MSI GL63 9SC Review: What's under the hood matters the most

The rise of Nvidia’s GTX 16 and RTX series has dramatically improved the price-to-performance ratio of gaming laptops in India. The MSI GL63 has been updated with those GTX 16 series graphics and 9th Gen Intel processing hardware. At Rs 65,500, the MSI GL63 is one of the better performing GTX 16 series gaming laptops on the market. It recently stopped by our office, and we decided to put its powerful Intel Core i5 and GTX 1650 to the test.

While brands like Asus, Alienware, Lenovo, and several others have been toning down on the whole gamer aesthetic, MSI is staying true to those gaming roots, if you leave out its Stealth portable powerhouses. The GL63 has a matte black brushed metal lid with the familiar dragon logo in the middle of two red strips. The display on the GL63 9SC has considerably thick screen bezels, especially on the top and bottom.

The GL63 implements a variation of the SteelSeries keyboard that we are so used to on MSI gaming laptops. The laptop offers a full-size keyboard with a smaller NumPad section. The keys are reasonably quiet but offer deep strokes, which feels great for gaming but not that good while typing. The keys feel soft to the touch and decently spaced out.

The keys also offer good feedback, maintaining the tactile feeling. The red backlighting has different levels of brightness and is pretty effective in low light scenarios. The trackpad has two physical buttons with a smooth surface. The trackpad offers uniform glide for reliable cursor control. The palm rest area is pretty sizeable but attracts smudges. The keyboard and trackpad are by no means perfect, but that doesn’t make them dealbreakers.

This gaming notebook has plenty of ports to connect various accessories simultaneously. The GL63 features three USB ports, two on the right and one on the left. The laptop also has a Kensington lock slot, full-sized HDMI port, Ethernet port, Type-C port and a Mini-DisplayPort on the left, while an SD card slot sits on the right.

The MSI GL63 sports a 15.6-inch 1080p IPS display, which is ideal for both gaming and consuming entertainment. MSI has outfitted the laptop with a 120Hz refresh rate, which is not as smooth as 144Hz but is ideal given the specifications of this machine. Games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive and DOTA 2 are among the only few that can surpass the 120-fps threshold, which means 120Hz is more than sufficient to get the job done. For a gaming laptop, the GL63 has a pretty good screen for both gaming and content consumption.

Performance is where the MSI GL63 shines. The gaming laptop is equipped with an Intel Core i5-9300H processor and an Nvidia GTX 1650 mobile graphics card. The Intel Core i5-9300H managed a 145 single-core score and an 865 multi-core score in Cinebench R15. In Cinebench, the Intel processor achieved a single-core score of 431 points and a multi-core score of 1,911 points. In Geekbench 5, the Intel processor received a single-core score of 1,023 points and a multi-core score of 3,520 points. From previous benchmark tests, we gathered that the Core i5-9300H is marginally faster than the AMD Ryzen 3750H in multi-threaded performance and noticeably faster in terms of single-core performance.

On the gaming front, the combination of the Intel Core i5-9300H and Nvidia GTX 1650 delivers one of the best price-to-performance ratios on a gaming laptop. The first game we tested was Overwatch, which delivered an average of 113 fps on Ultra and 81 on Epic settings. Fortnite offered an average of 70 fps on Epic settings, while PUBG offered 67.5 fps on High settings. Battlefield V provided an average of 60 fps on Medium setting in campaign mode and 51 fps on High settings. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt managed 65 fps on average on High and 49 fps on Ultra settings.

One thing MSI does very well on the GL63 is cooling. The GL63’s cooling system features two fans with a dual heat pipe mechanism that does an excellent job of keeping the laptop cool under stress. Moreover, there are several air vents on the left, right, and back of the machine to ensure optimum heat dissipation. The enhanced cooling system ensures thermal throttling is a non-issue. Moreover, the Intel Core i5 manages to remain cool under pressure, not exceeding 75 degrees Celsius, while the GPU reached a maximum of 63 degrees Celsius during our testing.

The MSI GL63 packs a 41 Whr battery, which we found pretty underwhelming. In terms of gaming on the battery, we got no more than an hour of playtime. What’s even worst was that the settings also had to be lowered. In terms of average use, we saw a little under four hours of battery life. However, you can increase battery life by running the display on the integrated Intel Graphics.

The price-to-performance on the Intel Core i5-9300H is quite impressive. The chip is further helped by the GTX 1650 GPU and the impressive cooling system. The enhanced cooling ensures optimum utilization of both the CPU and GPU. When it comes to gaming, we believe you can get better value out of the Intel Core i5-9300H than the AMD Ryzen 7 3750H. We can’t wait to see what Intel brings with its 10^th Gen mobile gaming processors.

When it comes to gaming, the Core i5, GTX 1650 combo dish out the ideal frame rates for gaming. Most multiplayer titles easily surpass the 60-frame rate threshold, while older multiplayer games can surpass 100 fps. AAA titles are more than playable in single-player on high settings.

Beyond performance, the MSI GL63 is just a great laptop overall. It has a good keyboard for gaming, a 120Hz refresh rate display that is ideal for gaming and content creation; you have an excellent assortment of I/O and a decent keyboard for gaming. Where the GL63 9SC falls short is in terms of battery life, sub-par speaker system, and those thick bezels that contribute to the chunky design.

Overall, the price-to-performance on the GL63 9SC is enough to recommend this laptop, and that’s primarily down the powerful Intel Core i5-9300H processor and an improved cooling system. But MSI also delivers on several other gaming fronts, whether it matters the most.