MSI Katana GF66 (i7-12700H / RTX 3060) Gaming Laptop Review

1. MSI Katana GF66 12UE2. Testing Configurations & Methodology3. Performance Results - Technical4. Performance Results - Cinebench & Blender5. Performance Results - Handbrake, 7-Zip, Memory6. Performance Results - 3DMark & PCMark 107. Performance Results - Gaming 1080p8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

We test in the out-of-the-box state with minimal adjustments made to the laptop, other than installing our test software and Windows updates in addition to removing Norton antivirus that is included by default.

That means that this MSI laptop is tested using its ‘Balanced’ fan and power profile. We do not use the ‘Extreme' power profile which, in some respects, pushes the hardware (particularly the CPU) beyond the intended power limits from a design perspective. We will examine the behaviour of the ‘Balanced' power profile primarily in this review.

We include some comparison data from relevant laptops that we have tested recently.

Notably, we have the new AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS and RX 6800S-powered ROG Zephyrus G14. Make sure to check out our recent review for that impressive laptop.

We also deploy the ASUS ROG STRIX G17 that we reviewed. This uses a 45W-calibre Ryzen 9 5900HX and a 115W RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. Despite being a much larger 17-inch unit, it will be interesting to see the CPU and GPU performance comparison.

And for some additional test data, we include a 21W-running Ryzen 7 5800U-based ASUS ZenBook 13 and a 28W-rated Core i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake-based Razer Blade Stealth 13.

MSI Katana GF66 12UE Laptop Test Configuration:

• Processor: Intel Core i7-12700H (6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, up to 4.7GHz Turbo, 35-115W Rated TDP)
• Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz SODIMM
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop 6GB, up to 105W
• Display: 15.6” 1920×1200 240Hz IPS-level
• System Drive: 1TB Micron 2450 PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe SSD
• Battery: 53.5 Whr, 3-cell battery with 240W barrel-style power adapter
• Design: Around 2.25kg weight with around 25mm chassis thickness
• Operating System: Windows 11

Comparison Systems:

