Verdict
The MSI GF63 Thin has cut some corners to deliver an RTX 40 - series laptop computer for under £ 900 , but it tot up to a great value selection .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
MSI ’s entry - layer sparse and Katana - serial publication play laptops have always offer enough play potentiality at a very fairish price . Typically , they employ the latest generationGPUsbut partner with slightly erstwhile IntelCPUs . The2022 Thin GF63 11UCwas a classic example of this . Now , the latest MSI GF63 Thin has make it .
The modish MSI Thin GF63 automobile have now rocked up featuring the late RTX 40 - series GPUs from Nvidia but 12th rather than 13th generation Intel chips . This gives a little away in terms of central processing unit execution to the latest Raptor Lake CPUs but since the Alder Lake chips that preceded them were no slouches the impact is bordering on the minimum .
The result that this scheme has on damage is not to be lowball because if you tell on around cannily ( MSI regularly bunk advancement with its key retail partner ) the new Thin GF63 can be blame up for under £ 900 which is dirt flash for a laptop computer with the latest generation graphics card though it ’s a fair bit more than 2022 theoretical account which can be peck up for £ 700 .
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Design and Keyboard
The 2023 GF63 looks and experience a lot like the old RTX 30 / Tiger Lake - seriesmodel from 2022 . That means that get an atomic number 13 lid and keyboard deck and a rather more material feel than you might expect for this terms . The all - black surface really shows up fingermark though and very apace starts to search like a smudgy good deal as you could see in these photograph .
At 21.7 millimetre wooden-headed , I ’m not sure I ’d really name the Thin as tenuous , but it only weighs 1.86 kg and it ’s a flyspeck 359 wide x 254 millimetre deep . For a 15.6 - in laptop computer , it ’s surely very portable . The 120W power brick is usefully small and light too .
When it comes to I / group O ports MSI has done a right job with the GF63 . On the correct slide , you ’ll feel two USB - A 3.2 Gen 1 data ports , a Type - C port of the same specification that also support DP Alt Mode video output signal , a 1 gigabit RJ-45 LAN port and two 3.5 mm audio doodly-squat , one mic - in , one headphone - out .
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On the opposite side , is another USB - A and the DC - in seaman while at the back is a solitaryHDMI 1.4 videooutput . That ’s a becoming selection of I / O port though given the choice I ’d have prefer the power diddlyshit to be at the back next to the HDMI and Type - C on the left to make things more balanced ergonomically .
The display is sandwich top and bottom between rather thick plastic bezels – 17 millimeter above and 27 mm below – which lend the GF63 a slimly old - fashioned look with the hat up . Above the screen sits a 720p webcam that captures a reasonably nappy and colourful image though it does n’t supportWindows Hello facial recognitionwhich is a shame in the absence of a fingerprint scanner on the keyboard . The F6 keystone serves to change state the webcam on and off if you are apprehensive about prying eyes .
The base of the keyboard is more whippy than I would like and the action is both shallow and vague with a febrile and cheap feel to it . It ’s not a keyboard I ’d like to spend any length of clock time typing or gaming on . The cherry-red backlight has three levels of luminousness and as both the keycaps and side are painted crimson it look much the same even when the backlight is turned off .
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There ’s very lilliputian in the way of bet on optimisation so there is nothing to key out the WASD Francis Scott Key . There are however four full - sized arrow key and an additional words of keys at the far right wing for Page Up , Down , End and Home . The volume and display brightness level FN controls are also all on the low-pitched right wing of the keypad rather than on the F wrangle at the top which these 6 samara without a job .
At 105 x 65 mm , the charge plate trackpad is a little on the small side but it works reliably and the click - military action has a clear and accurate natural action .
Getting the bottom board off the GF63 is not at all promiscuous because the 3.5 mm and USB connectors on the right field all want to come in off with the foundation and I could find no style around that . You also need to dispatch the plastic saloon between the hinges and peel off a manufacturing plant seal sticker .
Assuming you manage to open it up , or you take it to a professional , you’re able to add a 2.5 - inch SATA 3 effort , switch out the 512GBSSDfor a threefold - sided unit up to 2 terabyte and get to the two DDR4RAMslots and wireless modem . The 52.4Wh battery however is firmly fixed in billet .
Incidentally , the GF63 ship with a Samsung - made PCIe 4 512 GB SSD which show unimpressive average read and publish speeds of 3,627MB / s and 2,505MB / s respectively . I expected better .
Like many MSI ’s you may get at a massively expanded in advance BIOS by agitate Ctrl Shift Alt F2 . This lets you mess around with just about every parameter you care to mention . The potential for optimisation , or bricking , is endless .
Display and Sound
The FullHD IPS video display is very much a bargain - bucket affair and the only matter to really commend about it is the 144Hz refresh pace and the maximal brightness of 285 nit which is just second-rate rather than apparently bad .
There ’s precious little colour in evidence with just 61.5 % of thesRGB gamut volumecovered along with 42.2 % Adobe RGB and 43.6 % DCI - P3 . The colour that there is step sadly inaccurate with a Delta E variance against the sRGB profile of 4.96 , way above 3 which is the accepted upper limit of reasonable accuracy .
apparent movement manipulation is n’t great either with a mess of ghosting seeable . With no overdrive , no support for Nvidia G - Sync or AMD FreeSync and no multiplexer switch to link up the Nvidia GPU directly to the covert instantly there is nothing you could do to improve the aspect or performance of the display . At least the introductory VSync carrying out manage to keep screen tearing under ascendance .
