MSI GF63 Thin 10UC full review

MSI GF63 Thin 10UC – this is an updated version of an affordable basic notebook for gaming. As we found out, the only thing renewed is hardware. The appearance remains practically unchanged. GF63 uses an Intel Core i7/i5 CPU of the 10th generation. It also has the RTX 3050 card enabled with 4GB of memory.

Just like its predecessor, GF63 Thin 10UC is an appropriate choice for certain gaming preferences. Medium/high settings at 1080p are optimal for the device. Therefore, it’s your pick, if you wouldn’t like to overpay for high-end performance in games.

The best price for this gaming laptop starts at $868 on Amazon.

MSI GF63 Thin 10UC Design

MSI GF63 – The construction is based on a chassis in black tones. The thin display bezel and the keyboard are made of steady aluminum. The rest of the parts on the gadget use matte plastic. Fingerprints are easy to spot on the case, although they’re easy to erase as well. Besides, it doesn’t generally collect dust, which is a plus as a visual aspect.

In fact, we don’t have any complaints in terms of ergonomics and exterior. Nevertheless, the laptop’s durability has space for improvement. The working area sags a bit in the middle of the gaming keyboard. The same applies to the cover.

GF63 is comfortable to use both on a stable flat surface and on your lap. Tight screen hinges hold the top panel properly, preventing any jiggling. It tilts to 160° and requires holding the base panel as you open it.

Interfaces are mostly located on the sides of the gadget. The only exception is HDMI, which you can find on the back. On the left is a power supply output and a USB 3.2 Gen1 A. The right side contains an RJ-45, a USB-C, and a couple of USB-Cs. It also includes a pair of mini-jacks for a mic and headphones.

Similar to the previous model, this one doesn’t have Thunderbolt 3. However, keeping the price in mind, this is completely fine. Unfortunately, there is no card reader on the device as well.

According to the manufacturer, the use of aluminum material allows for lighter and more compact construction. Indeed, the GF63 is really lightweight next to similar products in the category. 1.86kg (4.1lbs) is a comfortable weight to carry around and use outside. It’s also 22mm thick.

12 screws safely hold the base panel with one of them having a warranty seal. The MSI company told us that they would still accept a torn seal. But it’s only possible if a user did it to change RAM or drive. Under the panels are HDD and SSD adapters, as much as one for Wi-Fi. Also, there you’ll get access to the cooling system and a couple of memory slots.

Keyboard

As you open the laptop, it reveals its gamer’s soul with the red backlit keyboard. The keys are low-profile, with a resilient and firm stroke. The PgUp, End, PgDn, and Home buttons are located in the column on the right. It takes a while to get used to such an arrangement. However, in general, the keyboard feels rather comfortable.

Those keys also deliver extra functions. You can activate them by pressing along with the Fn key. The gaming laptop has full-fledged arrow buttons. It’s becoming rarer and rarer to see on recent models.

The red backlighting beautifully blends with the keys in black tones. In addition, it provides three levels of brightness to pick from. Therefore, typing will be comfortable at any time of the day.

The power button sits outside the keyboard unit. It lights up white with the built-in GPU active. The red light means that the discrete card is at work.

A medium-sized trackpad provides a nice tactile feeling and an accurate response. Gestures and swiping moves are quite accurate and can be squeezed to click. Random and unwanted presses happen extremely rarely.

Sound and display

The device has an IPS matrix by BOE and its refresh rate equals 144Hz. The given picture quality is at a medium level. A 15.6-inch matrix provides 1920×1080 pixels. The level of brightness isn’t very high, as much as the color gamut. So we don’t recommend the display to those who are involved in design and graphics work. However, for gaming purposes, it’s just fine.

A couple of 2W-powered speakers on the laptop produce frequencies. But they are balanced in the high and middle range only. As we put the volume at maximum, the sound didn’t appear distorted. Even though the case was resonating, it was almost unnoticeable. In any case, players normally prefer using headphones or connecting an external acoustic system.

Specs – MSI GF65 Gaming Laptop 15.6 Inches, 144Hz FHD 1080p, Intel Core i5-10500H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050

Test results

The laptop is based on a quite recent model of a processor, namely Core i5-10500H. It has six cores and belongs to the Comet Lake-H generation of Intel. Also, the chip features a 45W TDP along with Hyper Threading recent technology. It enables the processing of up to 12 data threads at the same time.

