Month: December 2020

While we all wish we could afford an Nvidia RTX 3090 or AMD RX 6900 XT, us rank and file PC gamers are more interested in more affordable and worldly options such as the RTX 3060 Ti. We’ve already checked out the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition card here at PCG and were impressed by its generational performance uplift and general characteristics. 

There’s always room for improvement though, and we’ve come to expect that from the premium tier partner cards such as in the MSI RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio card we have here. It’s an absolute monster of a card. Is it worth the premium over entry level cards?

The RTX 3060 Ti shares a lot in common with the Nvidia RTX 3070. It uses a cut down version of the GA104 GPU with 4,864 activated cores versus the 5,888 of the RTX 3070. They both share 8GB of 14Gbps memory and of course you get all the Ampere features including improved second generation ray tracing support, DLSS and more. Check out our launch article for a closer look at the features and tech of the RTX 30-series’ architecture.

Moving on to the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio itself—say that 10 times fast—the first thing which becomes apparent is its sheer size. It would make a pretty good murder weapon (that’s where your mind goes first?! – Ed.). 

The Tri Frozr cooler is the same that’s used to cool the RTX 3080 Gaming X version with its much higher TDP, so we know it’s more than capable of cooling this less demanding GA104 GPU. It’s a triple slot card that’s 323mm x 140mm x 56mm so you’ll need to make sure it will fit in your case. You get a neat RGB light bar along the edge of the card, along with a lit MSI logo and another strip running across the fan shroud. It’s a good-looking card. At $489 it’s also quite a step up over the cheaper Founders Edition and reference cards, but it’s not out of line with other top tier cards like the Strix or Aorus from Asus and Gigabyte respectively.

The MSI RTX 3060 Ti, however, features a very large and surprisingly sparse PCB with an 8-phase VRM. There’s really no need for a Lightning-esque VRM with this fourth-tier Ampere GPU. It features a boost clock of 1,830MHz but the official clocks are all but irrelevant unless you’re mining with it or have a case with poor airflow. The TDP of the card has been increased to a rather lofty 240W compared to the 200W of an RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition. The proprietary 12-pin power connector that you’ll find on the Nvidia-built cards is omitted in favour of a pair of standard 8-pin PCIe connectors. 

This might be a good thing for the obsessive cable managers out there who dislike the central placement of the 12 pin connector. The card features the now typical set of display outputs including three DisplayPort 1.4a and a single HDMI 2.1 port. Type-C USB has been omitted from the Ampere generation cos who needs VirtualLink really.

At the end of the day, however, it’s the performance that matters most and the RTX 3060 Ti makes a massive jump over not only the RTX 2060, but it beats out the RTX 2070 and RTX 2080, and the Super models at that. In fact only the RTX 2080 Ti is faster out of all the Turing generation GeForce cards. The MSI Gaming X makes a mockery of the advertised 1,830MHz boost clock. After running for over 10 minutes at full load the card settled into a consistent boost clock of between 1,930 to 1,970MHz, albeit on an open test bench.

MSI RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio benchmarks

MSI’s Gaming X Trio options are often the quietest models of graphics cards you can buy. The RTX 3060 Ti flavour continues that trend. It simply cannot be heard over the sounds of the other fans and AIO pump in our test system and it manages these low noise levels without compromising on performance one jot. We know this cooler can easily tame a much hotter RTX 3080 GPU so when it’s tasked with cooling a GA104 GPU, which demands 100W less power, well, it’s a walk in the park really. If silence is high on your list of priorities, it will be hard to do better.

A quick overclocking test resulted in a consistent boost clock of between 2,020 and 2,050MHz. That’s not bad, but given the way modern GPUs boost so effectively within their power budgets, a performance gain of around 5% doesn’t really seem worth it. We were also able to hit 2,000MHz on the memory with ease (or 16Gbps up from the default 14Gbps). More is likely possible if you put the time into it, though how relevant that will really be in terms of extra performance.

