MSI GE66 Thermals Tested – Good Performance That Doesn’t Melt!

The 2070 models. Arent Max Q, though so the GPU would use a little more wattage. You can check out other options and updated prices linked in the description. Air, comes in through the vents underneath towards the back and is exhausted out of the back corners and on the left and right sides towards the back. Inside. There are a couple of fans as well as two heatpipes, that cross over to the other side. Theyre, not strictly shared in the sense that the pipes dont touch both CPU and GPU, and it looks like weve got some nice VRM coverage. Too nice. Perhaps my unit appears to have an overflow of paste. It doesnt look like a factory application, so might just be my review unit Im, not sure, but it could potentially affect the results: a little., The MSI Dragon Center software lets you select between different performance modes, which, from lowest to highest, are silent, balanced and extreme modes.. Youve got the option of overclocking the GPU in extreme performance mode. However, no overclock was applied by default.. You can also toggle coolerboost here, which sets the fan to max speed. However, there is some manual customization that can be done to CPU or GPU fan. Theres. Also, no undervolting done out of the box and by default its disabled. However, if you boot into the BIOS and then press this epic cheat code, youll be able to enable undervolting, as well as a ton of other options, so be careful and only change what you understand.

. Although the RTX 2080 Super is Max Q, its using Nvidias new Dynamic Boost, which means the power limit, can boost higher depending on. If there is power available., I saw a 105 watt average in a GPU only stress test, but it will be less with the CPU active closer to its regular 90 watt limit, which is what happens if dynamic boost were to be disabled.. Thermals were tested with a 21 degree Celsius, ambient room, temperature. Idle results down. The bottom were ok. Worst case. Stress tests were done with the Aida64 CPU stress test, with CPU only checked and the Heaven benchmark at max settings. At the same time, while gaming was tested with Watch Dogs 2, as I find it to use a good combination of processor and graphics. Temperatures were the warmest in silent mode when under either workload, which makes sense, as this mode is designed to run the fans quieter And the GPU was thermal throttling. In the stress test. The CPU was thermal throttling in balanced mode at 95 degrees Celsius, but the increased fan, speed from extreme mode was enough to remove this. Meanwhile, in this particular game, CPU thermal throttling was less of an issue long term. There were just some spikes. When we enable coolerboost so set the fans to max speed. Theres, a decent improvement to thermals. Undervolting didnt affect temperatures with the stress test running, but helped the game a little. Then a cooling pad helped a fair bit more.

. These are the average clock speeds while running the same tests.. Basically, performance increases as we step up through the modes, however, were not hitting the full all core turbo boost. Speed of the i9. The best were able to do is 4.0 to 4.1GHz over all 8 cores with undervolting still an ok result, though, and Id expect better results with the 6 core option, as there would be fewer cores to power.. This is a result of the power limits.. With the stress test running the CPU would not pass 45 watts despite PL1 being set higher.. The GPU would often run at 90 watts, though, in a GPU, only workload Max Q, dynamic boost was able to push this up to 105 watts., As both of these workloads hit. The processor, too, were only really seeing the GPU boost up with the game running in silent, mode. Im, assuming this is due to the game not being as heavy as the stress test, but the CPU still uses less power, so the GPU is able to take it. Instead., Interestingly, with this game, the CPU power limit was also able to boost higher compared to the 45 watts noted in the stress tests. So it seems to depend on the workload, but again that could be part of dynamic boost. Anyway. This explains why the temperatures in extreme modes were quite good, for the most part were being hit with that processor power limit. In a CPU. Only stress test with the GPU now idle silent mode still has the same 30 watt limit.

However, this increases with any of the other modes.. Basically, thermal throttling was being hit in this stress test. Any time we increase from silent mode, but as the fan speed also increases throughout the modes, we still observe a steady improvement to the clock. Speeds. Ive used Cinebench to show you how these different modes perform and surprise surprise. The multicore score closely follows the clock speeds that we just saw.. When we look at how this stacks up against others, the single core result is one of the best tested not far off the 9900K in the GT76.. The multi core score is decent, the second best 10980HK Ive tested. So far, though, its worth noting the cheaper RP 15 with Ryzen, 7 4800H is doing far better there, especially considering how much cheaper it is.. When we look at how an actual game performs in these different modes, its, not all that different silent mode is still giving excellent performance, as weve still got high GPU power levels here, as noted earlier. For a CPU heavier game performance differences may be more pronounced. But when I was testing watch dogs 2, it was still running smoothly.. We can also get a nice 6 boost by overclocking the GPU undervolting, the CPU and using a cooling pad, which is more than what I typically see with these changes.. If you want to see more gaming benchmarks from the GE66 check the card in the top right or link in the description where Ive tested 21 games at all, setting levels.

, As for the external temperatures, where youll actually be putting your hands at idle in silent mode, It was in the low 30s, pretty standard., With the stress tests going. The wrist rests are cool its quite warm in the center and hot to the touch up. The back, though you dont need to touch there. Its a little cooler in balanced mode, as the fans increase here, perhaps a little cooler still with extreme mode. The middle was a bit warm, but not bad.. With coolerboost enabled it gets a fair bit, cooler to the touch and the wrist rests are still cool. Lets have a listen to how loud the fans get. At idle. The fans were just audible, but from time to time they would boost up a bit louder, and this was to a similar level as just watching a YouTube. Video and browsing Chrome., With the stress tests going in silent mode, its still on the quieter side. And if you recall, gaming performance was still quite good there. So gaming with a quieter machine is definitely possible at the expense of higher temperatures.. Balanced mode was louder but still lower compared to most gaming. Laptops. Extreme mode was more in line with other gaming laptops at max, then cooler boost is quite loud, youll definitely want headphones or something, but I think this is a good thing., As there is some fan, control and the different modes, it gives you the choice of Running it, how you like cooler and louder or warmer and quieter.

Overall, I think the performance from the GE66 is quite good.. There are a number of different performance modes to choose from youve, got the option of running quieter, while still getting great performance.. You can boost the fans if you want to run much cooler and, unlike the Lenovo 7i, you can manually boost them, though, at the end of the day, the clock speeds are only a little ahead of the 7i, but the GE66 runs a fair bit. Cooler. Thermals are generally kept in check due to the lower CPU power limit when the GPU is active.. This does unfortunately mean that when both the CPU and GPU are being hit hard, some performance is lost, but, as we saw in actual games, the performance is excellent and its good to have plenty of options.. What MSI is offering in their advanced BIOS, such as the option to unlock undervolting, is great. Many other laptops are simply not doing this.. In any case, the performance being lost clearly isnt, really making a difference in games.. If you caught my game benchmark video link in the description, the GE66 with this hardware, is performing extremely well, basically only being beaten by thicker, more expensive models with a desktop processor, so yeah, quite impressive, all things considered.. Let me know what you thought about the thermals from the MSI GE66 gaming laptop down in the comments and if youre new to the channel youll definitely want to get subscribed for the upcoming full review to see everything.