Definitely became my favorite reviewer, love the very in depth reviews. Just bought a ge66 with rtx 2080 super max-q on sale new. Probably might return it if the lenovo 5 pro becomes available, the performance increase of the 3070 ge66 didn't seem worth that extra 900 euro.
They should have out i9's in these systems. They had them with the 2080 super Max Q's and 2070 supers last year. Reason why they didn't? Probably because they had to compete with the new Ryzen chips. Its a shame because that extra 300 Mhz boost I see on my Dragonshield definitely helps.
That solution looks interesting because they’re using a 300 W power supply so I can’t wait to get my hands on one to really dive deep into its performance.
@@BobOfAllTrades Agreed! Legion 7 has a vapor chamber but last year's legion 7 had heatsink lottery, meaning some got amazing thermals, even better then MSI's raiders but some got worse thermals. I hope they have addressed, lenovo usually listens to feedback. Also, quick question, what do you think the battery life gains are for browisng on 144hz+ and then down to something 60 or 90hz via conrol panel? I haven't seen any youtuber test this and it'd be an amazing video to test battery life gains of different refresh rates! Thanks
The thing with me and the raider, It looks like about a $400 increase over the GP66 for similar specs. I'm probably going to try to get the legion 5 pro, but I think the GP66 is my fallback, I can live without the front RGB, 1080p webcam, & extra 60hz on the screen and specs look identical otherwise.
I love my GE75 with RTX 2080, I've had it since July, maybe ill upgrade to a 3080 laptop a year from now lol, liked the video so I can watch it later, love the content!
Ihave this laptop//// if you reduce processor power to 97% you get 10-15° cooler cpu, with still ultra settings in 1080p like 80-120fps in halo infinite and 100 in destiny 2
Im looking for a laptop and will only consider Raider compared to Stealth. I think the super thin stealth would suffer with heat problems in the long run
The amount of dedication to your tests and reviews is something that I don’t see too often in a lot of laptop reviewers and, at least for me is much appreciated. Also, thank you for putting up with my rants. For me, seeing those high temps with the stock paste was just a huge red flag for me and seeing the Phobya grease making a marked improvement allows me to at least know there could be improvements to make, and also good to know zTechPC has this on their configuration setups which if I was buying this laptop, I would definitely spend the extra money.
You know me you’ve been around here for a while it’s the same mindset just trying to figure out how to improve production without compromising workflow. 🙏
Great review as always! May I ask, did you observe any battery drain on the GE66 while gaming on AC power? I had the i7-10750H/3070 GE66 config and when gaming on Turbo, plugged into AC, the battery would drain at roughly 6% per hour. I was not sure if this was a defect or design, on googling, I found various forum posts discussing an MSI feature "NOS" which seemed to pull power from the battery to provide extra to the CPU/GPU. Most posts were a couple or more years old, not specific to the GE66, and were people trying to figure out if/how to disable it. It seems to me that maybe instead of shipping this unit with a 230W adapter, maybe they should have shipped it with a 280W, as they did with the 2020 2070 SUPER model. I'd love to know what you think, and if you experienced this battery drain? I ended up returning the unit, partly because of this, but mostly because I wasn't really happy with having the 6-core i7-10750H for the price. I had too-hastily purchased when this was the only config Best Buy initially offered. I'm currently deciding whether to purchase the i7-10870H config, a GE76, or wait to see what the coming months bring. Thank you for your time and thank you for your excellent work on your channels!
The 240Hz QHD model is now available with the Intel 11980HK, RTX3080 16GB (130W) and 32GB 3200 Mhz DDR4 (MSRP $2999.99) Also, quick notes --> the new GE66 model with the 11th gen Intel CPU has a HDMI 2.1 port, mini DisplayPort 1.4, and Thunderbolt 4 is now available!!
The fact you can get dtr performance in a 15” machine for $22k-$24k is an excellent value. I know that’s still a lot for most folks. But just think people that spent $3k-$4k on a much bigger and thicker machine really puts into perspective how powerful these laptops are. Plus with the gpu shortages all over the world these are the best way to get a good machine if you’re ready for an upgrade. If these laptops were juuuuust a bit more powerful I’d consider selling my DTR. That’s just how impressed I am with these machines.
Ill have to get some of that nano grease when I re paste my laptop. It'll be a year of gaming in April & time to clean that stock paste off and maybe upgrade to wifi 6. Another great review Bob!
Nice laptop. I like the hp omen cb-1080nr. I did a repaste, undervolted, upgraded ram to 32gb plus added two 2tb ssds and performed a recovery and bios recovery. With a blower cooler it runs well.