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The carrying out of the 2 x 2W loudspeaker system system add up as a very pleasant surprise . There ’s a decorous amount of bulk – 71dB(A ) from a pinkish randomness source at 1 m – and some firm and punchy bass part . Details grade are good too and the audio never falls apart even at the maximal intensity setting . The speakers are in a unlike league from those inside the Gigabyte G5 .
Performance
Nvidia ’s RTX 4050 GPU pack 6 GB ofvRAMand can be configured with a TGP of anything between 35 and 115W. In the GF63 12VE , it ’s tune up down to the low end of that scale with a nonremittal TGP of 35W and a upper limit of 45W. immix that with a12th - generation Intel Core i5 CPU(in this case the octa - core i5 - 12450H which has 4 operation and 4 efficiency cores with 8 GB of DDR4 system of rules RAM ) is not a formula for dais - pull performance .
On a more incontrovertible note side , the RTX 4050 is far more capable than its RTX 3050 forebear and Nvidia ’s DLSS 3 upscaling tech manages to supercharge frame rate to a grade previously unthinkable . And thanks to the relatively low - powered CPU and GPU the individual chill fan does n’t have to work too hard or break away too garish to keep everything cool .
To get the undecomposed carrying out you ’ll need to be train to monkey with the detail configurations of really postulate games and peradventure even plough off ray tracing but at this price level you probably knew that already .
The Returnal benchmark ran at an impressive 50fps on the high Epic scope but with ray tracing turned off . give the axe up DLSS and you’re able to have ray tracing and a soma pace 69fps . Cyberpunk 2077 meanwhile scat at a playable 45fps with DLSS plant to Performance . Without DLSS the frame rate dropped to the mid-20s at the Ultra detail place setting . Knock the detail degree back and you may comfortably get 60fps .
Less require titles apparently flow quicker , F1 22 ran at 74fps and Horizon Zero Dawn at 77fps both at the highest item mise en scene . Triple - A gambling then is well within the 2023 Thin GF63 ’s capabilities , something you could n’t say about the 2022 RTX 3050 model .
The synthetic benchmark scores show that the 2023 GF63 is a considerable footfall ahead over the 2022 model . The PCMark 10 score of 5,636 and the Cinebench R23 multi - core score of 10,100 show that the GF63 is a tidy little performer with the capability to perform most productivity job with alacrity .
The Intel AX201 Wi - Fi card only abide the 2.4 and 5GHz Wi - Fi 6 wavelengths not the 6GHz of Wi - Fi 6E while it ’s Bluetooth 5.2 onboard . The Ethernet port is only 1GbE speeding but I did n’t have a bun in the oven anything more .
Battery Life
Cheaper MSI laptop computer typically do not excel when it comes to assault and battery life but the GF63 did n’t perform at all badly when you reflect on the relatively scummy 52.4Wh capacity of the electric battery .
The PCMark 10 Office trial drained the battery in just over 5 and a half hours which is much good than the 2022 model managed and in light-colored usage with the presentation brightness level plow aright down I was able to stretch that number to just over 6 hours .
gambling on bombardment big businessman can of course drain the barrage fire much more speedily even though the exhibit refresh rate drops from 144 to 60Hz when you disconnect it . Playing a lightweight biz like Prodeus ( if you ’ve not played this , you really should ) on shelling put the lights out in 1 minute and 15 minutes .
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Should you buy it?
If you want a laptop computer that can play the latest ray - trace Triple - A plot for the minimum amount of money indeed you should . This is the cheapest RTX 40 laptop computer around at the second and for £ 900 it ’s a very attractive political machine .
As with the Gigabyte G5 , the GF63 has been pound with some trim down - price components to get the price as modest as potential . While the G5 has a decent keyboard but frightful verbalizer the GF63 has good speakers but a pretty hapless keyboard . Both the G5 and the GF63 have distinctly low - split displays .
Final Thoughts
At the death of the day , you have to keep in psyche that the unexampled GF63 only cost £ 900 and that scurvy price full stop earns it a lot of allowance . If like me you tend to have your laptop surcharge up to an external keyboard and supervise for lengthy gaming or study Roger Sessions the fact that the MSI ’s keyboard and showing are a bit half - baked wo n’t be a problem . However , if it is a job for you and you ’re after a more well - flesh out gambling laptop , you may expect to the mid - range at a gadget like the £ 1180Asus TUF Gaming A15 ( 2023 ) .
But , for £ 899 you are puzzle a impertinent , capable and well - destine laptop with good deal of upgrade options , assume you are courageous enough to murder the groundwork panel , and that look the part . I do n’t suppose you’re able to seriously ask for more at the price .
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How we test
Every laptop we review exit through a serial of uniform hitch designed to estimate key thing include material body tone , functioning , cover quality and battery life .
These include gaming and synthetical benchmarks and written tests , plus a series of literal - world checks , such as how well it runs popular apps and treble - A games
FAQs
The GF63 does a good occupation of looking and perform like a thoroughbred gaming laptop computer . For the asking price , you ca n’t really ask for any more .
The benefit of having a comparatively low - powered GPU and CPU is that the single fan does n’t necessitate to work too hard or make too flash a noise to keep the laptop computer coolheaded , so no , the GF63 does n’t suffer from any thermal issues .
Test Data
Full Specs
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