The MSI GS75 is definitely one of the more intriguing laptops that have been on my shortlist for the past year or so. To me, I always looked at it as a 17” powerhouse inside a 15” “GS60-like ” package. I had the GS73VR for quite a while and enjoyed it , so I figured I’d like the GS75 just as much or even more.
Well, about a year ago when it came out, the timing wasn’t right I guess and I ended up sticking with the Razer Blade instead . But MSI was nice enough to loan me a GS75, so I can see what I was missing all this time.
The unit I received is their top model, featuring at RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU paired with an Intel Core i9-9880H processor. After just reviewing the GE75 Raider in a similar configuration, I was immediately skeptical as to how well the CPU would stay cool in such a thin form factor. But to my surprise, it held up very well and I’m overall pretty impressed with what I saw.
Below is a summary of my findings after using it for a couple of weeks.
Specs as reviewed – MSI GS75 Stealth 9SG
MSI GS75 Stealth 9SG
Screen 17.3 inch, 1920 x 1080 px, IPS, 144 Hz, matte
Processor Intel 9th Gen Coffee Lake i9-9880H CPU, octa-core 2.3 GHz (4.8 GHz boost)
Video Intel HD 630 and NVIDIA GeForce 2080 Max-Q (90W)
Memory 32 GB DDR4 2667Mhz (2×16 GB DIMMs)
Storage 1 TB M.2 NVMe (Samsung PM981 MZVLB1T0HALR)
Connectivity Intel Wireless-AC 9560, Bluetooth 5.0
Ports 3x USB-A 3.2 gen2, 1x USB-A 3.2 gen1, 1x USB-C 3.2(Thunderbolt 3), HiFi headphone, mic, Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, Displayport, microSD card reader
Battery 80.2 Wh, 230 W charger
Size 396 mm or 15.59” (w) x 259.5 mm or 10.22” (d) x 18.95 mm or .75” (h)
Weight 2.28 kg (5.03 lbs)
Extras individually lit RGB keyboard, clickpad, HD webcam, stereo speakers
Design and exterior The 2019 MSI GS75 Stealth is pretty much the same design as last year. I never reviewed that one, so I’m going to go into more detail this time.
Firstly, I’d like to say that the overall design certainly feels portable. It’s thin, symmetric, lightweight and balanced. Carrying it around was easy and at no point did I ever feel like I was carrying around a 17” laptop.
The entire casing is made of an anodized aluminum alloy, black in color and with a matte finish. Unfortunately, that means it’s a fingerprint magnet, as it didn’t take long to start seeing oily residue on the usual spots.
It’s not much different than I saw with the GS65 really . It’s not a unibody design, but rather has top and bottom panels that are screwed together onto a plastic inner chassis. It’s probably what keeps the weight down, but it also comes at a cost of sturdiness.
Now, it’s certainly not as bad as I saw on the 2018 GS65, as that unit creaked pretty much every time I picked it up. This laptop doesn’t creak at all actually – at least not yet. But it’s far from being as robust feeling as the GE75 I just reviewed or even the similarly sized Razer Blade 17 .
The lid has a perfectly smooth surface and only a modest dragon decal on the upper portion. I really appreciated this about the GS65 and I still do with the GS75. The only difference between the two is that this one appears to shine a little more in certain lights. Overall, it’s far from being too unprofessional and is certainly a huge step up from the glowing logo I’m used to seeing on MSI gaming notebooks.
Lifting the lid is a one-finger task, but I wish I could say it was easy to do. The problem is the cutout for your finger is incredibly small. And to make matters worse, the seam created from the bottom and top halves of the laptop actually feel like they could be the cutout. For the first week, I was frequently lifting the entire laptop from that edge, rather than lifting the lid.
Once opened, you can see the two golden hinges on both sides of the screen, which seem sturdy enough to me. The screen itself is surrounded by a very small plastic bezel. A tiny webcam is centered at the top, along with the microphone array. A subtly MSI logo is embossed along the bottom.
