MSI is one of several laptop manufacturers to update its line of gaming laptops with the Nvidia RTX 30 series GPU – and yet, this is the least impressive part of its GP66 Leopard. Not content with just things new components in the same old chassis and call it day, MSI gave its Leopard model a full overhaul of its previous iteration, the GP65. I usually refuse the idea of aggressivenesslooking, rugged gaming laptops – iit’s just not my favorite aesthetic. But MSI won me over with its newest Leopard, because the specification list and price also help.
Leopard is not a thin laptop. It’s almost an inch thick (0.92 inches), but it weighs 5.25 pounds, which is the lightest side for a gaming laptop with its dimensions. While Iand melight enough to charge when needed, it’s even more of a desktop replacement, especially since battery life works on at only four and a half hours in balanced mode. The GP66 Leopard is built for power and battery life drops align with other laptops for similar games that we’ve tested in the past, like the Asus Strix Scar G15.
MSI made some design adjustments that I appreciate. TThe touchpad no longer has separate mouse buttons; they are now seamlessly merged with the touchpad itself, so everything is a smooth and flat surface. The iconic MSI dragon logo on the top of the cap is no longer red, but black, and the the engraved lines flanking both sides of the logo have also disappeared. The whole thing looks more professional and elegant. MSI abandoned the full keyboard for a 10 keyless keyboard, which makes me a little upset because I like full keyboards, but going with a 10 keyless keyboard makes the whole keyboard feel less tight on the smaller chassis.
The number and types of ports also make Leopard a great desktop replacement. All important ports, such as the loading port and the Ethernet port, are located on the back of the laptop, so placing cables behind a desk is more organized and easier. There is also an HDMI port that can produce up to 4K at 60 Hz, in addition to a USB-C, three USB 3.2 Gen 1 and a dual microphone / headset port. It’s all that’s essential for a desktop packed in the footprint of a laptop.
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The internal Intel Core i7-10870H processor is one of the latest editions in the 10th generation family; Intel discreetly launched it with the Core i5-10200H last september. It’s not much different from the Core i7-10875H that we’ve seen on many high-end laptops, like the Razer Blade 15 Advanced. Both are 8-core and 16-thread processors, but the i7-10875H has an extra 100 MHz at its base and at the boost clock. It is also more expensive than the i7-10870H, but only about $ 30. And, in my experience with the i7-10875H, I haven’t seen it reach its maximum frequency of 5.10 GHz because it gets too hot for Thermal Intel’s Velocity Boost starts extracting an extra 100 MHz of juice from the CPU.
The Core i7-10870H suffers from the same problem, but a difference of 100 MHz is not noticeable during games (and can reach an increase rate of 5.0 GHz, although it is not consistent). The RTX 3070 on Leopard saves the day as it can reach performance at the desktop level. Comparing some games with the previous ones GPU RTX 3070 tests, the RTX 3070 mobile is only about 5-10 frames per second smaller than its ultra 1080p desktop counterpart.
The Leopard GP66 achieves 120 fps in Far Cry 5, 83 fps at Total War: Warhammer II, 118 fps at Shadow of the Tomb Raider, 79 fps at Metro Exodus with beam tracking disabled and 67 fps at Metro Exodus with radius tracking enabled. In a game like Overwatch, the frame rate easily exceeds 300 fps at 1080p on ultra too, so not only does MSI’s newest Leopard handle graphics-intensive, but competitive games first –sniper players are likely to love the high frame rates of these games. After all, this laptop can support a refresh rate of 240 Hz. Of course, some gaming laptops now have a 300 Hz screen, like New Predator Triton 500 from Acer, but 240 Hz is still very good for competitive FPS games or if you just like higher refresh rates. (They make a difference!)
I feel i need talk about thermal issues every time I review a laptop with a 10th generation Intel mobile processor inside, and the latest Core i7-10870H is not immune to them. Running the laptop under high load, HWInfo recorded maximum temperatures of 98 degrees Celsius (208.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and thermal strangulation detected. This did not seem noticeable when running game benchmarks because, again, most games are GPU-linked, but it is important to note because of how well MSI’s GP66 Leopard handles these high temperatures.
Even when you’re running backfor-come back Metro Exodus benchmarks, the skin temperature above the keyboard never exceeded 48 degrees Celsius (118.4 degrees Fahrenheit). And this is the best laptop I’ve tested so far, that keeps skin temperature even lower when playing a game like Overwatch. The temperatures on the keyboard itself fluctuated around 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) or lower. MSI was able to do this with a new thermal design that uses a heat pipe unless its GP65 Leopard too. Dual fans can get a little loud at times, but thisin pair for the course with gaming laptops.
All of this brings me to the price, which I would normally say is a little expensive. However, considering that this is a great desktop replacement and some desktop hardware components are hard to find at the moment, the $ 1,899 price tag for this model is at according to what you would normally spend to build your own desktop – probably cheaper. The RTX 3070 desktop can be found for about $ 1,050 now, which is double the MSRP thanks to the huge GPU shortage. When you’re done adding a motherboard, CPU, cooler, memory, storage, power supply and case, you’re already spending more than $ 2,100 if you specify the desktop in a similar way how specific this laptop ised. If youare you thinking of going with a laptop onplace from a table to your next platform, let me guide you towards the MSI GP66 Leopard. It got everything right.
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- Stellar performance
- Beautiful design
- Meh battery
- Expensive, but cheaper compared to how much it would cost to build a desktop