Gaming Laptop Analysis

Is the MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz good as a gaming laptop? Excellent

Processor - A Core i7-10870H 8-Core 2.20GHz CPU that is housed in this laptop is excellent for modern AAA gaming during 2023. This laptop CPU has 8 cores. This is excellent for modern AAA gaming as the games start to require more cores for simultaneous activities.

Graphics Card - With the GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q graphics card this is an excellent gaming GPU for 2023 AAA gaming The graphics solution in the laptop also has 8GB of VRAM. This is an excellent gamers amount of VRAM and plenty for today’s big games.

System Memory - This system memory, 16GB, is excellent for meeting 2023 AAA game requirements.

Screen Size - This laptop screen size is capable of meeting 2023 gaming, making it a step closer to being a good laptop for gamers. Larger laptop screens normally equal less squinting at on screen text, providing the resolution is set inline with the screens native pixel count. We normally look to the 17 inch panels for focused gaming laptops, but this 15.6" screen is the most common and popular in the market, due to portability versus viewability. We will go for a 17 inch screen size when choosing a laptop for gaming. And while the larger the screen the less portable the machine, the bigger screen balances out with better in-game viewability. And that is more important when wondering whether to go with a 1.5 Kg laptop or a 3.5Kg laptop for gaming for us.

Refresh Rate - A gaming laptop wants to have a higher refresh rate to accommodate more frames per second(FPS) in the games it runs. The refresh rate is like a hard cap on the games deliverable FPS. The better the refresh rate the more FPS the laptop can deliver in games, up to the panels refresh rate hertz, and then the sharper the in game play is when the player moves about. We can see this laptop can support high gaming refresh rates, with 240Hz screen panel built in. This is excellent refresh rates for gaming. More than 60Hz would still be suitable for gaming.

GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q graphics card gaming performance in the MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz laptop

A key choice in any gaming laptop is making sure we identify the right graphics card in the laptop and know what it is capable of in today's gaming landscape. With this laptop we are taking a closer look at how its total laptop value compares to its capability when it comes to running modern demanding games. Also lets take a look at it when running modern popular games like, Grand Theft Auto VI or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) in ultra graphics settings on its native screen resolution of 1080p. Now this comes with the GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q installed as the mobile graphics card, and at the moment it is capable of running 499 games at their minimum graphics system specs and then running 479 recommended specs of today’s top 500 most demanding games.

Comparing MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz to today’s best price to performance laptop ranges

Stepping into it, we can standardise our assessment of this MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz laptop review by giving every laptop a relative price to performance rating. This rating, for all laptops, will adjust over time and keep the data in this review relevant to today's expectations and inline with ever increasing game demands of modern AAA laptop gaming.

A 7 P2P score rating out of 10 has been allocated today to the MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz. This value will adjust automatically as hardware and modern performance requirements from laptops improve over time. Here we look at how our version of this GP66 Leopard (2021) laptop compares against the other laptops in the range. This laptop is currently 2nd in this range for hardware value. Laptops closer to the 1st position of the model range represent the better gaming performance bang for your buck.

Lets now see how our MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz laptop compares to the best P2P laptop, which is currently the ASUS TUF A15 R7 4800H GTX 1660 Ti 16GB RAM 512GB M.2. Our review laptop has 143% worse rating in price to performance and the best laptop for P2P has a listed price of $999. Moving to the 2nd position of the P2P ranking list sits the MSI Bravo 15 R7 4800H RX 5500M 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop, where it has a price of $1049. Our GP66 Leopard (2021) laptop currently has 112% worse Price to Performance rating against this 2nd best model.

How does the MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz laptop compare to the best CPU performance focused laptops and today’s most popular games?

As one of the key focuses of any computer is the CPU we will want to know how well our GP66 Leopard (2021) laptop performs in this area. A good way of gauging this is to put it in a comparison with the best priced CPU focused laptop available today, and then check out its relative performance against that top CPU laptop. For processor focused performance we choose the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 R9 4900HS RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 laptop for today’s comparison. This top end CPU laptop comes with a Ryzen 9 4900HS 8-Core 3.0GHz processor in it that performs 24% better if we put it against our review laptop’s Core i7-10870H 8-Core 2.20GHz processor.

Our laptop’s CPU can currently run 465 of today’s top 500 demanding games meeting their recommended processor requirements. This figure is 500 for the top 500 minimum requirement games that can be run by the Core i7-10870H 8-Core 2.20GHz.

Games these days have a range of processor requirements so let's look at a few popular games of today, and check our laptop CPU against the games recommended requirement. First off, Grand Theft Auto VI and our laptop processor gets 16% better performance rating. Next we have Star Citizen where our CPU gets 2% better performance and finally another popular title at the moment is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022), which has a performance difference of : 16% better, when put against our laptop’s Core i7-10870H 8-Core 2.20GHz.

How does the MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz laptop compare to the best graphics card performance focused laptops and today’s most popular games?

We may well be looking for a GPU centric laptop, and if that’s the case then let's see how this GP66 Leopard (2021) mobile pc competes with a top GPU performance laptop that is available today. Lets look at the MSI GT76 Titan i9-10900K RTX 2080 Super 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K laptop due to its graphics processing power. The GPU it houses is ideal for comparison benchmarking, because it currently has one of the best laptop graphics solutions, at the cheapest laptop price. Its GPU is the GeForce RTX 2080 Super 8GB which we compare to the GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q graphics card in our review laptop. Our performance comparison shows the top end laptop GPU to be 15% better in performance compared to our laptop’s graphics processing power.

