Portable Withal Powerful

If I was going to buy a gaming laptop, I'd be in the market for something powerful yet portable. The MSI GS63VR 6RF Stealth Pro provides exactly this: the power of the GTX 1060 for gaming, but a reasonably sparse and light chassis that can be transported daily.

Portability is the principal selling bespeak of the GS63VR. It doesn't quite accomplish ultrabook territory, but this laptop is noticeably thinner and lighter than most other GTX 1060 notebooks on the market. The size of this laptop makes information technology easier to utilize as a daily portable workstation as well as a powerful gaming motorcar.

The sparse pattern comes with surprisingly few trade-offs. The keyboard is a decent size and produces dandy tactile feel. There's withal a ton of ports on this device, including Ethernet, a full-sized HDMI 2.0 port, and Thunderbolt 3, so you don't lose anything from an I/O perspective.

The area I thought would be near affected by such a thin blueprint – the cooling solution – is still pretty good considering the constraints on size. The triple-fan solution isn't specially loud (it'south not tranquillity either), and component temperatures are reasonable for the most part. CPU temperatures but hit to a higher place 90°C when every aspect of the hardware is being maxed out, while the GPU got no hotter than 84°C in my testing.

My three recommendations to MSI blueprint-wise: shift the ability button from the front right border to somewhere more accessible; ditch the mediocre touchpad, and relocate the speakers from the bottom of the laptop to the summit.

From a functioning standpoint, the GS63VR fairs simply every bit well as other Cadre i7-6700HQ and GTX 1060 gaming laptops I've reviewed. The GTX 1060 is well-suited to gaming at 1080p, where you'll exist able to play modern games at ultra quality settings at around lx FPS. Only the virtually demanding titles, similar Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, really punished the GS63VR, and even then you'll sit above thirty FPS.

As was to be expected, the GS63VR is not user upgrade-friendly. The 2.5-inch drive bay is like shooting fish in a barrel to admission, but you'll void your warranty in the procedure, while the RAM and M.two SSD slot crave a full motherboard removal. Luckily MSI offers 16 GB of RAM equally standard and reasonably-priced models pack generous amounts of SSD storage.

I was disappointed to notice that no GS63VR models come up with M-Sync or display refresh rates above 60 Hz, which is a feature you'll find in some competitors.

To go the performance of a GTX 1060 in a sparse chassis, you'll have to pay a premium. The GS63VR Stealth Pro starts at $1,599, which is a good $300 more than basic 15.half dozen-inch laptops with similar hardware inside. I'd also highly recommend spending the actress $fifty to take hold of a 512GB SSD pre-installed, rather than the combination of a 128GB SSD and 1TB HDD of the base of operations model.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro on Amazon
  • MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro on Newegg

The good news is the GS63VR isn't whatever more expensive than competitors that offer the same feature set. Its closest lucifer – the Razer Blade – features a smaller 14-inch display and for an extra $200. I similar the blueprint of the Razer Blade more the GS63VR, but MSI's option is still a fantastic buy in this product category.

Pros: Thin and light chassis without compromised cooling. Very powerful for its size: the GTX 1060 is a fantastic 1080p gaming GPU. Great keyboard and neat pick of I/O.

Cons: Premium priced. Difficult to upgrade RAM and SSD. Minor design issues, including a rubbish trackpad.