If you game at 1440p and you’re looking at a card to play at high settings then the RTX 3060 Ti is a great option. Something like Cyberpunk 2077 at maximum settings and 4K resolution will be beyond it, but then that’s beyond pretty much every card on the market. But at least you can play with ray tracing and DLSS enabled. These are things that are currently unavailable to AMD users. 

When you look at a stunning game like Cyberpunk 2077, you’re left thinking it’s the ‘killer app’ that pushes ray tracing over a threshold to where it will really become a core PC graphics technology. Ray tracing isn’t just a cool bonus tech anymore. Adoption will only increase from here. Though, let’s see how AMD and the new consoles look with it once its available.

Now that that piece of commentary is out of the way, let’s get back to the MSI Gaming X Trio. Its much bigger cooler means that thermals and noise levels are hugely improved over the entry level RTX 3060 Ti cards, but then it costs an extra $70 or more too. There’s also the 40W increase in power consumption to consider. Whether the extra money is worth it is up to you. At this position in the market this kind of price premium isn’t as drastic compared to hundreds of dollars extra for premium RTX 3080’s but if you’re on a tight budget, it can make a big difference.

There’s also the thorny question of availability. Nvidia’s RTX 30-series, and to an even greater extent AMD’s RX 6000 series cards, are suffering from poor or non existent stock levels. Waiting months for a GPU to come into stock is unacceptable. So, which card you buy may come down to what’s in stock at the split second you happen to be on the page. 

It won’t last forever though, and the MSI RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X is a great, chunky card and one that’s aimed at users who value quiet running and premium mid-range performance. If you want a nice splash of RGB on top of a card that leans towards low noise ahead of a few degrees of temperature then the MSI Gaming X Trio is one you’ll want to consider. Y’know, when you have the luxury of options…

The first consumer DDR5 memory kits will arrive in 2021, presumably just in time for Intel Alder Lake and AMD’s Zen 4.

This year will come to a close without any consumer platforms supporting DDR5 memory modules, but next year will likely see at least two of them—Intel’s Alder Lake and AMD’s Zen 4 architectures. In preparation, Team Group says it has developed consumer-grade DDR5 memory, and claims it is the first to enter the validation phase with key motherboard partners.

They include all the big names, those being ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. Team Group says it has been working the research and development divisions of each company to validate its DDR5 memory to ensure it works as it should, and tweak the parameters as necessary.

“The successful completion of the validation phase will confirm that the frequencies of standard DDR5 products surpass those of overclocked DDR4 products, and will represent another big step forward in the evolution of computer memory,” Team Group says.

Team Group is referring to factory overclocked modules, because if it took into consideration extreme overclocking results obtained with liquid nitrogen cooling, it would have to surpass 7GHz, as an overclocker recently obtained with a kit of Crucial Ballistix DDR4 RAM. That’s not in the cards.

Extreme overclocks aside, DDR5 RAM will bring faster memory speeds in general to PCs, picking up where higher end DDR4 memory kits leave off. More specifically, Team Group is getting the DDR5 party started with a single 16GB DDR5 memory module that runs at 4,800MHz at 1.1V. In a previous release, Team Group suggest it could go as high as 5,200MHz.

“It is expected that consumers will not need to enter BIOS to enable the overclocking function as the DDR5 generation begins. After installing DDR5 memory, consumers can directly boot up their computers and experience the high performance without the overclocking step of DDR4,” Team Group says.

Earlier this month, Team Group said its first consumer DDR5 memory product is expected to be available in the third quarter of next year. The company also noted it was coordinating the launch with Intel and AMD, which suggests that both will have DDR5 platforms ready around the same time.

Coming in at the middle of the Zephyrus gaming laptop line-up, the Asus ROG Zephyrus M15 GU502 packs an Intel Core i7 10750H and an Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti into its svelte form. This nifty combo affords some steady gaming performance, especially when you consider the relatively reasonable price point of $1,299 (£1,000). But for this price, I’d still expect a little more from its other features than what I actually got.

