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

Glad I found this forum, seems to be a lot of decent discussion in here.

I have been wondering about the GS66 vs Aero 15 for quite some time.

I guess what im finding out from all this is MSI dont really care all that much what the customer receives as a small investment into better thermal paste makes the laptop a pretty decent contender vs stock.

Whereas the Aero 15 has decent paste already and copes well even if it cant undervolt? due to better cooling in general as it hits 105w before the CPU throttles.

My decision may come down to how difficult it is to repaste the MSI, i have put together desktops before but Laptops are a little alien to me, can someone provide a guide on here or in video form of how to do it safely with recommend paste?

 

Notebookcheck MSI GS66 review

Intel Core i9-10980HK
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super Max-Q
300Hz

https://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-G...ubdued-acoustically-conspicuous.463461.0.html

 

On the other hand, a fellow redditor has the GS66 240Hz and it seems this uses the Sharp SHP14C5 panel which was featured in the GS65, GE65 and others (eg Razer Blade 15).
https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLaptops/comments/gc65zj/is_my_computer_hot_or_broken/

Typical MSI recycling components from last year like the 2666Mhz DDR4 memory in $ 3K+ laptops. Even Asus in the cheaper G15 uses a newer Sharp 240Hz panel which offers brightness and contrast values closer to the 300Hz GS66 panel AUO328E.

https://www.ultrabookreview.com/37011-asus-rog-zephyrus-g15-review/

The AUO328E panel is measured for 316 nits, contrast 1500:1 whereas the SHP14C5 in last year's GS65 was measured 269 nits and contrast 882:1.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-G...0H-RTX-2080-Max-Q-Laptop-Review.423050.0.html

I wouldn't be surpised if the panel used in the base 144Hz GS66 is the AUO80ED from the original GS65 in 2018. This panel was again put in the GS65 2019 refreshed model whereas other manufacturers in 2019 were using the AUO82ED that has improved response times.

Something in which the AUO328E does not beat the 2019 models is reponse times, it performs similar to AUO82ED, SHP14C5, BOE, etc.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I have experience with undervolting etc through XTU, but I've never really messed around in the BIOS with different settings etc. Are there any downsides to modifying the IMON slope, as suggested? Since I am going to re-paste with kryonaut, would the lower temperatures help in preventing power limit throttling, if I don't mess with IMON slope?

 

I'll try and post up a picture tomorrow. For context, The lighting is decent, it's not the brightest, but in a dark room it's more than sufficient. I feel as though the lighting on my Razer blade Stealth was brighter and more even than the GS66, but it's by no means dull on the GS66.

 

Power limit throttle is independent of thermal limit, albeit with higher power = higher temperatures.

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Understood. So is IMON Slope the only way to stop the power limit throttle?

 

The only way that I know of, it really tricks the machine into registering the wrong wattage. It Keeps you going at max frequency.

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Thanks. Is there any downside to doing this? I haven't really ever messed around in the BIOS that much, so a bit hesitant to do it.

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I do not think so, I have run it for about 2 years and no issues so far. You will also have the thermal limit throttle keep you in check.

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Makes sense. Going to see where i end up after re-pasting and undervolting first, and then go from there.

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Why is there no official owner's lounge if a few people already have these laptops?

 

So I applied kryonaut earlier today, and I haven't seen any improvement in temperature at all (no undervolt yet). Exact same temps as with stock paste. But I did see a an average fps bump in some games (not sure if it's due to the re-pasting or not). I've applied thermal paste countless times before, but this was first time using kryonaut. I'm thinking of trying another re-paste Tomorrow to see if maybe I applied it incorrectly, although I don't think I did.

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Do you mean to say that you haven't seen any temperature improvement running at the same clock speeds and fan RPM? Otherwise, it's very likely that your CPU is now running faster, but still hitting the thermal limit (instead of the power limit, or the max frequency limit.... it's gotta hit some sort of limit)

 

When I ran a stress test in XTU, I did notice that the core frequency did jump up a bit, but was still hitting the thermal limit (ran the test with cooler boost on). I also noticed the cpu usage percentage had gone up about 10% while gaming as well.

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Had another question. Does anyone know what the led on the power button is for? It changes from white to orange at seemingly random times. Initially thought it was a battery charging indicator, but that's on the left side of the laptop.

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I don't have the laptop to confirm, but in the past MSI used that to indicate which GPU was active.

 

correct normally if it’s white it’s on Intel graphics and if it’s on orange it’s on Nvidia

 

Great, thanks. That makes sense.

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Kryonaut is not the best choice for low pressure heatsinks like the ones used on the gs series....u need something thicker, gelid, cm maker, i find the best on has been ICD....its a pain to apply but worked best on my gs65

 

Yeah I was reading that kryonaut works best with higher pressure mounts/heatsinks. How would Arctic mx-4 work?

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should work and last a while

 

Cool, thanks. I have some mx-4, will try re-pasting with that over the weekend.

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Arctic Mx-4 is one of the worse pastes for laptops, it pumps out the fastest.

 

I've used it before on a couple other laptops without issue. But that being said, which paste would you recommend, other than kryonaut.

