MSI Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V review: Scotty, we need more CPU power

MSI might need shoehorned “AI” into the title of its newest 16-inch gaming laptop computer, however there’s a severe gaming spec beneath the slimline hood. The true key options within the MSI Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V are an awesomely highly effective Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, and a shocking 4K+ miniLED show with a 120Hz refresh charge. That combo alone needs to be sufficient to make any PC gaming fanatic weak on the knees, and it comes at what seems like an affordable value of $3,299 as nicely.

There’s lots to like in regards to the MSI 16 AI Studio A1V, and though it doesn’t fairly rank with one of the best gaming laptops round, it does convey lots to the desk for that preliminary outlay. So, who is that this for? It may possibly deal with gaming, in fact, however MSI can also be concentrating on the skilled, the creator, and the artist. It’s a studio laptop computer kitted with some severe firepower to actually benefit from Photoshop, Da Vinci Resolve, and different related packages. That color-accurate show and GPU combo alone is sufficient to show that time, however it additionally packs loads of RAM to again all of it up.

That is what piqued my curiosity specifically. In addition to being a gamer, I’ve additionally spent a few years dabbling in Photoshop, constructing every part from World of Warcraft interfaces, to web sites, CVs, and even home designs. I’ve spent the final two weeks attending to grips with the Studio A1V to see whether or not it’s as much as scratch, and if it’s able to changing my fully-fledged desktop in precisely these duties. And naturally, I wouldn’t be a 20-year World of Warcraft veteran with out enjoying some video games on it too.

Specs

The MSI Stealth 16 A1V has some severe {hardware} backing it up. MSI has paired one in all Intel’s newest highly-efficient Core Extremely chips with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 laptop computer GPU and 32GB of DDR5 RAM operating at 5,600MHz as nicely (you even get 64GB as commonplace within the US).

The CPU is the Core Extremely 9 185H based mostly on the Meteor Lake structure. It comes with a complete of 16 cores, six of that are efficiency cores (P-Cores), that are the essential ones for gaming. You additionally get eight environment friendly cores (E-Cores), and the remaining two are “lower-power” environment friendly cores. The concept is that every of those core sorts focuses on explicit masses and functions, relying on precedence, and Home windows manages which coers do what, by allocating software threads to every one because it deems applicable.

Theoretically, this CPU can hit a clock velocity of as much as 5.1GHz if the ability draw and cooling system are adequate sufficient, though in my expertise this explicit chip is sort of demanding when it comes to each energy and cooling headroom.

In the meantime, the RTX 4090 Laptop computer GPU could be very totally different from its desktop RTX 4090 cousin. As an alternative of that includes 16,384 CUDA cores, it has simply 9,728. In actual fact, its core spec is equivalent to that of a desktop RTX 4080 in just about each facet bar the thermal design energy (TDP) being considerably decrease. In consequence, clock speeds listed here are pretty closely diminished as nicely, with max increase clocks sometimes topping out at round 1,455MHz on MSI’s unit right here. That stated, you do get 16GB of VRAM, which is lots for 1440p gaming and above.

You get an honest quantity of space for storing too, with the A1V that includes a 2TB drive, and whereas Samsung’s PM9A1 PCIe 4.0 SSD isn’t massively well-known, it will possibly learn at as much as 7,000MB/s with out overheating, which is simply what you need in a laptop computer.

Options

The large promoting level, and naturally the primary focus of the MSI Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V, is undoubtedly that display. It’s a severe unit. With a 16-inch diagonal, it packs in a 16:10 facet ratio, delivering a 3,840 x 2,400 decision. That offers you round 11% extra pixels than what you’d discover in a conventional 4K show, and leaves you with a pixel density of simply over 283 pixels per inch. For reference, a 32-inch 4K gaming monitor gives you about 138ppi, so this show seems super-sharp.

