MSI GE62 7RD Apache
A gaming laptop that’s part revered native-American warrior, part shabby French ruffian.
Finding gaming laptops close to the $2,000 mark has historically been a difficult exercise, and a decent one at that has been nigh impossible. So when you consider that MSI’s GE62 7RD Apache has both a latest generation Intel CPU and a new Nvidia Pascal GPU, it’s hard to understand how it’s managed to come in at a retail price of just $1,999.
There’s definitely been some penny pinching when it comes to the form and exterior materials. This laptop returns to a black brushed-metal veneer finish. Weighing in at 2.5kg, this isn’t a particularly lightweight unit, nor is it particularly compact, sporting a thick chassis that accommodates an optical drive and a set of ventral, posterior and anterior vents that service two 50mm fans, which are mercifully big enough to keep the device cool without being too loud.
Despite our ragging on the budget-oriented exteriors, we’re happy that the quality of the internal components has been made the priority. At the heart of the GE62 is a premium seventh-gen Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, backed up by 16GB of DDR4 RAM, an obscenely-fast 128GB PCIe SSD and a crisp 1080p anti-glare IPS display.
This is the first laptop we’ve tested that has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU (4GB) in it. Historically, the GTX x50 series of GPUs have been aimed at gamers playing less graphically intensive online titles, where responsiveness is key; however, with this new 10-series, the considerable boost in GPU grunt makes the GTX 1050 competitive with more demanding games, too.
This rig manages to pump through PCMark 8’s Work and Home CPU-heavy tasks with respective scores of 3,913 and 5,173 — faster than any other laptop we’ve tested to date... although, with an Intel seventh-gen CPU, that’s not surprising. That GPU is no slouch either, grinding out scores of 2,611 in demanding graphical benchmarks like 3DMark’s Fire Strike Extreme, putting it ahead of last generation’s tier-above GTX 960M. This comparative boost is consistent across newer titles like Batman: Arkham Knight and Far Cry Primal, too, with this MSI pulling average frame rates of 48fps and 28fps, respectively, while the older Dell unit only managed 35fps and 22fps. When pitted against MSI’s GS43VR 6RE (as seen in APC 437 page 33), which was tested with a sixth-gen CPU and a GTX 1060 2GB GPU, the relative graphical performance fluctuated a little, with similar scores of 30fps in Far Cry Primal on 1080p Ultra settings, but significantly faster 71fps frame rate averages in Arkham Knight using 1080p High graphical settings. There is still a significant gap between this 1050 and the 1060, then.
For a sub $2,000 laptop, though, the GE62 7RD performs at a level we haven’t seen before and is a great performer for anyone seeking a gaming setup on a budget. It’s worth noting that this performance still comes at the cost of battery life, which won’t even get you through an hour of general web browsing and movie watching when in performance mode.
It’d be remiss of us if we didn’t point out that, by spending another $500 or so, you’ll not only get higherend components that perform better, but also more compact and nicer looking gaming laptop, like Gigabyte’s Aero 14 (see APC 437, page 32).