I will admit I genuinely gasped when taking the M15 from its packaging. As the box opens, the laptop pushes out to meet you like some fancy, overpriced pop-up book. It doesn’t have any bearing on performance, but it’s a nice bit of flair on Asus’ part.

The chassis itself is gorgeously understated. It’s slimmer and lighter than a lot of gaming laptops around. The half brushed aluminium, half ‘prismatic dot design’ finish even gives the M15 a classy look and feel, and means it’s super grease-mark resistant. Being milled from solid aluminium makes for a super robust laptop—though the screen does still feel a tiny bit wobbly. 

The major drawback to a metal chassis is that, while it may be sturdy, it sure does conduct heat. So, when you accidentally cover the exhausts for more than a minute, it’s very difficult to get it back down to an acceptable temperature, until you exit the game and leave it to rest for a bit. Considering the CPU temps tend to reach an elevated 96-100°C (~205°F), with the GPU not far behind at 83°C (181°F), that translates to some pretty unwieldy external temps when the whole thing’s encased in metal.

In the machine’s vain attempts to cool down, it does get a little screechy as well. At a maximum of around 37 decibels, it probably doesn’t pass our Jacob’s ‘train carriage test,’ i.e. you might feel embarrassed to use it on a train’s quiet coach. However, if you just want to drown out the noise of the cooling system, the downward facing speakers are pretty decent. Though I’ve heard louder, there’s no real issues with sound distortion at high volume, and as long as you have the machine on a hard surface, the resonation of sound through your table does help to enrich the experience.

There are also settings to nullify the noise of the rather expressive cooling system within Asus’ included ‘Armory Crate’ software, as well as settings for tweaking performance. The software includes an array of pre-set visual profiles, including an ‘eyecare’ setting that limits the blue-light beaming into your eyeholes, as well as configurable profiles that allow you to save personal system and app settings for different situations.

There’s some nice customisation here, and connectivity isn’t bad at all. All the ports and connections are placed on the side for easy access, and to avoid blocking the screen as it opens. That satisfies my preference, though I’m aware it’s subjective—it might get in the way for some users. N.B. Although you can easily remove the power cable, I suggest you don’t take it out during gameplay. Not only are there some serious performance throttling issues when it runs off the battery, it’ll also only last about an hour and ten minutes without a power lead. Not ideal.

System performance

The lack of a webcam is sure to be a downside for some, but at least it helps keep the price down. Also contributing to the affordability factor is the mediocre keyboard. It’s a little stiff on the keypress, and the backlights are not per-key programmable, so the single-zone lighting effects are very limited. Same goes for other models with the ‘prism’ design—perhaps another attempt to shy away from the edgy gamer aesthetic and add more corporate uniformity to the design. 

Considering it is still a gaming laptop, one of my biggest issues with this machine is the paucity of storage capacity. With only a single 512GB SSD at my disposal I had to install then uninstall each individual game for benchmarking, which was rather tedious. So don’t expect to have your whole gaming library at the ready.

Drawbacks considered, what matters most is that the M15 can bash out some solid gaming performance for the price, but don’t expect to be turning all the settings up to full whack.

That said, the GU502L manages to tie with, and in some cases supersede, the similarly specced (yet more expensive) XPG Xenia 15. It charts a smooth 78 FPS average on Far Cry New Dawn at the screen’s native 1080p on ultra settings, and runs Shadow of the Tomb Raider at a very consistent 70 FPS, with settings at highest, and shadows on ultra.

Gaming performance

With the most graphically intensive games, such as Metro Exodus, the Asus M15 only managed to push 43 FPS average—that’s with super special hair and PhysX switched off. And though that’s not the worst score we’ve seen, it might need a tune down to get the most out of it.

When it comes to more CPU heavy games like Total War: Warhammer 2, it only manages to push a 50 FPS average, which isn’t too impressive in the grand scheme of things. Still, it backs up those frames with an above average 144Hz refresh rate display, which gives you a better chance of your reflexes actually meaning something, as long as the frame rates actually allow it.