Our laptop’s GPU can currently run 479 of today’s top 500 demanding games meeting their recommended Graphics Card requirements. This figure is 499 for the top 500 minimum requirement games that can be run by the GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q.

How about we compare our laptop graphics performance against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) recommended graphics requirement? Our laptop gets 13% better performance. Next let's check the top game of the moment, Grand Theft Auto VI, which shows the review laptop’s gpu against that game’s system specs gets 13% better performance. We also see the 80% better performance from our laptop gpu when looking at the game Star Citizen for it’s graphics requirements.

The MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz has a 1080p screen resolution, should I get a 4K resolution gaming laptop instead?

If you are looking for future proof laptops it doesnt take long before people are exploring the 4K panel laptops, but are they really the right choice or should you be focusing on a top end laptop that has the hardware to deliver 1080p gaming. The MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz’s 15.6" physical panel produces a native 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall. Screen refresh rate on a 4K panel laptop will normally be 60Hz and this will cap out any game’s Frames Per Second at 60 even if it’s hardware could deliver more FPS. Along with that upset most AAA games would struggle to reach that 60 FPS at 4K Ultra graphics settings on most laptop hardware today. With higher the better refresh rates for your laptop monitor, this particular MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz laptop is available in 240Hz variety.

As a somewhat last resort a gamer could lower a game’s displayed screen resolution away from the 4K laptop’s native pixel count. Dropping down to 1080p or maybe 1440p would deliver more frames per second in game and help provide a more stable FPS in modern AAA games. But taking this action, moving away from the native 4K resolution, immediately reduces game graphics definition and makes it look blurry. Not an ideal situation on a new gaming 4K laptop. The laptop has got 4K capable hardware? Well when you are not on the move, plug the laptop into a 144Hz or better desktop monitor that’s 28inches and comes with a 1440p or 4K resolution to enjoy modern gaming without FPS or size limits.

However, you could be after watching 4K streaming content on your laptop, while on the move. Then perhaps the 17inch laptop screen and 4K resolution is going to net a more enjoyable experience than a 1080p alternative.

As you can probably gather from the information above, its probably not worth the extra cash for a 4K laptop if gaming is your Laptop purpose. 1080p is likely plenty and has enough alternative gaming options for when you want better resolution. It feels like you might not get what you were after if you picked up a shiny new 4K laptop, then was needing to lower game resolution, while getting blurry in-game experience and achieving a max 60FPS when you could push the hardware into better frame rates.

Today’s best 1440p desktop monitor for a laptop is - ASUS ProArt Display PA278QV 27 inch 1440p 75Hz 5ms IPS

Incidentally our research shows the ASUS ProArt Display PA278QV 27 inch 1440p 75Hz 5ms IPS as our best priced 1440p monitor today. This monitor has a 75Hz refresh rate and a price tag at the moment of $311.99. Our cheapest tracked price for the desktop 1440p monitor was $229.99, which we recorded on 9th Mar 2021.

Today’s best 4K desktop monitor for a laptop is - Asus Predator XB273K 27 inch 4K GSYNC IPS 1ms 144Hz

The 4K Asus Predator XB273K 27 inch 4K GSYNC IPS 1ms 144Hz display is our current suggestion if you wanted to grab a desktop monitor. With a $618 price at the moment it also has a 144Hz refresh rate. We price track a number of carefully chosen laptop peripherals and during these past couple of weeks we saw that this 4k monitor has seen a slight price increase, but despite that it is still better quality to value compared to our other favourite monitors. Its recent price increased by $618, so perhaps it can be found a little cheaper elsewhere at the moment To give a bit more info about this monitor we saw it cost its lowest of $549.99, which we recorded on 13th Nov 2020.

[Note - check that monitor display connectors are compatible between a monitor and a laptop before purchase]

If you stream 4K content, films, services like Netflix then perhaps the quality of 4K resolution on a 17inch panel would be better than the 1080p alternative that the majority of laptops provide.

Hold that 4K gaming laptop cash for perhaps a more powerful GPU or fancy mouse or headset. That's our usual advice. Otherwise it might be a bit disheartening to pay for a 4K gaming laptop, and then be forced to turn the resolution down on modern games to get them to run smoothly.

Today's Best Priced Mouse and Headset for MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz laptop

A great priced gaming mouse today, that could accompany the MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz is the, Kayinuo M738 Gaming Mouse 3200DPI wired 6 Buttons that is currently priced at $12.99. Price watching this mouse shows that it has had a price drop by $32.26 during the past couple of weeks, which gives us more reason to select it to go with today’s laptop. Another point of interest was that we saw this mouse priced at $11.99, which we tracked on 15th Aug 2020.

Of our regular price tracked gaming headset the best value headset today is the Corsair HS45-7.1 Surround. With its a current price of $36.99 it should work well with this MSI GP66 Leopard (2021) i7-10870H RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2 1080p 240Hz laptop. The lowest price recorded by us so far for the headset is $34.99 recorded at 28th Nov 2019.