[In-Depth Comparison] MSI GP66 Leopard vs ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513 – The winner of this will be a best seller

Here we come with another gaming laptop comparison between two devices that push the boundaries of technology and accessibility to powerful hardware on the low or even mid-range market. But that doesn’t stop them from being able to be configured with high-end stuff as well, with both laptops offering RTX graphics all the way up to the RTX 3070 (Laptop), with the MSI GP66 Leopard offering an RTX 3080 (Laptop) in its spec sheet. All of that power comes neatly packed in a package that we deem portable, and good-looking as well. The display choices offer a plethora of customizability, opening the door to a laptop for an artist or a video editor (two types of consumers, which value performance and accurate colors).

Without revealing too much, today we are comparing the MSI GP66 Leopard with the ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513.

MSI GP66 Leopard: Full Specs / In-depth Review

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513: Full Specs / In-depth Review

MSI GP66 Leopard configurations:

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513 configurations:

Contents


Design and construction

Take a look at the MSI laptop and you’ll see beautiful body lines and creases that give it a very premium look and feel. The previous futuristic aesthetic wasn’t bad, but the sci-fi aspect is too overused in the gaming laptop space. Changing up the exterior gives it a bit of freshness both to the consumer and the company itself. Brand overhauls are when a company can reinvent its identity and portfolio and MSI did just that. You get hinges with bulges that resemble a sports car’s rear end, which is used for cooling as well. The build materials are what you would expect from a gaming laptop in 2021 aka, an aluminum lid and plastic for the base, which makes for a sturdy device. The lid opens easily with a single hand, and the hinges have a smooth operation. The MSI badge is debossed onto the lid, as the company takes away the physical badge which was previously found in its devices.

The ASUS device also has a lot going for it. While it gives off a more gamer-y, with its RGB lighting, it also has a more square-ish design, lacking any sporty hinge covers. Its build materials mimic those of the MSI, with an aluminum lid and a plastic base. This gives it enough rigidity, which is further enhanced by the weight and thickness of the laptop. The branding is also on point, not too little, but not too much. The illuminated ROG logo on the lid is the only branding that you’ll see and we find it very well placed. The lid is also diagonally divided into two parts, with one half having a lettered pattern. The lid opens easily with a single hand, but we found it to bend and flex relatively easily.

MSI GP66 Leopard

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513


Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard on the MSI GP66 now lacks a NumPad, while not bringing something new or better. The key travel is shorter and the feedback isn’t as clicky as we would have wanted. This makes for a less comfortable gaming and typing experience, which is presumably what you would be doing most on the device. Consolations come in the form of a per-key RGB backlight and shortcuts for the MSI Dragon Center and the SteelSeries software. There are also buttons that can put the fans on full blast. The touchpad is the better part of the combo, to be honest. Its smooth surface offers great gliding and accurate tracking. Unfortunately, the dedicated buttons are gone, but it’s not as if you’ll be using the laptop without a mouse.

Move over to the ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513 and you see the same unit as its bigger brother the Strix G17 G713. The unit has two RGB backlights with either a per-key backlight or a four-zone backlight. The keyboard has good characteristics such as long key travel and clicky feedback. There also are shortcuts to the Armory Crate software, which can help you set a color for the backlight and adjust fan speeds. The touchpad is enormous, especially for a gaming laptop. It offers very smooth gliding and accurate tracking. The click mechanism also registers in about 95% of the area of the touchpad.

MSI GP66 Leopard

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513


Ports

The I/O on the MSI GP66 Leopard is all around the laptop. On the back, you can find a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen.2 port with DisplayPort capabilities, an RJ-45 and HDMI connectors, and the charging plug. On the left, there are the 3.5mm audio jack and a USB Type-A 3.2 Gen.1 port. Finally, on the right side, you can see the rest of the I/O, which consists of two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen.1 ports.

MSI GP66 Leopard

The ASUS laptop has its I/O placed on the back and left sides. The left side gets two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen.1 ports and a 3.5mm audio jack, while the back houses the power plug, an RJ-45 connector, one HDMI 2.0b connector, a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen.2 port, and a USB Type-A 3.2 Gen.1 port.

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513


Specs sheet


Display quality

The MSI GP66 Leopard has two 15.6-inch Full HD IPS displays to choose from. The first one has a refresh rate of 144Hz. It is actually the one that we had in our review unit, so we will focus mainly on it. The other display bumps up the refresh rate to 240Hz. Going back to the first display, it has a pixel density of 142 PPI and a pitch of 0.18 mm x 0.18 mm. The panel can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 60cm or 24 inches (from this distance, the human eye cant distinguish between individual pixels).

The ASUS display also has three 15.6-inch Full HD IPS panels, with either 144Hz, 165Hz, or 300Hz refresh rate. Due to having the same resolution, they share an identical PPI value, pitch value, and Retina distance.