Sadly, it’s easy to see where corners have been cut with this machine, meaning there are more than a few trade-offs if you want portability, steady FPS, and a speedy display for that price. Overall, the M15 seems best for those who only play a select few games at any one time, and are looking to ditch all the fancy greebles that some of the more expensive gaming laptops have to offer. 

It’s totally possible to get some good old fashioned 1080p gaming done at mid-high settings, and it’ll even do so in impeccable, corporate style—so you can take it to work without looking too conspicuous. But don’t expect much more from it performance wise, bar some nice productivity scores.

Still, it is a sturdy, slim, stylish machine, with punchy speakers enough horsepower to get the more speed-oriented gamers off the ground. And it proves that it’s possible to design a well performing gaming laptop, without it looking like it was birthed by a transformer. Though, some more exhaust ports wouldn’t go amiss.

Windows 10 has witnessed a taskbar change which, if it stays in place – at the moment it’s just in testing – could have an impact on those who haven’t paid for their copy of the operating system, and haven’t yet activated it.

The plan is to take some of the options currently available when you right-click the taskbar, and move them into the taskbar category under the Settings app (in personalization).

As Windows Latest reports, in fresh preview builds of Windows 10, Microsoft is experimenting with moving some options to the Settings app, including the ability to show or hide various buttons (such as Task View, or Windows Ink Workspace), plus options for the Search box in the taskbar (including the ability to hide that).

This would further centralize the various taskbar options under Settings, and perhaps hints at a future for Windows 10 where some of these options don’t appear when right-clicking the taskbar – although that’s far from certain, and it wouldn’t exactly be convenient either.

Activation stations

Another point to bear in mind is that it’ll be a bit more of a blow to the convenience of users who haven’t activated Windows 10, too, seeing as if the OS isn’t activated, then it’s not possible to access personalization options. That already forbids doing things like automatically hiding the taskbar, but it could potentially see the removal of more abilities for these users, like the aforementioned search box and button options.

Of course, it’s unlikely that you haven’t activated Windows 10, but there are some users out there who keep using Microsoft’s operating system in this manner.

In fact, it’s perfectly possible to keep on trucking with Windows 10 without needing to activate it, although you do forfeit any ability to personalize the desktop as mentioned, and there are other restrictions including a watermark being present at all times. Otherwise, the core functions of the OS run fine in this manner – although there’s no guarantee that this will remain the case, and it could change as soon as tomorrow (or more abilities could be stripped away).

In other words, inactivated users are still (and always will be) running at their own risk, although perhaps Microsoft is happy to have the added Windows 10 user numbers – at least for the time being – and maybe these folks are still spending elsewhere in the Microsoft ecosystem via Windows 10.

If you’re looking for both a powerful and compact business laptop for mobile use in the price range between 1,000 and 1,500 Euros (~$1,213 and ~$1,819), you might like the MSI Prestige 14 Evo. The A11M-005 model that we tested, which costs just under 1,300 Euros (~$1,577), offers a modern quad-core chip from Intel’s Tiger Lake generation with the Core i7-1185G7. This is supported by 16 GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512 GB M.2 SSD. The display is a matte Full HD IPS panel with a slim bezel design. The device was developed in close cooperation with Intel (Evo platform).

The competitors of the Prestige 14 Evo include other 14-inch business devices without a dGPU such as the Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA (Core i7-1165G7), the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7-14ARE (Ryzen 7 4800U), the HP EliteBook 845 G7 (Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U), and the Acer Swift 3 SF314-42-R4XJ (Ryzen 7 4700U). All the aforementioned laptops appear in the tables as comparison devices.

Case

At first glance, the 14 Evo looks very much like the “conventional” Prestige 14, but a closer look and touch reveal a few differences. In this way, not only does the 14 Evo have a somewhat more stable touchpad but also a different keyboard layout as well as a finer key labeling. MSI has also tweaked the port configuration and distribution (Thunderbolt 4 instead of Thunderbolt 3, card reader relocated, 1 USB port less).

