MSI Prestige 15 Review
The MSI Prestige 15 uses a new 10th gen Intel CPU, so let’s find out just how well it does in games and compare it against some other laptops to see the differences.
For the specs it’s got the Intel i7-10710U CPU, and weird naming aside, this is the first time we’ve had the option of a U series chip with 6 cores and 12 threads. It’s a Comet Lake CPU, so it’s still based on 14nm, unlike the 10nm Ice Lake chips which are also available under the 10th gen umbrella just to keep things confusing. For the graphics there’s an Nvidia 1650 Max-Q, so we’re not expecting outstanding gaming performance, it is a thin and light machine after all, but I figure with these specs you can probably do some gaming on it. There’s 16gb of memory in dual channel, and I’ve got a 1080p screen, though it is also available with 4K.
You can find other configurations and updated prices linked in the description. The Prestige 15 has MSI’s Content Creator software installed which acts as the control panel. I’ve tested all of these games with sport mode enabled for best performance and cooler boost turned on which raises fan speed. We’ll only be covering gaming performance in this video, so if you’re new to the channel, you'll definitely want to get subscribed for the upcoming thermal testing and full review. Let’s start out by going through 18 games at all setting levels, then afterwards we’ll see how the Prestige 15 compares with some other laptops. Let’s start out with Dota 2, as it’s not a particularly resource heavy title. Generally this is a CPU bound test, and at low to medium settings the performance is close to what we’d see with a much higher specced gaming laptop. Although performance does dip a bit comparatively at ultra, these are still good results and the game plays no problem maxed out.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature, and low to medium settings was again able to provide some high levels of performance. Although the frame rates drop down at higher settings levels a fair bit, we’re still running with 60 FPS averages at epic settings. Overwatch was tested in the practice range, and it was still working perfectly fine at epic settings, the 1% low performance maxed out is higher than the refresh rate of the screen, and much higher frame rates were achieved at lower settings. CS:GO was tested with the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and this is another CPU bound test so the average frame rates at lower settings aren’t too far off other higher specced gaming laptops.
The 1% lows are down a bit though, but in the end 150 FPS at max settings is still quite good. Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the built in benchmark, and over 60 FPS was still averaged at ultra settings in this test, with 100 FPS being hit at medium settings and below. Apex legends was tested with either all settings at minimum or maximum, as it doesn’t have built in presets. It was playing very nicely with everything set to minimum, but there was a large hit to performance with everything maxed out, though you could find a nice middle ground by tweaking the settings more.
Alright those are the less demanding games out of the way, let’s also see how well the Prestige 15 handles some higher end titles. Battlefield 5 was tested in Campaign mode, and it played well enough at low and medium settings, high wasn’t bad, but ultra was noticeably stuttery. This isn’t too surprising, we aren’t expecting this level of hardware to give us playable performance in modern AAA titles as max settings. Control was tested with the built in benchmark tool, RTX off of course. I don’t have much experience playing this game yet, but it played ok at low settings, started slowing down a bit at medium, then was chugging at ultra.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested using the game’s built in benchmark, and given this seems to be fairly GPU heavy it’s no surprise that the results are on the lower side at higher settings. Borderlands 3 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and I’ve used Direct X 11 as 12 is still in Beta. In this test 60 FPS averages and above were still reached at low settings.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and in this particular test it was still possible to hit above 60 FPS at high settings, not bad at all, and above 100 FPS was reached when using very low settings. Ghost Recon Breakpoint was tested with the built in benchmark, and I was only seeing higher than 60 FPS averages at low settings in this test, again not surprising as it’s somewhat resource heavy. The Division 2 was also tested with the built in benchmark, and in this test 60 FPS was possible with medium settings, while the 1% low from low settings was actually higher than this and approaching the 100 FPS mark.
The Witcher 3 was pretty playable outside of ultra settings, and to reach 60 FPS low settings was needed, though there was less of a change to the 1% lows compared to averages so low to high settings felt stable enough, ultra was a bit more stuttery.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the built in benchmark, and low settings was still able to reach the 60 FPS point in this test. Watch Dogs 2 is generally pretty CPU heavy, but doesn’t need a very high frame rate to play. Very high settings was completely playable for me, basically any time there’s a solid 30 for the 1% low it’s fine, though 60 FPS averages were reached at medium.
Strange Brigade was tested with the built in benchmark using Vulkan. Generally this test scores quite well, so we’re still seeing 60 FPS averages at high settings with 100 being hit with the low preset.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was also tested using the game’s built in benchmark, though I don’t think it needs a very high frame rate to play, so should work alright at the lower setting levels, which were only just below a 60 FPS average in this test.
Next let’s also take a look at how this config of the Prestige 15 compares with other laptops, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested at different times with different drivers.
In Battlefield 5 I’ve got the Prestige 15 highlighted in red, and due to it having one of the lowest GPUs I’ve tested it’s down the bottom of the graph. Again this isn’t a gaming laptop, and it can run the game just fine at lower settings. These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb raider with the built in benchmark at highest settings. This time it wasn’t quite as far behind the other machines with higher powered graphics.
These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings in the built in benchmark. This time it’s actually beating the L340 despite it having a better GPU, probably as this is a CPU heavy test and the L340 has a quad core with single channel memory.
As I mentioned before we even begun, this is by no means a gaming laptop. It’s generally aimed towards content creators, however despite being a thinner and lighter machine with a lower powered U series processor, it still has discrete Nvidia graphics. This did actually make it able to play most games perfectly fine, granted at low to medium settings, so you can definitely get by with some light gaming when you’re done with work or whatever else you use the laptop for. If gaming is your priority then I’d suggest looking elsewhere, but as a secondary function it does ok.
The lower gaming performance is definitely due to the 1650 max-q, the CPU is actually quite good, so I’ll probably compare it to the i7-9750H in a future video as they both have pretty similar Cinebench scores, so that should be an interesting comparison. Let me know what you thought of the gaming performance from the MSI Prestige 15 laptop down in the comments.