The lower section is pretty much identical to all the MSI GS series laptops I’ve reviewed in the past. The Steelseries keyboard is located centrally, below the intake vents. Those intake vents undoubtedly mean that the motherboard is flipped upside down, just as before. Above those vents are a small power button and a tiny indicator light, which switches from white to orange depending on whether the dGPU is being used.
The bottom of the laptop is pretty much what you’d expect. Large cutouts for vents are placed on both sides underneath the fans and there’s also a pair of smaller cutouts for the speakers. The bottom is littered with stickers, most of which can be peeled off. There’s a warranty sticker over one of the screws, so make sure you can remove it in your region before doing so (it voids the warranty in some countries).
For IO, the front and back edges are bare, but there’s plenty on the sides. Starting on the right, there are two USB-C ports, one of which being Thunderbolt 3 enabled. There are also two USB-A ports. All of the USB are version 3.2. Towards the back edge is the fan exhaust.
On the left hand side, there’s a lot more. From the back, there’s a power port, Ethernet, a single USB-A 3.2, a microSD card reader, microphone and HiFi headphone. There’s also another fan exhaust behind the power adapter.
Overall, I’d have to give the GS75 a “good enough” grade in regards to the design. I like the way it looks and feels, but I wish the build quality was a little sturdier. Thicker metals would add more weight and thickness, and the end product would pretty much be the GE75. Having just reviewed the GE75, I’d be a little torn choosing between the two as they both have pros and cons. If the GE75 looked a little more like the GS75 in terms of aesthetics, I’d hands down say that’s the better choice.
Keyboard and trackpad The keyboard was very easy to adapt to, as it’s pretty much the exact same keyboard that I’ve seen on so many MSI brand laptops. The exceptions have been the GS65, which has slightly different keycaps and the GE75, which “felt” different to me.
I still stick with my opinion on that one – it did feel different. Now that I have something to compare it to, I can say without a doubt that those keys felt mushier than what I have here. The keys on the GS75 are very tactile, actually, and have pretty good travel.
I took my standard typing test and scored 58wpm with no mistakes, which is great for me. And that was on the first day I used it. The keys are well spaced apart and are located in somewhat normal places.
The oddball keys on this one are the slash key next to the Spacebar, the misplaced Delete key and the reversed FN and Windows keys. The latter can actually be swapped, both physically and with software. Just be careful when pulling and reattaching the keys.
The palmrest on this machine is a little small. I actually prefer this because my watch clasp doesn’t rest on the palm rest anymore, but I’ve read in some complaints from people that don’t like it. The reason for the short surface is because of the intake vents that are needed above the keyboard, which makes the palm-rest narrower than on other 17″ laptops.
Unlike Razer, MSI still has a full keyboard layout, including a NumPad. I wonder if Razer was on to something there, because I’m starting to think that front-facing speakers would be better than a NumPad. I literally only use it for my pin password these days, and even then, I have face unlock on my daily driver.
Finally, the keyboard is backlit with individually lit RGB keys. These can be changed in the included SteelSeries software. Overall, it’s pretty easy to customize a profile you want. There are 4 levels of brightness to the keys, which are changeable with the keyboard shortcut.
I have really mixed feelings on this trackpad. On a positive side, it tracks very well and my multitouch gestures worked with little to no problems. The way I use trackpads is by single tapping for left click and double tap for right-click. I had no problems doing either, so I adapted nicely to using this machine for my day to day activities.
But the more I used it and especially typed on this machine, I’ve liked this trackpad less and less. First of all, it’s just too wide, for being so narrow. Besides making 4 finger gestures easier to do (which I hardly ever use), other operations actually get harder. For example right-clicking.
It’s a clickpad, so clicking anywhere on the trackpad will actuate a left click and clicking on the lower right-hand corner will actuate a right-click. This I pretty typical for trackpads without buttons. But on the ultra-wide trackpad, your right-click is far from convenient as it’s much further away. When forcing myself to use clicks instead of taps, I found that I was frequently accidentally left-clicking because I wasn’t far right enough.
I also struggled with typing with this trackpad. Yes, typing. The trackpad is so wide that my right palm (below my thumb) accidentally clicked the trackpad at least a dozen times while typing this review. I took a picture with my fingers on the home keys and you can see what I mean just from that.
