MSI GS63VR 6RF Stealth Pro Notebook Review

MSI has revised the chassis of the GS63VR Stealth Pro, but the basic design is similar to the predecessor. The dark chassis is still made of a black aluminum alloy with a brushed finish. Except for the red logo on the lid (with a white illuminated dragon) and the red strip at the back, the visuals are pretty restrained and the notebook should not attract too much attention, even in office environments. We like the cool construction, but it is basically a magnet for fingerprints. The bottom panel is made of plastic and covered with some kind of cloth surface in many places. They improve the handling and provide some protection against high surface temperatures.

We are not completely satisfied with the stability, but this is not a big surprise when you consider the slim construction. The whole base unit shows signs of flexing and can also be warped, which will result in inconvenient creaking in some places. The slim lid can be twisted quite easily as well, but at least pressure from behind is not a big issue and does not create ripples on the screen. The two hinges are conveniently firm, but you can still open the lid with one hand. The construction also allows a maximum opening angle of 180 degrees. The build quality on the other hand is very good. All parts fit very well and we could not find any flaws in our test model.

The big advantage of the GS63VR is obviously the very compact design. Our test model does miss the claimed weight (1.9 vs 1.8 kg/~4.2 vs 4 lb), but it is still the lightest laptop within our comparison group. This is also the case for the footprint as well as the height of the MSI at just 17.7 mm (~0.7 in; ~20 mm/~0.8 incl. support feet).

There is not much to criticize in terms of port selection since the GS63VR covers all modern standards including Thunderbolt 3, DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI and USB Type-C. Unfortunately, according to the specification sheet, the HDMI output supports only the 1.4 standard so high-resolution 4K screens can only be driven at 60 Hz via DisplayPort. The laptop does support Nvidia’s Optimus technology, which means that there is no G-Sync support for the internal screen. There are plenty of USB ports (1x USB-C Gen.2, 3x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0).

The port layout is a bigger issue. The cooling solution occupies big parts of the rear section, so all the connectors are located very far to the front of the two sides and the USB 3.0 ports on the left in particular are very crowded. Left handers in particular might have problems when they use an external mouse.

MSI uses communication modules from Killer. Wired connections are handled by the Killer e2400 Gigabit Ethernet controller and wireless connections by the Wireless-n/a/ac 1535 module. The latter supports all the common standards including the fast 802.11ac in 2.4 as well as 5 GHz networks and can reach a transfer rate of up to 867 Mbps. Our standardized WLAN test with the router Linksys EA8500 (~1 meter/~3 ft away) determines 606 Mbps receiving, so the 1535 module is just beaten by the Intel 8260 adapter. However, our test model can take the top spot in our comparison group during transmitting and manages 539 Mbps. We did not experience any issues in terms of signal quality over the course of the review, either. Bluetooth 4.1 can be used for connections as well.

MSI has also implemented the familiar Killer Network Manager. It can be used to prioritize applications, for instance. One new feature is the MSI exclusive Killer Shield, which is supposed to protect the network module against electromagnetic interferences.

MSI has equipped the GS63VR with a Trusted Platform Module (2.0), even though it is not a business notebook.

The GS63VR Stealth Pro is shipped in a nicely designed box, but there are not many accessories. You only get the power adapter, a cleaning cloth and some service brochures.

The major software addition is MSI’s Dragon Center. This control panel grants access to many options, including fan controls, keyboard illumination or service documents such as the manual. There are also basic monitoring tools for the components (load and temperature).

MSI also ships the test model with a one-year premium license for the XSplit Gamecaster, which can be used to record and stream gaming scenes. Another special service for gamers is the network WTFast (two-month premium license), which is supposed to reduce the latency for online gaming.

MSI offers a two-year warranty for the GS63VR by default, and it includes a free Pick-up & Return service.

Please see our Guarantees, Return Policies & Warranties FAQ for country-specific information.

The gaming laptop MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro is currently only available in our review configuration in Germany, and the specifications are quite good. A quad-core processor from Intel, 16 GB DDR4-RAM and the GeForce GTX 1060 GPU from Nvidia provide sufficient gaming performance, while the fast NVMe-SSD ensures smooth handling. There is also an additional 2 TB hard drive that ensures sufficient storage.

All our performance and emission measurements were performed with the Shift Mode "Power Options", so the standard Windows power profiles were used.

The processor performance is within expectations in the Cinebench tests, even though the clock fluctuates slightly between 3.1 and 3.5 GHz in the Single-Core tests. The result is still higher compared to the predecessor, which was equipped with the same CPU. We did not notice any problems in the Multi-Tests either, and the specified 3.1 GHz were maintained. This means that there is sufficient performance for gaming.

The processor performance is not reduced on battery power. More information and benchmarks are available on our dedicated page for the Core i7-6700HQ.

PCMark ranks the test model in the same ballpark as the comparison devices. The switch to the Pascal GPU has therefore no major impact here, and you will not notice any differences between the test model and the old MSI GS60 in everyday situations either. The storage solution and the SSD are of more importance here since the subjective performance impression of our review unit is good. We experienced only one crash during our review time when we performed a 3DMark on battery power. However, we could not reproduce this behavior.

