heatsink area, it is not recommended to overclock to improve performance.

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

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 support Dolby Atmos

The full copper heatsink

The exhausting fans are 2 x EG50040S1-C180(DC 5V 0.42A) and EG50040S1-C170(DC 5V 0.42A) manufactured by SUNON

Battery, 4602mAh manufactured by Shenzhen BYD, 4 cells 53Wh

SSD: 512GB PM981a NVMe SSD by Samsung

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

The Main motherboard front and backside

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

The 16GB LPDDR4 RAM by Micron

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18P-G62-A1 which is the Nvidia GTX1650Ti Max-Q with 4GB GDDR6

Vram from Samsung

The Intel Thunderbolt™4 JHL8040R controller chip

The USB Type-C bi-directional retimer chip PS8811 from Parade

The ALC298 Audio chip and ALC1306 Amp chip from Realtek

The uP9512Q controller chip is responsible for controlling the Vram power supply

The NCP45491 from ON Semiconductor is used to monitor the bus voltage

SUMMARY

Overall, this laptop features a lightweight, high performance design that can support light gaming, office and entertainment usage. the Razer Blade Stealth 13 takes care of it all very well. The decent battery life and the portable design of the multi-purpose charger not only allow users to open up to receive emails or work on images or photos whenever they travel, but also to open up a game after work and relax. It’s not the ultimate in performance, but it can be done with calm and ease. The matte black design is more than capable of reflecting a touch of geeky attitude, and with Chroma’s illusionary design, users can fully unleash their personality. However, the $3699 pricing is a bit high and hopefully Razer will reconsider its pricing strategy.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 88.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED

RAZER BLADE STEALTH 13 2020 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

The Razer Blade series has always focused on design, and the new 2020 model brings the same ethos with enhanced portability. The aluminium body is textured and anodized, continuing the series’ skinny design. The iconic, illuminated “Razer” logo remains on the front.

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Specification

RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED 2020 Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-systems/razer-blade

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 230.1W total

The end header still has the special design

The weight of the AC adapter is 705g

The black internal box with a huge 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 environmental sustainability, and not be as extravagant as other brands with their packaging. The first step is to reduce the size of the packaging, 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 look of RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED 2020

The 10th gen Intel i7 sticker

The specification badge

4K Touch screen badge

The thin-bezel design

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

Like other designs from Razer, there are two large speaker fences on both sides

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

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

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

The laptop rear side – Symmetrical design with a narrow exhaust opening

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 @ 60Hz) HDMI 2.0B, 1 x Kensington Lock port

The laptop left side – Power 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: 2.18KG, around 2.9KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED 2020 is using a UHD Samsung SDCA029 OLED touch panel

It’s an awesome OLED touch screen with 3840×2160 resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, 120,000:1 contrast ratio and HDR10 support, and a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut. Protected with Corning Gorilla Glass

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.15, Maximum △E≈0.94
After calibration, we have a 165.0% of sRGB, 113.7% of Adobe RGB and 116.9% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 10th gen i7-10875H with Intel UHD Integrated Graphics

GPUZ – Nvidia RTX2080 Super Max-Q

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

HWiNFO64 Ram detail

HWiNFO64 SSD detail

CPU-Z snapshots

Razer Synapse
Razer Synapse – Dashboard, the laptop has been recognised by the software

Razer Synapse – Lightning – Controlling Razer Chroma RGB devices

Razer Synapse – Customise – Per-key RGB will allow users to set lightning profiles for different software and games

Razer Synapse – Performance – allows user to manage the system performance and overclocking, change the screen refresh rate and change monitor colour profile

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

PCMark10 | 4,735

3DMARK – Port Royal | 4,417

3DMARK – Time Spy | 7,083

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 3,256

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 15,290

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 8,499

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 4,481

3DMARK – VRS T2 | OFF: 44.87 FPS, ON: 78.03 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS | OFF: 20.36 FPS, ON: 49.35 FPS

TxBENCH

The Witcher 3 @ 4K Ultra | Average 34 FPS

Watch Dogs 2 @ 4K Ultra | Average 36 FPS

Deus EX Mankind divided @ 4K Ultra | Average 28.7 FPS

Thermal Tests

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

Test room temperature: 26℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 39℃±3℃
GPU idle temperature: 36℃±3℃

None OC Test
Fan setting is kept in ‘auto’ mode
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 68℃±4℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 70℃±6℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test
The CPU package temperature is around 83℃±7℃
The GPU temperature is around 76℃±0℃

We manually switch the fan to maximum speed
Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test
The CPU package temperature is around 74℃±6℃
The GPU temperature is around 68℃±8℃

The thermal snapshots under PRIME95 pressure test
Front – A panel | It’s around 36℃ in the middle and top middle of the panel, around 40℃ next to the 2 exhausting vents

Front – C panel | It’s around 52℃ in the middle and top middle of the keyboard, around 37℃ next to the 2 exhausting fans, at the top right vent is around 60℃

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 50℃ in the middle of the panel, around 64℃ at the exhausting vents

