Presenting the All-New Intel 10th Gen MSI "GE66"!

I don't know how to get it to post a picture, but I've attached the results.

It shows an overall score of 18746.

 

that 22k grapgihc score is nice

 

I ran it again without any other benchmarks or stress tests running in the background. Got just slightly higher score with this being the only program running. This is all at stock settings.

 

Thats a pretty impressive score, thats about the same score as my 2080 Max-q (90W) after a +160 core and +800 memory overclock.

Now to overclock your 2070 super and see how high it scores.

 

I expected the graphics score to be a bit closer to my RTX 2080 tbh. I can get somewhere around 25k to 26k at stock, depending on the driver.

The 2070 Super needs more voltage. 115W is too restrictive for such a card.

I do wonder how well it will overclock.

 

That's exactly how I expected it to perform due to the power limits stating the same.

 

I think it’s fast as hell....hopefully the mq variant gets. 90w iOS we can flash at some point, 80w is too little for it

 

Okay i just wanted to piggy back on some of Kildars posts with my quick experiences with Firestrike and Timespy

The only thing I did was reinstall Windows 10 with a clean install and then go through and clean up windows with the suggestions under Tips & Tricks in with Windows forum which i always do. Otherwise, everything else was completely stock

My Firestrike score with "Balanced" profile and auto fans is 19196. Me GPU temp max was 66 which was great. My Processors cores were all over the place with some core temps being maxed around 80 and other cores above 90 (see screenshots). Some processor core temps 10-14 degrees difference under max load temps and Core 4 thermal throttled. Under normal and average temps all the cores were within 2-3 degrees of each other but would like to be consistent like that when processor is under load too. I just figure a good repast would help that and hopefully even out the Processor Core temps under load

 

I ran Firestrike again with Cooler Boost enable this time. Actually surprised by the difference in temps in made. My firestrike score was 19293 and my GPU Temp max was 59. 7 degree drop. The big difference was my intel Core temps. The still did fluctuate at max temps anywhere between 7-10 degrees of each other BUT the MAX temp reached on a single core was 84 degrees. The lowest was 71 (!!). There was NO thermal throttling at all and that pesky Core 4 dropped the most.

 

I figured with a moderate undervolt and repast this should be all i need on this lappy. There are 2 things that are bothering me on this though. My CPU fan is constantly going and makes a little high pitch noise at the lowest fan speed just after it spins up. When I pressed down in the top left corner right where the "Dynaudio" is above the F1 key, it goes away and you just hear the normal low fan "whoosh" that it should be. So i figured a fan screw was loose. So this leads me to my second point that upset me. I have worked on alot of laptops and opened up and repasted alot and added/subtracted ram, hard drives, etc on many. So i know how to open laptops and how to do it carefully.

I unscrewed all the screws and did my normal "kids gloves" approach to opening the back panel. About 8-9 clips broke while trying to open! The are the smallest, most fragile clips I have EVER had to deal with on bottoms lids. I barely pried them and they would break. For example all the clips on the front panel part by the light bar broke except 2 (!!). A few more broke off the sides. They are super tiny and the hinge where the clip bends to snap into the frame is smaller than an 1/8 of an inch . WAY to small and fragile to take on and off on a laptop like this. see this tiny little black spot above my finger? That is the top of the clip and it is super narrow too.


Like i said, I have a MSI GT63 Titan and have opened that puppy up multiple times and have never broken a clip once as well as numerous MSI laptops in the past. First time on this broke at least 10 and i barely appliued any pressure. I will say the front of the laptop was the hardest to "unsnap" because of how the corners apply to the bottom case where the light bar sits. I was able to get out like 4-5 clips that broke but the rest are floating inside the system somewhere that I cannot find and I am not happy about that. Anywho, i tightened down the fan screws and checked everything else and started it back up. Didnt change this small high pitch fan rattle at low temps with the CPU fan. The GPU fan does not do this at all.

Otherwise this is a great laptop. I am picky though and might return it to Best Buy and order another because of this fan pitch rattle noise only on the CPU fan that drives me nuts when just surfing and i can hear it clearly and this stinking fragile clips on the bottom panel. Which kinds stinks because everything else is great about this! but i plan on adding another hard drive and repasting later and i am afraid more clips will break when i do that! here is a shot in Dragon Center with just this browser open. You can see the CPU fan is constantly spinning around 2300rpm just browsing with a temp around 49 degrees and the GPU fan is off with an idle temp around 50-53


Kildar, what does your CPU Fan (Top left looking at the laptop) sound like? Do you notice any small slightly higher pitch rattle from yours? its hard to describe but definitely noticable...the best way to describe is it doesn't sound "smooth" like the fan should. If you press down on where is says Dynaudio just above the F1 keys does the sound "smooth out" to just the air moving?

