MSI GF Series 15.6" GF65 Thin 9SD-837 Black

The GTX 1660 Ti at the 74th percentile is the headline here, delivering solid 1080p gaming on a 144Hz display. But the 8GB of RAM at the 7th percentile is a real problem, and you'll want to upgrade it immediately. At USD 899 it's a decent budget buy, but at USD 1,082 it's a tougher sell.

The GTX 1660 Ti with 6GB of GDDR6 is the star here. At the 74th percentile, it's well above average for gaming laptops in our database, and it's the reason this machine can push 144Hz in esports titles like CS:GO, Valorant, and Overwatch. The 6-core i7-9750H runs at 2.6GHz base, and while it's not going to win any rendering contests at the 27th percentile, it's plenty for gaming workloads where the GPU does the heavy lifting.

The 512GB SSD keeps load times snappy, though it's an M.2 SATA drive rather than NVMe, so don't expect PCIe 4.0 speeds. The 8GB of RAM is the bottleneck. At the 7th percentile, it's one of the lowest we've seen in a gaming laptop. Most modern titles want 16GB minimum, and you'll feel it in open-world games or anything with heavy multitasking. The good news? A RAM upgrade is cheap and easy, and owners report going from 8GB to 32GB without breaking a sweat.

Against the Lenovo Legion 5i 83F00008US, the GF65 Thin gets smoked on CPU performance and RAM, but it undercuts it on price when you find a good deal. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus GA403WR-G14.R95070TI is in a completely different league with newer silicon, but it costs significantly more. The HP OMEN Transcend 14-fb1023dx offers better build quality and a brighter display, though you'll pay for it. The Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition aren't really gaming machines, so they're not direct competitors. If you want raw gaming performance per dollar, the GF65 Thin holds its own. If you want modern features and longevity, look elsewhere.

Pricing is all over the place. US listings range from USD 899 to USD 1,082, a spread of USD 183 for the same machine. That's a meaningful chunk of change, and it means you should shop around before pulling the trigger. At USD 899, this is a compelling budget gaming laptop, especially if you factor in a USD 40 RAM upgrade to 16GB. At USD 1,082, it's a harder sell when newer hardware exists. The GBP 1,095 listing in the UK is a different market entirely, so we won't compare those directly. The sweet spot is finding this thing at the low end of that US range.

The MSI GF65 Thin 9SD-837 lands in a weird spot. Its GTX 1660 Ti sits at the 74th percentile in our database, which is solid for a budget gaming laptop, but the 8GB of RAM drags it down to the 7th percentile. That's a bigger gap than we usually see. The 144Hz IPS display helps the screen score reach the 70th percentile, and owners seem genuinely happy with it, giving it a 4.7 out of 5 across 14 reviews. But that RAM situation is the elephant in the room.

Here's the thing though. This laptop is built to be opened up. Two M.2 slots, RAM upgradeable to 64GB, and a chassis that doesn't fight you when you want to add more. The Core i7-9750H is a 6-core chip from 2019, and it shows its age at the 27th percentile. But paired with the 1660 Ti, it still handles most current games at 1080p without much drama. Just don't expect it to be a creator workstation.

If you're not comfortable opening up a laptop, skip this one. The 8GB of RAM at the 7th percentile is going to frustrate you in modern games, and the 512GB SSD at the 37th percentile fills up faster than you'd think. Content creators should also look elsewhere. The 45% NTSC color coverage and the Core i7-9750H at the 27th percentile make this a poor choice for video editing or color-sensitive work. And if you need all-day battery life, the 51Wh cell won't get you there. This is a plugged-in gaming machine, not a portable productivity tool.

The GF65 Thin 9SD-837 is a budget gaming laptop that knows exactly what it is. The GTX 1660 Ti delivers solid 1080p performance, the 144Hz display is a genuine asset, and the upgrade path is unusually friendly. But that 8GB of RAM at the 7th percentile is a glaring weakness, and the aging 9th-gen Intel CPU means this machine won't age gracefully. If you can find it at USD 899 and don't mind spending a few minutes with a screwdriver, it's a good deal. If you're paying USD 1,082 and expecting it to work perfectly out of the box, you'll be disappointed.