Good to see your videos, I still have my rp17 with 2060 from eluktronics. I been waiting to see if its worth the upgrade, but most laptop with mobile 3k gpus have been disappointing to me. Hoping for something crazy this year like asus mothership. Thanks again
Great breakdown Bob this is hot stuff comparisons an all.Wondering how the g15 Zephyrus stacks up against the Raider and Stealth and maybe even the new Rog Strix with the Rtx 3070.
It's surprising that they are having these video/sound issues on a machine that's not close to being all new. These machines should really be dialed in given the older processor. Maybe if the prices were more competitive. Otherwise, these are a hard pass IMO.
Can someone calcify my doubt plz? In Zephyrus Duo 15 Intel's version it had MUX Switch so we had an option to disable NVIDIA Optimus. Does the Zephyrus Duo 15 AMD version has an option to disable NVIDIA Optimus ?
Do they (MSi) have different paste on the Stealth? I've got one in that I'm prototyping/testing and the CPU rarely goes above 80 degrees - even after an hour of Assassins Creed Odyssey.
Hey bob, great review as usual. Wanted to ask you a question (Followup on your thermal paste video) my go to paste is the kryonaut but it has two bad qualities, longevity and too liquidy for new comers. So I wanted to ask is Phobya Nano really better in everyway? (Better temps? better longevity? better application spread due to its thickness?) And how did the KPx story end? Thanks a lot for your time #No_Mux_No_Bucks
Hey Bob, you make a comment about manufacturers stuffing in higher than 1080p displays to basically choke the video card and hide the CPU bottleneck, it that speculation or have you actually heard that. I hadn't thought of it that way before and it makes sense in a twisted way, but I'd be pretty sour on a manufacturer if I knew that was their reason.
Well let’s put it this way, there’s a reason why Nvidia showcased 3000 series at UHD resolution. If CPUs were twice as fast then Nvidia would use 1080p numbers to showcase performance of those GPUs because “bigger/higher is better”. Some of these manufacturers clearly realize this so QHD 165hz is one of the go-to panels.
I see that this laptop does not have G-Sync or Freesync. Put next to a laptop with G-Sync is the game less smooth on this laptop for example if it runs at 80 FPS? I am thinking about this laptop, however so far I used G-Sync laptops and I am afraid that the lack of G-Sync would be noticable and games are not as smooth :(
I just got my G15 3070 last night and I’m already thinking of returning it, blown speakers, bad light bleed, no web cam, soldered ram, longer key travel than my Blade did you return yours?
Either I’m getting this or the alienware m17 r4 rtx 3080 i got 2 days to decide and I’m just so exhausted i fucking hate buying new laptops especially when i’m not an expert at finding one 😅😅💔
Hi Bob, I got a deal for a Gigabyte AERO 17 HDR XC-8ES4450SP at 2052 euros (refurbished) and it does come with a 3070. Should I buy it for mainly gaming? I want 4k and I plan to buy an external monitor with 165hz 1440p gaming and the legacy 3D vision. My question to you is if you think its a good laptop for gaming for both 4k and external monitor? Thank you!
After years watching laptop reviews i am still wondering how do you assess microphone quality at the same time of recording, do you listen your own voice from the speakers or something ?
Great! What about Msi ryzen 5000 Laptop ? And rx6800 mobile ? İm waiting for ryzen 5000 and rx6800 mobile gpu. İ dont Like rtx3000 series too expensive but still worst.. of course your Job great Bob!
Give me advice please I can't still choose msi laptops First - MSI GE66 raider RTX 3070 8GB 1080 full hd ips 240hz ram: 32gb ssd: 1tb . intel core i7 10750h Second - MSI GP76 Leopard RTX3070 8GB 1080full hd ips 144hz Ram: 16gb ssd:512gb intel core i7 11800h First MSI GE 66 costs 2500 $ second gp76 cost 2400$ Point using laptop is for gaming. I am going to use laptop at home mostly. If I go to travel somewhere of course I will use my iPad for only watching movies while I'm in airplane or train, if i play games while flying in airplane with 17 inches I may not have enough space at passengers seat and for sure battery won't be enough if I plan to play games. So about laptop I'm stuck with ge66 for only that screen has a 240hz and with ssd memory also ram memory which higher than gp76. About GP76 main reason that stops me to buy that screen 144hz and Korean letter keyboard and of course it has a English words too on it, in addition positive side about gp76 is only 11th gen CPU but ram and ssd I can upgrade if I really choose gp76 . Sorry for my English and thank you for your attention
@@marvelmarvel4504 11th gen would be my choice no question. A 3070 is hard to push and 11th gen Intel had the best chance of doing so. Plus that’s 8 cores versus 6. 240hz doesn’t overcome the cons here.
