MSI Katana 17 (B12V) review – affordable notebook with a MUX switch


Temperatures and comfort, Battery Life

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 P-core frequency; Average E-core frequency; CPU temp.; Package Power

Intel Core i7-12650H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
MSI Katana 17 (B12V)3.84 GHz @ 2.97 GHz @ 84°C @ 112W3.67 GHz @ 2.85 GHz @ 86°C @ 98W3.44 GHz @ 2.68 GHz @ 79°C @ 85W
MSI Cyborg 15 (A12V)3.40 GHz @ 2.69 GHz @ 66°C @ 78W3.39 GHz @ 2.73 GHz @ 75°C @ 78W2.82 GHz @ 2.37 GHz @ 76°C @ 55W
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i (16″, 2022)3.53 GHz @ 2.96 GHz @ 72°C @ 102W3.46 GHz @ 2.93 GHz @ 77°C @ 98W3.01 GHz @ 2.57 GHz @ 63°C @ 70W
Acer Swift 3 OLED (SF314-71)3.17 GHz @ 2.69 GHz @ 89°C @ 79W2.66 GHz @ 2.45 GHz @ 94°C @ 56W2.09 GHz @ 1.98 GHz @ 85°C @ 35W
ASUS TUF Dash F15 FX5173.03 GHz @ 2.67 GHz @ 67°C @ 72W3.06 GHz @ 2.68 GHz @ 75°C @ 72W2.30 GHz @ 2.25 GHz @ 69°C @ 45W

The MSI Katana 17 (B12V) handles the Core i7-12650H like a real champion. Its P-core clock speed doesn’t get lower than 3.44 GHz even after 15 minutes of stress testing, which is fantastic.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
MSI Katana 17 (B12V)2246 MHz @ 74°C @ 83W2273 MHz @ 73°C @ 84W
Acer Predator Helios 16 (PH16-71)2550 MHz @ 68°C @ 98W2550 MHz @ 68°C @ 98W
Lenovo Legion Pro 5 (16″, 2023)2625 MHz @ 70°C @ 100W2625 MHz @ 74°C @ 99W

In terms of graphics, this device gets close to, but can’t really match the Predator Helios 16, and the Legion Pro 5. However, at this clock speed and temperature, you are pretty much immune to any game lagging.

Gaming comfort

Thankfully, the notebook remains not too loud during the gaming test. Also, the maximum temperature we’ve recorded on the keyboard is just above 40°C.

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. Here, the 53.5Wh battery pack lasts for 6 hours and 26 minutes of Web browsing, or 5 hours of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

MSI Katana 17 53.5Wh, 3-cell


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Fred
Fred
6 months ago

Où se procurer le support de fixation pour un second SSD ? Merci

Pierrot
Pierrot
4 months ago
Reply to  Fred

Il faut en faire la demande auprès du support MSI ils appellent ça un kit upgrade for SSD