On high of that, it has a easy 120Hz refresh charge, with minimal latency as nicely – it clocks in at 7.6ms on the Blur Busters’ MPRT check. That mini-LED backlight additionally delivers exceptionally punch shade in just about each state of affairs. It doesn’t matter if you happen to’re streaming YouTube HDR content material, or watching Prime video, it severely delivers. Throughout my time testing, it was an actual deal with to make use of this display, significantly when engaged on artistic content material.

The true caveat to that’s that, even with an RTX 4090 on the helm, this laptop computer doesn’t fairly have the clout to ship 120fps within the newest AAA titles at that decision, which we’ll cowl in additional depth later.

The keyboard, alternatively, is pretty common for a gaming laptop computer, significantly at this value. Though it’s designed by SteelSeries, and options per-key RGB lighting, there aren’t any mechanical components right here, or any type of tactile suggestions. You do get the same old bevy of perform keys, and a lot of extras to regulate fan velocity, on-screen fps reticles, and media playback, however that’s about it. The trackpad has a reasonably first rate measurement too, which is helpful if it’s worthwhile to use this laptop computer whenever you’re out and about.

You’re spoiled for ports as nicely. There’s a devoted 2.5G Ethernet port (together with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4), and also you additionally get HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 Sort-C, USB 3.2 Sort A, and a Thunderbolt 4 connector, together with an audio jack. I used to be additionally actually happy to see a microSD card reader included as nicely, which I discover helpful for transferring information from my digicam.

One phrase of recommendation although, wherever you purchase this from, be certain your eseller has an honest guarantee to again all of it up. MSI technically does have a 12-month guarantee for its laptops, however it’s pretty restricted, with some severe caveats listed on the location. Happily, it does cowl main {hardware} parts, though there notably isn’t a zero-dead pixel coverage.

Design

Bodily, the largest difficulty for this MSI laptop computer by far is the general design, and MSI makes use of the very same chassis throughout all of its Stealth 16 Studio laptops. Which means the chassis on the $2,100 mannequin is similar because the one used for its top-of-the-line variant as nicely.

That wouldn’t be an issue if the beginning design was incredible, and also you have been simply paying extra for the higher-spec parts, however this chassis simply doesn’t really feel premium sufficient to warrant that price ticket. Sure the display is punchy and the {hardware} is strong, however the general really feel and high quality of the construct is massively underwhelming.

Don’t get me incorrect, there aren’t any apparent defects or panel gaps, however for over three grand, you anticipate greater than a darkish navy plastic end and a barely above-average keyboard. It simply doesn’t really feel like a strong unit for this value, particularly in comparison with the likes of the Razer Blade 16 (2024). On the plus aspect, the MSI Stealth is genuinely slim and light-weight for this spec, with its weight of simply 2kg being a superb 500g lighter than the Razer Blade 16.

Happily, the Stealth 16 does have some first rate improve paths if you happen to’re trying to increase its inside footprint later down the road. As commonplace it has two inside SODIMM slots, supplying you with the choice to chuck in your individual DDR5 RAM (the CPU itself will solely help as much as 96GB complete). That’s a particular bonus over the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, which has soldered reminiscence, limiting your improve path, plus you get entry to 2 PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD slots right here as nicely.

Then there’s the cooling, and the excellent news is that this MSI machine is comparatively quiet. For a gaming laptop computer that’s severely excessive reward. Just about each gaming laptop computer I’ve examined during the last eight years (together with some funky liquid-cooled ones) has been ridiculously loud whenever you hearth up a recreation. Don’t get me incorrect right here both, you’ll nonetheless need a headset to get pleasure from gaming on this machine with out being irritated by the noise, however it’s no less than considerably quieter than different high-spec gaming laptops available on the market.

The unhealthy information is that the cooling system does appear to negatively influence efficiency in comparison with a few of its cheaper competitors that runs with way more aggressive fan speeds. The influence is keenly felt relating to the CPU efficiency, as you’ll see within the benchmarks, the place this machine is out-classed by methods with lesser CPUs. That both signifies some severe CPU throttling happening behind the scenes, or a scarcity of energy being equipped to the CPU, knocking down these clock speeds.

