MSI GL65 Leopard vs MSI GS66 Stealth: Gaming Laptop

MSI is a manufacturer that every PC gamer and content creator knows; it offers a wide choice of products and peripherals for laptop or stationary computers. They are reliable products that really hold up, especially in terms of service life.

On the other hand with this plenty of creations from NVIDIA, we will understand that this year will be placed under the sign of computers with RTX 3000 series graphics cards. Packed with excellent technical specifications, the MSI GS66 Stealth is a computer built for combat, with a price that goes up to the height of its performance.

Pros and Cons

MSI GL65 Leopard	MSI GS66 Stealth
Lightweight and space-saving	Backlit SteelSeries keyboard
Wide connectivity	Sublime 300 Hz panel
Bright full-HD (1080p) screen	Strong gaming performance
Poor sound quality	Noisy ventilation
No Thunderbolt 3	No SD card slot

General Info

	MSI GL65 Leopard	MSI GS66 Stealth
$	CHECK PRICE	CHECK PRICE
Brand	MSI	MSI
Model	Leopard 10SFSK	GS66 Stealth
Weight	2.3 kg	2.1 kg
OS	Windows 10 Home	Windows 10 Pro
Display	IPS FHD	IPS
Dimensions	15.6 inch	15.6 inch
Type	Gaming Laptop	Laptop

Design

Let’s talk about the aesthetics of the MSI GL65 Leopard, which for a computer dating from 2020, at first glance, offers a really interesting visual. For this product, MSI wanted to offer a gaming computer while focusing on something soft, without too much fantasy, black color is used. A black colorway is used and is mainly constructed of aluminum on all surfaces.

We can see that it is still thick, and for a gaming computer, frankly. By wearing it, we realize that it remains relatively light, considering the multitude of components; the weight remains however very reduced. MSI aimed at ease of transport on the latter. Weighing only 2.3 kg and with dimensions of 35.77 cm long, 24.8 cm deep, and 2.75 cm high, you will have no difficulty when it comes to transport. With such minimal measurements, you can easily use it on the go.

The structure is solid, and the designer has obviously opted for aluminum on most surfaces, a strong and durable component, which gives the product a certain allure. The opening and closing mechanism of the screen is really well built and gives a delightful rendering; it does not cause friction or squeaking at the joints.

On the visual side, this MSI GS66 Stealth has no superficial side. There is also no RGB lighting. This computer wants to be sober, and it is successful. The only touch of color on the back of the screen is the MSI emblem: the dragon, here affixed in black. However, people who want an RGB side on the computer will find themselves on the SteelSeries keyboard.

After opening the computer and removing the microfiber cloth that covered the keyboard, we notice that the keys of this laptop are flat, really flat. These have some flaws that we will discuss in the dedicated chapter.

The power button is a key that has been added to the keyboard, similar to the Acer Swift 5. The design is nothing different from other computers, whether in the gaming world or not. However, the sound outputs arranged on either side below the keyboard as a hollow line leave a gap for dust and crumbs, a negative point that could damage the hardware.

Display

	MSI GL65 Leopard	MSI GS66 Stealth
Display Type	IPS FHD	IPS
Display Size	15.6 inch	15.6 inches
Aspect Ratio	16:9	16:9
Response Time	3 ms	3 ms
Display Resolution	1920 x 1080 pixels	1920 x 1080 pixels
Touch Screen	No	No
Dimension	357 x 248 x 27.5 mm	359 x 245 x 18 mm

MSI GL65 Leopard

The screen is still something important today when it comes to laptops. Knowing that this is a PC from last year, the video rendering is, however, satisfactory. Offering a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which today is not worth the 300 Hz offered by other brands of PCs, such as the MSI GS66 Stealth.

With 15.6-inch screen dimension, Full HD resolution, LED type screen design technology, no worry about the picture quality, it’s crisp, and grain is ultra-precise. As much to say to you, you will take full advantage of your sessions, films, and video games. The backlight, for its part, remains similar to a large number of products in this range, offering an IPS panel.

You will have an HDMI port and a Mini DisplayPort that allows you to transcribe your television or computer screens, image, and their high definition from it. Don’t worry; despite its RTX 2060 graphics card, it largely supports image transcription without latencies or bugs.

You can also find embedded in the border of the screen a webcam accompanied by microphones. You should not expect to obtain exceptional image quality; it remains very classic even at the level of the microphones. However, it was not necessarily designed for that.