 

Also, two other things I wanted to verify. This laptop CAN still be unlocked under the BIOS with the MSI key combo and there IS a Software GPU switch under Dragon Center (Home Icon...then pick General Settings) kinda like the old hardware MUX switches where you can choose between hybrid graphics or jsut solely use the Nvidia 2070 all the time.

 

Just as a comparison to mine, I don't have any of the fan noises on mine that you are speaking of. I did take the bottom off mine to add a second SSD. It was a little more challenging to get it apart than what my GT72 is. Fortunately for me, I didn't break any of the clips.

 

That would piss me right off about the tabs. hmm....I did notice in a few of the videos how flimsy the whole bottom assembly is. Is any part of this laptop made with metal or is it all palstic? Without the clips that broke off, how does the bottom fit back in?

 

I would just snap in the remaining ones and the screws themselves would hold the bottom open. I ended up returning the one i had before and Best Buy shipped me a new one in 2 days. NO fan "rattle" in this one, no back light bleed, etc. So already happy about that. I am going to add another 1tb m.2drive so here we are going to go with the clips again. Hopefully have much more luck this time around...

 

How loud do the fans get when gaming in DB?
Great to finally see people get this model.

 

Just got my laptop in today. Does anyone else notice that the trackpad seems a little "loose"? Basically when I tap on the trackpad, there's a half click happening where the trackpad seems to physically be moving very slightly. It works fine, just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same.

 

I get that at the bottom of the mouse pad because that is basically where the normal left and right "buttons" where on older touchpads. but the rest of the pad is rock solid. So i think if you mean the bottom its to simulate having actual separate left and right buttons

 

Also does anyone know the panel number of the 300hz version for this lappy? if its brighter and more vivid color i might upgrade in the future when more actual reviews of the unit with the 300 hz panel in it

 

Unfortunately I have no way to measure that. It's certainly noticeable, but it isn't excessively loud.

 

Do any of you guys notice any screen tearing or any other issues when playing games? I have really been eyeing this one but also the new Lenovo mostly because of the screen and Lenovo has pretty well built machines. I mostly play mmorpg rpg and like borderlands etc. All my pc and previous laptops have had gsync so i have been worried i would notice if I didn’t have it.

 

In the games I've played on there so far, LoTRO, SWTOR, Mechwarrior 5, I haven't seen any of that. It runs everything very smoothly, with all the settings maxed. Depending on the game and game location, it generally exceeds 200 fps most of the time. sometimes higher, sometimes lower depending on crowd sizes.

 

Kildar do me a favor if you can...can you run HWinfo in the background when you are playing a game and then after awhile, see what the max temps look like and if you thermal throttle at any core? I was on SWTOR yesterday myself for about an hour. Temps were pretty good stock but I had one core, i think it was 2, go around 92-94 and HWInfo reported it thermal throttled on that core after i checked HWinfo when done playing. Like my last MSI GE66 i bought and returned because of that annoying defective fan, when using the GE66 for just surfing the internet or doing other light task all the cores are within 4 degress of each other.

But when I game, and the temps go up, my cores have temp differences around 10 degrees or so of each other. Like i said before, probably something a good repaste would take care of but wanted to see if you experience the same thing when the unit is getting pushed by games and the temps go up. Thanks!

Otherwise loving this small powerhouse...

One other thing, can anyone suggest a good custom fan curve for this series of laptops or similiar? Or just leave it at "Auto"?

 

I played SWTOR for about an hour. According to HWINFO, the CPU max temps ranged from 84-93c. Core 2 was the hottest. It it 93c, it was the highest. Core 5 hit a max of 84c, with one core maxed at 86, two crores maxed at 89c, and one maxed at 90c.

It does show that core 2 did thermal throttle. It also says core 3 thermal throttled, but it's max temp only reached 89c.

Mine is the same as yours. Under light loads, the CPU temps are always pretty close.

The fans were set to auto during this, I haven't tried any different fan settings, so I don't know if it would make a difference.

 

Thanks for checking this out for me...sounds like the computers are nearly identical. I am going to do some undervolting here soon too and that should bring that Core 2 bugger down a little bit I hope...

 

My core 2 is generally 10-20c higher than any other core. The GPU temps are fine, generally below 65c. I've tried different power and fan profiles, and nothing really seems to keep core 2 below 90c.

I've been trying to avoid it, because I don't want to take the bottom off again, but I guess I'm going to try re-pasting when I get back home. I don't know why that one core is so much higher than the rest. I'm tempted to email MSI tech support, but I don't really want to ship them the machine, assuming that's what they'd want to do.