Otherwise, the case has the same characteristics. The large metal surfaces makes the chassis look very high-quality, although the build quality could be a bit better (the transition between the top and bottom cover is a bit rough). Stability is decent for such a compact device, although the surfaces bend noticeably at times in some places under strong pressure. However, this shortcoming is hardly bothersome in everyday use.

Speaking of compact: With a footprint of 31.9 x 21.5 cm and an overall height of just 1.6 cm, the 14-incher doesn’t take up much space on a desk or in a bag. The low weight (only 1.2 kg) also contributes to the transport suitability. Further plus points are awarded for the stylish design. The Prestige 14 Evo looks good in any environment.

Connectivity

Ports

In terms of ports, MSI follows the “Apple trend” and equips the 14 Evo with only a handful of ports. In addition to two modern Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left side that are also used to charge the laptop, the 14-incher also has a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a microSD slot, and a 3.5 mm audio jack for headphones and microphones on the right side. Buyers will have to do without an RJ45 port as well as a Kensington lock slot and dedicated video outputs. External monitors are connected to the Thunderbolt ports via a DisplayPort/HDMI to USB-C adapter and the respective cable.

Communication

Intel’s AX201 chip was responsible for wireless communication in our test device. The Wi-Fi 6 model supports the 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax WLAN standards as well as Bluetooth 5.1. The 14 Evo mastered the speed test with our reference router, the Netgear Nighthawk AX12 (distance of 1 m), with a very good 1,110 Mb/s for sending and 1,260 Mb/s for receiving data; this places it in second and third place, respectively, in the competition.

Webcam

While the webcam quality is rather unimportant for multimedia and gaming devices, it has a certain relevance in the business sector. MSI still needs to improve considerably in this respect. According to our measurements, neither color reproduction nor image sharpness are convincing (see photos).

Accessories

The delivery scope is limited to the usual information booklets and the power adapter (65-watt model). The latter is surprisingly small and handy at around 6.5 x 6.5 x 3 cm, which is good for transport.

Maintenance

When it comes to maintenance, we were left with mixed feelings. Although the cross-head screws on the case’s bottom can be removed quite quickly, the bottom cover can only be pried out of its anchoring with a flat tool (e.g. a spatula) and a good amount of muscle power. Buyers can expect a very tidy layout inside the case: The M.2 slot and the wireless module are located right next to the large battery. The cooling system consists of a fan and two heat pipes. If you’re looking for RAM slots in the pictures below, you will, unfortunately, be disappointed. The entire memory is soldered to the motherboard and thus can’t be replaced or expanded – a pity.

Warranty

The warranty covers 24 months. It is a classic pickup-and-return service.

Input devices

Keyboard

MSI uses a chiclet model as keyboard; apart from a few exceptions, it’s comfortably generous in terms of key size. However, buyers will have to make do without a number pad due to the limited space. The typing experience proves to be quite good when it comes to pressure point and stroke. In terms of volume, the keyboard is in the midfield, so it’s neither quiet nor particularly loud.

We couldn’t quite get used to the layout. For a German device, the key layout is – as we’ve seen in many other MSI models – very unconventional (single-line Enter, shifted ><| key, …). Due to the deviations from the standard, a certain familiarization period is required. We were most annoyed by the very narrow and closely spaced Fn/Ctrl keys. In addition, the 14 Evo offers a white keyboard backlight for nighttime use or use in poor light. It offers several adjustment stages.

Touchpad

The touchpad is very large for a 14-inch device. Although the height of around 6.5 cm is moderate, the width of almost 14 cm deserves recognition and makes it easier to cover longer distances with the mouse pointer. The multi-touch support worked flawlessly in the test. Thanks to the smooth surface, content can be comfortably zoomed and scrolled with two fingers. MSI has also integrated a fingerprint scanner into the upper left corner of the touchpad.