To fix the issue, I had to adjust the way I rested my right hand when I was typing on a desk. It’s not ideal, but I was able to make it work. If you heavily rely on palm rests to type properly though, you’ll want to think twice about this one.
Another gesture that might be difficult for some is pinch to zoom. This is especially for folks with big hands. The trackpad is just too short to do a full zoom, unfortunately. Besides adjusting the sensitivity, there’s really no fix to this, so you’ll have to either do that or just settle for multiple gestures to zoom where you want.
The Windows precision drivers built into Windows 10 work with this trackpad and there are a lot of settings to change if you so desire. You can even disable the right click in the corner, although I wish there was a way to disable clicking in general, so that my problem above would be resolved.
So there are my two cents: love the keyboard, but the trackpad could be better. I realize that MSI is dealing with reduced real estate, so having it be taller is out of the question. But I do think that they should revert back to a traditional width so that it doesn’t interfere with the typing experience. Either that or add some firmware to disable trackpad clicks.
Screen The GS75 has a 17.3-inch IPS panel with FHD resolution and 144 Hz refresh rate. It’s made by Chi Mei, with part number N173HCE-G33. I was really excited to see this panel, since it’s the same one I had on the GE75 , which I loved.
But after taking some readings, I started to question that. It’s mostly the same, but the maximum brightness and contrast are slightly different. Upon further investigation, I found out that the panel ID for this model is CMN1760, where as the one I had on the GE75 was CMN175C. That’s the first time I’ve seen the same model number have different IDs.
The maximum brightness I was able to achieve was 295 nits. A lot lower than the 365 nits I got on the other panel, but it’s still a respectable level for most occasions. The contrast level at maximum brightness was 1355:1, showing how deep the blacks are on this panel.
I took some measurements on my xRite i1 Display Pro sensor and here’s what I got:
Panel HardwareID: Chi Mei – N173HCE-G33;
Coverage: 98% sRGB, 68% NTSC, 71% AdobeRGB;
Measured gamma: 2.2;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 295 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 1355:1
Native white point: 6730 K;
Black on max brightness: 0.22 cd/m2.
PWM: Yes.
As you can see, the brightness is pretty evenly distributed. I did have some noticeable backlight bleed, which is a pretty common annoyance of IPS screens these days. The locations for mine are at the bottom edge, so I didn’t notice it all that much, except for when the screen goes black in a dark room.
Even with the reduced brightness, it’s still a great panel. 144Hz is just an awesome refresh rate, both for games and normal tasks. Everything just runs smoother. The FHD resolution is on the edge of being grainy on a 17” panel, as I can certainly see the pixels when I get up close. But from normal viewing distances, the images are crisp and the viewing angles are excellent.
One last thing to note is that GSYNC is disabled and MSI has opted for better battery life with Optimus. It’s probably for the best, as the 144Hz refresh rate will prevent most tearing anyways.
To sum up, this is a great screen to compliment this laptop.
Hardware, performance and upgrade options This model of the GS75 Stealth comes with an Intel Core i9-9880H, which is the top CPU available on laptops of this class. It’s an octa-core and tops out at 4.8GHz of boost, which certainly makes a difference compared to the hexa cores that are on all the competitors. Paired with the CPU are 32GB of RAM a Max-Q version of Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU.
The NVMe drive on this model is 1TB and is also upgradable. The model number is Samsung PM981 and the speeds are excellent. See my Crystal disk mark benchmark for the details on the speeds. There’s no 2.5” bay anymore, but there are two M.2 slots available for storage, with support for RAID 0/1.
While we’re on that subject, getting to these M.2 slots is easier than before. With almost every GS series laptop, the motherboard is inverted, sandwiching the heatsink, GPU and CPU between the keyboard and the motherboard. This also means that the M.2 slots and RAM were on that side as well, which resulted in almost a complete disassembly to swap modules.
That’s not the case with this model though. The M.2 slots and Wifi module slot are located on the edges and are flipped, so swapping them can be done just like on any other laptop, by removing the back panel. The RAM, however, is still on the other side, so if you need to upgrade that, prepare yourself for some work .
