MSI GX60 3Be-240US Review

Why is the MSI GX60 the best gaming laptop under $1000?

When choosing the best gaming laptop for 1000 dollars, a little focus goes a long way. So ask yourself: Are you looking for the best multimedia creating laptop for video editing, photoshop and multitasking performance? Than the i7 CPU based competition is worth considering. Are you however looking for the very best gaming machine, than there is no doubt. The MSI GX60 is the best option in the market today. Hands down. 

Features

The MSI GX60 is a gaming rig to be reckoned with. Measuring 15 x 10.25 x 1.75 inches and weighing in at 7.7 pounds, it has a large chassis built mostly from black polycarbonate with some chrome accents. The 1920x1080 HD resolution screen allows for perfect visibility while both gaming and watching DVD, Blu-ray or HD videos. Being coated in matte, the screen reflects some of the direct and indirect incoming light. A welcoming feature for gamers often on the move. 

Having the AMD A10-5750M 2.5 GHz processor makes it a very fast gaming machine with some multimedia performance. Where some might rightly opt that the Intel i7 is the more powerful processor, our colleagues at CPU-World have determined the A10 to be the recommended option for gaming purposes. Add to that fact that the AMD processor has a 59% better performance to price ratio, and one can start to understand the price difference between the laptops in our comparison.

Although this is all nice, it is of course not where the true fun hides. The real heart of the matter of the MSI GX60 is at its graphical core. Having the AMD Radeon HD 8970M as its dedicated GPU, means that the MSI GX60 outperforms all of the competition with ease. NVIDIA’s answer to the 8970M comes in the form of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, which is a very expensive card and not available in this price segment. The competition will have to make due with its lighter brother, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750M. And although a great card, not even close the level of the AMD Radeon HD 8970M. 

Taking a look at the performance benchmarks created by NotebookCheck and it becomes evident that the AMD Radeon HD 8970M will allow you to play practically any of the latest games on either high or ultra settings. And not just with some flaky results. Hi-end games such as the Elder Scrolls Online and Battlefield 4 are both playable on ultra with 40+ frames per second. These are results rarely seen in this price segment and are a result of the pure gaming focus of the engineers at MSI.

The GX60 is therefor deservedly the best gaming laptop for under 1000 dollars, or should we say 1100 dollars?

What games will you be able to play?

The below stated games are all playable on ‘ultra’ settings with a frame rate of at least 30 per second.

The Elder Scrolls Online, Titanfall, Thief, Need for Speed: Rivals, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Battlefield 4, Batman: Arkham Origins, Fifa 14, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, GRID 2, Bioshock Infinite, SimCity, Tomb Raider, Dead Space 3 and so much more.

To Conclude

Both in our tests as well as in the independent benchmark test, the MSI GX60 is a full blown winner. Coming in at a price just over 1000 dollars while crushing everything else in our comparison, there is no doubt in our mind. The MSI GX60 is by far the best gaming laptop under 1000 dollars available today. 

The Key Facts:

• Processor / CPU: 2.5 GHz AMD A10-5750M Quad Core
• Graphics Card / GPU: AMD Radeon HD 8970M
• RAM: 8 GB DDR3
• Hard Drive / HD: 750 GB
• Screen Size: 15.6 Inches
• Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
• Operating System: Windows 8
• Weight: 7.7 Pounds
• Number of USB 2.0 Ports: 1
• Number of USD 3.0 Ports: 3
• Battery Life: Lithium-Ion with up to 4 hours 
• Dimensions: 10.24 x 14.97 x 1.77 inches