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Couple of questions to the owners:

1. How's the backlight bleed? I had the GS65 and Triton 500 and were dissapointing in this regard.
2. Can the fans be manually stopped? I have seen conflicting information on this point.

 

Cool master mastergel maker nano was pretty good for me.

Great thermals and good amount of volume for the price.

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Hey everyone.
I received my review unit with a 10980HK and 2080 Super MQ.

Some of the things I'll cover:

• Build
• Performance
  • Cinebench R20, 3DMark, Passmark10, assortment of games at Highest and Lowest settings, VR (Half Life Alyx)
• Power, temps, noise
• My improvements
  • Custom profiles and fan curves, undervolting with throttlestop, etc

I should have it ready by mid next week.

Also coming up is a comparison to my 2019 GS65, and Vbios flashing to a 90w variant (I have a GE66 on the way as well, 10980HK and 2080 Super MQ).The comparison will be done by mid next week as well. The 90w flash depends on when the GE66 arrives (in the next 2 weeks?)

If you want to see my review style, click the links in my signature.

Talk to ya'll soon! Stay safe!

 

Looking forward to it! Enjoy the new toys!

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Coolermaste,Gelid but best i find is ICD but have to learn to deal with it

 

Cant wait for both the reviews...Best Buy just canceled my order for the GE66 with the 2070 Super because its been two weeks since my order and they still don't have what they are selling online in stock they said. So they just canceled my order outright that i have had with them since 3rd week of April. Makes NO sense. Anywho, looking forward to your reviews. And don't order the GE66 from Best Buy right now, even though they are selling it online they don't have it and will cancel it automatically after two weeks if they still don't have it.

 

I have always used Gelid Extreme and its been rock solid for me in my laptops...

 

Will someone please confirm both the 240hz and 300hz panels for this machine? I'm looking to buy the panel with the highest brightness (nits) - but having a hard time finding these.

 

The 240Hz panel is the Sharp LQ156M1JW03 (device ID SHP14C5) used in last year's GS65, GE65, Razer Blade 15 etc.
http://www.panelook.com/LQ156M1JW03_Sharp_15.6_LCM_overview_37935.html

The 300Hz panel is the AUO B156HAN12.0 (device ID AUO328E)
http://www.panelook.com/B156HAN12.0_AUO_15.6_LCM_overview_44169.html

Both are rated by their manufacturers for 300 cd/m² and 1000:1 contrast, so in reality differences should not be huge between them.

An area in which AUO328E is better is in it doesn't use PWM at any brightness level. SHP14C5 uses PWM at 19% brightness and below although at a very high frequency (24KHz) so it should not be noticiable even for sensitive eyes, although no PWM at all is always better.

Notebookcheck measured the AUO328E as 315 cd/m² and 1500:1 which seems too good to be true considering the specs, Jarrod's Tech measured 300 cd/m² and 1000:1 as advertised. Each one of them used different measuring sensors (xRite vs Spyder).

From last year's laptops AUOs tended to be a bit brighter, but until someone measures the GS66 240Hz we won't know for sure in this specific implementation. Different LCD controllers can alter final brightness/contrast outputs.

 

If you got the 240Hz panel shouldn't you also be able to swap it out for the 300Hz later if it ends up being brighter and better? Just wondering because i am looking at one in my price range but it has the 240Hz panel...later i could swap it if I could find someone that sells the 300Hz correct?

 

Yes it shouldn't be an issue swapping the panels as they both use the same connections.

 

U guys Lm u r gs66?

 

I think Gentech PC tried it out a couple pages back. Dropped the temps quite a bit

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Laptop is perfect except for the speakers.
All of my tablets, phones and other laptops have better speakers.

 

Yeah all msi laptops sound like ass except for the quad speakers on the GE75.

For some reason they do not tune the speakers

 

Both my GT72 and GT75 sound pretty good, the thin models are another story..

 

My GS75 has ok speakers and my 8th gen gs65 sound fine. The GS66 is awful.

I may end up with a bluetooth speaker or using my macbook pro 16 for regular web browsing.

 

Are you using any audio software for your GS75?

I'm using dolby home theater v4 to tune the speakers on mine and I can give you the EQ profile if you'd like to try it.

 

I can confirm it works with DDR4 3200.

 

So the concensus is....this thing at the minimum needs a repaste

 

and headphones or a soundbar.

 

Hey everyone!

I finally finished my review of the MSI GS66.

In my review, you'll read about:

• My thoughts on the build
  
  
• Gaming performance, temps, power, and noise.
  
  
• My personal tweaks including undervolting, BIOS mods, and custom Throttlestop profiles.

Click HERE for my review.

Also, I have a comparison of the 2019 GS65 vs the 2020 GS66 coming in the next week.

I hope this helps!

-JRey

 

That's a nice review.
Question. Have you tried disabling cores and then testing the heat output? I think it's under one of the CPU options called "Active processor corese." You can turn it into a 6 core 12 thread laptop and then see what that does for the cooling at max performance. For science, of course...

 

LOL, I’m already working on that...
It’ll be maybe a week, I’m trying to cram last-minute benchmarking for the Asus G14.


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