MSI Creator 17 A10SGS Laptop Review: Winning with a Mini LED

The competitors of the Creator 17 include other 17-inch high-end laptops with a slim build such as the Razer Blade Pro 17, the Asus Zephyrus S GX701GXR, the Alienware m17 R2, and the MSI GS75 9SG sibling we already mentioned above.

Unfortunately, the case does not give justice to its premium price. Even though it is mostly made from aluminum, the materials creak a lot when trying to warp the case, which is similar to a cheap budget notebook and reduces the otherwise high-quality impression. Similarly to the GS75, the MSI leaves a lot to be desired in terms of the stability. Despite the use of metal, the lid and base unit can be pressed down noticeably. Other MSI models do markedly better here. But at least the workmanship is at the expected level.

In terms of pure visuals, the Creator 17 strikes a very good figure. The combination of the silver-gray color, slim-bezel design, and low height (2.0 cm, ~0.8 in) guarantee a very sleek and modern look that is neither too drab nor too playful and fits any situation. At around 2.4 kg (~5.3 lb), the weight is at the lower end of the scale of the 17-inch laptops and competitors. In addition, users will also be pleased with the relatively large opening angle of 150°.

Connections

In terms of the connections, MSI hardly makes any compromises. If you disregard the microSD card reader (we would have preferred a standard model here), the Creator 17 offers an ample selection of connections, be it the RJ45 port, the two audio ports, the HDMI-2.0 port, or the Kensington lock opening. Those are accompanied by one Thunderbolt-3 port, one USB-C 3.1 Gen2 port, and according to the MSI home page, three USB-A 3.0 ports (while the labels on the case indicate 3.1 Gen2 = SS10). Since the connections are all located in the center area of both sides, there might be some limits in terms of movement with a lot of connected cables, if you are using a mouse.

Due to our recently changed test setup using an ax router instead of an ac router, the test results can only be compared with those of the Asus ROG Zephyrus S. The 1270 Mb/s when sending and 1340 Mb/s when receiving data achieved by the Creator 17 at a one-meter distance show the advantages of a very modern Wi-Fi chip. Instead of the Wireless AC 9560 that used to be very popular, the Wi-Fi 6 AX201 handles wireless connections here.

Like most manufacturers, MSI uses only a mediocre webcam, to say the least. The image sharpness and color accuracy leave something to be desired.

Besides the selection of colors, the fingerprint sensor integrated into the touchpad represents one of the most important differences to the GS75.

A 230-watt power supply weighing about 0.7 kg (~1.5 lb) and measuring 15 x 7 x 3 cm (~5.9 x 2.8 x 1.2 in) is included. 

In order to reach the insides, you first have to remove a total of 15 screws from the case bottom and then pry it from its moorings. As you can see in the photos, some parts of the components are covered by a black foil, leaving only the fans, the battery, and the two M.2 slots directly accessible.

The touchpad mainly stands out with its width. 14 cm (~5.5 in) offers a lot of space for horizontal mouse movements. On the other hand, the vertical space is only 6.5 cm (~2.6 in). The smooth finish allows the fingers to slide comfortably and quickly across the surface. The gesture support (scrolling and zooming with two fingers, for example) also scores some positive points, even though this is the standard at this point. Left and right clicks in the lower corners of the touchpad are mostly recognized reliably, but they produce a quite loud clattering sound. 

The new Mini LED display turns out to be the absolute highlight of the Creator 17. Unless mentioned otherwise, the following values were produced without HDR, because when using HDR, the MSI color profiles did not run as they were supposed to, and there were also some software and hardware problems with our measurement tools.

With an octa-core CPU, 32 GB of RAM, a 2 TB SSD, and an 8 GB graphics card, the Creator 17 definitely belongs to the high-end segment and should also offer sufficient reserves for future years – as long as you don't insist on the UHD resolution in 3D applications. 

