MSI PX60 6QD Prestige iBuyPower Edition Notebook Review

We measured an average brightness of just 208.4 cd/m², well below average for notebooks in this price range. Brightness distribution is only average at 80%; the bottom quadrants are notably dimmer than the top center. Thanks to a black value of 0.612 cd/m², the PX60 only manages a contrast ratio of 361:1, which is certainly on the low end.

In terms of color saturation, our measurements reveal 99.76% coverage of the sRGB spectrum, which is adequate for most users. AdobeRGB coverage is, of course, quite a bit lower at just 73.9%, but only professional photographers and graphic designers should be affected.

CalMAN 5, meanwhile, reveals some pretty serious deviations pre-calibration. With ColorChecker and Greyscale DeltaE2000 measurements of 10.96 and 11.8 respectively (ideal: 0), the situation with color accuracy is unfortunately not as positive as saturation. The CCT average of 15654 is also incredibly high (ideal: 6500), but at least the total gamma of 2.17 is in line (ideal: 2.2). Post-calibration, these were transformed to near-ideal values, however, with deltaE averages well below 3 and a CCT Average of 6438.

Outdoors, although the PX60’s mediocre brightness and contrast render it difficult to use in sunlight, it still manages comfortable use in the shade (thanks to the matte finish). The screen is also afflicted by narrow viewing angles typical to most TN panels. Again, no IPS option is available. Backlight bleed is noticeable on dark screens at the bottom of the panel.

The Intel Core i7-6700HQ is a quad-core processor based on the Skylake architecture with a base clock rate of 2.6 GHz (incidentally, 100 MHz lower than the base clock of the i7-5700HQ) and a Turbo clock rate of up to 3.5 GHz (single-core) or 3.3 GHz/3.1 GHz (2-core/4-core). Performance is likely to be on par with the Broadwell predecessor, dependent on thermal/TDP headroom and throttling conditions. The 2 W of reduced power consumption (45 W TDP total) is not likely to be evident in practical use.

In fact, during our benchmarks, the system consistently performed slightly below the median for all i7-6700HQ benchmarks in our current database. The differences weren’t major—only a few percentage points—but the trend was mostly reliable. As for performance compared to its predecessor, we saw somewhat more pronounced deficiencies: as much as around 10%, as seen in the Cinebench tests (R11.5 multi-CPU: 7.15 vs. 7.86 points; R15 multi-CPU: 656 vs. 723 points). Single-threaded performance was even below that, with discrepancies of 12% and 16% in comparison to the previous PX60 (see our graphs for a full breakdown). Many of these tests were performed multiple times to ensure no extraneous circumstances were in play. All power settings were, as always, set to their highest performance levels.

It is worth noting that in spite of this, performance is still very good and should not likely disappoint most users. Most of the scores we received were still in the top quintile of all machines we have reviewed, which is good considering the relatively affordable price tag for the PX60.

Overall system performance, meanwhile, was much more in line with what we’d expect to see. The PCMark 8 scores we recorded were within a few percentage points of the previous PX60 (Work Accelerated: 4703 vs. 4669; Home Accelerated: 3590 vs. 3691), and subjectively, general performance seemed snappy and responsive. Some competitors, such as the Dell Precision 5510, were as much as 10% quicker in some benchmarks—but the difference is not really noticeable in everyday use.

The PX60’s GPU has not changed since the 2015 Broadwell model; it remains the very capable NVIDIA GTX 950M. It should also come as no surprise, then, that graphical performance is nearly identical to that of the previous PX60, with respectable scores of 3448 in 3DMark Fire Strike (versus last year’s 3342) and 4740 in 3DMark 11 (vs. 4575). This is only around 15-17% lower than the Dell XPS 15-9550 (which packs a GTX 960M), and for the average business user it’s debatable whether or not it’s even necessary to have this sort of GPU power at hand (since there also comes a trade-off in the realms of both size and power consumption).

Now, let’s see whether that heat hinders actual performance. Under our CPU stress test, the PX60 6QD’s processor clock rates eventually bottom out at around 2.8 GHz, which is 300 MHz below the i7-6700HQ’s maximum turbo of 3.1 GHz for quad-core operation. GPU stress produces a minimum value of 732 MHz for the GPU, which is below the base clock rate of 914 MHz, thus qualifying as throttling. Still, the synthetic loads imposed upon our test units by Prime95 and FurMark are not realistic in everyday use, even when demanding tasks are at hand—so these limitations are unlikely to mean much to the average user.

Combined stress of both CPU and GPU, of course, means even more throttling, with the CPU frequencies shuffling between 3.0 and 3.1 GHz and GPU clock rates fluctuating from 915 MHz to 640 MHz. Judging by readings from HWiNFO, these limitations appear to be a consequence of TDP as opposed to any thermal constraints.

Battery life was perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the PX60 we reviewed last year, so the hope was that with a somewhat more efficient chipset (and DDR4 memory) we would see lengthier runtimes. We do, but not by much: the PX60 6QD managed just 2 hours and 59 minutes in our Wi-Fi Surfing benchmark, which is poor for a business notebook regardless of the specifications. To truly compete in this space MSI is going to have to seriously refine this in future models.