Viewing angles are excellent on both devices. Here are some images at 45° to evaluate the quality.

The MSI laptop has a maximum brightness of 382 nits in the middle of the screen, and a 351 nit average across the entirety of the panel. This calculates to a maximum deviation of 14%. Also, the Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 7100K, which is colder than the sRGB optimal of 6500K. The contrast ratio is decent, at 890:1.

The ASUS display has a lower brightness of 290 nits in the center, and 277 on average, which is calculated to the same 14% deviation. Here, the Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is just a tad warmer than the sRGB optimal, sitting at 6400K. It also has a higher contrast ratio of 1080:1.


Color coverage

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows MSI GP66 Leopard’s and ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513’s color gamut coverage.

The MSI laptop’s display covers 95% of the sRGB color gamut, while the ASUS ROG laptop’s display covers 98% of the same gamut.


Color accuracy

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile. The MSI laptop has a better color accuracy from the factory, but with our profile, its dE value of 1.0 matches the standard exactly. The ASUS laptop starts with a dE value of 3.0, which goes down to 0.6 after applying our profile.

Below you can check the results from the test of both laptops, with both the factory settings (left) and with our “Design and Gaming” profile applied (right).

MSI GP66 Leopard

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513


Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” methods from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

The ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513 laptop had a slightly faster Fall + Rise time of 9.5 ms, but the difference is negligible due to the 10 ms Fall + Rise time of the MSI GP66 Leopard.


Health Impact / PWM (Blue light)

PWM – Screen flickering

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

In terms of flickering both panels show no usage of PWM across any brightness levels.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Here at LaptopMedia, we create a set of custom-tailored profiles for every notebook we review. They boost the productivity of display and reduce negative effects such as blue light emissions and PWM. You can read more about them here.

MSI GP66 Leopard 15.6″ FHD IPS LG LP156WFG-SPB3 (LGD0625): Buy our profiles

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513 15.6″ FHD IPS Sharp LQ156M1JW25 (SHP152C): Buy our profiles

Sound

First of all, we would like to start by discussing the position of the speakers. MSI placed the stereo unit on the sides, which is a bit unusual, but we respect the experimentation from them. On the other side, the ASUS sticks with the tried and true bottom panel position. Now, for the speaker quality, the GP66 Leopard produced quality sound, with an unfortunately low volume, and the low, mid, and high tones have some deviations from quality. The ASUS, in stark contrast, gives you deep sound with high quality. Furthermore, its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Battery

The size of the battery unit is very important for the battery life test. The MSI GP66 Leopard has a 65Wh unit, which is way smaller than the 90Wh battery unit, that is inside the ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513. The battery life tests clearly showed who’s boss, as the MSI laptop managed to squeeze out only 4 hours and 23 minutes of Web browsing, and 4 hours and 54 minutes of video playback. On the other hand, the ASUS device lasted for 11 hours and a half of Web browsing and 9 hours and 15 minutes of video playback., which was around 7 and 4 hours more, respectively.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.


Performance

CPU benchmarks

The laptops use processors from two different companies. Our MSI review unit comes with the Intel Core i7-10870H. The ASUS laptop had the Ryzen 7 5800H. In the 3D Rendering test with Cinebench 20, the Ryzen CPU performed 29% better. Results were much closer in Photoshop, but the Ryzen 7 still won, albeit with only a 3% difference.

Results are from the Cinebench R23 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)

Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)


GPU benchmarks

On the GPU front, both laptops have GPUs from the RTX Ampere 3000-series. The MSI laptop came with the RTX 3060 (Laptop), while the ASUS device had the RTX 3070 (Laptop). Of course, the RTX 3070 is also available with the MSI GP66 Leopard. As you would expect, the RTX 3070 performed better across all three of our tests. It was 19%, 4%, and 28% faster in 3DMark Fire Strike, Unigine Heaven 4.0, and Unigine Superposition.


Gaming tests

Far Cry 5Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
MSI GP66 Leopard132 fps (+27%)124 fps (+24%)117 fps (+24%)
ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513104 fps100 fps94 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
MSI GP66 Leopard162 fps (+27%)96 fps65 fps
ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513128 fps103 fps (+7%)77 fps (+18%)

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
MSI GP66 Leopard105 fps (+6%)92 fps (+3%)60 fps
ASUS ROG Strix G15 G51399 fps89 fps65 fps (+8%)

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Highest (Check settings)
MSI GP66 Leopard123 fps (+23%)118 fps (+19%)79 fps
ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513100 fps99 fps86 fps (+9%)

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

While we can’t compare the stress test scores directly, due to the difference in the processors, we can still show them to access the capability of the cooling.