Benchmarks

The Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V is a story of two cities, with a tremendous GPU, however a disappointing implementation of its CPU. The Intel Core Extremely 9 185H needs to be a formidable beast of a processor. With 22 threads and 16 cores, plus a max CPU frequency of 5.1GHz, it’s highly effective, however it’s additionally hot-running and power-hungry when it’s operating at full load.

I ran two units of benchmarks for gaming. One at this machine’s native decision of three,840 x 2,400, and one at 1,920 x 1,080. In an analogous vein, I’ve lately been testing the Alienware M16 R2 for evaluate as nicely (watch this house), which likewise contains a Core Extremely chip however this one is the Extremely 7 155H. Regardless of the naming conventions, the Extremely 7 is an analogous CPU, differing solely in max turbo velocity, base frequencies, and minimal energy draw, with the 7 dropping out by about 300 MHz throughout most of these specs. In idea, that ought to make it fairly a bit slower than the Extremely 9 185H.

Nonetheless, Cinebench R24’s single-core and multi-core assessments revealed the telltale indicators of throttling on the MSI machine. The Stealth scored simply 785 factors within the multi-core check, whereas holding a constant 102 factors within the single-core check. Nonetheless, the Alienware M16 R2, with its theoretically slower chip, landed a 981 rating within the multi-core check, and 104 single-core end result.

Each the single-core and multi-core outcomes are disappointing for MSI right here – with its 300MHz additional turbo frequency this CPU ought to have quicker single-core efficiency than the Alienware. Comparably, that to the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, which relies on the identical Core Extremely 9 185H because the MSI, however scores 1,049 within the Cinebench multi-threaded check, which is massively increased than the Stealth’s 785. You may as well actually see the good thing about the monstrous 24-core Core i9 14900HX within the Razer Blade 16 (2024) right here, which scores an enormous multi-threaded results of 1,473 right here.

On the plus aspect, the MSI Stealth can deal with gaming nicely at 1,920 x 1,080, though the shortage of CPU tempo does give it a bottleneck as soon as it hits excessive body charges. At this decision, the MSI averaged a incredible 112fps in Complete Struggle: Warhammer 3, in comparison with 93fps on the Alienware. It additionally produced an awesome common of 72fps in F1 23 at Extremely Excessive settings, which incorporates ray tracing. Comparatively, the Alienware solely averages 43fps on this check.

With its Nvidia RTX 4090, the MSI Stealth also can make use of DLSS 3 with body era to get a serving to hand. Working Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with the Extremely ray tracing preset, and with body era enabled and DLSS Tremendous Decision set to High quality, the MSI Stealth averaged a large 102fps, in comparison with simply 45fps with out DLSS. Intriguingly, although, whereas the Alienware solely averages 29fps on this recreation with out DLSS, it hits 102fps whenever you allow DLSS, which is in the identical ballpark because the MSI.

Nonetheless, whereas the MSI Stealth’s display has a local decision of three,840 x 2,400, and that’s nice for a pointy picture whilst you’re working in Home windows, you’ll wrestle to get demanding video games operating at that decision. Complete Struggle: Warhammer 3 ran respectably, with a median of 56fps in our check, however our different recreation assessments struggled at this decision.

All is just not misplaced, although – with its 3,840 x 2,400 decision, if you happen to set your video games to scale utilizing integer scaling (you’ll discover this setting within the Nvidia driver), after which run them at 1,920 x 1,200, you’ll successfully have a local 1,920 x 1,200 display for gaming, and first rate body charges.

Mainly, the MSI Stealth can deal with gaming high quality so long as you don’t anticipate to play at its native decision, however the efficiency is commonly disappointing for the excessive spec and value right here, significantly relating to the CPU. That is proven up rather well in 3DMark Time Spy, which supplies you a rundown of CPU, GPU, and general efficiency. On this check, the MSI’s GPU rating of 14,866 is incredible, however its CPU rating of seven,102 is poor, bringing the general right down to 12,711.

