Presenting the All-New Intel 10th Gen MSI "GS66"!

Normal vsync is far inferior compared to gsync. People didn't and still don't like using vsync.

However, the thing is that once you have a 120 fps screen or more screen tearing is no longer very noticeable. Much less 300hz screens.

The main selling point for G-sync now would be for its low framerate compensation which is especially useful in laptops as newer AAA titles bring the laptops to their knees.

 

It may depend on the game too. Many online games for instance have a tendancy not to run the best even on the latest hardward. ESO, warframe, destiny, etc. For me its noticeable regardless, especially if the fps isnt consistant. Spiking for instance. In my case its makes upgrade largely pointless since all the games I play do not benefit from rtx tech. It could also be that the panel isnt gsync certified for whatever reason. I am just waiting on some blessed chinese sliicer to do a number on nvidia on that one. Waiting on a crack...

 

Oh there WAS one. Laptop "gsync" is just freesync. No special hardware unlike on desktops.

https://linustechtips.com/main/topi...-most-laptopsedp-and-potentially-desktop-too/

Nvidia took it down quickly.

 

Dead link

Would have posted it on some chinese site, well away from nvidia's grabby hands.

 

Not been to this site for years but it used to have loads of laptops reviews and news but now it seems it’s all but dead Even the forum seems neglected, it doesn’t even used HTTPS.

Anyway off topic. I’m considering getting one of these laptops or a Gigabyte (Aero or Aorus). I see some pros and cons either way so it’s not a easy choice.

With regards to g-sync I’d be mostly interested in that working with external monitors. The Gigabytes have Mini DisplayPort so I believe that should work, on the MSI you’d have to used a Thunderbolt to DisplayPort adapter but not so sure that would work.

Pros for the MSI

• Like the look of it a bit more
• Better webcam placement plus Windows Hello
• No numpad so slightly better keyboard layout in my mind
• Slightly bigger battery though that’s minor
• Seems we can undervolt
• 3ms screen, Dave2D says is excellent
• Can charge off USB C (Useful for travelling, my work laptop is USB C)

Cons vs Gigabyte

• Gigabyte appear to have a better cooling solution
• Better build quality
• Mini DisplayPort
• Card Reader
• Can change the GPU up to 90W from 80W
• Can lower / limit the power draw on the CPU in their control panel (Not sure if MSI can do this)
• Appears from reviews to be able to push more power to the CPU and GPU as a whole. Basically expect this one out of the box to perform that bit better

I really don’t like the gigabytes webcam placement and in these times, I’m using my webcam quite a bit now. However I’ve got my phone of other laptops so it’s not a complete end of the world.

Hard choice. In the UK only the Aero is in stock currently. Looks like 1 more week roughly for Aorus and 2 weeks for the MSI. The date on the MSI has slipped as originally was next Monday.

 

What specs are you looking at?

 

Do we know what the wattage is on the super cards in the msi?

 

I'll go for a top end model, i9 with 2080 Max Q. Not so worried about the amount of RAM or size of the SSD at time of purchase as I can and probably will upgrade those.

From the reviews I've seen on YouTube the MSI is 80W. The Gigabyte models you can control it in their Control Panel between 80W and 90W.

That wouldn't be a deal breaker of course, the Gigabyte's though also seem to have better cooling so might throttle latter. Will see if I can find a review of both with same games or benchmark to compare the numbers but I think the issue there is people have different CPU / GPU combos.

 

I have the 2019 aero 17 with 2080 and i9 now. Its a great system and have had no issues, although my only complaint is the AI software, that is the only way I have found to increase the wattage and it does it based on when it thinks it needs 90w. turn off the AI and my benchmark scores are always lower.
Also the screen on the Aero is by far one of the best. I have the GS66 i9 2080 shipping 4-29 supposedly so I will do a comparison between both but honestly the aero has been working great and I really don't need another system, but I am bored and I do like the looks of the GS and I think the software on the GS is bit better than Aero?

 

Do Gigabyte laptops have Gsync now?

 

No they do not. Mine has the 4k HDR screen.60hz

Also here new review of GS66

 

So many "reviewers" are just lazy.
They make a 5 minute video telling us they like something and how it makes them feel.

No benchmarks.
No analysis.
No in depth comparisons.

They are nothing more than viral ads.

 

From what reviews I've seen mention on this, it's 80 Watts.

See someone in the forum post a i9 with 2800 Super Firestrike as 19,352 on a Gigabyte Aero.

