The MSI Pulse GL66 is an odd beast. It adheres to old-school gaming laptop computer styling—all plastic and chunky aesthetics—whereas additionally packing a few of the newest expertise. This mannequin’s spec, nonetheless, makes it a bit of odd. It has a strong eleventh Gen Core i7, paired with the bottom tackle Nvidia’s Ampere structure. It errs on the aspect of quietness over efficiency however can appear a bit underwhelming and unfocused.
That comparatively lowly Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti leads me to think about this a price range laptop computer. Although at $1,099 (£1,099) it is on the prime finish of what actually constitutes price range. At this worth level, you are coming into the realms of extra succesful mid-range notebooks packing RTX 3060s, albeit with barely older CPUs and some compromises. Laptops just like the Acer Nitro 5 and Dell G3 15 maintain sway right here, and can be found for about the identical amount of money. You’ll discover much more choices on our greatest gaming laptops information.
MSI Pulse GL66 specs
CPU: Intel Core i7 11800H
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti (60W)
RAM: 16GB DDR4-3200
Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD
Display: 15.6-inch IPS-level, 144 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Battery: 52Whr
Connectivity: 1x USB3.2 Gen1 Type-C, 2 x USB3.2 Gen1 Type-C, 1x USB2.0, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack
Dimensions: 14.1 x 10.2 x 0.96 in
Weight: 4.63 lbs
OS: Windows 10 Home
Warranty: One yr
Price: $1,099 (£1,099)
Back to the MSI Pulse GL66, and a fast scan down the specs makes for a strong sufficient impression of an in any other case well-rounded laptop computer. You do, as an illustration, get 16GB of RAM to play with, and none of this single-channel nonsense both. This is a real dual-channel resolution, which signifies that the CPU has loads of bandwidth to play with.
Speaking of the CPU, MSI has kitted out this machine with Intel’s newest eleventh Generation Core processor. Alder Lake might have simply landed on the desktops, nevertheless it’s not prepared for laptop computer primetime simply but, so that is presently as up-to-date because it will get. Inside the GL66’s chunky chassis, you will discover the surprisingly beefy Core i7 11800H. This is an eight-core, 16-thread CPU with a base clock of two.3GHz and a lift of double that at 4.6GHz.
This is a severe chip and one that may knock out severe efficiency when pushed. Having stated that, it produced some blended numbers in testing, with robust single-core efficiency, however patchy multi-core figures. This is undoubtedly right down to the cooling system used within the Pulse GL66—and whereas we by no means noticed the CPU temperature rise above 81°C in testing, it hardly ever felt just like the cooling was actually being pushed, even when utilizing the efficiency configuration.
While I applaud the final air of quietness this technique gives, even utilizing the efficiency preset, you do need the choice of all-out-performance at occasions, and it’s missing right here.
The different a part of the efficiency equation is, in fact, the GPU. This is the place the MSI Pulse GL66 comes unstuck, though not essentially for the explanation you might first assume. MSI has squeezed an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti in alongside that potentially-powerful CPU, which is a GPU we have not, as but, seen grace our desktop machines, despite the fact that there may be undoubtedly a starvation for extra reasonably priced graphics playing cards proper now. Although, this is probably not the price range dream you’d need.
The downside with the RTX 3050 Ti will not be the underlying energy, which as you will see shortly is surprisingly succesful, however quite that the dearth of VRAM stops this laptop computer from having the ability to play the newest video games. This GPU solely has 4GB of reminiscence to name its personal, which is admittedly pushing what fashionable video games can run with, even at extra modest settings.
If you are shopping for a brand new gaming laptop computer, then you definately’re shopping for for the longer term, not only for the video games which are out proper now. You need to know that no matter machine you purchase at present goes to be nonetheless related relating to the video games which are launched subsequent yr, and probably the yr after that. With solely 4GB of RAM, that is not going to be the case, and certainly I had issues with our present testing suite.
This is doubly irritating as a result of because the identify suggests, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti is able to dealing with the ray tracing pretties. But with out the VRAM to again this up, it is one thing of a missed alternative. The efficiency in 3DMark Port Royal highlights this completely with the worst rating we have ever seen. The body price on this take a look at is excruciating and manages to fall behind laptops packing even the getting older RTX 2060—by a way, too.
Horizon Zero Dawn additionally unceremoniously crashes the entire machine while you attempt working it on the highest settings. With the sport optimizing the settings itself (mainly dropping most of them right down to Low) it manages 63fps on common, with minimums of 16fps. It nonetheless appears to be like adequate, though clearly not so good as what the upper settings are able to. Still, a minimum of you’ll be able to really play the sport.
Elsewhere, the efficiency from the RTX 3050 Ti actually is not unhealthy. Even a demanding title like Metro Exodus manages a fairly 42fps, which is with the RTX pretties flicked on. This is with DLSS serving to to ease issues out, however that is one of many largest promoting factors of this technology of GPUs, and it is significantly helpful for price range GPUs. Potentially a minimum of. Metro Exodus did crash just a few occasions when testing although, which once more is probably right down to the dearth of VRAM.
This makes the MSI Pulse GL66 a tricky laptop computer to suggest to PC avid gamers as a result of as soon as you’ve got dropped a grand on a gaming laptop computer, there’s nothing assured to present you consumers regret greater than your favourite video games inflicting it to crash, or not run at something like cheap settings. This is not helped by the truth that it would not really feel like a premium slice of {hardware}. Plastic chassis that roll in on the fallacious aspect of $1,000 seems like a rum deal, particularly when it is available in at a shade beneath an inch thick.
There is a few excellent news right here. The added thickness means there may be loads of room for growth, and nothing necessary is soldered into the board—the M.2 NVMe SSD and RAM are all customary components. There’s room for a secondary SATA SSD as nicely should you really feel that the 512GB drive the laptop computer ships with is not sufficiently big to your video games assortment. You do must take off the complete again of the machine to improve, however that is not too awkward.
Overall, the MSI Pulse GL66 would not ship the place it must. From a gaming viewpoint, it simply appears too costly for what you get, particularly when the complete advantage of that Core i7 is wasted. While the remainder of the spec is ok, and it is nice that it’s straightforward to improve, it would not do sufficient to distinguish itself from the gang. It’s value saving up and spending a bit extra to get an RTX 3060 laptop computer as an alternative, one that may stand the take a look at of time much better than this.
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