Bob, in your opinion, would a 11th gen intel or Ryzen make significant difference in performance? I'm planning to get one of these mainly for gaming but to do some productivity on the side (mainly office work/light programming), so realistically, I don't think I would feel much difference, but just wanted a pro opinion! Cheers
When it comes to productivity research your software because my software leverages the integrated Intel graphics and they call that “quick sync“ and it is significantly faster than anything AMD can put inside of a laptop right now. Gaming wise, Jarrods Tech covered this and Intel leads still but not by enough to sell me on it. There’s other aspects that would mean more than a few percent at that point.
Is it really the CPU to blame? The guys from HU did a deep dive into that with the 30 series and they found in many instances the architectural bottleneck of this generation weights more than any potential CPU bottleneck.
@@BobOfAllTrades I am pretty sure HU have also been testing stuff like this for years and years. I am not saying that there isn't CPU bottleneck in some instances, I'm saying it is more complicated than that. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-c7npXXyXJzI.html
can this laptop open XPN files?? cause on the model I have I can't seam to open any. XPN FILES my old laptop used OFFICE XML HANDLER TO open it but I don't know if this model can do that
i have an external nvme enclosure but its only usb 10gb, which i tested and it runs at a solid 1gB/s, i know its plenty for me but maybe you could deal with that too
If you’re going to play extremely GPU bound titles, sure. But I’d check out my Tested channel for a playlist featuring this laptop to see if a stronger GPU is right for you.
Do you think the newest GE66 Raider version with 240hz QHD i7 11800H with the 3070 will still have a GPU bottle neck? Should i just go for the i9 11980HK model.
@@BobOfAllTrades Sadly, there is no option to opt for the RTX3080 with the QHD display and the 11800H. Only option is for the 11980HK. Maybe more options/configuration will be available soon. Going to a higher resolution display is a far better solution for minimizing the CPU/GPU bottleneck issue.
I think the Aorus 17x with the 10980hq and the 2080 Super reaches 11k graphics score on Timespy, and the Alienware Area 51 R2 with the 10900k 2080 super
Wish the Raider took design aesthetics from the Stealth personally. It's all subjective and I get some dig that look but the Raider design is far from subtle even with the RGB disabled lol.
@@BobOfAllTrades But the stealth has the neutered 3070 that is like 95W at most according to you and that's when the CPU is like 25W? Think you said it only goes to 80W when cpu is 40W so yeah.. no thanks lol. I just meant I like the stealthy design and like it on a thicker chassis that can handle more wattage.. So I don't understand why you're saying just buy the stealth when there's going to be a clear performance difference? 🤷
@@BobOfAllTrades so it's more like I'm paying for the aesthetics for the gs66? Because I'm torn between the 2 and don't want to sacrifice performance for the looks
Do you feel comfortable editing photos and videos on this 300 hz display? I ordered this and concerned about the resolution and color gamut for photo editing in Lightroom and photoshop
Anything near 100% standard RGB has suit me just fine. In fact since I edit on an OLED display which has a far higher gamut, editing on it while really nice, I’m looking at an image that’s probably not what most who view my content see. In other words it’s really going to depend on what you’re doing and the standards you need to set.
@@BobOfAllTrades you’re absolutely right. I’ll do a few large prints a year but 90% of the time I’m posting in social media and I find myself deleting and reposting because the 100% Adobe color profile on my dell xps 17 looked different than how it did on my iPhone as srgb. Thanks for your videos. Love the new tested channel too
I haven’t been sent one yet. I’ll attempt to contact Lenovo about gaming laptops like that for review. Otherwise it’s out of pocket and that’s not ideal.
Here's a question... why would you repaste this unit that was a review spec sent to you that you have to send back? This is going to change the cooling results for the next reviewer.
2 cpu/graphics generations is a huge upgrade. I have a 7th gen ge63 Raider/1060 6GB. I replaced it with a 9th gen GF65 thin 2060, great performance but not as nice thermals as the Raider. Seriously thinking about replacing the GF with a 11gen Raider/3070. Bearing in mind the increased number of cores will also have an impact.
Ok I bought the 11800 ge66 11UG. I'm case you're wondering how it compares, and no this is not a scientific test. I mine every now and then. So, using unmineable: GE63 7RE RAIDER i7 7700HQ 1060 6gb a bit broken - 20MH GF65 9SEXR i7 9750H 2060 6GB - 22-25 MH GE66 11UG 3070 8GB- 65 MH Yes the 11th gen with 3070 is a huge jump. I'm aware that mining isn't a real test. Also installed latest bios and 3070 vbios (140 w tdp vs 135w stock) Undervolt of -0.70 Un-optimised w10 build with standard crap/bloat from msi. Not worrying about that, will do clean build of W11 when it drops. Very impressed so far....
