240 W AC adapter is just barely enough for the MSI Crosshair A16 HX

Pairing the right AC adapter with the right laptop can be tricky. If the adapter is too small, then charging rates or performance may be hindered especially when running demanding loads like games. On the other hand, a larger adapter would ensure both maximum Turbo Boost performance and charging rates, but portability can be a problem. The AC adapter for the recent MSI Crosshair A16 HX arguably leans more towards the former than the latter for better or worse.

As noted in our review of the MSI laptop, the aforementioned MSI system ships with a 240 W AC adapter even though average consumption when gaming would reach almost 250 W. By drawing more power than the AC adapter is designed for, the charging rate of the laptop would slow to a crawl if attempting to game and charge simultaneously.

In addition to the slowed charging, the temperature of the AC adapter would be noticeably warmer as well. We're able to measure a surface temperature of almost 60 C on the AC adapter when running Cyberpunk 2077 compared to the usual ~45 to 50 C on the AC adapters for other gaming laptops.

A larger and more capable 280 W AC adapter would have likely addressed both issues above albeit at the cost of size and portability. Frequent travelers may find the 240 W adapter just right for the Crosshair A16 HX, but performance hunters may find it a bit underpowered considering how demanding the Ryzen 9 8940HX and RTX 5070 can be.