Modern gaming laptops are lighter, slimmer, and more powerful than ever, but how did we get from the bulky pioneers of portable gaming to today’s thin and sleek kit which boast AAA-ready performance?
Gaming has changed drastically in the last two decades, with new releases continuing to defy the recurring belief that graphics are the best they’ll ever be. In 20 years, we’ve seen a jump from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to Cyberpunk 2077, from Halo 2 to Black Myth: Wukong, alongside countless other examples.
While software and artist developers have continued to evolve their craft to produce stunningly realistic games like those we have today, so too have hardware and system manufacturers. The evolution of laptops are the gaming world’s archaeological fossils, demonstrating how form factor, weight, bulk, and performance have developed over time, making huge strides for gaming-on-the-go with each milestone.
Today’s laptops can compete with their desktop counterparts, thanks to a combination of increasingly efficient graphics cards that make use of AI-enhanced tech to boost performance and visual clarity, paired with carefully designed lightweight chassis and internal cooling systems. Serving as a prime example of this progress, MSI’s RTX 40-Series powered laptops benefit from both sleek, lightweight portability and highly capable gaming performance, boosted by performance-enhancing tech such as NVIDIA DLSS.
As the holiday season approaches, many of these powerful machines are on sale here, with plenty of options for every budget. With top new releases like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle recently released, MSI’s RTX 40-Series powered laptops are the perfect option for those looking to experience cutting-edge gaming tech. With all the advancements made this year, we’re taking a walk through history to discover exactly how we got here.
Ready Player Fun
The story starts way back in 2007 with the MSI GX600, the world’s first overclockable laptop with MSI’s exclusive Turbo Drive Engine Technology; this gave gamers the choice between better battery life or extra performance with just the push of a button. The system boasted a GeForce GT8600M, which was housed inside a squared, bulky chassis, patterned with the all-powerful red decal, a symbol that the laptop was primed and ready for gaming.
A complete demon in its prime – it was the world’s first overclockable gaming laptop, after all – this old soul doesn’t quite hold the same reputation today. It’s fair to say its once-almighty GPU is somewhat outdated, and with a thick 32mm of bulk weighing a whopping 2.8kg, it’s definitely not the go-to choice when travelling. Of course, it’s no surprise that a laptop released nearly 20 years ago would struggle with the latest AAA titles, though, and it still holds a place in our hearts.
Gaming with a Ghost
Jumping forward a few years, the early 2010s saw a steady improvement in performance from both CPUs and GPUs. The MSI GS60 2PE certainly marked this moment upon its release in 2014. Shipping with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M, which packed 1344 cores compared to the GT8600M’s measly 32, the system was a pretty significant upgrade, especially at a time where relying on raw raster performance was the only option.
Thanks to some really clever engineering, the Ghost Pro was as powerful as it was portable: it was the lightest NVIDIA 800 Series laptop on the market at just 1.96kg, and despite its huge horsepower it wasn’t hefty; in fact, it was as light as many top ultrabooks that were built specifically for lightweight and slim size. Given that it was also a mere 19.9mm thick, this was a gaming wolf in sleek clothing, and the 2010 equivalent of what modern gaming laptops can achieve.
Hiding in Plain Sight
In 2017, MSI pushed boundaries once more with the MSI GE62 7RE Camo Squad Limited Edition. It took its name from the very distinctive, world-first camo finish on the case, and once again MSI pulled off the tough challenge of packing high-end components into an easily portable laptop. Though a decent contender at the time, the 2.4kg and 29mm thickness is no shining star by today’s standards. However, with a choice of 15.6″ FHD or UHD displays, an optional M.2 SSD, and a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti inside, it provided an affordable and stylish option for the new generation of NVIDIA GPU systems.
The Camo Squad’s secret power was not only within its display, however, as the GTX 1050 Ti was the first series of GPUs to support NVIDIA Reflex, a latency-reducing setting which would have a notable impact on gaming and esports for years to come. This new architecture was a true upgrade, breaking records for both performance and efficiency, offering the best experiences available in top releases at the time, especially with the growing surge of VR.
The Fighting Titan
In 2020 MSI launched the MSI GT76 Titan with the astonishing NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER. There was no camo this time, but the Titan was super-stealthy in its sleek black case – or at least it was until you hit the lights to see its RGB keyboard and accents. Made with a streamlined aluminum cover and carbon fiber-themed bodywork it was absolutely stunning, though at a cost.
Packing the mighty RTX 2080 SUPER into this system required some compromises, most notably its 4.2kg of weight and 42mm bulk. Though it undoubtedly made an impactful first impression and benefited from a sturdy feel, it wasn’t the ideal system to be lugging around on-the-go.
Nonetheless, the Titan had serious power to match the style, with an i9 10900K inside, boasting 20 threads and 10 cores capable of up to 5.3GHz single-core and 5.0GHz at full-core overclock. Paired with the first of the RTX series graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 2080SUPER, it delivered serious graphics power, too. This generation was a milestone for laptop gaming, introducing AI-powered, game-enhancing tech such as DLSS to boost framerates without compromising on image quality. Using dedicated Tensor Cores, the RTX 2080 SUPER was the beginning of the current evolution in gaming. The challenge with all that power is how to keep it cool, and MSI had that covered with an extreme cooling system that made use of four fans and 11 heat pipes to deliver 2.25x the airflow of previous cooling systems. That enabled it to deliver massive performance without being held back by pesky thermal throttling.
The Evolution of Everything
Those years of evolution and revolution bring us to today, where MSI and NVIDIA have combined all the lessons of the last two decades to create a sleek, light, and incredibly powerful laptop – the MSI Stealth 14 AI Studio.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Stealth 14 AI Studio is the striking two-tone design available in Pure White or Star Blue. Beneath those colours is the super-light and super-strong magnesium alloy chassis, a premium material that helped MSI get the weight down to just 1.7kg in a case that’s only 19mm thick. That’s more than a kg lighter than the 2007 MSI GX600, and almost half the bulk – a pretty sizable improvement.
Don’t let that lightweight and thin chassis fool you: there’s a serious engine room in there, with up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, complemented by a powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 4060. Building on the foundation of the 20-Series GPUs, the 40-Series cards support the next generation of AI-enhancing DLSS 3 tech, which introduced Frame Generation to supported titles, further boosting performance by more than 2x the framerate compared to native processing.
That performance wouldn’t be sustainable without MSI’s expertise in cutting-edge CPU and GPU cooling. The Stealth 14 AI Studio is designed with a dedicated vapor chamber cooler on the CPU and GPU, which can manage the thermal flow and maximize performance. The larger heat capacity reduces the noise and temperature, keeping performance stable even under exceptionally high demand.
With modern laptops weighing sometimes less than half the weight of previous models, taking up a fraction of the space with significantly reduced bulk, and housing GPUs five times more powerful than even the previous generation in certain titles, laptop gaming has never been better.
The MSI Holiday Sale is live now, so there has never been a better time to pick up an RTX 40-Series laptop. To enjoy the ultimate gaming experience, click here to discover which MSI Series 40 laptop is perfect for you.