Please post how your undervolting goes, and what settings you used. I may wait and try that first if you have some success with it.

 

Been said many times by me. convex core + imbalanced weak fitting heatsink.
You can see the core 0/2 problem even on old posts in the GT73VR thread. Which I'm assuming here is going to be core 0/2/4/6 (or 0/2/4), with 0/2/4 on the top and 1/3/5 on the bottom.

It's hard to fix this on a laptop. Sometimes very light sanding of the heatsink helps, but then you have to also reduce the thickness of the thermal pads on the top side (where the VRM's and chokes are) also. I managed to fix mine but it took a second heatsink and a lot of work and testing.

If you really want to see what's truly going on, buy some Innovation Cooling Contact paper, apply it (clean heatsink, NO paste), mount fully then instantly demount and check the pressure pattern. Or you can request a free sample from "Sensorprod", of fujifilm Ultra Low Prescale (sensorprod is fujifilm's USA distributor).

https://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Cooling-Contact-Analysis-Heatsink/dp/B07CKHRKHQ/

 

try phobia, cm maker nano or icd....a thicker paste with decent performance helpsa bit i know i had the same problem on gs65 and ICD made it alot lot better

 

How is the fan noise on quiet mode ? I’m sending my Eluktronics max 17 with 2080 super maxq back for this system

 

I wonder if buying this from like hid and getting liquid metal done would help for temps and allow for an overclock on the gpu


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Overclocking the gpu doesn't increase its heat output on laptops since there are power limits in place. Its more like undervolting the gpu. Getting the GE66 with Liquid metal on the cpu will let you run it at higher clockspeeds before it thermal throttles. On the gpu side high quality paste will do.

And getting a 2080 super Max-q GE66? Yes it'll be cooler and quieter but also slower as the GE66 has a standard 2080 super Max-q while the max 17 has a higher power eluktroboosted 2080 super Max-q.

 

What about over the 2070 super ?


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2080 super Max-q (80w) < 2070 super (115w) <= 2080 super Max-q (90w) << 2080 super Max-q eluktroboost (115w)

 

Got it!! Will the intel 10750 and 10875 make a difference ?


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The ge 75 raider is a 17” but has the 2080 super at 150 watts basically the older brother of this rig


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In benchmarking and cpu heavy tasks like video rendering, yes, significantly.

In gaming or day to day use, no.

This is the way to go if youre after more performance and lower noise than the MAX-17

 

So max 17 has less noise


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No, the GE66 and GE75 are quieter than the MAX-17 simply by having bigger fans that dont have to spin as fast to push the same amount of air and are lower pitched. The GE66 is quieter but slower, the GE75 is quieter and faster.

 

Got it ! I’m after lower noise and gaming performance . Thanks a tons for the help !


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Happy to help

 

I think you saved me 600 bucks retuning the max 17


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I'm strongly dissuading anyone running a 10 series or 16/20 series laptop from upgrading now and instead wait for RDNA 2 or 30 series laptops to release.

 

I would wait if I could I sold my alienware already so now I’m out a computer


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These laptops will not release for almost a year though if they follow there normal release schedule not to mention any delays from covid type stuff


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Oh they will release it around q1 next year. Availability of the laptops is you need to worry about.

 

Do we really expect a more than 25% gain I mean statistically there’s not that big of a jump in between generations. I know this is a new architecture but the gpu card that’s leaked is huge and 350 watts when they scale down for laptops it may not be that huge of gain.

 

Thing is, ampere is a node shrink AND an architecture change so we should expect substantial perf/watt gains this round.

Kepler to Maxwell was an major architecture change. Maxwell to pascal was a full node shrink and went from planar to finfet which is why its was substantially more efficient.

Ampere had a minor architectural change and the half node shrink from 16nm to 12nm only served to make space for RT and tensor cores instead of increasing shader count. That's why perf/watt stayed the same.

 

i agree, im thinking the 3060 will be bout 2070 90w performance, 3070 will be 2080 performance and on and on...30% is doable if the conditions are right...but i see more 25% across the board as what they should eb aiing for....even with the lower wattage parts

 

I guess I’m trying to wait to see what this gpu can really do before I decide either way because whatever gains we see across the desktop segment we should be able to see where the laptop cards will be based on the differences there have normally been between previous generations

 

I'm expecting a 40% perf/watt improvement in traditional rasterisation performance and a 2x jump in RT performance so switching on RT will only result in a small performance hit.

It's possible that they may bump the tdps of mobile parts up if amd is really competitive.

Sadly I won't be upgrading next gen though. I intend to wait till 2022 when DDR5 hits the consumer market.