MSI GS66 Stealth review (i7, RTX 2070) – white-collar performance notebook

19 Comments

  1. LHPSU

    July 6, 2020 at 5:47 pm

    What is your opinion on this vs the non-OLED version of the new Gigabyte Aero?

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 6, 2020 at 5:51 pm

      Tough choice. Thermals matter more than looks to me, so I'd lean towards the Aero. I'd need more details on that 144 hz screen, though, and the Aero is also $100 more expensive than the GS66 (for RTX 2060 model).

  2. william blake

    July 7, 2020 at 4:46 am

    as a guy whose hobby was buying hardware for other people, I always wonder why the gaming segment is almost only about 15 inches? I know two facts:
    1. a larger screen is better for the gaming experience.
    2. gaming laptops mostly lie on the table, at home, often throughout their entire lives.
    so why aren't manufacturers and media talking about this particular advantage for gaming-a bigger screen?

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 7, 2020 at 10:38 am

      but there are also 17-inch options. No GS76 for now, but there was a GS75, and most other OEMs offer 17-inchers as well.

      Imo this class of portable computers is not just about gaming, it's primarily for work and maybe school, and gaming comes second. And when you have to lug this around, I feel that 4.5-5 lbs is the higher limit I can see myself carrying in my backpack

  3. Jim Sks

    July 7, 2020 at 8:02 pm

    I love the subdued look but I think it's terribly overpriced for the flaws it has, at least in the UK. I certainly would expect better build quality for £1500+

  4. j

    July 8, 2020 at 7:17 pm

    can you please cover the ws75 and/or ws66 and creator 17?? the ws75 and creator 17 are going to have 1000 nit screens!!!

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 9, 2020 at 10:49 am

      I think the creator 17 should be in the works

      • j

        July 14, 2020 at 2:24 am

        awesome, thank you! love your reviews :)

  5. Alex

    July 11, 2020 at 11:26 pm

    I'm going to college for engineering this fall and I'm trying to decide between this laptop with the 2070 max Q ($1799 on Best buy) and the Zephyrus m15 with the same graphics ($1579 on Best Buy). Between the price difference, performance, build quality, and other notes (ex. The m15 lacks a webcam and does not have an extra usb-c port like the gs66), which would you say is the better deal?.

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 12, 2020 at 11:17 am

      Performance wise, the M15 is slightly faster in our tests and runs cooler with demanding loads, but it's also noisier on the Turbo profile. I also think it's the better built computer, even if the lid is plastic, and if you go with the Gray version it should hide smudges well.

      The GS66 gets the all-metal exterior, larger battery and what's arguably a more competent keyboard, especially if you care about RGB and per-key control.

      I'd lean towards the M15, better performance, better software profiles and cheaper

  6. Cagri

    July 27, 2020 at 4:47 pm

    Hi,
    How do you detect the power usage values which you stated in the battery life section of the review?

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 29, 2020 at 10:47 pm

      Hwinfo logs and running a specific task for 60 minutes

  7. Morgan Akers

    October 14, 2020 at 10:38 pm

    I want to say thank you for this review. I purchased a GS66 and was getting really poor download speeds even though uploads were fine (70mbps down, 250 up). I had a Razer with the exact same network card right next to the GS66 that was getting consistently good speeds (300 mbps down/up).

    MSI kept telling me it's a driver but after fresh installs i stall had the problem. I believe the GS66 design has a fundamental flaw in their antennas which cause such performance.

    This is a no on this laptop regardless that I liek everything else. A wifi6 card should be getting 300-500mbps; not 70.

  8. bob

    October 22, 2020 at 12:57 am

    "The fans run quietly with daily use and you won’t notice them in a regular school/work environment, but they’re always active and audible in a quiet room, even on the Silent profile"

    I absolutely disagree with this. At idle with the fans spinning at minimum speed (2700 rpm with the latest bios) this is very loud compared to every other i have encountered. 35dB is loud if your environment is a quiet place which might be 25dB. Both at home and at work this is much louder than ambient and very annoying.

    I think for anyone who wants to enjoy silence while doing easy things like browsing, reading, watching a video, this is definitely not the laptop to get. MSI is also lying when they say they have a silent profile, since silent means it is not making any noise.

    It's a shame it has such poor cooling solution, i quite liked it for everything else.

  9. Nes

    March 1, 2021 at 8:26 pm

    Hi to all those proud owners of GS66 and those who are scouting for a decent piece of machinery out there. After owning one for over 6 months (i7-10750H+RTX2070 Max-Q)I can tell you it packs some power (TimeSpy 7115 / R20 Cinebench 2955)but thermals you need to address through Throttlestop (Undervolting) and SilentOption which regulates fan speeds (manual setting). If you take care of these (and Afterburner for GPU) than you'll get COD Advanced Warfare at 60FPS (V-Sync locked), CPU max @ 3.6GHz and thermals at CPU68C avg / GPU63C avg, all at 4K resolution!!! Which is more than fine for me…
    With Silent Option and Throttlestop profiles set you can get this machine to run silent for everyday tasks. When on battery Optimus and iGPU kicks in and temps are around 40C, fans inaudible.
    Now, most of people do not expect to deal with this kind of things, it took me quite a bit of reading to get this where I want, but you can find it. It all depends what you want and in my case I wanted premium, clean design which can be used in office without screaming that it is gaming machine and when home I want to have decent power to play AAA titles. This shortly sums it up from my side, but given design, specs and build quality it is decent piece of machinery.

    And thanks for great review :)

  10. Jude

    September 7, 2021 at 7:24 pm

    Can you tell me how to physically lock the MSI GS66. It says in your review that there is a lock. Is there an ability to use the Kensington lock or some other brand? This would seem kind of important given that these laptops are used by college students.

    Thanks

    • Andrei Girbea

      September 7, 2021 at 7:27 pm

      Sry, there's an error in the specs. The majority of GS66 models do not come with any Lock system.

  11. Renae

    June 19, 2023 at 6:23 am

    I know this is old, but I'm looking at buying the GS66 Stealth 10SFS-030 i9 for my daughter for college. It's a factory reconditioned model and is about $870 (US). Would you recommend this at that price and specs with the tech being several years old at this point?

    • Andrei Girbea

      June 29, 2023 at 8:52 am

      shoudl be alright if the GPU is fast enough for your needs.

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