MSI ships the GS63VR with a hybrid storage solution. The system drive is a fast NVMe-SSD from Samsung with a storage capacity of 256 GB. Some benchmarks still have problems with the fast drives, which was also the case for AS SSD, because the results did not make much sense. We therefore refer to CrystalDiskMark, where the drive is very fast at almost 2000 MB/s for sequential reads and 1300 MB/s for sequential writes. The performance with small 4K files is also decent. 

You also get an additional 2.5-inch hard drive for your game collections. The model from Seagate (ST2000LM007-1R8174) offers plenty of storage (2 TB) and manages an average transfer rate of 104 MB/s according to HD Tune – a good result for a 5400 rpm drive.

For more benchmarks and comparisons, please have a look at our constantly growing HDD/SSD list.

Apart from the reworked chassis, the most important change is obviously the new Pascal GPU. The GeForce GTX 1060 is based on the smaller GP106 chip with 1280 shader units. It has 6 GB GDDR5-VRAM attached via a 192-bit interface. The MSI GS63VR supports automatic graphics switching via Optimus, so simple tasks are handled by the integrated Intel HD Graphics 530 from the processor. 

A look at the benchmark results shows two things. First, the GTX 1060 is 50 to 60% faster than the GTX 970M in the predecessor MSI GS60. Second, the GPU Boost utilization of the graphics cards is not perfect due to the limited cooling capabilities. The GPU could run at up to 1911 MHz (core) in theory, but the average is closer to 1600 MHz in practice. Still, the performance is comfortably between the two previous Maxwell chips GTX 980M and GTX 980. A GTX 1070 on the other hand is another 60 to 70% faster. 

The GPU performance is reduced by almost two thirds on battery power (5668 vs. 15075 points GPU score @3DMark 11). More benchmarks and information about the graphics card are available in our technical section.

The GeForce GTX 1060 also leaves a very good impression in the gaming benchmarks. Almost all tested games run smoothly at the highest settings in Full HD, only the very demanding “Deus Ex Mankind Divided”  dropped slightly below the 30 fps mark. Our GS63VR is even a few percent points ahead of the bulkier Schenker XMG P507 (also GTX 1060) in the gaming benchmarks. The GTX 1070 is once again between 40 and 60 percent faster, but the GTX 1060 is still a very good choice, especially in combination with a Full HD panel.

More gaming benchmarks with the GTX 1060 and other GPUs are available in our gaming list.

The fans will slowly increase their speed under load and the measurement results look quite promising at first. We measure between 35 and 40 dB(A) and 37 dB(A) on average with 3D workloads, and up to 47 dB(A) in the stress test. Subjectively, the noise development is much more unpleasant, especially during gaming and we definitely recommend a headset. Maybe the frequencies of the fans are overlapping, but MSI should definitely improve the behavior. The fan speed is quickly reduced after the load period and we did not notice any other unpleasant noises such as coil whining.

Our one-hour stress test with the tools Prime95 and FurMark is handled pretty well by the laptop. The processor can always use its Turbo at 2.8 to 3.0 GHz with a core temperature of up to 91 °C (~196 °F). The graphics card is slightly cooler at up to 82 °C (~180 °F), but we can see some slight throttling. The core clock fluctuated between 1185 and 1405 MHz (usually ~1250 MHz) and is therefore not only far from the maximum clock of 1911 MHz, but also below the base clock of 1405 MHz. A 3DMark run immediately after the stress test did not determine a lower score though.

We also check the behavior of the components with the benchmark Unigine Heaven in addition to our extreme scenario. The results represent gaming loads more adequately. Both the processor (~3.2 GHz) as well as the graphics card (~1600 MHz) can utilize at least a part of their respective Turbo ranges.

Frequency Comparison (Checkboxes select/deselectable!)

Our consumption measurements show average results for the test model. The rival Asus G501VW in particular shows that there is still room for improvements with light workloads. 18 to 30 watts is not really convincing in combination with the integrated graphics card and the mediocre luminance. We can notice the efficient Pascal GPU under medium loads, where the MSI GS63VR is the most power efficient machine in this comparison with 77 watts. Our measuring devices show a maximum consumption of 165 watts, so the bulky 180-watt power adapter (~600 grams/~1.3 lb, 15.5 x 7.5 x 3 cm/~6.1 x 3 x 1.2 in) is sufficient.

The battery runtimes are just average, despite the increased capacity of the integrated battery (from 47 to 65 Wh). You can expect almost 6 hours under perfect conditions (minimum luminance, wireless off, power saver), but 3.5 hours (WLAN) and 4.5 hours (video) are more realistic in practice. The latter two values were determined with a display luminance of 150 nits. The battery will be empty after 76 minutes when you really stress the machine. Considering the larger battery and the graphics switching, we would have expected longer practical runtimes.

Another issue is the long charging time. A complete recharge of the battery (device turned on) takes more than three hours, but at least about 80% of the capacity is available after approx. 1.5 hours.