Display

As mentioned at the beginning, the image reproduction is handled by a matte IPS panel with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, which is just right for the laptop’s format.

While the black level (0.18 cd/m²) and contrast (over 1,600:1) are convincing, brightness falls short of expectations and possibilities. An average of 277 cd/m² is primarily suitable for indoor use and not for outdoor sessions – annoying in view of the device’s mobile nature. With the exception of the Acer Swift 3, all rivals manage around 400 cd/m².

In terms of color reproduction, the 14 Evo places itself in the middle of the test field. With a Delta E 2000 value of 2.95 (ColorChecker @Calman), the display is still just within the ideal range. The color space is no cause for criticism either: 93% coverage of sRGB and 71% of AdobeRGB should satisfy most buyers. In addition, the viewing-angle stability is good as is typical for IPS panels.

However, the 14-inch display is hardly suitable for gaming. With response times of 33 ms (black-to-white) and 60 ms (gray-to-gray), respectively, the panel transitions quite slowly.

Test conditions

In the preinstalled MSI Center, you have the option to modify various software and hardware aspects. The most interesting is the User Scenario menu, which contains four profiles. Unless otherwise mentioned, all our measurements were performed in the Balanced mode, which is automatically enabled after setup.

Performance

To justify the price of over 1,000 Euros (~$1,214) and to ensure high mobility, MSI resorts to powerful energy-saving components. The brand-new Tiger Lake CPU should be mentioned in particular here; it features the surprisingly fast Iris Xe Graphics G7 as we’ll see in more detail in a moment. 16 GB of RAM should also be sufficient for several years for most business customers. The 512 GB SSD can theoretically be replaced with a larger model.

Processor

The Core i7-1185G7 is an ideal companion for users who value both performance and battery life. The 28-watt model offers 12 MB of L3 cache as well as four cores, and it can process up to eight threads in parallel via Hyper-Threading. One of the biggest improvements compared to the predecessor Comet Lake architecture is the reduced manufacturing process. In order to catch up to some extent with AMD’s 7 nm technology, Intel has finally stopped using a 14 nm process and has at least switched to 10 nm instead.

The quad-core processor’s base clock speed is 3.0 GHz, and up to 4.8 GHz is possible via Turbo Boost, which is quite a lot for a power-saving CPU. We tested how the processor behaves under load with our Cinebench Loop.

This revealed two things. Firstly: While the Silent mode throttles performance significantly, the High Performance mode found in the MSI Center hardly brings any advantages. Secondly: The Core i7-1185G7 can roughly match the Ryzen 7 4700U (8C/8T), but the Intel chip doesn’t stand a chance against the Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U and the Ryzen 7 4800U (8C/16T each), which are often found in similarly expensive laptops – at least not in multithread applications.

System performance

Thanks to the NVMe SSD in particular, the Prestige 14 Evo boasts a very good system performance. 4,894 points in PCMark 10 could also come from a multimedia or gaming laptop. From a subjective standpoint, the operating system (Windows 10 Home 64-bit) responds quickly too, be it loading times, transfers, installations or boot processes.

DPC latencies

Although the 14 Evo has the lowest latency rates in the test field, it’s not necessarily suitable for real-time audio and video-editing according to the LatencyMon tool.

Storage

MSI doesn’t make any compromises when it comes to the installed storage device. The 512 GB drive from Phison partly leaves the Samsung and Intel SSDs of the competitors behind in the CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD benchmarks.

Graphics card

The Xe Graphics G7 GPU that’s integrated into the processor is responsible for graphics calculations. The DirectX 12 capable chip has 96 execution units and clocks at 400 to 1,350 MHz.

As the graphics benchmarks prove, performance is surprisingly good for an iGPU and especially for Intel standards. Both in 3DMark 11 and in the current 3DMark, the 14 Evo comes out on top of the comparison field. AMD’s Vega 7 is outperformed by at least 20% in each case (maximum lead: Almost 90%), and a Vega 8 performs at least 10% slower. Even the Asus ZenBook 14, which is also equipped with an Iris Xe G7, has to admit some defeat.