Clock speeds reach 4.5GHz. Along with 8MB of L3 cache, it doesn’t sound so bad. The device provides two RAM slots, and our laptop uses 8GB in a single strip. 64GB is the maximum amount available for installation.

Just one 256GB SSD drive is responsible for data storage. This isn’t a lot, but there is space for a common mechanical HDD.

CPU performance

We used a cross-platform test package called CINEBENCH. It’s commonly applied to evaluate the AMD and Intel CPU performance. Tests are based on a widely-known animation software which is called CINEMA 4D. It’s a creation of MAXON, a German company. 3D content makers, including studios from all over the world, actively use it.

The CPU test utilizes rendering for a particular scene with all cores activated. It’s also called a multithreading mode. Rendering is basically getting an image using a model through a computer program. Calculating the CPU speed is easy once you see the test results. The faster it processes the rendering, the higher we evaluate the performance.

CineBench R20 CPU Single

CineBench R20 CPU Multi

GPU performance

The device runs the RTX 3050 discrete video card operating 2040 CUDA cores. They work with GDDR6 memory that has 4GB. The frequency specifications are 716-1057MHz.

As a matter of fact, the GPU showed a steady performance at 1350MHz. And it’s higher than it was claimed. In terms of gaming, this card with 40W TGP matches the GTX 1650 Ti. But the first one is less power-consuming.
The GPU copes with every AAA game on a really good level. But there’s one point to note. You’ll have to switch to the medium graphics settings.

3D Mark Fire Strike

This is a beautiful and widely-used application with DX11 API support. It’s designed to test high-performing video cards working in a Windows environment. The results can help assess the GPU’s relative performance and suitability for challenging computer games.

3DMark – Fire Strike 1920×1080

Coolers

As for the cooling system, it’s the same as we saw in last year’s version. That is, it consists of 3 heat pipes, a fan and a couple of radiators. The bottom part sucks in cold air. The left side and the back blow hot air.

The review unit provides the same level of noise as its competitors at idle. However, under load, the laptop starts to produce quite a lot of noise. It reaches 41-44 dB.

In case you activate Turbo mode, it goes up to 50 dB. Overall, for the category, the noise level during gaming sessions is acceptable.

Heating of the keyboard block:

Battery Life

The device runs a 3-cell Li-Ion type of battery. It also has a total charge of 51Wh. As we launched a video, the gadget lasted nearly five hours. Web surfing mode reduces working time.

According to the manufacturer, the laptop under review can work for up to seven hours. And this is also true. You just need to decrease the brightness of the screen to 100 nits. Then it’s possible to achieve the stated figure.

MSI GF65 Gaming Laptop – Testing in games

The Witcher 3

Here you encounter a non-linear and highly mature storyline, packed with action. The game features an unsurpassed QTE-free combat system with multiple tactical elements. They are common in most RPGs. However, fascinating and dynamic battle scenes are worthy of the most high-quality action games.

The developers used the REDengine 3 as a base game engine here. It was designed for PCs and consoles of the current generation. The first part of the game used Aurora Engine technology developed by BioWare in Canada. It applied 64-bit deep HDR rendering that creates the highest possible image quality. No detail is lost, and the lighting is much more accurate and realistic.

Flexible rendering works both for advanced and delayed visualization processes. It also has various cinematic post effects. For example, there are color gradation, depth-of-field bokeh, and flare from light sources.

Detailed landscape utilizes tessellation and enables multiple layers of materials that smoothly merge. So the amount of high-quality details is at maximum. Besides, the technology offers seamless linking of physics and animation along with other features.

Currently, the game in this test is the most advanced and technological among open-world RPGs. It shows a beautiful world and a pleasing environment. Once you launch it, you get totally immersed in its gameplay. It makes you forget about everything that’s happening around you.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

In this game the main character, Miss Croft, travels to South America. There she encounters the ancient ruins of a past civilization, revealing a secret order. In addition, the girl learns new details about her father’s old research.

Previous games didn’t have a plot that matured. The developers intended to portray Lara as a more sophisticated adventurer. This way she would have to face her decision’s consequences.

Here we can see a new Foundation Engine in use. Upgraded subsurface scattering on the main character comes into play here. Also, you may notice sunbeams coming through foliage and volumetric lighting.

