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Gaming Laptop - MSI GE66 w/ 3070

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deathman20

High Speed Premium Senior
Joined
Aug 5, 2002
Well for some time now sitting behind my desk day in day out started to get tiring... wanted to sit on the couch, relax. Be upstairs and yet still game without running it all through the network which could get glitchy depending what it was.

My days currently for desktop PC have come to an end :( I do love them for upgradability don't get me wrong, always swapping a part here or there out. Nice and quiet was my last addition to it with a nice cool looking lit up case. Course recently my 5.1 surround sound went out on it, so been using a headset when I do play and wanting to spend time at least in the same room as the rest of the family (if they are doing something else or even on their laptops) matters more these days. So with that I went on the hunt for a new, higher end gaming laptop to carry me forward for some years.

Step in to the MSI GE66 Raider i7 10870h w/ 3070 (130W) GPU, 32GB ram, 1TB Nvme (+ another 1TB adding soon) with a 15" FHD 300Hz display.
Still in the early days of owning it (got it last weekend) but so far it is solid. Can game nicely even when settings are dropped (downclocking CPU) or even locking a say 60FPS cap on it. Love the RGB on the keyboard and front panel as well. Key area doesn't get that warm when playing on any setting and really if I want to keep it cool... I kick in the Cool Boost mode, with some headphones and the temps just DROP under full load into the mid 60's for CPU and GPU running full tilt.

So far these where very preliminary numbers I ran originally. No voltage adjustments to the CPU or GPU at this point

9,944 Stock Balanced Mode https://www.3dmark.com/spy/18101597#
10,609 Cool Boost Mode w/ 200+ GPU Core/Mem https://www.3dmark.com/spy/18101761#

Discrete GPU setting only (onboard iGPU disabled). GPU for both tests where 200+ on core and mem
10,697 Extreme Mode https://www.3dmark.com/spy/18119604#
10,818 Cool Boost Mode https://www.3dmark.com/spy/18119830#
*note the different between Extreme and Cool Boost mode is the Cool Boost jacks the fan RPM up sky high otherwise its the same setting*

There was some other tests forgot to run between Balanced and Extreme mode... but overall Balanced was far better on the ears for such a little gain.

Anyways will be running more tests and tweaking a bit more as time goes on but thrilled with the laptop. Really was eyeing up the Ryzen CPU's but long wait + the model was looking at wasn't getting spectacular reviews for the price / performance of the 3080 model so ended up taking this for the Thunderbolt ports and solid design.
 
What's the battery life like and did you get a spare power supply? Some laptops will hotswap batteries when they are this powerful. With those specs it's probably good it's a 15.6 and not bigger.
 
Battery is decent haven't spent all the time playing with the battery yet.
I don't have a spare power supply yet, considering it. Though I can charge up on USB-C if required I just know can't run full power while using it. Course this battery is not hot swapable. Lots of screws on the bottom and a pain in the *** to open the cover up without breaking the clips. Got my second Nvme in though so happy. Might consider pulling the cooler off and re-applying some better thermal paste but will wait on that for right now.

Yesterday did squeeze more out of the GPU... seems like its stable with a nice +250 on core for benching. Game wise +225, +250 seems to get artifacts here and there. It boosts insainly high for a laptop I'm impressed hitting 2Ghz in a few games I've tried. Overall benchmarks seems to top around 1750Mhz for 3D Mark with the +250. Still trying to understand the Nvidia voltage curve part of the software. Once I understand it a little more can tweak it a bit more.
 
So Year+ later follow up.
The laptop has been amazing! Only a few times its gotten excessively warm while gaming.
Otherwise it holds its own pretty good considering its size. Battery life when gaming does vary. I do have it setup to go to 2.4Ghz and undervolt not plugged in, as well nVidia software drops it to a 30 FPS cap which does help a lot. I get anywhere from 1-2.5 hours in gaming, just depends on the game.

Monitor has been doing great, keyboard + lights have been great. Fan noise can be annoying at times but using the silent or balanced profile does help a bit to keep that in check.

Overall if looking for a gaming laptop I'd recommend this one for sure. Hoping for a few more years out of her before needs a replacement.
 
Nice follow up. I have the MSI GF65 Thin and really like it. I usually sit it on a dual 120mm fan stand that really helps keep it cool otherwise it does get loud.

When you did the second drive install did you have to take the whole bottom off? On this one it looks like I do.
 
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