PC World - USA (2020-04)

APRIL 2020 PCWorld 71

GPU and CPU at the same time? We tasked
the Prestige 14 with the same OpenCL load,
adding the CPU’s x86 cores too. Performance
improves, even on the 400MHz Super Battery
mode.
Everything is fine until you set the laptop
to High Performance. Rather than scaling
up the performance, the laptop hits a wall
and actually drops below using just the
GPU alone.
Why? We believe that loading up the CPU
and the GPU simultaneously with such a
heavy workload simply pushes the laptop
beyond its cooling or power limits, which
causes the slowdown.
During Luxmark, the GPU’s clock speeds
alone would stick to 1,500MHz for most of

Using just the GPU on the Prestige 14, the
performance is essentially the same on this
OpenCL test when limited to the GPU.

MSuper Battery settingSI Prestige 14

MSilent settingSI Prestige 14

MBalanced setting (default)SI Prestige 14

MHigh Performance settingSI Prestige 14

Luxmark 3.0 Luxball

OpenCL GTX 160 Max-Q

Load only

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

8,238

8,201

8,161

8,238

the run. With the CPU also putting out heat,

the GPU’s clock speeds drop to 900MHz.

That’s enough to drop overall performance

even with both working.

BOTTOM LINE

With so many layers of nuance, MSI’s Prestige

14 is not an easy laptop to review. We

basically think the main fact that sets the

Prestige 14 apart from the pack is its weight

and the potential performance of the

components inside.

To help think about this, we made a chart

with the weight of the Prestige 14 against

those of other comparable laptops with

discrete GPUs.

For reference, we also include a Dell XPS

You can see what happens when you push

the MSI Prestige 14’s CPU and GPU very hard

simultaneously in Luxmark 3.0. Rather than

seeing a higher score in High Performance mode,

we actually see its score plummet.

MSuper Battery settingSI Prestige 14

MSilent settingSI Prestige 14

MBalanced setting (default)SI Prestige 14

MHigh Performance settingSI Prestige 14

Luxmark 3.0 Luxball

OpenCL GTX 160 Max-Q

Load

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

8,608

9,992

9,296

6,173