MSI GT72S 6QE Dominator Pro Gaming Laptop Review

Acoustic, Power, Battery & Thermal Performance

Acoustic Performance

The system’s noise output is nothing short of unbelievable and only reported a mere 41.4 decibels under extreme load. This is the best result we’ve encountered by a huge margin and makes for a silent experience when gaming. It’s difficult to accentuate how marvelous this is, and I must congratulate MSI for achieving such an astonishing performance to noise ratio.

Power Consumption

In terms of power draw, the laptop is economical and only just exceeds 160 watts during intensive tasks. This is impressive given the performance numbers in 3D benchmarks and computational workloads.

Battery Life

I was slightly disappointed with the 9-cell battery as the laptop’s large size should have allowed for improved longevity once unplugged. Although, for lighter workloads, the battery is capable of powering the system for a passable amount of time.

Thermal Performance

You might think the laptop’s impeccable noise output comes at the expense of system temperatures. However, this isn’t the case as GPU and CPU thermals remained well within their maximum threshold. Technically, the i7 6820HK can be overclocked, and I did managed to attain a 4.0GHz frequency. Unfortunately, once this was completed, the temperatures began to hover around the 88C mark and dramatically increased the running noise. Despite this, the rigorous cooling solution is perfect at stock voltages, and surprisingly capable when you factor in the laptop’s size. I personally wouldn’t be overclocking the CPU as the performance increase is minimal and difficult to run at a safe 24/7 operating temperature.