MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux) review – how can it be so powerful?

For their next trick, MSI takes the GP66 Leopard, and transforms it into an absolute killer of a mobile computer, called the Vector GP66. We are not overestimating the device. After all, it comes with up to a Core i9-12900H, and up to an RTX 3080 Ti with the whopping 150W of TGP. You need a very efficient cooling solution to be able to tame this much performance potential.

Actually, MSI boasts a so-called Overboost technology, which should allow the CPU and the GPU to run at a total of 195W (150W for the graphics card, and 45W for the processor). Presumably, this is the thermal efficiency of the cooling setup as well. However, we are yet to find this out in the review.

Another important aspect, which we’re going to cover, is the display quality. Our unit comes equipped with a 1440p 165Hz IPS panel, which in theory, should be one of the best gaming laptop displays out there.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-vector-gp66-12ux/

Contents


Specs Sheet

MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux) - Specs

  • Innolux N156KME-GNA
  • Color accuracy  2.9  2.2
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 8000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, No OS
  • Battery
  • 65Wh, 4-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 358 x 267 x 23.4 mm (14.09" x 10.51" x 0.92")
  • Weight
  • 2.38 kg (5.2 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 3x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.1 (8K@60Hz / 4K@120Hz)
  • Displayport mini
  • Card reader
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000, 2500 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W Stereo Speakers, Nahimic 3
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, you will find some paperwork, as well as a 280W power adapter.


Design and construction

We just can’t overlook this notebook’s design. It is a combination between sleekness and aggression, which MSI somehow managed to marry into one good-looking package. In addition to that, the structure of the device is very rigid, with the base being resistant to both flex, and keyboard bends.

In terms of dimensions, the laptop weighs 2.38 kilos and has a profile of 23.4mm. This puts it in the middle of the ballpark of 15-inch gaming notebooks. Nevertheless, we are happy to see that MSI has driven the heat sinks further away from your fingers, which should result in a better gaming experience. It’s worth noting that both the lid and the base are made out of metal.

Here, the lid can easily be opened with a single hand. The matte panel is surrounded by thin side bezels, atop one, that houses an HD Web camera, and a formidable chin.

Further down below, we see the Steelseries keyboard. It sports a per-key RGB backlight and large Arrow keys. Unfortunately, they are crammed into the rest of the keyboard. Also, we find the key travel a bit too short, while the feedback is clicky.

Another thing that has short travel is the touchpad clicking mechanism. It also has a small area, making it one of the suboptimal solutions on the market. On the bright side, the tracking is fast and accurate.

Now, let’s inspect the bottom panel. There, we see a very big ventilation grill. The hot air, on the other hand, is exhausted from two slots on the back, and one on each side of the device. Interestingly, the speaker cutouts are placed on either side of the laptop.

Ports

On the left side, you will find a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with DisplayPort output, and an audio jack. On the right, there are two more USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports. And on the back, there is the power plug, an HDMI connector, a LAN port, and a Mini DisplayPort 1.4.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

To access this notebook’s internals, you need to undo a total of 11 Phillips-head screws. Then, start the prying process from the back, and carefully make your way to the front. The front part will feel a bit tight, and you’ll have to use some force to pop it open.

Inside, we see a 65Wh battery pack. It lasted us for a bit over 5 hours of Web browsing, or 4 hours and 30 minutes of video playback. To take the battery out, you need to undo only one Phillips-head screw and unplug the connector from the motherboard.

Interestingly, this laptop comes with DDR4 memory, as opposed to the DDR5 used in other 12th Gen Intel platforms. Thankfully, you can fit up to 64GB in dual-channel mode. As for the storage, there are two M.2 PCIe x4 slots, which fit Gen 4 drives.

It’s good to see that the cooling features a lot of copper. There are two heat pipes, dedicated to the CPU, and three big ones meant for the graphics card. Furthermore, another small heat pipe manages the thermals of the VRMs and the graphics memory.


Display quality

MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux) in the configuration we tested has a 165Hz QHD panel – Innolux N156KME-GNA (CMN152A). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution is 2560 х 1440 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 188 ppi, and a pitch of 0.13 х 0.13 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 46cm (18″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Viewing angles are excellent. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

We measured a maximum brightness of 343 nits in the middle of the screen and 326 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 5%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6910K – colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the main display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is good – 1020:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 100% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976, and 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, resulting in a vibrant and punchy image.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results in factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

We also compare the scores of MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right) against the P3-D65 color space.

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 10 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux)’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness at any point. This means it is comfortable for long gaming sessions without harming your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux) configurations with 15.6″ QHD IPS Innolux N156KME-GNA (CMN152A).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux)’s speakers produce a sound of reasonably good quality. However, the low, mid, and high tones all have some deviations from clarity.


