MSI Crosshair 15 (B12Ux) – Top 5 Pros and Cons

MSI is one of the leading manufacturers that started employing one platform for multiple laptops. The Crosshair 15 that we have today (beautiful design by the way) has the same chassis and structure on the inside as the GL Pulse series. However, the Crosshair offers much higher-performing hardware, including a 140W RTX 3070.

This is where we see a problem, as the Pulse series doesn’t pride itself on a great cooling solution. This is where we hope to see some improvement since the Core i7-12700H and the Core i9-12900H will definitely appreciate it.

Today we present you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about the MSI Crosshair 15 (B12Ux).

MSI Crosshair 15 (B12Ux): Full Specs / In-depth Review


2 reasons to BUY the MSI Crosshair 15 (B12Ux)

1. Upgradeability

The Crosshair gets the upgradeability right, which isn’t hard to do, considering the thick 26.9 mm profile and hefty weight of 2.47 kg. Inside the devices, you can find two SODIMM RAM slots, which can house up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM. Since this isn’t a budget device, we don’t see any reasons not to use DDR5. There is plenty of storage options as well, with two M.2 PCIe x4 slots. With M.2 drives becoming more and more affordable, you can get a terabyte of very fast storage for a good price.

Here is our detailed teardown video, which shows how to access both the RAM and storage slots on the laptop.


2. Display quality

There are a total of four display options, with our laptop receiving the 165Hz QHD panel. The screen offers excellent viewing angles, a max brightness of 298 nits in the middle of the screen and 278 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 9%, along with a 1050:1 contrast ratio. There is 0 PWM usage across all brightness levels, while the laptop also covers 99.5% sRGB coverage and 98% DCI-P3 coverage.

We tested the accuracy both against the sRGB standard and the DCI-P3 standard using the stock settings (left) and our Design and Gaming profile (right). Against the sRGB standard, our profile managed to lower the dE value to 2.2, which still isn’t that good.

Adjusting the white point to D65 and using the DCI-P3 gamut results in much better accuracy with a dE value of 0.6.


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for MSI Crosshair 15 (B12Ux) configurations with 15.6″ QHD IPS BOE NE156QHM-NY1 (BOE09C2).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


3 reasons NOT to buy the MSI Crosshair 15 (B12Ux)

1. I/O

The I/O is not exactly cutting it by modern standards, with a single USB 2.0 port, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, a single USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, which only supports data transfer, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.


2. Input devices

The keyboard and touchpad combination is also not on the level, as even budget gaming laptops offer keyboards with better gaming and typing experience. The key travel is a bit shorter, while the feedback is soft. The touchpad has a small size and a mediocre clicking. On the other hand, the gliding surface is great.


3. Cooling

The cooling looks really good, with a total of six heat pipes covering the CPU, GPU, and VRAM modules. There are two heat pipes for the processor, three for the graphics, and one for the VRM modules. There are also three heat sinks and two fans.


Max CPU load

Intel Core i7-12700H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
MSI Crosshair 15 (B12Ux)3.27 GHz @ 2.67 GHz @ 84°C @ 97W3.19 GHz @ 2.65 GHz @ 91°C @ 94W3.05 GHz @ 2.47 GHz @ 88°C @ 80W

The laptop keeps its CPU within bounds, as far as temps and clock speeds are concerned.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max fans)
MSI Crosshair 15 (B12Ux)1616 MHz @ 79°C @ 139W1575 MHz @ 87°C @ 139W1643 MHz @ 75°C @ 139W

The GPU offers one of the higher clock speeds that we have seen, while also not overheating.

Gaming comfort

The external temps will haunt you in your nightmares, or at least the burns on your fingers will. The hotspot of the laptop reaches 63.3°C, which is enough to slow cook a very delicious meal, but we don’t think MSI was betting on it.


All MSI Crosshair 15 (B12Ux) configurations:

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no1
1 year ago

Absolutely terrible review!!