We tested whether the graphics performance remains constant over prolonged periods of time with the role-playing game The Witcher 3 for a good 60 minutes (Full HD, maximum details). No frame-rate drops could be observed here.

Gaming performance

Although the 14 Evo would definitely be gaming-capable, the 14-incher is definitely not a gaming platform. For one thing, performance is often only sufficient for minimum settings and 1280×720 pixels in modern games. On the other hand, many games generally don’t run smoothly – probably due to driver problems. We had to deal with crashes (Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn, Dirt 5, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Call of Duty Cold War) and/or massive graphics errors (Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Watch Dogs Legion) in some cases. On the other hand, older or less demanding games, such as Dota 2 and Fifa 21, can be enjoyed with good visuals and at the native resolution.

Emissions

Noise emissions

Although the 14 Evo gets louder than its rivals under load, the noise level in 3D mode is acceptable at 39 to 43 dB(A). The case fan is completely silent in idle usage – apart from intermittent spikes. However, the device is never completely silent. In this way, our test device exhibited a quite prominent coil whine. Depending on your sense of hearing and your personal perception, this noise can become annoying.

Temperature

The 14 Evo also surpasses the comparison field in terms of heat development. The highest graphics performance also leads to the highest temperatures in 3D mode. In view of a maximum bottom temperature of 61 °C (~142 °F), the 14-inch laptop shouldn’t necessarily be placed on the lap under full load. A maximum of 54 °C (~129 °F) in our The Witcher 3 test is also quite a lot. However, most users will probably only rarely put their business laptop under such load. The case surfaces stay fairly cool under normal conditions. We couldn’t measure more than 30 °C (~86 °F) on the chassis in idle usage.

Speakers

Unfortunately, the sound quality doesn’t live up to the purchase price. According to our audio analysis, the bass and the mids are particularly lacking. The maximum volume of 75 dB is also modest. The competing ZenBook 14 performs better almost across all frequency ranges and can be turned up higher (up to 87 dB). To enjoy media content, headphones or external speakers should be plugged into the 14 Evo.

Energy management

Energy consumption

Even though the competition needs a bit less power, we would describe energy consumption as decent. 5 to 11 watts in idle usage speak for good battery life. Under load, our measuring device displayed between 39 and 65 watts.

Battery life

The battery capacity of 52 Wh is in the range of the competition, which has 48 to 67 Wh. The 14 Evo’s runtime is more than solid in practical scenarios. In our Wi-Fi test with reduced display brightness (approx. 150 cd/m²), the 14-incher shut down after about 7.5 hours. However, the comparison devices do even better: They achieve between 10 and 13 hours in the WLAN test. Only in an ideal case (low load and low brightness) is it possible to squeeze more than 10 hours out from the MSI laptop’s battery.

Verdict

With the Tiger Lake generation, Intel is trying to close the performance gap to AMD, which was long overdue.

However, the plan has only been partially successful. While graphics performance makes a big leap forward in the case of the Core i7-1185G7 (Iris Xe Graphics G7), the relationship between the processor performance and the cost is still better with AMD. In the corresponding price range, the main competitor already offers octa-core processors with 16 threads instead of quad-core ones with eight threads, which rewards certain applications with a significantly higher performance. In addition, the AMD models are more energy-efficient (lower heat development, higher battery life).

Otherwise, MSI has focused more on the mobility aspect than on the professional aspect. The port range and maintenance/upgrade options (soldered RAM) fall victim to the compact and light case. The quality of the webcam and the speakers could also be criticized. In return, the Prestige 14 Evo scores points with a stylish design and a large touchpad, among other things.

Price and availability

The MSI Prestige 14 Evo is currently available in the A11M-005 configuration (i7-1185G7, Iris Xe, 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB SSD) for around 1,300 Euros (~$1,580) at Notebooksbilliger.de and Amazon.de, among others.