MSI GP66 Leopard:

Intel Core i7-10870H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
MSI GP66 Leopard (High Performance)3.49 GHz (B+59%) @ 95°C @ 85W3.34 GHz (B+52%) @ 95°C @ 76W3.24 GHz (B+47%) @ 93°C @ 70W

The Core i7-10870H quickly reached 95°C and a boost speed of 3.49 GHz in the first 10 seconds of our test. In the next 30 seconds, the clock speed dipped a bit, while the temperature stayed the same. Finally, at the end of the test, the CPU maintained a speed of 3.34 GHz with a temperature of 93°C.

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513:

AMD Ryzen 7 5800H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
ASUS ROG Strix G15 G5133.44 GHz (B+8%) @ 68°C3.37 GHz (B+5%) @ 72°C3.44 GHz (B+8%) @ 74°C

The Ryzen, on the other hand, while reaching similar speeds at the beginning of the test, ran much much cooler. Even after 15 minutes of testing, the speed remained the same as in the first seconds, while the temperature increased just slightly.

Real-life gaming

MSI GP66 Leopard:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max Fan)
MSI GP66 Leopard1863 MHz @ 72°C @ 124W1852 MHz @ 75°C @ 125W1849 MHz @ 69°C @ 127W

The cooling on the MSI seems to be working quite well, as even after 30 min of testing at max fan speeds, the RTX 3060 maintained a clock speed of 1849 MHz at 69°C, very close to the clock speed in the first minutes of testing.

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
ASUS ROG Strix G15 G5131632 MHz @ 84°C @ 130W1617 MHz @ 86°C @ 128W

The RTX 3070 ran slower, and at a higher temperature, both in the beginning and at the end of the stress test.

Gaming comfort

The ASUS laptop had a lower outside temperature, with a degree difference of around 2°C.

Verdict

Starting from the design, the MSI is the more toned down, the more elegant laptop. It has stylish body lines and curves, which give it a bit of character. At the end of the day, it comes down to personal preference, as both devices share identical build materials and levels of sturdiness. If you want a more gamer-y looking laptop, the ASUS ROG is the one to go for.

The ASUS also has the better keybord+touchpad combo by far. The keyboard has a longer key travel and clickier feedback. It also offers a per-key RGB backlight. Its touchpad is bigger and has a better mechanism, which registers in around 95% of the entire touchpad area. Sadly, both laptops don’t support Thunderbolt, which is understandable for the ASUS laptop, since it has AMD hardware, but the MSI can’t use that excuse. Other than that, the I/Os are pretty similar.

Moving over to the display quality, both devices offer panels with the same resolution that offer a high refresh rate. The MSI display has a higher max brightness, by around 100 nits, but both devices struggle from a lack of uniformity. Color reproduction-wise, both panels have a near 100% sRGB coverage and great color accuracy, with the MSI display reaching a dE value of 1.0 when using our Design and Gaming profile. Both displays also have a great response time and use no PWM across all brightness levels.

The ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513 had a better speaker setup. While it is bottom-firing, it is louder, produces higher quality audio, and had no deviations across the entire frequency range. The battery life tests were a total massacre for the MSI laptop, where it showed much worse results. The ASUS laptop lasted for more than double the time in both the Web browsing and the video playback tests. The ASUS laptop also showed much better CPU and GPU performance.

Finally, the CPU inside the ASUS device ran much cooler, in contrast to its GPU which ran hotter, while having a lower clock speed. The MSI laptop had much more balanced temperatures, in the way that there wasn’t much fluctuation between the CPU and GPU cooling. You can also see a very interesting result when it comes to gaming. Despite its inferior GPU, the MSI GP66 Leopard managed to post better results in almost every game we threw at it. The main reason for that is the Intel architecture, and as you can read HERE, Intel is still the better choice for gaming in the laptop world.

MSI GP66 Leopard: Full Specs / In-depth Review

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513: Full Specs / In-depth Review



Why choose MSI GP66 Leopard?

  • More streamlined design
  • Display with supreme color accuracy (dE value of 1.0)
  • Better suited for gaming




Why choose ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513?

  • Higher processing power
  • Better input devices
  • Speaker setup with no deviations
  • Longer battery life


MSI GP66 Leopard configurations:

ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513 configurations:

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Dunemaster
Dunemaster
2 years ago

Why do you state that MSI is better at gaming? ASUS won 3 games of 4 when using highest settings, an, IMHO, this is where it matters

I would call it a draw at the very least

Tim
Tim
2 years ago

The Asus has a Ryzen CPU which is way more power efficient. Even a 90 whr battery would not make the MSI come close to the Asus on battery life. Both are good laptops, this article does a good job summarizing the pros and cons of each. By the way, the Asus also has no webcam, but it does have a built-in microphone.

william blake
william blake
2 years ago

noise at idle and during gaming should be one of the deciding factors.

Danny
Danny
2 years ago

MSI was faster not because of Intel CPU, but because of the fact that Strix does not have MUX switch, which means you need to connect it to external monitor to bypass Optimus. With Optimus bypassed, you can expect Strix to pull off 15-20% lead. lead.