The octa-core model, which comes from the Comet Lake generation and is able to handle up to 16 threads in parallel via Hyper-Threading, offers 16 MB of L3 cache and a basic clock speed of 2.3 GHz. Via Turbo Boost, up to 5.1 GHz is possible under load. However, the Creator 17 is only able to make use of its overclocking potential to a limited extent. About 3.4 GHz under load of all cores (4.2 to 4.8 GHz under single-core load) points to a borderline cooling system. 

Despite its limited Turbo, the 10875H is able to move slightly ahead of the old Core i7-9750H hexa-core darling, which is used in many of the competing laptops, as our Cinebench loop and the rest of the CPU benchmarks show.

According to PCMark 10, the Creator 17 lands in third place behind the Asus GX701GXR and the MSI GS75 9SG in the system performance. As expected, the laptop operates very quickly in terms of booting up, starting programs, and other load times.

MSI has equipped our test unit with a 2 TB NVMe SSD from Samsung. The PM981 is known for its high performance, which also goes for the Creator 17. The slightly smaller models in the Razer Blade Pro 17 and Asus ROG Zephyrus S, which come from the same build series, are beaten by about 20% in the CrystalDiskMark test. In contrast, the RAID combinations of the GS75 Stealth and Alienware m17 R2 perform at the same level.

The GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q is a version of the regular RTX 2080 Super that is especially trimmed for efficiency. The RTX 2080 Super is meant for slim laptops designed for mobility. While the amount of shader units (3072) and the size of the video storage (8 GB GDDR6) are identical, the Max-Q version has significantly lower clock speeds. In the case of the Creator 17, the standard clock speed is only 735 instead of 1365 MHz. However, like the CPU, the GPU is able to receive an automatic boost (up to 1845 MHz in the Render test of the GPU-Z tool).

Using our The Witcher 3 role-playing game for one hour, we evaluated how the clock speed behaves over a longer time period. On average, the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q maintained 1215 MHz here. With this value, the Creator 17 ends up at the bottom of our field of comparison devices. Depending on the benchmark, the competitors were between 1 and 20% faster – and that without the "Super" addition. This is not surprising, since the Turing chip is also available with a higher TGP, which explains the better results (990 MHz basic clock speed).

But whether with high or low TGP, overall the RTX 2080 (Super) Max-Q does not really deserve its label, since its performance is hardly any different than that of the RTX 2070 (Super). At times, the latter is even faster. Whether you want to blame Nvidia (specifications) or the laptop manufacturer (cooling system) remains up to you.

In the native UHD resolution of 3840x2160 pixels, the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q is unable to run every current game smoothly and at maximum details. More demanding games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Control keep stuttering along. Things look much better in the QHD resolution of 2560x1440. Less than 60 FPS is a rarity here. Unfortunately, this resolution is not supported by the internal display, which is too bad. In Full HD resolution (1920x1080), all the games run smoothly.

To repeat it again: The Creator 17 was not designed for pure gaming. There are more affordable and better adjusted alternatives for that. The target group is clearly professional content creators. 

You should not expect a low noise level when you buy this. At times, the fans even rev up without any reason already during idle mode, producing a noise level of almost 40 dB(A). Under load, the Creator 17 produces between 46 and 48 dB(A). Although this is not louder than the competitors, the use of headphones is still recommended. In general, the noise characteristic of the Creator 17 fans is slightly uncomfortable (a permanent whirring noise).

The sound quality places the laptop in the middle of the field. The Creator 17 has two speakers that are hidden in the front area of the two sides. Since there is no subwoofer, the bass is also lacking. Instead, the 2.0 system is able to score with ample volume (up to 91 dB).

For a Max-Q device with Optimus technology, the power consumption is quite high in parts (up to 42 watts during idle operation). This is not only related to the octa-core processor but also the bright Mini LED display. 

The 82-Wh battery guarantees a solid but not outstanding battery life. Depending on the load and display brightness, the Creator 17 lasts between one and seven hours. When surfing the Internet via WLAN (at medium brightness), you can expect about 4.5 hours.