MSI GL66 & GL76 got released yesterday at the Virtual Event, MSIology 2021, MSI also revealed their new lineup and series of other Gaming Laptops. These laptops are all powered by the latest Intel Core i7 or i9 11th Gen H Series Processors. All of them come equipped with Nvidia’s latest 2nd Generation Ray Tracing Technology, the RTX 3000 Series. In this new lineup of Gaming laptops from MSI, there won’t be any variant with an older generation GTX Graphics Card.
The new Intel i7 11th Gen Chips on MSI GL66 & GL76 Laptop is a octa-core chip with multi-threading. With 12MB Intel Smart Cache and up to 4.8Ghz Turbo, this processor can handle almost anything you throw at it. We will be getting RTX Graphics Cards ranging from RTX 3050 and all the way up to RTX 3070.
Specifications of MSI GL66 & MSI GL75 Pulse
MSI GL66 Pulse
| Up to 11th Gen. Intel® Core™ i5 10400H/i7 Processor 10800H |
| Windows 10 Home |
| 15.6″ FHD (1920×1080), 144Hz, IPS-Level 15.6″ QHD (2560×1440), 165Hz, IPS-Level |
| Intel® HM570 |
| NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050/3050Ti/3060/3070 Laptop GPU 4/6GB GDDR6 |
| DDR4-3200 Memory Type 2 Slots Number of SO-DIMM Slot Max 64GB Max Capacity |
| 2x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen3)/1x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen3) |
| HD type (30fps@720p) |
| RGB Backlight Keyboard |
| Gigabit LAN 802.11 ax Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth v5.2 |
| 1x Mic-in/Headphone-out Combo Jack |
| 1x Type-C USB3.2 Gen1 2x Type-A USB3.2 Gen1 1x Type-A USB2.0 1x RJ45 1x (4K @ 60Hz) HDMI |
| 53.5 Battery (Whr) |
| 150W/180W adapter |
| 359 x 259 x 23.95 mm |
| 2.3 kg |
| Titanium Gray |
MSI GL76 Pulse
| Up to 11th Gen. Intel® Core™ i5 10400H/i7 Processor 10800H |
| Windows 10 Home |
| 17.3″ FHD (1920×1080), 144Hz, IPS-Level 17.3″ QHD (2560×1440), 165Hz, IPS-Level |
| Intel® HM570 |
| NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050/3050Ti/3060/3070 Laptop GPU 6GB GDDR6 |
| DDR4-3200 Memory Type 2 Slots Number of SO-DIMM Slot Max 64GB Max Capacity |
| 2x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen3) / 1x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen3) |
| HD type (30fps@720p) |
| RGB Backlight Keyboard |
| Gigabit LAN 802.11 ax Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth v5.2 |
| 1x Mic-in/Headphone-out Combo Jack |
| 1x Type-C USB3.2 Gen1 2x Type-A USB3.2 Gen1 1x Type-A USB2.0 1x RJ45 1x (4K @ 60Hz) HDMI |
| 53 Battery (Whr) |
| 180W adapter |
| 398 x 273 x 24.2 mm |
| 2.3 kg |
| Titanium Gray |
What’s inside the box?
Inside the box you will find the laptop which is covered with a textile cloth and placed inside an antistatic bag. There will be another cuboid box which will contain the 180W Charger.
Design and Aesthetics
The Pulse name signifies the design and the looks that MSI GL66 or MSI GL76 possess. And the design portrays the two slits that are done on the lid which is a traditional MSI GL Design. The two slits make the laptop look edgier & the additional design lines on the lid depict the chest plate of the mascot character that MSI created for their MSIology event and marketing campaign.
The MSI GL66 Laptop’s top lid is made out of metal (aluminum). Although the chassis is built out of plastic, it is interesting to note that both the Pulse Laptops weigh the same although the GL76 has a 17.3″ Display. The metal MSI emblem is a game-changer in the Aesthetics department. But the overall design is a huge upgrade over the last year’s GL Series.
Despite of the strong plastic base, the laptop doesn’t flex at all even when stressed physically. The display does flex and its very common to withstand the shocks. The lid can be opened with one hand thanks to the heavy plastic base. The new hinge system is much more stable and the infamous MSI hinge breaking issue will not be a problem anymore. The new Pulse Grid design can be a major eye turner for a lot.
Keyboard and Trackpad
Keyboard
You are going to get a Per Key RGB Keyboard along with this laptop. The key travel as usual is really good. It almost feels like typing on a mechanical keyboard except for some softness to it. The MSI GL66 Laptop uses a full sized keyboard with proper arrow keys and a Numpad as well.
Touchpad
The earlier versions of GL series had two dedicated buttons on the touch bar. MSI this year completely omitted using separate keys and placed them beneath the trackpad instead. They also placed some new imprint design on the trackpad which might be a aesthetic feature, that being said the tracking accuracy, responsiveness, smoothness and usability have improved a lot.
Display
For the Display, both the MSI GL66 and GL76 possess a color-calibrated display of color accuracy of close to 100% sRGB. Apart from the display size on both the variants (15.6 on MSI GL66 Pulse & 17.3″ on MSI GL75 Pulse), the GL66 features a 1920 x 1080 pixels panel with a refresh rate of 144Hz. But with MSI GL76 Pulse, you can choose from either a 1920 x 1080 pixels 144Hz version or a 2560 x 1440p 165Hz version depending upon your requirements. Viewing angles are prefect even at 45 degrees.
The maximum brightness that this laptop can have is around 335 nits. The Color temperature on the white screen is around 7700K. MSI GL66’s color gamut coverage is 93% of the sRGB. The Design and gaming profile also provides optimal color temperatures of around 6500K luminance & 140 cd/m2 sRGB mode.
