MSI GF Series 15.6" GF63111424 noir

The MSI GF63 Thin is a budget 15.6 inch gaming laptop with a nice 144Hz display and an upgradable RAM slot, but it ships with only 8GB of memory and an entry-level RTX 2050. Battery life and cooling are weak spots according to owners. It's a decent esports machine if you upgrade the RAM, but the price needs to be right.

The Core i5-11400H is a 6-core chip from Intel's 11th Gen lineup, and it lands right around the middle of the pack in our database at the 47th percentile for CPUs in this category. That's not terrible, but it's not going to blow anyone away either. The RTX 2050 sits a bit higher at the 72nd percentile for GPUs, which sounds better than it is. The RTX 2050 is an entry-level discrete GPU with 4GB of VRAM, and while it'll handle esports titles like Valorant, CS2, and Fortnite at decent frame rates, it's not a card for cranking settings in modern AAA games.

The real bottleneck here is the 8GB of DDR4 RAM. That puts this laptop at the 14th percentile for memory in our database, which is rough. Modern games and even everyday multitasking will chew through 8GB fast. The good news is the RAM is upgradable to 64GB, and we'd strongly recommend adding another stick immediately. The 512GB NVMe SSD is about average for this class at the 52nd percentile, so storage is fine but not generous. The 144Hz display is a genuine highlight, landing at the 70th percentile for screens, though the 45% NTSC color coverage means it's built for speed, not color accuracy.

Stacked against the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 or the Lenovo Legion 5i, the GF63 Thin feels like it's playing a different game. The Zephyrus G14 brings a much stronger GPU and better build quality, though it costs more. The Legion 5i offers a more balanced spec sheet with better cooling and typically 16GB of RAM standard. Even the Acer Predator Helios Neo outclasses this MSI in raw gaming performance. The Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition aren't really gaming machines, but they show what you can get in terms of build quality and battery life at higher price points. The GF63 Thin's main advantage is that 144Hz panel at a lower entry price, but the compromises pile up fast once you start comparing specs side by side.

Value is where this gets tricky. At USD 879 to USD 898 in the US, the GF63 Thin is competing with newer machines that offer better specs for similar money. The European pricing is genuinely hard to justify, with a spread from EUR 1,511 to EUR 1,767 across three listings. That's a huge gap, and if you're shopping in Europe, you'd want to find the lowest EUR 1,511 option or just look elsewhere entirely. The GBP 1,098 price in the UK is also steep for what you're getting. The RAM upgradability helps future-proof things a bit, but you're paying extra for that upgrade on top of an already questionable price. For the money, you can often find laptops with RTX 3050 or 4050 GPUs and 16GB of RAM that will run circles around this thing.

The MSI GF63 Thin sits in that awkward budget gaming laptop spot where you're paying for a 144Hz screen and a discrete GPU, but the rest of the spec sheet feels like it's from a different era. This particular config pairs an 11th Gen Intel Core i5-11400H with an RTX 2050 and just 8GB of RAM, which is a weird combo in 2025. The 512GB NVMe SSD is fine, but that RAM count is going to hurt. Pricing is all over the place depending on where you shop, from USD 879 to USD 898 in the US, while European buyers are looking at EUR 1,511 to EUR 1,767, which is a much rougher deal.

People searching for a cheap 144Hz gaming laptop will find this thing, and on paper it checks that box. The 15.6 inch FHD IPS panel runs at 144Hz, which is genuinely nice for fast-paced games. But the RTX 2050 is a low-end discrete GPU, and pairing it with 8GB of single-channel RAM means you're leaving performance on the table in a lot of titles. It's a thin and light chassis at 1.86kg, so portability is decent, but that thinness comes with thermal compromises.

We've seen this story before with budget MSI laptops. The GF63 Thin looks the part, has a backlit keyboard and Wi-Fi 6, and the Cooler Boost 5 branding sounds impressive. But the user sentiment data tells a more complicated story, and our benchmark database backs that up. This is a machine with some clear strengths and some equally clear weak spots.

Skip this if you want to play modern AAA games at decent settings, because the RTX 2050 and 8GB of RAM won't get you there without significant compromises. Content creators should also look elsewhere, since the 45% NTSC display isn't accurate enough for color work and the CPU sits at the 47th percentile. If battery life matters to you, this isn't the machine, the 51Wh battery drains fast under gaming loads. Anyone in Europe should seriously reconsider given the EUR 1,511 to EUR 1,767 pricing, which is hard to justify for these specs. Look at the Lenovo Legion 5i or ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 if you can stretch your budget, or hunt for a sale on a laptop with 16GB of RAM and an RTX 3050 or better.

Should you buy the MSI GF63 Thin? If you're on a tight budget and specifically want a 144Hz screen for esports titles, it's a functional option, especially if you can grab it at the lower end of the US pricing and immediately upgrade the RAM. But we can't ignore the user sentiment score of 65 out of 100, which lands at the 16th percentile for this category. Owners report mixed build quality, poor battery life during gaming, and cooling concerns. Those aren't minor gripes for a gaming laptop.

For most people, we'd say hold out for a sale on something with 16GB of RAM and a better GPU. The RTX 2050 is adequate for lighter titles, but it's not a card that'll age well. If you do buy this, factor in the cost of a RAM upgrade and maybe a cooling pad, because you'll probably want both.