• MSI Crosshair 15 R6E B12UGZ-299UK
  • Intel Core i7-12700H (6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, up to 4.7GHz Turbo, 35-115W Rated TDP)
  • 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz SODIMM
  • Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop 8GB, up to 140W
  • 15.6” 2560×1440 165Hz IPS-level
  • 1TB Micron 2450 PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe SSD
  • 90 Whr, 4-cell battery with 240W barrel-style power adapter
  • Around 2.47kg weight with around 27mm chassis thickness
• ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (Core i9-12900H System):
  • Intel Core i9-12900H (6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, up to 5.0GHz Turbo, 35-115W Rated TDP)
  • 16GB LPDDR5 5200MHz
  • Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 4GB GDDR6, Mux switch
  • 13.4” 16:10 WUXGA 1920×1200 120Hz IPS-level
  • 1TB Micron 2450 PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe SSD
  • 56 Whr battery with 100W USB-C Power Adapter
  • Around 1.1-1.2kg weight with around 12mm chassis thickness
• ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RK (Ryzen 9 6900HS System):
  • AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (8C/16T, 3.3GHz Base, up to 4.9GHz Boost 35W Rated TDP Mode)
  • 32GB DDR5 4800MHz
  • AMD Radeon RX 6800S 8GB GDDR6
  • 14” 16:10 QHD+ 2560×1600 120Hz IPS-level
  • 1TB Micron 2450 PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe SSD
  • 76 Whr battery with 240W barrel-style Power Adapter (100W USB-C support)
  • 1.75kg weight with around 18.5mm chassis thickness
• ASUS ROG STRIX G17 G713QR (Ryzen 9 5900HX ‘Cezanne' System):
  • AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX (8C/16T, up to 4.6GHz Boost, 45W Rated TDP)
  • 32GB DDR4 3200MHz SODIMM
  • RTX 3070 Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6 115W
  • 17.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9 300Hz IPS-level
  • 1TB SK Hynix BC711 PCIe Gen 3×4 NVMe SSD
  • 90 Whr battery with 240W barrel-style Power Adapter
  • 2.70kg weight with 23.4-28.3mm chassis thickness
• Gigabyte U4 UD-70UK823SO (Core i7-1195G7 ‘Tiger Lake’ System)
  • Intel Core i7-1195G7 (4C8T, 28W Rated TDP-up Mode)
  • 16GB DDR4 3200MHz (8GB onboard, 8GB SODIMM)
  • Integrated Intel Iris Xe iGPU (96 EUs)
  • 14″ IPS Full HD 1920×1080 60Hz
  • 512GB ESR512GTLG-E6GBTNB4 PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe SSD
  • 36 Whr battery with 65W barrel-style Power Adapter
  • Slightly below 990g weight with 16.5mm chassis thickness
• Razer Blade Stealth 13 OLED (Core i7-1165G7 ‘Tiger Lake’ System)
  • Intel Core i7-1165G7 (4C8T, 28W Rated TDP)
  • 16GB LPDDR4 4266MHz
  • Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q
  • 13.3″ OLED Full HD Touch 60Hz
  • 512GB Samsung NVMe SSD
  • 53.1 Whr battery with 100W USB-C Power Adapter
  • 1.41kg weight with 15.3mm thickness
• ASUS ZenBook Flip S OLED UX371 (Core i7-1165G7 ‘Tiger Lake-U’ System):
  • Intel Core i7-1165G7 (4C/8T, 1.2GHz Base, 12W Rated TDP-down Mode)
  • 16GB LPDDR4X 4266MHz
  • Integrated Intel Iris Xe iGPU (96 EUs up to 1.3GHz)
  • 13.3” 16:9 UHD 3840×2160 60Hz OLED Touch Display
  • 1TB WD SN730 NVMe SSD
  • 67 Whr battery with 65W USB-C Power Adapter
  • 1.2kg weight with 11.9-13.9mm chassis thickness
• ASUS ZenBook 13 UM325S (Ryzen 7 5800U ‘Cezanne' System):
  • AMD Ryzen 7 5800U (8C/16T, 1.9GHz Base, up to 4.4GHz Boost, 15W Rated TDP)
  • 16GB LPDDR4X 3733MHz
  • Integrated Radeon Vega 8 APU (up to 2GHz)
  • 13.3” 16:9 FHD 1920×1080 60Hz OLED Display
  • 1TB SK Hynix (HFM001TD3JX013N) NVMe SSD
  • 67 Whr battery with 65W USB-C Power Adapter
  • 1.12kg weight with 13.9mm chassis thickness

Tests

• Cinebench R23 – All-core & single-core CPU benchmark (CPU Compute), Stress test (Temperatures & Power Consumption)
• Blender 3.0.1 – All-core rendering of the Classroom and BMW scenes (CPU/GPU Compute), Stress test (Temperatures & Power Consumption)
• HandBrake 1.5.1 H264 – Convert 1440p60 H264 video to 1080p60 H264 using the YouTube HQ 1080p60 preset (CPU)
• HandBrake 1.5.1 H265 – Convert 4K30 100Mbps H264 video to 1080p30 40Mbps H265 using the H.265 MKV 1080p30 preset (CPU & Memory)
• 7-Zip 21.07 – Built-in 7-Zip benchmark test (CPU & Memory)
• SiSoft Sandra – Memory bandwidth and Cache & Memory Latency Test (Memory)
• AIDA64 – Memory bandwidth & memory latency (Memory)
• PCMark 10 – Modern Office & Battery Life Test (System Performance & Battery Life)
• 3DMark – Time Spy (1440p) test, CPU Profile test (Gaming)
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla – 1920 x 1080, Ultra High quality preset, DX12
• Borderlands 3 – 1920 x 1080, Badass quality preset, DX11
• F1 2020 – 1920 x 1080, Ultra High quality preset with TAA and 16x AF, DX12
• Far Cry 6 – 1920 x 1080, Ultra quality preset, HD textures OFF, DX12
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider – 1920 x 1080, Highest quality preset, no AA, DX12
• Watch Dogs Legion – 1920 x 1080, Ultra quality preset, DX12 version

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