Examine that to the Alienware, which solely will get a GPU rating of 12,195 with its RTX 4070, however its superior CPU implementation means its ostensibly lesser chip will get a a lot better CPU rating of 11,402. The result’s an general rating of 12,066, which isn’t a lot slower than the MSI’s general end result, however the MSI clearly has an enormous disparity in CPU and GPU efficiency. Once more, the identical CPU does a lot better within the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 right here, with a Time Spy CPU rating of 15,060.

Battery

One space the place the Stealth actually does shine, nevertheless, is its battery life, and oh boy this machine is a king amongst kings right here. In actual fact, I’ve solely seen laptops based mostly on Arm processors outperform this machine relating to battery life. We run two main assessments relating to judging battery life (outdoors of subjective day-to-day use and really feel), each of which reside in PCMark 10’s benchmark suite. Particularly, we run the Gaming Check, with 50% brightness, together with the Fashionable Workplace Check.

When it got here to that gaming end result, the Studio lasted for an unbelievable 122 minutes. Any end result over an hour is usually thought of first rate, and 90 minutes is impeccable, so to hit two hours is simply out of this world. Likewise, Fashionable Workplace blew me away even additional, with the Stealth lasting an outstanding 365 minutes, over six hours. Compared Lenovo’s Legion Slim 5, full with RTX 4060, 16GB of DDR5, and a Ryzen 7 7840HS managed simply 53 minutes in gaming, and 218 minutes within the workplace check.

Value

So, onto the massive query. Is the MSI Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V value that outlay? On the one hand, the interior spec is extremely well-rounded. You get first rate reminiscence, a strong processor in the precise functions, a superb GPU, and an outstanding display. Nonetheless, the CPU setup actually lets it down, with the machine clearly unable to hit excessive clock speeds.

The Core Extremely 7 155H within the Alienware M16 R2 is considerably faster in our CPU assessments, that means you’re losing cash by paying for this CPU on this machine. For the cash you’re paying, the bodily expertise simply isn’t there both. The chassis is underwhelming, the keyboard is common, and it simply wants a bit extra spark and aptitude to actually make it stand out from the gang.

Verdict

MSI’s heading in the right direction with the Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V. It has some severe {hardware} beneath the hood, the display is solely superior, and from a sure standpoint, it does seem like a strong decide. The pricing isn’t horrendous for that spec, and the expandability is unquestionably there too (though a 12-month guarantee is considerably underwhelming). That stated, this machine is sorely let down by its underwhelming bodily design and its restricted CPU efficiency.

That RTX 4090 and Core Extremely 9 combo has enormous potential, however it simply doesn’t ship right here. To be honest, the MSI’s low-noise operation and lengthy battery life would take successful if the CPU wasn’t throttling, however the CPU is so restricted right here that the stability is misplaced.

Plus, let’s be honest, if you happen to’re going to be gaming on this machine, you could nicely desire to have it plugged into the mains anyway, and with a headset on, making that achievement a completely moot level. And if you happen to’re one of many creators at whom MSI is concentrating on this laptop computer, you actually need your CPU to be working at its high recreation.

All of which makes it arduous to justify the MSI Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V with this spec, significantly when it’s up towards such robust competitors. In order for you a high-performance 16-inch gaming laptop computer, the Razer Blade 16 (2024) is extra highly effective, whereas the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 affords a greater all-round stability.

Options

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024)

For a less expensive value than the MSI Stealth 16, the most recent Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 manages to get an honest tempo out of its Core Extremely 9 185H CPU, and it has loads of gaming energy too, in addition to a incredible OLED show. The one massive downer in regards to the Zephyrus G16 is its use of soldered RAM, which might’t be upgraded, so we suggest shopping for a model with no less than 32GB of RAM to start out.

Razer Blade 16 (2024)

Razer’s luxurious 16-inch gaming laptop computer affords a trendy and well-built chassis, together with a stunning 240Hz OLED display and an enormously highly effective Core i9 14900HX CPU. Its followers can get noisy at full load, although, and the display is overly reflective, however that is in any other case an immensely highly effective gaming laptop computer with a very premium feel and appear.