MSI Delta 15 gaming laptop review: The Radeon RX 6700M makes its debut

The Delta 15's biggest rivals include similarly sized gaming laptops with a Ryzen CPU and a high-end GPU from Nvidia's Ampere generation, such as the Asus TUF Gaming A15 FA506QR, the Asus ROG Strix G15 G513QR, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503Q, and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 G533QS.

While the first two laptops sport the RTX 3070 (TGPs of 90 and 130 watts, respectively), the latter laptops feature the RTX 3080 (100 and 130 watts, respectively). We chose two different comparison alternatives in each case in order to cover the TGP spectrum of the Ampere chips to some extent. The tables also include the first RX 6800M device that we reviewed, the Asus ROG Strix G15 513QY.

The case leaves a good impression. Although its stability could be better in some areas (e.g. at the center of the palm rest), the Delta 15 doesn't allow as much torsion compared to the similarly thin GS series. The build quality hardly offers any room for criticism. Nearly all the elements in our review sample merge smoothly with each other.

The 15-incher is visually appealing as well. Its design looks fresh and slightly playful, especially due to the dragon logo on the lid and the streamlined ventilation grilles on the base unit. Nevertheless, the Delta 15 is still quite discreet thanks to its dark gray surfaces (the cover is made of metal). The wide aperture angle is another highlight (see photos): Only very few laptops can manage 180°.

Despite its extremely powerful hardware, the Delta 15 is a lightweight among gaming laptops. Most competitors exceed a weight of just under 2 kg. Things are even better when it comes to the build height: At 1.9 cm (without the case feet), the Delta 15 is the thinnest device in the test field (the rest are between 2.0 and 2.8 cm tall). Later on, we'll analyze if the low build height has a negative impact on the cooling system or the emissions.

Ports

The Delta 15's connectivity could have been a bit more comprehensive. In addition to a card reader and an RJ45 port, a Thunderbolt port is also missing (this is an AMD-related issue). In exchange, all the available USB ports (2x Type-A, 2x Type-C) support the modern 3.2 Gen 2 standard. An HDMI port (4K @60 Hz) is also included for image output. Since one of the Type-C ports offers DisplayPort functionality as an alternative, it's possible to connect two external monitors.

The port distribution is rather suboptimal. Since they are positioned relatively in the center of the side areas, you might face movement limitations when connecting a mouse.

Although the Delta 15 is equipped with Intel's latest wireless module (Wi-Fi 6E AX210), this isn't enough to make it to the top in the Wi-Fi test. The 15-incher comes in fifth place both when sending and receiving data (1 m distance to our Netgear Nighthawk AX12 reference router).

The webcam quality won't knock anyone's socks off. As expected, image sharpness and color accuracy are quite modest.

The contents included in the box consist of a medium-sized 240-watt power adapter (572 g) and a few information booklets.

MSI deserves some criticism for the limited maintenance options. Although the base cover can be removed after taking out 13 screws, only the fans, the battery, and the wireless module are accessible inside the case due to the extensive use of adhesive foil. The RAM slots (2x SO-DIMM) as well as the mass storage slots (2x M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4) would involve further disassembly. This is often solved in a much better way by the competition.

As usual, the warranty covers a period of two years (Pick Up and Return Service).

The touchpad is rather small in view of its size of 10.5 x 6.5 cm, but its operation has been designed in such a way that you rarely have to lift your finger in order to reposition it. The smooth surface provides good gliding properties. The pad's accuracy and multitouch support didn't show any problems in the test. On the other hand, the mouse click noise is quite noticeable. In general, the touchpad sounds quite clattery and therefore of inferior quality. Most gamers will probably connect an external mouse anyway.

When it comes to the display, the Delta 15 isn't quite able to keep up with the competition. Although the color-space coverage (98% sRGB) and response times are roughly on par, the MSI laptop struggles in the remaining categories.

