MSI GX60 Pro Reviews

The GX60's powerful AMD components aren't up to the standard we expect from a gaming laptop

That said, it all makes for a very sturdy and robust feeling system. Likewise, the keyboard feels great, too. Engineered by keyboard specialist Steelseries, it's very stable with little to no deflection of the keyboard bed. But it's the AMD A10 CPU that's the real sticking point. It's just about tolerable for most current games. But there's absolutely no performance in hand for future games. And it makes the AMD Radeon HD 7970M dedicated graphics chip seem a little futile and the GX60 ultimately a bit off-target.

The MSI GX60 is a budget gaming notebook that almost gets the formula right. As tested, the GX60 is meant to be sold for $1,420, but we couldn't find it anywhere as of writing. Instead an identical system without the SSD is sold on Amazon and Newegg for $1,200. Considering the SSD was one of weak points of this system, for $100 you could easily justify plugging in a faster, more reliable SSD than the one MSI shipped to us. Despite the bulky aesthetics we applaud how rounded the MSI system is, especially for the price, you get a pretty good GPU, display quality, built-in audio and battery life. Which ultimately makes it hard not to wonder what sort of potential the GX60 could have had with the right processor.

All said, we regrettably cannot fully recommend the GX60. As our benchmark course illustrates, the lame AMD CPU partly extremely slows down the Radeon HD 7970M. The performance loss is so high in some areas that the frame rate drops to a midrange level. We would have expected a more sensible hardware setup from an alleged gaming expert. The surprisingly low price is no argument. The 15 inch Clevo P150EM barebone is available for approx. EUR 1300 with an Intel quad-core and a Radeon HD 7970M. Its advantage is a more consistent performance without nasty outliers. Both mSATA SSDs are also a double-edged sword. The excellent sequential read rate contrasts the poor performance in small files. In addition to that, there is the unusual keyboard layout and casing's sensitive surfaces. But that is enough complaining because the GX60 also has its good sides. Besides the generous connectivity and low temperature development, we have to mention the first-rate TN screen. MSI has put particular focus on the sound. The built-in 2.1 system clearly excels most other laptops. Nevertheless, it is not easy to come to a final verdict. The GX60 is sooner designed for casual gamers considering the CPU issue. Ardent gamers will currently not get around an Intel quad-core.