MSI GS65 Stealth-006 Review

The MSI GS65 Stealth-006 includes Nvidia’s latest GeForce 2060 graphics card, a premium construction, and a high-end feature set with little (if any) compromises. Our evaluation device produces more than 60fps in triple-A games, and the 144Hz refresh rate is more than adequate. (Pricier configurations use GeForce RTX 20-Series GPUs.)

And its battery lasts longer than most gaming laptops in its class. The Stealth-006 has no significant flaws, making it on our best midrange gaming laptops list.

Design

MSI GS65 gaming laptop has a matte black frame with gold accents around the touchpad, hinge, ventilation, and lid logo. MSI focuses on a gaming laptop with broader appeal for this ultraportable.

You unbox one of the most modest gaming laptops we’ve seen to date — one you can use in the workplace, during an eSports competition, or at a coffee shop to complete a project.

The MSI GS65 Stealth feels luxurious and light with a tiny bezel surrounding the display; weighing only 4.14 pounds and 0.69 (17.33mm) thin, versus the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501’s 4.97 pounds and 0.7 inches – it held the record for thin-and-lightweight gaming laptops until the MSI GF65 Thin occurred. It fits effortlessly in any bag and is lightweight, which is fantastic for a daily commuter item.

MSI would have made it slimmer and lighter if not for the Ethernet connector and long battery life. The Stealth-006’s Max-Q technology enables a tiny, elegant system.

Keyboard And Touchpad

MSI included a SteelSeries keyboard with decent travel and lovely feedback despite its tiny size. The keyboard’s 16.7 million color selections adjust to game mode. SteelSeries GameSense technology syncs the lights with compatible games.

Below the keyboard is a glass-coated touchpad that feels good and has robust palm rejection. The Stealth may be thicker to accommodate its three-fan Cooler Boost Trinity cooling system. MSI used the additional space for smaller speakers that blast down from the base.

Performance

The Intel “Coffee Lake” CPU, in this instance the 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H (2.2 GHz-4.1GHz), boosts the Stealth’s performance. The Acer Predator Triton 500 has the newer Intel Core i7-9750H. The eighth-generation Intel Core i7 CPU employed here receives higher results than its “Kaby Lake R” predecessor with two additional cores, which shines on multicore workloads like video projects or epic gaming sessions. With two extra cores, it can render video files and process spreadsheets without lagging.

Synthetic tests measure a GPU’s overall 3D ability but can’t rate a laptop’s gaming performance. Far Cry 5 and Rise of the Tomb Raider can run at 1080p on moderate and high graphical settings (Far Cry 5 – Normal and Ultra; Rise of the Tomb Raider – Medium and Very High).

Far Cry 5 uses DirectX 11, but Rise of the Tomb Raider may use DX12, which is what a benchmark does. At 1080p, the MSI GS65 produces 96 fps in Normal settings and 82 fps in Ultra; Rise of the Tomb Raider gets 117 fps in Medium and 91 fps in Very High. Both results beat the Acer Predator Helios 300 (2019) with Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti.

The RTX 2060’s increased cost isn’t justified, particularly compared to GTX 1660 Ti-based systems. The RTX 2060 can’t employ ray tracing as well as the RTX 2070 (an improvement over the GTX 1070) and RTX 2080. Since performance is approximately the same, the increased expense isn’t worth it. If you’re considering this laptop, its performance is decent.

Battery Life

If you’re searching for a gaming laptop for the first time, you may not know that few have good battery life. MSI Stealth-006, MSI GS75 Stealth, Asus Zephyrus, and Alienware 15 shatter the norm.

It promises eight hours of battery life in a category where four hours is rare. This beats 90% of gaming computers, but there’s space for improvement.