MSI GS66 Stealth

This is something unusual for laptops but which is slowly starting to become more popular in the sector. Chosen for a fast vision and a good rendering, MSI was based on a refresh rate of 300 Hz.

With its 15.6-inch diagonal, this medium-sized screen makes the computer fit perfectly into any type of backpack. The weight of the latter is also reasonable. Two kilos, nothing more, make this computer what it is.

Performance

	MSI GL65 Leopard	MSI GS66 Stealth
Processor Name	Intel Core i5-7267U	Intel Core i7-10875H 8-Core
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Max-Q
RAM	16 GB DDR4	32 GB DDR4
Storage	1 TB	512 GB SSD

MSI GL65 Leopard

In a gaming PC, the execution speed is faster than in a conventional PC. For a gaming device like this to have good power, it must have a processor worthy of the name. No disappointment on this point. Its 9th generation Intel Core i7 CPU runs at an astonishing 2.6 GHz frequency.

Being equipped with 6 cores ensures optimal operation of the device and supervises the multitasking system of the latter. It also embeds an Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology that renews the hard drive’s performance, thus limiting bugs and slowness. With this Turbo mode, the processor frequency goes from 2.6 GHz to 4.5 GHz. The MSI GL65 is therefore aimed at those who are looking for a versatile and powerful laptop PC in games and creation.

The GeForce RTX 2060 is well supported by the core combining an Intel HM470 chipset with a Hexa Core i7 processor and a good amount of 16 GB RAM in DDR4. We can see below the GeekBench scores, the MSI GL65 Leopard has a score of 76731, with 1157 in single-core and 6054 in multi. Well, it‘s not the best of the best, as you might get elsewhere, but it’s still not bad at all for a laptop.

These components ensure solid overall performance to satisfy any user, gamer, or designer. They may be satisfied to obtain much faster processing than with a Quad-Core processor and 8 GB DDR4. The difference is significant, especially in resource-intensive areas.

MSI chooses an SSD for storage, which improves day-to-day responsiveness compared to a simple conventional hard drive. Thanks to the SSD, we benefit from faster processing, especially when starting/stopping and launching games/software. We can get faster on the maps of online games. The SSD capacity is 512 GB, a capacity in phase with the standard of hard disks. But compared to a hard drive, an SSD is much more robust and quieter.

MSI GS66 Stealth

Despite the perfect design of the computer, a keyboard with RGB, and a beautiful screen, performance in the game is needed. On this side, the GS66 Stealth is solid on its supports. MSI has not been dead hand, bringing on its game beast, a 10ᵉ generation Intel Core i7 processor with 8 cores and 16 threads. With that, you will be able to run a multitude of software without worrying about your resources coming from the processor. To add more, this model also includes 32 GB of RAM in DDR4 clocked at 2666 MHz. However, there is no more slot available to increase the RAM.

A little nugget fresh out of the NVIDIA warehouse regarding graphics performances: the RTX 3080 (laptop version, of course). The latter will allow all the latest games to run in high-definition or with a perfect amount of FPS (Editor’s note: screen with a refresh rate of 300 Hz). We do not find a 4K screen on this model, but only a Full HD (1080p) to allow an exceptional refresh rate.

The fact that this computer is a laptop computer can damage certain components, particularly the graphics card or the processor, elements that tend to heat up quickly. For heavy consumers of video games, you may need to think about investing in a cooling solution such as an efficient ventilation tray. However, you will have to put up with noisy ventilation during your gaming sessions.

The computer has a 2TB NVMe SSD storage straight out of the Samsung factories on the storage side. Thanks to the tests, we see that the hard drive has powerful read and write speeds, largely sufficient for players, whether it is rare or daily use. The speeds are 3400MB / s read and just under 2400MB / s write. If you wish, you can even add a second hard drive by removing the computer.

Multimedia

		MSI GL65 Leopard	MSI GS66 Stealth
Web-cam		Yes	Yes
Speakers		Yes	Yes
Microphone Jack		3.5 mm	3.5 mm
Usd Slots		3.2 x 3 3.2 x 1	Thunderbolt 3 x 1 3.1 x 1 3.2 x 1
Wireless Lan		Yes	Yes
HDMI		Yes	Yes
GPS		No	No
Bluetooth		5.1	5.0
Memory Slots		Yes	Yes

In addition to filling up in terms of satisfactory and sufficient performance, MSI GL65 Leopard offers you several other features. First of all, an important point that we do not always find is a memory card reader compatible with SD, SDHC, and SDXC type cards, which is likely to thrill photographers or video editors.

