Full Load Temperatures
Full load temperatures for the CPU reached a worryingly high of 95 degrees Celsius, while the GeForce RTX 2070 hit a max of 86 degrees Celsius. Although it the load temperatures are very high, MSI’s dedicated cooling solution with 7 heat pipes just about handled it ok.
240Hz Refresh Rate @ 1080p
Now would you look at that! Yes 240Hz looks so sweet. Using https://www.testufo.com/refreshrate we go an accurate refresh rate reading of 240Hz.
Verdict and Conclusion
So let me ask you this question … How much are you willing to pay for a gaming laptop? $1.5K, $2K or more than $3K? Well, before making your final decision … you HAVE to take a look at the MSI GE65 Raider 9SF. Everything about screams gaming! And if this isn’t what you’re looking for … then I don’t know what is.
The onboard GeForce RTX 2070 with 8GB of GDDR6 ram (and thank GOD it’s not a Max-Q design), does an excellent job in producing great results in our benchmarks, which in turn will give high frame rates during gaming. The included 15.6″ IPS panel with FHD (1920×1080) resolution at 240Hz looks absolutely gorgeous, and is perfect for gaming.
To add to this, the whole laptop is powered by a nippy 9th Gen Core i7-9750H processor running at 2.6GHz (with a boost speed 4.5Ghz,) as well as the 16Gb of DDR4-2666 ram. Oddly, MSI only installed a single 16Gb memory module, which means the ram is only running in single channel, thus affecting the overall performance, albeit marginal.
During our tests, it produced excellent scores in all of our benchmarks. including an impressive score of 5,183 in PCMark 10 and a high score of 4,050 in 3DMark Port Royal. For Timespy and Firestrike, we got a score 6,876 and 15,638 respectively.
The per-key RGB gaming keyboard from Steelseries, along with the 4-speaker Dynaudio sound system are a nice added bonus. You also get a Killer ethernet LAN and Wifi 6 as well as a standard HD webcam with a resolution of 720p @ 30 fps, MSI’s Dragon Center software allow users to monitor the status of the laptop including temperatures, cooling, memory usage, RGB lighting, audio and gaming preferences.
For connectivity, you get 1 x mic-in and 1 x headphone out, as well as 1 x Killer gigabit LAN port, 1 x SD Card slot, 1 x HDMI, 1 x Mini Displayport, 2 x USB 3.1 gen 2 (both Type-A and Type-C) and 2 x USB 3.1 gen 1 ports.
For battery life, I got between 5-6 hours of heavy usage from the 6-cell 51W Li-ion battery. Running on battery, I noticed the laptop would save power by reducing the CPU usage, so if your gaming, I would definitely recommend having the power cable plugged in and run off the mains.
You can buy the MSI GE65 Raider 9SF Gaming Laptop from various retailers including Amazon for around USD $1,999~ At this price, it’s one gaming laptop well worth considering.
Pros:
- Fast 6-core/12 thread Core i7-9750H processor @ 2.6GHZ (max boost 4.5 GHz)
- Excellent performance
- Onboard GeForce RTX 2070 with 8GB GDDR6 ram
- 512GB M.2 SSD boot drive (c:) and 1TB drive for storage (d:)
- 16GB DDR4-2666 ram
- 15.6-inch 240Hz Full HD IPS panel
- Built-in per-key Steelseries RGB keyboard
- 4 speak Dynaudio system
Cons:
- Single 16GB memory module means ram is running in single channel
- Can get a little noisy
Final Thoughts
Once again, MSI have produced an excellent gaming laptop that’s worthy of our Editor’s Choice Award. The MSI GE65 Raider 9SF
You can buy the MSI GE65 Raider 9SF
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