Removing the cover was pretty simple though, as it required removing nearly a dozen Phillips screws. One screw had a factory seal on it, so check with your local rep to see if it voids your warranty or not. After that, use a plastic opening tool to unsnap the clips on the rear exhaust, and the cover pops right off.
Now let’s shift the topic back to performance – which is excellent! The i9 combination with the RTX 2080 pretty much guarantees greater than 60fps games, and I never even tried shifting settings lower than Ultra, except for benchmarking purposes.
On standard daily tasks, everything operated smoothly and there was no lag. I frequently operated on Better Battery mode too, which is a nice way to keep the laptop cooler on your lap. Again, like I said with the GE75, I am very envious on how well this i9 performs over my Core i7 Razer Blade 15 – more so now than ever, considering this laptop is thinner.
I took a number of synthetic benchmarks. For these tests, I left the fan profile in Auto and the profile in Dragon Center was set to Turbo. Here were my results:
3DMark 11: 23533 (Graphics – 27525, Physics – 16520);3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 18493 (Graphics – 20556, Physics – 21182);3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 8084 (Graphics – 7974, CPU – 8771);3DMark 13 – Port Royal: 4404;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 5039;PCMark 10: 5813 (Essentials 9346, Productivity 7308, Content 7805);GeekBench 5.0 64-bit: Single-Core: 1208, Multi-core: 7762;CineBench R15: OpenGL 129.30 fps CPU 1668 cb, CPU Single Core 195 cb;CineBench R20: CPU 3532 cb, Single Core 466 cb
I also undervolted the CPU to -125mV and retook the benchmarks:
3DMark 11: 23735 (Graphics – 27715, Physics – 16937);3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 18504 (Graphics – 20514, Physics – 21457);3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 8055 (Graphics – 7865, CPU – 9337);3DMark 13 – Port Royal: 4366;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 5005;PCMark 10: 6019 (Essentials 8991, Productivity 8242, Content 7988);GeekBench 5.0 64-bit: Single-Core: 1211, Multi-core: 7837;CineBench R15: OpenGL 121.61 fps CPU 1709 cb, CPU Single Core 177 cb;CineBench R20: CPU 3914 cb, Single Core 429 cb
It’s not as clear with the benchmarks as it is with the continuous Cinebench testing, just how much that undervolt helps. Check out the table below for more details. Overall you’re looking at a 9% improvement in performance and not to mention the better temperatures. Like always, undervolting is worth it.
I also ran some testing on games. All gaming tests were also done on Auto fan profile with CPU and GPU settings at default in Dragon Center.
No Man’s Sky (Ultra) 90-122 fps
Battlefield V (DX 12 ON, Medium Preset, Ray-Tracing ON) 75-85 fps
Battlefield V (DX 12 On, Medium Preset, Ray-Tracing OFF) 120-135 fps
Battlefield V (DX 12 On, Ultra Preset, Ray-Tracing ON) 55-58 fps
Battlefield V (DX 12 On, Ultra Preset, Ray-Tracing OFF) 110-115 fps
Final Fantasy XV (H igh ) 90-105 fps
Final Fantasy XV (H ighest ) 79-90fps
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (DX 11, Ultra Preset, Hairworks Off) 115-133 fps
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (DX 11, Ultra Preset, Hairworks On) 92-112 fps
Stellaris on GS75 with old save game 75-92 fps
Stellaris on RB15(i7-8750H/2080MQ) with same save game 65-88 fps
No doubt about it – this laptop can handle the best games out there. The fact that the only game that struggled to reach 60fps had to have Ray tracing turned on is a good sign.
I also threw in an interesting game at the end, which was Stellaris. I’ve noticed that this game can become incredibly CPU heavy, especially towards deeper sessions where the game is calculating 10-20 times more than in the beginning. The result is a steep drop off in fps, which starts around 120-130fps and on my Razer Blade 15, drops to as low as 65fps. What’s interesting to see is how well the i9 handled that same save game. I got a minimum 10fps improvement, with the only change in system specs being the CPU.