Then in a video review see a MSI GS66 scoring 19,207

So nothing much in it there but don't know if the Gigabyte Aero was running in the 80 Watt or 90 Watt configuration. I don't think this will hugely sway me one way or the other, the better cooling on the Gigabyte seems nicer. However you might not be able to undervolt that one like it seems you can the MSI... They are really pretty close to be honest.

Not sure you need that on the new ones. It's this bit in the image. 0 option is 80 Watt and 1 is 90 Watt

You can also adjust up and down the wattage on the CPU as you can see.



What's your view on the 4K screen vs 1080p but higher refresh rate? I'm not a heavy gamer, more casual and never actually had a higher refresh screen. I also think at least at home I'd be more likely to be hooking it to larger screens or just taking it into the living room and browsing or other stuff on it. I know they suck the battery down more though and there's a price premium to it also... Man it's a hard choice

 

I forgot about that option, yes I tried turning AI off and switching those to highest setting while uv the i9 -130 and still got lower score in fire strike than with AI on?

 

Toms Hardware Review

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-gs66-stealth

Another confirmation that this laptop runs very hot. It’s also hurting it’s performance.

Interesting. My understanding was all the AI was really doing was changing those values. So you run something light, it lowers the CPU’s max voltage and GPU. Push something hard and it bumps them right up.

 

This is another reason I may avoid the Razer and Aero as the MSI can be UV but I do not know if the new Razer and Aero can be?

Any of these CPU with no UV will have an issue, a repaste will also be needed but for sure UV.

 

Well from this thread it seems it’s possible because of an MSI BIOS option. My gut feeling is that won’t be in the others.

However I’m not sure the Gigabyte needs it to get maximum performance. It seems quite able to do that stock and control its temps. Gigabyte have limited the CPU to 90C where as MSI are going up to 98C I think. Despite that the Gigabyte is putting in better scores.

I think it’ll be more undervolting to bring the MSI to the levels or beyond of the Gigabyte. For the Gigabyte it might just be to help lower temps a bit more and increase battery life.

They really should give people the option in the BIOS on the other makers. We understand there’s a risk of plundervolt but for most people they aren’t really using that security capability to care.

 

Anyone with the 240Hz variant of the GS66 can confirm the make and model of the LCD panel?

I am curious to learn if they reused the 240Hz panel as found in the GS65 and other 2019 laptops or if this is a new one like the 300Hz. In the GS65 the 240Hz panel was made by Sharp and had PWM below 30% brightness. The AUO panels in 144 or 300Hz don't have PWM at any brightness level and were also measured to offer better contrast and a bit more brightness than the Sharp 240Hz.

 

Wasn't expecting those results.

 

Interesting...

 

Indeed. Though I think that’s only getting it up to the Gigabyte Aero type clocks. The MSI’s cooling is what mostly concerns me of going this route but the possible lack of undervolting on the Gigabyte’s is also a major downside.

 

Personally I love the idea of undervolting in bios and not using xtu.

 

Software based has its perks but for me personally its more for testing, once everything is set and stable then move onto BIOS for permanent solution.

For my Desktop I keep I only do BIOS based overclocks.

With my Laptop its easier with software as I don't have to mod/unlock or change anything on the BIOS and have multiple profiles for different scenarios (Throttlestop).

 

If I'm the first with the retail product, do I get to make the owner's thread?
Should be here tomorrow morning.

 

Mine is also arriving in the morning. Can't wait!

Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk

 

Arrived.
In hands.

Feel free to ask questions.

 

The thunderbolt port does not charge with any of my phone chargers.
It does charge with my 87W macbook pro charger.

It does not charge with any of my juice packs.

Many unfinished sharp edges.

The panel is not as bright as the GS75.

Speakers need some tweaking.

Fingerprints are not as bad as most reviewers indicated.
I think their hands were just greasy/dirty.

Built like a tank.

 

Would you say the panel is a deal breaker?

 

What spec did you get?

 

No.
GS75's screen is exceptional.

 

The 10SGS-031 (i9 with 2080).

 

I have the same one arriving Friday. Congrats.

 

I found a fix for the speakers sounding like trash.

Uninstall Nahimic and Realtek drivers and let windows update install the driver.

Sounds OK.
Not macbook pro 16, but usable.

 

Out of curiosity, can you check Device Manager and see what version of driver Microsoft provided to you?

 

Any chance we can get some stress tests done, also where did u get it from/? Also is urs repasted?

 

Just pulled the trigger on mine, got the 8 core i7 and rtx 2070 max-q. Honestly don't need more than that in a laptop for now, will probably upgrade to another laptop with AMD chip next year.

 

So, after repaste with Kryonaut, I'm getting 73-80C @4.35-4.4Ghz when stress testing with 140mV undervolt.
Power limit throttling after 3 minutes and no thermal throttling.

