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MSI’s new GS65 laptop uses a bold design that packs a six core Intel 8th Gen. CPU and a GeForce 10-series graphics chip inside a laptop that is both thin and light. Whether you buy this 8RE with GTX 1060 graphics or step up to the 8RF with GTX 1070 Max-Q you will certainly be the proud owner of an impressive laptop.
The snag is that the way you use your new GS65 will likely determine whether or not you are happy with your purchase. CPU intensive tasks such as video editing or 3D rendering perform poorly as the CPU throttles significantly and runs at speeds that are far too low. By contrast you will find that balanced tasks such as gaming work very nicely with frames rates that ensure a great experience.
Added to that, the 144Hz screen is very good so if you want a visual treat the GS65 is in a select class with a handful of other laptops that use a display panel with the same specification.
If you take the view that GS65 is a gaming laptop, rather than a workstation, you will likely be very happy. The problem is that some of us feel a £1900 laptop should be able to handle any task for the which the CPU and GPU have sufficient grunt, however the GS65 clearly has thermal problems when the laptop is working hard.
This may stem from MSI’s decision to flip the motherboard, or it may just be a result of them getting the combination of heat pipes and fans slightly wrong. The problem is that we cannot see any benefit from the inversion of the motherboard, while there are clearly problems as the upgrade path is fairly tricky. We doubt many users will insist on replacing DDR4-2400MHz with DDR4-2666MHz, however anyone who buys a GS65 with single channel memory will get a nasty surprise when they investigate memory upgrades with a view to going dual channel.
We also feel the second M.2 slot is pretty much redundant because, again, you have to dismantle the laptop to gain access. If the motherboard arrangement delivered a benefit to the customer then fine, but as things stand we only see problems.
On a minor note it would have been nice to see a SD card slot as it costs next to nothing and requires very little space. In a similar vein we have no idea why MSI saw fit to specify the 8RF with Killer Wi-Fi while this 8RE has Intel 9560NGW as both wireless solutions seem fairly similar.
Overall this is a sleek laptop with plenty to commend it, however it consistently falls short of the performance you get from the Gigabyte Aero 15X. Ordinarily we wouldn’t compare two laptops in the conclusion of a review but the fact is these two models have a huge number of features in common. We do not think Gigabyte did anything especially clever with the Aero 15X, which suggests that MSI might have got something wrong.
We love the 144Hz Full HD screen and the way it zips along thanks to the Intel 8th Gen. CPU and GTX 1060 graphics but those thermals are a problem that can hurt clock speeds.
More info on the MSI GS65 Stealth 8RE on the MSI website HERE.
Buy from Overclockers UK HERE for £1899.95.
Pros:
- 144Hz IPS-level display looks good.
- Very thin screen bezel.
- Impressively thin and light for a gaming laptop.
- Cooling system is reasonably quiet.
- Dual channel DDR4 helps performance.
Cons:
- CPU clock speed is slow under heavy load.
- GPU runs around 10 degrees hotter than we'd like.
- Chassis attracts fingerprints like crazy and is rather flexible.
- Flipped motherboard makes it tricky to upgrade either memory or SSD.
KitGuru says: MSI GS65 looks sleek and sophisticated but suffers from the heat.