Emissions (noise, heat), Connectivity and speakers The cooling system on this laptop is surprisingly decent. I was actually expecting the CPU to throttle like crazy, but to my surprise, it performed very similarly to the GE75 I had about a month ago.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good look at the cooling system on this one. The motherboard is flipped, so the heatpipes are on the other side and there was no good way to see them without disassembling the laptop. If it were my own unit, I’d do it, but it’s a loaner so…
But I trust there are probably sufficient heatpipes and the fans are doing their job. The intakes are from the top and bottom side of the laptop and the exhausts are out the sides and rear. It’s a pretty standard design for the GS series, and I appreciate that they keep trying to improve on it. The pic below comes from this Disassembly video .
Under heavy gaming, I was seeing CPU temps reach the mid-90s and that’s where thermal throttling occurs. Ever since the hexa-cores were introduced into laptops, this has been the new thing, and octa-cores are no better. The good news is, with a little undervolting, those temperatures are much more controlled.
On top of that, you can control temps even more by purposely changing the fan profile. By default, it’s set to Auto, but if you switch to Basic mode, you can manually ramp up the auto fan curve to a higher level. Cooler Boost mode just sets things at maximum. There’s even an Advanced mode where you can make your own fan curve.
To give you a quick example, I ran Firestrike under a few different scenarios and recorded the average CPU and GPU temps during the test. Here’s what I got.
Mode (fans, UV) Avg/max CPU temp Avg/max GPU temp Scores – Graphics/Physics
Auto, no 72/96
63/71
20538/20449
Basic fast, no 98/68
60/69
20605/20341
Cooler boost, no 66/93
64/56
20792/21415
Auto, -125mV 70/92
65/72
20480/21470
Basic fast, -125mV 67/86
61/68
20673/21404
Cooler boost, -125mV 61/80
55/63
20770/21291
So from above, you can clearly see that undervolting is pretty much a must and is totally worth it. For testing purposes, I just used IntelXTU, which is very straight forward to use. If you’re not comfortable using that software, you should at least consider switching your gaming fan profile so that it keeps that CPU cool.
The fans on this unit are about as large as space allows and there are three of them. As for the noise levels, it’s as about what you’d expect for a laptop of this size. I took some noise levels in a quiet room, with ambient noise levels registering at 28dB.
With normal day to day tasks, I detected some light fan noise that measures 32dB at ear level and 35dB at the unit. Moderate gaming measured 37dB at ear level and 45dB at the laptop itself.
For heavy gaming, you get 45dB at the ear and about 59dB at the exhaust. I also turned on Cooler Boost mode, which pretty much maximizes the fans. With those turned on, I measured 52dB at ear level and 65dB at the unit. Pretty loud.
In general, the fans on Auto while unplugged provided near-silent running for my taste. When plugged in, I switched the fans to Basic >> Fast. You can also set these modes up in Dragon Center and switch profiles as you see fit.
For external temperatures, I took some readings on the outside of the casing, top, and bottom, while under normal loads and also while gaming. Here’s what I got:
*Daily Use – Netflix clip in EDGE for 30 minutes *Load – playing Battlefield V for 30+ minutes on ultra FHD settings
The underside temperatures were not surprising at all to me, considering there’s an i9 CPU paired with a 2080 Max-Q and this laptop is about as thin of a chassis as it gets. The normal usage temperatures were much more tolerable, though.
For connectivity, this unit carries the Intel AC 9560 module, which is pretty common these days and is very good. It also supplies Bluetooth 5.0. My internet connection was maxed out at 480Mbps as far as 30 feet from my access point. Solid connection the entire time I used it.
For audio, there’s a pair of downward-facing speakers. I’m not a huge fan of these ones as they lack bass and sounded kind of tinny to me. The GE75 spoiled me with those subwoofers, I think. I was able to get the Nahimic software to work and control some of the EQ settings but it required me to update the Realtek drivers for some reason. Nevertheless, it does help to balance the sound quality, but it doesn’t improve the bass – these speakers are just too small and are facing the wrong direction to improve much.