@@BobOfAllTrades Bummer. Thought I had a bad unit. I still agree that the Raider is the better of the 2. I also like it over the Ryzen 9 3070 Strix. The Raider just feels more premium than the Strix and not a Finger print magnet like the Stealth. Thanks for the great Videos! Keep up the great work!
DISPLAY FREEZE I have this laptop GE66-UG-234IT. Anyone here with problems with a second display? When I connect the laptop to an external screen with HDMI or minidisplayport (VGA adapter cable) and use both screen (not duplicate image) with software like OBS or Streamlabs i have some monitor freeze. Both monitor freeze for 3-4 second. Go black and then work normally. Sometimes the bug is introduced by mouse freeze. I thought that was an hardware problem but when I use only the notebook without monitor, it is ok. I think that is a problem with drivers. A friend of mine, bought the GP66 with the same hardware and has the same problem! I wrote to msi and they suggested me a very long list of test and procedure and i didn't tried yet. I know that there is a BIOS update but I don't know if I solve with this and I'm scared to update it because I don't want to brick the Notebook. Anyone can help?
To answer your question about the casing materials. You start from LCD back cover, front bezel, keyboard surround cover and bottom cover. GE66 Metal, Plastic, Metal, Plastic GP66 Metal, Plastic, Metal, Plastic GE66 looks more metallic-ish GE66 looks more satin black-ish
I have this laptop with rtx 3070 with 32 gb ram 1TB drive. with 240hz screen. I want to have a external monitor with at least 240hz display. Should I used the HDMI port or the mini display port? any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Hey Bob! Great vid as always 👌 I just got the GE76 with the i9 10980HK and RTX 3080 155W, a pretty solid machine, but I'm thinking of pushing this thing to it's true potential and void the warranty and repaste it. Honestly I don't think that the laptop will have any issues within it's warranty period so I think that repasting it will give me a nice boost and benefit of a better performance now as I would probably get another one after 2 years. I optimized it as much as I could, UV + custom turbo boost, holding 4.6ghz all cores at 80*C while gaming. I want to go for 4.9 - 5 ghz all core which I think is possible if I repaste it with Gelid GC Extreme which should give me - 10 degrees celsius. Should I go for it, what do you think? CPU is getting 10.4k in TimeSpy right now from 9.7k stock.
@@warlock5309 For me it's worth it, the laptop will run cooler and perform a bit better which is overall healthier for the machine. The chances for a laptop to break within it's 2 year warranty window are very low, if a laptop is faulty, it's usually faulty out of the box or within the first weeks. Also I enjoy tearing laptops apart so this was fun for me overall, but everyone can do whatever they want, it's a choice.
Didn't know you until 3 days ago when pccomponentes were selling a very similar HP Omen to this one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BGXtORSTFWY.html for 1800€ and WHAT A GOOD REVIEW :-) I wish you would do a lot more. If it would have a MUX I would have bought it, but oh well. I'm looking for a 17' laptop that has G-sync and Optimus (I guess the new Optimus Advance will do or a MUX switch) with a 2080 or above. I hope you do more reviews with laptops that comply with the G-sync+Optimus. Keep up the good work :-)
Bob Of All Trades Hello. Have you tried warzon on it? I have a msi gp76 (i7 10870h undervolt -80 rtx 3070 16gb ram), I updated all the drivers and this is what I got. Very low 100-120fps and Ultra with rtx 90-100fps with discretated videocard. Why i have so little fps? And same problem in PUBG, 90-130fps low and high texture. And another question, how do you compare this laptop with the hp omen 17 with 2080? Which of them has quieter and less nasty noise from coolers? Sorry for my bad english.
Bob Of All Trades i got same fps if I put everything at a minimum, even sometimes less. And I don’t understand why so bad. I tried the stock drivers and the latest ones, no difference. Maybe I have a defective video card.
@@BobOfAllTrades i did everything i download more drivers on the official site of Invidia is crashing all time and is deleting the crash i can see than one drive before i had the 6068 now i have something with 5968 i dont remember exactly the numbers ,
I have two laptops here with this same keyboard and I have no uneven keyboard RGB. It’s not like this laptop doesn’t have major issues with the CPU bottleneck so I’m certainly not going to hold back if there’s a RGB issue.
@@BobOfAllTrades I am on my third one and they all have the same issue, so my suspicion is that either the company specifically sent you a laptop where they took the time to correct the problem, or you are just unable to see it. There's no way I got 3 in a row unless it's a huge issue, if not all of them. One was from Best Buy and two were through MSI's Amazon store. Have you actually tried setting the keyboard to a solid color like white? In your video it's in flux, so it'd be harder for you to see the problem. Turn the keys all white and you should be able to see some areas are more white and some are purple, and some keys are both depending on the part of the key you're viewing.