PC Pro - UK 2021-12)

@PCPRO FACE Reviews

N

vidia’slineupofRTX

30-seriesgraphicscar

continuestogrow.At

thetop,wehavethefire-breat

RTX3090,whileatthebottom

RTX 3050 andRTX 3050 Ti.The

low-priceGPUsaimtobring

ofraytracingtomoreaffordable

machines,whichmakessense as time

passesanda ray-tracing-capableGPU

becomesderigueur.

TheGA107 Amperechipinthe

3050 TiGPUuses2,560CUDA, 20 Ray

Tracing(RT)and 80 Tensor cores.For

comparison, theRTX 3060 uses3,584

CUDA, 28 RTand 112 Tensorcores.

Toputitanother way,the 3050 Tiis

roughly75%ofa 3 06 0.Theotherbig

limitationisa maximumof 4GBof

videoRAM, whilepotentialbuyers

shouldlookforwhichTGP(total

graphics power)ofthe 3050 Tirange

they’re buying:theserangefrom35W

to80W.The 3050 Tiinmyreview

machinehasa TGPof60Wanda

maximum clockspeedof1,485MHz.

Anothernoteworthythingabout

thesiliconinsidetheGL66is theIntel

Coreprocessor.Generally,gaming

machinesinthispricecategoryuse

quad-corei7processorssuchasthe

1165G7,butMSIhasoptedforthe

morepowerfuleight-coreCore

i7-11800H.Ourtest machineincludes

a 512GB PCI-ESSDand16GBofRAM,

butthe sole modelcurrentlyonsalein

theUK onlycomeswith 8 GBofRAM.

Onesignofthismachine’sbudget

istheplasticchassis,butwith a solid

buildit doesn’tlook or feelcheap.The

angulardesignandgreypatterned

aluminiumlidlendsa smartbutstill

gameyfeeltothe design,andat2.3kg

it’sneitherremarkablyheavynor

light.It’sanaveragesizefora 15.6in

strongpoints.Notonlydoesitlook

good,butthere’snoflexandplentyof

well-dampedkey travel.Thenumeric

keypadisanotherwelcome presence,

asisa keyboardshortcuttoisolatethe

720pwebcam. Anda finewebcamit

is,too:bright,clearandcolourful.I

wasgenuinelysurprisedbyitsquality.

The 105 x 65mmtrackpad isn’tthe

largestI’veseenona 15.6ingaming

laptop,butitworkswellandtheclick

actionissatisfyinglyprecise.

Connectivityisampleratherthan

great,withtwoUSB-A3.1,oneUSB-A

2 andoneUSB-C3.1portalongthetwo

sides,alongwithan RJ- 45 and an

HDMI2.0connector. Chargingmust

bedone viatheDC-injackasthe

USB-Cportdoesn’tsupportpower

delivery (orvideo),andthere’salsoa

3.5mmaudiojack.

Openingupthe back of theGL66

giveseasyaccesstotheSSD,combo

Wi-Fi 6 /Bluetooth 5 .1.cardanddual

SODIMMmount,aswellasthevacant

2.5inSATAdiskbay.Youcanupgrade

totwo16GBsticksandtheSSDto1TB,

butthere’s no secondM.2slotdespite

theavailablespace.Indeed,theRTX

3060 versionoftheGL66canaccepta

secondM.2SSD. It seemssillyto deny

thefacilit o b ersof theRT

and

in

con

pan

abo

use

Del

cov

the

par

n theAcerNitro5 (see

ue 323 ,p 58 ).Theaudio

temdidn’tdisappoint,

r.There’sample

lumeanda satisfying

ingof bass.

Theeight-coreIntel

rei7-11800Hchipin the

pushedit to a strong

n thePCProbenchmark,

y twopointsbelowthe

e LenovoLegion 7

),whilstGeekbench 5

1,544and 8,969are

bestwe’veseenfrom a

price.

ormanceislessstellar.

at97fps butonlyafter

upersamplingfrom2 to 1;

was37fps.In

Youngblood, theGL66

ect 144 fpswith ray

77fpswithraytracingon

butnoDLSSand113fpswithDLSS

engaged.Butitonlymanagedthat

withthedetailatHighratherthanour

usualandhighest setting,MeinLeben.

RunthegameonMeinLeben andyou

geta warningthatyou’reoutofvideo

memoryandthegamecrashes.Toget

50fpsoutofRiseoftheTombRaider

withraytracingenabled,I neededto

dropdowntothemediumdetail

presetandturnDLSS on.

Batterylifeis simply terrible.Our

video-rundowntest

drained thebatteryin

3hrs 4 8mins. Initially,I

assumed thiswasbecause

theNvidia GPUwas

continuallyrunning

ratherthanhanding over

toIntel’s integrated

graphics,buteverythingturnedout

tobeworkingasitshould.

Butthe realchallengefor theMSI

GL66Pulse is thattheAcerNitro 5

hasthemorepowerfulRTX 3060 but

canbepickedupfor£999.Granted,

theAcerhasa muchlower-quality

screenandfeelscheaper,andI’d

muchratherusetheGL66asa

day-to-daylaptop.However,these

aregamingmachinesfirstand

forem : w omparativelyweak

sts,theMSIGL66

ALUNTAYLOR

MSIGL 66 Pulse

Intelfansmightbe

thiswell-builtlaptop,

similarlypricedrivalsb

forgamingoomph

PRICE£916(£1,099incVAT)

fromscan.co.uk

“Therealchallengeforthe

MSIGL66Pulseisthatthe

AcerNitro5hasthemore

powerfulRTX 3060 butcan

bepickedupfor£999”

SCORE

boost)IntelCore

8GBDDR4-3200RAM

ceRTX 3050 Tigraphics

IPSdisplay,

solution 51 2GBM.2

0pwebcam2x2Wi-Fi 6

HDMI2.0USB-C

2xUSB-A 3 .1

Ethernetport3.5mm

4WhbatteryWindows

359 x2 59 x24mm

H)2.3kg1yrlimited

ranty

BATTERYVideorundown, 3 hrs 48 mins

Image

editing

284

Video

editing

193

Multi

tasking

318

BREAKDOWNSCORES

BENCHMARKS

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

OVERALL 284

BELOWConnectivity

includestwoUSB-A

ABOVEThee

Pulsedoesn’tlook

orfeelcheap,despite

thelowprice