Other than that, the game includes modern anti-aliasing TAA, which is more advanced than SMAA. Besides, with improved water effects, the waves are caused by moving to acquire a 3D shape. The overall interaction with water becomes better.

Just like the earlier version of the game, this one contains tessellation. However, the technology works for different purposes in each case.

Battlefield V

This is a shooter from a first-person perspective. Essentially, players go to different parts of the world as World War II proceeds. The gameplay is highly engaging and diverse, which caused the admiration of millions of users.

The game is built on the Frostbite Engine 3.5 by EA DICE. The company uses it in its own work and projects of other EA affiliates.

The game sets a new high-quality standard for visuals in shooters based on this engine. It may sound trite, but you’ll hardly find another military FPS which is that beautiful.

A single-player campaign is also outstanding. It’s due to DICE and EA decided to compromise between appearance and performance. But they did it for the multiplayer mode. It’s not that the picture looks much worse, yet the developers, obviously, focused on performance.

The only drawback concerns the detail level depending on the viewing distance. At any selected graphics quality objects become drawn at a particular distance. Sometimes we’d like them to appear a bit earlier.

Metro Exodus

Our next game is also an FPS developed by 4A Engine studio. The story takes place in Russia in a post-apocalyptic environment. The nuclear war survivors managed to find a shelter in a far-reaching Moscow underground. They try to fight off malicious mutants and the enemy sides.

4A Engine is a Ukrainian 4A Games creation. The game doesn’t provide preset modes for image detailing. Yet they’re available in the built-in benchmark utility from low to the highest.

There are only several individual settings that you can adjust including image quality. You can also select the size of pixel sampling for anisotropic filtering. The tessellation depth applied to geometric primitives and the intensity of blurring are also there.

The game utilizes its own unique form of TAA to conduct full-screen anti-aliasing. Switching it off isn’t an option, however, TAA has an insignificant effect on general performance. That’s what Nvidia states.

Just like the majority of the games in the category, this one has a point to note. The image quality can be chosen from a wide range of settings. So as you switch the detail profiles from low to ultra high, the difference is pronounced.

Cyberpunk 2077

This is an RPG that belongs to an adventure genre. The events take place in Knight City. It’s a place where luxury, power, and body modifications are of the highest value. Your character is called V. It’s a mercenary looking for a device that can help gain immortality.

The game has the fourth version of REDengine. This is an upgraded model of the prior engine of CD Projekt RED. The enhanced one enables displaying stunning facial details. In this regard, it even exceeds some more complicated games.

There are two main things that build the game’s visual glory. We’re referring to specific intelligent design and close attention to minor details.

It’s important to note the company’s initial intention. CD Projekt didn’t focus on reaching new heights in the area of polygonal object detailing. Neither did they prioritize presenting some revolutionary new technologies in graphics. That’s what Crytek usually likes to do.

Instead, the developers devoted themselves to the creative and thorough refinement of time-tested elements. Which were successfully raised to a completely new level of performing.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Here is an example of a multiplatform PC game of both RPG and action genres. The product is a Ubisoft creation telling the saga of Avorn. It’s a Viking who turned into an orphan as a child due to betrayal.

The game works on the AnvilNext 2.0 engine developed by Ubisoft. Multiple previous games of this studio also used this engine. In fact, there are only a few thoroughly done textures and rare animation twitch. In all other respects, graphics are just excellent.

DLSS technology is not included in the game. There’s no ray tracing feature here either. For that reason, Ubisoft only provides 5 system requirements. The company intended to optimize the engine’s functioning. Which, in turn, led to less processor load.

Summary

This 15’’ gadget is lightweight and compact, which makes it convenient to take outside. In terms of gaming, the laptop is suitable with some reservations.

Basically, that’s all there is to say regarding this model. The cooling system has just one fan. So although it handles the job, it gives the impression of working at the limit. As a consequence, the processor performance is limited. In addition, the GPU’s temperature rises really high. Even the fact that it works with a low 40W TGP doesn’t change the situation.

Among drawbacks, we would mention mediocre ports layout. It doesn’t have DisplayPort, card reader, or Thunderbolt. Besides, the battery life is quite low. The brightness of the screen is also not very high. If you can ignore all these points, then buying this device might be an option.

However, we wouldn’t recommend purchasing it if you have a choice. There are more interesting models with a higher-performing GPU and a better price.

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