Rear – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 53℃ at the Left and Right vent
If we move the thermal camera close to the vents, we can see the temperature on the heatsink is around 67℃

OC Test
We manually maximised the fan speed to 5300rpm and change the performance to ‘BOOST’ and ‘HIGH’ mode

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 74℃±14℃

Under AIDA64 Single GPU pressure test, the Nvidia 2080 Super Max-Q is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 71℃±5℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 81℃±2℃
The GPU temperature is around 74℃±1℃

Under FURMARK 4K Pressure test, the Nvidia 2080 Super Max-Q is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 81℃±2℃
The GPU temperature is around 73℃±4℃

Under PRIME95 Pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 70℃±1℃

Under PRIME95 & FURMARK 4K Pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running @ 1.89GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 81℃±2℃
The GPU temperature is around 75℃±4℃

Under maximum fan speed mode, the noise level is around 55dBA

Overall, the cooling performance of this 2020 RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED model is quite good, this should be attributed to the large-sized heatsink, which not only covers the CPU and GPU perfectly but also covers all of the power supply MOSFETs.

Disassembling analysis

The main inside look

All parts tear-down

The C-panel inside looking

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 large-sized full copper heatsink

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

Battery, 5209mAh manufactured by Shenzhen BYD, 4 cells 80Wh

The eDP cable module

SSD: 1TB NVMe SSD by SOLID STATE STORAGE TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION(SSSTC, A subsidiary of LITE-ON Group)

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 8B: M471A1K43DB1 – CWE

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

The Main motherboard front and backside

The 10th Gen INTEL i7-10875H

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18E-G4R-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX2080 Super Max-Q with 8GB GDDR6

The Graphics card power supply MOSFETs

The PCH Bridge chip

The Intel Thunderbolt™3 JHL7340 controller chip

The DP multiplexing chip PS8461E from Parade

The USB Type-C bi-directional retimer chip PS8802/8811 from Parade

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

The HDMI ReDriver chip from Diodes

The ALC298 Audio chip from Realtek

SUMMARY

Overall, the Razer Blade 15 Advanced 2020 is as thin and slim as ever and offers the same great performance as the previous model. With the Thunderbolt 3 expandable interface, users can connect external screens or use a docking station for expansion. The redesigned keyboard layout that allows users for more logical and comfortable gaming experiences, and the signature CNC aluminium unibody, which keeps it relatively compact while providing refined and sturdy build quality and more, overall from a hardware perspective, this laptop is well-rounded that can both play games and engage in creative endeavours.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 92.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED

RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED 2020 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

APPEARANCE
The GF63 8RD has a conciseness looking, the slim-designed bezel has been implemented at the screen side (B-panel left and right).
The laptop dementions: 359 x 254 x 21.7 mm, total weight: 1.86kg, battery: 51Wh

The isolation-designed keyboard doesn’t have the ‘SteelSeries’ logo and no numeric keypad included, looks pretty simple.

The built-in Microphone and webcam are located at the top of bezel.

MSI Logo still at the same place

Top and bottom view, as mentioned by MSI, these laptops cannot be disassembled, so we looked carefully through the vents and find out the heatsink includes 1 fan and may have 4 heat pipes.

The right-hand side of the laptop includes sound plugs, 2 of USB 3.1 type-A and 1 of USB 3.1 type-C, an Ethernet port and kensington lock port.

The left-hand side of the laptop includes the power plug, a USB 3.1 type-A and the battery indicator.

The rear side of the laptop contains an HDMI output, not a balanced design but still looks good.

PERFORMANCE
The Intel 8750H CPU that could TB to 3.0GHz will dominate the previous i7-7700HQ and provides the full performance either for working or gaming.

The cinebench R15 result, it maybe something wrong for multi-core result, but single core result is in the right range.

The graphic card is not been correctly recogonised, as we compared with other known GPU-Z result, this card could be a 1050Ti 4GB GDDR5

Furmark benchresult, the average temperature is around 48°C, average FPS is 47 under 1920×1080 stress test

The DDR4 Memory is from Samsung, Samsung So-DIMM M471A1K43CB1-CTD, 8G single 2666 1.2V 1Rx8

The SSD of this laptop is a Samsung PM871B MZNLN128HAHQ, m.2 SATA drive same as the 860Evo

The HDD is from Seagate, ST1000LM048 Barracuda 5400rpm 1TB

LAN Controller is from Qualcomm, AR8171/8175 Gigabit Ethernet Controller

The WIFI chip is Intel Wireless-AC 9462, dual-band AC includes Bluetooth 5.0

The screen panel is from LG, LP156WF9-SPK1 (LGD0563) which is an IPS, 1920×1080 142ppi 144Hz panel

The MSI Dragon center looking

CONCLUTION
Due to this laptop is an ES version, There are many uncertainties and inaccurate hardware configurations may affact the test result, we did not test including the power adapter detail, heat generation, noise level and the screen color calibration etc. As the reuslt, this laptop is more suitable for combination of light-weight gaming, working and studying.