• 1 RJ45
• 1 HDMI 1.4
• 1 Port Jack
• 1 microphone port
• 1 USB 3.2 Type-C (Gen2)
• 3 USB Type-A 3.2 Gen2
• 1 SD / SDHC / SDXC slot For a 2020 laptop, that’s entirely satisfactory. 

For the internal connections of this computer, there is an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 connection, Bluetooth 5.0. Thanks to that, you can use connected devices that will provide high-definition sound and lower energy consumption. Then that is used with the built-in speakers. If you wish, you can also charge the computer with the available USB-C port; the computer will charge slightly slower than via the charger provided for this purpose.

We have 2 speakers ( 2x2W ), Nahimic 3 Audio Boost. The sound may be powerful, but it is clearly disappointing in terms of sound quality; it remains clear and precise, of course, but with a considerable lack of bass, the sound structure is really not pleasant. However, you can just as easily connect your Bluetooth headphones or headsets for better audio performance.

We realize that this MSI GS66 Stealth is quite complete for this price but lacks some additional advantages for a high-end computer. For example, there is no SD card port, while some of its competitors offer one. However, a casual / gamer user won’t need the latter, but photographers looking for a computer pushed for editing will be disappointed.

• 1 x RJ45
• 1 x HDMI 2.0 (4K @ 60Hz)
• 1 x Port Jack
• 1 x Type-C Thunderbolt 3
• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C
• 3 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A

For a laptop of this range, this is totally satisfactory. In this computer, there is a WIFI 6 connection with 5 GHz. On the Bluetooth side, there is a chip equipped with 5.1 technology. Thanks to this, you will be able to benefit from high-definition sound as well as less energy consumption than with previous versions. If you wish, you can also charge the computer with the available Thunderbolt USB-C port; however, the computer will charge slightly slower than through the regular charger.

With DUO WAVE technology that ensures clear and precise stereo sound and support for Dolby Atmos and 7.1 surround sound. Once in front of us, it is confirmed: the sound is at the top. Clear and precise, the speakers broadcast music, game sound, and all your audio content with high fidelity. Only the bass remains a little weak but is configurable through Windows settings.

However, very few people play without headphones or earphones. As a reminder, you can also connect your Bluetooth headphones with good audio quality even if the use of a wired headset remains better for the sake of latency and auditory reliability.

Keyboard

MSI GL65 Leopard- The use of an almost borderless keyboard brings stability, a certain allure, and above all, discretion. Speaking of discretion, the minimal space between the keys, the absence of relief, especially the fact that the keys are silent, a point not to be overlooked because this will allow great discretion in public or even for either.

Battery

	MSI GL65 Leopard	MSI GS66 Stealth
Battery Type	Li-Ion	Li-Ion
Battery Cell	6 Cell	4 cell
Power Device	AC Adepter	AC Adepter
Power	51 W	99.9 W

MSI GL65 Leopard

The battery life subject in gaming laptops is often a problem, and this is normal since they are often pushed to a really energy-consuming use. However, it will not lose much battery in light use, even if it scrolls at high speed if we compare it to a computer intended for office use. 

The battery life without having connected it to the mains, you can bet between 3 and 5 hours of operation in light use. On the other hand, if you start to play, you will be quickly surprised by using divided by two or even three. What is recommended to stabilize temperatures as well as possible is to use a ventilated support. The choice is yours, but keep in mind that this is not a computer designed for 100% gaming use.

MSI GS66 Stealth

It is a subject that comes up often, the autonomy of laptops dedicated to advanced use. Even if it remains good on this MSI GS66 Stealth when you are not playing, it will be enough to launch a game, and the battery will drop within a few hours even if it remains the high average of computers in this category. Unlike the Razer Blade 15, MSI boasts of its 99.9 Whr computer autonomy. To optimize the use of the battery, the Taiwanese firm offers in its dedicated software to block the battery at a certain threshold to conserve the latter as much as possible.

According to the MSI website, the battery would be 9 hours, which was validated during this test. However, it will not take such a long time to launch greedy software like After Effect or Cyberpunk. In this case, the battery will start to run off with considerable flow.

Conclusion!

For a computer that is not necessarily the most recent from MSI, the design is really sober. MSI GL65 Leopard performance itself is really satisfactory. The RTX 2060 graphics card runs all types of games without any problem. So if you’re looking for a computer on which you can both do office work and play games, this is the computer for you.  But you can be sure that it will accompany you for a few years, in your gaming sessions as in your creations.