The loudest I could get the speakers was about 68dB, which is below average to me. But the bass dropped off heavily at about 150dB, which is also below average from what I’ve seen. It’s not a problem under normal circumstances, but while gaming, these speakers were very dampened by the fan noise.
Like the GE75 though, this machine has a Hifi audio jack, which is excellent if you own a pair of Hifi headphones. I frequently used my B&W P5’s and the sound was excellent. This is where the Nahimic software was really useful because I could turn the Movie and Gaming profiles to my liking.
Finally, there’s a small HD webcam above the screen. It’s there and is nothing special, as it’s the typical webcam you see on every gaming laptop these days. It’s not Windows Hello enabled either and the low light shots are grainy.
Battery life On MSI’s website, the spec for this model is listed at 82Whrs, however, the battery I received shows 80.2Whr. Not a big deal. But the part that really threw me off was the amount of battery wear that I am seeing right out of the box. There was a whopping 24.2%!
Not to panic though – it was only because the battery wasn’t calibrated (I think). After a complete discharge and recharge, my battery wear dropped to 2.3% and I got much better results. So for the testing below, I calculated some scenarios to estimate the battery usage for this machine.
10.5 W (~7 h 30 min of use) – idle, Best Battery Mode, screen at 0%, Wi-Fi ON;17.8 W (~4 h 24 min of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Better Battery Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;15.2 W (~5 h 10 min of use) – 1080p Youtube fullscreen in Chrome, Better Battery Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;17.2 W (~4 h 33 min of use) – 1080p Netflix fullscreen video in Chrome, Better Battery Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;12.0 W (~6 h 31 min of use) – 1080p fullscreen .mkv video in the Movie app, Better Battery Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;27.4 W (~2 h 51 min of use) – heavy browsing in Chrome, Better Performance Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;69.9 W (~1 h 7 min of use) – Gaming – No Man’s Sky, Maximum Performance Mode, 60fps, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON.
So for a gaming laptop, these results aren’t too bad. If you’re doing some heavy work on the machine though, don’t expect more than 3 hours.
It’s kind of annoying that I saw that much wear right off the bat, but it’s a minor relief that it’s correctable. I’m curious if others would have the same problem or if it’s isolated to my unit.
Price and availability The MSI GS75 is available at many retailers, including Amazon. The review model I have here is a whopping $3400, but keep in mind that this is the highest spec model, with the Core i9 and GTX 2080.
If that price is too high for you, there are plenty of i7 models that have GPUs ranging as low as the RTX 2060, with prices as low as $2000. And if that’s still too expensive, check out the earlier models with the i7-8750H, which are on sale at the time of this article for under $2000.
Follow this link for more details and updated prices at the time you’re reading the article .
Any way you go, this is a pretty big premium you are paying for the thinner and lighter form factor. You’ll want to do a little soul searching to see if this is worth the extra price over the GE75.
Final thoughts To conclude this article, I’m overall very pleased with the MSI GS75. As a laptop for productivity purposes, it’s just great, as it’s both portable, powerful and looks somewhat professional (when compared to most other 17” laptops).
It’s also very good for gaming, as long as you’re willing to settle for a Max-Q of the RTX 2080 GPU. It gets super hot, so playing on your lap is out of the question, but it’s still a great solution if you like to bring a gaming laptop out and about and still stay portable.
I’m especially happy with how well the i9 performs in this thin chassis. It’s very encouraging to see that octa-core processors are coming to thin and lights so soon after the hexa-cores were launched. To me, the i9s are the new i7s of old – a luxury that you probably don’t need, but are going to want… just because.
The main highlights of this laptop are most definitely the performance you get in such a light package. The keyboard is nice to type on as well, and that 144Hz screen is certainly appealing to look at and game on.
Still, as much as I enjoyed my time with this laptop, I can’t say it was picture perfect. Accidentally clicking that ultrawide trackpad was something that continued to happen, even into the 3rd week of use. I adjusted for the most part, but it’s still a frustrating problem to have and I wish there was a way to disable it without disabling the entire trackpad.