 

Curious with what fan settings? And which stress test since some, hit the cpu much harder (prime95) whereas other (like xtu) are much less.

 

Good question.

My results above are with XTU AVX2 running for an hour with coolerboost.

I ran prime95 for an hour. (half hour for each fan speed)
With the fan on auto, max temp was [email protected] with power limit throttling and 140mV undervolt.
With the fan on coolerboost, max temp was [email protected] with power limit throttling and 140mV undervolt.

 

So you have a newer version of the driver but there are even newer versions available. Station-drivers usually have the latest and greatest.

 

I received my GS66 on Wednesday, and have been setting everything up since then. Finally got to run a game late last night (Call of Duty). Was getting great frames rates etc, but as already noted, cpu temps were quite high. I was hitting 93-95C when the fan was on auto (and cpu was thermal throttling). When the cooler boost was on, the CPU temp would dip down and prevent thermal throttling. I was also hitting power limit throttling. I do plan on repasting with kryonaut within the next day or two.

My question (apologies if this is a dumb question) is how can you stop power limit throttling?

 

Laptops have two limits, power and thermals, the system will throttle if any of the two (or both) are met. Thermal limit is obvious, heat. Power limit is the maximum wattage the CPU is allowed to produce as per system design. More frequency at a given CPU load, more watts produced. Intel mobile CPUs normally have two power limits PL1 (burst) and PL2 (sustained).

The great advantage of undervolting, something possible in the GS66, is as you reduce voltage, the CPU will need less wattage to achieve a given frequency, therefore in the PL1/PL2 envelopes you can achieve greater frequencies which equal to greater performance (if thermals allow).

So if you are reaching power limits it means your thermals are good enough so the CPU can produce the maximum wattage allowed. Again undervolting will allow for higher clocks within the power envelope.

Having said this, I'm also interested in the GS66 with your spec, i7 10750, RTX 2070 (non super). I assume you have the 240Hz panel, would you mind sharing the Make and Model? You can get this from Device Manager in Windows.

As per this review (in Spanish) it seems the 240Hz is made by Sharp, no more details provided
https://elchapuzasinformatico.com/2020/04/msi-gs66-stealth-review/

Probably it will be the same Sharp panel as used in the Asus G15 with 240/3ms.
https://www.ultrabookreview.com/37011-asus-rog-zephyrus-g15-review/

If this is the case, I believe the 300Hz panel by AUO will have a slight lead in maximum brightness and constrast.

Besides this,
can you run Time Spy and report the score you get?

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the info! That makes sense, I was planning on undervolting, but after I do a repaste with kryonaut (want to see how much of a difference kryonaut makes at stock voltages etc).

I actually have the 10SFS-037 which has the 2070 Super Max-Q, and the 300hz display, which is indeed made by AOU. In terms of the quality of this specific display, I am actually quite happy with the brightness and contrast.

Would you still like me to run Time Spy, since the model I have is different than the one you were looking at?

 

Oh congrats on the better panel then! In my country the 300Hz panel is tied to the i9 and that means with tax € 3199 ~ USD 3500. Too much for my secondary rig (daily driver is a desktop).

Yeah if you don't mind running Time Spy it'd be great. It is to be expected 2070 MaxQ vs 2070S MaxQ will be around 7%-10% from each other due to similarity and 80W power limit.

 

Another trick for getting around Power limit is unlocking the BIOS and modifying the IMON SLOPE to read lower wattage than it actually is using.

I apologise as I have not been keeping much track of this topic. I believe it has been mentioned here already how to unlock and get to the setting, if it hasn't then the guide is definitely available in the 2019 gs65 owners thread.



Sent from my BLA-L09 using Tapatalk

 

Get in the BIOS and unlock the BIOS using the following key combination.

Hold down Left Alt + Right Ctrl + Right Shift and then press F2.

Then go to Advanced > Power & Performance > CPU - Power Management Control > CPU VR Settings > Core/IA VR Settings.

Set IMON Slope to 50
Set IMON Offset to 31999
Set IMON Prefix to "-"
Save and Reboot.

 

On the bottom of the laptop, there's a battery reset hole.
Does anyone know if this is for resetting the CMOS if my bios settings go bad?

 

The battery reset hole doesn't clear cmos. It just makes you have to plug in to boot up the laptop.

You'll need to hold down the power button for one minute to clear cmos.

 

Guys can you upload images from the keyboard RGB brightness? (at dark room / night time)

one image with rainbow colors and second image with red color

I want to see if it's strong or not please.