AMD is finally returning to the high-end graphics card segment. This should lead to increased competition as soon as the situation regarding component supply has eased (keywords: "Chip shortage", etc.). Thanks to the octa-core CPU and the powerful RX 6700M, the Delta 15 is a true gaming laptop that will also appeal to enthusiast gamers due to its high performance.

The Ryzen 9 5900HX almost looks too powerful in view of the laptop's dimensions and weight. The AMD octa-core model runs at 3.3 to 4.6 GHz under load and can process up to 16 threads in parallel via SMT. The L3 cache is 16 MB.

We examined the performance of the 7 nm CPU over a prolonged period of time with our Cinebench R15 loop. The result: Performance remains surprisingly stable and ranks at a medium level for the Ryzen 9 5900HX. In the newer Cinebench versions (R20 and R23), however, the Delta 15 comes in last among the comparison devices, which are mostly thicker and heavier though.

The MSI laptop can really impress in terms of system performance. 7,316 points in PCMark 10 represent the top position. Subjectively as well, the operating system runs very fast and responds quickly.

MSI installs a 1000 GB NVMe SSD as the mass storage device in the Delta 15's test configuration. Based on our benchmarks, the Micron 2210 is roughly on par with the Samsung PM991 (Asus G513QY). The ADATA SSD in the Asus G533QS is slower, but the SK Hynix SSD in the Asus GA503Q and FA506QR is even faster.

The main highlight of the Delta 15 is definitely the brand-new GPU. With the Radeon RX 6700M, AMD offers a high-end counterpart to Nvidia's renowned Ampere generation (RTX 3060 to RTX 3080). The amount of video memory alone reveals that AMD is taking matters seriously. 10 GB of GDDR6 memory is appropriate for a top-of-the-range mobile gaming model. In comparison, the RTX 3070 has to make do with 8 GB, and the RTX 3060 only has 6 GB.

In view of the increasingly extreme VRAM requirements of modern games (e.g. Deathloop, Resident Evil Village, or Far Cry 6), this is a thoughtful and pleasing decision that also ensures a high degree of future-proofing for users. Additional specifications like the clock rate, the number of shaders, and the memory interface can be found on our dedicated GPU article.

The RX 6700M does very well against the Nvidia competition in our benchmark course. In this way, the AMD chip usually performs at the level of the GeForce RTX 3070, which is in line with the initial expectations. In 3DMark's Fire Strike test, the RX 6700M actually surpasses the top model from Nvidia, the GeForce RTX 3080 (at least in the TGP versions of the comparison devices). The Radeon RX 6800M, which isn't very widespread yet, is about 20% ahead on average.

The gaming performance rating depends strongly on ray tracing. When ray tracing is enabled, the Radeon RX 6700M is often beaten by the Ampere generation, tending to be on par with its older Turing counterpart. As a result, fans of this new technology are still better off with Nvidia.

If you play without ray tracing, which isn't available in most games anyway, the Delta 15 delivers a very good performance. As in the synthetic graphics benchmarks, the Radeon RX 6700M is a threat to the GeForce RTX 3070 and sometimes even to the RTX 3080 in everyday gaming. So Nvidia needs to be careful here.

In general, the Radeon RX 6700M is fast enough to bring any modern game at the native Full HD resolution (1920x1080) and maximum settings smoothly onto the screen. Only in extremely demanding or poorly programmed games like Crysis Remastered or Cyberpunk 2077 does the frame rate drop below the 60 FPS mark.

A minor drawback: According to our 60-minute test with The Witcher 3 (Full HD/Ultra), the 3D performance drops a bit after prolonged load. This issue is mainly related to the laptop (cooling system) and not necessarily to the graphics card.

When it comes to noise development, there are no surprises. 47 to 51 dB(A) under load are typical values for a gaming laptop, which are also in line with the competition. At this level, the 15-incher is neither quiet nor extremely loud in 3D mode.

When the laptop is idle, the fans are occasionally silent. However, smaller tasks like launching programs can quickly cause the fans to rev up, which is quite annoying. That said, as already mentioned, we used the highest performance mode (there is also a "Silent" profile, for example).