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.msi.com/Laptop/Vector-GP66-12UX/support

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This device’s 65Wh battery lasts for 5 hours and 21 minutes of Web browsing, or 4 hours and 36 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

Currently, this device can be found with the Core i7-12700H or Core i9-12900H.


GPU options

The graphics choices are equally impressive. You can pick from the RTX 3060, RTX 3070 Ti (150W), RTX 3080 (150W), and the RTX 3080 TI (150W).


Gaming tests

Metro ExodusFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Extreme (Check settings)
Average FPS147 fps101 fps51 fps

Borderlands 3Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Badass (Check settings)
Average fps129 fps116 fps99 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
Average134 fps118 fps80 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Highest (Check settings)
Average126 fps122 fps104 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-12700H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux)3.81 GHz @ 2.91 GHz @ 81°C @ 116W3.54 GHz @ 2.72 GHz @ 83°C @ 98W3.30 GHz @ 2.57 GHz @ 79°C @ 86W
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE (PT516-52s)3.25 GHz @ 2.52 GHz @ 89°C @ 80W3.10 GHz @ 2.46 GHz @ 90°C @ 73W2.93 GHz @ 2.38 GHz @ 91°C @ 66W

When we first tested the Core i7-12700H, we knew that it was going to be a big improvement. However, we were not expecting that the Triton 500 SE’s cooling was such a bottleneck. As you can, see the Vector GP66 is able to maintain about 400 MHz higher P-Core average clocks, and nearly 200 MHz E-Core averages. At the same time, it runs at lower temperatures.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max Fans)
MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux)1690 MHz @ 76°C @ 149W1671 MHz @ 81°C @ 149W1698 MHz @ 75°C @ 149W
Acer Predator Helios 500 (PH517-52)1737 MHz @ 69°C @ 155W1725 MHz @ 73°C @ 156W1768 MHz @ 63°C @ 154W
MSI GE76 Raider (2021)1719 MHz @ 82°C @ 159W1670 MHz @ 87°C @ 155W1715 MHz @ 84°C @ 161W
ASUS ROG Strix G17 G7131523 MHz @ 81°C @ 129W1515 MHz @ 83°C @ 130W

What is even more impressive, is the graphics card situation. There, the abundance of heat pipes results in a very high clock speed. It is in the ballpark of what the big boy Helios 500 and GE76 Raider were able to post.

Gaming comfort

And when it comes to fan noise, the two units inside this laptop are definitely audible during gaming. Especially with the Extreme Performance preset. However, they are definitely not too loud, unless you press the magical CoolerBoost key, which makes them scream for their lives. On the bright side, the external temperatures are well-managed, and you won’t be getting sausage fingers.


Verdict

One thing is true – the Vector GP66 is made for productivity and gaming. There is no doubt about that. The notebook has just become the best performer in the history of LaptopMedia when it comes to computational performance. The main culprit of that is the cooling solution, which lets you squeeze as much as you can from the Core i7-12700H.

Graphics performance is also something MSI can boast of. The RTX 3080 can utilize its full 150W TGP limit. This will allow you to play pretty much every game, even at 1440p. This means you can take full advantage of the display as well.

Speaking of which, MSI Vector GP66 (12Ux)’s IPS display has a Quad HD resolution, good contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles, and a non-flickering backlight. Moreover, it covers 99% of the sRGB color gamut. Its color reproduction is very accurate in both the sRGB and the P3-D65 spectrums, thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile. Last but not least it has a high refresh rate of 165Hz, which is combined with a crazy quick pixel response time.

On the other hand, a significant downside of having this panel is battery life. We were able to get a bit more than 5 hours of light Web browsing, or about 4 hours and a half of video playback. Another reason for the poor battery results is the actual capacity. At 65Wh, you just can’t expect to get a satisfying result. After all, some compromises have consequences. And if you are a hard-core gamer, then this is the compromise you’re looking for.

Well, unfortunately, there is Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. Neither you get an SD card slot. On the bright side, the USB Type-C port has a DisplayPort output, and there is an additional Mini DisplayPort 1.4, and an HDMI connector, for a total of three external display outputs.

So, if you are willing to pay the small fortune this laptop costs, you will get one of the best gaming notebooks up to this date. Plus, it will come at a very reasonable form factor, which makes the deal even sweeter.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/msi-vector-gp66-12ux/

Pros

  • 150W RTX GPU options
  • 2x M.2 PCIe Gen 4 slots, 2x RAM SODIMM slots in dual channel, Wi-Fi 6E
  • Covers 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and has accurate color representation with our Gaming and Web design profile (165Hz 1440p panel)
  • Snappy panels with quick response times
  • Extremely good cooling
  • You can connect up to three additional monitors


Cons

  • Lacks an SD card reader and Thunderbolt support
  • Subpar battery life
  • Its keyboard is not ideal for gaming

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