The only other complaints are minor, such as the lip on the lid being too small and the overall sturdiness of the laptop. Both of these things can be lived with, provided you are careful enough. If you’re prioritizing overall performance over the build quality, there’s no other machine this thin with an i9, so I could certainly overlook these things.
In fact, there aren’t all that many thin and light laptops out there at this screen size anyway. The closest competitors are the Asus Zephyrus GX701 and the Razer Blade 17 , both of which have been reviewed by us and still have the i7.
I haven’t handled the GX701, but after hearing from Andrei about it, I think it’s safe to assume that the build quality is better on the Asus than it is on the GS75. It is also definitely better with the Razer Blade Pro 17. So, if that’s something that’s important to you, you might want to consider those options.
The GS75 is both lighter and smaller than both those models though, so that’s also something to keep in mind. Really, for all three models, there are a lot of pros and cons to each – so you’ll probably want to give it some deep thought before making a purchase of this magnitude.
If MSI is your go-to brand, then you might want to also consider the GE75 , which I just reviewed not too long ago. It has pretty much the same specs, except a full version of the RTX 2080.
It’s a little thicker, but the build quality is much more sturdy. The only other major negatives are its more gamerish design, while the GS75 is much more subtle in my opinion, and the smaller battery, but that’s compensated by the much nicer speakers. These aside, I liked the keyboard better on the GS75, but I liked the screen and trackpad better on the GE75. Confused yet?
At the end of the day, the GS75 is still a very nice laptop. If you’re the type that typically is very careful with their machines, I think you’ll really like it – provided you can afford it. There really isn’t any other option this thin with such a powerful CPU/GPU combo.
Please leave me a comment below if you have any questions. I should have the review unit a few more days and I’m happy to test some more stuff out if you’re interested.
Review by: Derek Sullivan
Derek Sullivan - Review Editor . In addition to being a tech enthusiast, I have a career as a Biomedical Engineer. I enjoy taking things apart, figuring out how they work, and finding ways to make them better. My other hobbies include spending time with my family, "Do it yourself" projects such as home automation, and running.
Sonia
August 10, 2020 at 2:27 pm
Hi,
I'm considering buying same msi but 2020 model with i9 and 2070 super max-q.
I've seen reviews showing how i9 throttles and gets really hot. Have you experienced those issues?
I'm considering Razer blade 15 advanced with 2080 as an option. Is Razer really worth the money?
I hope for your fast response, I have my msi reserved and waiting but I'm not sure about i9…
Best,
Sonia
Derek Sullivan
August 10, 2020 at 3:44 pm
I can't speak to the i9 in the 2020 model as it's a CPU I haven't seen yet. It's safe to say it's going to throttle a little bit though.
I did review the Razer Blade 17, which has identical specs to the Razer Blade 15. Note that the i7-10875H in that model performed slightly better than the i9-9880H in this review. Now the i9-10980HK should outperform the i7-10875H, however I've seen the opposite in multiple sources so it's probably best to just trust those sources over looking at straight up specs. Unless you're a content creator, I don't think you'll notice the difference anyways and should probably rely on thermals as your motivator. That said, if you read that RB17 review, it's probably going to be similar to what I think about the 2020 Razer Blade 15 which I should have on hand next month. I rely liked the "Auto" mode in that model because it lowered the power limit on the CPU to make thermals awesome, and you could always increase it to max when needed. No idea if Dragon center does that with the new GS75, but you could always program it manually with Throttlestop, if you're savvy and patient enough to set it up.
Fwiw, I've been a long time MSI user but switched to Razer early last year and haven't regretted it. The specs are nearly the same, but the build quality and design aspects on the Blades are a lot nicer and worth the extra few hundred dollars if you ask me. Quality control kind of sucks on both companies, so be sure to inspect it thoroughly if and when you get one. You'll also have less quirks on the Razer like comparing the trackpads for example.
Andrei Girbea
August 10, 2020 at 4:00 pm
I'll just add that this review should help estimate what you can expect from an 8Core processor in this kind of a chassis: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/40683-msi-creator-17-review-miniled/ . The Creator 17 and the GS75 have a nearly identical internal design and thermal module.