Intel really poured it on this morning, simultaneously opening the floodgates on mainstream 300-series chipsets and the second wave of eighth-generation Core laptop…
Intel really poured it on this morning, simultaneously opening the floodgates on mainstream 300-series chipsets and the second wave of eighth-generation Core laptop processors. This time around, we got some info on the MSI’s new and refreshed gaming laptops.
MSI GS65 Stealth
The most stylish new model has to be the gold-accented GS65 Stealth, a thin portable that manages to pack a 15.6″ 144-Hz display with a claimed 7-ms response times. Under the hood, there’s an eighth-generation Intel Core i7 processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q graphics card. Storage is SSD-only in a pair of M.2 slots. The fast display is surrounded by thin bezels that still leave just enough room above the screen to avoid one of those bottom-mounted webcams that ends up pointed at the user’s nostrils.
The GS65 weighs in at a reasonable 4.14 lbs (1.9 kg), of which a substantial portion must be batteries given the pack’s 82-Wh capacity. MSI claims that’s enough juice for as much as eight hours of use away from a wall plug. The keyboard has per-key programmable RGB LED illumination. The sides of the machine have a Thunderbolt 3 port, three USB 3.1 Type-A connectors, HDMI 2.0 and mini-DP 1.2 outputs, and an audio combo jack. Many of the existing members of MSI’s GS Stealth laptop lineup are also now available with Intel’s punchy new eighth-generation silicon.
MSI GT75 Titan
MSI’s 17.3″ GT75 Titan is similarly getting the gen-eight treatment thanks to a six-core Core i9 CPU. The company claims the 12-threaded machine performs as much as 70% better than its Core-i7-equipped forebear. The GT75 also has Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.
The manufacturer is likewise adding eighth-gen Core i7 chips to the enormous SLI-enabled 18.4″ GT83VR Titan we wrote about back in March, as well as the slightly more down-to-Earth single-graphics-card 15.6″ GT63 Titan. The company made a point of emphasizing the Cherry MX Speed Silver mechanical key switches in the GT83VR Titan, and the SteelSeries per-key RGB LED lighting on the GT63 Titan. Oddly enough, neither of these models has a Thunderbolt-enabled port.
MSI GE73 Raider
The GE63 and GE73 Raider laptops get eighth-gen mobile Core chips to go with the existing mix of 15.6″ and 17.3″ screens and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB and GTX 1070 graphics cards. If the dazzling graphics on the screen aren’t enough to satisfy the eyeballs, the per-key RGB LED illumination on the keyboard, 24-zone light show on the lid, and the color-changing diodes inside the USB ports will hopefully do the job. The displays are 120-Hz 1920×1080 numbers with claimed 3-ms response times, so the gameplay ought to be as smooth as the brushed metal lids. Our past coverage of these laptops provides additional detail.
In addition to the laptops described above, the company is adding Intel’s eighth-generation Core processors across its GP, GL, and GV-series portables. All of MSI’s new stuff will be on display in the company’s booth at PAX East in Boston later this week. The company says the GS65 Stealth laptop will hit stores before the end of the month.