For gaming the response time, the Black to white and from white to black it is 8.7ms and with the Gray to Gray Result the response time of the MSI GL66 Laptop will be 5.6ms. The laptop also doesn’t use the Pulse-width Modulation (PWM) to adjust the brightness. This helps in prolonged use of the laptop without putting excessive stress on your eyes. Overall you will have a good experience while using this laptop for both design work and gaming as well.
Sound and Drivers
Flipping the laptop upside down, there are two cutouts for the small Dynaudio speakers that comes along with the MSI GL66 & MSI GL76 Gaming laptop. The speakers are powerful and suitable for indoor usage.
You can download the latest drivers and utilities by clicking here!
Battery
The MSI GL66 Pulse features a 53.5Wh battery which will last for around 4 hours of web browsing while a minimum of 3 hours during media playback. The notebook has been tested with the Best Performance Profile turned on and screen brightness lowered to 120nits.
Performance
Performance on the MSI GL66 or GL76 Pulse will undoubtedly be one of the Top performers in the budget-oriented Gaming Laptop range. This laptop is powered by Intel Core i7 11800H which is an 8 core 16 threads CPU.
You can choose between various GPU options ranging from RTX 3050 and goes all the way to RTX 3070 Graphics. Basically, both the laptops will have more or less the same amount of performance except for some of the other features which the high-end laptops enjoy like better aesthetics, RGB glass bar, the inclusion of RTX 3080, and high refresh rate displays!
Lets check out some of the benchmarks of this Laptop.
CPU Benchmark
The CPU we have here is the Intel Core i7 11800H which is an 8 core 16 threads CPU and here are the benchmarks.
| APPLICATION | Cinebench 20 Score |
| 3D Rendering Test | 4450 |
| Adobe Photoshop Test | 4.63 |
GPU Benchmark
The GPU we have here is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 85W Laptop Graphics card and here are the benchmarks for it.
| APPLICATION | Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060 |
| 3D Mark Firestrike | 18872 |
| Uni Heaven 4.0 | 4343 |
| Unigine Superposition | 4357 |
Gaming Benchmark
| GAME | GAME SETTINGS | AVERAGE FPS |
| Farcry 5 | Full HD/ Normal | 121 FPS |
| Full HD/High | 111 FPS | |
| Full HD/Ultra | 102 FPS | |
| Rise of the Tomb Raider | Full HD/ Medium | 141 FPS |
| Full HD/Very high | 77 FPS | |
| Full HD/Max | 51 FPS | |
| Tom Clancys Ghost Recon | Full HD/ Very high | 83 FPS |
| Full HD/High | 99 FPS | |
| Full HD/Ultra | 54 FPS | |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | Full HD/ Medium | 105 FPS |
| Full HD/Very high | 99 FPS | |
| Full HD/Max | 64 FPS |
The device has been tested thoroughly by Laptopmedia.
Talking about the performance this Laptop can pretty much run any games or content creation software at ease. With the introduction of RTX GPUs in the low-end segment, content creation and gaming will be a no-hassle for anyone.
Thermals
The Thermals are being taken care of by MSI’s signature Cooler Boost 5 Technology for next generation cooling. They have also increased the internal diameter of the heat pipes for more heat transfusion with a total of 6 heat pipes along with two fans to cool the internal components directly.
As tested by Laptopmedia, we get to see a chart depicting the thermal performance of the MSI GL66 Pulse. The table shows the temperatures and the clock speed as well.
| Intel Core i7-11800H | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
| MSI GL66 Pulse | 2.94 GHz @ 94°C @ 58W | 2.76 GHz @ 94°C @ 52W | 2.77 GHz @ 94°C @ 52W |
What we see here that the Intel 11th generation processors are running at a fairly lower clock speeds than the expected. It might be because of the cooling solution is not adequte enough to keep up with the hardware. But this is really vague because they did improve the cooling solution over the last year’s GL65 models. Plus laptops which have more or less the same cooling system like the MSI Leopard GP66 & MSI Leopard GP76. But they dont have such high temperatures even with more beefier specifications.
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max Fan) |
| MSI Pulse GL66 | 1433 MHz / 83°C @ 85W | 1408 MHz / 87°C @ 84W | 1437 MHz / 81°C @ 85W |
| MSI GP66 Leopard | 1863 MHz / 72°C @ 124W | 1852 MHz / 75°C @ 125W | 1849 MHz / 69°C @ 127W |
| MSI GP76 Leopard | 1860 MHz / 71°C @ 129W | 1857 MHz / 73°C @ 128W | 1869 MHz / 67°C @ 128W |
So are the temperatures really bad?
No its not. I think there is a problem with the unit that Laptopmedia recieved because this laptop is not supposed to run so hot. Although we will keep you updated. So do follow this thread!
Read about all the MSI Gaming Laptops
Powered by Intel Core 11th Gen Processors and Nvidia Geforce RTX 3000 Grpahics
Conclusion
These Laptops are a fantastic choice for all the gamers out there and will be hitting the stores soon. The design, the performance, and the user experience will be mindblowing. They always had the reputation of bringing revolutionary changes when it terms to gaming and the GL series is one of those products. The Intel i7 11800H is a great CPU but it still lags behind the Ryzen 5800H during rendering performance. We hope to see some MSI Ryzen 5000 Series Laptops as well in the future!
Thats all for now!
Until next time!
A 30-year-old avid gamer by choice dabbles in all things tech. Whether spending hours in single-player narrative-based games or going through the latest innovation in technology and chip manufacturing, he prefers to stay on top of things. At the other times, you’ll find him tucked away drumming and headbanging to Rock and Roll Classics.