It is another Stealth down the list, MSI GS63VR STEALTH PRO-078. MSI has been consistently making some of the best budget high-performance laptops. They managed to squeeze a full-fledged NVIDIA 1070 graphics card into its slick chassis (Oh sorry, not a standard one but rather a Max-Q version of this GPU). Let’s see up close its performance then.
Check out the latest price for the MSI GS63VR STEALTH PRO-078 (GS63VR078)
Specs:
- CPU – Intel Core i7 Quad-Core (7th Gen), 2.8 GHz
- GPU – 8 GB DDR5, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
- Memory – 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4, extendable up to 32 GB
- Screen – 15.6-inch Full HD IPS (1,920 x 1,080)
- Storage – 1 TB SATA HDD + 256 GB SSD
- OS – Windows 10 Home edition
Benefits:
- Performance – As a ‘proper’ gaming rig it includes quite some powerful hardware. It comes with a powerful Intel Core i7 processor, 16 gigs of DDR4 RAM which can be upgraded up to 32 GB and a hybrid storage comprised of 1 TB of SATA HDD and 256 GB of M.2 SSD. It is able to handle your everyday tasks like internet browsing or video playback pretty easily. Even in the harshest of the situations (like streaming HD videos while 10s of tabs open in the browser and some processor heavy task like some file conversion job going on at the back simultaneously), it managed to reduce the lag to a minimum.
- Display – When I say that it’s got a razor-sharp display, I ain’t joking. Coming with a good quality display is one of the first and foremost criterions of a high-performance gaming laptop. And GS63VR STEALTH PRO-078 lives up to its name in this section. The visuals literally pop out of the 15.6-inch FHD screen. The display showed an impressive result of 160% coverage of the sRGB colour gamut. It, in fact, outperformed many of the existing Behemoths in the market like the Razer Blade, Alienware 15 R3 or Asus ROG Zephyrus with ease as their sRGB coverage lies around 110%. What it effectively means is that it is able to recreate a wide array of colours quite accurately than the rest. But again with a brightness of 250 nits, the maximum brightness of the screen is not high enough in comparison with the others. But it proves to be a great display nonetheless.
- GPU – The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU with 8 GB of VRAM needs to be appreciated. Now one important thing to notice is that it’s a Max-Q GPU which implies it is much slimmer than its usual self and apparently produces much less heat. But it comes at the price of slightly less processing power as GPUs with Max-Q are usually underclocked. Now for the gaming performance, here’s the rundown: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (40 fps in 1080p ultra, 70 fps in 1080p high), Rise of the Tomb Raider (48 fps in 1080p ultra, >80 fps in 1080p high), The Witcher 3 (~45 fps in 1080p ultra, 70 fps in 1080p high) and Batman: Arkham Knight (~60 fps in 1080p ultra, >90 fps in 1080p high). One thing for sure, the numbers are on an average at least 15-20% shorter than a standard GTX 1070 card (rather than a Max-Q).
Downsides:
- Cooling – Now, the cooling and the ventilation system needs to be top notch to handle the 1070 (even though it’s a Max-Q). And somehow MSI managed to underperform in this crucial section. While doing lightweight stuff like streaming videos even for a short while it got considerably hot with max temperature reaching 35°C (95°F). But the situation really heats up when you start gaming. Playing some of the newer titles for half of an hour or so made the laptop as hot as 48°C (118°F) with the lower vents showing an astonishing temperature of 54°C (130°F). Using a cooling pad while gaming is recommended.
- Webcam – It comes with a 1080p FHD webcam. But for a moderately high priced gaming laptop, I would say the Webcam is not really up to the mark. While it was able to catch the details in the captured image, it really looked pretty grainy. So if you need to use the camera for conferencing or video calling regularly, I would suggest you to use an external one. It really would help that way.
Verdict:
So the whole situation sums up to this: it has got a really gamery look with all the flashes and colours, it includes a great display, a mediocre battery, a not so good cooling system with a bit of heating issue and a high-end GPU. And for the gaming performance, while it was not the chart-topper by any means it gave a steady and firm showing. So if you want a budget 1070 laptop MSI GS63VR STEALTH PRO-078 (GS63VR078) can be a good starting point.
Check out the latest price for the MSI GS63VR STEALTH PRO-078 (GS63VR078)